LS 107

[System] ‘Dark Rabiuna’ lets out a deafening roar. Some of its attacks inflict poison, reducing movement speed by 30%.

Dohee caught the system alert immediately. Warnings to be careful erupted from all sides. A 30% movement speed reduction was no joke.

“Not sure which attack triggers the poison, so everyone stay alert.”

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Noodle was hit by Raviuna’s tail and sent flying across the field.

— Ah, fuck. The tail attack causes poison.

A yellow glow shimmered around Noodle’s body, the visual effect of an all-purpose potion that cures status effects. Once the buff cycle for burst damage was complete, Dohee told Moonhyuk it would be good to rotate the ‘Prayer of Condine’ skill whenever it was off cooldown. Moonhyuk nodded and immediately activated the skill. It was one of the support’s abilities that worked like a vaccine, preventing one status effect. The cooldown was long and couldn’t block every ailment, but it was still helpful.

Dark Rabiuna had 150 health bars. Dohee hadn’t seen the exact total HP, but it didn’t seem exceptionally high, as the bars were dropping fast. Rabiuna’s major attacks were threefold: a leaping body slam from above, a tail sweep that launched targets, and a pincer grab that flung the aggroed player to the ground before electrocuting them.

In addition, there were intermittent lightning strikes that inflicted shock, damage zones spreading from Rabiuna’s body, and massive sandstorms triggered every five health bars. Nothing too difficult. By the time Rabiuna was down to around 100 bars, everyone had grasped its basic patterns and focused on dodging and dishing out damage as efficiently as possible.

It happened when Rabiuna hit the 100-bar mark. Upon crossing that threshold, a red aura flashed around its body for a few seconds. The unfamiliar pattern threw everyone off – except Yeohoo, who kept dealing damage without hesitation. The next moment, every raider’s HP dropped to 1. Those who had taken any additional damage died on the spot.

“…Let’s reset.”

With more than five members dead, they had no choice but to hit the restart button.

[OrayoMilk has donated 1,000 won!] ?? What was that just now?

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“Thanks for the donation. Please understand that I can’t read chat while I’m inside. I think it was a reflect pattern or something?”

— Holy shit. Sorry, everyone.

“No, it’s fine. We’re re-entering.”

With Yeohoo’s apology, they clicked the re-entry button. Tando’s voice came through next.

— When it hits 100 bars, it seems like a reflect pattern. Let’s wait until that red aura disappears.

— Okay!

The raid team regrouped and began shaving down Rabiuna’s health again. This time, they seemed more used to the mechanics, fewer players were being knocked back or shocked. Meanwhile, Dohee caught the pattern for the poison tail attack: Rabiuna would shudder violently before swinging its tail.

“Rabiuna does this, like, that shuddering motion with its body. That means the tail’s coming next, so be careful then. That should help avoid the poison.”

Acknowledgments echoed back. Just as Dohee opened his mouth to tell Moonhyuk what skill to use next, Rabiuna shuddered. It was the tail attack tell. Dohee stopped talking and immediately activated ‘Prayer of Condine.’ At the same moment, he saw Moonhyuk cast the same skill. Dohee had been about to say to match it with the tail cue, but Moonhyuk was already doing it.

He could trust Moonhyuk. With that level of intuition, he didn’t need micromanaging. Moonhyuk was surprisingly good at this. If you told him one thing, he could figure out five more on his own, like just now.

Rabiuna’s HP quickly dropped to 100 bars again. The red aura flashed once more. Seeing it, the entire raid stopped attacking at once. But those waiting to resume were quickly thrown into confusion.

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: …? What is it? It’s not disappearing.

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: Should we not hit it until it’s gone? ㅠㅠ

[Raid] 4EvilPrettyGirl: Hm…

The red aura around Rabiuna didn’t fade. Normally, reflect patterns last less than five seconds. But even after nearly 30, it was still there. As everyone scrambled to dodge Rabiuna’s attacks in confusion, Yeohoo suddenly spoke up.

— Couldn’t we try freezing it?

— Ah, not a bad idea. Who has an ice bomb?

Dohee nodded in agreement. Among the special potions Tando had distributed was the Ice Bomb, a PvP item that could freeze a target for three seconds upon impact. It was sometimes used as a cheese strat in raids too.

[Raid] Oreckthat: Here I go! ٩(`･ω･´)و ҉*

Evading Rabiuna’s AoEs, Oreckthat dove into the center and hurled the Ice Bomb. Rabiuna’s body turned white with frost, and all its attacks stopped.

“Buff us, hyung.”

At Dohee’s cue, Moonhyuk nodded. With all attack buffs off cooldown, they unleashed them in a burst, and the raid team poured on the damage. Dohee and Moonhyuk used their remaining DPS skills. There was no reflected damage. They’d successfully bypassed the reflect pattern.

— Nice. Let’s burn it down until the next phase hits.

At Tando’s words, Noodle grumbled.

— Dude, I’m the one doing the burst, not you. You’re a healer, remember?

— Then shut up and do the bursting, Noodle.

Laughter broke out across the team. Dohee also chuckled as he returned to his sub-party’s rear and cast the shielding skill ‘Hand of Bayan.’

Tando was technically a healer, but he was DPS-obsessed. He dropped a few buff skills to make room for damage abilities. And he did enough damage that no one seriously tried to stop him, even while teasing him. He played the game halfway between DPS and healer, doing as he pleased, so during these try phases, Dohee had to keep his own healing rotation up to protect the party. That’s why he and Moonhyuk had been placed in the same group as HealerHyung, who was 100% focused on healing.

Raiders who’d brought ‘Despair Bombs’, which reduced boss defense before entry, took turns throwing them as their effects wore off. But each person could only carry three, and they ran out quickly. Once the Despair Bombs wore off, Rabiuna’s HP started dropping much more slowly. Dohee turned to Moonhyuk.

“Hyung. You brought ‘Enk’s Footsteps,’ right?”

“Huh? Oh–yeah, yeah!”

“From now on, unless we hit a special pattern, keep it on cooldown.”

“Got it!”

‘Enk’s Footsteps’ was a skill that reduced boss defense by 10%. It wasn’t as strong as the 30% reduction from Despair Bombs, but better than nothing. In other raids where burst damage was possible, it wasn’t even necessary, better to use that time for another attack buff.

But against a boss whose health couldn’t be burned quickly, Enk’s Footsteps was highly effective. The downside? Without buffs, the cooldown was around 40 seconds, but the duration only lasted about 20. Even with Dohee fully doped up and geared for cooldown reduction, it was still about 32 seconds. In other words, a solo supporter couldn’t maintain it permanently.

Luckily, the Human raid team had two supports. Dohee added:

“I’ll go first. When my cooldown’s got about 20 seconds left, I’ll call it. Then you use yours.”

“Got it!”

With Moonhyuk’s confident reply, Dohee activated Enk’s Footsteps. Immediately, Rabiuna’s HP started dropping faster. They pushed it to nearly 70 bars before a new pattern appeared. Everyone was silent, focused on DPS. Only Dohee’s calls to Moonhyuk rang out.

When Rabiuna reached 70 bars, the new mechanic hit.

— What the hell is that?

Noodle’s startled voice rang out as the team pulled their characters back. From Rabiuna’s body, four orbs shot out – two white, two black – spreading in the directions of twelve, three, six, and nine o’clock. As the confused raiders scrambled, the orbs hovered at the map’s edges briefly, then exploded. The entire raid team wiped instantly.

[Raid] Oreckthat: )Д⊙`)??????

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: W…What was that?

— Fuck, we’re dead.

— Looks like a wipe gimmick if we don’t counter it.

— Let’s exit and rewatch the footage.

Chat flew by as fast as the wipe had come.

MyYellowDog: What the heck LOL

shutthemouseSqueak: ? Wipe mechanic, maybe?

GoldRingSilverRing: ????

skillJuYoung: This damn scorpion bastard, what next

mue12: Did we just wipe from those orbs exploding???

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[System] You have failed to defeat ‘Dark Rabiuna.’

Looking at the system message, Dohee let out a short sigh. Yeah, if it were easy, it wouldn’t be any fun.