LS 122

[System] Due to the influence of ‘Lost Jubite,’ the weather on the map is randomly set.

[System] A sun so hot it feels like it could melt your body beats down.

[System] You take continuous burn damage due to the sun’s effect.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

There was no better way to describe the situation than “seriously, what next.” After rain and lightning, now they had to deal with sunstroke. The burn damage wasn’t major, but the constant HP drain was definitely annoying. PrettyHealerHyung and Tando did their best to heal and support the raid, but it wasn’t enough to fully cover everyone. Dohee and Moonhyuk had their hands full too, casting heals and shields nonstop.

— This is ridiculous. Are we gonna take burn damage nonstop until we clear this?

Yeojin’s voice sounded incredulous, but no one could answer. No one knew.

“Beats me.”

— You never know. Maybe after a few mechanics, the weather will change again, or the damage might go down?

Yeohoo murmured hopefully. He didn’t really seem to be replying to Yeojin, more like wishing out loud.

In any case, the raid had to push through this awful random map condition. They steadily chipped away at the Demon Hunter’s HP. After a few retries, their coordination had clearly improved. They timed the Swamp Bombs and buffs perfectly, and the DPS followed up with burst skills at just the right moment. Getting the boss down to 200 bars wasn’t too difficult anymore.

“200 bars. Everyone, stay sharp.”

At Dohee’s call, all the raid members except 4Evil pulled their characters back toward the edge of the map. They decided to wait in the spaces between the statues. If someone else accidentally pulled aggro while the designated player was leading the vortex to the statue, it would cause a headache. Better safe than sorry.

The Demon Hunter moved to the center of the map and the statues quickly appeared. At the same time, the text “Victory Shout” appeared above 4Evil’s character. The raid watched closely to check the vortex’s direction.

— Yep, it’s random.

Just as Yeohoo said, unlike earlier when the vortex came from behind the boss, this time it came out from the left. Fortunately, it turned toward 4Evil’s character, who had been waiting nearby after casting Victory Shout.

“Yellow,” Moonhyuk said. Dohee gave a small nod.

Since the yellow vortex came out first again, it was likely, just as Yeohoo guessed earlier, that the next one would be orange. PrettyHealerHyung moved into position near the 5 o’clock statue, ready to grab aggro for the second.

Meanwhile, 4Evil successfully led the yellow vortex to the yellow statue.

[System] The Statue of Faith has been destroyed.

[System] The ‘Faith’ buff increases the raid’s critical damage by 2%.

— Whoa, it actually worked.

Noodle sounded impressed. Apparently, each statue granted a buff when destroyed. The raid, now on edge, waited for the second vortex. The Demon Hunter turned its head slightly, and another vortex flowed out. Luckily, PrettyHealerHyung, who had been waiting closest, managed to grab aggro in time. The vortex was, as expected, orange. Tando spoke up.

— Looks like the order really is yellow, orange, scarlet, red.

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: Yeah yeah yeah I think you’re right

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: But I just got chills

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: I mean, I could be wrong

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: But if I’m right? Super freaky lol

[Raid] Oreckthat: (⊙v☉)????

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: I think you can tell where the vortex will come from based on the angle of the boss’s head

Dohee, who had moved his character closer to the boss, chimed in.

“Head angle?”

RiceCake typed quickly.

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: Last run, the Demon Hunter tilted its head slightly back

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: That time, the vortex came from behind

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: But when 4Evil grabbed aggro, the boss tilted its head to the right

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: From our POV, the vortex came from the left

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: And just now, the boss tilted its head back again, and the vortex came from behind

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: Or maybe I’m just overthinking it lol

If RiceCake was right, that was a pretty significant discovery. Dohee calmly spoke.

“Let’s watch the next direction to be sure.”

Soon after, PrettyHealerHyung succeeded in destroying the orange statue at 5 o’clock.

[System] The Statue of Will has been destroyed.

[System] The ‘Will’ buff increases the raid’s normal attack damage by 2%.

Dohee nervously watched the boss. The moment the boss slightly turned its head to the left, raid team’s right, a vortex flowed out from that direction, just like RiceCake had said. Dohee, who had been waiting nearby, quickly moved toward the vortex to grab aggro and guided it to the 7 o’clock statue. As expected, this vortex was scarlet. Just like Yeohoo had predicted, the order seemed to follow a clockwise pattern.

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: Whoa, I think I was actually right LOL

“Looks like RiceCake was right. When Noodle’s on standby, just check the boss’s head angle and stand in that direction, yeah?”

— Got it.

Dohee, using a movement speed buff, quickly succeeded in destroying the statue at the 7 o’clock position.

[System] The Statue of Conviction has been destroyed.

[System] The ‘Conviction’ buff increases the raid’s critical hit rate by 2%.

“Noodle, get ready. Everyone else, prep your DPS. Hyung, get the buffs ready. We go all-in 10 seconds after the mechanic ends. DPS, keep that in mind and time your rotations.”

“Okay!”

— Copy that~

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: So basically… I’m a genius??

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: LOLLLLL no way…

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: ???? What’s wrong with me being a geniusㅡㅡ

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: I can’t believe I missed something even RiceCake noticed…

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: I’m hurt… [tears emoji]

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: Hahaha?????

Even as the playful banter continued in chat, Noodle remained silent, eyes locked on the boss. Just then, the boss tilted its head forward, and Noodle stepped up slightly. A vortex flowed out in the same direction. It was the moment Malrang’s theory became fact.

— Wow, RiceCake’s really something.

As Yeojib chuckled in the voice chat, RiceCake erupted into a typing frenzy. Then, just as Noodle successfully led the vortex to destroy the statue at the 11 o’clock position, the boss collapsed to its knees with a loud crash and entered a groggy state, doing nothing.

[System] The Statue of Protection has been destroyed.

[System] The ‘Protection’ buff removes all debuffs from the raid.

With the final statue broken, the burn damage caused by the random map weather vanished completely. It seemed that clearing the first mechanic lifted all debuffs and prevented further ones from being applied.

— Wait, are we gonna get backstabbed by a sudden weather change again?

Yeojin grumbled, and Yeohoo scolded him.

— Words have power, you know. Watch your mouth, Ms. Yeojin~

— Yes sir~ You worry about yourself, thanks~

Only in this raid group could people unleash more critical hits on each other than on the boss. What a warm and loving raid team.

In any case, after successfully clearing the first mechanic, the raid followed Dohee’s orders and unleashed their full DPS. With the boss stunned and unable to act, it was the perfect window to smash it as hard as they could. Once the Demon Hunter recovered, it teleported all over the map again, just like at the beginning. Thanks to the Swamp Bomb and attack speed buffs, the team steadily and smoothly whittled down its HP.

For a while, no new gimmick appeared. But the lower the boss’s HP dropped, the more anxious the raid team started to feel.

“Why’s nothing happening? We’re already down to 170 bars.”

— What if a wipe mechanic suddenly hits out of nowhere?

— Who was the one who said ‘words have power’ earlier?

Yeohoo and Yeojin threw out comments of their own. The rest of the team didn’t say much, but the tension was definitely rising. The chat was still full of excited messages like “Human raid team clears mechanics like pros,” “Nobody bursts faster than Human,” and “This is the power of support,” as players hyped each other up.

With no map changes or new mechanics, the boss’s HP kept falling until it reached the 150-bar mark. Then, a brief system popup appeared.

[System] Demons contamined with the Demon Hunter’s energy begin to appear!

“Uh-oh…!”

Moonhyuk let out a panicked cry as he quickly cast Bayan’s Touch for a shield and followed up with healing skills. Dohee, equally startled, immediately shielded and healed his party members as well.

— That hurt so bad I instinctively hit my awakening skill.

Tando spoke in a dazed voice. The Holy Wizard’s awakening skill temporarily reduced incoming damage and increased max HP, and using it was entirely reasonable given the massive burst of damage that had just hit the team.

“What the hell are these guys?”

— Why the hell are mobs raining from the sky? Did they run out of ideas and decide to just dump monsters on us?

Yeojin’s sarcastic comment wasn’t wrong.

When the boss hit 150 bars, the system alert was followed by a sudden downpour of dozens of monsters from the sky. “Monster rain” really was the best way to describe it. The worst part? They didn’t just tickle, they hit hard.

— What the hell, they have huge HP pools. These aren’t just adds!

And it was true. These weren’t just fodder mobs you kill in a few hits. Their HP was massive and their attacks seriously hurt, more like mini elite bosses than standard enemies. With dozens of them suddenly falling from above, it was no wonder the raid team’s HP was in shreds. The pain was enough to make healers and supports react on pure instinct.