ALL NOVEL Chapter 54: It's Those Bastards!
Once Maria had rested for a bit, she and Lilah immediately joined the fray. After around half an hour later, the Abyssal Golem's HP was successfully brought down to 13%.
Just as the guild was about to make one last spurt to quickly down the monster, one of the Guild's Scouts began to holler out in the guild chat.
"ENEMY ATTACK! ENEMY ATTACK!"
"Hm?!"
"As anticipated," Lizzy sneered, she quickly began issuing orders into the guild chat and the guild made adjustments to their formation.
She divided the guild into 2 groups. One group composed of a few tanks and support class players from the guild with the majority of the players being DPS. They were tasked with the job to quickly take down Abyssal Golem and Maria was included in this group, she would act as the tank, DPS, and support all at once. Since it was boss-killing, Maria was more than happy to take up the job.
The other group was the rest of the guild which composed of mostly support and tank class players. They were tasked to hold off all enemy attacks.
Some thieves tried to break through the blockade that the Fallen Angels had setup beforehand, but thanks to Zack's pet, none of them could breakthrough.
Once they were exposed to the powder, they'd be shocked out of stealth and were immediately bombarded by an array of magic spells from the guild's mages.
Maria was attacking and firing off all of her spells and skills at the golem when she noticed from the corner of her eyes the large group of players that were charging straight at her guild.
"They...look a little familiar..." Maria said as she cleaved through a large boulder coming straight at her.
"Hmmm, that emblem on their shoulders...where did I see that before?"
Maria continued slashing through the attacks of the golem while quietly scrutinizing the guild emblems on the players attacking the Fallen Angels.
Lilah only took one glance and immediately informed her, "Master, that's the guild those players who attacked us earlier today are from. I won't forget that dark moon emblem any time soon. Their attacks hurt!"
"AH! It's those bastards!" Maria immediately flared up in anger. Even though the players that attacked her and Lilah hadn't actually been able to kill either of them and steal their boss, but Maria held a grudge because they had the nerve to attack her precious familiar.
"Lilah, we're switching targets! We're taking down those bastards! How dare they, they not only come mess with me once, but twice in a single day! Don't think I've forgiven them for what they did to you!"
Maria said as she completely abandoned the Abyssal Golem and charged towards the mob of players rushing to attack her guild.
The guildmates that Maria left behind were suddenly dumbfounded and at a loss. They didn't know what to do next! The Abyssal Golem's aggro was locked onto Maria and it chased after her, completely ignoring them.
She had been dishing out attacks and healing for a good long while, so the boss' aggro had locked onto her! The tanks in her group were few, and no matter how many [Taunt]s they sent, it would only affect the boss for a short moment, before it resumed chasing after Maria.
"W-wait! Where are you going?!"
"H-Heeeeyyy!!! The aggro! The aggro is still on you!!"
Maria didn't hear their shouts and kept on charging towards the Eclipse players that were attacking.
She soared high up into the air and flung her axe down onto the front most players with [Calamity Cleave] already activated.
Just as the two guilds were about to clash with one another, a large axe suddenly smashed into the frontlines of the Eclipse guild, overturning the ground from its impact and sent shockwaves in a 5 meter area around the axe which stunned all the players that were hit.
"M-Mary?!" Lizzy exclaimed in shock when she saw the familiar looking axe.
When she looked up, she immediately saw her friend send a large ray of white light smashing into the Eclipse guild players which cleared out a large patch of the crowd. And then, multiple flaming feathers began to bombard the players in the next instant.
The Eclipse guild was sent into chaos and so was the Fallen Angels. From the backlines of the Fallen Angels, many players began to scream and yell to those in front to clear the way, the Abyssal Golem was still chasing after Maria and it was causing havoc among the players in the backline.
"S-shit! Mary, what're you doing?!" Lizzy called out.
"Lizzy, why didn't you tell me these weirdos were the ones attacking us? I still have a grudge to settle with them!"
"A grudge? W-wait a minute, what about the golem?!"
"Golem...? Oh..."
Maria immediately remembered what she was supposed to be doing and saw the chaos she had induced in her own guild.
"Ehehehe...? S-sorry..." Maria replied apologetically. The girl knew she made an awful mistake. She was prepared for a good earful from her bestie, but for some reason it didn't come.
Lizzy was holding her head trying to suppress the turmoil in her mind. She wanted to get mad and yell at her friend, but didn't have to heart to scold the clearly remorseful girl in front of her.
"N-nevermind, let's just use the golem to our advantage then. Since we aren't attacking it so much, the battle recovery will gradually fill up the monster's HP bar, you fly around the Eclipse backlines and lure the golem around and try directing all its attacks onto the Eclipse players."
"O-okay! I can do that, easy-peasy!"
"I'll be counting on you, we'll resume the raid once we've cleared out the enemies, remember to be careful!"
"Roger!"
Maria's spirits were once again lifted and she quickly flew into the air. She sent a [Fire] and [Smite] onto the golem and began luring it into the crowd of Eclipse players.
Over at the Eclipse guild's backlines, the guild leader, a Lv. 54 Dark Elf Black Mage called BlackMoon, was intently observing the ongoing situation.
He couldn't help but smirk when he saw the Fallen Angels decide to lure the boss into their ranks to try and cause havoc. The crux of the strategy seemed to rely on the Fallen Angel girl who was now roaming in the skies above their guild.
"We have to take down that girl. Once she's out of the picture, the golem's aggro will be reset and we can lure it away."
Next to him, the Vice Guild leader spoke up, "Can't we just [Taunt] it?"
"Do you see any [Taunts] working?" BlackMoon replied instantly.
"...for now, no..."
"That's because the girl's aggro on that thing is pretty high. The [Taunt] skills could only temporarily attract the boss' aggro, but right after, it'll continue chasing after the angel."
After a moment, BlackMoon looked like he had a plan in mind and began ordering in the guild chat.
"THE TANKS AND EVERYONE ELSE, PROCEED AS PLANNED!"
He then turned towards his vice guild leader and said,
"Sun, you go bring our aerial unit and deal with that girl. She's not the only one who can fly now, just make sure you don't underestimate her. I heard from Darius and his party that the girl had single-handedly taken them all down. Take at least 15...just for insurance."
The Vice Guild Leader of Eclipse, DarkSun, only nodded his head. He walked to the back of the large guild party and began picking out all the players that had flight capabilities.
Most of them were Vampire, Succubus, and Demonkin race players. Once he gathered 15 of the guild's elite players, which he for one thought was overkill, DarkSun immediately led them into the sky.
"Our only objective is to quickly bring down that girl. The guild leader implored us to not underestimate her. She did take out Team 1 from the Elite Division all by herself so she's got some spunk to back up all the flashy things she's been doing on the forums."
A pale vampire player only sneered in response. "That's because they were too cocky and thought they could take down a flying player with only ground units, pfft, idiots!"
"Talk after you've dealt with the girl, Paldir. It's not like you could perform the same feat as her just because you can fly!" A demonkin girl quipped up in disdain from the side. She rather admired Maria for being able to pull off such a feat.
"Don't underestimate her." DarkSun said once more before staying silent.
On Maria's side, she had immediately noticed the flying players heading her way. She was a little astonished at this fact.
The skies were her domain until now, but suddenly more and more players were able to fly. The level 50 threshold was a large turning point in the game and now she was no longer the Queen of the Skies.
"Ugh...I better be careful...they look like they mean business." Maria quietly mumbled.
Behind her, a large chunk of earth was thrown by the golem and was heading her way. Maria hadn't noticed it yet and the players flying ahead of her were a little shocked that they stopped for a moment.
"Heh, looks like we won't need to do anythi—"
Just before Paldir could finish his words, Maria spun around and slashed the chunk of earth in two.
The two chunks lost their momentum and fell straight down to the ground, smashing into their guild's players. They didn't die, but lost a substantial amount of HP from the falling debris.
"..."
"Hoho~ she's strong!"
"...Impressive..."
"Get your heads together! Stay in formation and remember the battle plan! Even if we can't kill her, we'll at least block her from interfering with our ground players stealing away the golem's aggro!"
DarkSun immediately rushed towards Maria and swung his large two-handed broadsword at the girl.
Maria readied her axe and easily met each powerful stroke of DarkSun's sword.
"Ehehehe~ you don't hit as hard as the golem~"
"H-how?! I used [Quadra-Slash]!"
Maria didn't know what [Quadra-Slash] was, but it was probably a warrior exclusive skill. It sounded pretty cool and she wondered if she could get the skill as well. Although the player in front of her was pretty powerful, judging from all the cool equipment he was wearing, she felt that he was lacking somewhere.
Maria darted around in the air before quickly flashing in front of DarkSun, she activated her [Arc Swing] and flung him backwards, making him collide with one of the flying players that were charging at her.
When DarkSun slammed into his teammate, the two lost control of their wings and plummeted to the ground. Maria raised her axe and smiled at the remaining 13 players.
"Hihihihi~ this'll be fun~"