"Talking"
"Thinking"
[Status Magic or other reference to a system or power]
…
Naofumi's face quickly lost its smile, while Fitoria found hers.
"This is the test for the whole party. Please pass it." Fitoria said darkly.
[00:00:27:31]
They had half an hour to prepare for a wave of catastrophe.
...
Naofumi stared at it a moment.
"Everyone, there's a wave in less than 30 minutes, prepare!" Naofumi yelled as he ran over to them.
They were all surprised by the news and Eclair was cursing Fitoria under her breath for endangering Melty once again. Naofumi rushed through his inventory and handed out potions, specifically handing Liviccic a dozen of the Sp potions he had been making.
"What about everyone else? Won't they teleport here too?" Sophia thought to ask.
Naofumi and Raphtalia flinched at that. They needed to remove others from their party before the wave hit, otherwise they'd all be here.
"I'll call everyone." Naofumi announced.
He then called everyone. Ake, Fitts and Chloe, Silvius and by extension, Kurtis.
"Oi, this is Naofumi. We have a situation. We were able to reach an hourglass and class upgrade, but now we are going to be pulled into a wave in less than 30 minutes. We need to finalize our plans right now. We won't be talking again until we reach the battlefield."
"Savior, it's me! I wish to assist y-"
"It's nice to hear from you, but the answer is 'no'. We need to do this ourselves for reasons I don't have time to explain." Naofumi said, looking to Fitoria.
"Then what is the plan?"
"..."
"Five days." Naofumi settled on.
"What?"
"I plan on us showing up to the border in five days. We have a sure means of getting there." Again, Naofumi looked at Fitoria, Fitoria nodded.
"I'll have the men there by then." Silvius promised.
"What about me? I can't do what you asked of me like this." Ake complained.
"Yeah. I can't speak with the queen directly, but you can give her the same deadline as I gave everyone else. We all attack on the same day... I wish everyone good luck." Naofumi hated to do this.
They all acknowledge his message and then they were all booted from their parties. It's all they could do for now.
Everyone prepared as well as they could. Raphtalia placing poison in her sword sheath, Teal preparing to remove an [Iron Garden] as soon as it hit. Liviccic lamented not having any undead with him, not even the Soul Eater. They were still in Briarhaven. Filo, Leon, and Sophia had little to prepare.
No one said anything, but they were nervous of what reaction Fitoria would have to Monti if he freaks out again. They worried quietly to themselves.
The 27 minutes became 5 in a flash and they had to finish whatever they were doing. Naofumi used [Anoint] on everyone before time was up. Raphtalia, Filo, and Liviccic gained attack, Monti and Teal gained magic defense, Leon gained magic, and Sophia gained speed.
They were as prepared as they could be given the circumstances. They all waited with more than a bit of anxiety for the countdown.
...
The wave of catastrophe
...
As the last grains of sand fell from the hourglass, they were engulfed in a bright light. The next image they saw was from the top of a rocky mountain, monsters pouring into the valley below. With such a clear image of the situation one thing was clear, there were no villages to defend or people to protect. That was a huge relief. The second thing everyone did after seeing that was to sneak a peek at Monti.
And he was fine, more than fine. The spirals in his eyes were spinning and the boost he felt was in effect, but he wasn't fighting off an assault of the mind as he was last time. A smile formed quickly on his lips as he realized that him now being a wave boss must be the cause. If that was the case, he'd never need to worry about losing himself again.
"Let's go!" Naofumi yelled, ushering Leon to transform.
Naofumi, Raphtalia, Teal, Liviccic and Sophia climbed on Leon's back. Monti transformed and began to follow behind Leon. Melty climbed on Filo who transformed. Eclair was unhappy.
"Princess, stay back here where it is safe. I'll go and do all that I can." She was only thinking of Melty's safety.
"Bold words. I'm curious to see you in battle." Came Fitoria's voice.
Eclair turned to her. She couldn't hold her frustration any longer. "You! This is all your fault. Princess Melty shouldn't be here. You placed her in danger yet again!"
Fitoria watched her a moment. "I understand the feeling of wanting to protect, but you seem to not understand Mel-tan at all." She then gestured to where Melty was. She had left on Filo without a second thought.
"What?" Eclair was stunned for a moment before she started to run after everyone else.
Fitoria transformed and grabbed her as she made her way down.
"As I said, I'm interested in seeing you fight, so don't exhaust yourself before you get there."
Leon was nearing the center of the wave and two large monster clearly stood out from the rest. One was a hydra with eight heads, it was slow, but large and seemed to command all of the elements. The other looked like the giant stone face of a man, flying about, that was eating the stone and rock around it.
"...Please tell me I don't have to deal with the weird one." Liviccic asked.
"..."
"Dammit, fine." Liviccic and Sophia jumped off Leon, Teal followed, with Sophia making a webbed parachute for them to land safely.
Naofumi announced to everyone the two monsters he believed were the wave bosses and Monti confirmed. Monti also said he didn't feel any other bosses. Maybe things would be easy?
As Filo made her way through, she was making heavy use of the new ability her class granted her. The first attack on an enemy dealt double damage. In a long fight it wasn't much, but doubling her stats, then doubling the damage meant she was hitting four times harder than she was yesterday and the weaker monster were falling to pieces.
The enemies were giant snakes, these weird floating dirt hands, and feral beast-like humanoids. Melty hit a few with a spell here or there, but Filo was doing the lion's share of the work for sure. Filo was making her way to the hydra, but had to slow down more and more, as the concentration of enemies increased.
[Chain Lightning]
Monti cast the spell four times in a row, trying to clear a path for Filo, but the giant snakes seemed to require two hits of Monti's spell to die, while Filo's new ability left them no tougher than the other enemies for herself.
Naofumi and Raphtalia landed close to the hydra, but Leon kept going. He needed to keep the weaklings from overrunning them. Leon began circling the area around the boss.
[Zweite Firewall]
He began to breathe fire as he went, leaving a roaring fire to dissuade the lesser enemies. He kept doing this until the walls were three layers thick. Had this been before the class upgrade, Leon would have needed to chant this spell and he would be nearly out of mana, but now that his class allowed chantless magic without weakening the spell and his mana pool doubled, he felt like all kinds of new options were available to him.
Leon landed near his parents and Filo leapt over the fire and met up too.
"Too much fire, Filo nearly didn't make it." Filo complained.
"Oh? I thought it'd be easy for you?" Leon taunted.
"Focus." Naofumi reminded them.
In front of them was a monster larger than the Tyrant Rex they couldn't beat before, but its size didn't mean everything and they were far stronger than before. No sooner did they stand together did the Hydra attack. Three heads shot forward to strike at them.
[Air Strike Shield]
Naofumi blocked the one coming for Raphtalia and himself, the kids were fast enough to dodge. Filo landed on one of the heads and attacked the neck. She nearly killed it in one hit. Melty finished it off with [Zweite Aqua Slash]. The hydra reeled back in pain, but Naofumi was concerned, not relieved.
"There's no way a wave boss is this weak." Naofumi thought.
Naofumi used [Inspect] on the hydra. Each head was only level 25, but he watched as the one head died, all other heads went to level 30. Meaning the boss would get harder and harder.
Next the hydra opened two of its mouths and shot fire and lightning from them.
"Behind me!" Naofumi ordered.
[Air Strike Shield]
The kids felt they could have dodged it, but did as their father said. Naofumi watched the heads carefully.
"Naofumi-sama? Should we not attack?" Raphtalia asked.
"All the heads are different." Naofumi observed.
"What?" Melty asked.
"They're all different and when one dies, the rest get stronger. It's best if we determine the head that'd be the easiest to deal with and leave it for last."
Just as those two heads stopped attacking, three more shot off. This time, Naofumi opted for [Parry] to deal some [Hazard] damage to one of the heads. Raphtalia knew the one attacking them would fail so she attacked a different one. Filo, Leon and Melty also attacked. Filo was disappointed that her double damage wasn't per head, she wasn't receiving her bonus anymore.
The heads pulled back, hurt but not dead. Naofumi thought that maybe if he hurt all the heads before killing any, it'd make the whole process easier. Just when he thought that, one of the head's opened their mouth and a faint green glow formed around the three injured head.
"...That head heals the others, kill it next." Naofumi ordered.
"Right." The others affirmed.
...
Stone head
...
While Teal and the others made their way to the boss, Sophia was using one of her new abilities, [Spider Spawn]. With it, she was creating spiders as large as a human head. They'd seek out a target and blow up. The damage was great, but everything was with doubled stats. They were bolstered further by Liviccic's class ability, which was a small increase to all allies. It was the weakest class ability among them, but if he was leading an army, it'd dwarf theirs in terms of gains. Teal thought Sophia's ability was quite unusual and didn't follow magic rules at all.
"Shouldn't something like that need a pre-existing basis?" Teal asked.
"It does, this particular use of my conjurer skill requires a fertilized egg per use." Sophia answered.
Liviccic's face darkened as Teal's brightened.
"I need all the details later~!" Teal demanded.
"You'll have them~!" Sophia promised.
"Stop!" Liviccic protested in embarrassment.
Teal and the others reached their target and found its pure oddity to be a bit disturbing. It was just biting at the earth, swallowing rock and dirt at an alarming rate. They didn't know why and they weren't going to wait and see.
[Seeking Skulls]
[Steel Thread]
The skulls sped off to the head and exploded, while Sophia wrapped the head in her steel thread. Even with their stat boosts, Sophia felt this thing could break free at any time.
"Now, Teal!"
Teal was already preparing something thanks to her class. Before, she had two internal gestation chambers to morph her body. Meaning she could only have two mutations out or in the works at a time, but now that number was five, and it meant a lot. She was now able to easily have one slot always filled with a building attack, and since her mutations are stronger the longer she charged them, it meant she always had a big attack waiting.
Further, she had made contact with Motoyasu's [Sun Spear] twice and it had given her a weird feeling. Now that she had even greater control of her body, she was able to create this new attack.
[Solar Burst]
Blinding bright light flooded out of the top of Teal's head and struck the stone head. It produced a lot of heat, but no fire. The attack was great enough to burn Sophia's webs and char the target.
But it was far from done.
The head opened its mouth in response and suddenly hundreds of stone hands came flying from its mouth. It must have been eating the earth in order to internally create these things. The three of them were caught off guard as a storm of fists struck all three of them. The damage was not low by any stretch of the imagination. Had they not class upgraded, that one attack would have nearly killed them.
Sophia and Teal focused on killing the hands. A combination of Teal's vines and Sophia's webs were doing well enough, but some were slipping through. There were just so many and they were such small targets.
Liviccic began charging [Rancor]. He wanted this over quickly. Teal also had another [Solar Burst] ready. Once Liviccic was ready, they both fired off their attacks at the stone head. The shockwave actually killed the remaining hands, but they held no false assumptions of victory yet. It was going to survive that assault for sure.
What they didn't expect was that the head would barely take damage at all. The stone head had a rather large scar across it, but its hp was still above 80%. It opened its mouth again and again, a storm of earthen fists came at them.
Sophia had been setting up a series of webs to block incoming attacks, while allowing them to attack through, but it wasn't ready.
[Chain Lightning]
Monti shot the hands coming from wave boss' mouth, killing most of them. In response, the head turned to Monti and began to speak. It didn't speak in a language anyone knew, but the word struck Monti to the ground as his mind was assaulted.
[Anti-bind]
Liviccic quickly freed Monti of the wave boss' spell. It responded by beginning to eat into the earth again.
"Don't let that... thing get more ammo!" Teal warned.
All four of them rushed the odd boss, determined to keep it from spawning more hands.
...
Hydra
...
Everyone was trying to kill the head Naofumi told them to, but the other heads were vigilant and would freely take damage instead of the healing head. The healing head would then heal them and the cycle continued. Naofumi had observed the heads long enough to know that they were all elemental, excluding the healing head. He hadn't seen any earth magic yet, so he assumed that was what the one dead head did.
He needed to get to the healing head and he had just the thing for it.
"After they attack focus that head!"
[Hate Reaction]
The pulse of darkened red came out as a wave ensnaring the senses of not only the boss, but many weaker enemies outside the fire. The weaker enemies rushed through the fire, dying for their efforts, but they were making paths through Leon's spell by doing so. The hydra attacked with all seven remaining heads at once.
[Air Strike Shield] [Second Shield] [Parry]
Naofumi wasn't confident he'd be able to block them all even with their level being 30. They collectively struck the barrier and took damage thanks to [Hazard]. Raphtalia on Leon and Melty on Filo came down hard. All four of them striking the neck of the healing head. It was a success as the problem head was slain.
However, Naofumi learned something else new. After a head dies, they don't just level up, but they fully heal. The remaining six heads were each level 35. Naofumi now understood that any damage not done to the next head to fall was wasted effort. There was too much to keep track of with this enemy.
Leon had to revert to human form and drank an Mp potion, then transformed back. He needed to replace his perimeter before basic monsters fought their way through. Raphtalia joined him, thinking she may be more help attacking from above.
The hydra tested its new levels immediately. Three of the heads came together and breathed their elements outward. A combination of wind, lightning, and water. The result was an electrically charged typhoon. It had enough hitting power to deal slight damage to Naofumi. He couldn't allow those three heads to remain together.
"One of those three, it doesn't matter which!" Naofumi yelled.
Filo sat Melty down next to Naofumi and took off towards the boss. After she left the ground, she turned to her human form. The heads saw this and tried to attack her. She used [High Quick] to dodge them all until reached the target. She activated her [Mana Talons] and carved straight through the neck of the water head. Her human form was more elusive, just as Fitoria said.
Again, the hydra roared and again the remaining heads gained levels. They were now level 40. Before Filo could do much else, the hydra struck her to the ground. She might have been able to dodge, but it was hard to guess the hydra's speed when its stats kept increasing. Filo was hurt, but she managed to get back on her feet.
Leon was done recasting [Zweite Firewall] and went over the hydra so Raphtalia could leap off with her sword drawn. The surprise attack worked as she pierced the hydra's head all the way to the guard of her sword. The whole time Raphtalia was chanting something. She wasn't able to finish the spell though, as the hydra swung its head around in a panic. Raphtalia held onto her sword, which was firmly embedded in its flesh.
...
Stone face
...
Monti attempted to rush the stone head, but it simply began to float away from him while breathing more hands. Some of these hands assaulted them as fists, but some grabbed their limbs and attempted to restrain their movements. They all dealt with the problem in different ways.
Liviccic animated the eight sets of skeletal arms on his clothes to function as their own limbs and went about pulling the hands off of him and crushing them. Sophia placed herself under the control of her [Puppeteer Thread] and overpowered the hand's restraint. Teal grew a large flytrap style mouth from her back that tore them off of her one by one. Lastly, Monti simply activated [Overdrive], destroying any hands near him with his lightning.
They all advanced on the odd creature, knowing that giving it time or space was only going to make things harder. Sophia used her webs to latch onto the head and began tethering it to the ground with as many anchors as she could. The moment it touched the ground, Teal used [Undergrove] to ensnare it further. Both Teal and Sophia were blown away by how much their stats were offering them. They felt they were doing too much and that more restraint on their part would result in a more successful fight.
While it was stuck, Monti grappled the thing in his full form, clawing, biting and stinging the hell out of it, all while coated in lightning. Liviccic saw the display, but also saw how little damage it was doing. The creature still had about 80% of-wait.
The creature's health was the same as before, but Liviccic could see it going down while Monti attacked it, so how was it at 80% a moment ago?
Liviccic soon found his answer. The creature bit at the earth it was bound to and Liviccic watched as it began to heal. Monti's continued assault dealt more damage than it could heal, but it was also gaining ammo this way. Teal was beginning to notice this as well. She decided to rush the creature too, but she went for the mouth.
She threw some seeds at the ground it was eating, then after its next bite she triggered her seeds to grow inside the head. It dealt more damage than what Monti and Liviccic were able to do before. Clearly, internal damage was the key to killing this thing. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and adapted to this new information.
Teal and Sophia needed to bind this creature while Monti and Liviccic attacked its open mouth. It was a simple plan and luckily one without too many points of failure. As Teal and Sophia grappled it, it began to try speaking again, trying to assault their minds. It never got to finish its strange words as the pair's bindings reached its mouth, forcing it open.
"Now!" They both yelled.
[Rancor]
[Blightning]
Both attacks hit their mark, entering the mouth of the creature. The stone skin of the face grew dark and it formed cracks everywhere. They saw its Hp reach zero. They were pleasantly surprised that a wave boss would die that easily, then again their stats were doubled now, so put into context, would they have even been capable of beating that thing without class upgrades?
As they shared a look of relief, Sophia was struck hard to the ground by something very fast and very strong. It was a thin, tall stone statue missing its head. It emerged from inside the wave boss and was freed when the head died. How were they to keep up with a creature this strange?
"Sophie!" Liviccic rushed in and attempted to engage it physically, but physical might was no longer a major advantage for Liviccic.
While his attack stat doubled, the lion's share of his attack came from his animated bones, which remained the same as before the class upgrade. A swing of his staff striking air was enough for him to regain his senses, but the statue struck back with a volley of blows, at least two dozen, sending Liviccic to the ground near Sophia. The statue slowly started walking towards the pair. They'd need think of a way to handle this new development.
...
Hydra
...
Raphtalia refused to let go of her sword as she was thrown around wildly. She continued her chant from where she was interrupted, determined to finish this head alone. Leon stayed high in the air, ready to catch Raphtalia if and when she was thrown off. Naofumi was concerned, knowing Raphtalia doesn't admit when she's in over her head.
[Air Strike Shield] [Second Shield] [Air Strike Shield]
Naofumi placed a barrier on both sides of the head Raphtalia impaled, holding it in place. This gave her the time to finish her spell.
[Zweite Holy]
She had managed to perform the holy spell she had been unsuccessful in casting before now. With her class upgrade, she was able to channel the spell through her blade, and therefore directly through the skull of the hydra, damaging it greatly. While the spell was still active, she ran the blade as far as she could down the skull and leapt off. Leon saw this and swooped down to catch her. The head died a moment later.
The hydra's heads now numbered four, each level 45.
They were half way done with this boss, but with more levels came new tactics from the beast. The lightning head shot off a slow moving ball of electricity, the fire head began to rain mortar-like fire balls down on them, the dark one began to try and bind their vision, and the last one lunged forward for a physical strike.
Their vision binding happened fast enough that they had to assume the worst. Leon flew away with Raphtalia while Naofumi used [Shield Prison] on Filo, Melty and himself. As soon as Raphtalia was done using [Anti-Bind] on Leon and herself, they turned back to reengage. The mortars and physical attacks were repelled by Naofumi's skill, but the electric ball was traveling slow enough that Naofumi's skill would time out before it reached him. Knowing this, Leon opted to breath fire on the spell, trying to overwhelm its magic with his own. It worked, but would it in another five levels?
"Naofumi-sama, are you alright!?" Raphtalia called.
"Y-Yes, we're all fine, but we can't see." Naofumi responded.
Raphtalia understood and began to cast [Anti-Bind] on them as well. The hydra didn't seem like it wanted to give them the time to do that, though.
"Leon, run interference!" Naofumi called.
Leon immediately acted, flying at the hydra. The hydra saw this and prepared to hit him with everything it had. Fire breath, bolts of lightning, physical bindings and holy light all aimed at Leon. He was about to take massive damage if he didn't do something, but dodging just meant the others would be hit.
"..."
[Anti-Fire] [Anti-Lightning] [Anti-Bind] [Anti-Light]
Leon countered all four abilities with as much speed and precision as he could manage. A slight amount of lightning and holy still hit him, but the majority of the spells were foiled.
...
Fitoria
...
Eclair had been handling the normal monsters at Fitoria's 'request'. Fitoria wished to see Eclair in action. Everyone else in Naofumi's party was declared family or Mel-tan, but Eclair was the odd one out. Even Filo said they weren't friends. She needed to see if this newcomer was going to be worth the lack of trust.
Fitoria was more than pleased to find that Eclair was one of the most skilled fighters she could remember seeing. It was to the point that if their stats were even, Fitoria wasn't sure she'd beat Eclair. It was a pleasant surprise.
While Fitoria was going back and forth between killing dozens of enemies and checking in on the others, she spotted Leon countering all four different spells at the same time.
"..."
She'd not think a single positive thought about that selfish lizard.
She thought they didn't need help and turned her attention to the other group as they fought the second form of that wave boss.
...
Stone Statue
...
The statue continued its slow walk towards Liviccic and Sophia until Teal went to attack with an [Autumn Blow]. This triggered something in the creature as it moved at blinding speed. It ducked under Teal's attack and struck her violently with all four of its limbs. Its assault was cut short by Monti, who rushed the creature in his full form, [Overdrive] already activated. He wrestled it to the ground and began striking it with his tail over and over again.
The other three made it to their feet as they saw Monti dominating their foe. It made sense. Its old form had multiple ways of attacking and defending, this form only seemed to have stats. Since they all now had double stats, that wasn't that big of a deal.
They sat there a moment, watching Monti destroy the statue before clarity hit them.
"Monti, you seem to... have everything handled here. We're going to meet up with the others. Okay?" Teal informed.
"Sure. This shouldn't take too long." Monti said between biting the statue.
They began to leave while Monti continued his one-sided assault on the statue. The creature tried leveraging itself up, it tried using all its strength trying to roll Monti off to one side. All four of its limbs were firmly pinned, while Monti had both his jaws and tail free to attack further. The wave boss had no option but to lose slowly.
...
Fitoria
...
Fitoria glanced over towards the other group, seeing they were leaving to meet up with the other group while Monti handled the wave boss alone. She wasn't happy with the amount of trust they were giving Monti, but she could see that he was going to win that fight even if the statue somehow freed itself.
She found it so odd that a wave monster was fighting alongside a hero. She knew that regardless of how a monster was raised, it had instincts it'd never overcome. Just as Leon would be selfish and vain because he was a dragon, Monti should be a being of chaos, but even she couldn't deny the truth in front of her. He was the exact opposite of chaotic, he was orderly. He followed orders and acted as he should more than any of the others.
Still, there was a part of her that would never accept Monti. He was a wave monster with intelligence and that alone should make him a threat. She would kill him the moment he stepped out of line, whether it was today or a decade from now.
"That... was the... last of them here..." Eclair informed Fitoria while trying to catch her breath.
That snapped Fitoria out of her deep thinking. She glanced around and sure enough, no monsters remained in the immediate area.
"...I will move us again. They seem to be reaching the climax themselves." Without another word, Eclair and Fitoria were on the entire other end on the valley.
Eclair was surrounded by monsters again, but Fitoria wasn't letting her do it all alone. She rushed through the enemies herself, killing them the moment they made contact with her. She made sure to leave plenty for Eclair. Naofumi and his party were handling this wave quite well, even if most of the lesser enemies were being taken care of for them. Fitoria was getting what she wanted, but it felt wrong.
"Do I want them to fail?"
She didn't know.
...
Hydra
...
Having foiled the hydra's spells in one go, Leon opted to attack a head while he was close. He chose the one that bound their vision. It couldn't deal damage, but messing up the teamwork was honestly a bigger threat. He anchored himself to the hydra by stabbing all four claws into its neck, then used his tail to hold the lower jaw open. He then breathed fire into the mouth of the hydra.
The other heads all acted and went to cast spells at Leon, only for Leon to turn to his human form and narrowly escape the strikes of magic. Having received Leon's physical and magical attacks and being hit by the other three heads, Leon expected the head to be dead, but it seemed the beast couldn't hurt itself.
"Unfair bullshit!" Leon complained to himself.
"Then try this!" [Zweite Hellfire]
The angle for the spell was not optimal. All the fireballs attempted to converge on the shadow head, but some were caught on the other heads. Still, it was enough to kill that head.
The three remaining heads fully healed and grew to level 50.
By the time the healing and levelling was done, the party was no longer blinded. Liviccic and the others were still on their way, there were a lot of monsters between them and Naofumi.
"So the last ones are lightning, holy and fire?" Naofumi was thinking out loud more than asking a question.
"Take out holy next. Holy magic hurts monster more." Melty advised.
"Yeah, sounds good. Let's leave fire for last. Leon and I have high resistance." Naofumi said.
"Right!" They affirmed.
"Melty, stay with me. Your water magic can dampen its fire and redirect its lightning. You three do what you can to take out the holy head. I'll support from here."
"Right!" They affirmed again.
Raphtalia hopped on Filo and the three of them went forward. The hydra, however, gained new tricks with its levels. The fire and lightning heads came together and fired an orange bolt of lightning several times the size of any of its previous spells.
[Air Strike Shield]
Naofumi stopped the spell from reaching Raphtalia and Filo long enough for them to move out of the way, but Naofumi was startled to see the spell crack and then break through his skill. He had to remind himself that he had options it couldn't break, but he was just now realizing something.
Naofumi was likely the weakest member of the family.
Their doubled stats were just too huge of a gain. He'd likely catch up by gaining enough new shields, but his inability to go through a class upgrade had put him at the bottom in terms of stats... Still, in utility he reigned supreme.
Though Leon made a more direct path to the holy head, Filo's speed was going to see her and Raphtalia reach it first. Before either could reach it, however, a small thread landed on the hydra's head and suddenly Teal, Liviccic and Sophia were there, having closed the great distance via a well-aimed [Collapsing Thread]. They all attacked the moment they arrived. Teal stabbed the head with her [Iron Garden] blade, then hammered it in with her enlarged arm. Liviccic placed both hands on the head and used [Corrupt], placing two different curses into it. Sophia spun layers of web that were a combination of [Steel Thread] and [Collapsing Thread] that began to shrink inward, cutting the head more and more.
Seeing the methods they were using, Naofumi quickly gave an order.
"Switch! Go for the lightning head!" He yelled.
No one understood why he said that, but he had a better view from where he was standing. They stopped their attacks and went for the other head, which Raphtalia, Filo, and Leon reach first. All six of them attacked the lightning head together and the head died quickly. This in turn healed the other two heads, but there was one problem for the hydra. The injuries left on the holy head weren't fully healing. The wounds created by Teal and Sophia couldn't heal because the sword and thread were still embedded in its flesh and the thread was still collapsing. Further, the hydra heals Hp, not status, so Liviccic's curses remained.
They saw this and understood. Teal turned her fingers into vines to grab a hold of Filo, who was already returning to the holy head. The Hydra was still recoiling from its lost head and level ups and gave Filo the time to reach the other head and attack. Teal reached her sword and ripped it out, then placed her hand in the wound.
[Vein Vines]
Teal used a new and horrible ability. Something she wasn't capable of doing before her class upgrade. She planted a seed that absorbed blood as fast as the original Bioseed absorbed water. The vines races through its veins with painful efficiency.
Liviccic and Sophia rode Leon, but they passed the holy head, seeing where the wind was blowing. Sophia shot a thread to Naofumi. Once it reached him, he was also on Leon. As Leon reached the fire head, the holy head died. Meaning this head was now level 60, not that it mattered. A combination of Naofumi's [Air Strike Shield] and Leon's [Anti-Fire] thwarted the admittedly impressive attack. Then Naofumi ran up Leon's neck, standing on his head.
[Sunder]
The attack broke the jaw and dented the face of the monster heavily, but it survived.
Leon went to turn around for another pass when the oddest thing happened.
[Usurpation]!
Monti yelled high above, having killed the other wave boss already. In a brief moment, something they couldn't see shifted. The next moment, Monti was clenching his fist while looking at the sky...
And the wave was stopping.
They were all stunned. Even Fitoria's jaw was hung open.
"Everyone, stay focused!" Naofumi yelled.
Everyone regained themselves and with one final barrage of attacks, the Hydra's final head died. Afterwards, Filo and Leon kept moving around finishing the small fry while everyone else gathered at Monti.
"Monti, how the hell did you do that!?" Naofumi yelled with a huge smile.
"I gained two abilities as a wave boss." The family had various surprised expressions at the reveal of his class. "One of them lets me take over another wave boss' wave if I'm stronger than them. So the moment I passed the hydra in current power, I took command." Monti explained.
"And you can just turn a wave off? Just like that?" Teal asked for clarification.
"I mean, we have to already be close to winning, it really just stops the reinforcements earlier is all..., but I stopped it with the other ability I gained from becoming a wave boss..."
"Which is...?" Filo baited.
"...[Wave of Catastrophe], the ability to start and end my own wave... The description says my waves are 'one-way', whatever that means." Monti explained.
"This is wonderful news, the ability to end waves a little bit sooner every time will save countless lives in the long run." Raphtalia said, easing any remaining fear Monti had.
"Yeah..." Monti affirmed with a smile.
Fitoria was close enough to hear everything, but the news had her all the more conflicted. If he were to create waves, she'd need to kill him, but even she saw the ability to end waves early as being irreplaceably beneficial.
Eclair ran to Melty to check up on her and the party calmed soon after. Within 30 minutes, all monster that came from this wave were dealt with. As they went to gather resources for Naofumi and Monti, Naofumi stopped to talk to Fitoria.
"Thanks." Naofumi said out of nowhere
"There is no need to thank me, you got your upgrades and I got to take it easy for a wave." Fitoria explained coldly.
"No, fighting in this wave was for us, not you, right?" Naofumi questioned knowingly.
"...Whatever do you mean?" Fitoria asked, uninterested.
"We have new abilities and many of our old tactics just aren't efficient anymore. Having us fight in a wave before the big battle gave us valuable experience that we might not have learned fast enough otherwise. So, thanks." Naofumi said with a smile.
"You attribute good intention from me that simply aren't true." Fitoria rebuked him.
"Sure." Naofumi gave up for now.
.
[Author's Notes]
Rolled for the buffs again, mostly great results.
Were the bosses weird and game-y enough? which one did you like more?
Which class ability was your favorite? Raphtalia's ability to cast spells on her weapon? Monti's wave based abilities? Filo's dealing double damage on the first attack? Teal now having 5 mutations at once instead of 2 (and her [Solar Burst])? Leon's ability to cast chantless magic without penalty? Liviccic's party wide mini-buff? Or Sophia's spider baby bombs?
I hope this wave showed both their strength and gave a brief understanding of what they can do now.
Next chapter they get shield unlocks and such, then five days to prepare and be at the border. What other things can they do in the time they have left?
It was important to me to do this wave in one chapter because the stakes aren't really there, y'know?
I have been super sick, pinched nerve on my spin and bladder infection leaving me in terrible shape and unable to write for more than 30 minutes at a time. If the chapter feels disjointed please understand
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