New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth, who was now falling to the ground, his eyes closed, heard the following sounds.

*Shlock* *Bang* *Bam* *Crack*

A booming pained roar followed these. He smiled.

Suddenly a burst of wind caught his form, in a diagonal motion, slowing down his fall and angling him better for a rolled landing.

Astaroth opened his eyes again, looking at the ground getting closer and closer. His now diagonal motion made it possible for him to attempt a smoother landing, and cancel out the fall damage.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, he dived forward and balled himself up, letting his body roll out the rest of the momentum. After a few seconds of rolling, he was now safe on the ground, his face to the ceiling.

He smiled at what he then saw. The Manticore was now falling too, with one of its wings bent at a weird angle, and it tried softening the fall with the other, still intact wing.

It was easier said than done, and the beast still hit the ground violently, with a weird crunch.

The players watched as the dust slowly settled, waiting for any sign of movement. What they got instead, was a low guttural growl, mixed with a slight gurgle, and two red dots in the dust cloud.

Phoenix was the first one to understand what they were seeing. This wasn't her first MMO game, after all.

"He's enraged! Pull back! Don't let him hit anyone but Gulnur!" She shouted to the others, running towards the furthest wall.

Everyone bolted away from the Manticore at this statement, except for two people. Gulnur and Astaroth.

They immediately surmised that the fight was now on its last leg. The danger levels, which were already very high, had just reached another pinnacle.

The Manticore then leaped forward at Astaroth. Here, leaping was an understatement, as it practically teleported forward, from the sheer speed it was moving at.

It swiped one paw at Astaroth, who barely had enough time to re-equip his shield and lift his arm. When the paw connected to its intended target, Astaroth was sent flying.

The force behind the hit was twice as much as before, and there was no way for him to resist it now. In his wolf form, he might have had more chance to deflect or better brace for it, but that was still on cooldown for another eight minutes.

As he shot sideways, he saw the damage number appear in his eyes. His jaw dropped.

*-878*

This was neither a skill nor a critical hit, and yet, it took away a sixth of his total health, even after the defence from his armor, his mana skin, and the shield block.

This effectively blocked a little over fifty percent of the damage. That meant that the raw damage number would have taken over a third of his health.

That was insane!

Judging from that alone, and the health that his teammates had, I'die and Athena were instant one-shots, and Phoenix would be close to death after a hit too.

Only he and Gulnur had what it took to block those hits, without being in immediate danger. The problem lay elsewhere, though.

That was only one normal hit!

What if the Manticore used a skill or a multistrike attack? Even they would be in a pickle at that point.

They needed to finish this fight soon, but it was not a simple thing to do, either. They had been fighting it for almost twenty-five minutes, and it had now just dropped to ten percent.

Astaroth also assumed that since its attack had boosted, most likely that all its stats also had. Which meant that its defence was now higher, too.

And with all their heavy-hitting skills on cooldown still, from their earlier burst, it would not be possible to use them for a while.

Phoenix, on her side, was also calculating their odds. She was an expert in combat analysis.

It was one reason she had climbed so high in the gaming scene. She could plan on the go, and most of them were rock solid.

Even if her plans were thwarted, she would make another one. Her intellect had always been one key to most of her victories.

She was already calculating the potential damage the monster could now output, just from seeing how much damage Astaroth had taken, and she assumed were his defences.

She came to the same conclusion as Astaroth and knew she couldn't let Athena or I'die anywhere near the Manticore. She also guessed that damage was not the only parameter that had changed in this fight.

By her calculations, it would take them at least five minutes to whittle down the remaining health points of the Manticore. What remained to be seen was whether they would still survive that long.

She planned a quick plan in her head and shared it with the party through the chat.

'We need to apply as much DOT as we can and fight defensively for the rest of the fight.' She said.

Everyone agreed, and some icons started appearing under the Manticore's health bar. But even with the five DOTs they applied, the health was only moving sliver by sliver.

It seemed they would only get one percent per minute, and that was oh so little. But even then, it cut the duration of the fight by almost half, if they played it out well.

The next part would be to have I'die focus on healing their tank, while he focused on taking hits, retaliating only if he had an opening.

Gulnur had essentially become a dwarf-sized punching bag. He wouldn't complain about it, since he knew that was essentially his role, but it still annoyed him.

As the fight dragged on, he kept receiving massive hits from the manticore, losing close to a thousand health points per strike.

It was a good thing that I'die focused on healing him because he didn't even have enough time to take a healing potion. He had to keep all his focus on the Manticore, which was zooming around insanely fast.

After a while of taking all those hits, his Retribution Strike skill came off cooldown. He knew that with all the damage he had taken, it would hurt the manticore, so he used it.

As the Manticore came in from his left, he spun around, his hammer extended outwards, aiming it at the incoming paw. The two attacks collided, and the Manticore's paw was thrown back.

The damage dealt to Gulnur was insane, since he didn't block with his shield, but the damage he dealt back was equally painful to the Manticore.

*-15'883*

Astaroth and Phoenix gasped at the number. This was the damage after the reduction too!

'This attack is dangerous!' They both thought.

It was a good thing the dwarf was on their team. That strike had reduced the Manticore's health to under two percent.

"Get ready! The last phase is coming!" Phoenix yelled.

Just as she yelled that, the manticore roared to the heavens. The surrounding air shook, the walls of the cavern shaking and some pieces crumbling away.

A fear effect immediately affected the five players. They all stood there, frozen in place, as the Manticore reared its head towards all of them, one by one.

They instantly knew this was the end.

'Fuck.' They all thought, simultaneously.