Almond entered inside and immediately spotted Melameron, who floated at the center exactly 200 meters away from him.
At that moment, his eyes flickered and stilled, his expression became flat. The only thing that remained was cold calculativeness and reign over his body.
In the next blink, he appeared right before Melameron, his sword and hands blurring, his eyes flickering with a dreamy white glow.
Sword Bending Motion. Six slashes. Divine Divider’s Harvest—Perception.
The first five slashes were blocked by a hazy green sparkling barrier that flickered into existence around Melameron before Almond heard “Ayo.” A thin yet wide wooden shield blocked the sixth strike.
“Marvelous.”
Almond was briefly stunned, ‘This one can fucking talk?’
But, of course, his body didn’t stop.
Two spiky vines in drilling motions shot at him from both sides. Almond whirled on the top, shredding away them for half a second before moving as five green orbs shot at him from Melameron’s fingers.
Marcus stood nearby, boosting Almond with his skills and items’ effects.
Various flora monsters sprung up from the meadow.
“Fuck!” Marcus cursed and glanced behind. ‘Sylvia, hope you can stop them.’
From behind, Sylvia had also entered and rooted herself on the ground, sensing the meadow and exerting her control.
The various flora monsters and other vines that were also attacking Almond suddenly stopped, giving a much larger room to Almond.
‘It worked!’ Almond’s eyes glinted. He eyed Melameron, whose eyes seemed to be looking at Sylvia.
“Eyes on me, druid!”
“Troublesome brat, hahahaha. Well, since that’s the case, then allow me to change the game,” Melameron looked at Almond, his eyes clearly showing excitement.
The meadow suddenly started withering while Melaron’s robe and staff started glowing as mysterious patterns appeared.
Lily and Mira became free from their initial roles as well, along with Sylvia.
‘I’ll join Master and support him!’
Lily nodded while she also began using her Dreadspire Call, wanting to summon Lupine of Darkened Flame to bolster her attack.
‘The boss added extra layers of defense and power to himself by retracting this cursed meadow. Mira, use your darkness skill to slow or debuff him in any way while staying hidden,’ Lily said to Mira.
‘Got it.’
Meanwhile, Almond took this chance as he saw Melameron was preparing something after retracting his cursed meadow. He unleashed three rapid golden sword slashes, but they suddenly turned dark green and withered away before reaching Melameron.
Almond blinked.
“Such normal attacks won’t reach me anymore, kiddo. Try some solid combat and weapon arts, hahaha.”
Almond’s pupils contracted as he saw high-speed, thin wooden splinters coming at him from all directions out of nowhere as Melameron used a skill.
Danger bells rang heavily in his mind, instantly judging that he couldn’t afford to get hit by them as they were likely highly poisonous.
At the same time, the close combatants Kira and others also entered, rushing towards Almond while activating their buff skills, be it targeting-type or aura-type, that affected everyone within a certain range.
Meanwhile, Almond’s expression was flat and cold in response to the incoming rain of sharp, poisonous splinters. His eyes flickered once, and he replaced the space he was at with Melameron’s space, swapping them right before the splinters were about to hit him.
“Hohoho, wonderful, wonderful!”
Melameron was struck by his own splinters, but they lost colors instantly as if he absorbed their poison back into himself. The strange wooden exoskeleton that appeared around his body like armor after the cursed meadow vanished seemed to have increased his defense and given him some powers.
‘Emma’s poison likely won’t work, but she should use this chance to bolster her poisons.’
Meanwhile, the other close-range attackers arrived and launched their attacks. Taking this chance, Almond started preparing as Voidbound Rifts started appearing all over his domain.
‘I’d better make 200 this time instead of 100,’ his eyes glinted. And he also devoured a spirit of the Wandering Boss, increasing all of his stats by 400! At this point, his Strenght and Perception were higher than the boss’s!
If everything went according to the new plan, this could be their most successful raid!
Meanwhile, the first one to attack from close combatants was Jian, who had turned into a giant berserker and jumped like a wild beast at breakneck, pouncing at Melameron.
Melameron flicked his finger, launching spikes at Jian as a greeting right at his face and also as a means to kill him. One hit in the head, and he would die.
However, Jian was wearing a high-tier Epic-rank gear set, just like other close-range fighters.
He used one of its effects barely on time, as a dark pink rubbery shield appeared in front of him.
The moment the spikes touched the shield, they bounced back while Jian’s whole body turned red, and he continued with his momentum akin to a rocket toward Melameron.
*BOOM!*
He crashed into a shield, causing a flash of annoyance to appear in Melameron’s eyes as he pushed back despite the shield due to speed + power impact.
But in the next moment, a giant wooden punch struck Jian, and he smacked onto the ground like a rocket while spitting blood.
[You have suffered internal shock damage, and poison force is invading your nerves. Your movement speed is reduced by 50%]
‘Fuck.’
Meanwhile, Melameron saw Almond getting away from him and decided to deal with these ants coming his way.
Kira, Eliara, Noah, Ron, Adrian, Finn, and Xavier launched themselves in a flurry of attacks right after Jian’s attempt, wanting to keep the boss as busy as possible and destroy that outer exoskeleton.
All of them were fully geared, and Marcus was defending everyone with his SSS-rank skill and enhancing it fully with his Ironheart Force to make it even more powerful.
Everyone within 100 meters of himself received an Imaginary Geoprime Armor that reduces all Physical damage by 20% and Magical damage by 10% before hitting them. With Ironheart Force consumption per second, the effects doubled.
This was the reason why Jian wasn’t severely injured.
Meanwhile, Kira was the first one to unleash a flurry of slashes while also using the active effect of her Legendary Gear Set’s Lunar Hunt sword that enchanted her next attacks to give the blessing of Lunar Aqua Splice, increasing the slashing penetration of her attacks by 200% if her slash-type attacks were of water-element!
Melameron conjured giant wooden palms in front of him as his palms stretched forward while he also launched another skill as a wooden avatar started manifesting from his back with ten arms. Each hand of that arm had a different type of magical wooden weapon enchanted with poisons.
Kira’s attacks slashed the defensive palms, but two of Melameron’s hands destroyed them while a hammer aimed for Kira’s head, fully intending to kill her.
Kira quickly used the effect of her armor as sparkling water started streaming around her in a sphere. The hammer struck, and it burst open, smashing her away, but she wasn’t as injured as Jian.
However, she was somehow mystically poisoned.
But the chain assault of the close combatants had just begun!
Right as Kira was smacked away, Noah and Eliara launched their steel combo attacks next while using their Epic weapons’ effects.
‘Bring it on, brats!’ Melameron’s words and laugh forcefully entered everyone’s ears, fully intending to receive their attacks and kill them!