“It’s just the main body now!”
“Go, Ren!” Emily shouted.
“Yeah. I’ll smack him good!”
I charged toward the Hadean Rose. With a wide-ranged Debrain Circle, I reduced my MP to nothing. This circle reduced enemy INT. As for why I had chosen this one, it was to somewhat reduce the damage of the Black Roses that would be created if the Hadean Rose decided to counter. As their Dark Haze was magic damage, reducing their INT should weaken it.
“Here goooes! Ultimate move: Dead Eeend!”
Smaaaaaash!
My slash, glowing purple, tore through the Hadean Rose! Vermilion Wing came with a fire-elemental effect, but it was possible that it would register as magic damage, so I’d gone with something that was unmistakably physical damage!
Ren activated Dead End.
Dealt 4,944 damage to Hadean Rose!
Mmm, good damage! All right, how’s its HP bar looking?
I checked, and much to my surprise it had gone down by a sixth. That meant it had around 30,000 HP.
Interesting. It’s not actually that much. Akira’s dead, but if we can just deal with the Black Roses, we might be able—
Hadean Rose sent seeds flying!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
“Gah! It counters physical damage too?!”
“It’s okay, I got this!”
Emily activated Provoke, stealing away the aggro of the six Black Roses.
Hadean Rose sent seeds flying!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
“What? Again?!” I blurted.
“Talk about crappy timing!” Emily whined.
Was the second one a normal action?!
The Hadean Rose shot seeds out to counterattack, and it shot seeds out as a normal action. In this case, it must have countered and then followed up with a normal action. In a flash, twelve Black Roses had appeared.
“Rgh, fine. Crimson Calamity!”
Fwoooooom!
Emily enveloped all of the Black Roses in her Crimson Calamity, forcefully pulling them in her direction. However, they were not weak enough to die from just one blow. Would she be subjected to the terror of twelve Dark Hazes?!
“Magic Barrier!”
Maeda once again swooped in to save the day. With my Debrain Circle, Emily ought to be able to take their assault.
Hadean Rose sent seeds flying!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
“Huh?!”
Six more?! Oh, right. Emily’s Crimson Calamity is an AoE attack, so the Hadean Rose was enveloped in the blast. That means it was a counter!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Black Rose activated Dark Haze.
Dealt 148 damage to Emily!
Emily is exhausted...
Even our armor knight couldn’t stand up to eighteen Dark Hazes!
“Urgh! Yeah, this is too much for me. Sorry!” Emily collapsed on the spot.
Goodness, what fertility this rose has! Normally, there’s some sort of limit to how many mobs they can bring out at once. Heck, maybe there is, but eighteen is just way too many to deal with!
That wasn’t even the worst of it either.
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
Hadean Rose recovered 148 HP!
“Whoa, it recovered?!”
Does this thing heal based on the damage dealt by its Black Roses? What on earth are we supposed to do?
If it were just summoning Black Roses as a counterattack, then we could smack it with big damage, deal with the mobs, smack it again, and so on. It didn’t just counter, though; the main body was able to summon Black Roses at will. Then, any damage they dealt would heal the main body. Getting through 30,000 HP in these conditions would be a Herculean task!
Careless focus fire would also lead to tons of counters coming our way. And once an armor knight had eighteen Black Roses on her, she was done for in an instant. With that being the case, either we had to figure out a way to stop it from summoning Black Roses, or we had to believe that there was an upper limit to the quantity it could spit out and just try to mow it down.
We also couldn’t forget that this wasn’t a normal battlefield, where we could take our time as necessary. This was Aswarth’s Undersea Ruins with its strict time limit. If we took too long, we would be forcefully expelled in the middle of battle. Time running out meant victory for the enemy and defeat for us. Taking into account its abilities and the floor’s general layout, this flower made for one heck of an opponent!
Just as I was thinking all this, something struck me. Oof!
Black Rose attacked.
Dealt 31 damage to Ren!
Ren is exhausted...
Hadean Rose recovered 31 HP!
“Blarf!”
The eighteen monsters that had felled Emily crowded around me. I couldn’t guard against every single one, and my HP was down to 1 after using my ultimate. In other words, I was going to meet my maker!
With Yano, Maeda, and Shizuku as the only survivors, they were helpless against the eighteen-strong mob of Black Roses.
Hadean Rose sent seeds flying!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
Wow! Okay, so they’re twenty-four strong now! This is way too much; they’re growing like rehydrating seaweed!
The three of them couldn’t keep up with the mob.
“Aargh, we ain’t gonna make it!” Yano lamented.
“There’s nothing we can do, is there?!” Maeda asked, panicked.
Shizuku grunted. “We’re too outnumbered!”
Thus, we faced our second total party kill in Aswarth’s Undersea Ruins.