Meanwhile, Kokuten and Sakkyun were attacking the lion’s front legs, and Siegfried and his team went around the boss to aim for its back. Unfortunately, they were obstructed by the flames that the boss’s right and left heads were spewing out, once again demonstrating that guarding the flanks was their main purpose.
The attacking players looked like they were having trouble landing so much as a hit from the side. But as long as Siegfried’s team kept those side heads occupied, there was less of a chance that they would spit fire at the group attacking from the front. They were providing a crucial diversion.
As for KTK, the attacker I was most looking forward to watching...
“Where is she?”
“Something wrong, Silver-Haired?”
As I glanced around, Nanzan, the healer from Kokuten’s party, called out to me. Was I looking too distracted on the battlefield?
“Where’s KTK? And Murakage, for that matter?”
“Oh, those two should be hiding somewhere around here. They’re planning on launching stealth attacks. We’d have hard luck finding them.”
“Gotcha...”
So they were concealing themselves to ambush the boss? Whoops, I needed to be attacking, not looking for my teammates!
“Lilith, Perca! Let’s attack with magic! We need to do our part too!”
“Kee-hee!”
“Honk honk!”
With Olto and Bear Bear defending and Reflet healing, the rest of us needed to attack as much as we could. At the very least, we had to make sure we weren’t deadweights! Even a peashooter was capable of dealing heavy damage! Definitely! ...Maybe?
“Roooaaar!”
Gah! That thing’s scary as hell! But I won’t back down!
“Hyaaah!”
“Kee-hee-hee!”
“Honk hooonk!”
Despite our fear, we kept our spirits up and fought for ten minutes.
The battle against the Cerberus Lion proceeded better than I had expected. I had thought that the boss would use more crazy moves and attacks to keep us under its thumb, but it hardly moved from its spot, which allowed us to keep attacking as we had planned.
At this point, it was safe to say we had taken virtually no damage. It wasn’t that we hadn’t taken any hits at all, but since the healers were able to keep up with the damage dealt, everyone was basically at full HP. Still, no one had relaxed their guard. Even me, known by all as a laid-back player, knew without a doubt that this wasn’t all there was to the fight.
In fact, it was eerie how long we managed to hold the advantage. Surely we were due for major retaliation. Everyone kept fighting, knowing that was bound to happen.
“We’re almost there,” Fuka muttered seriously. She was next to me throwing buffing and healing items at other players.
“What do you mean?” I asked. I followed her gaze to the Cerberus Lion’s health bar.
“Raid bosses usually change their patterns three or five times. If it’s five, then they undergo changes at eighty, sixty, forty, and twenty percent health, and one more time right before they die. If it’s three times, they change at fifty and ten percent, and then again when they’re on the verge of death...”
“And it’s almost down to eighty percent.”
“Right. Since the fight has been easy so far, I’m pretty sure there will be a change at eighty percent. Stay on your toes.”
“Got it.”
I watched the fighting continue while I cast magic spells, when I saw KTK launch an explosive surprise attack at the boss’s backside, taking out a chunk of its HP. The Cerberus Lion even jumped at the attack, so the impact must have been significant.
“Grrrraaawr!”
“Whoa...”
Oof. That looked painful. I clenched my butt reflexively at the sight of that. The Cerberus Lion’s roar almost sounded like a shriek, but despite how comical the boss looked, what happened next was nothing to laugh at.
Unfortunately, Fuka’s prediction had been dead-on. After groaning in pain, the Cerberus Lion changed its behavior pattern.
“Grrr...!”
From the stationary spot where it had been fighting from, the boss made a giant leap forward.
“I-It moved!”
I couldn’t help but be alarmed, but yeah, obviously it was going to move at some point. Seeing as how it had this entire huge arena prepared for it, there was no way the boss would be staying put the entire time. It was weird actually how it had been fighting without moving from that spot until now. Did this mark the boss’s shift from observing the situation to fighting for real?
“Roaaar!”
The Cerberus Lion didn’t come at us right away with an attack, but instead started to run around the vast room. As it ran, it began spitting out balls of fire from its mouth.
As was common for bosses in action games, it went from a statue-like position to unleashing curtain fire in a second! Just wait, after this, it would become invincible except for its weak points! Or it might even become invincible for a certain amount of time! The boss’s change had been so abrupt that it was bringing up all sorts of trauma from other games I’d played.
A completely different battle began to unfold. We now had to sidestep the numerous balls of fire as we shot off long-range attacks. However, the need to chant in order to cast magic spells slowed down movement, and it was difficult for people wielding bows to hit their target while moving, which all made it all the harder to fight a boss moving as swiftly as it was.
The ones whose attacks worked well in this situation were Sawyer and Sukegawa. Sawyer didn’t need to chant since he used spellbooks, so he was able to hit the boss with a spell whenever he saw an opening. While his attacks weren’t powerful, they were dealing steady damage. He even occasionally stunned the Cerberus Lion, likely because he was attacking with the element the boss was weak to. If not for that, we all would have taken even more damage.
Sukegawa had clearly been leveling up his throwing skills. As he ran, dodging the balls of fire, he threw balls of iron at the boss with perfect form. And thanks to his skill’s course correction, nearly none of them missed. It was a lot of fun to watch the iron balls curve in midair and target the boss like a homing missile. Sukegawa must have been throwing some sort of special projectiles; each time they hit, they knocked back the boss and stopped it from moving momentarily.
Even more outstanding was what Fuka and Filma were accomplishing.
“Take this and this and this and this!”
“F-Fuka, that was awesome!”
Fuka’s weapon was a giant frying pan. Swinging around that pan—which might as well be called a bludgeon at this point—and dealing heavy damage with it was exactly Fuka’s style. They didn’t call her the Iron Chef for nothing.
Fuka repelled the fireballs by whacking them with her frying pan. Not only was she defending, but attacking too—the fireballs she sent back struck the Cerberus Lion. Although they didn’t deal much damage, she was doing the work of a tank and more.
Naturally, she wasn’t able to block every single one, so she still took some damage. But each time she did, she ate food to heal herself. With her Speed Eating and Gluttony skills, she could eat without limit. Also, her Chef skills included one that raised her fire resistance, making her an elite fire-resistant tank.
Filma was also doing some outstanding work as a defender.
“Aaaahhh!”
“You got this, Filma!”
“Heh heh, Filma can do anything she puts her mind to.”
“You two can help out a little too, you know!”
Filma was spinning her lance around to ward off the fireballs. I was pretty sure the move she was using was an art meant for repelling long-range attacks. She had also created a dome of water that was protecting Kurumi and Rikyu. That wasn’t the work of a water magic spell, but a Nereid-specific skill.
Filma normally gave off the impression of a serious and mature businesswoman, but right now she looked totally different. The way she was swinging her spear around while wearing a skintight, wet suit-type armor that showed off her curves, she was the portrait of an attractive warrior.
It was thanks to Filma’s spear and her water dome blocking the fire that Kurumi and Rikyu, who were behind her, took zero damage. Still, I couldn’t help but notice how relaxed they were while Filma was doing all the work to protect them. I could understand if Kurumi was deliberately doing nothing for aggro control purposes, but Rikyu could at least use a healing item or something!
No sooner did I have that thought than Rikyu finally made a move. But it wasn’t a healing item she was holding.
“Heh heh... Boom!”
True to her nickname, “Bomber,” she used a bomb. She must’ve been waiting for the moment that the Cerberus Lion wasn’t looking at them.
I felt the force of the blast as the powerful bomb exploded above the Cerberus Lion.
“Hey, Rikyu! I thought you said you’d use a weak bomb!” Kurumi complained.
“That was my weakest bomb.”
“Oh, come on!”
Rikyu’s bombs were as gnarly as ever. The one she used now caused some stalactites to fall and nearly hit Kurumi. I wondered, would that have counted as friendly fire? I was kind of curious, but with stalactites that big, not curious enough to try.
Kurumi was soon helped back to her feet by Fuka and Sukegawa.
Contrary to my expectations, the crafters were contributing a lot. And I should do the same! But what exactly should I do? We had decided to use the traps and poisoned bait when the boss’s HP was at half or if we had lost half our members. They were meant to be used as our ace in the hole, so it was too early to use them now.
“I know, I’ll use this!”
I took out a perfume bottle. I had privately made some to use as a secret weapon once I heard that the boss had a good sense of smell. Well, there was no way to know if it would work, but I figured it wasn’t a bad idea to try. Kokuten had given his go-ahead to the crafters that we could test various items as we saw fit.
Instead of throwing it directly at the boss, my plan was to let the perfume permeate a wide area to override its sense of smell. Since the lion had a strong nose, then the perfume would most likely irritate it.