“Use every last nut and fruit we have, Rick! It’s time to go all out!”
“Chiiirp!”
Rick nodded, then took out a fruit and threw it at the Cerberus Lion.
“Wait, no! Rick! I lied! Not that one!”
“Chirp?”
He just threw a magic fruit! The precious fruit that I’ve only been able to grow a few of! I completely forgot I was holding that! I just gave that order without thinking! I stretched out a hand, but of course, the fruit was out of my reach.
Rick had thrown the magic fruit with a serious left-handed fastball that struck the Cerberus Lion right in the head, creating an explosion. Dang, the magic fruit is powerful! It’s basically a bomb!
“Chirp chirp!”
“Ah! I need to focus!”
I need to attack too! Everyone else was already raining attacks on the boss. Rick took out a deep green fruit next and threw it, taking out another chunk of the boss’s HP. Kokuten was using Drunken Boxing, and Akari was getting ready to use a chain attack. Murakage, Holland, and Huey were also using powerful arts to deal as much damage as they could.
Everyone was pushing themselves to the limit in these few precious seconds that would decide the battle.
However, the boss wasn’t going to let us win that easily.
“GRRROOOAAAR!”
“Oh crap!”
The Cerberus Lion’s mane blazed brightly, then morphed into a wave of flames that swept towards us. Since we were all so focused on attacking, evading the flames was impossible. Nearly everyone was engulfed in the flames and suffered massive damage.
“...!”
“Triii!”
“Sakura! Olea!”
I knew fire would be too much for them! Both Sakura and Olea died in an instant! Sakura didn’t even have time to use Divine Blessing!
And that wasn’t all. Everyone who had gotten hit by the attack was still covered in flames. We should have been buffed with Blaze resistance, so why was this happening?!
“This status ailment is Scorch! It’s the stronger version of Blaze!” Sawyer explained.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
Like Sawyer said, we weren’t inflicted with Blaze, but Scorch. Did the devs seriously add in a new status ailment at this point in the fight? How heartless can you be?!
To make matters worse, the Cerberus Lion pulled out another nasty move: it refused to come near us. I see how it is, stay a safe distance away and wait for Scorch to slowly kill us? That’s a low move for a boss!
With flames blazing all around us, there was no telling if Scorch would go away on its own. Even if we tried to use potions to keep us alive, we couldn’t keep that up for very long. Even Fuka and Filma were powerless surrounded by all this fire. Maybe we really wouldn’t be able to beat the boss on our first try after all.
“And we were doing so well!” I groaned.
Scorch was gradually chipping away at my HP. I used magic to splash myself with water, but the flames kept burning. It seemed like the flames filling the room constantly kept inflicting me with Scorch. So even if I doused the flames with water to put them out, more flames came to take their place.
We’d gotten so close to beating it—is this really how it had to end?! No, we can’t give up yet! There has to be something we can do.
Someone else seemed to share my feelings. I saw Kokuten using recovery items on Siegfried and Rais not far from where I was standing. He still hadn’t called it quits.
“Rais! Sieg! Filma and Akari, you too! Bring it home for us!”
“Leave it to us!”
“Hee hee hee hee! Let us fight tooth and nail until our dying breaths to snuff out this foe!”
“Yeah, you go, freaky knight!”
Other players followed Kokuten’s lead and used their recovery magic and items on Siegfried and Rais. Some people, including Fuka and Sukegawa, died shortly after doing so. It was only a matter of time before other players died too.
Meanwhile, Siegfried, Rais, and their horses were fully recovered. Filma and Akari used the stalactites that had fallen to the floor as shields to evade getting directly hit by the flames. At Siegfried and Rais’s prompting, they hopped onto their horses.
By riding in tandem, they now had more manpower to go after the boss in a suicide mission. I wished there was something I could do, but I had run out of items I could use! I felt bad, since I had more health than most people thanks to Rick healing me.
“Oh yeah! Kettle, return! I summon the Demonic Ghost! And Eine!”
“Oooh!”
“Tra-la-laaa!”
“Demonic Ghost, Eine, over here! Demonic Ghost, once you’re in position, use Wail!”
“Oo-aah!”
I moved us away from Siegfried’s group so the Demonic Ghost could use Wail. Even if it couldn’t inflict the boss with any status ailments, hopefully it could turn the boss’s attention towards us!
“OOOOOAAAAAHHH!”
“Graaawr!”
The Cerberus Lion glared in our direction, as if irritated by the wail.
“Eine! Draw it over here!”
“Tra-la-la!”
“I’ll help you, meow!”
As soon as Eine flew towards the boss, Nyamun joined her.
“I call this move Jumpin’ Cat Flash, meow!”
Nyamun glowed brightly as she jumped up and started shredding on a red guitar. It looked like she was using a combination of the stage performance skills Shine and Amplify. Incidentally, electric guitars hadn’t been discovered in game yet. Nyamun was playing a classical guitar that had been painted red.