Team 2 led by Monique pushed forward, deeper into the elemental gorge. Although every new layer came with new obstacles, after exploring the weaknesses of these elemental foes, they had no problems in quickly coming up with new strategies.
The biggest hurdle were still the airheads that kept appearing intermittently, however, they were able to manage the earth and waterheads even when they appeared in stronger variations like granite and ice. Following the theme, it was obvious what had to appear as they got closer to the glowing sea of magma at the bottom of the gorge.
"It feels like we are back in the dragon newt dungeons..." Ray commented on the change of the environment. Down here the caves and tunnels resembled empty magma channels, with the rock walls still glowing red.
In this situation, they regretted not having a dedicated healer. The air in the tunnel was so hot, that it was hard to breathe. They had experienced this in the dragon newt dungeons, but it was another step up.
Most Priests had a buff that could raise elemental resistance, but in their party Ray, the shaman took on the role of their healer. A shaman had a lot of skills for offense and support which was great, but lacked behind in support, compared to a dedicated class.
Not to mention that his skills were inherently weaker, stuff like <Elemental Resistance UP> or <Fire Resistance UP> were only level one since he seldom trained them. So they had to simply endure the heat.
What appeared when they entered was what everyone expected. As if the heat wasn't enough, it rose again when a flaming figure stepped in their way. Its body seemed half-solid and half made up of pure fire. The rock under its feet quickly started glowing red and turned to lava.
<Inferno Soldier lv.97(Elite)>
"leave it to me! <Cascade Pierce>!" Shay saw his chance and used the skill of his trident to instantly finish off the new foe.
Three powerful currents of water shot from the tips of the trident and easily pierced the Inferno soldier. It worked, the monster's health quickly depleted, gaining them a chunk of experience. However, the water crashing into the mob and the walls behind it quickly created a wall of boiling steam that instantly filled the tunnel.
Tekar raised his barrier, and Shay and Alison created water shields to stop the billowing steam from the party. Had they been a second late, they might have suffered scalding all across their bodies, maybe even their throats and lungs.
"I'm sorry," Shay apologized ashamed. He had acted without thinking and placed the party in danger.
"Well, you were lucky and nobody got hurt. I know you are eager, but let's think about what to do a little longer." Monique saw that he learned his lesson and decided not to scold him too much.
"As dumb as that was, I gave me a good idea," Alison spoke up.
"Since the magic can interact with the environment here to create steam, can't Shay use ice magic to cool down the tunnels? Then the danger of a steam explosion will also be a lot less when Mr.Quick Shot acts up again," she explained, not without a little dig at Shay.
This time it was really Shay's time to shine. Following Alison's suggestion, the water mage began continuously using Ice Field, a spell that let you slow the enemy and deal a small amount of damage. This had worked great on the upper floors to hamper the stone- and waterheads.
Here did nothing but cool the temperature in the tunnel to an acceptable limit, while pulling the heat out of the rocks and floor around them. This way Alison and Shay did not have to be careful when using water and ice magic for attacking, while the others kept the attention of the Inferno Soldiers that kept appearing as they continued.
The only drawback was the mana consumption. Ice Field was not the most expensive spell, but Shay still had to keep drinking mana potions to keep casting the spell and take part in the battles. It was a good thing that Alison was a walking potion vault.
The floors with only Inferno Soldiers were the quickest they had on the whole run, since especially Shay, with the support of the Ring of Oceanus, was able to deal tremendous damage, with even the most basic spells.
When high-ranking stoneheads and airheads joined the hotheads it became a little more difficult for the party. One could easily block the water spells, while the other could fan the flames, making for a strong combo even Tekar had a hard time blocking all the time, especially since they had to look out for the solo attacks of the airheads.
Compared to the upper floors, the level of strategy and teamwork the enemy showed was a lot higher. With the enemy often outnumbering them, the team fight ended up becoming quite stressful and they had to take breaks after each fight.
"I might have an idea, but it might not work," a sweaty Shay suddenly said during one of the breaks. He had learned his lesson and decided to talk about ti before simply trying it.
"You guys know, that the Ring of Oceanus gives me the ability of Aquakinesis, right?" he asked carefully.
"Yeah, but weren't you unable to control it?" Jonah asked from the side.
The swordsman was right. Even when Shay was under the influence of Seth's ballad, he had been unable to correctly use <Auqakinesis>. The ability the ring granted was lv.6 and needed immense willpower to control correctly. There was also a certain dissonance since the ability was bound to the ring and not himself.
"Right, but I think it's worth giving it a try. I collected my attribute point for a while now and can raise by willpower by a chunk. I don't need to be able to do it perfectly. If I just manage to control the water somewhat directly, instead of shooting a spell, I might be able to get past the defense of the stoneheads and eliminate the fire guys first, " he explained his idea.
"Sounds like a good plan, at least I don't see why we shouldn't try. Do you need us to do something?" Monique asked.
"You just need to buy me a few moments to summon enough water I can use to control, since I doubt I can use <Aquakinesis> directly on my spells. I have no idea how Seth does that with fire..." he ended with a mumble that could be him trying to explain himself, or just him being a little jealous.
"Well, don't worry. Seth's skills grew with him, it's no wonder you can't copy what he does," Alison gave a rare word of encouragement in her monotone voice. Kind of encouraging at least.
Having come to a decision, they ended their break and walked on and soon got a chance to test the new strategy. On the way, Shay put all the attribute points he had gained over the past levels into willpower, making it his second strongest attribute with a 243 base value. With the additions of his equipment, it was in the 350s.
While the others bought him time, Shay started chanting. He returned to the basics, creating the most basic spell: Water Ball. With his level in <Water Magic> being of the craftsman tier, it was easy to manipulate. Instead of putting mana into speed to increase the force of impact, Shay pumped in mana to increase its size and generate water.
In theory, he could have used <Aquakinesis> to pull water elemental energy from the air, but it was impossible in this environment. Even plain magic was impacted by their environment, but his equipment bony could more than outperform the environmental debuffs.
When the water sphere was the size of a gymnastics ball he finished the spell. The moment the magic ended, he tried his best to grasp the sphere with his ability and this time he could truly feel a connection with the water, grasping it with his mind.
He felt that he could manipulate its shape, but he didn't. He kept it as it was and shoot it towards the enemy, looking like a simple, big water ball spell. Nobody even bothered to use a magic defense, one of the beings covered in granite shells just stepped forward to block the spell with its massive torso.
It was this moment! With a twist of his wrist, the sphere turned into a stream of water that circumvented the stonehead without even touching it. The stream split into two and continued to envelop the inferno Soldiers in the back.
At first, he tried to envelop their whole bodies, but he quickly found that the water that came in contact with them boiled like crazy. Seeing that, he enveloped only their head, with a massive bubble of water each, acting like a heat sink and slowly drowning them. It even hindered them from using skills, as they were busy dying.
Seeing the two in the rear drowning, the airheads and boulder boys tried to help their companions, but neither could do a whole lot against the water. It was their turn to have the insurmountable elemental advantage.
It was save to say, Shay's new attack was very effective!
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