The fight against the ghost servant was fierce from the beginning. Silent Acacia applied his [Mark of Death], calling out Zorn to attack with her water magic.
The white alligator had reached level 23, almost catching up with the rest of the party, enough to threaten the boss.
Meanwhile everyone opted to avoid physical damage. Purple flames and blinding holy magic assaulted the boss, causing it to suffer.
An angry roar filled with resentment echoed through the dungeon as the ghost servant's body turned illusionary, achieving a state of immunity to all damage.
Floating ghost heads, their faces distorted into ugly grimaces, appeared all over the room.
"Damn, the skill changed!", exclaimed Cyclone.
Everyone scanned the room with furrowed brows, trying to guess how the new skill would play out. But with no clue yet the party followed what they learned during normal difficulty, creating a circle around the boss.
Only Cyclone and Fortune sought out the spots of light to continue their casts unperturbed.
Suddenly one of the ghost heads let out a nightmarish wail. Silver Blade felt a chill run down her spine, readying herself to block the attack.
But to everyone's shock the ghost head didn't move straight towards the boss but aimed at Bloody Edge who stood close to Silver Blade.
"Watch out!"
The female tank screamed a warning, but it was in vain. In her view the ghost head flashed like a bolt of white lightning, too fast for anyone to react, slamming into Bloody Edge's waist.
[-500!]
[+500!]
Cyclone drew a sharp breath as she watched the thief lose 500 HP which simultaneously healed the ghost servant.
"Hehehe!"
Eery cackles came from all the ghost heads, creating a scene straight out of a horror movie. Under the mocking laugh more of the horrifying creatures began moving, aiming at different members of the party.
Liam kept his senses focused on his surroundings, his nerves tense to their limits. Suddenly he perceived a faint movement from a ghost head in the distance as it turned in the sky, its cruel eyes focusing on the veteran.
Without waiting for the enemy to move Liam acted first, dodging to the side. At the same time the ghost head rushed through the air, aiming for Liam.
A flash of confusion could be seen on the ghostly face if it wasn't moving too fast for the eye to follow. It missed Liam by the length of an arm, traveling one more meter before dissipating.
[-100!]
Liam noticed that the boss lost some HP, but the frown wouldn't leave his face. It couldn't be that dodging was the only way to get rid of the ghosts, could it?
"Haha, great job expert!"
Cyclone praised loudly, intending to boost everyone's morale. From her position she could watch as her friends were hit one by one, not a single person managing to dodge.
At this point the boss had already fully recovered its HP. Each hit healed it by 500 points, not differentiating between tanks or thieves.
Cyclone was most worrier about Bloody Edge. The young man appeared close to despair. For some reason the boss hated the thief the most, having already targeted him thrice. If it weren't for Balm's heals the thief would already be dead.
Suddenly Cyclone felt a sensation running through her body. Her skill was finally ready. Just as she was about to unleash her lightning on the enemy, she flinched as the light shining on her disappeared.
The black river in the sky rolled, closing some holes and opening new ones, changing the pattern of light in the hall.
Cyclone and Fortune were startled but it didn't stop them from bombarding the enemy with [Bindings of Lightning] and [Arcane Bolts].
"Ouh!"
Feeling a strong impact on her back, Cyclone jumped forward, noticing 500 points being deducted from her HP.
"Damn! Stupid ghost, attack from the front if you dare!"
Liam's ears twitched listening to Cyclone's shout. Suddenly his eyes light up brightly. He admonished himself for having taken so long to figure it out, directing his teammates:
"Guys, stand in those light spots! Quick!"
Radiant Shield glanced at the boss in worry. He came up with this solution earlier but dismissed it, now voicing his concern:
"But what if the enemy heals himself upon our leap to safety?"
"What does it matter? It's healing itself already!"
"Isn't this just because we are not skilled enough?", murmured the tank to himself. However, he didn't reject Liam again, running towards the closest spot of light.
The scene turned chaotic for a short while as everyone ran around, receiving some more damage before finally entering an area of safety.
Suddenly a strange silence fell on the room. Neither the party nor the boss continued moving. As the seconds ticked by the atmosphere turned tense.
Liam decided to try something. He left the light for a second before returning right away.
And indeed, one of the ghost heads shot towards him, dissipating in the light but sadly without damaging the boss.
At least now everyone had a direction. They copied Liam's actions wearing down the ghost heads one by one. However, when the light moved once again, the enemy retaliated harshly, showing its rage after being played with.
Thus, the skill continued, testing the party's resilience, until the last ghost head fell.
Now facing a full HP boss everyone felt the pressure. During the next round of claw attacks Radiant Shield had to use his [Holy Barrier] on Bloody Edge. The ghost servant reacted with surprising intelligence, changing his focus to Watchful Eye.
When the boss repeated its earlier skill, the taciturn warrior was the first to fall. The party's damage potential immediately dipped.
The boss upped the pressure, circling between his skills, attacking with its brutal claws, rotating between physical and magical damage.
Gradually everyone's expressions turned grim. As long as the ghost servant could use its skill to heal, the party's efforts were negated eventually. As the minutes passed more players began to fall. Fortune, Cyclone, Bloody Edge. Until only Silver Blade and Liam remained.
But under the concentrated assault even those two had to give up and the party suffered from a total wipe.
When everyone arrived back at the dungeon's entrance, the mood was understandably subdued. After breezing through normal mode under Liam's lead, the party members subconsciously didn't take hard mode seriously.
It took a stern speech from Liam reminding the party about their failures during the first dungeon run in 'Reylar's curse' to bring everyone back to reality. The party realized that they were too used to success. Everyone reflected on their attitude gradually adjusting their mindset.
Liam smiled in relief as he noticed a firm will returning to everyone's eyes.
"Let's go!"
Cyclone gave the signal, her voice carrying less of her usual playfulness, rather sounding with the determination of someone who wants to defend the title of leading the number one guild.
With a serious attitude the party breezed through the first few fights, soon facing the ghost servant again. At the beginning of the fight it looked like the boss stood no chance. His ice spikes and illusionary leaves hit only empty air, showing the party's improvement.
But the ghost heads continued to present another level of difficulty. Although the party didn't lose dangerous amounts of HP it was enough to heal the boss back to full.
As the fight continued the party improved their coordination, switching swiftly between light spots, avoiding more and more ghost heads. Yet their big skills gradually went on cooldown.
As the fight stretched out over a long time the party felt like wading through sticky mud, eventually making mistakes due to exhaustion.
Suffering another wipe Liam and his friends was sent back to the entrance. This time no one appeared disheartened, but the exhaustion was obvious on everyone's faces.
The party unanimously decided on a break, sitting down close to the gate. The friends talked casually, closed their eyes, or browsed through the global chat.
By now it seemed quite a few groups had been provoked by Cyclone's provocative words. Not only the top guilds but also small teams were eager to take the chance to make their names heard.
Somehow the news seemed to have even reached the chaos faction.
Strangely none of the guilds have begun boasting about their advancements yet, leading the party to believe that everyone was stuck like them.
Thus, they weren't too anxious, stretching the break for twenty minutes before going for the next attempt.
Quickly reaching the ghost servant they showed their familiarity with its skills after fighting for so long.
Ghost heads wailed, filling the room, staring at the party luring them into the light. Suddenly the black river churned, changing the battlefield.
Everyone showed perfect reactions. Without being hit once the party managed to switch between the light spots, causing their confidence to soar.
This finally marked the downfall of the boss. The party reached their peak state, not giving the boss any chance to stage a comeback.
Since the ghost servant's final skill didn't differ from normal mode, the party solved it quickly, emerging victorious.