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Chapter 165: The Eyes of a Reaper

鈥淓veryone! Bombardment incoming! Fly up as soon as you can! And Sir Melchor, I鈥檒l carry you!鈥?

As the Mount Golem prepared to scatter a large number of Bomb Golems, Daryl prompted everyone to retreat. Considering that Melchor was not a very good flyer, Daryl lent him a shoulder to get him up with the rest.

鈥淲ater,鈥?Diniel said to Korinna, the team鈥檚 luggage carrier, once she caught up with her.

鈥淗uh?鈥?

鈥淕imme water.鈥?

鈥淎h鈥?right! Here!鈥?

Korinna took out a canteen from the Magic Bag on her back. Although the head did not affect the team as much thanks to the effect of the <<Adventuring Deity鈥檚 Protection>>, the heat was still enough to make them at least a little thirsty after an hour of fighting. Diniel passed Korinna her empty canteen and accepted the new one, then took a sip from it.

鈥淜orinna, may I have one, too?鈥?Xeno asked.

鈥淗ere.鈥?

鈥淭hank you!!鈥?

Right before Xeno could accept the canteen, a thunderous chain of explosions echoed from below Korinna, startling her into dropping the canteen from her hands. Xeno quickly grabbed it and splashed its contents over his head, then slicked back his shining silver hair.

鈥淲ell, well鈥?hopefully that made me look more handsome on the screen.鈥?

Korinna paid no attention to Xeno as she hurried to look down, and she saw that the Mount Golem was pounding the ground, causing lava to spew out through the rock surfaces. The Bomb Golems, upon contact with the lava, exploded in one long chain detonation.

鈥淎hh,鈥?she sighed as she looked at the Mount Golem, terrified. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so scary鈥︹€?

As was the case with the Fire Dragon, this was Korinna鈥檚 first time actually fighting the Mount Golem, so all of its actions were new to her, causing her to feel restless even during the times she could afford to take breaks.

鈥淓veryone, take this chance to recover your mental energy. Things will get more and more chaotic the further we go.鈥?

鈥淎-all right!鈥?

Feeling an unexpected air of seriousness about Daryl, Korinna straightened her posture as if she was a soldier. She then looked on as Daryl went to talk to Xeno.

Despite having watched the fight through Monitors to prepare for today, things were still quite different for Korinna when she got to the actual fight. For that reason, the reliability and preciseness of Daryl鈥檚 leadership were a saving grace for her. He was so reliable, in fact, that she felt as if he had already defeated countless Mount Golems before despite the fact that he had only fought it once prior to today.

鈥淪ir Xeno, when the number of smaller Golems is reduced to less than ten, you鈥檒l switch with me and take on the Mount Golem instead. I鈥檒l remind you again when the time is right.鈥?

鈥淯nderstood.鈥?

Xeno seemed to have the same impression of Daryl, as apparent from how he followed the latter鈥檚 instructions closely, unlike when they fought the Fire Dragon. That was proof that Dary鈥檚 leadership was competent.

[He鈥檚 amazing鈥

From Korinna鈥檚 point of view, Daryl was shining so brightly that she felt as if he was from a whole different world 鈥?not unlike the feeling she would get whenever she saw Explorers with unique skills such as Leon and Weiss.

鈥淎h, and Miss Korinna 鈥?the heat ray attacks it鈥檒l use from now on will hit random targets, so make sure to defend with your Scorchstone Robe. Nothing special other than that until it starts doing the wide-area attack though, so all you need to do is keep up your usual support efficiency.鈥?

鈥淚 understand. Oh, I could help wipe your hair, by the way,鈥?Korinna said to Daryl, seeing that the latter was dripping with sweat as he refilled his armor鈥檚 cooling device with Ice Magic Stones.

鈥淭hank you. Please do.鈥?

鈥淎ll right, here I go鈥︹€?

Korinna proceeded to take a towel from her Magic Bag and fly around behind Daryl, then carefully wipe the sweat off the back of his neck.

Then she thoroughly wiped his hair and ears. Diniel, seeing Korinna touching those dog ears, clapped her own hands together.

鈥淲hy didn鈥檛 I think of that?鈥?

鈥淎haha鈥︹€?

鈥淗uh? Think of what?鈥?

Daryl tilted his head, wondering what realization the two others had just arrived at.

Then, after confirming that all of the Bomb Golems on the surface had exploded, Daryl took the initiative by distancing himself from his allies and blasting a <<Combat Cry>> at the Mount Golem.

With that, the second phase of the fight began. The number of Golems on the ground was lower than before, but in exchange, the Mount Golem鈥檚 movements were much smoother, as if its joints had been lubricated. This resulted in an increased workload on Daryl鈥檚 part.

Korinna understood that too, so she prioritized healing Daryl 鈥?but she could not afford to neglect to support Xeno either. The Golems, while fewer in number, still came in waves of more than twenty. If any one of the party members were to be surrounded, they would still be quickly killed.

[Hmm鈥?No good.]

Korinna contemplated casting some Blessing skills for the Attackers in addition to supporting and healing the Tanks, but in the end, she gave up on the idea, deeming it not viable.

She had thought of imitating Tsutomu鈥檚 method of support that she had seen during Absolute Helix鈥檚 previous Mount Golem battle, but now that she was in the actual fight, she realized it was impossible for her to pull it off just yet.

From Korinna鈥檚 point of view, doing everything 鈥?supporting and healing Attackers in addition to the Tanks, giving out orders, and even using attack skills sometimes 鈥?was sheer insanity. She already had her hands full trying to manage her support skills鈥?durations, not to mention having to check periodically how injured the Tanks were. If she were to neglect even one of them, they were sure to quickly collapse, in turn resulting in a dangerous situation for the rest of the team.

Failing to imitate Tsutomu鈥檚 style, she currently could only carry out the bare minimum of her role. She had not yet been put into a position to give out orders, and her use of attack skills was so infrequent that she could barely remember what they were even called.

From a Healer鈥檚 point of view, Tsutomu鈥檚 efficiency was frightfully good, but then Korinna was further astonished by his mental energy and aggro management.

If anything, Korinna could manage her mental energy just as well. Channelers could recover their energy with <<Blessing of the Sacred>>, and she had some Blue Potions on her for emergencies. Even Tsutomu had to take some sips from time to time, so one may think his style could be easily imitated if expenses were not taken into account 鈥?which was why Korinna had given it a try.

In truth, however, using both supporting and attacking skills without Tsutomu鈥檚 level of precision would only result in her quickly becoming the monsters鈥?target due to building too much aggro. The suboptimal performances of Ealdred Crow鈥檚 secondary parties鈥?White Mages 鈥?and also Korinna 鈥?were proof of that.

The excellent Tanks played their part of keeping the aggro on them, of course, but there still was something else important 鈥?the ability to adjust the amount of mental energy spent on casting support skills, making them last longer or shorter depending on the situation鈥檚 demands. Having asked Tsutomu about it, she thought doing so would only make things even more hectic to manage.

[No, I totally can鈥檛 do THAT. I have to focus on doing what I can for now.]

It was clear to Korinna now that if she were to try and imitate Tsutomu, she would soon be unable to keep up with her duties. It would be better even if she only did the bare minimum 鈥?which was to keep the Tanks alive with her healing and support. Besides, she had been told by Tsutomu to believe in her own way of doing things.

Now, this party was powerful 鈥?much more so than the ones she had been in through the Guild鈥檚 matchmaking. The Tanks pulled aggro properly, keeping the Healer from being targeted 鈥?and even staying alive and well as long as they still got the required amount of healing and support. In some parties before this, she would often see death coming miles away even if she carried out her role of Healer perfectly.

The Attackers were not prideful and had never thrown a word of insult her way 鈥?not to mention them being the rare kind that paid attention to their Tanks. And in spite of that, they still packed enough power to reliably kill monsters.

[I shouldn鈥檛 bite off more than I can chew鈥?or I鈥檒l be the one making things dangerous for them.]

Indeed, this party had no glaring flaws 鈥?Korinna did not have to swig down her own terrible-tasting Blue Potions to keep up, nor did she have to rely on her intuitive 鈥榙eath foresight鈥?to cast <<Blessing of Resurrection>> in advance. Knowing that for sure from her past experiences, she decided to stick to what she was capable of doing.

鈥?<Defensive>>鈥?

Daryl activated his VIT-boosting skill and defended against the Mount Golem鈥檚 punch with his tower shield. He was sent flying a fair distance away, and even rolled on the ground for a while after impact.

But using <<Defensive>> while his level was higher than sixty had resulted in his VIT having a rating of A+ 鈥?two ranks higher than Garm鈥檚. Additional buffs raised that by another rank, and then there was the sheer sturdiness of Dorren鈥檚 newly crafted set of armor. As such, while the Mount Golem鈥檚 punches and kicks were still painful, they were not too hard for him to endure.

Despite all this toughness, however, he would still die instantly if he were to be grabbed or trampled on. Taking a heat blast would almost kill him if he were to not defend against it properly 鈥?though thankfully, the whole team did have the right countermeasures ready, saving themselves from an unnecessarily tougher version of an already tough fight.

Right before he had been knocked away, Diniel had given him the sign that she would be attacking, so he stayed where he was and braced for any stray shots that might come his way. Seeing that, Korinna prioritized healing him by casting multiple rounds of <<Blessing of Recovery>> and <<Ray of Grace>>.

Thanks to the improvements Dorren had made to Daryl鈥檚 new armor in consideration of the previous fight, it rendered him virtually impervious to the Mount Golem鈥檚 occasional heat ray attacks. In fact, its heat resistance was so high that it could be considered an equivalent to the Scorchstone robe.

Moreover, this time, Daryl knew exactly what to do when facing the Mount Golem. He would be at risk of being grabbed and trampled over if he were too close, and if he were too far, the Mount Golem would throw rocks and Golems at him. By staying in the optimal range, he was able to manipulate the monster into using only its standard strikes and heat ray attacks most of the time.

Although those attacks still hit hard, they were far easier to manage since they neither caused instant death nor had a high chance of hitting the rest of the team. This behavior had in fact been observed by Garm during his run with the Guild鈥檚 staff members, with Daryl following his example perfectly after seeing it through the Monitors.

Thanks to that, Daryl was having no problem against the Mount Golem at all 鈥?in fact, he made it look easy from Korinna鈥檚 point of view. Still, this was not guaranteed to last, since the Mount Golem was becoming faster as its Golem minions were eliminated.

Additionally, although he had all the technical knowledge down due to having watched other Explorers fight the Mount Golem, there was a limit to his stamina 鈥?and even with the help of <<Ray of Grace>>, it was starting to become too much for him to take.

Then, suddenly, a silver blast of light went past him and wrapped around the Mount Golem.

鈥淭ake a breather! I鈥檒l buy you some time!鈥?

Despite there being eleven smaller Golems left, Xeno had used <<Combat Cry>> to draw the Mount Golem to him. For a moment, Daryl looked on in confusion at this unexpected turn of events, but then he quickly drew back, too out of breath to respond.

The two Attackers proceeded to make quick work of the remaining Golems, leaving only the boss. Xeno鈥檚 expression was one full of confidence 鈥?it was as if he was facing a monster much smaller than him. And from the way he stood tall against it, one would think he had no chance of losing against it at all.

[No, it doesn鈥檛 look like he鈥檒l make it鈥

Korinna鈥檚 intuition sounded an alarm in her head, warning her of Xeno鈥檚 imminent death.

She had never seen the Mount Golem before, so this hunch of hers may be wrong. Still, as a nurse, she had had to tend to dozens of people whose deaths were unavoidable no matter what she did. Add that to her hobby of watching Explorers through the Monitors and experience in actual life-and-death combat, and her foresight was quite accurate.

Moreover, this was Xeno鈥檚 first time fighting the Mount Golem. This made Korinna鈥檚 foresight all the more vivid, as if the blade of the Grim Reaper鈥檚 scythe was already around Xeno鈥檚 neck.

鈥?<Blessing of Resurrection>>.鈥?

If Xeno were to not die before the skill鈥檚 effect kicked in, doing this would only be a waste of Korinna鈥檚 mental energy and pile an unnecessary amount of aggro on her. Yet she joined her hands and cast it without hesitation.

鈥淗ere I go!鈥?

Xeno, unaware of Korinna鈥檚 course of action, boldly charged at the Mount Golem.

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