Dave’s party rode through the foliage and appeared at the farthest part of the occurring fight. The secondary party of the Devastator team was in combat against the massive boss of the area.

The boss, Dave could only describe as an overgrown Monster Flower. The kind that lives in Indonesia, which is named often as the Corpse Flower.

Only this one, was purple in color and had literal limbs. The massive Corpse Flower moved like an Int, a giant of a tree monster, with wide yellow glowing eyes, and limbs made of thorny roots.

The players could barely reach up to the monster’s knees. And the latter was swatting them around like small children.

Two paladins led the front, hardly able to maintain their position. The massive Flower head monster was relentless in his assaults. It slammed down with both hands at the paladins. Forcing them to hold their shields up to block the damage, yet the moment they had blocked the chopping assault, more roots grew from under them, pulling their legs aside. The roots then swung the paladins like rags and slammed them into nearby trees or pillars.

A pyromancer was trying his best to keep the monster in place. He kept raining down fire upon the creature, only to find out, that his flames had no effect on the boss. The fire would sear and burn its flesh, but more greenery would immediately sprout, repairing the damage and snuffing out the flames.

Dave kept his eyes peeled for the rest of the Devastator party. Warlord, Satan Slayer, and Valentine are the best of the guild’s players, and their aid in this fight could gain the Devastators the Node of Life. Something Dave didn’t wish to hand over to a party that he had no intention in keeping within the Underworld.

The main Devastator party had yet to show up. So he decided to wait out, but Singund had something else in mind.

"Lord, wouldn’t staying here be a waste of time, I say we barge in on their fun, slay the monster and the soft skin. It would quench the fire in my blood!" Singund’s voice threatened to reveal their position.

"No, Singund, I have told you before, there are times to fight and there are times to watch. Keep focused, we will have our chance soon."

"As the Lord commands!" Singund smashed his fist into his chest as a salute. Dave doubted that the strength behind the smash was necessary, or if it was painful to Singund, but if it was the High-Orc’s enthusiasm didn’t show it.

The tengu dove down like a bird and landed next to Dave, he was in mid bow as he spoke, "Lord, the rest of the humans are approaching this area fast. They have encountered the Drow warriors, but the human leader broke their ranks with utter ease."

"Yeah, Warlord has the God of War legacy, he grows stronger the more numerous his enemies are. Don’t worry about them. We’ll handle them in due time. Now sit back and enjoy the show," Dave said.

Their position was keenly hidden behind large bushes and the pillar formation shaded them from sight. Dave’s party could see the players while the others had no idea that they were being watched.

Dave inspected the boss.

Guk-Drasiel

Level 550

Tier: Mythic

Base damage: 150,000-200,000

Danger Level: ?

HP: 412,555,000/ 500,000,000

PD: 100,000

MD: 200,000

Skills:

[Life Sapling] (Passive): Guk-Drasiel is endowed with the vitality of the tree of life. Giving him a continuous regeneration of HP equal to 2% of his maximum HP every second.

[Thorn Shower]: Guk-Drasiel shoots out a volley of thorns in a circle of 20 Meters. Each thorn deals 10% of his base damage in flat value ignoring armor.

[Death Scent] Guk-Drasiel releases poisonous spores, once inhaled one will have a 20% reduction in their damaging abilities and will receive 20% additional damage from all sources.

[Ruinous Invader] Upon the start of combat, Guk-Drasiel will have a parasite invading one of the player’s bodies. Guk-Drasiel will trigger the parasite’s awakening once his HP reaches below 50%. The parasite will take control of the host and turn it into an ally of Guk-Drasiel.

Killing the controlled player will cause the parasite to double in number and infect more players.

Lore: Guk-Drasiel was a fungus that grew under the roots of Yggdrasil, due to the tree of life possessing infinite vitality, the fungus that was supposed to die only weeks after its birth managed to survive for ages. And now, it had mutated and grew to what it is right now.

The fungus had decided to the part itself from the tree of life in an attempt to become a tree of life itself. But it has been captured by the Drow Lord and made into a guardian of his kingdom.

Guk-Drasiel is the reason for the greenery and life that is a rare sight in the underworld.

***

Dave read through the boss’s notification and frowned. He was not a fan of one of the boss’s skills. Turning an ally into an enemy was dangerous, especially if by some awful luck, the parasite manages to invade Dave himself.

Dave thought for a few moments then came to a decision. If he were to fight the boss, he needed to have all of his allies clean of the parasite. But that is impossible unless the Devastators willingly took in the parasite.

The tree monster swatted away the two paladins the moment they stood up, never giving them the chance to take their baring. The pyromancer was failing miserably in keeping the creature occupied, as most of his damage was immediately healed back. Then came Hunter’s turn, he shot arrows so fast he made Lone Arow’s rapid shots look like they were shot in slow motion.

Yet, even all of that damage combined failed to cause the Guk-Drasiel to even flinch. The priest of the party healed and buffed as much as he could, so much his threat level rose enough to cause the Guk-Drasiel to take note of him. A noob mistake that no player of such level should ever make.

The Guk-Drasiel ignored the paladins and charged at the priest, but thanks to a well-timed [Anchor Hall], the creature stopped his attack mid-way and turned to rain havoc upon the paladin that used the Threat Increasing Skill.

The paladin had his block on cooldown so he took the hit head-on. Downing him to less than half of his HP and stunning him for a few seconds.

The party were desperately trying to split the monster’s aggressiveness, but unlike a party of ten or more, the five of them were ill-equipped and ill numbered to manage such feat with success.

"GOD’S FIST!" roared the well-known voice of Warlord.

Immediately after, a golden gauntlet manifested itself from above the monster. The sheer size of the gauntlet dwarfed even the massive tree monster.

The creature looked at the gauntlet with fear in its golden eyes, but it still held its hands up, contending against the literal fist of a war god. Holding the gauntlet away from crushing it.

The strength behind the fist was enough to break and splinter the monster’s body and crater the ground under it.

Yet the monster was not to be trifled with. Even of Warlord’s Skill was the fist of God. It was only a manifestation and not the real thing.

historical

The creature screech increased in loudness and pitch. More roots burst out from under the ground and coiled themselves against the fist. Halting its advance.

Warlord and co emerged from the other side of the foliage and walked into the clearing.

The monster was forcing the fist away from above his body by sheer will and the power of the growing roots. The fist was completely covered with roots and its golden light had dissipated under the roots.

"You’re not bad," Warlord muttered, "But you’re nothing but a harmful weed, die!" Warlord raised his leg and slammed down on the ground under him. The God’s Fist dissipated, causing the coiling roots to falter and slam into each other. Then a golden armored boot, twice as large as the gauntlet appeared above the creature.

The Guk-Drasiel helplessly watched as the foot came down, crushing it into the ground.

An enormous numerical value appeared over the monster, downing him to half of his HP in one hit.

"Fuck," Dave uttered, "He never used that before," he said.

It was not unusual for high rankers to hid their skills. If their enemies knew all of their powers, they could make countermeasures, and Warlord apparently had an ace up his sleeve. And this was probably it.

The tree monster groaned and screeched in pain. The boot disappeared and the monster looked nothing like it had before. The creature was crushed to mush, but it still moved and was far from death.

Suddenly, the pyromancer of the party shouted, "Shit! DUCK!" just as he finished his words, he turned his staff and shot a torrent of fire at Warlord.

"It’s about to start," Dave said grinning.