(5) Gravedigger Tower

Hulk immediately leaped into a defensive position in front of the group.

A moment later, the possessed body of Lord Enel launched a beam of corrupted energy from his hand! Hulk braced himself and absorbed much of the damage, but it split into multiple streams of dark energy that curved around him to fly at the rest of the party.

Avoiding the beams, Apophis and White stepped to the sides and launched their own ranged attacks. Apophis's fireballs grew hotter and hotter as he poured more Energy into them, catching wooden furniture on fire and melting metal!

But Lord Enel dodged some of these attacks, while his uniform turned out to be an advanced form of lightweight armor that protected him from a lot of the attacks that did hit him.

Then Lord Enel switched his focus from blasting Hulk to firing smaller energy beams that homed in on Apophis and White. His targets were able to dodge these attacks with a lot of effort, but it was very difficult for them to attack at the same time.

But Apophis smiled to himself even as he was dodging attacks. He had been right to avoid taking a Sniper along, since a member of that class would have been completely helpless in this fight! At least Apophis and White could quickly fire off attacks between dodging.

Meanwhile, Ceasar rushed into Melee range with Lord Enel. Hulk, seeing that he couldn't keep the boss's aggro just by standing there, ran around to flank Lord Enel from the other side.

Ceasar used ~Light Push~, the same Skill he'd used against Apophis in their duel. At first, it looked like the boss would resist the effect. Certainly, he was able to dig his heels into the ground and avoid being hurled backward.

However, the ~Light Push~ not only dealt a bit of damage but also applied the [Stunned] debuff against the boss, reducing his movement speed by 90%! It seemed that Lord Enel was only able to resist one of the two effects, and he'd chosen to accept the slow rather than be thrown through the arena's window.

While the boss struggled to deal with the melee combatants, White and Apophis took advantage of the opening in his defenses and unleashed all their firepower.

Overwhelmed by attacks from every side, Lord Enel raised his arms high, projecting an explosive energy shield! 

A huge shock wave threw everybody back, smashing all the remaining furniture in the suite and smashing the players against the walls!

Chocolate immediately went to work trying to heal Ceasar and Hulk, but it was difficult. Hulk had already lost a lot of HP during Lord Enel's first attack, and the last shock wave had come close to killing him.

"Cover me, Apophis!" called White, then started preparing the Skill she'd just learned from the book Apophis gave her. It would be amazingly powerful if the attack landed, but it took a long time to charge up.

Meanwhile, Ceasar took advantage of Hulk's aggro, inflicting a heavy combo of melee strikes.

Of course, the boss was far from passive! Though Lord Enel—or the evil god controlling him—realized that Hulk was trying to redirect damage from the rest of the party, he also realized that Hulk was very close to death, and that killing Hulk would severely weaken the rest of the group.

Therefore, Lord Enel nearly ignored the rest of the party as he channeled beam after beam of corrupted energy into Hulk's withering body.

But the Boxer held on and didn't panic, even though his HP reached as low as 5%. Sweat poured down Hulk's face, but he stayed disciplined and kept using his tank skills to reduce as much damage as possible. Had it not been for the Skill Book Apophis had just given him, ~Tempered Body~, he would have already died by now.

The Skill caused Hulk's defenses to slightly rise for one second every time he received damage, so Lord Enel's beam that constantly dealt damage kept increasing Hulk's ability to resist it.

Fortunately, Chocolate had a real talent for healing. Every time Hulk was brought low, she raised him back up again. The Chocolate-Hulk duo was solid, but couldn't last forever. Chocolate's Energy declined quickly, and she simply didn't have the time to drink a potion to restore it.

Seeing this, Ceasar did his best to debuff Lord Enel, rather than simply damaging him. His ~Light Push~ could stun the boss, but only for a few seconds at a time, far less time than against a player.

Ceasar had a couple other tricks up his sleeve, of course. He used ~Unstoppable~ and ~Stroke of Steel~, suppressing the boss long enough for Chocolate to quickly drink her strongest Energy potion!

This second Skill was the one Apophis had given him. It had a very long cooldown, but gave the user a short buff, which allowed their attacks to bypass the defenses of even targets of a much higher level. 

This meant that Lord Enel couldn't resist Ceasar's debuffs for a very short time, and Ceasar sent the boss hurtling against one wall, where he fell in a heap and struggled for two seconds to get back to his feet.

As Chocolate drank her potion, Apophis took the same opportunity to release all his remaining power, transforming the room into a huge inferno! It was so hot that even the stone walls started to melt, though he created a bubble of safety around all his allies!

White grinned, finally unleashing the skill she'd been charging this whole time. Her ~Grievous Wound~ from Apophis's Skill Book dropped a DOT bleed on the boss that was so heavy that it overcame his natural HP regeneration!

Taking advantage of this, the three DPS players chained all their offensive abilities off cooldown until Lord Enel was down to 30% of his maximum HP.

Then 20%.

At 10%, Chocolate's Energy was finally exhausted, and she had run out of potions. She couldn't heal anyone anymore, and the rest of the team felt the pressure.

That, of course, meant that Hulk would surely die in the next attack that the boss was aiming at him, and they would all fail the quest…

Apophis's heart sank as he realized they had come so close, only to lose it all.

But Ceasar decided now was the time to unleash a Legendary Skill he'd hidden until now! 

He used ~Thor Shot~, an attack so mighty that it knocked down Lord Enel and shattered the stone floor that had already been weakened by Apophis's flames!

Everyone fell down to the lower floor, all their resources exhausted!

Including the boss.

He just sat there in a heap, no longer moving.

Hulk finally sat up, laughing with excitement and raising his arms high in the air. "Fuck yeah, we won! We really did it!"

Everyone burst out laughing—

An incredible explosion of power burst from the ground!

Lord Enel stood up, red-black corrupted energy crackling around his body! "You deceived me, Apophis!" he screamed in pain. "You're the murderer of the Zetark Empire! Their gravedigger, not their savior! Die!"

"Flee immediately!" Apophis shouted.

Apophis used the tiny bit of Energy he'd regenerated by now to summon a weak form of ~Susanoo~ and block Lord Enel's gigantic wave of energy.

The impact between the attack and the skeleton created a huge shock wave, throwing the other team members in a wide circle to crash against the tower's stone walls!

Apophis stared in disbelief as Lord Enel restored 10% of his HP in this final phase!

But as the boss charged up another attack, Apophis swiftly drank an Energy potion. He combined ~Susanoo~ and ~Lord of Flames~, cloaking himself with chaos flames as well as the spiritual skeleton.

White, who had taken cover, started making basic weapon attacks again. The other three team members tried to regain as much Energy as possible while Apophis held the boss at bay.

~Susanoo~ landed a flaming stab on the boss and drove into his body with all its might! Lord Enel blocked the attack with an energy shield, which he tried to expand until it exploded…

…But then the stone behind him cracked from the strain. A moment later, Apophis poured every bit of his effort into one last follow-up attack and blasted Lord Enel out through the side of the tower!

The boss plummeted to the ground far below, consumed with flames, still screaming in agony.

Then he landed, crashing at the base of the tower among the corpses of the Zergs the party had already killed.

Server Announcement: Congratulations to the party led by the player "Apophis" for being the first to clear the Dungeon "Gravedigger Tower" on Nightmare difficulty! A reward of 2 levels, 20 Skill Points, and a +5 boost to all primary attributes has been awarded to each member of the party. In addition, an engraved monument with their names will be installed in front of the Dungeon.

Server Announcement: The boss "Lord Enel" will no longer be available, replaced by the boss "Zerg Queen" IronMan difficulty can now be attempted by all players. Warning: failure to complete a Dungeon on IronMan difficulty will result in the permanent deletion of your character!

Server Announcement: All Dungeons on the planet "Era" are now unlocked.