CHAPTER 159: TEMPEST ROC

Jax pushed himself to his feet, his body still tingling from the electric attack. The sensation felt like tiny ants crawling along his skin with thousand tiny legs poking at it all the time. It was no different than the feeling of pins and needles on one’s arm after sleeping on it all night long –except, this was for his entire body.

He moved his limbs and found them obeying him. The sensation didn’t last that long, so he was ready to fight again.

An arrow whistled past his ear, aimed at the massive bird. The bird didn’t even have to do anything at all. A burst of wind erupted around its body, deflecting the arrow harmlessly away.

Jax looked back to see a surprised Lucille who hadn’t expected it to so easily undo her attack.

Ning took the opportunity and rushed forward with his spear held high, and his eyes locked on a visible Critical Spot along the bird’s chest. He fully expected the boss to be caught off-guard, but before he even appeared next to the boss, it spread its massive wings and flapped once, sending a powerful gust across the arena.

Ning stuck his feet on the ground and persevered through the strong winds, never letting it push him back. But as soon as the gust died down, he noticed something else.

Before him were tiny spheres of white light floating in the air, slowly moving toward him. He looked around, and there were hundreds of them around the arena, in all directions of the boss who stood at the peak of the mound..

"What are these?" he called out, sidestepping as one of the glowing orbs drifted past him harmlessly..

Another sphere moved toward him, and without thinking, he swatted it with his spear. The moment the weapon made contact, electric current surged through the spear’s shaft and into his body. He groaned in pain suddenly, knees buckling without his control.

He fell to his knees for a moment before quickly getting back up and moving away. The balls were trouble.

"Don’t touch the Storm Sprites!" Lucille shouted. "They’re pure electrical energy. You’ll get shocked."

Jax and Melayne moved forward, dodging and weaving between the floating spheres with great care. They had seen what the orbs had done to Ning, so they made sure they weren’t hit.

Ning recovered quickly, shaking off the electrical shock and charging as well.

Jax used his poison threads to wrap the boss’s body when he was close enough. At this point, he could use the threads from nearly 30 feet away, which was more than far enough. The threads spun around the bird and locked its wings into place.

The bird struggled for a moment, seemingly confused by what was happening. But before Jax or anyone else could get close, it broke free.

The bird simply spread its wings wide and tore through the bindings as though they were spider webs. There was barely even a struggle.

Still, it gave Jax an opening, however brief it was. He lunged forward with his black sword, and swung at the bird’s lower belly. The blade moved with an image following behind. He had added the Twin-Strike Spell stone into the sword, so used it the moment it got the chance to.

The attack connected with the bird’s side, digging through its feathers and into its flesh. The image of the sword followed through, sending out another strike when it landed. On the second hit, Jax saw a flash of black.

The Shadow Damage rune of the sword had activated on the second impact. Overall, he had done a decent amount of damage.

However, that was sadly nowhere near good enough. The attack felt flimsy as all heck.

’This sword is useless for me,’ he thought, stepping back in frustration. The lack of weight behind each blow made his attacks feel ineffective against the boss’s tough body.

"Jax!" Lucille’s voice cut through his thoughts. "Use your water threads instead!"

He didn’t question the order. Water threads emerged from his hands, wrapping around the Boss’ body. Unlike his poison threads, these stayed in place since he ignored the boss’ wings and went for the neck and legs.

The bird swung its wings back and blasted them with another gust of wind. Jax took the wind head on and moved away from the mound, arriving backward.

He looked toward Lucille. "What’s the point of the Water threads?" he asked her. "I would bet the boss is resistant to lightning damage."

"It is. The boss is called a Tempest Roc," Lucille explained rapidly, her analysis spell having only recently provided crucial information. "It’s a Wind and Lightning elemental boss. Highly resistant to those elements, as well as ranged projectiles, charms, and fear effects."

More Storm Sprites began materializing around the bird, their glow intensifying.

"But it’s vulnerable to the Earth element," Lucille continued, "and water. Not even Water element. Just water."

"Why just water?" Jax started to ask, but then he saw it.

Small electrical arcs were dancing across the Tempest Roc’s body, particularly where Jax’s water threads had wrapped around its neck and legs. The bird’s own lightning was striking it, as though attracted by the water threads.

"If the bird is wet, it gets struck by its own lightning!" Lucille explained. "The damage is minimal since it’s still resistant to the element, but it’s free damage as long as we keep it covered in water."

She pointed forward and the octopus around her left all of a sudden, making its way to the boss. It was hit by many storm sprites along the way, but the lightning damage seemed to do little. The summon left Lucille defenseless, but she didn’t seem to care.

"Keep it wet!" she commanded.

The battle became a back and forth soon enough with the party attacking and defending. They took on the bird head-on on many occasions, hitting the boss multiple times.

Ning adapted to the boss’s attack patterns and finally hit the first Critical Spot on the boss’ chest. Once he hit that, he moved backward and searched for the next one.