‘Aclysia, engage the boss. Metra, go left. Gnome, go right. Salamander, I want you to attack that seal,’ John gave specific mental orders while shouting out loud, “Scatter through the room. Be wary of area attacks.”

His commands were heeded. He stayed near the entrance, now closed by an energy wall, while the rest of the party took positions that worked well with their abilities. The three tanks remained close to the boss, ready to charge at it from different angles. Nia, Beatrice and Siena, the almost purely melee focused fighters in the group, were only a few metres behind. At a medium range, Rave, Sylph and Lydia positioned themselves, able to use their magic at a moderate range and not clump up the melee further. Usually, Salamander would have joined that rank. Copernicus also stuck around his summoner. The last line, fairly far away from the boss, consisted of John and Undine, staying out of harm’s way.

Aclysia took the first hit of the Guardian. Its axe hammered against Eclys, neither crystal nor Mithril giving. While the weapons were equally matched, the two fighters were not. Aclysia was forced to crouch from the overhead blow. Despite being of the same size and, damages aside, same design as the other Ohmior Knights, this one was doubtlessly stronger.

‘Try to hold as long as you can,’ John told Aclysia, who dug in her heels and mustered all the power she could in an attempt to overcome the boss’ immense physical strength. Just how strong it was, John would have liked to have an educated guess on. How the enemy reacted to attacks while engaged with an attack was also important.

The answer to that came fairly quickly: the Guardian of the Seal was ignoring ranged attacks and took only swings of opportunity at other melee combatants. Even while he was pressing down on Aclysia, his superiority was so immense that he could kick back Nia when she approached from behind. That was some hefty damage on the pariah, but nothing Undine couldn’t quickly fix. It also clued them in that the boss had some supernatural level of awareness of its surroundings.

While metal particles, heated light and slicing gusts of wind rained down on the opponent, Salamander reached the seal. With her plated left, she punched the metal at the centre of the seal. A wave of arcane energy was unleashed, similar in density to John’s Arcana Strikes, ripping more than half of Salamander’s HP from her and catapulting her across the room. Her trajectory sent her on a collision course with the Guardian, who reacted immediately. It took a hand off its axe and slammed its fist into Aclysia’s side, sending the already kneeling Artificial Guardian flying onto her side. It turned around. The two-handed axe described a wide arch. Salamander would have been eliminated from the fight had it not been for a quick, shared reaction by Beatrice and Metra.

Beatrice charged in utilizing her Skills, jamming the tip of her spear into the enemy’s shoulder. That slowed the momentum somewhat, but Metra did the majority of the work. While she was doubtlessly the boss’ lesser in terms of strength, Rex Magnar alleviated this difference through its enchantments. Extreme Plasma Burst did exactly what it said on the label, creating a torrent of fire and lightning that burst out the tip at the spike-side of the halberd. Shredding metal music accompanied the accelerated strike, stopping the boss’ attack before it could connect.

‘Salamander, you doing fine?’ John quickly reached out to the retreating fire spirit.

‘After Undine is through with me,’ the apocalypse elemental responded.

‘Alright… attacking the seal, terrible idea, noted,’ the Gamer, with relative safety confirmed, turned back to analysing the encounter. ‘If anyone else had been in the area, they would have been hurt as well… Hey, Beatrice, can you get into contact with the connection between the boss and the seal?’

‘Affirmative.’ The passive maid immediately darted away from the boss and left Aclysia and Metra to their own devices. Two metres away from the main action. She stretched to touch the stream of energy, connecting to the boss’ neck. A bolt of energy shocked her, making her take a fair chunk of damage. It was nowhere near as dramatic as Salamander had endured, but it was in the ‘best avoided’ category of threatening.

Beatrice had to retreat hastily, when her actions directed the ire of the boss towards her, and fell in the process. Whether it was specifically because or despite her nature as a mana-fuelled being, the shock had actually numbed her limbs to the point that she couldn’t move properly. Gnome tried to get between the boss and the passive maid, but she was too slow. Aclysia was too far away to use Master’s Shield. Metra’s cooldown had been spent. Beatrice could only look at the business end of the axe and vanish when it would have cleaved her apart.

‘Shit,’ John growled. Deaths during first tries were nothing unpredictable, but he still hated that it was his command that had caused it. He couldn’t dwell on it. Success was built on failure and he needed to gather more intel. “Jane, Copernicus, try to touch that arcane stream next! I need to see if humans and elementals get stunned.”

“Roger that,” Rave shouted, her and her solar jaguar taking off.

She had only crossed a couple of metres, when the boss started to spin in a fashion worthy of video games. Balancing on one leg and accelerated by magical force, the Guardian rotated on the spot. Purple sparks and arcs darted away all around it. First, it remained stationary, forcing all melee combatants away. Then, the boss suddenly dashed to the west side of the room and then made five rounds along the edge of the dome.

While he was safely far away from most of them, the energy connection to the seal was a clear danger. It was anchored in the middle of the room, before jumping further to the boss, and changed its arch every three seconds. The result was a damaging and, universally, stunning beam that cut through the room in a circle. Everyone had to dodge it five times. Some had unique abilities that made it easier, but for most of them the dodging consisted of jumping or ducking, depending on how the energy curved at that moment.

Because they weren’t familiar with the timing, several people were hit. They were ready for how the energy ray approached them, but not for the regular and random reposition. Sylph, Salamander and the Mandala Sphere could dodge the mechanic entirely.

Everyone stunned was a target for the Guardian. After the spinning had ended, he leapt to the closest, immobilized party member and hit them with his axe. One hit and he moved on, even if that hit didn’t kill immediately. They were practically unable to stop him. Worst of all, Undine was killed by that final strike.

‘Alright, that’s the first wipe,’ John thought and let himself be killed.

Afterwards they had a quick strategy meeting. There were several things obvious about the fight. First and foremost: it would take a lot longer to beat than the Tower Knight. The mechanics of the fight weren’t as straightforward and, from the look of the seal, there would be four phases to it. Depending on how different each phase was, they had to learn each phase on its own.

They got to work immediately.

The second try, John dedicated to the good old question of: ‘can I cheese this with Arcana Strike?’

Expectedly, the answer was no. Gaia had seemingly added a condition that every Raid enemy, that did not possess another form of counter, got laser-focused on John with relentless aggression. Since Arcana Strike took all of his mana, that left him at the mercy of a much stronger opponent in a limited area. Basically, it was unworkable.

Tries 3-9 took the remainder of the day. During this, they learned all about Phase 1 of the fight.

The Guardian used a two-handed axe as his weapon of choice. He had three spells. One he used every two minutes, being the spinning attack he had employed to wipe them. The second was a simple energy wave that dealt low damage but forced everyone back. The third was a laser-eye attack he launched randomly at people if there was no one in melee range. It was near impossible to avoid, so staying close to him with at least one person was important.

During the 8th and 9th attempt, they even managed to get to the second phase, but they died pretty quickly when they got there and decided to resume the next day.

Try 10 was just a warm-up, aimed at refreshening their muscle memory. Everyone in the group was decently skilled at dodging the energy ray now and Aclysia had gotten the knack to time Master’s Shield with the end of the spinning. Even if someone was hit, the boss did not execute his jump attack, instead focusing on Aclysia. It served as a true interrupt, the Guardian did not continue the combo after the taunt ran out.

Armed with that knowledge, the first phase was quite a bit smoother.

Tries 11 to 26 were all dedicated to learning about the second phase. Twice out of those attempts they lost enough or key members during the first phase. Otherwise, they needed about ten minutes, on average, to get to the second rune of the seal discharging.

There was a short intermission phase during which the boss was invulnerable. Its axe shattered into exploding fragments, each of which was only a small damage pulse. In aggregate, it was threatening, however, particularly to the squishier people in the group. The damage could not be blocked or avoided, but it could be negated. Nia was the core of the strategy during the transitions, everyone huddling together behind her and taking refuge in the magical wake she created.

Phase 2 of the fight had mechanical overlap, but all of the details were changed up and a new passive added.

The Guardian of the Seal manifested two crystal swords, each elegant and long. The spin attack now spawned a phantom image of the boss, which had its own connection to the anchor at the centre of the room. Rather than changing the position, the beams were steady now, but circled in opposite directions. It was easier to predict, but the amount of dodges needed had doubled and the amount of time had grown slightly shorter. In general, the boss was faster. The energy wave always preceded the Guardian jumping to a random fighter on the battlefield. The eyebeam was now cast completely randomly, but dealt less damage. It kept Undine always busy, however.

As did the new passive of the boss. Each time the boss landed a melee hit on a member of the party caused that member to have a shard of arcane energy to form around them. Whenever they were hit by one of the boss’ spells, those shards slammed down on the person with the stacks.

Because everyone in melee range was hit, guaranteed, by the weak energy wave, this mechanic was difficult to deal with for the tanks. Letting too many shards build up was a guarantee to get burst. Between each damage pulse, they had to swap between all three tanks, let them get hit by the wave to cleanse the current stacks, and then do their best to get in as much healing as they could.

The majority of mastering this phase was around Undine (and Gnome, to a lesser extent), coping with the heavy damage on the tanks and the side damage to their damage dealers. They got in the habit of having Undine switch into item form during the spin segments. As good as she got at dodging, it was best to completely eliminate the risk of her getting stunned or dying given her importance to the group’s survival.

On day eight of the grinding, they finally got into phase 3 and 4. After clearing the second, that wasn’t as great of an achievement as it might have seemed. Phase 3 was incredibly short, a mere two minutes to the respective ten for the former two.

First came the same intermediary phase as between phase 1 and 2. Then, the boss manifested a staff and launched arcane projectiles randomly through the room. They came in four varieties. High-arching, slow ones that would explode on impact with the ground. Quick, target-seeking ones. A cone-shaped swarm that would, after three seconds delay, deal damage in a sixth of the room. Finally, an energy wall that circled once through the entire room.

Most damage could be avoided. Even if they were mediocre at that the first time around, they made it through the phase, and the following secondary intermission, mostly alive. They had to deal no damage during that phase, it ended simply on a timer.

The final rune extinguished and the boss was armed with a sword and shield. The ever-present purple glow now shone brightly from its heavily damaged and dented armour. All of the marks created during the combat were slowly fixed. Clearly, there was some self-healing involved.

The usual three mechanics resurfaced and a second passive was added.

The spinning attack was now permanently active, enacted through a mirage that always circled around. Height adjustments were made on every go around. The anchor of the energy ray was the boss rather than the middle of the room. The energy pulse now dealt damage in a cone, like one of the attacks during the magic phase. Every time a ranged attack hit the shield, the cooldown of that attack was reduced (this being the new passive). The eye laser was now separated into one massive arcane attack that exploded and a bunch of smaller ones that were unavoidable. This also mimicked attacks used during the magic phase.

Because it had only one sword, the Guardian’s stacking damage condition was easier to deal with. The tanks had a somewhat easier time. Everyone else had to steadily move around, to the point that it was almost impossible to heal. Two or three missteps would spell doom for most members of the party. The flyers had a somewhat easier time, but not much.

They kept retrying the boss all throughout day eight and nine. It was challenging and John found the boss to be alright. If it had been a boss in a normal game, it certainly would have been criticized for its boring and lengthy first and second phase. As with the Tower Knight, it being a real-life affair saved it. The slowly ramping pressure was nice, all things considered.

After 47 tries, they had learned all there was to the first three phases and only had to perfect their engagement with the last one. The forty eighth was the first try of the tenth day.

“Everyone, get ready!” John shouted, the intermission between phase 3 and 4 coming to an end. Nia, incredibly translucent, concentrated on remaining anchored in this world. John put an arm around her and kissed her to help with that endeavour. The rest darted around her and immediately covered the boss in their strongest abilities in a well-studied sequence.

Undine Unleashed, covering the boss in a torrent of water. Gnome sprouted her trees of stone behind the boss, preventing it from moving while the other attacks descended on it. A meteor slammed into the chest of the armour, launched from Salamander’s hands. Sylph tapped into the frustrations she had developed over seeing her loved ones fail so many times, Unleashed herself, and launched a massive lance of electricity. Siena conjured a blade of manifested shadow, the edges screeching over the sentient armour. Beatrice used a fully charged Needle Assault, the tiny amounts of damage ramping up courtesy of Perfect’s enchantments. Aclysia landed the three blows of Cutting Flurry. Metra slammed down Rex Magnar with the acceleration of its enchantments and the maximum available weight. Lydia drilled into the armour with carefully pre-placed shards of Strimata. As a 4-type Combination, Syrwinde bombarded the boss with an intense wave of green fire. John raised his left and bombarded the boss with the Arcane Ascension, still holding Nia with the other arm.

Finally, Rave jumped at the boss. Her fist was pitch black, surrounded by a corona of blinding rays of every colour. Her chant ended. Her fist snapped forwards at untraceable speed. Heat exploded through the room with such intensity that John had to narrow his eyes to prevent them from drying up.

Everyone, having spent their attacks in such a perfect sequence that the boss didn’t get to react at all, looked at the Guardian with bated breath. It was covered in holes, its helmet mostly melted away, one arm completely removed, the other molten into a solid unit that still held the sword.

The boss took three steps forwards. The healing kicked in. Before everyone’s eyes, the boss began to regenerate. The mirage spawned, and started circling around the room, breaking down the trees of stone in the process.

“Sturdy fucker,” Metra growled, the first to ready her weapon again. It didn’t matter if all of that still wasn’t enough, there had to be a way to overcome this. Even the healing had to end somewhere.

Everyone ducked under the energy beam and charged. Rex Magnar howled with anger and jubilation, a discordant chorus with Strimata’s almost mocking singing. Everyone who could deal damage did. Even Copernicus got involved in the melee, jumping on the boss’ shoulder and biting away at the thin, half-dissolved edges of the neck. Headless, the boss still fought on. The arcane attacks spawned from its stump rather than eyes. It shambled towards the middle of the room, guided there by Aclysia. More attackable angles meant more damage.

“….Rrrrrrrrrrrrr…” the boss made a rattling sound, like a cooling unit ramping up. The healing factor quickened to degrees that rivalled Eliza, restoring the armour by several centimetres a second.

‘Shit, the anchor was in the middle, is that a quicker healing area?’ John theorized as the Guardian of the Seal, despite all they did, came to be fully restored.

Sword raised, the boss withdrew more and more power from the seal.

The arcane chains rattled.

On its own, the presence of the spell hurt the group.

The seal cracked.

Swinging it down, the boss was about to undo them all.

The gate burst open, darkness and tentacles lashing out and gripping the boss’ limb mid motion. An inhuman, metallic scream echoed from the Guardian of the Seal, as it was ripped backwards and into the blackness. The sound of failure and rage echoed away into the blackness beyond the silver frame, now holding two splintered pieces of wood that were barely attached to the hinges.

‘Ah, scripted events… you got to love them,’ John thought as the levels rolled in, the chest spawned and several windows opened.