The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 2012 Plague Demons

The Dryads area healing spells cured poison every second as they healed, so the group members weren't even noticing the damage from the ranged attacks. It was only a small amount per second, but it added up fast, as it stacked if it wasn't cured.

However, when you had Dryad Queens curing you every second, that never happened.

At first, they didn't realize what was happening.

Karl was the healer for the run, even though he hadn't personally cast a single healing spell yet. He cast [Eternal Lightning] on the group, but the Dryads did all the actual healing.

They weren't looking back to see who was doing what.

All that they knew was that there was a barrier on them, and there were no negative effects stacking up on them. With that, they could pummel the surprisingly durable flying insects with blade skills until they fell from the sky to be torn apart by Carnage.

Two pulls into the fight they had realized that Carnage was a real dungeon boss, fighting on their team, and duplicated.

The combat power of an Epic Golem was simply too high to be in any way balanced against a regular warrior's Class abilities. They had all heard about the chances to get advanced classes from the others around town today.

But they were quickly learning that it was more than just a small boost to your abilities.

"Hey, are those skills something that you can get with an advanced class?" One of them called over his shoulder as the second plague rider fell.

"They are. But usually, it's advanced mages who get better golems. The next step for most warriors are Blood Knights and Paladins unless they've got an Epic Skill or something extra special to get them past the small jump."

The warrior sighed and one of the others patted him on the shoulder.

"It is what it is. But I'm already a Blademaster Class. So, I'm hoping for something cool once I can find an Epic Grade or higher skill that suits me. They're not easy to get anyone to sell."

Karl laughed. "Oh, I know. The Darklight Host has the ability to transfer some skills, but the cost is prohibitive. After all, an Epic item and an Epic Skill are on an entirely different valuation scale."

"Your Guild knows an Epic Grade warrior skill?"

"Warrior, mage, shaman, cleric, druid, berserker. We've diversified."

The warrior put a hand over his heart as the other swung his sword, hacking apart plague demons.

"I swear, the Gods are not fair to us all. I worked so hard to get my Guild stable, and yet everywhere that I go, I see others doing better."

"I wouldn't compare against the Darklight Host. It's an interplanetary Guild with members all the way up to Demigods. I'm just a small fry so sad they sent me a half dozen Supremes from the backup roster, so I didn't accidentally embarrass them."

That made the warriors laugh as they fought.

Karl might be the leader of the single strongest branch in the region, but compared to the main Guild, he was still an upstart like they were.

The mood was light as they poured mana into their attacks, so Karl created a pair of [Mana Pylons] and then called his Lamia bodyguards to carry them. Nobody noticed the two extra constructs at the back of the pack, but they certainly noticed the extra mana from the pylons.

Since he didn't have to do much else, as the Dryads were too good as healers, and [Eternal Lightning] could absorb a huge amount of damage, Karl decided to take on Tian's role.

The [Hymn of Heroism] could be sung as a rowdy bar tune, granting a bonus 50 Percent of base damage as Skill Damage to everything that the group did.

Carnage laughed and began to sing along as he fought. The big demon loved a good drinking song, and the extra damage from having a bard along couldn't be underestimated. It might only be fifty percent of base, which was a fraction of what a large skill did. But it was a large portion of fast attack skills like the Blademasters used.

Remi looked up from her work as she realized that Karl was singing.

He didn't do that often, but he had a surprisingly good voice in Cat Demon form. Deep, but smooth with excellent tone control.

Group after group of Plague Demons fell before axes and blades, while Karl and the dryads followed behind, with a pair of Lamia pylon bearers. It was an odd procession, but the job of the healer wasn't to show that he could deal damage, it was to keep the group healed and shielded.

And Karl was doing a wonderful job of that, much to everyone's relief.

When someone tells you that they can fill any role, that doesn't usually mean that they're actually good at any of them. It usually means that they picked up any and every skill that they could get, so they've got one of everything.

The good mood lasted right up to the first boss, where they were met with an old familiar face.

And not a pleasant one.

Standing at ten metres, no matter which direction you measured it in, the Plague Lord was a monstrosity of a creature, wielding a barbed bone whip in one hand. Karl knew that if you attacked it, the blood would turn into small plague demons, the same as if you cut open his body.

The best options were either to beat him to death with blunt weapons or to burn him.

But the Plague Lord was so large that hitting him didn't do much.

So, it was time to call Hawk out to earn his keep.

[Time to come out and burn away some tiny plague demons. They'll start spawning soon.] Karl warned.

[Got it, just let me finish this last skewer, and I'll be right there. I think that this sauce recipe will be the one.]

The boss could wait, the roasting could not.