Seungwoo was having a hard time dodging the multitude of dark magic attacks that whirred throughout the battlefield. There were red indicators that the system provided to foretell that the boss was going to send out a skill shot, but since he could not spend time signalling to his teammates about his positioning, he was in a bit of a tight bind. His team was managing well, but they had more experience playing with each other than he did. 

"Cover me, please," Si Long replied, controlling her golems, "It's best for Zhang and Woo-jin to engage whilst you just play for the backline."

"Sorry," He shook his head.

Shit.

Although the mechanics were slow, there was just too much to process at once. He felt like his head was going to explode. The reanimation ability he had allowed him to litter his vision with skeletons and undead hounds. The skeletons weren't normal skeletons either, since they would constantly rebuild themselves and contain rustic, steel armour.

"Position circularly," Woo-jin replied, "Rotate clockwise or counterclockwise since he spawns skeletons all around, you have to kite them in a circle. Make sure to dodge his telegraphed attacks, too."

"Don't focus on the boss, just deal with the adds," Zhang explained, whipping his weapon around whilst dealing with several skeletons that tried to converge on their location. His movements were impeccable, and he had already learned the size of his weapon, always managing to hit his attacks dead on.

Seungwoo didn't even know how he was going to focus the monsters, but he decided to trust Si Long. Grouping up with her and trusting in her instincts, he made sure to position her on the side of her golems. Her obelisk was directly on them, healing them over time, but there were moments when the floating rock stopped doing anything. Maybe there was a cooldown?

"You mere mortals will never reach my potential!" Sariel spoke with a cackle. He raised his staff and slammed it onto the ground. It seemed that he could not move from the pedestal on which his throne was situated, since the blue runes he had seen before were stopping him. There were three that were glowing before, but now only two remained. However, his lack of movement did not stop him from coursing his dark energy throughout the entire room. The full force of his attacks would always be dampened by the blue runes, which gave Seungwoo the impression that they had unintentionally activated a sealed being.

The boss's attacks were basic but lethal. Pitch black energy balls would surge out from his position, and a darkness debuff that would blind his vision for several seconds at a time if he was unfortunate to step into the hallowed ground he had produced. The reanimated skeletons did not help in the slightest, but he managed well by trusting his instincts.

Woo-jin was the calmest and most collected in their group, giving out instructions in quick bursts. He was the one guiding the party and re-adjusting his positioning to fit our needs. He was also the one dealing the most damage to the boss. Seungwoo was just starting to realize the gap in their experience, as unlike him, Woo-jin did not miss a beat to be keeping uptime on his attacks. He would send an attack, react to the lich's pulsating energy blasts, and then repeat the process.

"You despicable humans," Sariel's eyes grew dark purple, "Feel the wrath of my dark lightning!"

Several red circles appeared on the ground, close to him and Si Long. She was already positioned out of the way, but Seungwoo was barely able to dodge the ability. It had happened faster than the previous ones, and the lightning strike that struck the ground singed the floor deathly black. Several skeletons started crawling out of the hole from the black circle that formed.

"I'll stay on the boss," Woo-jin replied, "Zhang, go help them on clearing for now."

Zhang nodded, repositioning towards them. He jumped up, threw his greatsword at the dark space and landed gracefully, picking the greatsword up and dealing an area-of-effect ability. He didn't know what it was, but he was glad for his help. Si Long quickly backed up Zhang's entrance, putting down a lightning Obelisk. The lightning obelisk dealt consistent damage over short bursts. It kept the monsters in front of them at bay. They were in a triangle formation, with her golems providing support.

"My golems won't last long," Si Long replied, "They have a long cooldown, so I only have my Obelisks once they die."

"How many Obelisk's can you summon?" Zhang cleaved through the skeletons that were trying to reform.

"As much as I need, however, there is a short cool down before I can activate its effects again."

"Do you have any basic auto-attack abilities?"

"Unfortunately not," She shook her head, "I can only play supportive after my golems disappear. My staff only lets me reposition the summons I create. Otherwise, their own AI is used to target monsters."

"Tch," He grunted, "We should've shown each other our abilities beforehand."

"Don't think about that now," Si Long replied, "Seungwoo will provide cover for me. Trust in him."

"Very well," Zhang nodded, "Woo-jin is doing a good job aggroing the boss far away from us."

Seungwoo agreed wholeheartedly since Woo-jin was doing much of the grunt work. He purposefully positioned himself on the other side of the map. Since it seemed the boss targeted the player closest to him, it was sending most of its lethal abilities to the incorrect side of the map. This gave Seungwoo more time to focus on his duties. He started trying to experiment with new tactics.

Instead of releasing three arrows at a time, he would hold only one arrow at its peak draw length. The tension of him sustaining his arrow caused the arrow to grow in power. The energy coursing through the arrow increased incrementally until he could no longer hold it within his grasp. He released the arrow, and instead of stopping at the first mob he hit, it pierced several mobs in a straight line.

The skeletons which were tirelessly trying to pierce his flesh out of existence did not subside, but he could tell the numbers were dwindling. He could swear that the hounds were also ready to rip apart his face at any minute, but any time they had gotten close, Zhang was there to provide enough cover for him to shoot them back into the grave. Seungwoo was surprised by the speed Zhang, considering his weapon.

"Sweet," Zhang saw, "Let's try mine, now."

Zhang steeled his stance and started rotating his great ward in a grandiose sweeping motion. Instead of stopping at the first sweep, he kept turning around, rotating like a spinning top. This was a common ability for people with greatswords, but usually, they could not control their movement. Zhang was quite different. He could precisely tune the way he was turning, and although he was slightly dizzy after spinning several times, the mobs were being destroyed at a rapid pace.

"Got him," Woo-jin yelled, as he thrust his weapon directly at the head of the lich king.

During the amount of time it took for them to deal with the enemies, he had already killed the boss. However, as predicted, the next phase of the lich king was just in effect. Since there was a windup time for his next phase, that gave Woo-jin immediate time to reposition back to where the main group was. With a quick leap and using the walls to his advantage, he managed to kill mobs along the way.

"You will not destroy me!" The king yelled, shouting out a screeching bellow. One of the runes had snapped, fading away as the ground suddenly shook with such intensity, that Seungwoo thought it was almost a high magnitude earthquake. At first, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the circular room was suddenly expanding. The walls opened up, and the size of the enclosure was almost as large as a football field.

The king had materialized a purple robe, covering his entire body in what seemed to be mage's attire. The chains had miniature skulls, and the lining was supported by skeletal bones. Seungwoo smelt the stench of death, which almost caused him to vomit. He knew that it was only a mimicry, but he was sure that the putrid odour would affect his sense of taste for days to come.

"Die, you trespassers!" Sariel hissed, dark smoke emanated from the bottom of his body. The room filled with a lower layer of smoke, obscuring the ground below them. The smoke did not rise above the level of their feet, but it obscured the ground and anything that could be seen, including the patches of hallowed ground that would have given them blindness.

Seungwoo cursed under his breath. 

The telegraphed attacks, such as his lightning effects, were no longer visible. He just had to pay attention to the boss's hands and movements, rather than what the game system provided. It was a good mechanic, one where he was required to actively look at the boss every time he decided to send out an oblivion sphere or bolts of dark lightning.

Seungwoo pulled close to his allies. Since the phase did not spawn any more undead skeletons or hounds, it gave him a short sense of reprieve, but that was soon disrupted by the sound of Zhang throwing himself toward the boss. Si Long dropped a Healing Obelisk directly on them, so Seungwoo did not have to move from his spot.

"Make sure to use your potions!" Si Long yelled.

Potions in dungeons often had two types. Lingering effects and instant ones. Since entering a dungeon, the game limited the number of potions one may use at any given time. Since their main frontline was outside the healing area, Seungwoo realized that Woo-jin and Zhang's best chance to survive without healing is to use health-over-time potions to mitigate the curse effect.

"We got it," Zhang replied, as he tag-teamed with Seungwoo, "This boss is going down!"

Over the next set of rotations, Si Long dropped lightning Obelisks and resummoning her golems, which were now off the long cooldown. Zhang would tick his health down to around thirty percent by taking enemy hits. His health was in dangerous territory, but he didn't seem to mind. At first, Seungwoo found it odd, but he realized that he was doing it purposefully. There must've been a reason, such as his Guiding Skill Tree giving him bonuses based on health? He wasn't sure.

Woo-jin, on the other hand, masterfully synergized with Zhang. He would take certain hits for him, guiding the boss to attack him while Zhang charged up a slow and hard-hitting attack. Whenever he wanted to perform a heavy-hitting attack, he dropped low and focused energy into his greatsword. Seungwoo realized it was the same action he was doing, such as tensioning his bow to generate more power. It seemed the game recognized intention and execution, giving varieties of attacks in a specific combo.

They reduced his health to zero, and another rumbling of the arena sent Seungwoo to his knees.

The mist dissipated under them, but three circles appeared near the boss. The final rune that was holding him in place broke and disappeared as large skeletons the size of at least fifteen feet (4.5 meters) tall spawned near him. The skeletons had large swords, but a very slow movement. Zhang looked at Woo-jin with a quick nod, and he went for one of the large skeletons. Woo-jin went for the other one, and Si Long and Seungwoo targeted the last.

All the while this was happening, the boss was sending out lighting strikes, dark orbs, and hallowed ground mines. They littered the arena, and even though they were manageable, both he and Si Long had to reposition their location every few seconds in fear that it would rehabilitate their movements. Seungwoo managed to keep together with her since he was finally getting used to her movements.

Si Long sent her golems to directly tank the large skeletal giants, so Seungwoo pummeled them with a rain of arrows. The skeletons were obliterating her summons, but that didn't matter, as since she had two, it was plenty enough time for him to stack his abilities. That, along with the small blindness chance, the skeleton giants were missing some of their attacks.

"First one down," Woo-jin replied. Seungwoo glanced over and the giant was already crumbling to dust.

"Second one, good," Zhang replied moments later.

"Third one is done, regroup," Si Long beat him to the punch. It had been a while since he had been alongside an experienced party, so his words were somewhat caught in his throat. Zhang regrouped with the team, and Woo-jin did what he always did. He started aggroing the boss, maintaining its attention.

"Why are you here?" Si Long inquired.

"Do you have a barrier potion?" Zhang asked quickly.

"Yes," She nodded, pulling out a clear cerulean potion, "You need?"

He grabbed it from her hands and drank it without hesitation. Then, something interested happened. Zhang crouched low in a stable position and raised his greatsword in the air. The air currents around him started changing and meshing into the greatsword, and his weapon lit up pitch black and red crimson. His hands started shaking immensely, but Si Long immediately got the memo.

She dropped a Healing Obelisk on him.

The next thing that happened caught Seungwoo by wild surprise. He took a few steps back, as he was choking from the pressure he was generating with his ability. He didn't know what it was, but it dropped to one when he looked at Zhang's health. One point of health.

"Woah, okay," Seungwoo was stunned, and so was Si Long.

"Hiya!" Zhang yelled as he drove his sword forward with all of his might. A large colossal wave of dark crimson pure energy released from his blade in a straight line, streaking through the battlefield. Everything in its path was decimated as the energy strike hit the boss with an unfathomable amount of damage. 

"Holy, the attack crit as well," Si Long chuckled in short bursts, as she couldn't believe his luck.

"Yo, what the hell was that?" Woo-jin suddenly turned around.

He had a huge smile on his face, which was only fair since everyone on the team agreed that the ability looked amazing as hell. Zhang tried to move his muscles, but he couldn't even give a thumbs-up back in return. He was completely frozen and fatigued, probably the downside of performing such a taxing ability. However, luckily for the group, the stagger effect inflicted on the boss lasted for at least ten seconds.

That was plenty of time for everyone to hurl abilities toward him in a quick manner. Zhang was ingenious to save his ability for the end since if he performed this at the beginning, he would've dealt over damage, and they would've had a very difficult time clearing the third phase as a result. As several arrows rang out from Seungwoo's bow, the boss was defeated in due time.

"Did anyone get good items?" Seungwoo asked, "I got some decent ones."

"I'll check once I get out," Woo-jin replied, "Good work everyone, especially Zhang for that huge play."

"That's right, baby!" He exclaimed, "It's my signature move."

"Alright, see you on the outside," Woo-jin pulled up his menu and warped away.

Once Si Long had left, it was time for Seungwoo to do the same.