"He doesn't seem to be moving," Kuro noted as she slowly inspected the giant boss. 

"Dormant," Yoona replied, "Most likely means that it's based on proximity or damage before it activates, like the last boss."

"Do we have any more bombs?" Kuro asked, "He doesn't seem to be a dark attributed boss."

"No, we're capped on the amount we can use in a dungeon."

"I thought as much," Kuro shook her head, "Bitch-ass developers."

"I can lead the attack," Ace replied, "Just play safe and figure out mechanics."

"Alright, let's get in formation." 

Ace was often the person who didn't mind dying the most. He was strong in his regard, but he always trusted his team to experiment with a strategy as he focused on aggroing the boss. He was the main tank, so his duty was always to use his high health pool to take most of the brunt of the damage. Aaron also knew he enjoyed carrying the raid with his eccentric movements, so it was a role best fit for him.

Yoona snapped her hand, and her lyre, which was close to her, started vibrating a blue hue. A circle formed around them, and Aaron gained a sizeable shield that blocked damage. Aaron did not have time to read all the abilities that she had, but he understood the flexibility of her weapon. She was going to be playing defence.

"You can activate it," Yoona replied, "We're in formation, but make sure to tell us your positioning."

"Got it," Ace replied, "I hit the boss, now."

Raising his shield, he braced for impact and charged toward the golem. The shield shone a lustre as he rammed himself into the boss. As he expected, the boss only budged slightly, but a rumbling of the room indicated that Ace had awakened it. Aaron got into a defensive stance as the golem stood straight up. It was much taller than he expected, and it had a substantial blue mana core directly in the middle of his body, which he could see clearly.

A deep noise bellowed into the depths of his chest. The golem tuned out a resonant frequency that shook him to the bone. Three sentinels formed from the ground, and blue essence drifted from Gabirol's mana core and supplied the three stone creatures with life. They rose from the ground, standing the size of two humans.

Kuro sprung into action, tailing Ace and positioning herself behind the boss. Assassin classes usually had extra damage on back attacks, so it was ideal for a quick-moving person like her to constantly check her positioning. On the other hand, Yoona relayed critical information about the sentinels. Aaron activated his ability, God King's Essence.

"Sentinels are most likely a variation of the party format. Life is the tank, Chaos is the damage dealer, and Order is the support."

"Which one do we go on, first?" Aaron asked.

"Damage dealer is preferable, but I think support is the way to go," Yoona replied.

"Hey!" Ace shouted from a distance. He was preoccupied with one of the sentinels, which aggroed onto him. The other two were moving around, but the Sentinel of Life, which was the slowest, had directly targeted him, "Boss doesn't seem to be taking damage!"

Aaron looked up. The boss had not moved from his position, but he was active. A floating rock was conjured and thrown at the nearest player every few seconds. Ace dodged most of the abilities, and Kuro supported him from afar, throwing shuriken at nearby Sentinels, regardless of their names.

"There's a gimmick," Yoona tensed, snapping her fingers. A copy of her weapon formed from thin air, and she directed them both towards the Sentinal of Order, "Just focus on the ones we can hit, for now."

Aaron charged forward, igniting his weapon in a golden lustre. He dodged the incoming rubble directed toward him and aimed directly at the Sentinel of Order. One of the lyres that Yoona possessed circled him, glowing a gleam of deep green. The other, more aggressive, started targeting mobs, shimmering crimson red. Aaron began to trade blows with the golem; it didn't seem to be retaliating. However, The golem slowly reduced his attack speed every time he landed a hit.

Yoona saw what was happening and concluded two things. The Sentinel of Order was meant for ability or magic users to focus, or there must have been a way to circumvent the attack speed debuff, "Focus on the Chaos sentinel with Kuro. I'll handle the sentinel of Order."

Aaron nodded. Although the attack speed debuff wasn't permanent, it reapplied every time he hit the Sentinel of Order. Changing tactics, he switched to the Sentinel of Chaos. Drawing distance and making sure he wasn't clumping with the rest of his teammates, he redirected the mob towards him. The mob chased him in a frenzy. It jumped, it smashed the ground, and several rocks materialised around it, which it threw towards his direction. The attacks were fast, but nothing he couldn't handle.

The sentinel applied a different debuff to him. Magic dampening. It reduces magic damage attacks by 40%. Since it didn't affect him, he kept on swinging. He dodged the multitude of spinning attacks, lunges, and miniature shockwaves put out by the sentinel without missing a beat. As Kuro also contributed to the damage output, things were going according to plan.

"Ah, shit," Yoona winced.

Aaron looked over only for a split second, but Yoona had already killed the Sentinel of Order. It was quick because the mob had already dropped dead due to whatever she did. Aaron assumed she must've used a consumable that buffed her damage, but he didn't know. Whatever the case, that was one less mob to deal with, which was reassuring.

"It seems like they have Last Word effect," Yoona yelled out, "Just leave the other two at low health."

"Got it!" Aaron yelled back.

Yoona turned her attention towards the Sentinal of Chaos. Ace was still preoccupied with the last sentinel, but considering that they had barely taken any damage, it was a good sign that this clear was going smooth.

"He sends out projectiles, so make sure to dodge it," Aaron voiced, "It looks like he's only slow and heavy, so as long as you dodge his abilities, you should be fine."

"Noted," Yoona nodded.

After a much-coordinated attack, they found a rhythm to his attacks. Most mobs this early into the game are very choreographed, so one ability always supplemented the other. The Sentinel of Chaos would perform a dash attack, a swipe, and then a ground pound. Aaron, so far, only got hit by one dash attack. The damage it dealt was substantial, but with Yoona's healing aura backing him up, he made quick work of the enemy golem within the next minute or so.

"Help Ace!" Yoona yelled as the Sentinel of Chaos got low on health, "Don't kill this one just yet."

Switching targets, he looked towards Ace. He was breezing through the Sentinel of Life as if he wasn't even breaking a sweat. He had to commend his ability, as he was considered a solo player in his past games. He was the type of person to dive in first on any engagement, and it was paying off in this game since his Lone Knight specialization was a perfect match for his playstyle. 

Once they had gotten both of the Sentinel's low with proper spacing and attacks, Ace let out a scream that projected his voice outwards. The mobs, which were relatively far apart, started walking in his direction. A Taunt ability, Aaron presumed. Yoona clapped her hands, and her lyre glowed red, dealing damage to both simultaneously, waiting for them to clump up.

Once both Sentinels crumbled into dust, Gabirol, who was standing still and chucking projectiles, slowly lifted his leg into the sky. A sense of dread washed over Aaron and the rest of the teammates as the ground below them displayed a red circle that grew out from the boss's location, surrounding the entire area. It was a telegraphed attack.

"Wipe mechanic," Yoona clicked her tongue, darting her eyes around the map.

"There!" Ace yelled, pointing at one of the corners of the room. There was a pillar of rock that spawned, just large enough for them to hide behind. Kuro activated a Flag of Speed item in a wink, which increased movement speed for everyone in the party. Aaron dashed for the corner, with the rest of the group trailing behind him.

Yoona's lyre changed to a blue aura as soon they reached behind the pillar that had spawned. A moment of silence washed over them as they looked at each other. Then, the boss ignited a shockwave of pure blue energy and swept the entire area. Like a small atom bomb that had just gone off, rubble was flown towards them and the shockwave took the breath out of Aaron. 

"Jesus," Aaron coughed. He had taken a substantial amount of damage, but that meant that it would've been a raid wipe if he didn't hide behind the pillar. He cursed at the thought of the developers being crazy enough to include a raid wipe mechanic this early in the game, but that didn't stop his resolve.

"I got an idea," Kuro replied, "You still got your White form, right?"

"Yeah," Yoona replied, "But I won't be able to move after the five seconds."

"I have Death Mark," Kuro replied, "I think Ace should take the front, while we DPS the back."

"Similar Death Mark from Conviction Online?" Aaron asked.

"Somewhat. They overlap."

Kuro's Death Mark was a strong ability in Conviction Online. It was an ability that allowed her to proc a mark on a target. Within the next few seconds, all damage that was dealt with that target was increased by twenty (20%) per cent, and the damage she dealt could be re-applied, activating and finishing the death mark.

"Does your Death Mark second activation have a windup?" Yoona frowned.

"Yes, three seconds." 

"Alright, I can use the White form after we unload our DPS, but if our measurements are off, then I'm most likely dead."

"I can re-aggro and stun in case that happens," Ace replied.

"OK, let's try it then." 

Ace jumped into the fray, aggroing the boss with his taunt. Yoona, Aaron and Kuro circled around towards his back. They had to dodge a flurry of dashes and attacks, along with rocks the size of boulders that flew their way during this whole time. Every time the boss would wind up an attack that had a telegraphed landing, Ace would stun him.

Once they repositioned behind him, a crimson mark appeared on top of the Golem. It was his time to act. Aaron charged with a flurry of slash attacks, perfectly weaving his attacks. Yoona summoned a second lyre once again, and both of them glowed red. Every two seconds, the boss was stunned, giving the whole team ample time to deal damage.

Aaron looked at Ace, which was sweating at the sheer amount of resources he was using to keep the boss from turning around. Gabirol lifted his large hand and smacked Ace across the room. Ace tried his best to dodge, but his fatigue was finally catching up to him. A large amount of health was dealt with him, about sixty per cent of his health bar.

"Alright, now would be a good time to activate White." 

Yoona nodded.

Her White ability was the magnum opus of her skill tree. Aaron had read briefly what it did, but he hadn't registered how important the ability was until the white light that surrounded him gave him the Invulnerability tag. Kuro, on the other hand, anticipated as much and started focusing on activating the second portion of her Death Mark.

Behind her, a shadowy figure appeared from thin air and grew in size. Pitch black, shadowy smoke enveloped her until the figure grew to its true size behind her. Growing as large as Gabirol, it took the abhorred form of a Death Reaper holding an impossibly large scythe. Aaron realized the reason Yoona had to use White was that if Kuro took any damage during her channel time, it would've been cancelled. 

"Eat shit, you rat," Kuro swiped her assassin's blade from left to right in thin air.

The Reaper behind her mirrored her actions, swinging the massive Scythe. It was like the sky split in two, as the Scythe made a clean cut through the heart of the Golem. Its mana core shattered and disappeared, and the Golem crumbled into dust. Aaron realized he had been holding his breath the entire time, so he fell down from fatigue when he relaxed his muscles.

"Yes!" Ace yelled from across the room. He was also laying down, but he was excited, nonetheless. His health was looking pretty low, but that didn't stop his enthusiasm. Aaron looked towards the middle of the room, and a golden chest appeared from thin air. Yoona was the first to go towards the chest since Kuro and Aaron weren't in the position to do so.

"Good work, Kuro," Aaron complimented, "How long is the cooldown on that ability?"

"Twenty-four hours," She replied, "And, I pay a hefty fee."

"That is?"

"My health and mana are reduced by 50% for the duration. It's a curse that I can't remove."

"Shit," Aaron chuckled, "I think we should be good, though."

"Alright, good work everyone," Yoona congratulated, "Let's get out of here."