บท 57: The Battle with Argent Part I

Following the events that happened inside the Silver Moores dungeon when the scream was heard, every NPC and player who held the oracle job class received a divine message from the gods they have served regardless of affiliation. Even the hidden neutral powers have sensed her magic because she used a lot of her magical powers to conjure up a barrier that covered the Silver Moores which deterred other players from entering the dungeon but they would not move until they were directly threatened by this new power. Some players reported this as a bug when they posted on it online.

Church aligned with 'Good' Message:

[The banished Wailing Woman has finally been freed from her shackles. She will bring horror and unspeakable carnage towards this world. Put her to rest.]

Church aligned with 'Evil' Message:

[The banished Wailing Woman has finally been freed from her shackles. She will bring horror and unspeakable carnage towards this world. Entice her to join our cause.]

All the churches started sending out scouting teams to find the subject of the divine message. The various leaders of the churches even sent their elite team to find the subject of the divine message. A few seconds after the oracles received their divine messages, a world message occurred that shook the whole player base.

[ The Bringer of Death's Prophecy has sided with the Corruptants and regained her former glory and acquired forbidden power. Subjugate her to bring balance back to the world. If she ever reunites with the Corruptant followers, she would bring death to the inhabitants of this world.]

All player except the ones inside the Silver Moores dungeon heard the world message because Adrian and Marlon were under the effect of the Banshee's Scream skill which nullifies even the blessings of gods now that it was empowered by the Corruptants. Since Gods can barely influence the mortal plane, they appoint envoys and do not know if their voices reach them once they start to guide them using their words. The communication for god to their subject is like a pager which is only one way communication which the sender would hope that the receiver would get the message. This is the reason why Adrian and Marlon did not receive the divine message even though Adrian is the Champion of the twin gods and Marlon is a Child of Gaea.

The whole player base was excited because it seems that a world boss has appeared. All the guilds sent their finest trackers to find the location of the world boss. They even prepared for a guild war in case other guild find the world boss first. The top guilds started searching for the special names that were on the world message. Their players who had the Scholar sub job classes were assigned to dig up any info on what the Bringer of Death's Prophecy and the Corruptants was.

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Adrian and Marlon was about to charge the named NPC when a prompt appeared in front of them. It was a mini-quest. A mini-quest is a quest that only occurs inside a dungeon and is usually the clue in order to clear a part of the dungeon. Usually mini-quest would entail details like survive for 10 minutes or arrive at the next stage without using flight magic or flight related skills. The details of the mini-quests that the two received was quite bizarre because it was for fighting the Legendary Named NPC.

Urgent Mini-Quest!!!

1.) Disable the vocal ability of Argent

2.) Deal at least 10% of her Maximum Health Points towards Argent

Reward: Clearance of any Silver Moore related quest and 500% experience to all party members.

There were two mini-quests given to them which is why there are also two rewards. If this was a normal situation both Adrian and Marlon would be jumping for joy but it wasn't. They were told to shave 10% of her max HP which would not be difficult in a sense but why did the mini-quest detailed it like that. The mini-quest detailed it like that because it would be difficult to even shave some of her HP. It means dealing damage to her was difficult and possibly borderline impossible but the AI of the game does not give hopeless missions to players which is why it was only 10% HP to be dealt as damage because from the challengers standpoint and stats, they could at minimum deal 10% HP damage to Argent and 15% HP damage at best. The boons did not stop there though because another system prompt appeared before them.

[You have encountered an enemy individual who has higher Persona than you. All stats have been boosted by 50% and skill cooldowns have been reset.]

The best friends were thankful for the power up and cooldown reset. Adrian looked fearful while Marlon was bewildered on what was the meaning of higher Persona. The party could not have reprieve because Argent started to move.

Argent suddenly started mumbling words that are reminiscent of the olden runic language. Barriers started materializing around her body. She stopped until there were three layers of transparent barriers erected upon her. It seems that although she became a Legendary Named NPC, she has not yet reached the peak of her strength which is why Adrian had an inkling of hope they could finish the mini-quest. Adrian whispered to Sirius' ear on what his main task was while he ordered Kanlaon bring hellfire to Argent.

Marlon was once again casting the Blessing of Gaea skill that decreases percentage HP which would really help them of their problems while Adrian used Assault Charge and made spacemines to envelop Argent. When Adrian made contact with the barrier he was in disbelief because....

[You have dealt 107 damage to Argent's First Barrier of the Triple Barriers. Remaining health of barrier till first barrier is broken 567/1000]

He only dealt 107 damage to the barrier using his skill. Even Kanlaon's breath attack only dealt 40-50 damage per second to it. He even tried detonating some of the spacemines and was shocked by the damage.

[You have dealt 273 damage to Argent's First Barrier of the Triple Barriers. Remaining health of barrier till first barrier is broken 167/1000]

Adrian detonated four spacemines and only dealt that much damage considering that he had magic penetration. A smile was seen on the face of Argent when he saw Adrian's look of disbelief and she even spoke mockery.

"You and I are not on the same league demon. Even your giant lizard could not harm me."

Adrian did not even listen to Argent's ramblings and started bashing on the barrier but he only dealt around 20- 30 damage. Argent was pleased of the suffering look of the demon who mocked her as he continued bashing on the barrier that she conjured. She was enjoying the sight when she noticed a pool of divine energy being collected by the elf that was in league with the demon. She was a bit threatened by the amount of holy power that the elf was pooling. She then did her signature move to stop the elf from completing his spell. She screamed so loud that Adrian had to cover his ears while he was blown away by the sonic wave that came from Argent. All the magic that was cast and being cast was destroyed or disrupted. Even Adrian's Quantum Spacemines shattered like glass due to the power of the scream.

Skill: Banshee's Scream (Corrupted)

Tier: Legendary

Effect: Destroys magic formations and disrupts magic that is being cast while damaging enemies in a cone by 1000% of miasma gathered. All those who hear the scream of a banshee cannot get blessings or any other divine intervention would be rendered useless for a few seconds.

Cooldown: Unknown

Cast Time: Voice Activated

Mana Cost: Unknown

Both Adrian and Marlon's ears were ringing due to the intense sonic attack that they were hit. Adrian's HP directly went below 50% while Marlon's HP was reduced by 30%. That one attack terrified both of them because they were like paper when they were hit. Even if Marlon was not near Argent, he still receive tons of damage. Argent stopped screaming and started laughing when she saw the terror on her aggressors faces. Kanlaon managed to recover and started unleashing his breath attack once again but this did not stop Argent's laughing. She did not even feel that a demon wolf cast his skill Phantom Rush on her area. Sirius moved in the grayed area with ease like no one could hinder him. There Sirius was liberated from the shackles of the world and bypassed the barriers that Argent put up.

[Sirius dealt 300 damage to Argent Soulscreech]

[Sirius dealt 260 damage to Argent Soulscreech]

[Sirius dealt 317 damage to Argent Soulscreech]

[Sirius dealt 292 damage to Argent Soulscreech]

....

Sirius managed to attack Argent about 30 times in the time frame of 5 seconds and deal 11,645 damage to her. What's more he managed to hit her throat a bunch of times and even afflicted the bleed status on her.

"You vermin!" Argent screamed as she suddenly targeted Sirius with curses as she tried healing herself but Adrian saw differently. Adrian now finally burned with hope that they could actually do this.