"This isn't good, Antares, it's grown more than I expected." Artemis uttered, her words creating more than a few tinges of fear among the group.
It was then, the very next moment after she spoke, Antares noticed them… all of them. It responded to their arrival with a roar that shook the air, beat upon one's chest, and rattled one's bones.
Artemis being a goddess, was the first to recover from the fear. Followed by Ottar, who drew his blades and charged to the front, just in time to block what would have been a death blow to basically anyone else, save for maybe Gareth.
Ottar's expression, usually stoic, serious, calm, and utterly stagnant… changed. He was struggling to hold Antares tentacle back with everything he had, a drip of blood rolled from the corner of his mouth…
In his struggle, he forced his way through, activating his beastification, finally gaining a slight upper hand, pushing with a sudden force, sending the tentacle careening across the large open room, and slammed right into a bunch of spawning eggs. His breathing was erratic, soft at times, and heavy at other times, yet even still, he stood at the front, rapidly hitting back each of the tentacles. Every single muscle groaned under the pressure, his bones slowly fracturing bit by bit, not enough to break yet, but enough that he could feel each and every one of them.
Next to recover was Hedin, and he didn't wait for any orders, Finn was out of commission from the fear roar still, so he took charge.
"HILDIS VINI!"
"I CAN'T"
"Laurus Hildr!" Hedin cast his super buff upon Ottar. Thankfully this works on him. Otherwise we'd have a serious problem… A really serious problem. Hell, we still might. There's no way we can beat this with just Ottar.
Ottar was surrounded in the lightning armor, granting him a bigger boost to his strength and speed, he was no longer straining under the pressure, and went on the attack. He ran forward, and with a massive leap, he landed right in front of Antares, it was here he could tell, Antares was about twice the size of Goliath, or any other similarly sized monster rex.
"Not good." He spoke, while he challenged the monster forcing it to keep all of its attention on him.
Finally, after the fight had already begun, the rest of the attack group recovered, Loki and Freya familia members managing a recovery without the aid of a deity's influence, but in the case or Rethusa and the other members of Artemis familia, they were finally coming out of their terror with their goddess' aid. Albeit, a highly limited aid, to avoid spawning more revulsion class monsters.
Finn shook his head, and readied his spears, he activated his command call, and spoke. "Gareth! Jump down and give us some rocky terrain to use. Allen, run interference, and harass Antares from behind, interrupting his attacks to create opportunities."
"Aye, sounds like fun." Gareth laughed, and jumped into the fray, when he landed… "EARTH RAID!" a crater formed along with a mess of chaotic spikes, platforms and free roaming stones flew in various directions eliminating several monster spawning locations.
"Fine, I guess that spell isn't that bad." Allen said, clicking his tongue, but opted to follow the order. "I'm only doing this cause I would have done it anyway!"
Finn ignored the comment, and continued giving orders, pulling out a magic potion and tossing it to Hedin, who promptly downed the whole thing in a single gulp. "Hedin, once you recover, use your magic to interrupt attacks, or target openings."
"Yeah, that's what I was going to do."
"Dain, Noir, keep the paths clear of any monsters, do not let another monster into this room. Bara, charge in whenever you have an opening, destabilize Antares' stance whenever possible."
"That's a tall order, mister slave driver. Can't say I don't like it though." Bara laughed, and jumped down to join in the assault.
"Damn, wishing we'd leveled up already." Dain groaned.
"It can't be helped, I for one am not going to let a monster get by me." Noir laughed.
"I bet I'll kill more than you."
"That's a good one, you're on. The loser buys a round of the good stuff." Noir said right as he ran off to claim his spot.
"Oi! You bastard, I'm going to get ya for cheating like this." Dain grumbled and ran to the other location monsters were quickly moving in.
"Artemis familia, I know little of your abilities, so just do your best to keep the field clear, and stay out of the way. Help Dain and Noir out. Lady Artemis happy hunting." Finn gave his final order and left for the combat below.
"Captain! What about us?" Some Loki members questioned.
"Idiots, get out of here, and clear the tunnels of monsters wherever they may be. Destroy the monster eggs whenever possible. And stay out of the way. Antares is above level 8…" Hedin said finishing the remaining orders as his magic potion finally kicked in, restoring a substantial portion of his magic.
"Lante, prepare your healing magic, and use it the moment Hedin tells you to cast it. Stay out of sight otherwise." Rethusa ordered, then turned to the rest of her familia. "We're going to clear out the remaining monsters inside this false dungeon. And you, go see everyone outside, and escort them here once they finish up."
The fight had begun, and it was clear at a glance that the Tsugunai assault team was not having a good time.
Ottar and Gareth were both struggling under the pressure, and sheer weight of Antares' blows.
Allen, and Bara were hardly doing any damage, but what was worse… Antares healed everything the pair of them did almost instantly.
Finn was watching and waiting… He gave orders when needed, and all while he was preparing something else, something he had no real test in pulling off. In other words, it would be the first time he'd ever pull it off, assuming he would…
Dain, and Noir were both already covered in sweat, and buried in monster carcasses. Each of them strained every bit of their abilities, skills, and even experience.
Hedin, having recovered quite a bit of mind now, from the position, prepared a flurry of spells cast all of them, creating an intermittent rain of lightning upon Antares, and the occasional stray monster. He'd occasionally get lucky and hit right into a still open wound, doing a little bit more damage than normal…