As much as Faust would like to stay and test himself against the Hunter, he didn't have enough time. And he wasn't very sure he could win anyway.
But as he got up to leave, a new enemy joined the fray and Faust froze.
A giant red spider with eight crimson eyes that displayed a strange intelligence crawled over the trees, watching the Mage Hunter.
[Velvet Arachne]
[Level 6]
[Combat Power: 796]
[Details: A puppeteer that controls an army of Rock Spiders built over time. They also employ some mental hexes. The longer it is given to grow its army, the more dangerous it is.]
Faust read that description and observed the opportunity in front of him for a silent second. It was a bad idea. He was already late for the Beast Tide. But this was an ideal chance to third party two powerful enemies. And the longer he waited the harder the Velvet Arachne would be to hunt.
He sighed. "Why do such good opportunities come at the worst times." Then a wicked smile lit up his face.
Let's see what we can do.
The battle between the two higher level creatures was slow and meticulous. The Mage Hunter was outright more powerful, but he couldn't get around the swarm of Rock Spiders.
Some of the Rock Spiders bit at the Mage's Hunter, but each time a rippling shroud of energy repelled them.
It can shoot two of those concussive blasts every ten seconds…. Then there's that strange movement skill and the shield skill. It can use that maybe every five seconds based on.
The beetle flickered from place to place, not allowing the Spiders to surround it. Then it unleashed two blasts; one to flatten the Rock Spiders into dust, and the other at the Velvet Arachne.
But it always missed the queen of the swarm barely.
The Velvet Arachne didn't even bother moving when the Mage Hunter attacked. Its eyes were focused on tracking the rapid enemy.
The way it controlled the spiders was beautifully strategic.
The swarm moved in formation, a cruel coordination that didn't let the Mage Hunter escape, but also didn't let it use that movement skill to get near the queen.
Horus analysed the fight for nearly ten minutes before he came to two realisations about how the skills of each monster worked.
The Mage Hunter always disappeared backward, never at the enemy, even when there were some openings. It wasn't a skill made for attacking, but rather retreating!
And for his second enlightenment, Faust was sure now that the Mage Hunter wasn't missing the Velvet Arachne because its aim was bad.
Rather he suspected that one of the Mental Hexes his appraise mentioned was being used by the Velvet Arachne to trick the Hunter.
So the things I have to be worried about are: Whether the Mage Hunter's Cannon skill has been used twice, and not letting the Velvet Arachne use that Mind Hex on me.
There was also the swarm of thousands of Rock Spiders, but we don't talk about them. On a more serious note, Faust wondered if he could swing past them and get to the queen.
No. That won't work. I'll be too open.
Okay. Faust decided that he would win this by betting on a losing dog.
The Mage Hunter.
The beetle monster was the weaker party here. The Queen was smarter, had enough minions prepared, and was just a bad match for the simpler Mage Hunter.
Whoever made this thing and named it Mage Hunter is a clown. It's only strong against direct damage mages with no evasion skills.
But it could still be useful.
Faust relocated to a farther position from either of the two. It wasn't a good vantage point, but he used Observe to mark both enemies so he could track them. He raised his hand.
Fireball!
The dark world lit up around him. He imbued it with mana, testing the limit of how much he could scale it.
Spells were different from Skills in a way. With something like Dash or Stealth, the structure of the skill was inside his body, meaning how well the skill worked depended on how well he understood his body.
But Fireball was different. When he used it he felt the skill structure emerge from within him and hover over his palm. Then he filled the structure with magic.
But it was like drawing within the lines of a picture book. If he overfilled the structure the mana would leak out and waste. And if he filled carelessly, drew outside the lines, more mana would waste into the air.
So yes, the distance and strength of the spell scaled with mana. But you had to spend time, and sometimes waste mana, to fully fill the structure and unleash the increased might of the spell.
Faust smiled as the flame bloomed over his palm, growing bigger and bigger slowly. He couldn't deny that magic was freaking cool despite the need to be careful.
He watched the monsters, both highlighted purple in the distance. The Mage Hunter's cooldown for the cannon attack was about to end. The Velvet Spider was surrounding it again; it would force the Hunter to use one shot on the swarm.
But Faust wouldn't allow that.
He aimed upward and drew the parabola his fireball would take in fight to aim his attack. For these kinds of things you just have to trust your hand-eye coordination.
After adjusting his hand a little, he released the spell.
The spell rose high into the air then curved downwards silently. Like a streaking star in the dark sky.
BOOM!
Faust had underestimated the force of the fireball he had taken his time to create. A massive plume of fire rose into the air, swallowing both the Rock Spiders he aimed at and the Mage Hunter unintentionally.
But the Hunter was not without tricks. Its body, still highlighted within the flames, moved like nothing was happening. It closed in on the queen and fired two of those concussive shots, before retreating in a blur.
Faust heard the Hunter's attacks rather than saw it. The forest trembled with two heavy blows. The trees, and even the billowing flames and smoke of the explosion, were pushed back by the force of the attack.
The smoke washed over Faust in his tree and a smile tugged at his lips when he saw the Velvet Arachne retreating shakily.
She was hit.
He got down from his tree and skulked away. Constant relocation was important for artillerists. The Velvet Arachne was smart; it would send some spiders to find out what happened.
He repeated this routine a couple times. Each time refining how the fireball was created and his aim.