Afterlife Dream

"System will send the third wave of guards~"

The cheery robotic voice was rather annoying, but I had other things to worry about. I leaned into DragonTalon.

"How big are these scorpions?" I asked.

"About as big as the red ants," he answered.

I went pale.

I had never seen a scorpion in real life. I only knew what they looked like from the internet. The internet had the habit to present things from various perspectives. For example, taking close-up pictures of scorpions. Whenever I looked at their supersized pictures, I got a chill running down my spine. There was something about their pincers and curved tail that greatly terrified me. Red ants as big as human beings were awful enough, but I was not that terrified of them because, duh, ants. I saw them every day. They were tiny. And relatively harmless. What about scorpions? Scorpions hurt a lot more than ants.

My eyes darted around nervously as the scraping sound of bodies against sand came closer and grew increasingly louder. And then, the first row of palm trees that surrounded us were cut in half and the logs fell in our direction. I almost fainted when the scorpions showed up. They were black with gleaming, robust-looking bodies. The pincers were as long as a normal player's height. They clicked dangerously at us. The tails wagged in our direction, the sharp stingers directly visible.

As usual, the guards did not make any movement until their leader appeared and ordered the ambush.

The scorpions were indeed the biggest challenge of all three waves. Our circular formation was quickly torn apart as we were all busy warding off three or more scorpions that came to attack each of us. The scorpions were additionally very aggressive and they knew how to use their weapons to their advantage. To put it in a simpler term, we were facing opponents that each attacked us with three weapons at the same time.

The only player who was still at ease was the Assassin, who again turned invisible, stood to the side, and attacked the scorpions stealthily. The second player who had an advantage against the scorpions was DragonTalon, who summoned a Fire Shield around him. The Fire Shield burned the scorpions that dared to approach. With the shield around him, DragonTalon could attack at ease.

Seeing that these two teammates could deal with the scorpions well, I focused on the other three who were having a lot of difficulties.

The Axe Master was quickly overwhelmed. The axe was strong but also heavy. While he raised up his axe to take a swing, the scorpions were already going for his neck and limbs. His only consolation was the thick armor that he wore.

The Aladdin and the Crossbow Master both only wore light armor so they were evidently more vulnerable to the scorpions' attack. The good thing about the Aladdins was their super speed. He moved like a whirlwind among the scorpions and landed one attack after another before the scorpions could even blink. If scorpions did blink, I mean.

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The Crossbow Master had the biggest problem. In order to use his weapon, he had to first whack the scorpions away and then shoot at them. That did not work too well because more than one scorpion approached him at the same time. As soon as he whacked one away, the other two came to attack him. In the end, he was busy whacking the scorpions with the crossbow and did not get to take a shot at all.

I gritted my teeth. I gave everyone Divine Guard and healed once, then I cast Spiritual Meteor and Prayer again and again. These two skills were weak, but they were enough to immobilize the monsters when the attack took place. The scorpions thus froze on the spot and the Crossbow Master had time to shoot at them with his crossbow.

"Thanks, Antares!" he shouted happily.

"Yeah, no prob," I said.

The third wave took most of our time. After the last scorpion died and broke into a thousand pieces, another conversation took place between the robotic voices.

"Oh no. System, the guards have all been defeated by the intruders! Please send reinforcement!"

"Beep... beep... beep... System responds by sending General Aardvark to the frontline."

A path opened up ahead of us.

"Dear Adventurers, please head northward to meet with General Aardvark."

I nudged DragonTalon while walking.

"How dangerous is this general?"

DragonTalon shrugged.

"The Queen Spider has lots of generals. I haven't met this one before."

The Axe Master was the one who answered me.

"It is an aardvark. Beware of its uncoordinated attacks."

...

I wanted to ask how to ward off uncoordinated attacks, but we already arrived in front of General Aardvark. It was indeed an aardvark. It looked rather adorable with a huge pig-like snout and two beady eyes.

Its back and chest were covered in light armor, but otherwise, it looked pretty defenseless. It did not even have a weapon. I looked at the tensed faces around me. It should be a stroll in the park with the six of us, no?

I could not be more wrong.

It did not take long for me to understand why General Aardvark wore only light armor around its upper body. It was because everything else on him was a bunch of lethal weapons that were usable in a battle.

It rushed at the Axe Warrior and pounced at him with a hand full of sharp, long claws.

"Ugh!"

The Axe Warrior barely managed to stop it with his raised axe. The aardvark followed up with a kick in his stomach, making him slide ten meters away and crumpled into the ground like a useless heap of armors.

"!!!"

I quickly rushed to him to heal him up. He lost half an HP bar from that one attack. When I turned my attention to the boss again, I saw it kicking my teammates left and right. One by one, they lay on the ground while groaning from pain.

And then, it turned its head at the only standing player. Me.

I could almost see his beady eyes twinkling with excitement before its body turned blurry as it charged in my direction with full speed. I was frozen on spot, unable to move at all.

"Antares, watch out!!!"

The next second, I tumbled to the ground and the Axe Master stood where I was, holding his axe against the aardvark. The axe and the aardvark were not touching directly. The axe was surrounded by a golden aura and it was blocking the aardvark's attack. Not only that, the aardvark's beady eyes turned empty. It was still pushing against the axe vigorously, but it seemed to be confused about its own action.

It was Axe Stun, one of Axe Masters' Skills. It confused the opponent and made it vulnerable to attacks.

"GUYS! WILL YOU PLEASE DO SOMETHING?!! I CAN NOT DO THIS THE WHOLE DAY!!!"

One by one, my teammates rose to their feet and started to attack the stunned aardvark.

By the time it regained its consciousness and wanted to fight back, it was too late. We abandoned all of our fear and fought ferociously. The boss was down to 20% HP before it suddenly started to dig underground, splashing us with sand and mud.

"Puh! Pfft! Where the hell did he go?" DragonTalon shouted while spitting out the sand in his mouth.

We looked around in bewilderment.

The Assassin went invisible for precaution, and the others prepared to attack. There was no sign of the aardvark after it went inside the ground.

"Wait, listen," the Aladdin said.

There was a rumbling sound that came from underground.

"Where is he?" DragonTalon whispered.

I shook my head. The sound seemed to come from one direction next, only to appear from another. I could not pinpoint its exact location. Judging from the confusion on the others' faces, they also had the same problem.

We only knew that the sound was growing louder and louder. I cast Mana Guard on myself and shouted, "Spiritual Meteor!!!" about one second before the aardvark broke from the ground.

Not to mention the low skill level, the meteors naturally did not damage the boss much, but it was enough to attract his attention and enrage him. As expected, he pounced at me as soon as he resurfaced. Meanwhile, my teammates were already in position. They attacked him before he even managed to touch the end of my robe.

It was not the longest boss battle that I had, but it felt like hours. When General Aardvark's HP bar finally went to zero and exploded mid-air, we all cried with joy and then slumped to the ground.

"Congratulations on defeating General Aardvark! Adventurers, you have successfully completed the Paradise Island Party Quest. Please come back again to defend Paradise Island from the Queen Spider's threats!"

"What now...?" I asked my teammates, lying on the ground with my limbs sprawled in all directions.

"Next is the Coconut Cutting Competition," the Crossbow Master answered me while panting heavily.

...

What...?