Mantle of the Gods [LitRPG / Slow Burn / FTB Harem]

No one made a sound.

I had been expecting some banter from Aelin, especially after earlier, but the argument with Astrid had silenced anyone from derailing Trent's evaluation.

"Green team also said to bring air elemental skills, blunt weapons for the Hitter, and to utilize Soften to make the bosses easier to damage. In addition, they proposed getting barbed anchors for the Shooter and possibly the Hitter to lock the Bosses in place." Trent raised an eyebrow, "Aelin, why did you think that the monsters in the Temple Dungeon would be susceptible to poison?"

The blonde stiffened a little. "There's always a flaw. I didn't think burning or bleeding would work on something that solid, but thought that if we needed to soften its defenses, then maybe acid would work, which would mean it could be poisoned?"

"A decent train of thought, but unfortunately, that isn't the status effect that the Temple bosses are weak to." Trent put an image of the Rock Wurm in the middle of the hall.

"The burrowing attack is the most dangerous, because it will try to swallow its target and as the Blue Team guessed, it does clear taunt when it goes underground." Trent looked over at me. "Water can flush it out early, but the most effective thing to use is one of these." He pulled a trident out of his CB. "A sound fork. It emits vibrations into the ground. The moment that the Rock Wurm tries to burrow, it'll abort it this is in the ground. You don't want to just plant it though because it will pull the taunt from your Tank, which makes it a good weapon for them to carry." He looked over at Aelin. "Chains will work better than binding, but the better option in that regard is to use Root, targeting the rocky body instead of the ground. Accelerate it with Growth and you can spread the roots into the floor and lock the Wurm into place."

"For the Rock Lizard…"

"What status effect is effective against the Temple bosses?" I interrupted Trent without raising my hand. "You said poison wasn't the one to use, but didn't say which one was."

"Paralysis." Trent smiled.

There was a part of me that wondered if he had intentionally left it out to see if one of us would ask him.

"Anything else?" The white-haired man eyed the room, "Good. For the Rock Lizard, the one thing that neither group picked up on is that it can climb." The monster in the middle of the hallway shifted into the Rock Lizard. "It will do this when it uses its gravel breath, which will hit a very large area." The illusion jumped onto the ceiling and blasted at the floor. "During this phase, melee will be useless and depending on where the Tank is, a good portion of the room will get hit." He eyed us, "There is also the danger of it pouncing at the end of the breath attack." The illusion jumped off the ceiling and landed on the floor, but in a belly flop instead of on its feet.

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"This can seriously hurt your Tank if they are caught directly under it." Trent looked at Ether, then Shelly. "The problem is that it will jump the moment it stops breathing, which means you need to be ready to move, while also putting distance between it during the breath phase."

Trent looked at Oz, then moved to Fray. "Since the Hitters will be unable to damage it, the usual method to deal with these types of monsters is to have them plant stakes in the ground, then for the tank to move towards the stakes and…" The monster jumped back up on the ceiling and three sharp metal stakes appeared in the floor. The Rock Lizard jumped down again and impaled itself.

"Once it's been trapped like this, it's just a matter of the Tank holding its attention, while the rest of the damagers take off its head." Trent had the Rock Lizard flip over. "If you're lucky, one of the stakes will break the core, which is here." The crystal between the front legs lit up.

"The Rock Climber's boss room is the first time these teams have seen anything other than a clear level floor." The floor of the hall began to sprout rocks. "As you get deeper, the boss rooms will start to get more unique and begin to favor environments that aid the boss." Trent pointed at the rock covered goat monster that was bouncing from rock to rock. "The Rock Climber is very agile, and will still bounce around even while taunted, but if the Tank loses line of sight…" He looked at the Tanks.

"It breaks out of Taunt and will attack the closest person." Ether finished for him.

"Exactly." Trent pointed at the highest rock. "One strategy is to have the Tank climb on the highest point so that they can't lose line of sight since the only time the Rock Climber gets off the rocks is if it attacks a person who is on the floor. Can anyone tell me the flaw with this plan?"

"If the Tank taunts it before they start climbing, then they're going to get hit while they're unable to defend themselves." Ether leaned forward to look at the floor layout better. "If they wait to taunt it until they're in position, then the boss will attack the others, who can't defend themselves as well."

"Exactly. So..?" Trent motioned at the floor.

"Paralysis." I decided to try the hint from earlier. "Find a place where the Tank can see everyone, then make it come to us and paralyze it." I looked at Ether, "Then we root it in place?"

"Sadly, root won't work on the Rock Climber and neither will chains or stakes. They're quite limber and can eat through anything." Trent shook his head, "Also, paralysis becomes less effective and takes longer to trigger each time. For this boss, it will only work for three times before it will barely stagger it."

Trent folded his arms in front of him, "As far as which team planned out the fight better, I'd say it was about even. Flooding the Rock Wurm out does make it attack early, but it still does its burrowing attack. Chaining it down does keep it from burrowing, but requires a lot of setup for something this large. If you're not able to stop it from burrowing the first time, you pretty much lose your chance for the rest of the fight because the chains you've already applied will be destroyed." He tapped his fingers on his arm. "And neither team picked up on the nuances of the second or third boss."

No one said anything. I wasn't sure if he was waiting for a question, but if he was, no one asked it.

Trent dismissed the image of the boss room in front of us. "Let's move on to the Dispatcher's Dungeon."