The second boss was much more difficult than the first one because there wasn't any shortcut strategy the group could follow but since Liam's damage output had considerably increased, the fight was progressing somewhat smoothly.
Several rings of fire burned brightly on the ground and every time the serpent crossed these spots, it received multiple dot damages.
And since the majority of mechanics of this boss relied on its fast movement and tunneling underground and popping out of nowhere, it easily got itself stuck in the numerous rings of fire.
The players also found it difficult to not get caught in these rings but since the vulcan serpent's speed was a lot faster, it received the most damage.
Before it could tunnel down for the 10th time, its health was already close to zero and Liam finished its last bits of health as well by using strong [Lightning Bolts].
Thud! The huge demon fell onto the ground lifelessly.
"It's dead?" Someone said, looking at the corpse in front of them. They couldn't believe that it was finally over.
The entire fight was completely chaotic and it felt as if all they did was run around. Yet no not a single player had died.
They had all heard that a good healer can carry a team but this was the first time they were witnessing it.
What a high level skill! If they all had that skill, perhaps the fight would have been over a lot sooner!
The person everyone was looking at, Mia, silently walked over and picked up the two items near her feet. She then went to Liam and gave him the two.
Luna dashed around and brought over the other two drops. This boss had actually given out 4 drops which were very generous.
Liam looked at the first two which were once again weirdly cut gems. They in fact looked similar to the previous one.
Seeing this, he immediately looked at Mia and asked, "What is your quest in these ruins? Is it progressing?"
Mia shook her head. "We need an item. Probably the last boss drops it."
"What item?"
"High-priestess staff." She then relayed the full description of the quest.
"Apparently one of the divine temple's students had stolen the high-priestess staff but because of the negative feelings became vulnerable to demonic possession."
"The quest is to retrieve that staff and kill the traitor."
Liam nodded. "It seems like a pretty straightforward quest. Were you only waiting because this was a high-level dungeon?"
Mia smiled. "Yes. For the dungeon. Also, this quest is an S-grade chain quest."
"Alright." Now Liam understood and surprisingly he also took out the three gems that had dropped so far from these two bosses. "You should take these. I am pretty sure you need them."
"Oh." Mia accepted it. When she held those gems, she could vaguely feel divine element within them so what Liam said made sense.
She glanced at the guy who was already busily inspecting the next two drops. With her SSS affinity even she had missed this obvious clue, how did he find out?
Mia softly sighed. When compared to others, she might be called talented but when compared to real monsters like him, she still had ways to go.
She silently retreated back replaying the fight just now to see how she could improve more.
The next two drops were both bracelets, nothing special, just items just gave a considerable stat bump.
But bracelets were always coveted drops because, with the right ones, a player would be able to stack five or even six bracelets on each hand.
Liam took the one that gave +10 intelligence for himself, giving the other one that gave +10 strength to Alex.
"Are you sure?" Alex didn't think that she would get any, but Liam shrugged.
They still had to get through the next boss and the last boss and it was important to bring up the group's level or at least key players' level so that things would go smoothly.
After taking a 5 minute breather, the group cleared the next few mobs of vulcans and headed further inside the ruins.
The third boss was waiting for them there and it was a winged vulcan demon with red eyes and ten horns.
Just seeing it from a distance was extremely scary. This had to be the ugliest but also the scariest boss they had seen!
"Everyone focus your attacks on the horns. We need to take out the horns before the health of the boss drops down to 50%." Liam nodded at Alex to start the fight.
She paused for a moment and considering what Liam had said, this time she used both [Shield Toss] and [Judgement Strike] together to start the fight, directly aiming for one of the horns.
The heavy item banged against the sturdy horn, producing a loud clanging sound, followed by what sounded like a crack.
"Good job! Everyone! Focus on that horn first." Liam shouted and started attacking. The others also followed his orders and not even a second later, the first horn was already down.
The group then started focusing on the remaining horns just as Liam mentioned.
As the fight progressed, they could see that this was not the most effective way to attack the vulcan because the horn for some reason had a higher defense than the rest of the demon's body.
However, Liam's lead had given them fast clears on both the bosses so they didn't question his tactics. Besides, no one had any alternative plans to suggest.
The boss health only slowly dropped while the group already hacked away the sixth horn. At this point, the vulcan seemed enraged and began jumping around in a frenzy.
"Everyone watch its eyes. If it is looking at you, move immediately!" Liam shouted.
Luckily his warning was on time and the group was able to narrowly escape the tantrums of the boss.
However, while moving around constantly, they were no longer able to focus and target only the horns and their attacks landed everywhere.
This brought down the demon's health even lower, almost close to 60%. However, there were still three more horns left.
"Everyone stop attacking," Liam shouted again. At this rate, they were not going to make it. It was best to wait for the boss to stop jumping around so much and then target the horns again.
However, that was easier said than done because the vulcan was not making it easy for them.
It had a huge club in its hand and using the gust of wind from its wings, it moved with incredible agility. Everyone was only barely escaping the fate of being crushed into a pop tart.
As if this was not enough, because they stopped attacking, the demon's health was once again going back up.
It looked like this fellow had a little bit of passive regeneration and his health was already back to 65%.
