Cyclone turned around, knocking against the wall behind her and Balm with her fist, shouting towards her friends in the passenger compartment:
"Guys, get ready for a fight! And probably not an easy one!"
"Cyclone? What's going on?", asked Silver Blade, her voice loud but calm.
"Did you make a mistake?", came Silent Acacia's exasperated question.
"Ah... no I don't think so. This fight should be intentional."
"But it didn't occur in normal mode."
"Still..."
Cyclone fell silent. She couldn't be fully certain.
But in the end, it didn't matter. Balm tried to pull the lever, hoping for the cable car to turn around, but it didn't budge. The fight couldn't be avoided.
The cable car slowly closed in on platform number 1. Cyclone and Balm watched the three golems as they took position on the platform, their heads clearly following the cable car. They were two golems carrying crossbows and one carrying a hammer.
Suddenly the crossbow wielding golems raised their weapons. The red light in their eyes concentrated to a single beam, aiming for the cable car like a modern laser weapon.
Cyclone and Balm felt their bodies turn cold. A string snapped. A bolt shot through the air at an insane speed, looking incredibly menacing under the red light in the cave.
Watching the bolt Cyclone and Balm broke out in cold sweat. They were almost too afraid to react. They saw the bolt closing in and... miss the cable car narrowly.
The two women let out a sigh of relief. But the second attack followed quickly. The bolt aimed right for the party.
Now Cyclone and Balm realized how Golden Fang must have felt facing Liam's ballista in the guild war.
"Duck!"
Cyclone shouted anxiously as she dragged Balm to the floor with her.
Bang!
The entire cable car shook as if it was about to fall into the abyss. When Cyclone dared to look up, she found the projectile stuck halfway in the wall still vibrating strongly.
Cyclone and Balm shivered. They didn't dare to stand up again.
Luckily the enemies stopped firing after that. No one knew if it was because Cyclone and Balm had gone into hiding or for another reason, but the two women weren't bold enough to find out.
Soon, the cable car shook and then stopped. They had reached platform 1. Now they only needed to push the correct levers. But those were outside, where the golems were waiting to attack.
Indeed, the fight couldn't be avoided.
The party members arranged themselves as they opened the door letting Silver Blade and Radiant Shield step out first.
The male tank looked somewhat pale from the shaking car earlier but overall, he was fine. Perhaps he was slowly getting rid of his fear of heights.
When the tanks got off the cable car, they came face to face with the three bosses. Their menacing metal bodies were tinged in a red hue from the alarm continuously going off in the cave.
Silver Blade and Radiant Shield scanned them quickly, letting out a sigh in relief as they realized that all of the golems were of Lord rank. If there was a sub-boss among them the party would have been forced to waste a lot of time here.
But even so the fight wouldn't be easy. As the enemies were about to make a move the tanks knew they couldn't wait for the rest of the party to take position. They quickly initiated the fight.
Silver Blade approached one of the two crossbow wielders while Radiant Shield used his [A paladin's challenge] to attract the other two enemies.
Hammer and bolt clashed with shields causing conspicuous sounds as the fight erupted. The rest of the friends quickly left the cable car. Cyclone and Balm were a step slower, finally joining the fight.
The party began focusing the hammer-wielding golem. Without the ability to heal, its HP decreased rapidly. But so did the tanks' stance.
After a short exchange both sides took some initial damage. But this was when the golems began to use their skills, putting the party under immense pressure.
The hammer-wielding golem was still alright. His body spun quickly, attacking in all directions but the party members just had to dodge.
The crossbow attacks were way worse. They came from two sides, making it incredibly difficult to evade. Silver Blade tried to block the bolts but in the dim light she didn't see them clearly. She couldn't guarantee to block every attack.
Cyclone was just in the process of casting her ultimate skill when a bolt like a dark snake sneaked between the players and crashed into her waist.
"Ah!"
The mage let out a pained cry. More than half of her HP dissipated like smoke. Her concentration broke and she failed her cast.
"Damn sneak attacking rats!"
Silver Blade realized that the situation was unfavourable for them. She thought of a way to relief some pressure and activated [Aura of the Sloth]. The grey magic was almost invisible in the dim cave, but its effect was there, albeit greatly diminished.
The Lord ranked enemies didn't slow down as much as common enemies would. Their attacks were still a threat to the party.
A second later it only got worse when the hammer-wielding golem changed his tune, revealing the cannon in his chest. Simultaneously the crossbow golems began to lay mines. Everyone felt their scalps turn numb seeing this combination.
The hammer golem began to shoot waves of bullets forcing the party to dodge frantically. Due to the earlier pressure brought by the bolts they weren't positioned perfectly.
Fortune was once again caught in a wave, suffering heavy damage. Meanwhile Silent Acacia managed to dodge, only to trigger one of the mines.
Explosions and bullets filled with dark magic caused chaos among the friends. It wasn't surprising when Fortune was the first to die after being hit in the back by a bolt.
Subsequently the friends paid more attention to the crossbow attacks. They tried to anticipate the skills and evade in advance before it was too late.
But to no one's surprise this was quite difficult when mines and bullets posed a constant pressure. Quickly Watchful Eye fell as well. While constantly scanning his surroundings the taciturn man unfortunately got hit by the least dangerous skill, a swing from the melee golem's hammer.
The party's damage potential dropped, and the tanks ran out of stance. Now each hit gravely impacted their HP bars.
Balm kept the tanks alive with [Heal] and [Regeneration] but the cooldowns still held her back. Radiant Shield, focused by two enemies, could barely hold on.
Just then the hammer-wielding boss finally died. At the same time Balm's new robe came in clutch. Its effect triggered and reset the cooldown of [Heal].
Balm was overjoyed and immediately used the skill to save Radiant Shield. The goddess of fortune seemed to smile upon her as her robe's second effect triggered as well, spreading some of the healed amount to the other party members.
Like charcoal in the snow the magic brought new life to the party. Suddenly everyone was confident that they could win the fight.
Cyclone unleashed her ultimate. Lightning rained from the sky and paralyzed one of the enemies just as it wanted to use its skill. She bought the party a few more valuable seconds.
But just as before, when Silver Blade's [Aura of the Sloth] triggered did the enemy show a strong resistance to stuns. The golem freed itself after only a second. Fortunately, it continued with normal attacks instead of using its skill.
Yet the other golem's skill was still a big threat demanding the party's vigilance. Bloody Edge, Balm, and Silver Blade each got hit, suffering heavy damage. They took health potions and waited for one of Balm's AOE skills to come off cooldown.
Unfortunately, not all of them survived long enough. Bloody Edge tried to sneak behind the boss. The dim light obscured his vision. An explosion went off as he stepped into a mine. He never expected one of those to be behind the boss's back. But it was too late for regrets.
Now the party was missing three of their damage dealers. The fight became a viscous slugfest. But as long as Silver Blade and Radiant Shield survived there was still a chance.
The surviving party members focused on one enemy, chipping away at its HP. They progressed slowly but steadily.
For a while the golems also didn't use any skills for some reason. Only when one of them was about to fall did they retaliate again.
Liam's instincts screamed. He could feel two eyes locking onto his body. Even before the bolts left the crossbows, did he throw his body to the side.
His move was far from elegant. He groaned as he landed on the stone floor. Raising his head he realized that he wasn't far from the edge. One more meter and he would have been forced to endure a more than 10 meter drop before dying on the cave's floor.
He quickly calmed down his fluttering heart and stood up again, his indifferent face showing that everything was going according to plan.
Cyclone scrutinized him suspiciously, but her attention was quickly diverted when the golems released another round of bolts.