“I don’t think I can hold him much longer!” Jasmin shouted as she looked at the garage shutter. She had been casting Burning Hands, a spell that could be cast continuously so long as the caster was able to maintain the mana output and repeat the chanting in intervals.
A sheet of flames was emitted from her hands, strong enough to heat metal up to over a 100 degrees Celsius, Jasmin upheld that particular spell on Evil Santa as he tried to pull up the garage shutters up.
This caused him to drop the shutters continuously after withstanding a certain amount of damage from the burning attribute of the flames. After a few fruitless attempts, Evil Santa adapted and tried a different approach.
Jasmin did not know what exactly he did, but it didn’t sound like a physical punch or kick and felt more like metal hitting another piece of metal. Perhaps Evil Santa managed to find something to damage the shutters and all she could do was to prepare to cast a fire wall in order to delay Evil Santa for a bit longer after he freed himself from the underground garage.
The spectators outside, however, knew exactly what was happening. In fact, it had been quite the horrific sight to watch Evil Santa had gone over to one of his reindeers before twisting its neck. From the depths of the reindeer’s body, the gift giver drew a piece of metal that transmogrified into sledgehammer which he then proceeded to use as a tool to break the garage shutter.
No one was prepared for that, and everybody was shocked by Evil Santa’s brutality. Some claimed later that it was befitting of his boss raid name, but none of them expected that the Boss Raid Instance to be so real.
Most of the customers understood that the AI monsters in Jin’s dungeons were highly advanced but to read the situation and overcome the situation so quickly? (Although a customer did question if his AI was advanced, why he could not have used the front door instead? Obviously, that customer got silenced quickly by the masses to not speak ill bearing prophecies out.)
“I might start to think that Evil Santa is real and Boss Jin was the evil one kidnapping Santas!” One of the spectators exclaimed, and some resonated to the comment. Another customer added that Boss Jin was possibly the grinch who stole Christmas!
——-
At that point of time, Katerine had finally finished her Flame Wisp spell, and small balls of fire sprites flew to each one of the group members. The Flame Wisps increased their defence against the cold as the shamans concentrating on the sleigh had begun to show progress with signs of the wood starting to burn.
There were embers emerging despite the winter winds blowing furiously. When a fickle of fire was seen, the two offensive fire shamans, Nia and Shanice pushed their ball of fire towards the sleigh.
Instead of hurling it at the sleigh, they purposely put it near the sleigh so it could be heated and catch fire from the expanding fireball. To the fire shamans who dealt with fire on a constant basis during training, it was nothing to have a ball of burning sun at right beside them.
To their surprise, the winter winds were similar to the blizzards they were familiar with back in Germany, and this fireball ironically became their sphere of comforting warmth.
Only Bu Dong who was trying his best to cut the sleigh into pieces with his intermediate sword arts was affected by the scorching heat from the other side of the sleigh. If not for the damnable weather, he might have been burnt to death, but currently, he’d choose that over freezing to death every time.
Yet, that feeling was only temporary as soon after, Evil Santa finally broke a hole through the garage shutter. He peeled through the garage shutter with his right eye and the grudge in it was immensely palpable.
But what shocked the Fire Shamans after was the spur of action that Jasmin did subsequently.
She pounced forward and placed her hand into the hole in the garage shutters, holding on to Evil Santa’s face. “Tiw’s Burning Wall!!!” Jasmin yelled as her mana circuits went into overdrive and inserted the barriers of flames beyond the garage shutter.
Shimmering lights could be seen escaping the crevices of the shutters and the hole made by Evil Santa. There were even flames attempting to escape from those places as if to indicate how excessive the wall of fire was.
While Jasmin thought it was quite effective, she apparently underestimated the might of Evil Santa as she felt the grab on her wrist. The defensive fire shaman panicked but the more she struggled, the harder the vice like grip became with the monster behind the metal ‘thick’ sheet pulling her closer towards the hole.
Unwillingly, Jasmin was slammed into the metal wall and felt pain at her axilla as the metal protrusion from the hole that Evil Santa created, pierced into her flesh.
“Tiw’s Burning Wall!” This time, Jasmin used her prepared instant spell to try and get out of her terrible situation. The lights behind the shutters flashed even more intensely with smoke appearing from beneath the crevices.
Still, Evil Santa was not planning on letting her go at all.
“Bad, naughty children have to be punished!” For the first time, the group heard Evil Santa’s rambling. Even the spectators who had been casually watching were surprised by the sudden developments.
“Evil Santa can actually talk?” A bespectacled customer asked the question on everyone’s mind out loud and started to document the current scene with great detail.
“Jasmin!!!” Nia and Shanice watched their friend struggle against the metal wall, but Bu Dong called them back to their senses.
“FOCUS! You two are vital in making this sleigh burn! If we can’t manage to do that, the whole plan will fail. I’ll go rescue her instead!” Bu Dong said as he rushed in despite the fatigue he had accumulated with his past actions.
“Why am I working so hard when all they wanted was to defeat the second form…? Heck, we can be happy if we manage to pass the first form…” he thought to himself as he rushed down towards the slope where the garage doors were.
“… But this is just too exhilarating.” Bu Dong broke a slight smile as he looked at the impending danger.
