After the other players left the battlefield and officially entered spectator mode, Akimi and his group were indeed able to act more freely, adjusting their positions on the fly without worrying about the safety of others.
In short—it all came down to one thing: sometimes, a small elite team is far more effective than a large group of loosely coordinated fighters.
Of course, this wasn't to say that the rest of the raid team were rabble; they were among the top players in the game.
But compared to Akimi and his crew… they were somewhat lackluster.
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"Switch."
After using his shield to force open the Elemental Dragon's mouth, Heathcliff immediately followed up with a rising Cross Slash to its lower jaw, then calmly called out to Agil, who stood about two meters behind him.
As soon as he spoke, he retreated to avoid the boss's rain attack.
Agil then stepped forward, wielding his dual axes and executing an upper two-hit sword skill.
This both lifted the Elemental Dragon slightly into the air and inflicted some stagger.
He then shouted, "Switch!"
Immediately after, Akimi and Kirito charged in from Agil's left and right.
Each landed a slash to the dragon's neck before plunging their weapons into its body and running along its side toward the tail, carving two long wounds into its abdomen.
As the Elemental Dragon began to twist its body to attack them with its tail, Kibaou and Lind dashed forward and struck its tail with a scimitar and a longsword, interrupting the attack.
Simultaneously, Asuna raised her silver rapier beside her ear and activated her sword skill "Flash Pierce," delivering a pinpoint thrust to the dragon's left eye, forcing it to abort its half-charged lightning breath.
The precise coordination of all seven players had already reduced the Elemental Dragon's first HP bar by more than half.
Judging by this pace, just two more cycles like that would finish it off.
But of course, things weren't going to be that simple.
When the Elemental Dragon's HP dropped to its last tenth, it suddenly unleashed three rapid-fire breaths without charging, forcing the team to back off.
Then it took to the skies, flying up next to the main boss—
To a height of nearly fifteen meters above the ground.
At this height, no player could reach them—except Nezha, who used flying rings as weapons.
Once airborne, the boss and Elemental Dragon began carpet bombing the battlefield with ranged attacks, completely ignoring any sense of fairness.
This left Akimi's team frustrated—they had the strength, but now no way to use it.
And to make matters worse, the boss had started attacking the edge-of-battlefield spectators again.
The sudden strike caused a stir among the crowd.
While it didn't result in any deaths, more than half of the players had their HP reduced to around one-third.
Now, even Akimi's elite seven-man team was facing serious trouble.
Compared to the occasional attacks on the regular raid members, Akimi's side was being relentlessly bombarded—rain every three seconds, frost breath every five seconds, and the Elemental Dragon's breath attacks came one after another, with barely a second between them.
After narrowly dodging another blast, Kibaou gasped heavily and shouted through gritted teeth at Akimi, "Young master! You're the clever one, aren't you?! Think of something! At this rate, we're going to get worn down and die!"
What Kibaou said was true.
It had been almost an hour since the start of the raid, and the sustained high-intensity combat had drained everyone's stamina and focus.
If they kept grappling with the boss like this, they'd soon be too exhausted to even move.
But Akimi was at a loss too.
Even with all his buffs activated, his jump height barely exceeded four meters—far from enough to reach the boss.
While dodging and desperately searching for a way to break the deadlock, he unknowingly ended up near the wall.
"The wall… Wait! I've got it!"
Pressing one hand against the blue-black wall tiles, Akimi shouted, "Lure the Elemental Dragon toward the wall! Kirito, Agil, come over here! Asuna, the rest of you—try to keep the Elemental Dragon's movement range near the wall!"
The others didn't question him and immediately sprang into action.
The group attracted the Elemental Dragon's aggro and slowly pulled it toward Akimi's side.
After about two minutes, the dragon was near the wall.
"Kirito, you two have pretty high Strength stats. If you work together, can you throw me up about three meters?" Akimi asked seriously.
The two did a quick mental calculation, then nodded.
Kirito frowned. "You're planning to reach that height with our help? I don't think that'll be enough. Even if you somehow make it that high, won't you suffer massive fall damage on the way down?"
"Relax—" Akimi smiled confidently and said firmly, "I've got a 90% chance of pulling this off."
Seeing how certain he was, Kirito and Agil didn't hesitate any longer.
They crouched and cupped their hands together to form a foothold.
Akimi stepped onto their hands, his body tensing as he began building power.
"Three, two, one—go!"
At the end of the countdown, Kirito and Agil hurled Akimi upward with all their strength, and he leapt as well.
With their combined effort, he shot up to around seven meters in the air.
Watching him soar, Kibaou frowned and muttered, "Still not high enough."
Seeing the trio's move, Asuna and the others quickly guessed what they were attempting.
Below, Kirito pursed his lips and murmured, "This won't do either…"
But Akimi remained completely calm—just as he reached the peak of his ascent, he planted his feet against the wall, unleashed all his strength, and ran up six more steps, gaining over four meters in height.
On the final step, he kicked off the wall hard and launched himself toward the Elemental Dragon.
"Just a bit more… just a bit more!"
The players on the ground tensed up, some even shouting things like, "You got this, Young master!"
But Akimi's body began to descend, making everyone think he wouldn't make it.
However, Akimi was not the kind to act without confidence—he activated Water Breathing Eleventh Form: Suikuryuzan, closing the final gap between him and the Elemental Dragon.
The stream of water sliced through the dragon's body, taking away its remaining HP.
Seeing the Elemental Dragon die, Akimi let out a quiet breath of relief.
Just before hitting the ground, he used Water Breathing Second Form: Water Wheel to soften the impact from gravity, reducing his HP by only a quarter.
Still, after all that, his legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
"Perfect."
Nearby, Heathcliff slowly walked over, reached out a hand to pull him up, and said with a smile.
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