It is bad.

“What is happening?” Rave asked, worry and excitement missing in her voice. Thick shadows bubbled from the floor and gathered in one spot, creating a swirling mass of darkness that flowed through the trees. It continued its movements absorbing other, smaller streaks of darkness. “It says a boss monster spawned, a spectre.” John said while watching the darkness gather far above their heads. “And that we can’t escape until it’s dead.”

“Let’s get to it then.” Rave concentrated light in her fist and threw it like an explosive. The light was consumed by the black void upon impact. “So much for that.” She muttered. Ripples went through the darkness. A face peeled from it. A hideous face without eyes or hair, opening it’s toothless mouth wide it screamed. The scream of a being that only wanted to kill those living. It pressed down on their ear drums as the Spectre finally manifested, darkness ripping apart like a cocoon, revealing the green translucent body inside. John used Observe.

‘Oh great, there are elites in this game’ Was John’s first thought. Rave’s first thought was a bit more sensible. “Dodge!” She screamed and tackled him, causing both of them to fall to the side a few metres over as the Spectre crashed into the forest floor where they had just stood. It grabbed after them with its long fingers, each four gnarly joints the last one a claw.

Rave blasted the hand with a wave of light and heat. John saw her mana rapidly decrease as she did but the hand was pulled back as the Spectre, with a cascade of primal, angry noises, used its hand to protect its hollow face from the light. John jumped on his feet and helped Rave do the same as they quickly put some distance between themselves and the Spectre. “This is bad.” John stated the obvious with a glance over his shoulder. Blinded by the attack, the Spectre thrashed around, wood creaked and splintered as the nearby trees were broken by its rage.

“You don’t say.” Rave answered, despite the situation she seemed to have fun. John threw out a few Mana Power Attacks, they hit their mark but didn’t seem to cause damage at all. They hid inside a natural trench, John breathing heavily while Rave kept hers controlled. “This is exciting.” She smiled at him. “It is level 25 and Elite, whatever that exactly means.” John whispered back, way less happy about the situation. “We might die here.” “Well, if we do there is no use in being worried about it.” Rave rolled her shoulders as she watched her own mana regenerate. It did so rather quickly to John’s surprise.

“So, Gamer, what is our plan here?” The sound of the Spectre’s thrashing had ceased, it was on the move again. “Can you do that flash attack repeatedly?” He asked. The Spectre didn’t seem to have any ranged attacks and if they could blind It every time it got dangerously close they could kite around. It was a pretty old-school tactic. Rave nodded and John explained. “Okay, we will do it like this then: We throw ranged attacks at it until it catches up to us and then you blind it. Then we hide, regenerate mana until it starts moving again. Rinse, repeat, victory.” “Understood, let’s go.”

They jumped out of the trench. The Spectre was swinging its head around wildly in search of them. It had no legs only a wave of green fog centred around two stumps of its body that followed him as he moved. It only noticed the two of them when another light attack from Rave hit it. With another scream, it violently turned around and stormed at them, dodging John’s mana power attack. That was bad, he already was at only half of his mana so he couldn’t be missing those shots.

They started running as per plan. Rave threw her attacks without much regard, her mana regenerated in an irregular pattern that John couldn’t wrap his head around. He himself only attacked when he was sure he could hit and landed two more blows. ‘This would be much easier if I had an HP bar for that thing.’ He complained inside his mind.

The Spectre extended his hand, sure that it would be able to grab at least one of them in their flight. “Rave, now!” John shouted. “Got it.” Rave turned and extended her hand into the Spectre’s face. “Nothing personal.” She mused and the wave of light stunned the Spectre once again as they took hiding behind some rocks, once again the sound of thrashing arms and splintering woods echoed through the forest. ‘This really is an easy Two Phase Bossfight.’ John thought, slightly at ease. Rave entered her breathing pattern again as they both regenerated mana.

“We can do it.” He said, pumping his fist. “Yep, just gotta keep this going.” Rave said, “Man, I forgot what danger feels like, this is great.” John let out a slightly nervous laughter. “You are really getting your kicks from this?” “I don’t often get to use high energy attacks like sunlight.” So that was what the heat was, good to know. The thrashing stopped and they both kept their eyes peeled, hiding behind the rock until at least Rave’s mana had reached full capacity again.

This time the Spectre located them immediately after they started moving again. It took the attacks head on, even the ones it could dodge, only concentrating on getting to Rave as fast as possible. Seemingly it understood who the real threat here was. Not like that would change anything about their strategy though. On quick feet, the two of them threw out spells as the Spectre, unhindered by terrain, caught up to them. One more Mana Power Attack he managed to get in there. Only a metre between them and the enemy. “Rave!” John shouted and the techno-lover obliged, turning towards the Spectre to use the sunlight once again.

The monster however was not as stupid to let that happen again. The second Rave started turning, his hand came crashing down on her. The long fingers closed around her wrist and shoved her arm down with such a **** that her whole body followed the motion. The sunlight unloaded point blank unto the forest floor, igniting a few dried-out branches were lying there. Rave shouted in pain, her HP decreasing by a tenth but then continuing to tick down as the Spectre drank first the mana then the life from her through the touch.

“Fuck.” John cursed. He had made the mistake of thinking that this was literally a boss fight, as if this Spectra wasn't capable of learning their moves just as they did his. He threw a Mana Power Attack at the Spectre but just like before it didn’t even bother. The damage must have been absolutely miniscule. Rave punched the arm that was holding her with her bare fist, having not enough mana to even use her aura. The punch still connected but did no damage whatsoever. “Let go you stupid…Ow!” Rave complained, the Spectre's other hand grabbing her third punch and stopping that motion. The Spectre shied away from the flames, continuing its hold on Rave.

John had to do something and he had to do it quickly. ‘Think John, think!’ He tried to hurry himself along. His Mana Power Attack achieved nothing against this enemy, so what else could he do? The Spectre, unlike his Ghost predecessors, was tangible as the splintered wood and Rave’s punches just now had demonstrated. What could he do with that kind of information though? Her strength was much higher than his and running into melee range would just end up with him being captured as well. If only he had some kind of weapon.

His eyes fell on the branches Rave’s missing attack had hit. They were still burning, the fire even spreading through the dried leaves and needles. It was daring, the branches lied close to the Spectre’s hovering form but there was no other idea in his mind. He ran as quickly as his body allowed him. The Spectre didn’t see him as a threat whatsoever and just kept draining the life from Rave without paying attention to him. Only when John grabbed a branch, a thick piece that had many side branches (all burning), and hit the monster over the head with it did the Spectre acknowledge his existence. It didn’t take much for the Spectre to get rid of this annoyance though, with only one move of one of its arms it wiped John away like a fly. 29 HP gone from the attack and John was sent flying. The branch slipped from his grasp and tumbled high into the air. More out of instinct than anything else he used Possession. Now a burning branch, the heat while uncomfortable not painful, John corrected the flight path and descended on the Spectre. Like a wooden facehugger he wrapped the many burning branches around the Spectre's face and held tightly.

The monster could not see anything but fire. In a panic it tried to claw of the branch with both of its hands, Rave was dropped to the ground. John felt the impact of crash landing with his main body as he tried his best to keep the branch in place. He felt the branches splinter, being ripped apart as the Spectre kept clawing, hurting itself only focused on getting rid of the fire.

Rave stood on her feet despite all that had just happened. Against all logic her mana refilled at an enormous speed, showing her gathering her last bit of stamina. “I am so gonna kill you.” She said, her left fist illuminating brightly in the darkness before she swung for the defenceless Spectre. Her fist penetrated it’s chest. Through the Spectre’s translucent form John, with his own two eyes, could see both the fist and the light that ate away the monster. It threw its arms out wide and screamed as it evaporated, leaving a torn branch falling to the ground.

John broke the Possession and walked over to Rave. His body wasn’t in pain at all, thanks be to Gamer’s body, but even without that he would have full HP right now, the Boss having granted him two and a half levels.