“Over 10,000 HP…” Reading through the status screen Valyr was showing them, the expressions on Damian and the others’ faces quickly turned grim, only for it to worsen as they focused their attention on the Tidemother’s stats. “On top of that, its physical stats are all over 200 points at least.”

“I definitely wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage if the goal is to end it quickly.” Pondering over her chances against the Tidemother in a one-on-one fight for a bit, Myst was the first to voice out her thoughts, informing the other three that she wouldn’t be a good fit. “With the damage I normally dish out, I can only deal hundreds per hit at most.”

“Unfortunately, I’m in the same boat as Myst over here.” Not long after, Tristan voiced out his thoughts as well, his face adorned with a bitter smile. “I may grow stronger the longer these battles take, but even the damage I dish out at my strongest state would only deal a little bit over a thousand damage against the Tidemother… give or take.”

Listening to their words, Valyr inwardly let out a faint sigh as he thought about how they were able to accurately give out how much damage they would deal against the Tidemother.

Fortunately, after pondering over it for a bit, he recalled that the system had an obscure feature that would give players an estimate of how much damage they would deal against a certain enemy, though players generally relied more on the formulas other players had conceived, considering that the formulas were more accurate to them.

Nevertheless, with the two reminding him of such an obscure feature, Valyr went ahead and commanded the system to bring up his damage estimates if he fought against the Tidemother. Unsurprisingly, the response the system gave him was that the damage he could deal at the moment was more than enough to kill the Tidemother, even if he were to be alone.

‘Mythic class plus Epic grade armor set. Truly OP.’ Of course, Valyr knew why the system had given him such a message, causing him to briefly flash a bitter smile as he soon inwardly let out a sigh. ‘I guess they’re just waiting me for take the initiative.’

“How about you, Damian? Confident in being able to take down the Tidemother?” Then again, even though he had a strong feeling that the three were just waiting for him to take charge of the fight against the final wave, Valyr decided that he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction that easily, focusing the attention of the other two on Damian as he asked the latter a question.

“Myst and Tristan have already mentioned that they wouldn’t be able to dish out enough damage against the Tidemother if the plan is to kill it as quickly as possible,” replied Damian with a bitter smile. “Let alone me.”

“At most, my offensive capabilities would be slightly above Myst’s, but still below Tristan’s,” he continued.

“Who says we have to kill the Tidemother as quickly as possible, though? We could just slowly damage it to death.” After listening to the words spoken by the three so far, Valyr noticed that the three were under the illusion that they’d have to kill the Tidemother as quickly as possible. “Though over 10,000 HP may be a lot, a hundred or a thousand is still a significantly huge chunk.”

“You forgot to take into consideration the Tidemother’s berserk state.” In response, Damian informed Valyr about the berserk state the Tidemother undergoes at a certain health, prompting Myst and Tristan to nod in agreement as they listened in on the explanation. By the end of Damian’s explanation, Valyr looked at the three with a solemn expression before proceeding to ask them a question… which only made them feel exasperation.

“So what if the Tidemother goes berserk?”

“The Tidemother becomes harder to kill!” Feeling a bit annoyed at how Valyr was treating the Tidemother’s berserk state so nonchalantly, Tristan responded to his question in a slightly loud voice. “Its movements become faster, its attacks become quicker, its defense becomes sturdier, what part of that don’t you get?”

“I definitely get that,” said Valyr in response. “But as I said earlier, so what if the Tidemother goes berserk? It may take a longer time to deal damage to it and we would need to dodge more, but we’d still be able to kill it, no?”

“You’re missing the point here, Valyr.” Listening to Valyr’s words, Damian eventually let out a soft sigh. “Our stats are far below the Tidemother’s. Mine’s, Myst’s, Tristan’s. If our stats were only a couple dozen of points below the Tidemother, sure, we’d probably take the risk and slowly damage it to death. However, the disparity here is in the hundreds, Valyr. Hundreds.”𝗈𝗏𝒍xt.𝑪𝐎𝓂

“I may pride myself in the fact that I can fight against a group of foes at the same level as I am and become victorious, but I am in no way confident that I’d be able to surmount a gap in stats that high.” At these words, Damian slowly shook his head before looking back at Valyr.

“Even Myst and Tristan pride themselves in their combat proficiency, being able to fight against a group of foes on their own at the same level and emerge victorious. But just like me, they know their limits. They definitely won’t risk surmounting a gap that high.”

“Out of all of us, you have the highest chance of dealing a great amount of damage to the Tidemother, as if you clearing out the first and third waves on your own hadn’t already made that obvious.” Saying these words, Damian went ahead and activated Analysis on Valyr, taking a quick look at the latter’s stats.

“In fact, I have a feeling that out of all of us, you’re the only one here who could probably match the Tidemother in stats.”

“Well, would you look at that. I’m actually correct.” Looking at Valyr with a bitter smile, Damian closed up the screen that appeared in front of him before telling the former a few things. “How about this? You take the lead in the fight, but we’ll aid you in the fight as much as possible.”

“You really had to take a look at my status screen…” Bitterly smiling in response to Damian’s proposal, Valyr let out a low sigh before eventually nodding. “Alright, fine. Let’s get this over with.”

“I’ll need someone to bind the Tidemother in place while the others would distract the Tidemother.” Though he inwardly frowned at the fact that Damian took a look at his status screen, Valyr thought about the various times he had checked into other people’s stats without their permission, thinking that it would be unfair for him to get mad at the man even though it was the first time the latter had done so.

With that, he placed the thought at the back of his head for now as he began to formulate a plan with the other three.

“I’ll do the binding,” said Myst in response.

“We’ll be the ones distracting it, then.” Not long after, Tristan responded to Valyr’s words, prompting the latter to nod as he brought out his spear.

“Guess we’ll do it that way, then.” Turning around to look at the Tidemother far into the horizon, Valyr asked a question to his spear through his thoughts.

‘You ready to fight against another Tidemother, Sana?’

‘Always ready, Master.’

‘Let’s give it our all, then.’