Frostfire Legacy

Aster checked their new skills, saw their effects, and frowned.

"If it's like this, we would need to modify our current go-to formation. A major reorganization, huh?" He sighed, scratching his cheeks awkwardly.

Of course, it's not like he was blaming Tina for changing from a tank class to a DPS fighter class. After all, the class was an Epic, meaning they would benefit from her taking this class later down the road.

"Fortunately, Liz's tank-ness was boosted from her rank up."

Although her additional skills were more on support than helping with dealing damage, her new passive, Return Damage (EX), was a great boon. Each time she received an attack, may it be magical or physical, she would automatically reflect a fraction of the damage she received toward the attacker! Furthermore, the percentage of damage returned was calculated based on her Faith counter, which could be increased with the skill Faith Charge.

"And since I don't see any cap for the maximum return damage, if I nurture this skill well, I might be able to return over 100% of the damage back to the enemies," Liz commented, analyzing the prospects of the skill from her understanding of its effects.

Of course, it's not all positive. The Faith Charge skill requires her to either pray for 1 hour a day or gain "achievements" by protecting her allies during the battle for a cumulative of 1 hour. The skill then converts this 1 hour into 1 Faith Counter, resulting in an additional 0.1% return damage.

"That's going to take a lot of time..."

Aster sighed, but still couldn't help but look forward to the future. When Liz's return damage reached 1000% or higher, then she could kill monsters just by standing in place! And if combined with her Invulnerability skill, she could even take down bosses by simply reflecting the damage from their strongest attack back to them!

Since their class upgrades aligned with their previous roles, Kali and Cassy's positions remained unchanged. However, Tina's position had to change. After losing both Taunt and Metal Body, she could no longer continue her role as the Second Tank of the party.

"I can still go with an evasive tank build! I'll make sure to protect darling from any harm!" She commented, but Aster dismissed the idea quickly.

As an Elemental Pugilist, she would need to add to CON, STR, and WIS already. If she had to take out more to add to her DEX, then she would end up making a trash build instead, destroying her future potential.

In the end, their new formation was Liz still acting as the main tank, Cassy as the support near the back, Kali beside Cassy, acting as rear-guard and middle-range damage dealer, and Tina as the main attacker.

Aster assumed the role of a secondary tank, ready to take over in the event of Liz's failure. It's only possible with his superior stats. The little pup Argus served as the back-row damage dealer, providing covering fire from Cassy's side.

With their new formation setup, they didn't waste a moment and tested it out.

Kali moved to the nearby forest and kited a few monsters. Within a matter of minutes, Kali returned, trailed by a group of approximately twelve monsters. The group consisted of Rage Gorillas, which stood at a height of 3 meters, Flame Boars, which were wild animals with manes made of flames, and Chameleon Hyenas, which, with an average level of 75, posed a significant threat to the girls.

"I'll take it from here, Knight's Challenge!" Liz didn't hesitate and pulled the monsters' attention.

She raised her small shield, bracing for impact, as the monsters changed targets from Kali to her.

*GROOOOWL!*

Their renewed anger created a striking visual, prompting Tina to unconsciously retreat. But Liz didn't even flinch, staring ahead with a clear gaze as she met the monster's charge with another skill.

"Shield Bash!"

She swung her shield forward, planning to trip the frontrunner. However, instead of the usual skill, which doesn't even appear in the skill tablet, a new phenomenon was observed.

A giant, half-translucent golden shield, adorned with a cross in the middle, appeared before the small shield and smashed against the rushing horde. None of the monsters could react in time, as the shield smashed straight, causing them to fall on their backsides.

"My turn!"

Tina didn't miss her timing and rushed forward. With her twin gauntlets at the ready, she punched the closest Rage Gorilla, aiming for the face, the chest, and the groin in succession. Marks of frozen and molten fists appeared on the spots she hit, dealing practically fatal damage!

"Shadow Bind!"

Seeing that the monsters were trying to stand up, Kali used her Shadow Bind skill, turning the monsters' shadows into their own enemies. Their shadows turned into tight bindings, tying them down to the ground and limiting their movements!

"Elemental Sword Slash!"

Aster was up next, dealing light damage to all monsters—cutting off all their limbs in one go. Naturally, he refrained from delivering the final blow to avoid wasting the EXP on him.

"Argus, now!"

With his call, the little puppy on standby a short distance away raised a short bark.

*Arf!*

As Aster and Tina moved away from the monsters, a barrage of lightning bolts descended, instantly crushing the bound monsters to the ground.

*SHING!*

And confirming that their enemies were dead, the girls' bodies released a brief glow, indicating that they just leveled up. Aster sheathed his sword before letting out a short sigh.

"Looks like this formation works better than I thought."

It was their first try, but they worked together seamlessly. And since they have more damage dealers now, the clearing speed was even faster!

"If it's like this, I guess we can even take on bosses without Argus' help, despite the level gap."

Of course, there's the inherent risk of only having one tank. But as long as they're careful, with Cassy healing Liz as much as needed, then they shouldn't have much trouble.

Their party proceeded to test the new formation a few more times, even venturing into the forest just for the sake of checking. After a full hour of testing, just before the sun went down completely, they returned—battered.

"F*cking vixen... run ahead like that once more, and I'm cutting your tail off!"

"T-That wasn't my fault, was it?!"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"... Sorry, Tina. It's your fault this time."

"Even darling?!"

On their way back, Tina lowered her guard way too much. She ran ahead of the others and ended up startling a nest of Black Hornets, causing everyone to suffer a few injuries. If not for Aster burning them all down in one sweep, regardless of "friendly fire," then the entire party could've been in deep trouble!

"Uuu... If only my detection sensitivity remained the same, this wouldn't have happened...!"

As previously stated, getting rarer classes wasn't all rewards; there are bound to be some drawbacks hidden within them too.