Warrior Jake's Defeat

Kirou and the girls were currently annoyed with their subjugation target, Mutated Murloc Warrior Jake. It's been almost thirty minutes since Jake had equipped the frost armor on his body and his health was currently just above 40%. It had taken the same time for them to drop Jake's health from full to 50% just for that to drop to 40% after he equipped the frost armor. How could the trio not be annoyed with this boss?

Noticing that ammo reserves are running low, Kirou decided to stop firing shots at Jake and rushed to engage Jake in close quarters. That being said, he had to be careful with his attacks as the mutated Murloc warrior was swinging his arms as weapons quite wildly.

"You guys have any ideas. I don't think I can keep this up for much longer as I'm running out of arrows." Reya said this while notching another arrow on her short bow. Unlike at the start of the battle when she was wildly shooting at any visible spot on Jake, Reya was now patiently shooting at Jake's weak points, resulting in each attack being a critical hit.

"None here. That frost armor of his has covered most of the spots I can exploit while the rest would put me in danger should I try," said Navi as she hit Jake with a stunning blow from behind, only to deal a [-70] damage figure without the stun effect procced.

While the women were speaking, Kirou was busy engaging the mutated warrior Jake in close combat while trying to figure out a plan. He refused to believe that a creature could have such a high defense and there isn't a way to bypass it.

Feeling annoyed at Jake's armor, Kirou decided to use his only armor-piercing attack on Jake, Kidney Blow. The results of the attack surprised Kirou as he wasn't expecting such a high damage figure from that skill.

[-230]

It wasn't only the damage that surprised Kirou. When he looked at the location where he just landed the attack, the piece of frost armor guarding there broke into pieces, revealing that section of Warrior Jake's body exposed to the elements.

'Could it be?' After that thought flash through Kirou's mind, he waited until the cooldown for Kidney Blow was over before using it again, this time on a soft area.

<Critical>

[-320]

Seeing the high damage figure along with that section of the frost armor crumbling away, Kirou started laughing while fighting Jake, attracting the attention of the two women in his party.

'We don't need to remove all of the armor, just the spots guarding his weak points. As long as we can accomplish that, the girls should have an easier time with this tough bastard.' As those thoughts cycled through Kirou's mind, he shouted at his party members.

"If you two have any armor-piercing skills, aim them at the weak points of the boss, then you'll have an easier time fighting this thing." Having said his piece, the cooldown for Kidney Blow was over once again and thing time, Kirou aimed the attack at the boss's neck, earning him another critical damage figure.

<Critical>

[-350]

The women were confused at Kirou's words in the beginning but as they saw him deal such a high damage figure, they decided to follow his orders. Reya charged up a Penetrating Arrow, aiming for one of Warrior Jake's knees while Navi dealt an attack using the Eviscerate skill. Both were shocked by the results of their attacks.

<Critical>

[-410]

<Critical>

[-920]

The two were understandably shocked by seeing their respective damage figures. That being said, what shocked them, even more, was that they too saw the spots they attacked have the armor around them crumbling. With this newfound information, both women started attacking even harder, causing the boss's health to regain its initial decrease in speed from when the boss battle began.

Satisfied with their work, Kirou also picked up the pace with his attacks while doing his best to avoid getting mauled by this mutated boss. While he made it look easy, it was anything but as he had to predict the boss's next actions ahead of time and was nearly caught on multiple occasions due to his body not being able to respond as quickly as he wanted.

'I better invest some of those points of mine later on. I can't have a situation like this repeat in future boss fights.' Those were Kirou's thoughts as he narrowly dodged Jake's reckless charge while landing a counter-attack with the blade sections of his tonfas.

************

The trio had finally managed to drop the boss's health down to 12% when Kirou had both women cease their attacks. While leading the boss away from the two of them, he spoke to both women.

"Use your potions to restore your missing health and mp. This thing is near berserk territory and with its attack stat, just a scratch is all it takes to end us each. That being said, we're gonna have to hit this boss fast and hard so I'm gonna need you both to be ready." Following his words, Kirou led Warrior Jake into the swirling cloud of mana, leaving both elves outside drinking potions.

After running around inside the fog for roughly three minutes, Kirou finally returned with the boss on his tail bellowing loudly while trying to maim him. Having recovered their respective health, both women rejoined the fight as soon as they could and the boss's health was finally dropped to the 10% mark.

"WAOAOAOAOAOAA!!!" The boss monster bellowed loudly while its body started to adopt a red glow. The boss was now entering berserk mode. Another thing the trio noticed was that the remaining frost armor on its body shattered as soon as the red glow passed by it.

"Seems like all of the bosses defenses, natural or otherwise, is removed once the boss goes berserk," was what Kirou said as the scene took place before him. Both women nodded in agreement while their faces turned grave.

"Remember, you two. This boss could have already one-shotted us under its normal state so there's no need to explain how worse that has gotten now. Kirou, try and see if you can tie the bastard up," as Navi said this, Kirou gave her a nod before creating two shadow clones and having all three equip their wires before rushing to the boss. "As for you, Reya hit hard but stay out of its way. There's no need to endanger yourself to land stronger attacks." After Navi said this, Reya also gave a nod then retreated for a bit before she started notching arrows on her bow.

As for Navi herself, she slipped behind the boss that was now engaging the three Kirous in combat and landed a few sneak attack skills here and there, dealing massive damage figures.

As the boss's health dropped below 3%, something strange occurred. The scene that took place before the trio made all three simultaneously swear in their minds at the developers who made this dungeon. The reason for that is simple; as soon as the boss got to 3% health, a stronger looking frost armor appeared over its body.

The trio did their best to try and land the armor-piercing attacks once again to remove a piece of the frost armor but this method failed. As a consequence, Navi, along with both of Kirou's clones got hit by one of the wildly swinging arms of the mutated Murloc. While Navi had managed to survive due to her guarding at the correct moment, the same could not be said for Kirou's clones. And as a consequence of both clones being destroyed, Kirou was hit with that three-second speed debuff.

Having knocked away Navi and the two clones, Kirou was now the only being standing in front of mutated Murloc. With its three-meter tall body and giant arms, the boss punched at Kirou's head, aiming to end his life.

"KIROU!!!" shouted both women at the same time, watching as the boss's giant arms were about to crush Kirou into a pulp. The expected hit never happened and their male party member was still alive while the boss's arms hit the hard ground.

As for Kirou, he was currently in the air. While his body was still under the three-second debuff, Kirou had managed to avoid the boss's arms by initiating the slow jump upwards while willing his chain to drag him into the air. These movements caused the mutated Murloc's attack to miss its target while Kirou was now above its head.

When the girls looked towards Kirou in the air, they could see the undisguised coldness that was contained with his eyes. While Kirou wasn't using the Demon's Gaze skill, his current eyes gave off a similar frosty glow. Following his dodge, Kirou was now falling towards the mutated Murloc below him.

Instead of willing the chain to drag him to a proper landing spot, Kirou allowed himself to fall towards the Murloc's head. Just as Murloc Warrior Jake raised its head to look at the falling Kirou, its face was greeted to Kirou stomping on it while he activated the skill he learned after receiving it from the Swampland Crocodile King, Tremor.

<Critical>

[-990]

<Critical>

[-990]

<Critical>

[-990]

...

Like that, ten high damage figures of [-990] floated above Mutated Murloc Warrior Jake's head, effectively removing the remainder of its health. Following that, the boss's corpse fell to the ground while Kirou backflipped off of it and landed a few meters away from it.

Both women looked towards the boss's corpse that died just like that and then at Kirou who landed a few meters away with a cleanly executed backflip. Both women then glanced at each other and they saw it in each other's eyes. Both of them were thinking of the exact same thing while looking at Kirou.

'Monster.'

Kirou, for his part, now sat down on the floor. His weapons were currently near the end of their durability while his armor, as a consequence of narrowly dodging or blocking the boss monster's attacks were torn in a few places as well, at least from a visual perspective.

The women were currently debating what to do next when the entire party was given a system message.

[System Message: You have completed a quest objective.]

[Neutralize source of mana surge: Complete]

That was the message given to the entire party but both Kirou and Navi were given an extra message to go along with the white glow that flashed on their bodies.

[System Message: You have leveled up]

[You are currently at level 13.]

While Navi congratulated both on gaining a level, both thanked her while checking out their upgraded stats. Kirou's new stats were as follows.

{Name: Kirou}

{Race: Werewolf(Lycan/Human)}

{Class: Weapon Master}

{Subclass: Crafting Master}

{Weapons: Gunblade Tonfas, Beginner Knife, Wolf Claws, Enchanted Steel Chain, Threaded Wires}

{Armor: Swampland Leather Armor Set (vest, pants, gloves, boots, crocodile helmet), Mysterious Bead(???)}

{Level: 13}

{HP: 732/732 (432+100+200)}

{MP: 610/610 (360+100+150)}

{Str: 45 (25+10+10)}

{Int: 28 (23+5)}

{Def: 59 (24+10+10+5+5+5)}

{Const: 36 (26+10)}

{Dex: 26 (21+5)}

{Agi: 26 (21+5)}

{Luck: 55/100}

{Skill Points: 36}

{Fame: 2600}

{Money: 1000 g/21 s/50 c}

While giving his updated stats a good look through, both Navi and Reya approached him. They waited for a few moments but their curiosity won out in the end. It was Navi that spoke up.

"Mr. Wolf, what was that skill that you used at the end." Navi had an idea what the skill was but she wanted to hear it from Kirou herself. Reya, too, was interested in hearing his answer to the question.

Seeing their expressions of expectation, Kirou only smiled at first before posting a skill description in the party chat.

Skill: Tremor

Skill Level: 1/3

Rank: B (A+)

Cost: 10-50

Skill Creator/Generator: N/A

Description: This skill allows the user to send out shockwaves from the user's body that damages targets with 50% to 300% of the user's attack damage the closer the target is to the epicenter for ten seconds. It has a 20% chance of causing the target to stumble, putting it in a vulnerable state.

It was only after he saw both women covering their mouths in shock before he formed a cheeky grin on his face and spoke.

"That's the skill I gained from the skill book that dropped after I killed the Swampland Crocodile King sometime yesterday." As he said it, Kirou couldn't stop the wide smile that formed on his face as he gazed at the bewildered looks both women were currently giving him.