-The Struggle for the Victory!-

Kenshin had gambled on the possibility of metal hand and flaming slash’s stacking on each other. From the look of the damage, the boss had received, his gamble succeeded. He also discovered that until the flaming slash leaves his sword, he can control it absolutely.

The boss staggered back a few steps from the force of the skill’s impact. It continued to receive the damage of fire for some time even after the skill had ended. For the next 5 seconds, it continued to receive ‘-5’ damage. The boss had received 55 damage altogether.

Its 1000 HP was now reduced by 55 points making it 945.

‘It’s possible! It’s possible to take the boss down by myself alone’ Kenshin was determined. As the name suggested, the skeleton boss was a knight as such it had a sword and shield, made of bone of course. But, that boney shield couldn’t block magic attacks.

“ROOAAARRR!!!!” the skeleton knight roared in anger sending chills down everyone’s spine. It’s green glowing eyes intensified as it stared at Kenshin.

[WARNING* You have inflicted with ‘Death Stare’]

[You will be in ‘stun’ for six seconds]

[5…4...]

‘Shit! I was stunned!’ Kenshin started panicking as he watched the skeleton knight running towards him with its sword held high.

2…1…

Just before the timer hit zero, the boss had already swung its sword at Kenshin’s shoulders. Kenshin flew like a rocket to his right from the force of the impact. There was a small gash on his shoulder from which a line of blood trickled from.

[-48]

A red color digit floated above his head mentioning the damage he had received. His passive Regeneration worked tirelessly, mending the wounds he received. As he lost 48 HP in a single attack; the EXP it was gaining was quite high. The more damage he receives, the more EXP passive regeneration would gain.

[Ding* Passive Regeneration has leveled up]

[Passive Regeneration Lv 6][6000 EXP to next level]

[Heals 20 HP and 1 STA every 4 minutes]

As his wounds healed slowly, the EXP increased steadily for passive regeneration skill.

Biting back the pain in his shoulders, Kenshin stood up and sprinted towards the boss. His MP regeneration was quite fast, at staggering 9.81 points per minute. As his MP started to refill; Kenshin had sent another flaming slash and metal hand combo at the boss.

It lost another 55 points of HP. Left with 890 HP, the boss roared angrily. It tried to use Death Stare on him again but how could Kenshin allow it? He immediately jumped to his side and ran around in a zigzag motion to escape the boss’s line of sight. Skills like Death Stare could only work on stationary opponents. As a hunter for quite some time, he had seen all types of skills and knew mechanisms behind them.

As it’s skill failed to activate; the boss roared angrily even more. Suddenly a purple light surrounded its sword as it swung towards his general direction. A pillar of purple light exploded from the sword and raced towards Kenshin.

The pillar of light made a deep gash on the ground behind it while barreling towards Kenshin.

As it was traveling in a straight line, Kenshin was successful in dodging it with some effort on his part. Fear struck his heart seeing the destruction this pillar of light had caused behind it.

‘It must be the boss’s Death Slash skill!’ Kenshin concluded seeing the massive amount of damage caused by the boss. The middle-aged group whom Kenshin had ordered to kill the mobs are scared shitless after seeing the fight going on between Kenshin and the Skeleton Knight.

“What power!”

“That’s not a fight between a human and a monster!”

“It’s as if two monsters duking it out with each other!”

“Better stay away from there!”

“Let the two monsters fight!”

The squad of eight ‘wisely’ decided to stay away from Kenshin.

Kenshin ran like a leopard as he hacked the boss from left to right. His sword ATK and metal arm’s ATK stacked on each other canceling out boss’s DEF while he dealt a 27 damage on it. The boss’s HP slowly dropped from 890 to 670.

The Skeleton Knight wasn’t idle either. It was swinging it’s boney sword wildly all around in an attempt to hit the agile Kenshin.

Sometimes later his MP and HP bar had filled to brim. During this process all his skills have gained a few levels too; especially Metal Hands. It had reached level 4, capable of dishing 40 ATK damage. His Flame Slash had also gained a level from the repeated use and was now capable enough to deal 60 damage per use. Stacking it with metal hands was enough to contend against the damage output of the boss’s death slash.

The coolest thing was that this skill had no cooldown time. Kenshin made a few backflips to increase the distance between the boss and him. He consecutively sent four flaming slashes stacked with metal hands towards the boss. The impact had instantly decreased the boss’s HP by 320 points. As boss’s DEF was 20, it had received 80 damage points.

Left with only 350 HP, the boss activated the only skill it hadn’t used yet.

Bone Collecting!!                                                                                         

Instantly all the nearby mob skeletons began to break one by one as their bones floated towards the boss. Its HP began increasing with each bone attached to it. Pretty quickly the boss’s HP had increased up to 500.

Frankly, Kenshin had expected this to happen.

“ROAR!!” the boss roared angrily after healing its HP and glared at Kenshin, in an attempt to use Death Stare on him. Kenshin had already attacked with this skill twice; he was already clear about ins an outs of it.

With the slightest movement, he jumped away from the boss’s line of sight. As the skill failed to affect Kenshin, the boss ran after him with its sword and shield. As the mad swinging of the boss continued, Kenshin gradually pushed back. The middle-aged men have done a very good job at keeping the mob skeletons busy.

Fortunately, this was a mini-boss with no ability to command the skeletons.

As the fight continued to drag out, Kenshin became anxious. Till now, he was doing all kind of complex maneuvers which are very taxing on his stamina. His rate of stamina regain can’t keep up with his usage.

Tireless Body was working overtime and gaining EXP slowly. It had already decreased his STA usage by 2%. The most troubling part was that his sword’s durability was decreasing at a rapid pace.

Before his sword breaks, he must kill this creature!

Kenshin continued to dodge and avoid the boss until his MP was full. During his time of dodging and evading, Kenshin had already suffered a few slashes from the boss. His HP was plummeted at a rapid pace and was now 140. There are many wounds and bruise marks all over his body.

Kenshin held his sword pointed towards the boss and activated the flame slash-metal hand combo. One after another he sent waves towards the boss until his MP bar emptied out.

*CRACK!!!*

Finally, unable to endure anymore his sword cracked and broke to pieces. At the same time, a series of notifications rang out.

[Congratulations* You have killed Skeleton Knight Lv 15]

[Ding* You have gained 1000 EXP]

[Ding* You have completed a quest]

[Ding* You have gained a level]

[Ding* You have received 1000 G]

[Ding* You have received Skeleton Knight’s Sword]

[Ding* You have received Skeleton Knight’s Chestplate]

[Ding* You have gained the title ‘Bane of Spectres’]

[Ding* You have gained a skill due to Replication]

[Ding* You have gained ‘Death stare’]

[Muto Kenshin][Human]

[Level 11][16685 Exps for next level up]

[HP 140/300]

[MP 1/48]

[Titles: Bane of Spectres(Inactive)]

[ATK: 30; DEF: 23; AGI: 33; PHY: 30; INT: 22(+2); LUK: 9]

[Unassigned Attribute points: 4]

[Unassigned Skill points: 2]

[Lives: 0] 

[Skills]

[1. Replication Lv 3][890 Exp to next level up]

[2. Passive Regeneration (Passive/Always active) Lv 6][1925 Exp to next level up]

[3. Tireless Body (Passive/Always active) Lv 2][1451 EXP to next level up]

[4. Flaming Slash Lv 4][1756 EXP to next level up]

[5. Metal Hands Lv 4][2000 EXP to next level up]

[6. Death Stare Lv 0][1000 EXP to next level up]

[Equipment]

[Worn out Gloves DUR: 8/20][+4 AGI]

[Cape of Intelligence DUR 12/34][+2 INT]

[Low-quality Long sword DUR 0/14][+10 ATK][Broken]