"Haste! Fireball! Fireball!"

Buffing my movement speed, I hurriedly distanced myself from The Jackson and fired a couple of Fireballs at it. However, the boss tanked the attacks like it was nothing as its grin only became wider afterward, and started sprinting towards me.

Holy cow! It's faster than I thought.

The Jackson ran without stopping and threw a wide kick at me, which I was narrowly able to evade thanks to [Evasion Up] improving my dodging skills naturally.

"Power Blow!" I immediately cut the skin of the boss with my new dagger which I had just found and jumped back after that to distance myself from it again.

Close combat is near impossible against this monster. But even more so, "Tch," I clicked my tongue, seeing that the dagger had failed to inflict the Cursed effect on The Jackson.

"Mana Bolt! Mana Bolt! Mana Bolt! Mana Bolt! Mana Bolt! Mana Bolt!" I continuously fired my weakest attack spell at the boss in rapid succession, thanks to my staff and accessories I have on. Allowing me to fire Mana Bolts at somewhat of the same rate as a machine gun. Depleting my MP really fast.

But of course, to The Jackson, such puny attacks were but a slight annoyance to it.

I'm not done yet though.

"Fireba— What!?"

Before my next spell was launched, The Jackson suddenly glowed briefly in a bright light and disappeared from my view. Only to land a clean slash with its claw from behind unexpectedly. Sending me flying into a tree and dropping my HP into the red.

Crap. I need potions right now!

I must be lucky that my foe is a sadist. Because it simply stood there while I drank my potions to restore my HP and MP back to full.

The description did say that it relishes on the fear of its target and will show no mercy in tormenting its opponent. In other words, this dude plans on breaking me first before it kills me.

"Your creators sure have some bad tastes, don't they?"

"Hee Hee~"

The Jackson glowed again in the bright light and vanished from my sight.

This monster can teleport. However, after seeing it use that move once I already know where it's going to appear from and immediately drop down to the ground without looking behind me, avoiding the same attack narrowly as a light breeze passed over my head instead. Then, I turned around and pointed my staff at its face.

"Fireball!"

The damage wasn't much. But, I have blinded it temporarily. Using that brief second of opportunity, I quickly got up, ran up to it and started stabbing its leg with my Ritual Dagger of the Accursed until the damn thing inflicted Cursed onto the Jackson.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Notice: Enemy - The Jackson has been Cursed.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright! Finally got it. I thought, as the monster's hand then came slamming down at me. But I jumped back in time, narrowly avoiding the attack which could have gotten me crushed.

I've only been narrowly avoiding attacks, haven't I?

The Jackson came at me again with a barrage of slashes this time.

The Cursed status effect would probably not last forever. Meaning I'll need to land as many Fireball spells on it as I can right now, since it is my strongest attack skill I have in my arsenal.

However, The Jackson is relentless with its attacks. Forcing me to be on the defensive and focus all of my effort on evasion.

At this rate, the battle will forever be in its favour. Which is why, I decided to stop dodging and faced the enemy's claws head on.

"Magic Shield!"

I timed my casting perfectly, causing The Jackson's claws to bounce back when it hits the barrier I'd spawned in front of me.

To be honest, I didn't know you could parry in this game. And unfortunately, the Magic Shield also broke after receiving that hit.

But at least now I got my chance to attack.

"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"

A repeated barrage of fire was blasted at the monster. And unlike before, the damage is shown quite clearly with Cursed applied on it, as The Jackson staggers back in response to my attacks.

Then, its body glowed again and vanished.

"Oh, no you don't! Magic Shield!"

I repelled its claw again. And followed it up with another Fireball as I took a step back to replenish my MP, before going back in to continue the fight.

I don't how much time has elapsed since the encounter, but I'm already seeing The Jackson's movesets.

When it goes crazy with its claws, try to continuously evade until you can find an opportunity to break its assault halfway. Which I did using Magic Shield.

When it throws a kick, that gives you an opening to strike three to four times with a melee weapon. Thus, giving me a slim chance to reapply the Cursed effect onto it.

When it glows and disappears from your sight, it will always reappear right behind you. Which has become the most predictable move it can make for a supposedly intelligent beast. But I guess it wasn't as smart as I'd thought after all. Maybe because no matter how realistic it looks, it is still a form of program in the end, created by the developers of this game. Thus, there is only so much it can do before players can get used to its movesets.

Through this way, I was able to adapt and overcome the odds of not dying to this unexpected boss fight.

Once given an opportunity again, I carried out my onslaught of Fireball spells at The Jackson with a spice of the Cursed effect from my dagger to increase the damage it takes.

Then, as I drank another MP potion, The Jackson began to charge up a breath attack.

....Wait.

Breath attack!?

"Ow~!"

The unexpected move made by the boss was then launched straight at me while I was caught off guard. The attack is wide.

I have to dodge it! was what I thought. However, as the attack was coming, I suddenly found my legs ensnared by some thorny plants. Immobilising me in place as I questioned where and when did it appear?

Crap!

"Magic Shield! Magic Shield! Magic Shield!"

I quickly improvised to my predicament and deployed three layers of protection in front of me to block the attack. But the first layer broke like glass almost immediately upon impact. While the second quickly cracked in places after the first Magic Shield was broken.

"Magic Shield!" I quickly deployed a fourth layer, just as the second layer broke.

"Magic Shield!"

Then, I added a fifth layer to the mix as I held my ground. Then a sixth, seventh and eighth.

I should have expected this.

For a boss monster, it sure had very little movesets. That was what I'd thought at first but didn't think too much about it.

"Of course they'd be more, you moron!"

The attack was heavy. But I stood my ground and quickly cut away the thorns with my dagger. Freeing myself.

Are there any more moves it can do that I don't know of?

No.... I don't want to know. Nor do I want to find out.

Because in this next move, I'll finish it here and now!

The moment I had freed myself, I moved out of the breath attack's way and charged at The Jackson, casting another Magic Shield right behind the monster. Then, as it saw me coming, it stopped its breath attack and brandished its claws at me with the intent to kill. No longer caring about tormenting me, it would seem. Regardless, I avoided those claws at the last second and counterattacked with my staff.

"Power Blow!"

The attack only did one damage to its health. However, it got pushed into the Magic Shield behind it, because of the high knockback chance from the Power Blow skill.

Following up from that, I casted two more Magic Shield on The Jackson's left and right. Resulting in the boss to be restrained in a barrier prism.

Now it's your turn to be trapped!

With little to no room to swing its arms and legs around, I doubt it could easily break out of the trap that quickly.

Which is why at this very moment, I will finish it.

"Magic Shield."

I deployed another Magic Shield in front of me at a certain angle and used it as a ram to boost myself above the barriers where The Jackson is exposed.

Standing on my own Magic Shield as a platform, I looked down at it from the high ground and said, "Goodbye."

"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"

A rain of Fireballs have thus begun to fall on the restrained demon goat boss monster thingy or whatever it is. As its HP went down into the red, it started roaring in agony. Struggling to break free of its restraints with brute strength alone. Forcing several cracks on the barriers to be formed.

"I won't let you! Magic Shield! Magic Shield! Magic Shield! Fireball!"

I replaced the cracking barriers with new ones. Putting the restraint on it for even longer as they were followed up with more barrages of Fireballs.

Come on.... Come on.... Die already...!

The Jackson roared again, as it tried to fire its breath attack at me who was standing above him.

"Magic Shield!"

I then put a lid on the prism barrier. Causing The Jackson to blast itself in the face, when its breath attack collided with the Magic Shield that suddenly appeared in front of its face.

The Magic Shield broke. And The Jackson was in disarray.

Afterwards, I drank one more MP potion and continued my rain of fiery assault on the beast that is on the verge of death at this point.

It also seemed to be trying something while under heavy fire. But too bad it's too late.

"And with this, it's over! FIREBALL!"

I called forth my last flaming hot ball and sent it smashing at The Jackson for one last roast.

It screamed for the last time as its HP dropped to zero. Bringing me the result I've been waiting to see as the body of the terrifying beast begins to vaporise into black mist.

"Hee.... Hee......"

"You've Hee'd your last Hee, huh..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Congratulations! You have defeated the Area Boss: The Jackson.]

Exp gained: 6,969.

[You have levelled up to LV 13!]

[You have levelled up to LV 14!]

[You have levelled up to LV 15!]

Gold obtained: 189,520

Item(s) get: [Horn of the Jackson], [Eye of the Jackson], [Skill Scroll - Moon Walk], [Skill Scroll - Thorn Bind].

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Condition cleared: [Use up to 20 spells in 10 seconds.]

Skill Acquired: [Multi-Casting].

The player who has this skill can now use a single active skill multiple times at the same time.

===================

Condition cleared: [Defeat a Boss Monster without a party.]

Skill Acquired: [Lone Wolf].

Damage dealt to Boss Monsters is increased by 30% when the player is not in a party.

===================

Condition cleared: [Defeat an opponent that is 10 levels higher than you.]

Skill Acquired: [Underdog].

Damage dealt against higher-level foes is increased by 20%.

===================

Condition cleared: [Apply the Cursed effect 10 times on an opponent.]

Skill Acquired: [Hex].

The caster can apply the Hex effect on a single target.

(Status Effect - Hex: A superior version of [Cursed]. Decreases all Damage Resistance by 20%. Decreases Movement Speed by 10%.)

Cost 30 MP.

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"Woo~! I've won!"

I celebrated for a brief moment before collapsing on the ground, completely exhausted.

It was surprisingly fun. But maaaan was it nerve-wracking!

At least I got a bunch of new skills out of it. And these as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Skill Scroll - Moon Walk] has been used.

Skill Acquired: [Moon Walk].

Shrouds the caster in a gleam of bright light and instantaneously teleports them to wherever they want, up to five meters from where they originally were.

Cooldown: 3 seconds.

==================

[Skill Scroll - Thorn Bind] has been used.

Skill Acquired: [Thorn Bind]

Wraps the target in some thorny plants, temporarily immobilising them. Has a small chance of inflicting [Bleed] status on the target.

Cost: 15 MP.

(Status Effect - Bleed: Depletes 1% of Max HP every second.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I see. So Moon Walk is what the boss used to teleport behind me. Whereas Thorn Bind would be the thing he did to trap me in place.

Anyways, what time is it now— Oh. It's almost 6pm already.

I guess I'll return to Lily Corvo and logout then.

Hm? Wait...

Now that I've noticed.... Where did my Lamp Bug go?

"Oh. There you are. Hiding from the boss, were you? Alright, let's leave this forest now."

[World News! Dungeon Boss: Mitos of the Harrowing Deep has been defeated for the first time single-handedly by Zanny. Dungeon: Musky Swamp of the Deep. First clear complete.]

Whoa. That was sudden. Right as I have arrived back in town.

Congratulations to whoever that is, I guess.

Time to logout now. I got to prepare dinner.