Yoruto is down for the time being. Leaving me to deal with creepy-face Pinocchio here.

But not to worry! Because before losing his Knight's Valour effect, Yoruto had used Multi-Mirror Make on Bane. So now, I have an army of Banes with me while I leave the rest of my summons to protect Yoruto because if he dies, the Mirror Make effect on Bane will be gone as well.

With that being said, if I die every one of my summons, including Bane will be gone as well.

But not to fear for I have Summoner's Might which I had just used to pummel that creepy face of Pinocchio into the wall.

Knowing that I am able to do something like that, despite having experience in martial arts is reassuring.

And now together with Bane, it's time to jump this freak.

"Attack."

"Skkkkrrrrreeeeeeee!!!"

As Bane and his clones pounced on the boss, I started off with a right hook to his eye. Then, a left uppercut to that stupid nose of his. And lastly, a big ol' roundhouse kick to the head. Afterwards, I retreat because the boss is about to make his move next, attempting to grab me with those hands of his.

I have seen what those hands can do. Therefore, I must avoid their grasp no matter what.

That being said... I'm not good at dodging!

Which is why, instead of tactically maneuvering to evade the boss's instant death move, I'm just going to run and leave the damage dealing to Bane and his clones while the boss is on my butt.

And eventually when the boss tires out and stops trying to catch me momentarily, I jump him again!

Behold! The Supreme Dropkick course!

"Hya!"

And the boss's HP dropped even lower as I continued to jump him with Bane. Grabbing the boss by his stupid nose whereby I repeatedly hit him with my knee.

"Let goooo!"

The boss started flail his large body around, attempting to shake me, Bane and Bane's clones off. However, I held on tight. And do the Banes, as we focused all of our energy into damaging the boss over prioritising our safety. Additionally, because I am hanging onto his nose rather than his body, no matter how much the boss rolls over, it will not do any damage to me whatsoever as long as I hold on.

I wasn't just watching in awe and eating popcorn when Yoruto was soloing the boss with his Mirror Make clones, you know. Since I have no popcorn after all.

I was observing the boss's movement and attack patterns. Looking for any potential safe spots I can exploit when it's my turn to face him.

And one of those safe spots I've noticed is the boss's big creepy ass face, which I am sticking close to by hanging onto his nose!

"Take this! And that! And that! And this!"

"""SKKRREEEEEEE!!!"""

More damage were dealt. The boss's HP continued to drop even if it's only a small amount at a time. But, because the boss is unable to do anything to Bane and his clone or me in particular until he has shaken us off, there is nothing to fear! After all, even if it's very life-like and has some AI to it, the boss's moves and attacks are still determined by a program written by the developers.

And because Yoruto and I were unprepared and had no strategy in particular for dealing with something like a raid boss, the only possible way to win against Mr. Pinocchio here is by cheesing it!

At least... that's what I want to say if my arms hadn't tired out.

"Oh ****."

My grasp on the boss's nose was released as I was shaken off and was flung straight up to the ceiling, before crashing straight down into the pool of blood.

Oof... That hurt.

I quickly got up because there's no time to say "ouch" or "that hurts" now that I am out of the safe spot. After all, the boss is aggroed on me!

"You're not getting awwaaayyy!"

"Crap...!"

The boss says that when his target is a certain distance away from him. In other words...

His nose thrust is coming!

And just as I thought that, the boss had already launched his nose attack at me, being right in my face.

It's fast and it's bad. Bane and his clones are too far to protect me, my other summons may be closer but they won't be fast enough to reach where I am. Even if I have Bane's stats thanks to Summoner's Might, there is no way I can dodge the attack when it is already this close.

However, just like in anime, my plot armour has activated...

...In the form of my dearest Yoruto.

"Multi-Magic Shield!"

Multiple layers of barriers suddenly appeared in between the boss's nose and my face, stopping the nose thrust attack long enough for me to move out of the attack path before the barriers broke.

Then, I looked to my right and saw my Yoruto standing up and alright now.

"The Paralysis is gone. I'm back."

"Glad to hear that. So how many seconds was it? I was too busy attacking the boss to count."

"40 seconds. Double of what the skill's effect was."

"I see. Well then—"

"Duck!"

"What?"

Yoruto suddenly yelled, interrupting me. When I looked to my left, I noticed that the boss did not retract his nose as he performed the nose slash attack he had done earlier on Yoruto.

Oh shit!

I managed to duck down in time, causing the attack to miss. If it were not for Yoruto's warning, however, I would have probably fallen.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Thanks." I gave him a thumbs up.

Now then, it's time to face the boss together.

I looked at the boss's health bar as he retracted his nose and...

Ugh... He still has about 30% of it left. I barely did anything even with Bane and his clones on my side.

But now that Yoruto's back, I'm sure we can manage.

"High Wisdom. Magic Booster. Magic Amplification. Haste." Yoruto applied his buffs and drank a potion to replenish his MP afterwards.

Meanwhile, I gave an order to Bane.

"Bane, stay on the boss!"

"Skreee!"

Bane responded to my voice, as Yoruto then uses Multi-Mirror Make on himself, making the clones of Bane disappear as clones of Yoruto appeared.

Then, as the boss came charging at us with Bane on his back, I gave the order to the rest of my summons, signalling the start of the finale.

"All of you, jump him!"

My summons screamed in response. My summons raged at the enemy. My summons jumped at their target all at once.

And together with Yoruto, we railed the boss with explosions and flurry of punches, aiming to deplete his HP all of the way to zero in this final jump.

However...

"Hiyaa! Huh...?"

During the final jump, my fist got weaker all of a sudden.

"Oh."

That's when I realised.

"Summoner's Might is over."

"GEETTTT OOFFFF!"

The boss then flailed his body in an odd position, flinging me off into the wall at the other end of the building.

"Akatsuki!" Yoruto called out, worried about me.

"I'm okay!" I yelled, reassuring him.

I should have been dead honestly. But thanks to the skills that I had acquired when Yoruto took me to the dungeon where I met Bane, I survived.

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

[Notice! Skill: Knight's Valour has been activated.]

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

"Finish him, Yoru!" I then shouted to Yoruto, who was still clinging onto the boss whose HP is now a few more hits away from zero.

The boss made his last struggle. Trying to shake Yoruto off, killing his clones and my summons. But, with that final move, it was over.

"Multi-Explosion!"

"GYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

The boss's HP hit zero. His body stopped all movement and collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

It's over... We did it... We have beaten the raid boss.

Victory!!

"Akatsuki, are you still good?" Yoruto jumped off the boss's body and ran straight to me to check on my condition. Bane and my other summons who weren't killed by the boss in his last struggle do too as I gave them all a hearty response.

"I'm A-OK! Great job, everybody! Especially you, Bane. I never thought we would actually beat the raid boss, underleveled."

My summons made a bunch of cheerful noises in response to my praise. However, Yoruto then tilted his head in confusion and asked me, "Akatsuki, what are you saying?"

"Hm?"

"Skree?"

And when he did, the cheerful noise making stopped.

"What do you mean? We have beaten the boss, right?" I asked Yoruto.

Then, he replied.

"Akatsuki... The notification window that announces our victory has not popped up yet."

"Huh?"

"That's why I asked if you were still good."

Wait... For real? 

Ah! Come to think of it, he's right!

"Hold on. That means..."

"Yup."

*Crack!*

At that moment, Yoruto, my summons and I turned our heads to where the sudden loud crack came from, as we bare witness to the boss's giant head breaking apart. Revealing the inside of it to be hollow as a menacing gaze peered at us from within.

"It's phase two now." Yoruto remarked, as he then turned to me and asked with a smile.

"So, how ready are you?"

"Yoruto..." I said to him, "I'm on life support."

"I see." He said.

And then, my Knight's Valour skill effect ran out, inflicting me with the Paralysis aftereffect like Yoruto had gone through as my body simply plopped into the pool of blood.

"I see..." He said again.

During which, the boss had stepped out of his giant puppet's head and showed himself.

Fortunately, I fell in a position where I could see his face and my goodness...

He's hot!

"To feel the warmth of the air again..."

"To embrace the child I held dear once more..."

"To enact my revenge on that accursed fairy who did this to me...!"

"You will not stand in my WAAAYYYYY!!!"

Goodness! Even his voice is hot.

But not hotter than my Yoruto though!

The boss's new title appeared above his head, along with a new set of health bars being filled up. At the same time when that was happening, I felt a rumble in the water. I could see what was going on though, so I asked Yoruto.

"Wh-What's... hap...pening...?"

And in two words, Yoruto explained everything.

"Flesh golems." He said. "He's brought up an army of flesh golems around us."

Around us...? Don't tell me he's talking about the pile of human corpses we saw in the pool!? They were enemies!?

"Raise... my puppets. And bring me their fresh materials!"

<The Puppet King, Pinocchio>

"First, I wanted to run from him. Now, I want to approach him. Stop messing with my sexuality, Rindou!" ~UFO Developer, Yuki.

There is no way we can win now. I have used up all of my trump cards. Yoruto has used up most of his, aside from his Final Rush skill. Or was it called Final Push? Whichever it is, there is no way that alone can stand up to the boss at full HP now. Especially now that the boss himself is smaller, he is definitely going to be way more difficult to beat.

And Yoruto seems to be of the same sentiment, considering what he said next.

"Welp. It was a good run. Time to die now, I guess."

And die, we did...

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

<You have been consumed by the darkness!>

[Death penalty has been calculated.]

[Respawning at the last visited safe area...]

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

It's a shame that we lost. But...

We'll be back, Pinocchio.