Hecatoncheires blocked my sixth Dimension Claws swipe with his sword, then immediately swung it around to unleash a Dimension Slash. It caught me off guard and I couldn’t dodge in time, and the attack sliced into my shoulder. My scales broke, and blood gushed from the wound, but I didn’t take much damage. I was pretty sure I could take a few of these cuts and still be fine, and he wouldn’t hit me a bunch of times at once, so I could use Hi-Rest and Regenerate to heal between blows too. There was nothing to fear.
Hecatoncheires blocked my seventh Dimension Claws, but my eighth hit. He still couldn’t block me perfectly.
So what was my plan here? If I kept hitting him with Dimension Claws from a distance, I might not need to get close and risk taking more damage. He could have some weird skill I wasn’t expecting up his sleeve.
For now, I’ll check where his HP’s at…
Hecatoncheires
Species: Hecatoncheires
Status: Mad God
Lv: 140/140 (MAX)
HP: 9689/10000
MP: 9937/10000
O-okay, dang. This guy’s more solid than I thought…! Sure, I had Regenerate and other skills to use in a pinch, but if I just kept using Dimension Claws, this would be a battle of attrition I wasn’t sure I’d win. Hecatoncheires’s MP was also ridiculously high, so I’d probably run out of magic far before he did and end up being forced to retreat. Not to mention, between his Physical Resistance: Lv MAX and Halved Physical Damage: Lv —, I’d be doing a lot less damage per attack, and half damage meant only half the typical MP needed to recover. This was much scarier to me than him having twice my HP.
But magic attacks wouldn’t do much against him either. He had Magic Resistance: Lv MAX and Magical Decomposition: Lv —.
All right…then I’d just have to get in there and fight him in close combat. Even one good hit would do more damage than all those Dimension Claws, so there was no point in wasting my MP on them. This guy was such a physical-stat beast that there was no way a war of attrition could be a viable strategy. He was the tankiest monster I’d ever seen—way tougher than an Ouroboros or World Treant. I hadn’t been expecting him to be so tough to damage. This fight could end up being more trouble than I thought…
I stalled the Hecatoncheires with a barrage of Dimension Claws, then swooped toward him and smacked him with my tail, intending to knock him flying. But Hecatoncheires only staggered slightly—his stone surface cracked from the impact, but he didn’t move.
What?! I should be way stronger than him! The impact should’ve sent him flying backward, giving me another opportunity to attack. Instead, Hecatoncheires’s form suddenly burst into a spray of black mist that flew toward me at a tremendous speed. In the blink of an eye, Hecatoncheires reappeared right in front of me, his sword raised in preparation to swing.
I recognized the skill from his status screen: Shadow Dance.
Normal Skill “Shadow Dance.” The user’s body sinks into the shadows, greatly boosting movement speed.
Simple, but deadly. Underestimating skills that boosted movement speed was a recipe for disaster. Although it was limited, him having a way to upend the gap between our agility stats was bad news for me.
As Hecatoncheires’s blade swung down, I caught it with one front paw and punched him with the other one. Hecatoncheires staggered back. I opened my fangs wide and chomped down hard on his weakened right side.
Ouch. I’m gonna need a dragon dentist after this…but I got him! My fangs sank deep into Hecatoncheires and stuck. Now this was what I called a proper close-range brawl!
Hecatoncheires’s countless fists rained down on me over and over, but I used Regenerate to combat the damage and pounded his chest with my paws. If I could break through his outer stone layer, I’d do a lot more damage!
I reared back and swung wide, claws outstretched. But they tore through nothing but air.
‹Wha…?› At the same time, my fangs lost their grip and snapped shut. Black mist escaped from my mouth as Hecatoncheires dissolved into shadow again, then reappeared a short distance away.
I see… So Shadow Dance wasn’t an attack skill. Well, no, it was pretty strong for attacking as well, but its true value lay in its ability to get Hecatoncheires out of a tight spot at minimal cost.
‹Hmph… Seems like you prefer our little long-range mudslinging match. Fine, then. I’ll play your game.›
Not good… This fight might be closer than I thought. I assumed it’d be easy since he couldn’t knock down all my HP at once, but that was true for both of us.
Hecatoncheires and I stood still for a moment, glaring at each other, but then I pounced to strike. I needed to preserve my MP and avoid using skills to do damage as much as possible. Hecatoncheires’s resources were all focused on defense, physical strength, and recovery. If I kept wasting my MP on attacking him, I’d run out much faster than he would.
In that case, my best solution was probably to take advantage of the difference in our physical stats to deal damage. I’d been hoping to avoid a long battle against a complete tank like Hecatoncheires, but his greatest strength wasn’t his ability to handle a mudslinging match, it was that the longer this fight dragged on, the easier it would be for him to come out on top. From what I’d seen from the battle so far, this was clear.
I leapt off the ground and charged through the air at Hecatoncheires, flying low. He raised his sword to swing, but his attack came too late—I dodged through it and dug my claws into his right side. His stone body cracked.
I whirled in midair and dove back toward him. Hecatoncheires could counter continuous attacks easily by retreating with Shadow Dance, so I needed to attack him slowly, one blow at a time.
Hecatoncheires, seemingly realizing he couldn’t match my speed, held up his greatsword like a shield to protect himself. I tried to slip past his blade and land another blow, but he moved just in time to block my claws. Another round of punches from his many arms fell on me like a storm. I curled my body to defend myself and leapt back to escape.