I had no strategy for the battle that followed. The lightning beast overwhelmed me so thoroughly that even dodging was a struggle.
I clucked my tongue in frustration. All I could do before the might of this creature was run. Its speed surpassed mine, and each attack had the power to annihilate me. I evaded direct hits, but grazes alone stung with pain. Combined with the shocking sparks of lightning that cloaked its body, my HP fell by nearly one thousand points. At this rate, I’d be overrun. The beast moved so fluidly that I couldn’t find openings to parry or strike back either.
Should I use Dungeon Teleportation to escape to the lower levels?
No, that wouldn’t work. I needed 0.8 seconds at a minimum to activate it. In a fight this advanced, I couldn’t buy that kind of time with a pile of gold. Evasion was all I had—but protecting myself wasn’t enough.
“There!”
I saw the slightest opening during my next dodge and took advantage of it, one-handedly swinging Nameless to slice at the beast’s right front leg.
“What?!”
To my literal shock, my sword betrayed me, rebounding with a sharp thunk off the defensive barrier and conducting a bolt right up into my body. It burned horribly, and for a split second, the world went white. At the same time, my HP dropped by three thousand points. The beast’s attack didn’t end just because I was in pain. Seeing my weakness, it gave chase and kicked with its powerful back legs.
I blocked in desperation, but the weight of the kick sent me flying and forced the air from my lungs. I rolled and rolled over the ground, bouncing and skidding until I lost momentum. My HP display showed 14,345/77,820 in the corner of my vision.
That attack wiped out over half of my HP.
Worse, my one ray of hope—the Ring of Marou (True)—cracked and broke, as if it couldn’t endure such a powerful magic attack. I was doomed. One more hit like that and death would know me by name.
The lightning beast ran at me as if it meant to make the introductions right away.
“No…!” I choked out.
I dragged my battered, bloodied body off the ground and attempted to retreat, but then I realized something. At that speed and with my body aching, I probably couldn’t dodge.
Then what could I do? Just lay down and die?
Tch! Forget that!
“It can’t end here!” I screamed.
I leapt aside with the last of my power, knowing it was probably futile. The beast stomped down with all four legs, delivering a shock wave that left a massive crater. Not four individual holes—an entire crater, as if a meteor had crashed into the battlefield.
Only then did it register that I was analyzing the destruction from a distance.
“What?”
I had dodged in time. I should’ve been pulverized beneath its paws. How did I escape…?
That’s when I remembered the bonus skill I’d earned. “Revitalize kicked in!”
Revitalize LV 1
This skill activates automatically when HP is at 30% or lower.
The more HP lowers, the more parameters of Attack, Speed, and Intelligence increase.
My HP was at 20 percent, which meant the skill had activated and granted me the speed I needed to escape. Based on feel, I guessed the boost amounted to 50 percent or so.
“And here I was trying so hard not to let this skill activate,” I laughed. If nothing else, it saved my life.
The lightning beast quietly turned and analyzed me, as if it didn’t expect me to evade that attack either. Meanwhile, I had to come up with a plan to spin the chessboard. Should I rely on Revitalize and attack with its effects in play? With my Speed and Attack stats boosted, I might compete with the beast.
“No, that’s not true,” I told myself.
I squinted at the enemy in front of me, thinking. Maybe that would work if I could defeat it in one hit, but the beast was cloaked in that annoying defensive barrier. I needed to land multiple hits before getting a real shot at the beast itself. Not to mention, it could use its lightning cloak to zap me back until my HP dropped to zero.
“Sucks to use it so soon, but I don’t have a choice,” I sighed, and withdrew the Complete Recovery Potion from Item Box. I drank it in one decisive gulp, healing my wounds and fully restoring my HP and MP.
Back to the most pressing problem: thinking of an actual plan to beat this thing.
What can I do…?
The beast surpassed me in every way, and even if I attacked, that defensive barrier and lightning cloak would protect it. That giant, muscled body would pulverize me if I tried.
Predator and prey. That’s what this dynamic felt like. No matter what kind of plan I dreamed up, none of them seemed feasible. Not a single weapon I owned could penetrate the beast’s protections and wound the hide beneath without injuring me in the process.
“Except… for one.”
A plan began to form in my mind. It was such an unbelievable plan, completely detached from reality, but it was a plan, nonetheless.
“Is it possible?” Logic pushed back at me, but instinct argued that this was the only viable option for survival.
The beast snarled and cut into my thinking time. It remained cautious, but it started to pace toward me. I could sense its intent—it wouldn’t let me get away this time.
I made up my mind and lowered my stance. “I won’t run away,” I swore to myself. “I said I’d surpass my own limits!”
I plowed toward it. The beast roared and barreled at me.
The rest happened in a flash.
I raised Nameless to meet the beast’s claws head on, and then—there! I used my momentum to slip under the claws instead of bringing Nameless down. Our paths collided.
Attack power wouldn’t decide the outcome of this battle. Power and speed would. In this moment, the beast’s speed was greater than mine. I wasn’t simply swinging my sword hard—I was taking advantage of the beast’s speed too! If I wasn’t as strong or fast as the beast, I would use its own stats against it! This should break through its defenses in one strike!
“Take this!” I screamed.
I swung my blade with unprecedented force—
And sliced empty air.
“…Huh?”
I was sure I’d hit it. I must’ve. Confounded, I halted, unsure where the beast had vanished to.
“Above me?!” I shouted in horror as I realized. Just before my attack landed, it hit the brakes and propelled itself into a jump. The only reason it could manage that was because it had such unreal reflexes.
Now it was in the air, and the beast would use gravity to come down on those huge legs and crush me.
I held Nameless over my head as a shield, but defense was futile. It impacted me with the massive weight of it focused into its front right leg. I collapsed to the ground underneath its pressure. The force of it shattered the earth around me. As if I could possibly dodge that!