Rahul charged forward at the snake once again, trying his best to look away from the slitted eyes that gleamed with malevolent intelligence, and more importantly, paralyzing intent.
The serpent's head darted forward with lightning speed, its fangs aiming for Rahul's head, the poison dripping from them a promise of agonizing death.
Rahul jumped to his side at the last moment, narrowly avoiding the fang but getting splashed by a stray drop of poison which burned through his muscles and hissed against his bones.
I really can't keep dodging like this. I need to commit to the attack.
He told himself as he emptied another health potion and circled around, charging at the serpent again, this time aiming for its flanks.
But this wasn't something he hadn't tried before, and just like the last several times, the snake slithered away, repositioning itself so that Rahul was once again coming straight at its head.
A mage or archer would have been really handy about now.
He cursed, as the sight of an open jaw larger than his entire body once again caused him to jump out of the way, the unrefined dodge making it impossible for his Footwork II's counterattack bonus to trigger.
"I need to slow down for a second."
Rahul shouted to Matt, who nodded and removed the intent protection from him. Now free to get into action, the knight charged the snake himself.
And unlike Rahul, he didn't dodge, instead bringing up his large shield and blocking the fangs. But even with its jaw locked in place, the alpha had options, and its tail came in to swat Matt away like a pesky rodent.
With his shield locked in position, Matt tried to block the strike with his sword instead, but that half-hearted attempt at a defense proved completely inadequate as he and his shield were both flung off to the distance, his sword flying away separately and dropping with a clang.
Rahul watched the events from a distance, staying well out of the reach of the serpent's paralyzing gaze now that he had no defenses against the Medusan Viper.
How the hell will I ever fight if I have to keep worrying about the possibility of drying from two good hits?
He thought, having second thoughts about the whole capping vitality at ten percent bit.
I could have been sitting at nearly a thousand HP if it weren't for that cap.
He bemoaned, as he considered his options.
My intent is close to three, and once I tag Matt out and go in again, I should be able to reach three. That gives me the option of either a very strong close-range kinetic cleave or about thirty seconds or so in an intent trance.
Noticing that Daniel and Maya were now in range, he looped them in.
"It can paralyze you if you so much as glance past its eyes, and has mental skills that push you to do just that. Other than that, it's a regular venomous monster snake. Pepper it with your attacks from here and soften it up. I'm going in to attack."
His friends nodded, and given that they had only a minute before reinforcements would start pouring in, got right to work.
The painful shriek of the alpha as a barrage of fire mana bullets impacted against its left eye was like music to Rahul's ear.
Daniel's fireballs weren't nearly as damaging, burning almost harmlessly against the reptile's skin, but when Rahul noticed one of Maya's mana bullet curve through the air and hone in on the eye of the recoiling serpent, he knew that the Apprentice Intent Weaver's focus was on guiding Maya's attacks more than it was on fueling his own.
He wondered how his friends were aiming at the eyes without looking at them, but decided it was not worth investigating in the middle of a fight.
"Matt, cover me."
He shouted instead, and immediately felt the protection of Matt's intent resistance cover him.
He charged at the writhing snake's exposed belly, and his twin blades drew several shallow cuts across the thick scale.
The daggers are fine for humans, but with how big these monsters are getting, I really need to carry around an axe for dungeon dives.
It fits the Berserker profile too.
Despite the minimal damage that his cuts were doing, Rahul wasn't that concerned.
Because he could hear the war sounds of accumulating intent.
The moment his intent hit three, Rahul changed tactics and charged once more at the snake's head, drawing inspiration from Maya and Daniel's efforts at targeting the eyes that were the source of the viper's most dangerous skill.
As he drew closer, he felt the fear return, but kept going.
I'm going to do it.
Rahul realized as he closed in on the snake, readying his blades for a Kinetic Cleave.
The snake must have realized it too, because instead of darting right at him, it started rising to its full height.
Shit, the eyes are too far. My short-range cleave won't reach them, and the long-range one is too weak, not to mention too slow. There is a third option, but it is risky.
After considering the situation, he made up his mind.
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Well fuck it, I'll do it.
Then he crouched, ready to jump closer to the menacing head. But realizing how vulnerable he would be flying through the air without footwork to get him out of the way, he chickened out and jumped away instead.
Ivan is almost here. I can wait a bit longer, and accumulate more intent while I'm at it.
As the barrage of fireballs and fire mana bullets from the two mages continued, he once again started slicing at the viper's sides.
Ten seconds later, Ivan arrived.
With a furious chameleon not far behind.
Whatever I want to do, I have to do now.
"I'm about to do something stupid. Make sure I don't die. Also, avoid looking at the eyes, they can paralyze you. "
Rahul shouted at the tank and then went at the viper again.
And I'll need all the advantages I can get. I just hope all my practice with rage mode pays off.
And this time, right before he jumped, he went into rage mode with frenzy management enabled. His vision turned red and his thoughts felt misty, but that wasn't the biggest difference.
That would be the immediate jump in his effective stats.
Beyond the +30% that he was already getting from being engaged in melee, and the 2% he was getting from his FIRST KILL I title, Rahul was now also getting +20% from being in berserker mode, +4% from being moderately mad at the alpha, and 2.2% from the Brittle Blizzard bonus. That 26.2% bonus was reduced to 20.96% due to the frenzy management penalty, meaning his stats were now all up nearly 53%.
Except for vitality, which was slightly lower due to being exempt from the 2.2% bonus.
Rahul crested the air and found himself face to face with a positively drooling viper.
That arrogant fucker thinks it has got me. All it has seen so far are my regular attacks.
He thought as he felt his rage boil over and his stats bonus increase even further.
Time for it to see what I can do with my skills active.
Then, a second before the alpha's poisonous fangs could clamp down on him, Rahul swept his blade in an arc aimed right at the viper's two eyes.
Kinetic Cleave.
The arc of destruction emerged from his blade only mere feet away from the viper's eyes, giving it no time to evade.
The cleave cut a deep gash across the viper's face, damaging both its eyes. Rahul felt the background pressure from the mental attack disappear, signaling that his attack had worked.
I hope everyone realizes that and start attacking without hesitation.
While Rahul had learned how to think more or less clearly during the rage trance so long as he had the frenzy management active, he still couldn't speak out loud.
However, that was the least of his worries as the now-blinded viper's fangs started closing on him.
Rahul's dominant hand was out of position due to the kinetic cleave he just executed, leaving his other hand free. He managed to block one of its fangs with the blade, but the other was about to stab right into his right shoulder.
That's when Ivan tackled the viper, causing it to miss Rahul by a few inches.
He checked his stamina bar and noticed it was three-quarters full. Then he confirmed that Ivan and Matt were both nearby.
Alright, time to go berserk for real.
With that thought, Rahul disabled the frenzy management bonus, and jumped at the now blind viper.
----------------------------------------
"Here, drink this."
Matt offered a panting Rahul.
"Don't forget to invest the free stats."
He added before jumping back into combat.
Rahul checked his notifications.
You have killed the Level 48 Medusa Viper. 280,000 experience earned.
Now that the alpha was dead, its level was visible, and was the first thing Rahul noticed.
So, Maya is level 48. Or at least she was at the start of the battle.
He added, noticing the massive XP amount and guessing that most of his friends would have leveled, and checked the next notification.
You have advanced to level 45.
1300/400000 experience to the next level.
Your strength has increased from 127 to 128.
Your endurance has increased from 110 to 112.
Your dexterity has increased from 127 to 128.
Your vitality has decreased from 42 to 41.
You have received 10 free stat points.
For a second, Rahul felt the temptation to let the drop in vitality go just this once, and put all his free stats into strength and dexterity.
But he recalled his promise to Maya, and accepting that it was a slippery slope, put 4 of the free stat points into vitality, getting it up to 43. He divided the remaining 6 equally into strength and dexterity.
Character Overview Name Rahul Sharma Race Human (F) Class Melee Level 45 HP 383/430 MP 270/270 Stamina 315/1120 Intent Points 2/7 Strength 131 (144.1) Endurance 112 Dexterity 131 (137.55) Vitality 43 Intelligence 27 Perception 79 (86.9) Presence
Name Momentum Level 1
There was one last notification remaining.
Quest Updated: Eliminate the Alphas
You went out of the way, meeting one of the Arboreal creatures of this Eldertree Forest out in the open, and bested it. Eliminate all other Arboreal alphas to complete this dungeon. Eliminating an alpha will provide dungeon points and open a portal that can be used to exit this dungeon.
Progress - 1/6 alphas eliminated
As promised, there was a portal right next to where that snake had been slain.
We can go home now...
Rahul thought, not noticing how he had, for the first time, called just called Laysan Island his home.
But the chameleon was still running amok, and without its invisibility and out in the open plains, it didn't look so threatening.
I guess we can do one more alpha...
His friends of course had made the same decision and were already engaging the chameleon. Or perhaps it had arrived before they had killed the snake, and they had no choice but to fight both.
Whatever the case may be, it's time to get back to work.
Rahul decided and charged at the chameleon.
And the first flock of birds that had finally covered the distance from their mother tree and made their way to attack the intruders.