Astaria followed her [Lightning] up by using [Residual Burst] which caused Square Jaw to stumble onto the edge of the fire, the movement becoming more unstable from its injured knee. Just as the boss was about to recover an exploding fireball struck it in the back, the force of both consecutive attacks caused the large hobgoblin goblin to fall onto the fire, howling in pain as his skin began to burn.
“Damn, you're brutal!”
Hearing Tyrell's comment from behind, Astaria shook her head as she moved closer to cast an [Earth Spike] at the exposed knee of the boss.
Square Jaw in his pain started to flail about, pushing the fire over while swinging his arm about. Pieces of flaming wood that were burnt into his arm were released with the force of his movements, causing one sharp splinter to fly directly at Astaria’s chest.
Astaria felt a looming sense of danger upon noticing the shard flying at her, regretting being so careless while her reflexes kicked in and she shifted her body to the right in an attempt to dodge. However, she noticed the danger too late and the shard of flaming wood stabbed into her upper left arm.
The wood pierced deeply into her upper arm while the flames coating it burnt her skin, causing her to try to suppress a scream as her staff fell to the floor, her arm unresponsive from the pain.
Not taking any further risks, Astaria immediately backed off while making the most of the brief moment that the boss was still distracted trying to get up. She stabbed her sword into the ground and pulled the flaming wooden shard out of her arm before it caused any more damage, gritting her teeth from the immense pain.
The wound caused a total of 112 damage and -2HP bleeding per second, meaning Astaria had two and a half minutes to drink a health potion or bandage her arm before she died from blood loss.
Quickly assessing the situation, Astaria could see that her move paid off as Square Jaw lost around 13% of its HP, leaving its remaining health at 11%. If she managed to incapacitate the boss’s leg before she bled out, then she would have enough breathing room to drink a health potion and freely attack with little risk.
Deciding to push through the pain, Astaria pulled her sword from the dirt floor, trying to ignore the pain from her left arm that remained too painful to move. Readying herself, she let her anger rise, using it to push the pain in her arm to the back of her mind. Her emotions were fuelled by hate for the goblin boss and in annoyance at her careless mistake, making her knuckles turn white from how much strength she was using to grip her sword.
Seeing what had just happened, Tyrell put his hand out to stop Roxanne who was about to rush towards Astaria.
“Aurora, are you ok?!”
Hearing Roxanne call out, Astaria shouted back in an angry tone, her eyes never leaving Square Jaw.
“Stay back. This Bastard took my arm; I am taking his leg.”
With the shout, Astaria charged at Square Jaw who was standing up with the entire front of his body charred black while numerous splinters of wood still burnt with fire as they remained lodged into his skin.
Observing the blackened boss raise his arm to smash down at her, Astaria immediately stopped her charge just out of range, preventing the fist that was swinging down at her from making a direct hit.
With practised moves, Astaria bursts forward and leaps to its side, using Square Jaw’s lowered arm as a foothold while thrusting her sword at the boss’s eyes. While her thrust was not directly on target, it had the intended effect as the enraged boss raised its arms to block the strike.
With the moment of opportunity she had created, Astaria spun around behind Square Jaw using the momentum from her landing to launch a slash directly into the gaping wound in the boss’s knee.
Realising that her attack still was not enough, Astaria decided to fully commit to taking out the leg by stabbing directly into the wound using the full weight of her body. Sliding her right foot back, she thrust her sword directly into the wound, the sword penetrating much deeper than she expected, making the boss roar from the pain.
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Square Jaw's arm which was swinging towards Astaria like a club was thrown off as his knee buckled, flying directly over Astaria’s head and missing her by inches. As the boss’s right leg could no longer support him, his momentum caused him to land face-first onto the floor of the cave.
Incredibly pleased with the result, Astaria immediately backed off leaving her sword embedded in the boss's knee as she issued commands to the party.
“Tyrell, hammer the sword in deeper, better safe than sorry. Watch out for flailing. Roxanne, Ben, start attacking again.”
Hearing responses in acceptance of her orders, Astaria immediately opened up her inventory again and pulled out a red potion which she started to drink. Feeling the pain subsiding with every gulp, a sense of relief flooded over her as she was seriously worried that she would make a mistake and the whole party would be wiped out.
Looking back down, she can see Tyrell swing his hammer down onto the pummel of her sword like a nail, piercing Square Jaws Knee even further while the boss tried using his hands and remaining left knee to rise up.
The burst of pain Square Jaw received from his knee caused him to scream again as his body shuddered and collapsed back onto the floor.
Seeing Tyrell back off to a safe distance, Ben and Roxanne started launching all of their attacks at the boss, beginning the process of whittling down the last of its HP as Astaria walked over and picked her staff back up. With Square Jaw only able to crawl as he tried to get closer, the rest of the fight became easy as everyone was able to stay out of range.
With a final cast of [Lightning], the Boss dropped to the floor face first, his corpse now a mess of green black, and red.
[Hobgoblin Raid Boss: Square Jaw Lv 35 defeated. 629% XP gained. 2627% skill point XP gained]
[Lv 18 -> 24]
[All Attributes +10]
[+30 Attribute Points]
[+27 Skill Points]
[[System Announcement: The Raid Party led by Immortal Warrior Astaria is the first group to kill a Raid Boss. All party members have been awarded the unique title: Raid Pioneer]]
[[System Announcement: The Raid Party led by Immortal Warrior Astaria is the first group to kill the Mutated Hobgoblin Raid Boss: Square Jaw. All party members have been awarded the unique title: Slayer of Square Jaw]]
[[System Announcement: The Raid Party led by Immortal Warrior Astaria is the first group to kill a Raid Boss with no deaths. All party members have been awarded the unique title: Stalwart Warrior]]
Seeing the 3 consecutive System Messages appear, Astaria let out a massive sigh of relief as she sat down on the floor with her legs folded to one side.
The other members of the group were now exchanging high fives, back pats, and fist bumps as they walked over to Astaria, their elation clear from their light steps as they all revelled in their victory.
Astaria checked out the new mail she received when the announcements appeared, a beautiful smile forming on her lips as she read their contents.
[{New: Congratulations for the ‘First Raid Party to Kill a Raid Boss’ Achievement}
{Sender: System}
{Congratulations for being the leader of the first raid party to kill a raid boss in Caelus online. You have received the unique title ‘Raid Pioneer’ and have been rewarded with 3 free attribute points, an epic equipment box, and x20 health and mana potions. Received items will be placed in your inventory.}]
[{New: Congratulations for ‘First Kill of the Mutated Goblin Raid Boss: Square Jaw’ Achievement}
{Sender: System}
{Congratulations for being the leader of the first raid party to kill the raid boss Square Jaw in Caelus online. You have received the unique title ‘Slayer of Square Jaw’ and have been rewarded with 3 free attribute points, a blue equipment box, and x20 health and mana potions. Received items will be placed in your inventory.}]
[{New: Congratulations for the ‘First Group to Kill a Raid Boss With no Deaths’ Achievement}
{Sender: System}
{Congratulations for being the leader of the first raid party to achieve the incredible feat of killing a raid boss with no deaths in Caelus online. You have received the unique title ‘Stalwart Warrior’ and have been rewarded with 4 free attribute points, a legendary equipment box, x10 fortification potions, and x1 Advanced Cosmetic Outfit Box. Received items will be placed in your inventory.}]
Looking at the system mail, Astaria’s surprise grew the further she read. Astaria realised that the first epic equipment previously obtained came from the first raid boss kill achievement and that the boss likely didn’t drop anything. However, when she lays her eyes on the legendary chest, she can’t hold her gasp of surprise.
As Astaria was aware, Caelus online is inherently fair, so to have a legendary chest appear before the official release was beyond mind-boggling to her. However, after thinking about the issue, she realised that it made sense. The rewards for completing an achievement that was already generated before the release of the game were already decided and the time of completion did not affect anything, meanwhile, achievements that are randomly generated from the outcome of players and the local's interactions were balanced to the server's progression and difficulty of the task.
Given the current level of the player's abilities, killing a raid boss with no deaths was next to impossible, meaning that by the time it was achieved normally, legendary equipment would be more common among players.
With a happy smile knowing that her skills were even more important while breaking the game balance, Astaria looked up at her friends who were starting to shower her with praise.