Time seemed to slow as the tail descended and it gave me time to watch with rapt attention as the appendage made its way toward me. I poured everything I had into getting my skill to upgrade and could only hope that it was enough.
When the two finally met, cracks shot out from the impact site running in every direction. With my mana as saturated into the wall as it was, I felt it crack, I heard it crack, and I saw it crack.
My fears manifested. It wasn't enough.
As the cracks spread out and threatened to shatter completely, the tail ended its descent.
As soon as I saw that the tail stopped I wanted to jump for joy. It held. I thought that it was done for when the cracks started spreading and the wall was going to shatter, but it didn't.
The energy of the tail dissipated as the ice cracked and absorbed the blow. My skill worked.
Being as excited as I was that it worked, I didn't see the boss turn around to continue its attack. I was so focused on the one attack that I didn't think about what would follow.
The lizard came around with its mouth and chomped straight through the remnants of my shield of ice. I had enough wherewithal and battle experience to react quickly, but I was a step behind.
The boss clamped down on my right arm with its powerful jaws and sharp teeth easily penetrating the skill-empowered skin.
"Ahh." I let out a scream at the sudden pain and the feeling of teeth digging into my arm. It felt like they were scraping bone they were so deep.
The pain jumpstarted my mind into focus and I fought through it to come up with everything I could do.
I didn't have a weapon to attack, the boss was already clamped on my arm, and my mana was running low after using it to defend.
I had to get the boss to let go of my arm or it would pull it off. It nearly bit it clean off and only my high fortitude stopped it.
With only one thing that came to mind to get it to let go, I shoved my fist into its eye.
With my free left hand, I punched it square in the eye which was conveniently within arm's reach now that it was biting my arm. My goal was to cause as much pain as possible. I didn't have to worry about the scaly exterior if I hit somewhere that was unprotected.
The boss could only watch as my fist collided with its vulnerable eye and completely ruptured it. It tried to bring its eyelids down in time to put up some defense, but it wasn't quick enough. Clear warm goo traveled down my arm and splattered onto my face.
Finding myself arm deep in the eye socket of a lizard was somewhere I never imagined I'd ever find myself.
The boss yelped in pain and let go of my arm, immediately trying to create distance. It wanted to protect itself from further damage and remove the intruding appendage from its eye socket.
[Rage] was dulling the pain but I could still feel it throbbing. I couldn't feel anything lower than my elbow on my right arm and had to look to make sure it was still attached. I sighed in relief when I found it still there.
Blood was running down my arm from the many puncture wounds from the teeth but it was still there. Reattaching a limb, or re-growing a limb, is something we haven't had to concern ourselves with yet.
I didn't even know if we could do it.
After assessing the damage, I watched the boss scramble around shaking its head back and forth from the unexpected loss of vision.
Austin took that chance to land a blow. Sunlight encased his spear and shot toward the boss. He came flying in from its blind side while the boss was trying to recover.
The attack scorched some of the rocky exterior and dislodged some of it, but other than that, it was ineffective.
Seeing how futile our attacks were, we went back to what we knew. Cripple it and wear it down.
My arm leaked blood constantly and throbbed in pain, but I couldn't back down.
The boss was weakened but not dead. It couldn't see out of one eye and that left a huge blind spot that we could exploit.
I wasn't going to be of much help attacking it so I focused on getting its attention.
A few [Ice Bolt]s were enough to accomplish that.
I sent them flying toward the other eye but the boss was smart enough to dodge them. All it had to do was move out of the way and the ice would shatter against its armor.
Now that I got its attention, others started to rain down their attacks.
Austin sent another spear of light at it and I saw a carpet of arrows descend from the sky. Austin's Mom, Carrie must have recovered enough to shoot arrows. An arrow came whizzing by that could only be Hal's. When the arrow impacted it blew a good chunk of armor completely off and revealed the scales underneath.
It would take time, but we could do it.
Since the ice was the only thing keeping me from getting torn apart, Rachel gracefully aimed her shots away from me. She had to wait until I was far enough away or else she would melt my defenses.
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I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off.
I didn't have the mana to stand toe to toe with the boss and tried to save as much of it as I could by running away from its attacks.
Expending as little as possible to send a few [Ice Bolt]s when it turned to focus on someone else.
I was huffing and puffing, my head felt woozy from the blood loss, but I pushed myself on. I needed to give them time to take it down.
Arrows magic and anything else they could throw were launched from the wall as more and more people from the western gate came over.
As I ran, I saw the attacks start to add up. More and more of its armor was falling off and some even made it through the scales. Seeing it bleed gave me a second wind to continue running.
If it could bleed, it could die.
Jonathan made it back at some point and attempted to take its attention from me. I still had enough in me to keep going and was about to brush him off. The thing that changed my mind was the look in his eye.
Jonathan looked resolute and like a man ready to fight to the death. Something in me resonated with it and I knew he would be able to do it.
I let him take the boss from me and searched for my axe.
"[Stone Aegis]!" Jonathan shouted. I heard him shout the name of his skill as I ran toward where I last saw my axe.
My vision wasn't on the boss anymore as I searched for my weapon and could only hope that Jonathan was up to the task. The feeling I got was new and I didn't know if I could trust it.
I went back to where I first clashed with the boss and looked around the pockets of upturned earth. It had been roughed up enough to be unrecognizable from before. Each of the boss's steps tore up more and any missed attacks aided in the effort of destruction. The giant chunks it threw at the wall created deep craters that we would have to fill in later.
It took a moment to find it but I managed. It wasn't in the pristine condition it once was, but it was enough.
Picking it up, I ran back toward the fight, ready to get back in it. I had to one hand my axe again but from previous experience I wasn't as bad.
The boss rained down attacks on Jonathan, but the man held. He brought a shield of earth from the ground that deflected the heavy attacks.
Austin was still trying to pierce through the scales but was making headway. I could tell from where the scales were scorched and burnt where he was attacking.
I had just gotten back into the fight when an order rang out from the wall.
"Back off! We're using the traps." Granddad's authoritative voice carried over the battlefield.
I couldn't help but wince remembering what traps he was talking about.
After the 10th wave, there were contingency plans in place if the monsters were to breach the wall again. We purchased traps from the store that laid dormant under the wall in case of emergency.
I wouldn't classify now as an emergency, but it wasn't my decision. The activation of the traps was in the hands of the faction head, Granddad.
Picturing how he was seeing the battle made it make more sense to activate them.
Blood was flowing freely from my arm and I could only use one hand to swing my axe, everyone had to be running low on mana from the battle and Hal wasn't shooting as much.
Rachel's fireballs were coming more infrequently. To Granddad, we were losing the battle of attrition.
I wanted to scream and shout that it was fine, we didn't need to waste the points but it wouldn't work.
As battle-worn as I looked, my opinion would be dismissed and continuing to fight would only lead to more injuries. Injuries we didn't need.
Austin and I made our retreat to the wall and I could tell that he was unhappy with the decision as well.
After we were both on the wall, Jonathan made his retreat. Calling it a retreat and not running for his life was gracious.
As soon as he grabbed hold of the rope, Austin and I heaved him up. The boss could do little more than watch as we all climbed up to safety.
Seeing all of its targets leave, it lumbered toward the wall to knock it down. Throughout the fight, I had dragged it around the field and distanced it from the wall that it was now closing.
As it got closer to where the traps were buried, the tension built. The traps were upgraded after the pylon upgrade and were extremely powerful from the one time that we tested them.
It was called an explosive trap in the store and once armed, it would explode when the next thing stepped on it. When we bought it, it set up intricate magical connections between the explosive device and the ground above it.
It was essentially a magically empowered land mine.
There were still chunks and pieces of armor on the boss, but it had depreciated enough to leave a decent-sized opening for the explosion to be fatal. When we tested it, F-ranked beasts weren't what we envisioned it being used against.
We had enough buried that it would hit one as it marched toward the wall and might even hit two with its size. Buying that many traps put a dent into our savings for the wall but they would be useless if they weren't activated.
There was a manual switch we could use but that didn't solve the issue of it being in the wrong spot.
As the boss closed in on the target zone everyone's nerves reached new highs.
I was so captivated by watching it get closer I didn't even feel it when Abigail started healing my arm.
One step after the next and it shuffled toward the bomb. When it finally hit the spot, the explosion was immediate.
The force rocked the walls and sent me stumbling back, barely left standing. White encapsulated my vision and I had to blink it away to see the damage. Others weren't as lucky and were thrown back from the force. Even as far away as we were, the force was still great.
As my vision cleared and the ringing in my ears died down, I saw the crater it left behind. The boss lost the foot directly above the trap and blood saturated the ground where it was.
It was blown over by the force and didn't look to be getting back up. Its chest was caved in and it looked like hell.
All of us stared dumbfounded at the outcome. The explosion was bigger than anticipated and the Common tier trap was more violent than we thought. It seemed its egregious price tag was well founded.
As the minutes passed and the boss lost blood, the notification chime brought us out of our stupor. The wave was over.
You have slain {Rock Salamander – Level 20} 400 points earned.
You have slain {Rock Salamander – Level 21} 441 points earned.
You have slain {Rock Salamander – Level 20} 400 points earned.
You have contributed in slaying {Rock Salamander – Level 20} 98 points earned.
...
You have contributed in slaying {Lesser Rock Drake – Level 25} 67 points earned.
You have successfully defended your claim! Extra experience awarded. 4,000 Points to all who participated.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Only one level was extremely disappointing and the pitiful amount of points for the boss was a rip-off. I knew we didn't land the killing blow and relied on traps, but it should be more than this.
If the points distributed were that low, thinking about the lost experience made me gnash my teeth. So much experience was wasted.
To make myself feel better I brought up the notification I got mid-battle about my skill upgrade.
You have upgraded a skill:
Ice Wall(Common) -> Ice Fortress(Uncommon)
Ice Fortress(Uncommon) – Creates a barrier of ice at the designated area. Height and width are determined at the time of activation. Maximum area and thickness are determined by mastery of the skill along with skill rarity.
Another skill upgraded. Now all I needed to do was figure out how to upgrade the rest. And I was one level closer to my evolution. I only had one more level to work with before it was too late.