The group spent some more time grinding monsters and fighting them to prepare for the lair boss. As they got more practice against fighting the sharks and other aquatic enemies, their confidence grew in taking on the beast. Even after seeing them take down dozens of sharks, he still didn't have a whole lot of confidence they could win. He thought about voicing his concerns, but he decided that he could always step in if something did happen to go wrong.
The group had each only leveled once, with one of the members leveling up twice. This brought the average level of the party to about 52, just barely below Mike’s own level. From what he had been told, the lair boss had a level of 73. The group was way more gung ho about fighting the boss than Mike thought they should be. He had fought against some high level enemies, and the last lair boss he’d fought had been tough, even for its level. That didn't stop Mike from one shooting it when he caught up to it in levels, but not everyone had dumped dozens of levels of stats into strength.
The group decided it was time to test their metal against one of the lairs' mini bosses. It was a large shark, double the size of what they had been fighting before. They had scouted it out slightly in advance, and saw that it was level 63. After a few minutes of preparation to get in peak condition, the group attacked.
Mike simply stood back, watching the fight pan out. He saw that with Sam spending every bit of her concentration keeping the air bubbles from bursting, the team couldn't really utilize their strongest mage. This did hinder them a bit, and they took some nasty looking bites several times, but soon the corpse of the shark floated dead in the water.
“So, if you guys do end up fighting the lair boss, at what point would you like me to step in and save your asses?” Mike asked.
“You don’t think we can kill it?” Roxanne asked, looking a bit taken aback.
“I have absolutely zero confidence you can. This mini boss put up a good fight against your team, and when compared to the lair boss is still considered quite weak. That whale sized shark is the lair boss for a reason, it is strong for its level as well as having a high level. Your team simply wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Do you think you could kill it?” Antonio asked.
“Maybe, I’d have to see it in person to make any guesses. I did kill a lair boss with almost a 20 level disparity, and I think I could do it again. My only concern is that I may not be very good at fighting underwater.”
“Are we supposed to just believe that?” Roxanne butted in again. “I mean, people did see you fight that druid in Gratsden a while back, but nobody actually saw you fight that tarantula boss. For all we know you could be exaggerating its level.”
“Have some trust.” Antonio came to Mike's defense. “He isn’t our leader for nothing.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Roxanne huffed.
Sam suddenly raised her staff, and the bubble everyone was in began moving away rapidly. Everybody in the bubble had superhuman reflexes, and nearly instantly moved to follow their only source of air. “You might get your chance to see it soon.”
Mike looked behind them, seeing a massive shark trailing behind them. It was far, far faster than their bubble. It ate the distance up between them, slicing through the water like a knife. When Mike had heard that the shark was whale sized, he had interpreted that as looking kind of like a whale. What he instead saw was a shark that was the length of a whale, and had the torso diameter of two whales. It was almost comical seeing the disproportionately shaped shark. Still a terrifying sight, but comical nonetheless. Mike tossed an identify at the whale as they retreated.
Giga Selachii (level 73)
As the shark got closer, Mike could feel its presence press in from every direction. It reminded him of the aura of the sand serpent under Dune, which had attempted, and failed, to suppress his own aura. While the shark's aura was far weaker, it also clearly was not meant to suppress them. Instead, the mana in the water around them became a hostile force, pushing in on the team's air bubble and forcing it to slowly shrink.
He felt his own aura work to battle the effect, and it had brought it almost entirely to a halt once it reached 15 feet in diameter. Sam’s mana control made up the difference and kept the bubble stable at that size, though she was clearly straining. Mike turned around to face down the shark, hoping to fight it off and let the team get to safety, maybe even kill it.
“Wait! Don’t kill it.” Antonio yelled at Mike.
“Why?” Mike asked, not yet launching towards the shark.
“We can get stronger, then come back and kill that thing. It would be a waste to have spent so much time here and get our kill stolen. Just fight it off or slow it down for now.”
Mike could understand that sentiment, as he likely would have been thinking the same thing if he was in the party's shoes. He nodded at Antonio, then rocketed back to level the shark's charge. Hammer met mouth as he made his weapon as heavy as possible in an effort to halt the monster. He held his breath as the bubble quickly vanished from around him, leaving him in the water with no air. He didn't feel a pressing urge to breathe, and he guessed he could thank his constitution for that.
The shark opened its mouth to swallow Mike whole, and he kicked off his hammer to avoid the attack. He narrowly dodged the bite, shooting out of range for another quick follow up. He looked back, and the shark's momentum had completely halted. The hammer had gone into its mouth and down its throat. A few air bubbles escaped his mouth as he stifled a brief celebration. The shark was slowly sinking, not able to support the immense weight of the hammer.
As it hit the sandy floor, Mike began swimming towards the surface. He figured that the hammer could hold the shark in place for at least a while. He was a bit upset that he wasn't going to go for the easy kill of the trapped beast, but he had promised to leave that to Antonio’s team. He heard a loud sound through the water, and his perception faintly made out a tearing sound that made his skin crawl.
He looked down, seeing a cloud of red where the shark had been. He began swimming faster, already having a pretty good idea of what was about to happen next. Sure enough, the shark burst out from the cloud of blood, and Mike spotted a gaping hole in the upper abdomen of the monster which led into some part of its throat or stomach. Mike wasn't sure which, as he didn't know how far into the shark the hammer had made it.
‘He tore himself free.’ Mike realized, slightly intimidated by the gesture. If there was a list of ways to spook your opponent, ripping yourself apart to get to them was certainly up there. Mike kited the shark around for a while longer, not getting too close but not getting far enough to have it lose interest. After half an hour, he decided enough time had likely passed for him to head back to shore.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
He broke out of the water, flying high into the air to avoid any further confrontation with the large shark. Unfortunately for him, the shark was having none of that. It breached the surface of the water, following Mike into the air. He needed to fly to the side to avoid the shark's trajectory as it flew up past him, and once more as it fell back down to the water. After he flew far enough away from the lair the shark seemed to give up. Mike made it to shore a short time later, and he saw the hunting group sitting around a fire on the beach.
“So now that you have seen it, you think you can kill it?” Antonio asked, trying to dry his hair with mana.
Mike thought for a moment, thinking back on the fight. “Yeah, I think I could. Wouldn’t be too hard either, it is a good matchup for me.”
“Where did your hammer go?”
“I got it right here.” He summoned his hammer into his soul space, then into his hand. He was starting to get a bad habit of leaving it places, and he knew it would bite him in the ass at some point.
“So, how bad do you think it is? Can we kill it?” Sam asked.
“Not a chance you all can kill this thing without some serious improvements to your levels and/or skills.” Mike said. “For example, I am pretty sure Antonio doesn’t even realize he is about to blow his own head off with his magic. All that mana concentrated around your head isn't a good idea when you can't even condense a simple ball of it.”
The magic around the man's head stopped moving, and Mike could feel it get dispelled into the atmosphere as the arbiter pushed it away from himself as he spoke to Mike. “What do you suggest we work on then, since you seem to have it all figured out.”
“Well, obviously I don’t have it all figured out. You asked me to take note of what you could do better, and I can tell you.”
He pointed to every single member again and stated what things he thought they could improve on. He tried to teach some of the melee combatants the skill Blast Step, but only Antonio could recreate the skill, even if it was just barely passable. Mike tried to get everyone to work on their mana control, as that was the single most important factor when it came to upgrading skills.
He came to learn that it wasn't only Antonio with sucky control over his own energy. Almost everyone in the group had a rare or lower rarity skill in mana manipulation, and the tank didn't have the skill at all.
“If you can all learn the skill well enough to the point that you can sustain your own air bubble, then Sam should be able to help you all attack whatever you are fighting.” Mike explained.
“Why don’t you spar with us.” Sam suggested. “Fight us all one on one and we can see where we need to improve.”
“That's not a bad idea.” Mike said, then thought about it before having another idea. “You all fight as a team together, so it doesn’t really make sense to split you up to test your abilities. Why don’t you all fight me together, then we can see how you all do.”
“Talk about cocky.” Roxanne muttered under her breath, not quietly enough. That did make Mike realize that everytime he said something quietly, somebody had likely heard it thanks to super human perception levels.
“How do we decide when somebody is out?” Antonio asked.
“Good question.” Mike looked around a bit, trying to think of a possible lose condition. He ran in a massive circle, drawing a deep line in the sand with his hammer. Soon, they had a circle in the sand with a diameter of almost a kilometer. “If you get thrown out of this circle, you lose.”
“Sounds good to me.” Antonio said, before rushing at Mike with his spear. The rest of the party trailed behind him, wanting to end the fight as fast as they could. Mike dodged to the side of a spear jab, and grabbed the offending weapon. Ripping it from the man's hand, he tossed it far away where it buried itself in the sand. “Hey! How am I supposed to fight now?”
“Remember when I asked how you fight if you lose your spear? Well, now is the time to figure that out. Trial by fire. I hope you trust your team enough to cover your ass here.” Mike began swinging his hammer at the man, observing every dodge and counter he attempted. The hammer was at a very low weight, as Mike wasn't looking to pulverize anybody. He also swung it far slower than he could have, as with the lower weight he could have gotten that hammer moving. Attacks came flying in from every direction, with spells getting slapped to the side by his hammer and sword digging into his armor.
Despite Mike being far stronger than his opponents, he had not upgraded his armor in far too long. It was almost as weak as his own skin and bones by now, and that simply wasn't acceptable. He resolved to work on a new set of armor when he got back to Thudfall, but for now he needed to focus. By far the biggest threat to him on the battlefield was Sam. He was beginning to regret having the battle so close to the water, as she could manipulate it to her will quite well.
Whips or water smacked against his body, leaving deep dents in his armor. He used Arcane Repair to fix his defenses as it was damaged, but after a while he decided it wasn't worth the steep mana cost. Antonio fared about as well as expected, which was not very well at all. The unarmed man did have one surprise up his sleeve however. He kicked Mike's leg, using burst step to add to the damage.
Mike felt a sharp sting of pain in his leg as the attack hit, and he decided that Antonio had learned enough for now. With a flash of speed, Mike grabbed the collar of Antonio’s armor. Throwing the man over his shoulder. He didn't even need to look to know that he would end up over the line in the sand. Turning his attention to problem number two, he used burst step to plow through the warriors harassing him. Bodies flew as he ran through them like a battering ram, and he grabbed the collar of Sam's leather armor.
“Buy me dinner first.” She joked, and Mike paused just long enough to process what had been said. Unfortunately, he had fallen right into her trap, and she grabbed his wrist. He could feel her mana try to penetrate into his body. Unfortunately for her, Mike had a trait effect that negated most attempts to do exactly what she was attempting. On top of that, his control over mana was significantly higher than his opponents. He used his own mana to deliver what could only be described as a slap into her mana channels, and she seized up long enough for Mike to throw her out of the circle.
The next person he wanted to get out wasn't because he felt she had learned something, but because he was feeling a bit spiteful. He ran up to Roxanne, using his hammer to redirect and deflect incoming spells. Her teammates tried to stop him, but none could match his speed thanks to his use of Blast Step. He didn't bother grabbing the mage's collar, instead delivering a kick to her abdomen that sent her sailing away.
If anybody ever asked Mike, he would claim that he hadn't been strong enough to send her flying out of the circle with just one kick. He would be the only one to ever know that the second kick he delivered to her stomach may have been unnecessary, but it just felt so good. After she flew out of the line, clutching her stomach as she hit the ground, Mike danced around various other attacks, waiting for each of the members to show that they had made at least a minor improvement in their skills or fighting styles.
He was happy to see that the tank was actually blocking hits and absorbing damage for his team now instead of trying to avoid attacks at all costs. In fact, he got in the way so much that Mike decided to toss him outside of the boundaries. From there, he made quick work of the other seven people in the group. None had shown as much prowess as the first five to fall, but that was fine. That was the reason the others had been the first to go down.
As everyone regrouped after the fight, Mike clapped his hands together, speaking to everybody. “Good match everyone. Some of you really had some tricks that I was not expecting. Namely you, Antonio. I might steal that tactic of kicking and using Blast Step. As for everyone else, you certainly could use a couple skill upgrades. I would highly recommend working on your skills as opposed to your levels, as that will take you much farther than a marginal increase to your stats.”
Antonio raised his hand like a school kid, and Mike pointed at him, waiting for the question. “Was it at least a close fight.”
Mike thought about having a bit of humility, but the sense of pride he felt over the fight overwhelmed any manners he could have displayed. “No. Not even kind of close. I have a skill that makes me stronger when facing stronger opponents, and another that makes me stronger when I infuse mana into myself. Neither were activated during this fight, and I have quite a few other cards I didn't play. Hell, If you all were 20 levels higher than me, I still would have confidence in winning that fight. Like I said before, your skills are far more important than your levels. That being said, I am going to go and upgrade a skill of mine that is long overdue for an upgrade. Cya later. “
Mike flew off into the distance without waiting for a response, ready to go and make his new set of armor.