This goblin boss was far and away the strongest thing I have encountered in the tower thus far. It was pretty clearly something that was not intended to be fought head on, but instead avoided or out-maneuvered. I couldn’t see its exactly level, but I doubted it was much higher than 100.

The goblin didn’t fire any more arrows. It simply watched from a distance, waiting for me to make the first move. I’d already placed two arcane tags on it, so I had committed to the fight. Running now meant a 20% decrease in my stats that would last god knows how long. That was something I really couldn’t accept happening.

At last, I made the first move of the fight. A powerful bolt of mana fired from my staff, launching towards the goblin. Instead of dodging, the monster simply shot an arrow towards me, piercing right through the spell. The distance between us was enough that I could roll to the side, but it was also quickly made clear that I would need to get closer to do just about anything here.

My feet pounded against the ground as I began closing the distance between me and the boss. It fired off several more arrows, with each once getting harder to dodge as I got closer. One of them actually did manage to hit me, piercing through my shield and sinking a few centimeters into my arm. I couldn’t rely on that to absorb all of the damage this fight.

I rip the arrow from myself as I finally get close enough for what I wanted to do. My aura reshapes as it extends towards the goblin, becoming more of a cylinder than the sphere it usually was. That allowed me to extend its range far beyond what it could usually reach.

My aura wrapped around the goblin, and I began applying pressure while releasing a volley of spells. Not expecting to suddenly be hindered, the goblin fails to dodge two of them, and the mana bolts slam against it without leaving any meaningful damage. The goblin isn’t slowed very much, maybe by only about 10% or so, but anything I can do to close the gap of power between me and it is enough.

The goblin certainly still had me beat in terms of stats, but with all my magic techniques and aura control, I was far more than just the numbers on a screen. It was almost funny thinking about that. When the system had first come around, I liked the fact that I could look at a screen and know exactly what I was worth based off of a few numbers. Now, I knew that couldn’t be further from the truth.

A double cast of arcane blast leaves the end of my staff, the tip of it just half a meter away from the stomach of the goblin. It’s knocked back a bit, but quickly recovers. It begins to fire more arrows at me, but at this distance it is actually easier to dodge since I can see exactly where the arrow is pointed at before it releases.

The goblin begins stepping back to make space between the two of us, and for the first time starts to add a bit of finesse to its attacks. The arrows split into two, then four, and when they get close to me they detonate in an explosion of magic. My shield is able to tank this damage, but it still is expensive to counteract.

Thanks to my aura slowing it as well as empower increasing my speed, I actually manage to keep up with the goblin while it is on the backfoot. Attack after attack berates my mana shield, but for every blow it takes, I manage to land one of my own. I switch it up and begin sending spikes of mana as opposed to bolts. The boss’ armor is tough, and I need all of the penetrating power I can get.

Small holes begin appearing in the monsters armor, and soon I manage to draw blood as its leathery skin is finally injured. For the first time this fight, I had actually done meaningful damage to the monster. It seemed to realize this too, and it seemed to start taking the fight more seriously once it had determined I wasn’t a non-threat.

The goblins arms and bow glow, and over the next few seconds an absolute flood of arrows is sent towards me. I can’t count exactly how many there are, but at least ten arrows a second are being fired from the bow of the monster as it uses some kind of rapid firing skill.

Each arrow isn’t as strong as a normal shot, but the sheer amount of them is almost overwhelming. Several of them scrape against my mana shield, sheering mana from my aura as they are negated.

The goblin stops running away for a brief moment, and I use this time to close the distance. Once I get in melee range, two daggers of mana appear in my hands. The goblin quickly puts its bow on its back, pulling out two daggers of its own. It was an odd sight, seeing an archer and a mage going head to head in a battle of blades, but at this distance this was the best thing either of us could do.

Our daggers clashed against one another, and over time small cuts and gashes began to appear on our bodies as attacks managed to slip past our guards. My mana shield was deactivated for now, as I knew I could take almost any hit from the daggers without suffering lethal damage. I didn’t want to waste the mana to prevent a simple flesh wound.

Now that the goblin was closer, my aura could tighten around it much more than before. Compared to the speed it had previously been moving, it was almost sluggish now, moving only a little bit faster than myself.

A grin appeared on my face as we exchanged blow after blow. This goblin was definitely not well practiced using these daggers, while I had just spent nearly 24 hours practicing with them during the event. I was used to fighting enemies stronger than myself, and that provided me with a slight advantage in this exchange.

The goblin finally broke off, realizing that it was not going to come out on top if things continued that way. It once more began running, but instead of firing arrows at me, it began firing them directly into the sky. I had a bad feeling about what it could be doing, but that was not about to make me let up the pressure on the monster.

I finally use the first empowered spell charge in my staff, releasing an extra powerful mana spike that pierces through the bicep of the goblin. That manages to stop it from firing for a few seconds, but it quickly continues as if it had never been hit. The blood dripping from its arm still made it clear it was not entirely unaffected.

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The second charged spell is used not long after, being another powerful mana spike. This time, it is fired straight at the leg of the goblin. It pierces into the thigh of the boss, and with a quick burst of mana, the spell is detonated into shrapnel, dealing significant damage to the tissue all around the impacted area.

The injury to the monster’s leg is enough to slow it down, allowing me to fully catch up. The last charge in my staff is used as I both charge the spell and split it to empower it further. Mana blasts batter the goblin from all directions, not breaking through its defenses but definitely bruising it all over.

The goblin looks panicked for a brief moment, but there is a glint in its eye as it raises its bow again. Its eyes and bow glow an almost blinding green for a split second, and a massive green arrow appears on the bow string. Before I can even react, the arrow is fired straight at me far faster than any of the previous ones had been. I try to dodge, but it is completely hopeless.

My blood runs cold as the tip of the arrow makes contact with my stomach. The arrow head pierces through, then the entire shaft, and soon the entire arrow has pierced through my body. My hand quickly grabs at my stomach, looking for the terrible wound that I was almost sure had been left behind.

My brows furrow in confusion when I don’t feel a hole or any injury to speak of. I turn around and see the arrow stuck into the ground, still glowing brightly. An ethereal chain extended from the arrow straight towards where the arrow had exited out my lower back. I tried to pull against it, but it had me stuck in place. The goblin took this time to retreat and make distance, firing more arrows at me that I dodged and blocked.

Slowly, a loud whistling sound begins to fill my ears. I look up, seeing the hundreds of arrows that the goblin had previously fired in the air. They were all descending now at great speed, centered directly on the arrow currently stuck into the ground. They suddenly disperse, with not a single one overhead, but their momentum is again redirected a moment later as they all turn directly towards me.

The arrows came at a 45 degree angle to the ground, and they were coming from all directions. I conjured a shield, walls of mana, anything to nullify the incoming attacks. My aura wrapped around my body like a protective blanket as I did everything in my power to keep myself from becoming a pin cushion.

I can feel the mana within my aura draining faster and faster as my defenses are overwhelmed, and by the time the barrage is finally done, I am not left unscathed. There weren’t any arrows left in me, so that was a plus. The reason though was less positive.

Every single arrow that had hit me had pierced all the way through. There was a hole in my left arm, two in my right, a hole in my right calf, and one straight through my stomach.

Despite all of these wounds, I could still fight. They hurt, and they would definitely be a hindrance, but even through the pain I looked at the goblin, smiling.

“Now, just how much mana did that little stunt cost you?”

I knew better than anyone else just how expensive powerful attacks could be. This goblin was definitely more focused on it’s body stat than on its mind stat, and I had a damn good feeling that the attack it had just pulled off wasted most of its already limited mana pool. I only had a bit less than half of my mana pool remaining after all of that, but given the frankly ridiculous amount of mana I could store, that was plenty.

The goblin continued firing arrows at me, but there were no longer any skills or fancy tricks to back it up. Each one was just a simple, mundane arrow. Now, I’m not saying the incoming attacks are weak, far from it. In comparison to what was just thrown at me though, they were not a huge concern. The final nail in the coffin that convinced me that the boss was run dry was when the ethereal arrow disappeared, the chain keeping me bound disappearing along with it.

With a burst of momentum, I exploded forward. I could not give the boss even a moment to recover its mana, as that would likely mean the death of me. I had absolutely no hope of surviving another attack comparable to that last one, so I needed to end this now.

I rapidly cast mana blast and arcane spike over and over again after getting close enough to the goblin. It was slowing down more and more with every attack, but it wasn’t taking them lying down.

Arrows began piercing my body again as any care for dodging was being slowly abandoned in favor of dealing as much damage as I possibly could. The injuries on both me and the boss were accumulating at a steady rate, but thanks to the fact that the boss was out of mana, it simply could not keep up with my damage output.

The goblin patriarch was getting desperate, each attack becoming more and more frantic. Without warning, it’s arms began to glow again as it once more used the rapid fire skill. I dodged most of the arrows, but still took some damage. I wondered for a moment where it got the energy for the attack, but within my aura I could feel it.

This was a suicide attack by the goblin. It was burning more energy than it had to fuel these attacks. The boss was drawing upon the energy that kept it alive just to fuel these extra skill uses. It no longer had any delusions of surviving this battle, but just wanted to take me down with it. The attacks were only stronger for a very brief time before they began to slow down.

The aura of the goblin was weakening by the second, and with it out of the way I could sense the mana pathways within the goblin’s body withering away as the very mana they were made of was used in the desperate onslaught of attacks.

The fight ended unceremoniously as the attacks simply stopped coming. The goblins body had shrunk a few inches and its skin became even more wrinkly than it had already been. Its eyes were now sunken and its once dark green skin was now a far paler shade. It was a corpse, well and truly.

I didn’t look much better. I was riddled with holes and arrows sticking out of my body, my skin was badly burned from the many explosions, and now that the fight was over I began swaying back and forth on my feet as the adrenaline left my system.

I quickly stored the corpse and items of the patriarch, not yet reading over the notifications I’d gotten. All I could focus on right now was getting to the floor exit. I was a good distance away, and each step hurt like hell. Despite all of this, I still felt a sense of satisfaction. This was exactly the kind of fight I had wanted. Once where it was as close as it could be.

I didn’t have any wounds that would kill me if left unattended, and that was what kept me from worrying too much. Sure, I was bleeding, but having a high body stat meant that if nothing was actively trying to kill me like poison or acid, I was going to naturally recover from the damage.

I grunt in pain as the soreness of my muscles also kicks in. Just because I’d recover doesn’t mean a healer wouldn’t be damn good right now. I was briefly reminded of when I had fought the skeleton sentinel back on floor 5. I had returned to the outpost in a pretty bad state. This time would not be unlike that one.

As I leave the floor and return the first floor, I collapse to my knees and let the healers around me do their thing. Flynn must have known that if I returned from the second floor, I’d be in rough shape. I’ll have to thank him later for getting healers ready. Now, with all these burns, I wonder if I can convince him I fought a dragon.