Lariel followed the party through the golden door. Well, not through, because you just touched it and accepted the question, but still...
He found himself in a spacious room. Or better yet, a cavern. There were two distinct features to this giant cavern. First, the giant door at the other side of the cavern from where they had entered. The door was just like the door they had just used, a twin door people would have said.
The second thing was the Hob Warlord. Sitting right in front of the door on his massive throne. It was kind of a funny view. A 1 meter and half green ugly monster sitting on a throne made for someone thrice its size.
Like the previous Warlord, this one was moving towards the bulky side. His muscles bulged with every movement. But not to be mistaken. This was an intelligent rational creature. It was just unfortunate to spawn as such a lowly monster.
"Who are you that come to my domain?" it asked.
A cliche thing that he had read about in the books in the library. It was supposed to be a greeting ritual, right now, it just seemed like the Warlord was the villain of his own story.
The party did not deign to answer and moved forward into formation. Lariel stayed behind and sat on the floor, content to wait until the boss was defeated, or until he needed to intervene.
The cave walls were made of some kind of blue light reflective stone, and the myriad of torches along those same walls gave the room all needed illumination. It was a barren cave. The only piece of furnishing besides the door was the chair from which the Warlord just stood up.
The Goblin wore nothing but a leather skirt. His weapon of choice, a black iron mace the size of himself was leaning upwards against the throne.
Once the Warlord picked up his mace and started moving towards the adventuring party, the throne vanished like it was never there.
The two parties eyed each other, gauging each other's strength. The Warlord was too far away for Lariel to identify, but maybe when someone from the party was able to do it, he would know the level.
There had already been over 100 Level 75 Warlords spawning as the boss of the layer, although the average of its level was in the low fifties.
After the brief moment of acknowledgment, the Warlord rushed forward, his hands holding the mace above his head. Ready for a downward swing.
Ivan for his turn, stepped forward, readying his shield. The support and rangers of the party started throwing spells and arrows at the enemy, trying to slow his mad rush. Just before he arrived at Ivan, the Goblin jumped around two meters in the air and then proceeded to slam down his mace onto Ivan's raised shield.
At first, Ivan was dealing fairly well against it. The Goblin using some kind of skill to continue his momentum continued pushing with the same force as he had just hit the shield, his body still in the air. But Goblins were known for their Strength and Endurance, not their Intelligence.
The ground began to crack under Ivan's feet, Lariel was surprised that Ivan was strong enough to hold out against the Warlord's power, while even the floor cracked under the increasing pressure. But this didn't last forever. Ivan began to lose his strength, his shield already showing signs of growing dents.
Whatever skill Ivan had used, it was not enough. The Warlord ignored the constant raining of arrows and spells. The weapons of the warriors could not reach him, high as he was in the air.
Then it happened. Ivan used that same skill he had used to bash the other Warlord's face. But unlike the previous, it just seemed to make things worse. The Goblin grinned and Lariel could see the wave of pressure that originated from the contact point of the mace and the shield, knocking all others to the ground. If not for his high stats, Lariel would have also fallen to his back, even when sitting down so far away from the fray.
Another wave of force came, this time, not from the impact, but from the Warlord. The wave was like red lightning, going through every single centimeter of the cave.
Lariel saw his party members getting some sort of nerve attack and started twitching. When said wave reached him, it did not affect him that much, but he felt a presence in his mind, fighting for control.
*Ding* Unbreakable Will has reached level 2!
--------
*Ding* Unbreakable Will has reached level 8!
Lariel managed to fight the presence out of his mind, and then a wave of force came out of himself without him controlling anything. His roommates stopped twitching once the force reached them, but he did not know what had happened.
Ivan started to deflate. Lariel for his turn took the spear out of the support on his back and readied himself, ignoring what had happened. It was a problem for later. Another wave of force, this time a normal one, and Ivan bent a little bit. Lariel started moving, first slowly, but then increasingly faster, taking advantage of his Running and Sprinting skills to lower the cost of Stamina and increase his speed. The remaining party members had all flown some meters behind with that second wave, creating an unpopulated 20-meter circle around the two clashing forces.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Another wave of force and Ivan's arm broke. He was gnarling, the pain being too much for his body to handle.
That's when Lariel made his move, using Spear Crack on the Warlord, jumping at least above twenty meters into the air, combining it with Heavy Blow, Powerful Thrust although he did not know how that worked, and even Power Surge in hopes to finish this fight in one single blow.
Just at that moment, he gained 5 skill levels in the first skill, two in Heavy Blow, 1 in Powerful Thrust, and 17 in Power Surge.
The Warlord saw that Lariel's collision route included himself, and stopped grinning. To Lariel's eyes, it looked like recognition of doom. But the Goblin's next move surprised him.
While STILL in the air, he flipped his body, getting his mace above him and putting his two hands on it, one on each end, to better absorb Lariel's attack. All this movement, since Lariel had jumped in the air, lasted for less than 2 seconds.
Ivan found the will within himself to use his dash skill and get out of the way. It would be bad to be underneath those two titans clashing.
Just before both forces connected, Lariel entered the Identification range. He did not know what surprised him the most. The fact that Ivan had been able to hold out for so long, or what the identification gave him.
Identification: Name: Goblin Warlord; Class: [Warrior(Mace Wielder Warlord)]; Level: 56;
It was a level 56 beast. A decent amount above average. And Ivan was able to withstand his blows, albeit temporarily.
Lariel was sightly worried. The previous Warlord had been a level 51 one. But the more levels, the more powerful. And the power increased substantially. No even he was sure he could defeat this beast.
The spear blade finally connected with the iron mace shaft. And a loud boom echoed throughout the cave.
The resulting shockwave had been faster than even the other previous two.
After that, everything developed fast, and Lariel immersed himself in the fight, putting his Willpower running at max speed processing everything along with his Intelligence. It was win or die. There were no middle grounds.
-------
Kan watched it all while he threw spells at the monster, which proved extremely ineffective. He saw Ivan hold his own against it. He was thrown to the ground by the force of their clash and then thrown back like he was nothing but a ragdoll by that same force that came more powerful. He saw Ivan's arm break. He saw Lariel walking forward. And he saw Lariel ascending like a God, surrounded by golden motes of light, very likely coming from some kind of skill activating, his face accomodating a wild smile. He saw the Goblin acknowledge this new threat and get ready for the attack. He saw Ivan dashing away as if his life depended on it, which it probably did. And then he saw HIM descend like God's punishment.
He saw the two titans clash, and he felt the resulting force. The clash force wave close to reaching the speed of sound, sending a loud boom throughout the cavern, and sending all the party members against the faraway cavern walls. He saw many pass out due to the impact but managed to endure it like Ezekiel, Ivan, and Helen who were all eying the confrontation ahead with wide-open eyes.
After the initial collision, the Goblin was sent to the ground with enough impact to create a crater that shamed the cracks resulted in Ivan's confrontation.
Unlike the Goblin, Lariel was not sent back, and Kan admired how he stayed in the same position after the clash, wide-grin splattered on his face.
Seconds passed and Kan saw Lariel begin to fall towards the crater, which was around two meters deep. Truly, what a strike. And when he saw Lariel again lifting his spear for a descent horizontal strike, he felt fear. He felt the air move towards Lariel, increasing his weight and speed as he fell. The golden motes still lingered around his body.
Lariel seemed to fall at a speed that not even Ivan could accomplish with his dash skill Pride's Strike, and disappeared into the crater, out of Kan's line of sight. The only thing that signaled the impact was another loud boom and Lariel flying back up at even a greater speed, hitting the top of the cavern.
After the impact, he lingered for a bit against the stone, half stuck to the ceiling, blood coming out of a few gashes throughout his body.
The Goblin suddenly appeared out of the giant crater, also grinning widely at his opponent. In one huge double-handed down to top swing, he crashed against Lariel's spear, which the user managed to place in a parry position just in time.
Kan looked at both opponents, and time seemed to stop.
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Watchful Eye!
Watchful Eye: Slow down time to better understand what is happening at a given moment. While under the skill effect, +50% Perception. Duration: 0.1 real-time seconds. Cooldown: 1 hour. Cooldown decreases with skill level. Duration and boost increases with skill level.
*Ding* Watchful Eye has reached level 2!
-----
*Ding* Watchful Eye has reached level 9!
The Goblin was worse than Lariel. His back especially was almost entirely black, and you could see great amounts of blood pouring out of huge slashes along with it.
Lariel seemed largely fine, except for the small amounts of blood that occurred after the collision with the stone. Only small gashes could be seen.
Time resumed and the impact sounded again, but not with the boom of the previous two. This one sounded more smooth, and Kan understood why when he saw the Goblin flying, albeit slower than usual, towards the floor far to his left. Lariel had parried the strike while directing the Goblin to be rebounded towards the floor.
The Goblin landed, and Lariel soon followed, landing about fifteen meters from his enemy. His fall was smoother because he had Wind Control to give him support.
Both stopped while in fighting positions. Kan, though they would initiate a conversation, but they just grinned even wider and launched themselves into one another.
Kan tried to get up but found all his strength was drained and his bones were weak, very likely due to the shockwaves that rocked his body. He glanced at his status to figure out his situation.
Status:
Name: Kan
Class: [Mage (Sorcerer)]
Level: 21 (583.7 exp needed to level up)
Health: 43.6/453 (Regen: 0.45/sec)
Stamina: 154.5/460 (Regen: 0.5/sec)
Mana: 67.3/2390 (Regen: 2.43/sec)
He was truly hitting rock bottom in all his attributes. Luckily for Ivan that had hit the wall next to Kan, his Healing Aura reached the injured tank. And luckily for both, Ivan's Aura of Fortitude reached Kan, giving him a 5% boost to all regeneration and a 3% boost to all effects of all his skills.
He gave up on trying to get up and looked at the imminent clash, but what happened surprised him. Lariel avoided the horizontal swing of the Goblin by using the wind to push him fast to the opposite side and then slashed with his spear, creating a red line of blood going from the Goblin's left shoulder to his right knee.
The Warlord's wild swing continued as he rotated around himself to be able to hit Lariel. But the orphan just pushed back with the wind and gained some distance. In a war of attrition, Lariel would eventually win. The Goblin seemed to realize that too and started going berserk.