Ark was certain that the second phase was going to come. There was no reason for there to be fire spirit inside the knight if not for that exact purpose. Boss monsters became tough at certain categories. The Wendigo Ark had fought earlier was one such boss. It had only one phase but it more than made up for it with its huge size and strength. The Knights though were another category of monsters. They were the ones who had a lot of moves and after a certain amount of health was lost, would transform into their second stage.

These types of monsters were admittedly tougher. There was one very simple reason. The boss monsters which had only one phase typically were on the dumber side. Which meant their move sets could be exploited to a high degree. The type of monster Ark was currently fighting was a menace for those who were just starting out in the Tower. They had complex move sets in the first phase itself and when they got to their second phase the moves became even more complex.

Every boss monster had a typical pattern to them. It was general to every single one of them. They liked to play with their food. This typically was their first phase. Now when a God was hurt by a mere mortal, they would curse them. It was the same with those monsters. They would immediately activate their second phase. This knowledge was gathered from snippets of text Ark had read a long time ago.

In its second phase, it seemed that the knights seemed had increased considerably. Ark wondered if he should use his story ability but decided against it. It had a long cool down. If the ability was not used against a worthy opponent, even Ark himself would not be satisfied. This was the sole reason why Ark was holding onto his story card even now. He wanted a glorious battle. A battle where he could fight with everything that he had got, putting everything at stake.

Still Ark was having fun while fighting the knight too. He should probably call the knight a spirit knight after its second phase was revealed. Unlike the capabilities of the original knight, Ark was pretty knowledgeable about spirit knights. These were the knights which were only present in name only. Their movements were all controlled by a spirit inside. Ark wondered why it had taken so long for him to figure that out.

The spirit in this particular knight’s case was a magma spirit. It was Ark’s prediction but he might have been wrong. The energy that was used against him had a golden glow to itself. It was probably nothing. Maybe Ark’s eyes were playing tricks on him. The transformation of the Knight had given Ark enough time to closely scrutinize the monster. The Tower seemed to respect boundaries. Intruding upon someone’s transformation sequence was considered rude. Ark never really knew the reason why? Perhaps the Tower liked action scenes

It did give Ark insight about the Knight though. Ark cursed under his breath at his own stupidity. He really wondered why he was so out of touch with things other than himself. Ark would probably slap himself after the fight was over. It seemed that Ark’s prediction about the spirit being a magma was completely wrong. On the plate armor of the knight which Ark was regularly chipping away was the golden engravings of a tree.

That tree was the miniature version of the World Tree. This knight was probably a corrupted version f the Holy Knights of the Angel’s Arcadia. This was an corrupted angel of Arcadia. Ark got goosebumps all over his body. He had never personally witness one before but to see one in the flesh, in the second scenario itself was a treat. Ark realized then why that monster seemed to be the boss monster of the Sixth Horde.

It was fortunate for Ark that this monster was not the real version. It was just a weaker corrupted version of the original knights. If it was an original Knight of Arcadia, Ark was sure that he would not even last a full minute under their barrage of attacks. Thankfully, the difficulty was some what proportional to the second scenario. The Tower was never unbeatable. It was the first rule of the Tower. It was the only rule that allowed Ark to move forward determined of his eventual victory.

The spirit knight had a few possible moves. It would most certainly use its regular attacks mixed with the holy spirit. Ark needed to think what other tricks the knight could play. Ark did not close his eyes even though he wanted to. He wanted to visit his mind palace and find out the monster’s exact capabilities. That was not possible at the moment though. Ark slowly started to step backward as thought of the various cards the Knight had up its sleeve.

After everything was said and done, it was still a boss monster which followed its own rules. The first move was probably gonna be a holy strike with his sword. Ark dodged to the right this time, already predicting the knight’s next move. As soon as Ark finished evading the blow, sparks appeared out of thin air and if it was not for Ark’s exceptional instincts, the holy aura might have already grazed him. The holy aura burned brighter and hotter than even fire.

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The monster might have its own sets of morals. It might have considered itself good and thus Ark was evil. Against evil doers, the holy aura burned brighter than magma and hotter than the forges of Hephaestus. If Ark was bit by that, it would not take him long to become incinerated at the spot. Ark would have to avoid that. It was a good thing for Ark as it seemed that the knight had a tell. As soon as it was ready to use holy aura against Ark, little almost invisible golden sparks would fly away from the blade. Depending on the direction, Ark would dodge.

It seemed that the time had come for the Knight of Arcadia to use his special moves. After his last lunging stab and subsequent evasion by Ark, the knight had gotten quieter.. It was telling about the things to come.

Golden wings emerged from the knight’s back and the knight floated above ground. It looked almost ethereal how beautiful the sight was. It was like a holy executioner standing above those who were sent to the gallows and were being condemned. In this case though, Ark didn’t want to be condemned. He dodged to the side just as the Knight of Arcadia dived at him with its sword pointing straight at Ark’s heart. The knight was not pulling any punches at all.

This continued on for what seemed like a long time but was actually about ten minutes. The knight seemed to also have a cool down on his abilities. Ark dreamt of the day when he would be able to use his own combat cards. Finding a decent one without forking over a lot of coins was just not possible. Ark wanted to avoid the System shop as much as he could. This led to the dilemma of Ark taking a lot of time to finish a fight. If Ark had a decent combat card right about now, he would not have to worry about most of the knight’s variables. He could just blitz through it.

Each time the knight showed an opening, Ark exploited it almost to the point of oblivion. Ark could feel that his victory was close. The knight;s sword clashed with Ark’s once again and in a moment where Ark did not even suspect, the Knight made a small tail of holy aura and rotated it towards Ark. Ark was not prepared for that and he could feel the full brunt of attack on his hands.

His Constitution stat got to work. Ark was in an unimaginable amount of pain at the current moment but he did not drop his sword. Instead he gripped it even more tightly. One of the sergeants who gave out sword style skills in the third scenario was a cruel taskmaster. He would beat everyone to oblivion any moment he got the chance. He was only present in the scenario to teach the people a single valuable lesson.

Never, Ever, Under any circumstances let go of your weapon. You might have let go of your weapon but the enemy still had his. The moment you were vulnerable, the enemy would strike and cut you down. You will never expect it because by the time you did, you would already be dead. Ark thanked the countless hours of torture he had gone through. Despite the unimaginable amount of pain he was in, he did not let go of his sword. Ark would pay the knight back hundred folds the pain he was feeling at the current moment.

The knight was not done though. It leapt up again and golden wings sprouted from its back side. It jumped straight towards Ark. Every time, the monster did that Ark would dodge to the side and let the monster have a win. Not this time though. Ark leaned down and tilted his body slightly to the side. It made it possible that Ark was left unscathed and the knight had just passed him by. Ark was at the enemy’s back. The drill sergeant had also told them a memorable quote on their very first day

Never show your back to the enemy. The Knight had made a grievous mistake and it was going to pay for it. With All the strength Ark could muster, he continued to hit the knight for as long as he possible could. The knight had used up its cool down ability and this gave Ark plenty of ability to continuously hit it. What was the knight going to do. After fighting for so long against the knight, Ark had completely memorized its attack pattern.

When the knight attacked in normal mode, it seemed like stick fighting to Ark. He could predict every single strike The knight would swing using its sword. Ark could predict every single move the knight would make. Ark would not even allow the knight to use his ultimate ability. As if possessed by some spirit, Ark rushed forward. There was only one thing the knight could do right now. A huge tail appeared behind him and flicked its immediate surroundings.

What did it matter to Ark, he had already jumped up by the time the ground was destroyed. Ark was certain that the end of the fight was near. He had to hit only a few more times and victory would be his. It was an anticlimactic ending as Ark after a long time of fighting the monster hit it a single time more. The entire;y of the knight had feel down as if possessed by magic. And that was that. Ark had won the match.

Ark was disappointed. Was this kind of monster the best the System could come up with. It was underwhelming to say the least. It had only one good strength which was its aura and it couldn’t even use it repeatedly. What good was his attack if it did not even hit Ark. His hands were slowly recovering as well. Ark sat down on the ground to rest for a few minutes. He had nothing to review about the fight. It was bland and boring. Ark's wounds had mostly healed by now

Ark got up with his original goal in mind.It was time to see from exactly where the monsters came from. There was only a single horde of monsters left. Ark just hoped that it was not dragons. That would be way over the top for the second scenario.

Ark continued t walk towards the darkness. There was a saying, that if you stared at the void for a a very long time, it would probably also stare back. In Ark’s case though, the void seemed never ending. It never blinked back even once.