In truth, Owen didn't really know how he was supposed to win against the boss. Its entire body was made up of different pieces of metal strung together with extremely condensed mana. Not having seen an actual physical body, he was worried that it meant the actual body of the boss was somehow like a ghost. He was less than confident in fighting one of those without chaos, but he still wanted to keep as many of his cards hidden as possible.
Sure, Malik could kill him before Owen might be able to put up a defense, but if he ever did become a threat, Owen was well aware that the only chance he would have of winning was using chaos. He had also tried to keep the weapon forms he had available limited to just a few, but he could already tell he wouldn't be able too hold himself back in that regard.
Focusing back on the fight about to start, Owen honed in on the brief enemy description his keen eye gave him. He wasn't looking for much, but the information had been helpful in the past and it wouldn't hurt to see if there was something that could give him an advantage.
*Defiant: Superior Grade Echo of Daedalus - Level 260
This a mana based entity and all of its attacks deal physical damage, but also drain the mana pool of anyone it strikes.*
Owen nodded as he got ready to attack. It wasn't as much as he had hoped for, but he had been right. The information was useful and it also meant that he would need to imbue mana into each of his attacks, though the tricky part was making sure the boss couldn't absorb the mana Owen attacked it with. Owen had several strategies going into the fight and the one he had learned when fighting against the minotaur was that if you had a significant disadvantage, then claiming the fighting momentum and holding it for as long as possible was the best method for success.
The idea of fighting momentum had been confusing to him at first, but over the course of all of his fights against the monsters of this labyrinth, he had started to develop an understanding. The moment the boss looked ready to strike, Owen lunged forward, his spear already kicking up a whirlwind of energy as mana danced like flames along its edge. He made a flurry of thrusts, forcing the boss to weave and deflect several of the attacks.
This! This was that so called momentum that had been hard to understand before. Xerxes had tried to explain it, but Owen was someone who needed experience with something to fully understand it. Now he was gaining a grasp of insight into the idea. Each of his attacks was a chain of dozens of predicted moments. His weapon changed form repeatedly, to create distance or attack with a longer than normal reach. Each attack was meant to force the boss to make a mistake or cause even the slightest hint of panic.
As long as his attacks could break through a single time, the mistake or frantic block would create a slowly compounding problem as Owen would wear down their defense. Even if it took a hundred exchanges, even the slightest mistake would slowly compound into a real strike.
The realization made Owen push himself even harder as he fought for a clean strike. His weapon's shape was almost constantly in flux, shifting several times in a single swing. Despite Owen's furious onslaught, the boss wasn't helpless. The metal debris that made up a large part of its body constantly shifted to block Owen's attacks. The mana imbued into each attack caused its form to ripple, but it was like a single pebble dropping into a pond, the body of the boss could ultimately not be changed by such small amount of imbued mana.
For the first time, Owen regretted not having a specific attack skill. Most of his skills were to an extent passives, or expression of his talent. As the boss used different skills to interrupt his momentum, it became even more frustrating. A part of him wanted to surprise the boss with a blast of chaos, but he had been able to hold it in a stand still for a while and it wasn't so desperate yet that he wanted to start taking risks.
He forced himself to calm down somewhat and let his body move intuitively. It gave the boss more opportunities to attack, but He did it for a good reason. A cloud of mana had begun collecting behind the bosses head and Owen forced several of his affinities into the continually growing orb of energy. Each of the energies began to clash with each other and Owen pulled the strand of impurities from the mana.
The whole room seemed to shudder and even the boss froze mid attack. Owen didn't let the opening slip through his fingers and stabbed his spear into the body of the boss. The mysterious energies of resonance and mana collided as they met in the center of the bosses body. Before Owen could pull his weapon out of the boss, its whole body seemed to shrink as the energies in its body and the orb behind it grew more erratic.
He quickly shifted the from of his spear into a small dagger and dove to the ground as the weapon finished changing. The orb of crammed together affinities could no longer keep its shape and an explosion of power rocked through the room. While he had hoped that would be the end of it, he wasn't surprised to see the boss alive and well. It had changed its form into that of a metallic sphere. Owen wasn't even sure a resonance slash would be enough to cut through the shell.
Before he could test his theory, the room shuddered once more and the energy in the atmosphere began being sucked into the bosses body. A strong wind kicked up in the small room, just from all of the moving energies. The bosses body seemed to condense even further and Owen wasn't even sure how it was possible to kill it now. As he began to worry, the metallic sphere began to stretch out and warp. He wasn't sure what to think, but the metals began forming the shape of a body. By the time it seemed like the process was done Owen stared slacked jawed at what looked like a metal version of himself.
He cursed under his breath and began his next attack, before the boss had finished shifting its form. He was already growing tired of needing to fight differing versions of himself, but he had shown more power against this copy than any of those in the past. It responded to Owen's sudden strike with one of its own and a ringing chime combined with he sound of clashing steel. Less than a second passed, before they had collided again and Owen felt himself being pushed back.
He tired to build up a momentum, but each of his attacks were blocked and pushed away. He tried to split his attention and began creating another essence marble, but that too was blocked with a slash that dispersed the collecting energies.
Owen wanted to smack himself. He had gotten too absorbed in the fight earlier on and had unintentionally created an almost perfect counter to himself. As they exchange a series of blows Owen only felt his spirits drop further. It could even copy the rapidly changing weapon forms. As they continued, he wracked his brain for options. He could either begin using chaos or he could hopefully use the special ability of his keen eye, but he wasn't even sure if it would help.
The boss was still stronger than him and its stats eclipsed his, the only reason he had been able to meet midway, was due to his combat resonance and boosting skill. If he wanted to win, he would either need to come up with something new or use chaos. Which Owen wasn't even sure would be a guarantee of success.
His whole body flexed as Owen poured all of his free stats evenly between his dexterity and perception. He felt the tiniest boost in his weapon damage, but that hadn't been why he had chosen to split his free stats. He had only ever charged the resonance energy into his weapon before and for good reason. When he had first experience resonance, it had been while wielding a weapon and the increased power gave little reason to try using it for anything else.
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Resonance energy wasn't as straightforward as his other resources and he had needed to constantly train to boost how often and how much he could use. As his stats were much more evenly split along his potential now, it had become even easier. Something he had theorized for a while had been that it could be used to boost all of the body, he had seen any reason it would be limited by not having a weapon. Every previous attempt felt like he had jumped into a lake of lemon juice after millions of paper cuts, but it had worked.
What he was trying now, was to increase the effectiveness of his boosting skill by forcing resonance into the mix. Each of the four energies trying to boost his body's effectiveness clashed and his skin began splitting. Blood trailed out of dozens of self inflicted wounds and the boss tried to take the advantage, even if it was confused. It swung the warpick and mid swing, changed its form over a dozen times. Owen tried to raise his own weapon to block, but the skin on his arm tore in several places, causing the block to fail.
The weapon crashed into him and Owen created a crater with his body. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt, though his body was still wracked with intense pain. He tried canceling out the resonance, but it only burned brighter a sit fought against the other energies. It took everything not to fall to the ground writhing and Owen could only do his best to withstand the tremors that rocked through his body. The boss made to make another attack and Owen forced himself to kick out a leg. He expected the attack to be worthless, but a crunching sound echoed through the room and Owen stared in shock as the leg of the boss was crushed from the force.
Owen's own foot wasn't much better, but he pushed the thought from his mind as he tried to shift himself into a seated position. Every movement hurt, but the pain was growing familiar and Owen tried swinging his weapon from his seated position. The swing itself didn't feel like much, but when it struck against the bosses weapon, a second crater appeared as the boss was crushed into the ground. Owen wasn't sure how much time passed as the rest of the fight continued on the ground. Each of Owen's attack had started doing devastating damage and while his own body was hurt in the process, it wasn't enough to lose.
His bracers changed into a set of caestus and his arms ripped and shredded as he pummeled the boss further into the ground. Finally, when it felt like he couldn't withstand anything more, he fell back against the ground and grinned, before falling unconscious.
*You have successfully slain Defiant: Superior Grade Echo of Daedalus - Level 260*
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There was never a more aggravating feeling than not being able to recognize the energy that seemed to course through Owen's body. Malik had been keeping a close eye on the stranger for hours at this point and hadn't seen anything amiss, which only added to his confusion.
The boosting skill that he had watched him use was a combination between vitality and mana, but Malik couldn't recognize the third energy mixed into the skill. Nothing from his memories gave him any hints either. He had kept a close eye on him during each of his previous fights and had concluded that Owen had to be a regressor just like he was.
Malik had regressed and been on top of the world, power leveling through every challenge and now even the system recognized him as someone at the peak of earth. However, sensing the unfamiliar energy sent shivers down his spine. Owen's power wasn't anything to scoff at either. Owen's foundations were leagues above his own and Owen was several times stronger than he had been at the same level.
Malik watched the fight between Owen and the boss, not truly knowing who would win. While he had said he would help lessen the difficulty, he hadn't done much. He had used his stronger mental resonance to push back the boss's pressure, but its actually strength hadn't been adjusted at all. The fight was an interesting example of how fledgling resonance users could compete and Malik wasn't surprised when the boy had pushed the boss into a second phase.
For the second time since meeting Owen, he wasn't sure if he was actually a regressor or not. His lack of information was astounding for someone who had lived through the integration twice, but he expected that maybe Owen had died off early in the other timeline, though it didn't explain how he managed to regress. Malik had needed to pass both a system trial, but also created a skill with the help of a god. Unless Owen had had similar means, it didn't make sense to Malik at all.
The second reason he wasn't certain that Owen was a regressor was based on his fighting capability and level. Even if he had been focusing on his foundations for as secondary class, it didn't make sense that he was so far behind the other regressors. Malik had previously been certain that Cordia was the lowest leveled regressor, but Owen was still another twenty levels behind her.
Malik's thoughts flashed back to Rochester and he shook his head. "Did he really go back in time just to save that city?" Malik asked himself, but even that didn't make much sense. The city itself was straddling two separate dimensional veins and had been overrun by gates in the first timeline. With both dimensional veins in such close proximity, any gate from tier one to ten could form in a matter of days. Even with an army of regressors, he wasn't certain that the city could withstand the constant monster attacks.
He wasn't sure what to think and tuned back into the fight. He had hoped that Owen would show him some secret or reveal what mysterious energy he used, but nothing had been enough to identify anything. He watch with disappointment as Owen was pushed to his limits and Malik shook his head. Even he wouldn't have been able to fight a monster more than 200 levels above him, but he was more so disappointed that even when pushed to his limits, Owen didn't want to reveal what the mysterious energy was.
Malik was about to involve himself, but froze as the energy in the room seemed to freeze, before moving around erratically. He wasn't even sure if Owen recognized what was happening, but Malik cursed as he tried to force his way back into the room. The energy wasn't stable enough for him to move himself back into the room and he felt panic form in his chest. This stupid kid was about to kill himself. Malik cursed as he tried to force his way back into the room, but the entire area was still locked down and Malik began considering if he should run.
The energies inside of Owen's body were fighting with everything they had, as the offensive energy behind resonance was forced to blend with the three other energies. "You idiot!" Malik shouted as he collected his mana into a spike and began forcing his way through the wall of the room, but it was too late. He watched as Owen's body began to rip and tear itself apart as the energy reached a crescendo that was too much for a mortal's body.
There were several times when Malik thought the fight would end, but Owen's body kept moving. He couldn't even tell if Owen was fully conscious, but he still sat up and straddled the boss, before blending its body in with the ground. Malik could feel the life escape the boss's body and the energy stabilized just enough for Malik to move back into the room. He cursed as he looked down at Owen's mangled body. Somehow, his body was still slowly stitching itself back together, but the speed wasn't going to be enough to keep him alive.
Malik cursed and activated three different skills at once. The first one sealed Owen inside a cocoon of air, the second one forcibly stowed the reward for clearing the gate inside of Owen's storage bracelet. The third skill activated the same moment that he exited the gate with Owen. They were launched through the world at speeds rivalling the fastest fighter jets in pre-system earth. The cocoon of air was able to keep Owen's body from shifting even slightly as they blasted towards Rochester.
The moment they arrived, Malik moved the air around them to make them both stop in the center of the city. Malik voiced then boomed through, rocking nearby buildings and shattering windows. "HEALER NEEDED IMMEDIATELY!" It was an easy trick, to find someone in a city, Malik thought to himself. He then sensed someone rushing quickly towards him, though they were far off. Activating his skill again, he appeared in front of the disciple of the World Father and sighed in relief. "Heal him now, I'll give your guild another day to prepare in exchange."
He watched the girl process the situation, before she was able to make out the boy's face. "Owen, what on earth happened to you!" She half screamed and immediately her healing skill activated and malik sighed in relief. Owen had somehow done the impossible and he couldn't let him die, at least until he found out how. He sighed as he flashed away, leaving the boy with his friends. If he was going to give the guild another day, he was going to need to clear a lot more gates, otherwise they would be overrun.