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A grade-5 boss-class monster in a Special Field versus a single party of adventurers, all grade-5 or below.
Nine times out of ten, I’d put my money on the monster.
It’s not that the abilities of the Monsters themselves are super strong. Actually, compared to the difficulty of the monster, the abilities themselves are horrendous. In MSS, abilities show their true worth only after you grab a couple of them which are synergistic in nature. Otherwise, a single ability isn’t very good.
The true strength of monsters lay in their stats, size and the superior conditions when in a Special Field.
Borealis stepped ahead of us. “Stay behind!”
As the Vetilius Scion began to slam his gladius on his shield, red mist began to gather around him. A combination between [Belly Drum] and [Blood Mist]. While Belly Drum exchanged his HP for a raise in maximum HP and Defense, Blood Mist would take the loss in HP and cover the surrounding area with it. As long as Borealis was within the mist, % of all damage done in the mist would start restoring his HP.
Finally, the [Myung-Sa (鳴蛇) ] stirred.
The ground shook as its long serpentine body began to move, like the rumblings of the earth before an Earthquake. Immediately, I felt my senses overwhelmed with awe –how could such a gigantic creature move? What kind of muscles could generate enough force to move a mountain? How much calories did it cost just to maintain its size?
This wasn't even the biggest monster I would encounter.
Like the calm before a storm or the wake before a Tsunami, for a single breathtaking instant, everything was still.
When the Myung-sa finally struck, it did not lunge towards us with its colossal jaws, nor did it spit the poison-acid that it was so well known for. All it did was unfurl its wings. No magic. No supernatural ability at work here. Just muscles of a creature so large and powerful that in ancient times, it would have been lauded as a dragon-god, worshipped by people in Asia and South America.
It unfurled its wings with extreme prejudice.
The wings snapped outwards with the crack of something shattering and sent a supersonic wave of densely packed air that clapped like thunder, uprooting entire trees and shaking boulders the size of small cars loose from the mountain side.
And instant before he struck, I squeezed out my command before it was lost in the storm, praying to the gods that it would be heard. “Arione! Shield!”
Arione shoved his hands outwards, summoning a translucent dome made of mana. The wind howled as it struck the shield. For a breathtaking moment, we all saw the creature’s wings begin to move; sending rippling shockwaves through the air. It bombarded the shield over and over again.
But it held.
This reconfirmed my decision: for now, I needed the mage.
Then the creature turned to us and roared.
Holy shit.
I felt the organs in my stomach actually tremble in resonance with the things.
Still, it was nothing compared to the [Mother Centipede]. Hell, it was nothing compared to the eerie pressure of Oung or the fiery will of Khan.
The four damage dealers (me included), charged forward. Zenom let out a roar of holy wrath, hoping to match the reptile’s sheer presence but came up short. Arrosh and I glided along like silent wraiths, while Delas shifted forward like a ninja, his steps light upon the earth.
The first phase was simple. Getting rid of its wings.
Which meant we had to get close.
The Myung-sa’s eyes glittered with greenish light as it looked at us.
Fuck, already?
“Avoid its eyes!” I cried out, speeding up.
It wasn’t a moment too soon because the creature’s eyes exploded into an array of greenish hues and two lasers fell down like a waterfall towards our location. The beams didn’t explode on contact. Instead, they washed over the ground and left a growing path of spiked jade with deadly edges, steaming with dark greenish poison gas.
Whereever the creature looked, it turned spaces the size of a large house into those lethal poisonous jade. It hissed and the air shook again, as its tail began to uncoil from the mountaintop.
“For the light!” I heard Zenom’s cry and saw the blonde Holy Knight leap onto a moving tail, using his bastard sword to stab into the creature’s scales. His aura stabbed through the scales and drew greenish blood, as the Myung-sa opened its mouth, revealing two curved fangs dripping with purplish liquid.
The Holy Knight began to hack at the tail with abandon, all thoughts of our previous conversation about getting rid of the wings leaving his head.
This was the famous Zenom Saintred that Aurora and Kyrian kept talking about?
In the corner of my eyes, I saw Borealis move towards the Creature’s head. My heart lurched, not because I was afraid for Borealis but because it was instinct. Like seeing a short video about someone being attacked by a Great White. Borealis was hardly taller than the thing’s fangs –he wouldn’t even be a good appetizer.
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“Go! Leave the head to me!” The red mist around Borealis thickened, as he continued the [Belly Drum] ability.
The Myung-sa moving revealed deep grooves in the mountain, each of them the size of a large hill. I bounded forward with Arrosh and Delas on either side, finally whipping my sword forward and readying my own techniques.
｢Lock Slaveborn casts [Share the Load] ｣
｢Lock Slaveborn casts [King’s Guard] ｣
My [Share the Load] ability is an undodgeable, auto-targeting ability. Everytime I activated it, the thing summoned a manacle around my wrist and a matching set for the opponent that I designated, so it was no wonder when the ability made a manacle large enough to fit on the Myung-sa’s neck.
A manacle that was as big around as a redwood is thick.
And then it clasped itself around the Myung-sa’s neck.
It went mad with fury.
The snake-like monster started spitting disgusting blobs of acid, each bubble large enough to shower one of us from head to toe.
Shit. There was no way that the Lunar Shield could block that.
But the three of us were already at the soft part of its underbelly and we began to climb.
I knew that if someone were to look upon this battle, it’d be like watching ants climb flowers. Laboriously slow displays of grit, fortitude and strength.
It was anything but slow.
Each movement of the Myung-sa caused my heart to beat faster. It was uncoiling itself from the mountain with faster speed, like a bullwhip beginning to wind up before all the kinetic energy was released at the focal point. To us, there was no time for a wind-up. The creature had just molted and already, its scales were hardening before our very eyes. Knowing that we had no time, we started activating our techniques.
｢Arrosh Bloodedge casts [Necro Fulgur] ｣
Black lightning surrounded Arrosh’s cane sword as he bounded into the air, stepping on the wind. His Crow Spirit wrapped around the elderly orc, seeming to give him wings. He was the first one to reach the base of the wing and began to hack at it, black lightning sizzling with otherworldly energy.
｢Delas Ender casts [Naturally Sharp] ｣
Delas was next to arrive at the wings, running across the Giant Snakes’ body like a ninja. He brought his daggers above his head and scratched them against each other. They gleamed for one blinding instant and the rogue began to stab the base of the wings, hacking away with a cold cruel gaze.
I was next.
While Arrosh and Delas had both run there, I hadn’t.
I cheated.
The Lunar Shield was locked into orbit around me, but it didn’t always move with me. There was always a slight delay in following my movement, plus it tended to lock in around my chest. The inspiration came from Arrosh using [Air Jump], except I’d use my shield as the foothold. I jumped and then leaped again by striking my feet against my shield, then when the shield completed its orbit, I jumped against it again.
My body was loaded with [Physical] stat based Cores and each jumped threw me at least a dozen feet in the air.
Within seconds, I was at the base of the creature’s wing.
The Myung-sa’s wings were attached to its body with a tumor-like growth, soft to the touch. It strained, trying to take to the skies. But Arione cast fireball after fireball at the veiny flaps of skin and with each strike, the Myung-sa nearly screamed in pain. Between each cast of Fireball, he added in blades of wind that left long lacerating cuts on the creature’s body.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
I had to give it to him. He wasn’t a Grade-2 mage for nothing. He was doing loads of damage just by himself. Hell, given enough time, he might be able to solo the creature.
But that would require precise movements in this hellhole and Arione had crippled himself by chaining the spells together, losing precious time to reposition himself. He was surrounded by pools of acid and clouds of poison, and even if he could teleport almost the entire mountain had been transformed into poisonous jade. If it wasn’t for Borealis tanking the creature near Arione, the elven mage would have been reduced to a puddle on the ground long ago.
“Hurry up!” Arione snarled, panting. His voice barely reached us above the sounds of the explosions and the monster’s cries.
Even with the [Exhausted] condition on the monster, it’s scales were fucking tough. Or maybe this sword I got from the Church’s makeshift shop was just a piece of junk. Even with Aura, the creature’s scales were simply too much for me to make a cut deeper than a few inches at a time. I snarled in anger, redoubling my efforts as the creature bobbed up and down, forcing me to pay attention to my balance as well.
“It’s doing something!” Borealis cried out.
Right as Borealis said it, I looked at the others.
Fucking Zenom was still near the tail end, hacking at it while his own eyes were red.
…Did his buff wear off and now his mind had succumbed to the Special Field’s anger effect? How long ago?
Delas and Arrosh weren’t making much progress either.
“Shit! This isn’t working!” Delas cried out.
There wasn’t any other way. “To me! To me! Cut together!”
Delas and Arrosh obeyed immedaitely, both of them dashing over to my side. I took a look at Arrosh’s hands, raw skin starting to surface. Not only that, Delas’ eyes were shifty, looking for an escape route. I knew someone looking for a way out when I saw one. The combination of Arrosh’s physical weakness and Delas’ mental weakness made me nervous in turn.
“All together!” I cut into the stump holding the sail-sized wings above me twice more. The passive [Artisan of Battle] activated with each cut, but the magic damage wasn’t making much progress either. Myung-sa had a high magic defense stat. “On my mark!”
Arrosh held his sword sideways, across his forehead.
Delas took a few steps back, getting into a runner’s pose.
I held the sword high, ready for a diagonal slash.
“NOW!” I cried out.
｢Arrosh Bloodedge casts [Heavenly Strike] ｣
｢Delas Ender casts [Dead Meat] ｣
｢Lock Slaveborn casts [Hateful Wound] ｣
Arrosh’s [Necro Fulgar] reacted with [Heavenly Strike], covering his entire body in black lightning. Clad in electricity, the orc traveled ten paces in a single step, his sword leaving a gash that was two feet deep.
Delas pounced forward, his legs acting like unloaded springs.
His daggers glowed with sickly light green gaseous liquid and the daggers sunk into the creature’s wing-stump with a stomach-curling squelch. The green gas drilled in on the dagger and spread to the meat around it, making it visually sag. I knew within moments, that area would turn gray and black. Normally, that should be enough to decapitate a monster but this was a grade-5 boss monster. Plus, there was just so much of the meat.
“Get off the thing! Now!” Borealis cried out again.
I didn’t watch to see if Arrosh and Delas would obey Borealis’ warning. In a battle like this, instincts were to listen to warnings like that. Regardless, I had a job to do.
I flew across the distance between myself and the creature, slashing down with Aura.
Then activated Hateful Wound.
So big was Myung-sa's wing that when it fell, it fell in slow motion.
Blood spurted out, splattering the front of my armor. I hissed as it began to melt, my sword beginning to show signs of corrosion.
“Disciple!” Arrosh cried out.
The Myung-sa’s blood covered the front of my armor and I knew that once the adrenaline wore off, I would have a nasty set of acid burns to deal with. But right now, I didn’t care. The others might be chickening out, but I wouldn’t. I wanted to hunt this monster and by the fucking gods of MSS, I wanted to see it through to the end.
If we didn’t cut off its wing, it would escape and then come back. If it did that, forget the Exhausted state. It’ll have fed, be angrier and be all the more stronger for it. MSS had some weird mechanic where if you failed to hunt a monster, its stats got a boost. Eventually, those monsters would become Variants and then Named-Variants. Already, this creature was a Variant. If we let it escape here…
It could come back as a Named.
“Slaveborn! Arrosh!” Borealis cried out.
I spared a glance and saw Delas duck behind Borealis’ shield. When the hell did he get away from here? Did he think our job was done now that the wing was cut? Absently, I felt a sense of vertigo as the Myung-sa reared up, its wings beginning to move in earnest and great tempests of wind blew at me.
Then the Myung-sa's head whipped forward, jaws open and diving towards Borealis and Mage.
I don’t care how good a tank Borealis is, the snake was just too big. It’s jaw was too big, impossibly wide and stretched to the limit. If it landed it would-
Arioen threw a fireball so big that it made most of us close our eyes. The impact was followed by a smokescreen that covered almost everyone's vision.
But I saw it.
Three needle thing laser-beams stabbed through the Myung-sa, creating smoking holes in its forehead.
｢Arione Popwindale casts [Disintegration Ray] ｣
In the same way that its wing fell, the Myung-sa fell to the ground, lifeless and limp, creating another wall of smoke so thick that it covered the whole area for at least fifty yards out.
...What?
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I have to admit, I was expecting a grand finale. Some kind of epic fight and ending. My blood continued to thud against the back of my head, the adrenaline still rushing through my veins. My brain refused to acknowledge that the creature was dead. There had to be more than this but my eyes weren't mistaken, that had been a lethal blow on the weakened Monster. Like cutting away a bad wound, I mentally cut away the disbelief and focused on the now.
How the hell did he cast Disintegration Ray, a spell that belonged to the Grand Mage?
A spell that could be cast in any element, whether it be Fire, Earth, Lightning, Water, Ice, Wind; anything. However it was classified as a Grade-S Spell and was an exclusive to the Grand Mage and his disciples during the boss fight. Hell, no matter what Mage I played, I hadn’t found a way to use it. I hated the developers for showing me such a spell, only to lock us out of attaining it.
So how hell did Arione get his hands on it?
When the smoke cleared, Arione walked towards us while Delas and Borealis calmed Zenom down. None of them had seen the spell. Just me... and Arrosh.
Arrosh and I slid down the creature’s body.
The elf smirked.
“Heh… that was supposed to be a secret.” He whispered in front of me and Arrosh.
No one else was here except just Arione, Arrosh and me. Everyone had been scattered by the ensuing blast.
Arione smirked in that infuriating way that made me want to stick a knife in his face. “This isn't a game. It takes more than game knowledge to become a powerful mage." As he walked by me, he whispered, "You sure you can reach the top with... what was his name? Kyrian? Didn't seem too talented to me."
Arione Popwindale.
He had managed to get his hands on a quest, the same as me.
To become the next Grand Mage.
"Fuck."
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