Maria shot herself forward, leaving behind a sonic boom, and arrived right in front of the Primal of Thunder and Lightning, Thor, in the next instant. Everyone was quite surprised when they heard the loud boom that signaled the start of the fight and before they could react, Maria was already swinging her weapon at the boss monster.
“The match has started with a literal boom! Player Maria has taken the initiative to deal the first blow but it’s immediately blocked by the boss monster!”
“This is quite a unique boss! The description of the boss reads that it is the Primal of Thunder and Lightning, Thor. The title alone is quite exquisite but it’s the first time a named boss monster like this has appeared in the game!”
“This isn’t the game, Tyler, this is only the event! Perhaps it’s a boss that was designed specifically for today!”
“Enough about that, did you not read the pre-battle notifications? Take a look at this again!” Hadez, the other caster who was asked to cast today’s event, immediately exclaimed.
Primal Thor has acknowledged you as one of the Allfather’s Disciples Enemy Battle Skill: Vigilance, has been applied. Primal Thor’s stats have been increased by 50%
“This notification was precisely directed to player Maria, as we all know...there could only be one Allfather, and if you’re thinking what I’m thinking then─”
“Odin Allfather? From the myths? Could there be an NPC in the game that player Maria has learned from?”
“That doesn’t matter, Tyler, because what does matter is the Battle Skill: Vigilance which enhances the enemy boss’s stats by 50%! This battle has just become so much harder for player Maria now!”
“There she goes again! What speed! She’s dancing around Thor and creating a field of sonic booms with just her movement capabilities!”
“Amazing! To think she could effectively fight while moving in such a high-paced manner!”
While the casters were commentating on the match, Maria was furiously attacking Thor with all her might. The 50% increase in stats thanks to the Primal’s battle skill was no joke and it was causing Maria some difficulties. She actually found it hard to pierce through the boss’s defenses as Thor was able to keep up with her attack speed and movement speed. She was still much faster in terms of moving and attacking so Thor couldn’t dodge any of her strikes but it didn’t need to. Blocking and Parrying Maria’s attacks already diminished her damage output and with the boss’s battle recovery, its HP was kept at a healthy level, not moving down past 97%!
It was hard enough to break through the defenses but Thor was also actively parrying and blocking her attacks while healing himself up with its battle regen passive skill. The fight looked extremely intense as every one of Maria’s blows cracked the ground and shook the air. She chained all of her normal attacks perfectly and even incorporated the use of her Chains and shadows to assault the boss monster which surprised the audience because of her unique attacking methods. Maria still hadn’t used any of her skills because she was testing the waters and trying to gauge out Thor’s stats.
‘It’s high...all of Thor’s stats are way above mine…’
Whenever Maria fought with a boss monster in the game, her normal attacks would sometimes allow her to knock up her opponent due to her STR stat being so much higher. However, it wasn’t the case this time. Thor’s STR stat was definitely much higher than hers because even when she put all of her strength into slamming her Calamity down to attack, Thor would just block or parry it without looking strained at all.
‘That damned 50% increase...if only I could use [Nightmare]...’
Maria had to restrain herself from using that skill for now since it was going to play a crucial part in one of her future quests on Gaia. This was only a battle that would have no impact on her if she won or lost. It also wasn’t wise if she displayed all of her power today because no amount of glory from winning this battle would compensate for her loss of secrecy. Since she couldn’t go completely all out, Maria attacked while also thinking about what skills she could and couldn’t show in this battle. Even if she lost, it didn’t matter anyway.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
With that out of the way, Maria stopped her attack and backed off after she achieved her goal of gauging her enemy’s stats. No abilities were shown yet as the boss’s AI seemed to have figured out Maria’s intentions and didn’t use any of its skills.
“Alright, warm-up is over, let’s get to the real thing,” Maria said aloud as she finally pulled out her Zantetsu-R.
The audience and people outside were shocked when they heard Maria’s words.
“What the heck?! That was just a warm-up?” The caster, Tyler, exclaimed in astonishment.
Hadez, however, wasn’t too shocked. As a player, he had already noticed that Maria was only gauging her opponent’s specs as she had only used normal attacks and not a single skill yet. Not only that, she still hadn’t pulled out the other weapon she had sheathed on her back but now that she had it out and was dual-wielding both her ax and her blade, the real fight was just about to start.
“Don’t be too surprised, she was only checking her opponent earlier. She hadn’t used a single skill yet,” Hadez said.
The other rankers that were watching Maria’s battle also had similar thoughts. From the start, they had wondered why Maria had taken the initiative when she should have been sizing up her opponent first, but she had a unique way of doing that which soon came to light once they noticed her only using normal attacks. Maria wasn’t finished yet, she took to the skies and began casting multiple buffs on herself with insane speed. She double, triple, and quadra-casted her buffs which reminded everyone that Maria wasn’t a warrior or knight-class player, she was a Priest!
“Oh yeah, she was a Priest!”
“We nearly forgot about this tidbit of information, but player Maria has a hidden class within the Priest branch!”
“There are many hidden classes out there, some that move towards the extremity of their main branch class’s features while others provide a little more versatility! We suspect that player Maria has one of these so-called Hybrid Hidden Classes that allow her to play as both a Priest and a Warrior!”
Many nodded in realization but there were a few people that were puzzled.
“She’s not using any of her magic spells...weird.”
“Hmm...maybe she has a plan.”
These people were naturally Maria’s regulars from her streaming channel. In her streams, Maria would always display her incredible fighting prowess for everyone to see but it wasn’t only that. She also showcased her incredible magic spells that shocked many spellcaster-class players tuning into her streams since they were so versatile. Maria had finished preparations and tried targeting Thor with a few debuff spells and skill but to no avail.
*DING*
Battle Skill: Vigilance, has given Primal Thor abnormal status immunity from any of Player: Maria’s abilities
“Tsk, what an annoying skill...I wish I could have it.”
Thor had just been waiting on Maria the entire time. It didn’t even move or try to stop her from finishing her preparations.
“For a boss, you sure are arrogant…” Maria mumbled. “Fine, let’s start the real show with a bang, shall we?”
Maria was insulted by Thor’s lack of action as it seemed as if the monster was looking down on her. She began gathering up her mana and channeled around 10% of her total MP into her [Fire] spell. She let go of her Calamity and let it just float next to her in midair and raised her hand to the sky. Everyone watching was wondering what she was going to do but her regulars from her stream already knew what was coming as they noticed her MP gauge deplete by 10%.
“Oh! Here it comes!”
“She’s gonna start the battle now!”
A small spark erupted just above her palm as Maria chanted. Thor didn’t move and just allowed her to finish her spell which greatly angered her so she added another 10% of her mana.
“I’ll burn you to ashes…[Fire].”
The small spark in her hand immediately came to life as a large blaze suddenly erupted out of nowhere, shocking the audience and causing many people to close their eyes as the flames were too bright. Maria still wasn’t finished as she enhanced her spell using Envy’s [Shadow Manipulation] and changed the red hot flames into black ones that now befitted her character as a Fallen.
“Hehe,” Maria had an evil smile on her face before she waved her hand down.
The large black ball of flames didn’t move for a moment before suddenly, it blinked out of existence. Thor had just raised his two weapons in an attempt to block it, but with it suddenly disappearing, Thor, as well as the people watching, were bewildered.
“What?”
“I-It disappeared?”
“Could she have misfired it?”
Their questions were answered because, in the next instant, a large explosion ensued right below Maria.
“Hmph.”
Maria had used Envy’s [Shadow Manipulation] not only to enhance her [Fire] spell’s potency but to also provide it with a little something else. When she launched her spell earlier, it disappeared because instead of moving through the air, it moved through the shadows. The spell exited out of Thor’s shadow and immediately exploded behind him which caught the Primal off guard as it was helpless to do anything.
She began laughing in elation after seeing the boss monster’s surprised look when the spell had suddenly appeared behind him. It was already too late when it realized what was happening and had to take the full brunt of Maria’s anger-infused attack. She had been playing the game for so long but it was the first time that she had been looked down upon and not taken seriously. Whoever’s AI was behind Thor was definitely an idiot.
Maria wasn’t finished there, even before the explosion settled down, she began multi-casting a few [Fire] spells and started bombarding Thor who was still caught in the explosion after she located him in the mess she caused down there. The way Maria laughed as she did this made her look like the villain to everyone who was watching.
“Don’t EVER look down on me!”
Everyone expected an intense melee battle to ensue but what they got was an incredible display of explosions and ‘fireworks’ as Maria used her magic to decimate her opponent.