Chapter 46. The Fading Mists, Ariandel._Zane Black (A LITRPG progression fantasy)

Our fight resumed after that dagger throw. She didn’t have the time to question why I threw such an obvious attack toward her as I filled her attention with a barrage of my spear attacks. Her body twisted and turned to avoid all of my attacks, then once I paused, she kicked my spear away from her body and lunged at me with both of her daggers.

I pretended to be overwhelmed by her sudden counterattack, which wasn’t a difficult act to do since her attacks were tough to deal with in the first place. The first two swings of her dagger grazed my biceps, then two more managed to sneak past my spear and nearly stabbed me in the gut. I then shadow-stepped away to create some distance, and as I expected, she put her left arm in the air, and my vision was clouded once more with her ice pins.

My face twisted in shock as I witnessed my incoming death. I threw my spear in desperation with a grunt, but she fully expected me to throw a Hail Mary in this situation.

As she was about to sidestep away from my spear, I disappeared from the ice dome, and in my place was the dagger that I threw at her before. Her calm eyes were visibly awoken by the sudden change of events.

Using my newly gained ability from my attuned Dark arsenal, I switched my location with my dagger that was planted right below her. I grabbed at her waist tightly with both of my arms, locking her down with my thrown spear on the way to rip the flesh off the both of us.

“Well played…” a whisper was heard as her figure dissipated into a white mist. “But I have a few other cards to play too, Zane.”

Twisting my waist and recalling my spear, I turned around and saw Ariandel reappearing in the distance. She had a similar skill to my shadow-step too; Her newly revealed skill made this fight difficult to plan and strategize for.

A pair of white mist appeared above both of her shoulders. The same few icicles now hovered around her as she entered her stance, rushing towards my direction.

The icicles remained on her as our weapons clashed. I was constantly aware of the possibility of her ice shards firing out of nowhere, which dramatically slowed down my reactions, enough so that her daggers nearly sliced my neck off more than a few times. Then, one of her ice shards fired right as I was swerving my head to avoid her dagger thrust, ripping my left shoulder apart with its icy edge.

I was forced to shadow-step away from the sudden influx of pain. She didn’t follow up with the ice pins this time, but opted to chase me with her own version of shadow step. Her dagger grazed my cheek as I was barely able to dodge her next attacks, and then, another icicle fired, ripping the flesh of my right shin apart.

Her assault now proved to be more dangerous than I thought it would be. The momentum was completely on her side as I accrued more and more wounds all over my body. My speed was nothing compared to how I used to move, and that made it even easier for her to paint my body red with her daggers.

Then, I was forced to switch my location with the few daggers I threw way back when she was circling around me. I couldn’t even catch my breath, as the pain was simply overwhelming. I rushed through my backpack to gulp another potion, watching the wounds closing up, and brainstormed how to tackle her new pattern of attacks.

1 more potion left.

Mana : 84/200 [0/ 40 stored]

That’s not a lot of mana left… I could handle a few more summoned weapons with the reduced mana cost.

Her figure blasted past the mist, barreling at me with her daggers at the ready. Frankly, my spear wasn’t a good match with her daggers, since she’d always nullified the distance advantage I was supposed to have. The biggest strength of my spear came from its fight-ending throws and the range it had compared to the other melee weapon types, and none of those could shine when she could simply dodge my thrusts and throws.

I planted my spear on the ground, opting to answer her assault with another strategy.

I wasn’t good enough with my daggers to trade blows with her, even with dagger mastery. But there was one fighting style that I was more than just familiar with, a fighting style I’d mastered even before stepping foot into this world.

A fighting style that didn’t require the system’s aid to be great at.

Focusing on her daggers, I kept my stance low as I swerved past her chain of dagger slices and thrust. It wasn’t necessarily easier to do it this way, but with both of my arms now freed from holding the spear, I was capable of altering her swing motion with my limbs, adding more options to the ways of dealing with her agility.

Well, of course, I was under no delusion that my punches would do any significant damage to her.

A smirk appeared on her lips as our melee continued, “Your hands are harder to slip through than your spear… Very well.”

She teleported away afterward, reappearing a few meters away in the distance. She fully expected me to wait for her next move, but man, I wasn’t happy with just standing still.

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I shadow-stepped behind her, surprising her as I hooked her straight at her waist. But it wasn’t just a simple hook, I recalled one of my daggers that were scattered all around the battlefield back to my hands, and then…

Blue blood gushed out from her waist when I finally, finally, wounded her for the first time. Her body twisted from the sudden stab as she groaned in pain, canceling whatever it was that she planned to do. My assault didn’t end there, however, as she leaped away, I maintained a close distance from her while recalling another dagger in my other hand.

I threw one of them towards her fleeing figure. Perhaps it was from her panic, or perhaps she had run out of mana, but she didn’t escape with her teleportation skill this time, opting to dash sideways instead.

I swapped locations with the thrown dagger, and the distance between us suddenly vanished with a single use of a skill. Her eyes remained in shock while I feinted a stab to the other side of her waist. And again… she made another mistake.

I had shadow-step ready.

Teleporting quite a distance behind her, I avoided her attempts at counterattacking me. I performed a full motion thrust with my short dagger towards her back, which wouldn’t even scratch her at this distance. She was dumbfounded by my apparent mistake and didn’t react appropriately.

My thrust motion continued, and right as I was about to reach the apex of my thrust, I swapped my dagger with the spear that was planted solidly on the floor from before. The range instantly multiplied, and then… My spear ripped through her daggers and pierced her chest.

“Wh.. What?” She didn’t expect my recent chain of skill usage and attacks.

And still, after all that has happened to her, she didn’t teleport away. It was painfully clear now that she simply ran out of mana and was unable to cast that skill to save her life. That didn’t mean that she had given up, though; she kicked herself off the grip of my spear and stumbled on the floor, kneeling from the pain.

“That was fantastic… I didn’t realize you could use those skills in that way, interesting…” Despite the damage that she had taken, she still mustered a smile. “I’ve underestimated you, Zane Black.”

She then stood up after a long groan, “Let me show you what I-“

My spear ripped her head apart right as she was about to throw her last attack at me.

Why the hell would I let her continue her attack? I could barely deal with her as is.

[You killed Lvl 32. The Mother Wolf, Ariandel]

[Dark arsenal - Intermediate leveled up!]

[Spear mastery - Intermediate leveled up!]

[Dagger mastery - novice leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You gained a level!]

[The Coveted Shadow class has leveled up! You gained : + 2 dexterity, +1 Capacity, +1 Intelligence, +1 Strength, +1 Constitution]

[Achievement added : Lone wolf. Be the first in your sector to defeated a wave boss alone. 10% bonus to all stats when fighting enemies alone.]

Yeah, yeah… Whatever. I shooed the system messages away. The sheer exhaustion of both my physical and mental aspects was driving me close to the edge.

That is way too close. Had she saved more mana or stamina, this fight could’ve easily gone her way. The adrenaline that coursed through my veins was finally relieved of its duties as I sank to the floor, heaving as I reveled in the dopamine burst from the kill. Ariandel was tough, probably the hardest fight in terms of how to strategize against.

I made way too many mistakes in that fight. Years of fighting experience that had ingrained themselves into me led me towards the win in the end, but there were times when I should have relied on the system’s skills instead of reacting to her attacks naturally.

I can’t let the same mistake happen again.

My head turned towards the gate that stood tall, overlooking the fight that was about to end below it. The wolves were overwhelmed by the combined forces of Reghan’s might and Julie’s magic, and with all the new equipment and classes they had accrued, ensured our victory.

[The wolf mother has been slain!]

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

“KEEP PUSHING!” Reghan shouted words of encouragement as he saw the wolves retreating, smelling the victory that was about to be in their grasp.

For some reason, the wolf mother never showed up, despite her presence being such a threat that he nearly quaked in his boots when he first saw her. He was constantly worried about Ariandel launching a surprise attack to wipe his group off, but that never happened.

Julie was strangely calm about Ariandel’s absence. They didn’t have the time to talk during the wave’s invasion - the most communication they had was a simple nod here and there, so he was clueless about Zane’s disappearance too.

And as if the system was reading his mind, it sent him a message :

[The wolf mother has been slain!]

A smile left his lips. He rallied his troop and performed a relentless final push against the wave.

Victory… at long last.

Chapter 46. The Fading Mists, Ariandel.

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