27 Second Phase

Black and Red Energy gathered in the boss' sword, clashing for dominance. The monster slashed at Shesmu with incredible momentum, leaving a black and red trail.

Watching his impending doom, Shesmu thought, Empowered Thrust! Green light gathered on Shesmu's sword before he thrust, his target: The boss' sword. The two weapons clashed for a half a breath before the boss' overwhelmed Shesmu's sword. With barely any momentum wasted, the boss' sword struck down like a meteorite, intending on decimating its target.

The goblord's weapon flew out of its hand. Shocked and surprised at this turn of event, the monster looked at Shesmu's determined face. He should have been cleaved in half, but there he stood, triumphant while its sword spun in the air before plunging deep into the ground.

Shesmu breathed a sigh of relief thinking, Good, deflected it. He then raised his sword and slashed at the boss before it could regain its balance and start attacking once again. As usual, Shesmu used Empowered Slash Cancel and targeted the goblord's neck, activating a critical damage effect.

270

540

With all the new upgrades to his equipment and stats, Shesmu's critical hits did close to enough damage so as to two-shot a hobgoblin. When the two damage numbers appeared, even Shesmu's teammates were surprised for half a second before attacking the boss once again.

Even after receiving so much damage, the goblord only lost a quarter of its health. As if all the hits that it received were but ant bites, it stood up proudly with its chest puffed. It unsheathed its sword from the ground and looked at Shesmu with an intense glare—It was going to kill him.

Black and red aura engulfed its body, but instead of gathering in its weapon like last time, it entered its skin and merged with the monster's body. The goblord's whole frame glowed faintly in both colors, emitting a lethal aura.

Damn, that sword, it's an evolved weapon.

Shesmu gripped his sword even harder, a smile covering his face.

"Everyone, beware! This might be a buff skill or something, it looks a little bit like the skill the tank hob used, so try not to get hit, understand?"

"Understood!" Both Leo and Ryan replied.

Well, that's one thing. But now that all of our attack skills are on cooldown, we're in trouble. And I'm still not used to this body goddammit. If it was before, even without a sword or a skill I would have toyed with this boss like it was nothing!

In the face of this unnecessarily difficult situation, Shesmu's frustration grew. However, the boss didn't really care about his internal struggle and attacked him with no prior notice.

Shesmu woke up from his daze and parried the goblord's slash. The clash felt as if someone smashed him with a rock. Shesmu took two steps back and his hands felt numb after the exchange.

Leo, noticing that Shesmu was out of gas, ran towards the boss and attacked him. Leo kept on the offensive so as to switch the aggro of the goblord back to him.

In the meantime, Ryan circled around the boss from the shadows to prepare for an attack from behind. Once the opportunity showed itself, he lunged at it.

While his two friends were fighting, Shesmu didn't stand idle. Once Leo firmly took hold of the boss' aggro, Shesmu kept going in and out slowly chipping away at the monster's HP.

After a couple of rounds of Shesmu going in and out, the boss slashed Leo before he could recover his stance. With one hit, the boss took half of Leo's Hp and threw him off balance. The goblord then raised his sword a second time and slashed at Leo intending to finish him off.

When Shesmu saw his friend getting hit, he immediately dove in and activated Empowered Thrust. Like last time, Shesmu targeted the boss' sword. However, while the boss activated an attack skill in the last attempt, this time he did not.

Shesmu's sword hit the middle of the goblord's blade, parrying the attack. Due to the recoil, the boss' sword went up and the goblord lost his balance. Neither Shesmu nor Ryan missed this chance and dished out as much damage as possible. Shesmu slashed the goblord's chest two times before ending his combo with an Empowered Slash Cancel to the neck, while Ryan kept stabbing and slashing at the monster in the back, his dagger cloaked in shadows.

This flurry of attacks took out a good chunk of the boss' Hp, reducing it to a quarter. The goblord finally restored his balance. The moment Ryan saw the boss take hold of itself was the moment he jumped back, not even risking being in his attack range.

The goblord was enraged. It screamed and shouted to the heavens before kicking Shesmu's guts with all its might. The kick sent him flying across the room, back against the floor.

"Huff, puff"

Shesmu stood up slowly, using his sword as a support. He checked his Hp at the left corner of his vision and saw that he lost 100 health. He then looked at the boss and was surprised by what he saw.

The goblord stood proudly with energy exceeding by multiple times whatever he showed before, bursting out his whole being. Dark and Red aura intertwined, with the color of blood being the dominant one.

So, it's a berserker too. This is bad, if Ryan and Leo stay next to him, they'll just die and gift him HP!

Once Shesmu considered this scenario, he immediately ordered, "Leo! Ryan! Get the heck out of there!"

Not wasting even half a second, both Leo and Ryan teleported out of the goblord's vicinity.

Now that his teammates were safe, Shesmu inspected the boss. The goblord barely had 2000 HP left. After doing some mental calculations, Shesmu thought: If I activate a fatal hit, I can kill it!

The boss raised its sword nonchalantly and aimed with its tip at Shesmu. The overflowing energy that was coming out of its body gathered at the tip of its weapon. Two dots of black and red energy spun in a circle and grew to the size of a tennis ball.

The ball of energy hovered in the air for a few seconds as if to mock Shesmu, before pouncing like a cheetah.

The ball of death flew with incredible momentum towards Shesmu. In less than half a breath, it reached its target. The goblord smirked, thinking that his enemy was already dead.

The ball of energy stood in front of Shesmu, almost touching his nose. However, it couldn't. Shesmu flickered out of existence, dodging the ball of red and black. The wall behind him exploded in a burst of flame.

Leo could barely make out what happened before his eyes darted towards the boss. He couldn't believe them. In its spot, three people stood. Shesmu with his sword, clad in a green aura, plunged deep into the creature's neck. Ryan, his dagger, cloaked in shadows, puncturing the boss' heart. And finally, the goblord, proud as it was—dead.