9 Boss Fight

Michael chose to move throughout the city using only the covered parts of it. Thankfully, there was plenty of scaffolding, even if they were not very secure. These metallic or wooden planks provided excellent cover, so long as Michael faithfully stayed under them.

He had to learn how to improve his hearing since it had already started to fail him now. The archers were able to easily sneak into his hearing range and shoot him. That was dangerous for him because of his lack of healing abilities and ranged attacks. He now wished he bought a shield instead of this relatively unhelpful katana. Even concentrated, Michael struggled to effectively strike with the weapon. It was simply big enough that it became a liability for someone with little to no training in the art of the blade. With some experience, maybe Michael would be able to pull off impressive feats with the blade, however, it simply wasn't the case.

One thing that pulled Michael away from the anger he felt at his bad decision was the fact that he managed to loot some sort of armor from both the archers and the armored zombies he killed. He wasn't wearing just a rag around his waist anymore, but he had a leather breastplate and two leather vambraces. His shoulder still greatly hurt him and impaired his movement a little bit, although it was nothing compared to the pain that was still ringing from his pierced tight. The arrow didn't go too deep, but the place of the injury forced Michael to take breaks frequently as the pain became too much to endure. He had a hard time running and was bothered when in fights since he often uses his good mobility against the zombies.

Even if his dexterity stat wasn't that good, he was still rather agile compared to the zombies therefore it was a point that he learned to abuse early on. His often smaller size offered great possibilities on the battlefield.

Nonetheless, the constant shaking from his kill on the recently turned young girl still hadn't left his body. Neither did the scene left his mind. So long as he couldn't see his face, he could function relatively normally and could force himself away from his thoughts about body dysphoria. However, the stare of the dissected body just wouldn't let him go.

Michael resolutely thought that it was something that he would have live with and stepped forward despite his trembling hands. Fortunately, when faced with a zombie wanting to eat him, he was able to get his act together and retaliate reasonably well.

'I nearly forgot to update my status again...' thought the young kid. As he looked around, he noticed that he was in a region of the city he never went into before. all buildings had disappeared for a while now, and the only thing that was left was the conversion of gradually bigger pipes full of green liquid. Compared to the viscous substance that the zombies had, this one was shining and completely liquid. It was traveling through the pipes with 0 problems.

Michael however deduced that whatever was at the center of this damned ghost city, required a lot of green liquid. Since the green liquid was associated with enemies, he instinctively knew that a big monster was waiting for him.

Against his wishes, Michael was proven right once he stepped far enough in the city. Behind a giant container, the size of a proper tower, filled with green corrosive liquid, was slumbering a four-legged monstrosity. His feet were longer than Michael's entire body. His limbs were powerfully sculpted and his muscles were made out of marble. Wearing a bronze-like skin, the creature was looking mighty even slumped on itself. It was completely devoid of any hair and had tattoos like black scripting all over his body and wore a black leather facemask.

As Michael's heart started to beat heavily in his body and sweat cascaded down his face, he noticed that the beast's left arm had been replaced by what looked to be a gun. A steampunk-style gun that fit the giant monster that was the boss of this dungeon. It was all in gold, even though it seemed to be partly corroded, probably by the green liquid, and was made out of gold plates, tubes that transported the green liquid and cogs. A lot of cogs.

Michael didn't miss the fact that the 'bullets' of this gun were precisely the corrosive green liquid that seemed to be the fuel of the zombies. Our hero knew that he couldn't let this gun hit true otherwise he would be vaporized.

As he approached the sleeping titan, the ground started to shake. The monster in the room opened its eyes in an instant and looked at the little human standing near it. It could smell the fear and see the terror in his eyes. Michael breathed through his mouth to try to calm his nerves as the shining crimson eyes of the boss targeted him.

Each step the boss took to stand up shook the room. The loud noises ringing in Michael's ear. However, having never played a game before, our hero wasn't familiar with the standard rules of a boss battle and therefore rushed in the deliver the first blow before it could properly stand up.

The boss wasn't prepared for this and raised his cannon arm too late as Michael's katana easily hacked through its front left leg. It didn't completely sever the limb, but the explosion of blood that resulted from the attack and the fact that the bone of the creature was visible and even cracked proved that Michael was not going to be completely outclassed in this fight.

"I shall have your heart!" screamed the enraged boss as he ignored his injury and managed to stand up tall by shooting a blast of concentrated green liquid at his enemy. Michael, seeing the telegraphed move from his opponent, ducked under the boss to dodge the shot. He then proceeded to stab his katana where a normal human's rectum would be before the boss could squash him under his weight.

"Arrrgh! You insect!" Roaring in pain, the boss moved faster than Michael had anticipated and made some distance between himself and what he thought was an annoying ant that lucked out in injuring him.

He then simply spammed his cannon arm, hoping to disintegrate the one that had angered him.

Seeing the ant still moving, he chuckled darkly, "You can't keep dodging forever, can't you!" The sound of what seemed like green plasma being chunked at the melted ground was like a cannonball hitting the ground, then after that, the deafening sizzle of steel being melted was like the sound of death coming to any foolish creature willing to put itself before the boss.

'This is even worse than the stuff I found earlier!' Michael was starting to panic from the moment he started to realize how corrosive whatever was shot out of the boss' cannon was. Michael kept running circles around the boss, forced to dodge the pools of death that were created by the green liquid hitting the ground. 'I absolutely can't let that hit me!'

The boss' chuckled evolved into an evil laugh as he started to play with his pray. "Run my little rabbit, JUMP MY LITTLE RABBIT!" He made sure to not let Michael get close to him and kept using his cannon to make him dance. The sadistic behavior of the monster was seeping through his leather mask as it started to deform into a mockery of a rictus.

To the glee of the boss, Michael was parkouring between each shot of green plasma. Suddenly, he noticed an opening. Earlier, when he killed a couple of zombie archers, he managed to loot a bow and some arrows. While he was sure that he had a terrible aim, he waited for the right moment to shoot at the glass tower filled with the green liquid that supplemented the plasma cannon replacing the boss' left arm.

'Now!' The function inventory of the system allowed to switch instantly of weapons, even during movement. Therefore, while dashing out of the way of yet another dangerous projectile, Michael aimed at its target. It was so big that he had no chance to miss it.

It was too late for the boss to realize what was happening as the arrow completely went through the glass tank and shattered it. A river of green liquid poured onto his body. The sound of flesh being burnt was resonating in the boss chamber. The boss howled and tried to move away from the pool of green liquid at his feet and all around him.

That didn't stop Michael from taking action, however. As the titan was distracted by his pain, Michael used his remaining arrows to shoot at his enemy. While 3 missed, two managed to hit the mark and punctured the boss' body. At the same time, the pouring corroding liquid slipped through the monster's injuries and ate him from the inside. The boss stopped himself from falling over with his hands. He screamed as the green ooze started to erode the flesh on his limbs.

Seeing red from the pain, the last enemy of the dungeon flayed his cannon arm around, searching for revenge, "I'll kill you! I'LL EAT YOU!" he roared, but it was too late for him. Michael advanced on him as furtively as he could, taking advantage of the fact that the boss' eyes were closed to stop them from being burnt by the green liquid, and ran his katana through the stomach of his opponent.

"Arrrrrgh!" shrieked the boss, as he tried to stomp the ground in front of him, where he thought Michael was.

Since the boss fell once the glass and the liquid fell on him, his torso was easily accessible to Michael, even if he was much smaller than the monster in front of him, therefore he was able to quickly get in and get out.

However, Michael failed his mission to carefully retreat to not get hit by the volatile drops of green liquid that were propelled in the air by the movement of the boss with his cannon arm. His arm and a portion of his leg were struck. Gritting his teeth as tears ran down his cheek due to the extreme pain, he decided to end the fight right when the boss was the weakest.

As the boss tried to stand up, repeatedly throwing curses at Michael for injuring him to this extent, the lithe body of our hero managed to step over the expanding pool of the vile green liquid that spilled from the glass tower. As his foot was slightly dipped into the liquid, Michael kept on hitting his enemy with a fury never seen before in the young boy.

The katana, being corroded by the fluid, still did a great job in cutting apart the bronze flesh of its target. Still blinded, the boss could only suffer as his body was hacked, little by little. Michael then went behind the boss, grabbed one of the still oozing cables connecting the cannon from the container, severed by the movements of the boss himself.

Dodging the massive hands of the boss that noticed his presence on his back, He pierced the heart of the creature before he could completely raise himself. This time, the boss didn't let out a single roar of pain and was trembling since he was nearing death. Michael then removed his blade and stuck the cable inside the wound.

The end of the boss was a miserable cacophony of pained whimpers as the acid mixture destroyed his heart and his lungs from the inside. Standing upon his fallen foes, the pain of his multiple injuries caught up Michael. His shoulder wound was opened up again, his tight let out a lot of blood during the fight. He was being eaten slowly by the green fluid at multiple places due to the fight.

Breathing heavily, as the adrenaline started to wear off, Michael couldn't resist crying in pain and screaming. He felt like he was going to die.

'I have... I have the status!' thought Michael as he proceeded to call up the thing that could stop him from dying due to his injuries.

"Status!" cried out Michael.

[Name: Gilgamesh]

[Race: Human]

[Level: IV (85%)]

[Class: Warrior]

[Strength: I-628]

[Constitution: I-598]

[Endurance: I-545]

[Dexterity: I-267]

[Willpower: I-153]

Considering that even killing advanced zombies only gave him a dozen points before, his stats made a huge jump. The refreshing feeling of growing stronger went through his body. even though the injuries were still there, they didn't feel life-threatening now.

At the same time, another message appeared in front of him.

[Dungeon:Trash Valley's first floor completed.]

[Would you like to continue or leave?]

The choice was evident for Michael, he left the hell out of this dangerous place. ​

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