Imperial Black Knight Soulton

Stivi rushed at the Boss with her sword held above her head. As soon as she was within a meter of the boss, she slashed her sword down. 

-67

Immediately she followed up her attack with a Three-Hit Combo which consisted of Horizontal Slash, a lunging stab and a rotating slash. Then she backed away to catch her breath. 

"Arghh!"

Dorukh growled with anger as soon as it had recovered from Stivi's attacks. The Dark Gnoll was about to charge at panting Stivi to finish her off but not on my watch. 

I unleashed a series of arrows at a speed not much lower than when I used the skill, Rapid Shot. Dorukh was forced to abandon its attack as my arrows brought another wave of pain and hurt with them. 

As my last arrow hit, Dorukh's health finally fell to 10%. 

The Dark Gnoll roared in anger and cast away his tattered black cloak and exposed his skeletal body. Unlike its fleshy face, his body was nothing but a dark skeleton which shone with eerie gray light.

This gray light formed a shield around Dorukh that deflected all of our attacks!

Dorukh then slammed the butt of its scepter into the ground. Dark Fog spread from where the Scepter connected to the ground and began to form abstruse patterns in midair. 

"Samar, get out of the range!" 

Stivi warned thinking this was just a precursor to another Dark Wave but my face turned grim. This was the last move in the Dark Gnoll's arsenal, Soul Vessel.

Bowsmith Sangma had repeatedly warned me about this move. He had said that the Dark Gnoll would offer up his body to summon his master's soul for a brief moment. However, that brief moment was enough to destroy Village #89 and other Villages in the surrounding 100km radius.

If the Gnoll succeeded, the only way to escape dying was to submit to darkness and join the Undead Faction!

The Dark Blue fog surrounding Dorukh became thicker and thicker and the temperature inside the cavern rapidly dropped. I could feel a gloomy chill penetrate deep inside my bones and my heart beats began to slow. 

Even Zamir and others who were resting in the tunnel leading to the den also felt the ominous chill.

Stivi came over to my side and asked - "Wh-What is happening?" Her teeth clattered as she spoke while her supple body shivered under the thin armor. 

"The Dark Gnoll is summoning his Lord's soul to possess him."

Stivi noticed the gravity in my voice and her expression also became solemn. She turned her head to meet my gaze and asked, "Do You have a solution?"

"I do." I said in a low, sombre voice but she could still feel my hesitation. She looked at the thickening dark fog around Dorukh and asked, "Is the solution troublesome?" 

"Yes. It requires me to sacrifice 5% of my current Health permanently." I said and shared the stats of Barbarik's Arrow with Stivi. 

—

Barbarik's Arrow (Weakened)

Grade: Soul-Silver 

Usage Condition: Permanently Sacrifice 5% of Archer's total HP 

Attack: ??? 

Vitality Flames: Deals damage equivalent to 5% of maximum health of target at the cost of 5% health of the user. 

~ Deals damage equivalent to 10% of maximum health of the target if the attack is a critical hit. 

— 

Stivi's eyes widened upon seeing the stats of the Arrow. She now shivered from excitement as she was holding the very first piece of Soul-Silver Grade arrow in the entirety of the Dreamverse VR. 

She was excited but also worried as there was only one chance. "Will it be enough?" 

I looked her in the eye and said, "I would not be here if I was not sure." 

My confident gaze assuaged her worries. She patted me on the arm and said, "We will find a way to get back your sacrificed HP." 

I thought nothing of her platitude as I already had a plan in place. Since the day I had received the Barbarik's arrows, I had searched for a solution and found one right in front of my eyes. 

Trainer Basak. I only had to ask him for exercises that strengthened the Vigor stat and my problems would be solved. 

I merely nodded at her assurance and turned to look at the Boss. It had finally finished its preparations and the eerie gray shield that protected it had faded away. 

The Dark Fog then rose into the sky and condensed in the form of a dark green skull. A simple crown made from sharp spikes and blue fire flickered on the top of the skull. 

The skull exuded a mighty pressure that could be felt to the depths of the soul. It turned to look at the Dark Gnoll and thundered, 

"You lowly Slave of Darkness, why have you disturbed this noble Soulton?"

The moment I heard the name Soulton, I was stunned. According to the Game's lore, Soulton was one of the Four Imperium Black Knights of the Kingdom of Death. Each Imperium Black Knight was a Tier 4 existence, unrivaled under the Tier 5 Overlords. 

No wonder Bowsmith Sangma was so afraid of his arrival in the Barbarian Wasteland. 

Before Dark Gnoll could answer, I had already notched the Barbarik's arrow onto the Redwood Bow. 

[Would you like to sacrifice 5% of your total health to activate Vitality Flame?]

I looked at my 135 points of health at Lv8 and decisively said 'Yes'. An instant later, I felt this empty feeling in my heart, like one of my favorite novels that I followed for years had reached its end or when one of my favorite celebrities died.

Then the tip of the arrow in my hand started to burn with vibrant green fire. My hands trembled slightly as I carefully aimed the arrow at Dorukh. 

I could not help but shiver. The stakes riding on this arrow were just too damn high!

If I missed, not only would I have burned my life force for nothing, but the Black Knight Soulton would also descend into the Barbarian Wastelands. 

As a result, I would've failed the quest and could kiss the Shard of Myth goodbye. As the players who attacked the Soulton's minion, the efforts of Stivi and her team to activate Factions would also have been wasted.

Moreover, players permanently lost a portion of their stats when killed by an entity three tiers above them. Since we were just Tier 0 newbies while Soulton was a Tier 4, the penalty would be severe enough to permanently cripple our accounts. 

How could my hands not tremble when so much was riding on this one arrow? 

At this moment, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in. Slowly, I counted to three. When I opened my eyes again, my nervousness had disappeared. 

Dark Gnoll was still fawning over the Undead Noble and the process of possession had yet to start.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and released the taut bowstring stretched to the limit. The released vibrant green arrow flashed through the air and arrived in front of Dorukh in a blink of an eye. 

An expression of shock and disbelief appeared on the Dark Gnoll's face as he did not expect a Deathless would be so bold to attack him in front of his Lord. 

Even the Bluish green flames around Soulton flickered violently. 

As the arrow pierced through Dorukh's skeletal chest, it broke three ribs near its heart and set them ablaze. The green flames burned brighter and brighter and then they exploded, leaving Dorukh grievously injured with many cracked bones. Unfortunately, this arrow did not trigger the critical hit and Dorukh survived with the last 5% of his health. 

The Skull hanging in the air became more pronounced as it uttered a single word, "Impudent!"

The impact of the voice was so strong that the stone walls of the cavern shuddered. Dust and small stones fell to the ground as if there was an earthquake. 

Stivi and I even lost 30 points of health!

Soulton had not even descended into the body yet. Still, his mere voice caused us to lose health. It was only now did we realize the horror of the Tier 4 Bigshot. 

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What to do? What to do? Even if those arrows are great, if a Tier 4 Boss really descends they would be useless… Damn! What should we do?" Stivi muttered as she grew more and more flustered. She took a final look at the Skull and grabbed my arm. 

"Samar, I dragged you into this mess. I will handle it. You take everyone else and escape!"

Her selfless words touched me but this was not the time to become sentimental. At this moment, my eyes were trained on the red blinking health bar of Dorukh. 

When I moved my gaze back towards Stivi, I could not help but smile, looking at her worried face. I patted her shoulder and gave her an assuring smile, the kind hero would give the heroine before going to fight the last battle of his life, hoping for a good luck kiss. 

But darned Stivi didn't fall for it. She looked at me with narrowed eyes, impatiently asking me to fess up. I sighed and notched the last Barbarik's Arrow to the bow string before whispering,

"I never said there was only one."