5 (5) Final Strike!

The 35 players roared once again and were determined to beat Kraton into pulp. The previous record of beating this dungeon was a mere five minutes! The previous party was only made up of ten people, however they were all level 4. This party were all part of the very fast growing guild 'Crimson Flares'. Much like it's name, Crimson Flares' popularity had flared up all of a sudden, this was due to the fact that the joining condition was that you must stand out, whether this was money, strength, traits or by holding a record to your name.

This last point attracted many people, as not only must you be strong, but you must competitively strive to hold a record before someone makes it harder to achieve.

The group of forty players had the same goal in mind: Break the previous record, join the guild, get plentiful resources! Their unity in mindsets allowed them to form this raid party without much hassle or arguments, in their eyes once this was over, they never had to talk to each other again if they didn't like each other.

Kraton's face was full of pulsing veins, and underneath the layer of hair, it was beet-red. He had mistaken the roars from the players as jeers and laughter for his clumsy action. His previous thoughts of "This was the power of Knowledge" was shattered. Realising that he a fooled himself in thinking it was the help of Knowledge, as well as believing that everyone was laughing at him, his embarrassment slowly turned into rage. His Berserk state amplified this rage into power, but sacrificed any rational thinking, some of his attributes raised during this state, mainly strength, however he also gained temporary pain reduction, reducing chances to flinch from injuries.

Grabbing his mace, he swiped a large arc covering a massive 110 degrees in front of him! without getting up properly, he used the inertia from the sweep to lift the mace up from behind and slam it down again. Many attacks from the players were disrupted from the attacks and impacts, however around half of them still got through and the fifteen acttackers started to initiate their own barrage of attacks.

Each of them thought that this would be the end and they would be victorious, however they didn't know that Kraton was no longer level three, but level 5! Under a 2 level supression, the damage they dealt was supressed by 5%. Taking into account the reduced damage, and the more health a level 5 boss had, it would need around 25 attacks! Ten more players still had to attack successfully if the fifteen of them only attacked once, and knowing these players' slow hit rate, and that some were lower than level 3, there was no way Kraton would die just from this barrage of attacks!

"ANNOYING PESTS!"

Kraton shook violently and spun around like a clumsy ballerina in order to shake these players off. Most of them were caught off guard from this and smashed into their fellow comrades on the floor.

...

Five players had met their ends in similar fashions.

"He's less than half health! Get him again!" After getting back up, the remaining 23 attackers charged forth once again, whilst the seven healers started to mend their wounds.

"BLEEURGH"

"Eeewwww! How can someone die from nausea?!"

Kraton, who had been desperately trying to pry his mace out from the ground, glanced up and saw a cloud of up-turned dust following a densely packed group of sword-bearing players. Deciding to abandon his stuck mace, Kraton stood up tall and proud, like a colossus he appeared to look down on the players, suddenly he bared his teeth, grinning like a madman. If looks could kill, the whole party would have died from the petrifying sight. His bloodshot eyes and his sinister grin screamed out blood-lust, like crazed hyena, he leapt forward at a staggering speed, his shadow cloaking the players as they continued their charge. From afar it looked like they were willing to charge right into the jaws of death...

When they reached 2 meters from each other, the group of players started swinging their swords, the sound of the air splitting could be heard as the players poured their desperation into this attack. They realised that Kraton had no weapon, and would have to slow down in order the smash them with his fists. This led them to believe that Kraton had very slow reactions in his berserk state, and so they all visualised their swords plunging right into Kraton's body.

They were savouring the moment of Kraton's demise in their heads, and many rushed forward faster whilst the smarter ones followed shortly behind. They were attempting to get the last strike as it would supply more experience for them. Those greedy bastards. In a battle there were three calculations for reward distribrution: Damge dealt, Damage negated and Last strike. No one knew how or who exactly calculated these instantaneously, however it made battles fair for all classes so little to no complaints were held.

3 seconds to impact, 2... 1....

*BOOOT*

At the last moment, Kraton changed the moment from running, into a deadly kick. The closest bunch of players were all sent flying, in the heat of the moment they forgot to spread out. Many of those players had not fully healed and were killed from the kick and impact after flying into the wall.

*BAMM*

Kraton delivered a foot stomping attack, crushing the middle group of players. He slowly bent his knees and tensed like a spring.

*Shoom* ... *BAMMM!!!!!*

The miserable group underneath Kraton felt relieved at first when Kraton left the ground, however a split second later you could hear their bones shattering under the weight. His jump had left a deep crater under the ground as the players were crushed into minced meat.

14 more players had died. The party now consisted of 6 healers and 9 knights. These knights were lucky to be slower than the warriors, otherwise they too would have been kicked and stomped on into tin cans!

After landing, Kraton was in a state of vulnerability, he could not attack nor defend very well in this period of time, and so he could only face the onslaught from the incoming knights.

1 hit! 2 hits! 3 hits! ... 9 hits!

All 9 knights had attacked once! Only a sliver of health remained, but who would take it? They all frantically swung their swords to claim the final strike, but...

*bap*

A pebble bounced off Kraton's head and rolled down to the floor. Silence ensued.

As Kraton's body disappeared, all of the remaining knights turned around to locate who stole the final strike.

"WOOO! I leveled up!" Squealed a level 2 priest. After realising that the knights felt robbed, the low level priest turned pale and slowly backed away.

"..."

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