Chapter 15

*** Four Hours Ago***

*Huff, huff... Huff, huff.

"There's no end to this, this thing holding me off long enough to drain me of my stamina."

*The bosses title: Royal Gallant

*Description: A heroic knight relegated to a mere pawn after the new king in his realm reigned in control. It's a master in all weapon classes and can morph its weapon into any melee-based weapon possible.

"I've been going at this for hours... It's followed through with every plan to wear me out, and yet it still won't go for a killing blow. It's waiting for something, and I don't like it!"

The Gallant approached its current weapons form: a flail.

*Astral Grip Used (LV.MAX)

The flail forces its way towards Mori, but the hero refuses to release it.

"Ever since I maxed out Astral Grip, I've been able to control anything I put my mind on. But it only works on things that aren't as intelligent."

Without realizing it, the Gallant revs for an attack as he rears back his right arm; Mori quickly jumps forward, wrapping around the armor, before taking the spiked ball of the flail to the back. Blood spewed from his mouth as it lodged into his back. The Gallant ripped it with force tearing even more skin from Mori's back, but quickly before it attacked again. Mori used his newfound strength and lifted the heavy set Gallant into the air before falling back and slamming it into the ground. As Mori got up, he put some space between him and the final boss.

"I-I'm bleeding bad, but it's gonna take him a minute to get up."

*System Notification: Player has sustained too much damage, a new assignment is being assigned.

Suddenly another pop-up appeared, pushing the current one to the side. The text read.

*Kill the target, or your body will shut down before you bleed out.

*Target: Royal Gallant

*Timer: 24:54 and counting

"M-My body?! So you're just going to kill me before it kills me?!"

Mori grit his teeth as he thinks of the double edge blade he holds within him.

*Fear subdued

"I didn't think I'd have to use them so early. I was hoping to save it for a special occasion. But If I have to... Then screw it, I guess!"

Mori opened his inventory and began grabbing different pieces of gear.

*Equipped Dusk Frames (Glasses)

*Equipped Soulless Bound Grippers (Gloves)

*Equipped Frost Riders (Boots)

*Gear Status: 40%

*Dusk Frames(Allow the user to see the magical power of any opponent)

*Soulless Bound Grippers(These allow the wearer to grasp hold of any object that would inflict wounds to them via physical contact in the hands without repercussion.)

*Frost Riders(The wearer turns the ground into ice allowing the user to slide along the iced ground.)

"If I mess up, I could die here. So, Gallant, I hope you're ready."

The Gallant turned as it was getting up and threw its flail mid morph. As it transformed into a spinning greatsword. Mori stood his ground, and as the greatsword blade connected with his hand, his body slid back thanks to his shoes. Allowing him to carry the momentum before returning it to the Gallant with a swift spin. The moment the greatsword collides with the Gallant, he takes a few steps back, holding it by the blade, before looking up at Mori. The only visible view was his glowing purple eyes inside his helmet.

"Seems I pissed it off."

Mori feels the slippery ice beneath his feet and begins skating towards the Gallant as it rushes towards him with its sword in hand.

Gallant leaps into the air with its sword held above him before it slams against the ground. Mori slides past him, leaving a trail of ice behind him. As Gallant lands, he shatters the ice and the area around him. Before turning with a wide swing, attempting to hit Mori with the tip of his cleaver-like sword. As the blade scrapes his chest, Mori slides back unwillingly.

With his feet hovering slightly off the ledge of the arena, he quickly falls forward before gripping the ground with his fingers, before forcefully ripping himself ahead like a bullet at Gallant. Gallant raised his greatsword and transformed it into a battleaxe, shaped like an executioner's weapon of choice. As it comes down like a lightning strike, Mori finds himself wrapped around Gallant's armor and pushes Gallant back a bit. Before his lodged weapon restricts movement between the two fighters completely.

Mori looks up as Gallant looks down, their eyes meeting for only seconds. Gallant released hold of his weapon and proceeded to grapple Mori's arms. Then with force, he moves to deliver devastating headbutts to Mori. He was causing his vision to blur and his body to go numb.

Mori's bodily functions slowly shut off one by one, and Gallant delivered countless head blows. Then with one fully charged butt of the head, Mori found himself face-first on the ground. His forehead was bleeding from the collision.

With a retrieval of his battleaxe, Gallant lingered over Mori. His executioner's axe reared back. His glowing royal purple eyes flare as he commences the final blow. Gallant's Blade comes down like a sledgehammer; then, as the blades air grazes Mori's nape. His right arm shoots up and jams itself between his nape and the blade. Mori struggles to push up as his right arm shakes from the pressures being applied by Gallant. With his head sluggishly hanging.

Mori spits blood and uses his left hand to grab the bottom of his shirt and raise it to his mouth. As Mori simultaneously wipes the blood from his face and holds off Gallant. He turns his head a bit to catch a glimpse of Gallant, revealing glowing yellow energy coming from his eye.

*Astral Grip Used(LV.MAX)

*Pinpoint Used(LV.4)

Mori's dagger appeared out of nowhere and stabbed into one of Gallant's weak spots. Staggering him and allowing Mori to continue his combo. Mori parried Gallant's Battleaxe upwards with force and spun around with an agile and heavy blow to Gallant's chest plate. Denting it in the process. As Gallant's body shot back, Mori skated swiftly towards him, and, as he closed in, he clutched midslide before leaping into the air with a downwards ax kick against the top of Gallant's helmet. But before he could move, Gallant gripped hold of Mori's left leg and Gallant quickly drove his right knee into Mori's back. Causing Mori to spit more blood up.

*Timer: 8:43

*HP: 4023/29,345

*MP: 352/5324

Mori was on the verge of death once again, and as Gallant forcefully slammed him into the ground.

*HP:3016/29,345

Mori's breathing heavied as Gallant loomed over him again, without his weapon.

(You are a strong fighter, but you have lost this fight.)

Mori's eyes forced themselves open with a sudden shock as he stared at Gallant; he realized something.

"Y-You can talk?!"

(A human can understand the language of the abyss? Unique you are... A shame you will die here.)

"Wait..."

Mori started thinking, could this be because of the system? Is it allowing me to understand Gallant?

"Gallant, is your name right?"

(My name is of no importance to you. You shall only know the name The Creator has given to me.)

"Who is The Creator."

(Your time has come, it is time to die!)

Like Mori's Astral Grip ability, Gallant forced his weapon into his hand and changed its shape to his greatsword.

(Farewell, Human!)

Timer: 5:21

The Greatsword slams into Mori's body as blood splatters from his mouth and his newly created wound.

*HP: 405/29,345

(It seems you are sturdier than I thought... My apologies; this next blow shall be your end!)

With one last downwards slash, Gallant was ready to finish it. The moment his blade grazed Mori's body. Mori's health began to decline.

*HP: 403

*HP: 398

*HP: 321

*HP:253

*HP:198

*HP:103

As Mori's HP descended, a notification popped up.

*New Secret Quest Completed!- The Weakest Touches Death!

*Requirements Meet(Reach near-death 25/25 times)

*Reward: All Attributes Level UP, HP, and MP restored!

*HP: 5002/29,987 and climbing.

*MP:743/5767 and climbing.

Mori's eyes shot open, and without hesitation, he gripped hold of Gallant's greatsword and began ripping it from his chest wound. He pulled it out, pushing Gallant back as he recovered from the grounded position.

(How is this possible?! You should've died, Human! How could you be recovered!"

*HP: 29,987/29,987

*MP: 5767/5767

Another pop-up appears as Mori holds onto Gallant's Greatsword by the blade.

*Gift Choice Rewarded For Completing Two Secret Quests.

**Item Ranked Between (D-S)

**Random Attribute Level Up

**Random Skill Level Up

"Three choices and all sound good, but I wonder about the ranked item. It seems to be a chance of something between D to S rank. However, if I test my luck, I could get something good. Or something at least functional. But the level-ups are also tempting. It'd be a random attribute, though, and I don't need it going into something like intelligence. As for the last choice, I only have Astral Grip and Pinpoint, which means I can make Pinpoint Level five! So from the process of elimination, the best one to choose would be!"

Mori rips Gallant's Greatsword out of his hands and takes it for himself.

"None!"

(How dare you take my scared blade! Human, that will be the last mistake you make!)

"No, Gallant... I think you've mistaken."

Mori holds up the point of the Greatsword at Gallant and smirks.

"Letting me wield this was the last mistake you made. Now that I've gotten stronger, I can wield your weapon!"

Before, when I caught it, I couldn't do anything with it but launch it back at him with my momentum. That's because my strength stat was too low to use it. So that level up was a decent amount of help, that's for sure.

*Timer: 2:53

"I don't have a lot of time to waste on you! So I've got to end this now! Gallant, you were one hell of a boss fight! I'll give you that!"

(Your life will become null! Human!!)

Mori slid forward on the ice as he skated towards Gallant; Gallant, on the other hand, charged at Mori with bare hands. He was attempting to initiate hand-to-hand combat once again. But as he closed in with Mori, Mori drove the greatsword into the dented part of his armor, finally breaking through and causing real damage.

*Timer: 2:34

Damn it; I need to hurry, Mori thought as he used his newly found strength stat to raise the penetrated Gallant into the air with his sword.

Before swinging him off of it, throwing Gallant past the edge and into the boss room's wall, as the broken wall held him in place, Mori locked on with his eyes and prepared to launch the Greatsword like a javelin.

*Timer: 2:04

"Hmph!"

Mori grunts as he launches the Greatsword with solid exertion. Immediately pinning Gallant to the wall wholly.

*Timer: 1:56

"Why is it still going down?!"

From the wall, Gallant's royal purple eyes flared from his helmet.

(You will die! Die! Die!!)

Gallant transformed his weapon into a sword whip and launched his blade at Mori, its razor edges wrapping around his legs. Mori was on solid footing for a split moment, then instantly fell to the ground as Gallant fell from the wall and towards the bottom of the boss arena. As Mori was dragged to the edge, Gallant was ready to die.

*Timer: 1:35

With the last attempt at catching himself, Mori pulled his weapon from his scar and jammed it into the ground at the last second before falling off the edge completely.

Mori held on for dear life, but blood continued to stream from different wounds in his legs.

*HP: 27,385/29,987

*Timer: 1:23

With his HP and the timer dropping, Mori had to make a decision.

"I-If I do this, I might not survive... Shit, guess I've got no choice!"

Mori looked down to see Gallant hanging below him, then suddenly releasing his dagger. Both Mori and Gallant began to fall it the lava pit below. They were falling further and further from the top of the boss arena. The distance widened the more they fell, and as Gallant reached the bottom, his body plopped into the lava. He was slowly burning as his armor melted to whatever flesh he had left. His eerie shouts catch Mori by surprise until he remembers his death is soon to be as well.

With the sword whip still around his legs. Mori's HP continued to drop, but his focus was on his plan.

"Please work!"

*Astral Grip Used(Lv.Max)

Nothing was rushing to Mori's hand, so an opposite effect began to take effect.

*Timer: 0:50

*HP: 24,231/29,987

Mori's body was being pulled towards his dagger, but simultaneously his dagger was trying to pull itself out of the arena's ground. With only a bit of distance left. Mori could almost reach the edge. With his fingers barely grasping it. His dagger shot into his right hand, knocking it back. His eyes widened in surprise. Before shaking free and reaching with his left hand. Immediately gripping hold of the edge of the arena.

*Timer: 0:32

"W-Why's it still going down?!"

Mori looked down to see Gallant reaching at him from the lava.

"Just die already!"

Mori couldn't pull himself up with the sword whip still around his legs, so he shredded multiple parts of his legs and freed himself from them in a brute motion.

With a fiery pain, Mori pulls himself up onto the boss arena's stable ground and lays on his back.

*Timer: 0:19

"S-Shit, I can't move right now. My legs are shredded to hell, and he's still swimming in lava."

Mori held his dagger in front of him and studied it.

"There's no way that'll work."

*Timer: 0:14

"But I've gotta try!"

With some strength pulled from his resolve, Mori rolled over and crawled towards the edge. Looking down at the nearly gone Gallant.

"Here goes nothing!"

Mori's eyes brighten yellow as he pulls back with his dagger, ready to throw it with force.

*Timer: 0:08

The dagger whistles as Mori throws it, its black pointed blade gliding through the air like a bullet as it zooms towards Gallant's remains.

*Timer: 0:04

"Come on! GO!!"

The dagger's whistling increased in pitch as it hit the heated air, then with a sudden eruption.

*Timer: 0:02

"Come on... Hit! Please hit!"

*Timer: 0:01

Mori shut his eyes, hoping for the dagger to hit. Then with a clutched stop, it lodged itself into Gallant's melted helmet inflicting final damage to him and finishing it off ultimately.

Mori continued to wait for his body to shut down, but as he slowly opened his eyes, he noticed Gallant gone entirely, and the Timer stopped at precisely one-second remaining.

"H-Holy fudge brownies... I don't even have the energy to swear."

Mori slouched slightly off the edge. The heat warmed his face from the rising hot air.

Then a pop-up appeared in front of his face.

*Player has killed target, Reward: None

"..."

Another pop-up shoved that one aside, making Mori smile slightly.

*Player has cleared the fifth floor. Initiating Tower Recall.

Mori turned to see a beam of light shine from the center of the arena. As he forced himself up, he stumbled over towards it to be greeted by the very thing he'd been seeking since the beginning.

"A-A Crimson Cure?! B-But I thought this was a false tower?!"

*Player has received Crimson Cure

*Crimson Cure(Full Cures the effects of the Crimson Slumber. It Can only be used once!)

The pop-up generated more information.

*Tower Recall finalizing, Players Reward: Release from the Tower.

"Wait! I'm being released!"

Surrounded by a white glow, Mori is immediately teleported from the final boss area.

Mori Si-Woo Profile Current Status

**Stats:

*HP: 29,987

*MP: 5767

*Strength: 173

*Agility: 153

*Vitality: 198

*Intelligence: 125

*Astral: 247

**Skill List:

Astral Grip(LV. MAX)

Pinpoint(LV.4)