The Southern Oasis and the Treasure of Serbal (XII)

Serbal's berserk mode is just terrifying but not impossible to defeat. He might be stronger than when he wasn't in his berserk state but he is in a much worse situation and is in a very vulnerable state. Since Serbal is a big snake, his movements are mostly AOE and will do a single target type of attack from time to time. Honestly, he was pretty predictable. But he is a dangerous enemy and I am not going to say he is easy to defeat.

So, what is the difference between destroying the three statues and stealing his treasures compared to the ones where the treasure and the statues are not harmed? The difference is the berserk state of Serbal. If you didn't destroy the statues and steal his treasure, once he enters berserk mode, his agility and defense are drastically increased and his attacks hit like a truck and I suspect that he gains a buff of [Ignore Defense] since he can destroy a tank with a SS rank in END stat in one single hit. I can't just confirm it because before we even get to confirm if he has a buff, we are already dead as we are wiped out by his AOE.

As for the berserk state of Serbal when his statues are all broken and his treasure is stolen, his defense drastically decreased, his attacks are now survivable and will not inflict a one-hit kill and his movements are a bit sluggish.

I prepared my weapon and ready myself for Serbal's attacks. I need to finish this one as soon as possible before he can recover from this state since this temporary vulnerability of his is not permanent and will disappear after a few minutes.

"MY TREASURE! GIVE ME BACK MY TREASURE!"

Serbal opened his mouth and tried to swallow me whole. Of course, that is not going to happen.

"I have a better one for you! Take this one and digest this!"

My weapon changed form, turned into a cannon, and fired off a cannonball straight from his mouth.

"GRAAAAAHHH!"

Serbal retreated his head and used his tail to attack instead. However, I already expected the attack, changed my weapon to a sword, and deflected the incoming tail. Once his tail is deflected, I changed my weapon into the Chronomancer's weapon, the Pocket Watch.

I didn't have any skills on the Chronomancer class just yet since I focused more on those class that has skills that can dish out some burst damages. But I didn't forget the Chronomancer class. I opened the skill tree and pick out one of the skills that can slow the enemy's movements and one passive that increases its effects.

[Time Eater]

2nd Tier

Active Skill

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Mana Cost: 1000 MP for casting, additional usage will cost 50 MP per 5 seconds.

Duration: Unlimited(As long as the supply of mana is sufficient)

Info: Slows down the environment of the enemy, reducing the movement speed and defenses of the enemy by 50% while inflicting true damage over time. The effect will be maintained as long as the mana is sufficient, otherwise, the skill will end.

Note: If only you have this ability, you won't be worried about getting late for school.

[Cuckoo's Clock]

1st Tier

Passive

Info: Every basic attack will add a [Cuckoo Time] stack to yourself. Stacks up to 10. Every [Cuckoo Time] stack increases the damage of slow inflicting skills and increases the slow duration debuff to the enemies an additional 5 seconds.

Note: Running late? Use an alarm clock. Still running late? Use an alarm on your phone or watch. Not effective? Sleep next to a mother clock. You still got up late? Then eat a clock, you bastard.

The moment those skills are now part of my skill tree, I immediately attacked with my basic attacks, and the moment I got one stack of [Cuckoo Time], I immediately cast [Time Eater], allowing me to slow down Serbal. Once he got slowed down, I changed my weapon into a katana and grab on Serbal's body. Due to his scales, it is easier to climb up on Serbal's body.

While the [Time Eater] is active, my mana slowly drains up and my head is currently suffering from a headache as this is the side-effect of excessive mana usage, however, everything around Serbal seems like locked from a time stop. I rushed towards the head area of Serbal since my MP won't last with the immense amount of MP [Time Eater] and even if I drink a Mana Potion, it will only delay a bit of my mana drain but that won't last long. I need to finish this as fast as I can.

When I reached the neck of Serbal, I chug down a bottle of Mana Potion and grip the katana as I estimate the attack part on where my skill will land. If I estimated it wrong even once, the attack will fail and I will have to wait for a cooldown. Once my estimation is done, I immediately swing my katana before my mana reaches zero and performed an execution following the activation of the skill.

"[Decapitation]!"

SWISH!

One swing is enough to slash the neck of Serbal. In a split second of performing [Decapitation], the huge snake that is terrorizing the whole Southern Oasis was killed.

How did I kill Serbal in one swing? It is simple and calculated. The first reason is Serbal is currently under the state of Berserk and since I stole his treasure and destroyed his three statues, it isn't strange for him to have a lower defense since that would be his demerit once he loses those statues. The second reason is the bottles of potions I have given to the three girls. Those potions work at reducing stats for a brief amount of time. The effects don't stack if used simultaneously but they will stack and will remain active as long as the target is still alive if it was used the same way I told the girls to do it. So the moment they continue to throw those potions, to Serbal, his stats will continue to drop and death is close to inevitable.

The third reason for Serbal's quick kill is due to the effects of [Time Eater]. Since it reduces the defenses of the enemy under the influence of [Time Eater], the defenses of Serbal have already dropped too much that his defense might have already fallen close to zero if not full zero. The last reason is due to the skill [Decapitation]. This skill works effectively if used on the neck of the target and will cause the instant kill if it was fatal and strong enough. Since Serbal has already had a nonexistent defense and [Decapitation] can kill the enemy if it is perfect enough, it would make a lot of sense why Serbal died in one swing.

"Subjugation Complete!" as I sheathed the sword and confirm the completion of the quest.