The Second Level 1

In front of me stood an enormous castle. There were cracks all over the castle. It seemed like it has been standing here for centuries without any care. The walls were covered in mosses and weeds were growing out of the walls. It had an eerie feeling to it.

"Wowww! This looks so scarryyyy!" Natalie exclaimed in both excitement and fear.

"This is the Goblin King's castle they talked about."

"Let's go in." I said and everyone followed.

At the entrance, there were various statues of some kind of a creature that was not a Goblin. There were many scriptures and texts written on the walls of the castle.

After walking through large halls and passing through many different rooms, we arrived at a room which looked like a throne room.

There was an empty throne with two huge Goblin behind it.

As soon as everyone stepped inside the throne room, the doors were closed.

'So this is where the fight will take place. . .'

"Everyone! Be ready." I said while unsheathing my sword.

[ You have entered the dungeon boss room.]

As soon as the message popped up, the two huge Goblins started to move.

"Kekekek. . . "

If I remember correctly, they are not normal goblins but are a higher species known as 'Hobgoblins'.

They are E-Rank low tier monsters who has a very strong body and has high physical attributes. They can also use some magic spells.

And there are two of them. One was holding a mace and the other was holding a spear. They both were almost seven feet tall. We cannot take both at the same time, so the first thing to do is separate them.

"Kale!! Take charge of the team and deal with the mace guy, Until then I will take on the other." I ordered Kale and ran towards the Hobgoblin with spear.

Knowing my intentions, Kale used his skill -

{ Monster Aggro : Target : Hobgoblin }

on the Hobgoblin with the mace and attracted it towards the group.

With this the two were separated.

Seeing my upcoming advance, the hobgoblin in front of me threw his spear with all his might and also imbued with raw essence. It was an all out attack from a low tier E-Rank monster.

As the spear was coming towards me with a great momentum, I casted my spell to block the attack-

{ De-buff Transfer : Property change : Power loss } + { Meteor Shower Essence Sword Art : Star Shield } + { Buff : Property change : Indestructible }

I could feel my essence running out, I gripped my sword hard and took my defensive posture and braced myself for the attack.

And soon the hard tip of the spear crashed into the spine of my moon sword.

"kkuuaaghhh. . . . . . . . . ahhh. . . khee!!" I spat blood on the floor.

I was blasted five feet behind from my original position and it seems that I have gained a few internal injuries. I looked at my sword and it had small cracks all over it. If not for the buff then maybe it wouldn't have survived.

Only after taking the hit I realized that the spear was also an E-Grade weapon artifact. As soon as the attack was done, the spear returned to the Hobgoblin.

"kekekekeee"

The Hobgoblin didn't wanted me to heal myself, so without wasting any time, he sprang forward. But before he could gain any momentum, two metal bullets stuck his both the knees and he shouted in agony.

"KAAhhhhhhh!!"

'Tch. I thought it will do more damage than this. But still its good.'

As the Hobgoblin was distracted due to his injuries, I used another skill -

"{ Metal Spike }"

This time it was two metal spikes that penetrated both the Hobgoblin's foot. Again without letting the Hobgoblin any time to recover from the pain, I charged with my sword.

{ Meteor Shower Essence Sword Art : Light Frenzy }

I reached right before the Hobgoblin using my movement technique which uses irregular trajectories of motion and makes it hard for the opponent to lock on the user.

{ Metal Spike : Metal Bullet }

I fired a metal bullet as a distraction but it was blocked by the Hobgoblin's spear. The spear now had a lot of cracks and chipping. It was not in good condition and my de-buff was still in place. The Hobgoblin still had about half of it's health left.

This time it was the Hobgoblin who charged, he once again coated his spear and this time even his legs with raw essence. The spear he used was a throwing spear but now he was using it as a stabbing one. His stabs were very crude and very predictable, hence I was able to dodge every single attack and also inflicted sword damage and fired metal bullets in between.

" kehh. . . . kekekehhhh . . . . "

The only reason the Hobgoblin was still going on was his hard skin coated with his raw essence. At first he was only covering his legs and the spear but now it covered it's entire body. The spear was now utterly destroyed and the Hobgoblin who had no weapon was fighting with his bare hands. Even with his essence protecting him, he was bleeding all over. If earlier his health was half then now it was very close to zero.

Since the Hobgoblin was fighting with his bare hands, I decided to use my golden body.

{ Golden Body Technique : Body Strengthening }

My body began to shine with gold glitter and sensing my rising physical powers triggered the hobgoblin to make his move first.

I dodged the slow and weak punch thrown at me and countered it with a full powered punch to its guts.

"KAAAAARRHHHHH!!"

With my golden body, all my physical stats have been temporarily promoted to Rank-D. The punch was a full powered D-Rank punch.

{ Star Sect Close Combat : Street Brawl }

"Haaaghhhhh! Take this you piece of sh*t!!"

I started the brawl with the Hobgoblin and with my punches and kicks following the Star sect hand to hand combat technique. In less than one minute of brutal attacking, there was no sign of life left in the Hobgoblin.

"Victory!!" I cheered for myself.

'This victory shout feels great! Although I shouldn't do it in front of others.'

From what I've heard in the information given to us, there should be only one boss monster not two. And also the boss monsters have a peculiar trait, that is their 'Corruption Takeover'. When the Boss monster is on the verge of dying, he will suddenly heal all it's wounds and will retain his peak condition physically. The attacks will be a lot more fierce and the monster will lose all the reason and attack without thinking of defense.

But the Hobgoblin I fought died without going into 'Corruption Takeover'. That means the other guy might have this trait.

I should probably check out the situation on the other side.

________

On the other side of the hall where Kale, Jim and Natalie were on the verge of killing the Hobgoblin with mace.

"Jim! Keep throwing the fire spells and Natalie, you also have to keep bombarding him with small explosives to create an opening for me." Kale gave commands to his team.

{ Fire Ball }

Jim fired the spell towards the Hobgoblin, who was using his essence to form a barrier around his body.

Looking at the incoming spell, the Hobgoblin felt threatened and retracted his shield to form a water spell to block the incoming shot.

{ Water Shield }

"shaaahhhhhhh"

Both the water and fire spell neutralized themselves and were cancelled out. In that moment Kale shouted -

"Natalie Now!!"

"HERE YOU GO KALE!!"

Bang. Bang. Bang.

A series of small explosions were triggered around the Hobgoblin and in that confusion Kale got inside the defense of the Hobgoblin.

"{ Gale Thunder Sword : Raging Helix }"

"keughhh. . . ."

In a split second, the sword Kale wielded pierced the heart of the Hobgoblin. Kale felt a sudden drain of essence as he was using his techniques for a long time and the last attack drained his every bit of essence.

Due to the sudden fatigue, Kale failed to follow up the movements of the assumably dead Hobgoblin.

"Kale!! Look behind." Natalie shouted on top of her lungs.