Monster Tide: Tidemother

'Then again, obtaining the Battle Junkie subclass only gives one the ideology of the Berserker for the most part, not the skills itself.' Valyr recalled a moment in his past life where everyone was trying to obtain the Battle Junkie subclass due to the fact that it allowed one to adopt a more free-form fighting style. In their minds, not being limited by the weapons they wielded were a great boon, only to realize later on that it would hamper their progress in finding a suitable fighting style.

Of course, the Berserker class also existed, which was considered a Rare grade class by the game, a class that heavily leaned on a play style that allowed one to deal more damage the longer they fought. It could be said that the Berserker class and the Battle Junkie subclass were a match made in heaven, with the subclass allowing the class to show far greater power than normal, allowing the class to transcend its original grade.

In fact, Valyr could recall that there was a player who had both the Berserker class and the Battle Junkie subclass in his past life. Once that player had ascended to the next class rank, he had evolved his class to the True Berserker class, a class that was not just one grade above his original class, but two, being classified as a Legendary class.

'I wonder if that player will do the same thing this time around, considering that I've been brought back to before the beta version even began.' Placing this thought at the back of his head, Valyr continued to fight against the monsters, relying on the lethality of [Strong Pierce] to reduce the burden on himself, as well as the defensive line far behind him.

…

"Are we anywhere near finishing the fourth wave?" Valyr could not help but mutter to himself, his breathing ragged as he sent his spear towards a monster's throat, effectively killing it in one hit.

Seeing that the number of monsters in his area had thinned out quite a bit, he decided to take a rest for a while, sitting down on ground that hadn't been tainted with blood yet. Taking in a deep breath, he took a look at the sky, only realizing just then that they had been fighting nonstop for many hours already as the sun had already gone past its zenith.

Accompanying that realization, Valyr's stomach slightly rumbled, which elicited a sigh to escape from its mouth as he rubbed it for a bit. Standing up after feeling that he had rested enough, he gripped his spear before running for a bit to find the ideal target. However, just as he was about to lunge forward to attack a certain monster, a certain being had beaten him to the punch, sending the monster flying on its side as it knocked over multiple monsters as collateral.

"What the…" Taking a look to see who the person who stole his target was, Valyr's eyes could not help but widen in slight surprise as he had never expected this person to appear before him. "Tristan?"

"Yo!" In response, Tristan waved back at him and cheekily smiled. "I thought you were having difficulty with the monsters in the area, so I decided to help out a bit."

"Anyways, how are you holding up?" As he said that, Tristan charged towards a couple monsters, sending them flying with a single blow each. Because of that, the burden on Valyr and the others in the vicinity had significantly lessened.

"Well, I'm getting by, I guess." Valyr shrugged his shoulders at the question. "Then again, it's not like I could turn tail and return to the village."

"You could, but the people in the village definitely won't like it." Tristan joked, prompting a wry smile to appear on Valyr's face. "In any case, if you were wondering where Damian is, he's at another part of the battlefield, currently helping the others clear this wave as quickly as possible."

"Eh? Is there really a need to?" Valyr asked, gazing far beyond the battlefield to see that there were no wave of monsters waiting for them. "There doesn't seem to be a fifth wave though."

"For now, that might be the case." Tristan nodded in response. But soon after, his expression turned solemn. "However, if we don't finish this wave quickly enough, we might have to fight against a few more waves instead of having the next one as the final wave. Just so you know, we're ill-equipped to fight against the former."

"The final wave? Isn't this already the final wave?" Tilting his head in confusion, Valyr looked at Tristan.

In response, Tristan shook his head before pointing far beyond the battlefield. "I wish it was."

Looking in the direction where Tristan was pointing, Valyr only saw a large yet faint silhouette at first. Though, as he continued to utilize more and more of his perception, he eventually saw the silhouette in its entirety, his mouth becoming slack-jawed as he could not help but look at Tristan. "We're… we're fighting against something like that?"

"We are." Tristan slowly nodded as he lightly sighed.

Hearing his response, Valyr redirected his attention once more towards the entity on the other far end of the battlefield as Tristan took the initiative to fight the monsters surrounding them.

From what he could see, the entity looked similar to a spider, but was hundreds of times larger in every aspect. If he were to hazard a guess, he would estimate that the entity was around 40 to 50 meters tall.

Not only that, but multiple orifices could be seen on its underside, giving Valyr the feeling that they had a specific purpose as to why they were on the entity's body. After looking at it for a bit, he decided to use [Analysis] on it from afar, wondering if the skill would even register his usage. Fortunately, the skill did activate, giving him information within his mind regarding the entity he saw from afar.

But of course, the information he had received was not in any way good at the very least.

Ding!

————

[Lesser Tidemother (Rare Elite)] (Level 25)

HP: 2500/2500

Remarks: Don't you even think about it.

————

Reading through the information, Valyr could not help but sharply inhale a great amount of air. Aside from the fact that it was 15 levels above his own, it was classified as a Rare Elite by the system!

Unlike Elites and Uncommon Elites, which could be found in leveling areas if one looked hard enough, Rare Elites were existences that would only be commonly found in places where monsters were in their most ferocious state…

Dungeons!

Finally feeling the gravitas and the importance of how they needed to clear the current wave as soon as possible, Valyr went ahead and charged against a monster, shamelessly utilizing [Strong Pierce] to increase the speed at which he killed it.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Finally being able to see the sight from up close, Tristan could not help but give Valyr a thumbs up as he chuckled, landing a ferocious kick on a monster's face soon after.

Screeeeee!

Just as the two were about to engage with another monster, a loud screech pervaded throughout the entire battlefield, bringing everything to an abrupt halt as everyone looked at the entity from afar, noticing that it was gradually getting closer to where they were.

"Well shit." Tristan cursed all of a sudden.

"The Tidemother's pissed."