Boss monster

It looked like the two of them would have to fight the boss monster to complete the first trial, or else they wouldn't get anything and would have to do a trial all over again.

They could see the monster approaching, and it looked dangerous. It had green skin, and he exuded an aura of pure horror. It had claws that were at least five inches and they looked sharp enough to slash the throat of anyone in his path.

"Ready?" Aiden asked, grinning, not feeling the pressure of the monster in front of him. He seemed to be excited to fight such a strong monster. "When I dash, just cast a spell on him that makes him confused."

The monster was getting closer and closer, it was now time for Aiden and Ava to attack it, but there was one thing that Aiden ignored that Ava knew.

Boss monsters would appear in each trial and be much more powerful than all the other monsters combined in that trial. It was known in society that those who fought would be able to get a much faster progression, but they would have to face riskier situations. Most awakened decided against fighting it for safety.

Killing a boss monster would give extremely good rewards, this was one of the reasons Ava agreed to fight alongside Aiden and she also had the reason that she wanted to have a good relationship with someone from that family.

However, this was no time to doubt her choice, and she decided to give her all fighting that monster since he was getting closer and closer to them.

Seeing it get close to them, Aiden dashed toward the monster before him and was no longer by her side.

Not expecting this, she started casting her skill which seemed to affect the monster a bit. He started moving aggressively, it looked like the skill affected his emotions and he was now slashing the air, probably thinking some monsters were attacking him from the sky.

Aiden used this chance to give a good hit to the monster in front of him, and he succeeded. It got a good hit in the chest, and blood could be seen leaving its body.

However, something unexpected happened, and the wound on the monster's body that Aiden had just done started to regenerate at a speed that was not humanly possible. It seemed that the orc possessed a skill, and a powerful one at that.

'Monster can have skills?' He thought, realizing that the monster in front of him wasn't like the ones he had fought before.

Seeing his body regenerate, he decided to back off and go back to where Ava was standing.

"Give me information on that monster. How can he regenerate like that?" Aiden ordered, trying to get some type of clue to fight this monster the best way possible.

Ava didn't question his tone as she simply started answering him.

"Well, this monster seems to be a Cyclops, and it seems to have a skill that helps its regeneration. Actually, killing a Cyclops in our first trial would be quite the exploit since not many on their first trial are able to attempt to kill the boss," Ava replied, not sure why he would ask something that obvious to her.

However, she didn't ask for details as to why he didn't know that type of information and simply continued explaining the best way to deal with monsters that can regenerate.

"The method that is used most of the time when dealing with monsters that can regenerate is to simply hurt him until he is unable to regenerate anymore. But, that's difficult to do, especially for us, since we are not strong enough to hurt him over and over again."

"Is there another method to kill regenerative-type monsters?" Aiden asked.

"Well, the other way to deal with this type of monster is to slash his neck in one swift motion, which causes him to not be able to regenerate anymore."

Hearing this, Aiden started thinking about how he could slice the neck of the Cyclops, it seemed to be quite difficult to achieve because he would need a lot of force to do such a thing even more with a mace. If only he had some type of weapon like a sword or a dagger that was sharp enough to do that, but that was only wishful thinking. He wouldn't be able to find such a weapon here.

"Hmm, I don't think the second option will be possible as you see I only have this mace here with me. Even if you think that hurting it until it can't regenerate anymore is harder to achieve, I still think that we should choose that method, who knows maybe we can do it."

"Sure, as you wish," Ava replied, understanding his logic. 

Aiden smiled, hearing her comply, happy with the change in her attitude. He didn't know why, but he liked having her around since she couldn't refuse anything.

She now addressed him with respect and didn't try anything to seduce him anymore.

"Alright let's try to do this, cast your skill again and do you have any type of weapon to attack the monster with me after activating it."

"Sure, and I have a bow with me, actually. I'll try to hit him from a distance."

After learning that she had a weapon, Aiden was overjoyed since it meant they could make a lot more damage in a short time window.

The same scene from earlier was starting to happen. The only thing changing was the arrows coming from Ava toward the monster.

As the arrows were starting to rain from the sky, Aiden swung his mace with all his might, trying to make as much damage as possible. But the same thing as earlier happened the wound he had just made was starting to heal by itself.

The Cyclops, realizing he had just been attacked, decided to counter-attack and swung his claws in the direction of Aiden since he was the only one close to him.

The speed was far above what Aiden had ever seen, even though he wasn't as fast as the monster he tried dodging the strike as best he could and received some damage to his chest leaving marks of claws on it.

This didn't seem to affect Aiden. It seemed to boost him as he seemed even more concentrated on the fight that was unfolding right in front of his very eyes. His concentration was reaching its peak, and a red aura seemed to be coming from him. But this time he was fully aware of what was happening, and he wouldn't forget this moment.

[Mind of an Assassin has activated.]