Boss Fight: White King Manticore

[White King Manticore]—Boss

-Rank: Silver

-Level: 10

-Vitality: [100%/100%]

-Mana: [1500/1500]

-Stats:

-Physical:

↳[Strength: 150 | Health: 150 | Stamina: 150]

-Mental:

↳[Mana: 150 | Focus: 150 | Perception: 150]

This boss was five meters tall with a quadruped beastly body, a pair of tough draconic wings, a tail like a snake but with a scorpion's sting, and a dreadful head that was a mixture of lion and monkey.

It was mostly white with just patterns on the tail, fur, and wings of other colors.

All of them were also at level 9, one level lower, so there was a high chance they would get a rare drop!

"It's powerful," Natalia's teeth chattered as she looked at its stats. "Won't we die if we get hit by one of its attacks?"

Lily chuckled and said, "Of course not, silly. Well, you won't die because of that armor, but there's a high chance Almond and I get fatally injured if we get hit by a solid attack."

"Which won't happen," Almond drew his sword as he walked into the passage that was merely 10 meters long, with the Manticore sleeping right in the plain barren cavern's center.

[Almond]

-Stats: 7 unassigned points

—Physical:

↳[Strength: 41 | Health: 34| Stamina: 38]

—Mental:

↳[Mana: 26 (+39) | Focus: 31.5 | Perception: 30.5 ]

"Lily, do you know its attacks?" Almond turned to Lily as the group entered the passage.

"Yeah. We'll have to cut off its tail and one of the wings to weaken it. I'll get the tail by sneaking up," Lily held her daggers and scrapped their blades against each other as sparks flew, while the daggers glowed as she activated their effect.

"Good, I'll taunt it first, so aim for the tail and cut it off as soon as you get the chance, which you will know," Almond nodded before turning to Natalia, "But send your clone first so I can start with a solid attack. I want to cut off one of its wings first, at least to make it less troublesome for us."

"Roger," Natalia nodded as she used her skill, summoning a clone looking just like her.

"Alfred, you will enter last with the wolves. Attack it as efficiently as possible. You don't have to worry about injury anyway."

"Understood."

Lily looked further at the back, "How do you plan to use the new Spirit Wraith?"

Almond smiled, "I have an idea. I'll command it with my thoughts, so let's go. It's time to start."

Natalia's clone went first, causing the White King Manticore to wake up as soon as the clone stepped foot inside. 

She made her clone use a class skill—Sparkling Dust that she got from Skill Option in level-up boon.

It covered the area around Manticore in a sparkling purple-red dust, lowering its vision and making it see everything double.

*Growl!*

Almond saw it was about to attack and dashed inside, Physical Enchantment activated in his arms and legs as he consumed 80 Mana.

The monster's tail was like an invisible wind wave as it struck Natalia's clone in a horizontal sweep. It was seeing two Natalias, so it attacked like that.

But Almond had arrived right above it, his sword gleaming as its red blade glinted straight toward one of its huge wings.

Gravity Repel!

Lethal Dash!

Almond's figure vanished as a glowing slash clearly became visible in a straight line, cutting through the Manticore's right wing while also managing to slash its body in the process.

*Roar!!*

-8% Vitality!

Lily had turned invisible and entered right after Almond jumped inside. 

'Not yet,' Lily didn't attack. This wasn't the chance Almond was talking about. She observed Almond and Manticore waiting.

Meanwhile, the enraged Manticore swiped its claw at Almond, who had landed on its right side. Its claw burned with flame in the process, a powerful attack that only those with Tank-role and defensive skill could block.

As such, Almond didn't plan to block it in the first place. He rolled right below Manticore's belly as he drove two Fangs into its stomach.

Shimmering Serpent's Fangs, the one-time use items of high lethality!

[Shimmering Serpent's Fangs]

-Grade: Uncommon

-Type: one-time use.

-Attack: 50 [+100% of user's strength]

-Effect:

—> Poisonous Flying Dagger that rapidly dissolves into lethal acid and fast-acting poison once struck to the flesh.

He drove both daggers into it, opening a wound and causing the Manticore to jump away from Almond while it roared in pain and anger. It wanted to fly since this cavern had a high ceiling, but Almond had cut off its right-wing!

'Use Nightmare Mist!' Almond commanded Chimera Viperfiend. 

Manticore jumped near the cavern entrance, so Chimera Viperfiend was ready!

Chimera Viperfiend entered and opened its mouth, releasing a dreamy purple sparkling mist and covering a ten-meter radius area, aiming to cover the first half of the Manticore's body. This was another debuff skill like Natalia's Sparkling Dust.

The difference was that Nightmare Mist would enhance the feeling of fear in everyone inside the mist and cause them to look at living beings in a different way, making them resemble things they fear.

Manticore was debuffed and paired with toxin injury. Before the Nightmare Mist effect kicked in, its rage was towards Almond and had already opened its mouth to release a wide-range attack, bursting out a sea of flame in a cone area in front of it, targetting Almond.

But unfortunately for the Manticore, Almond had Gravity Repel activated! With a strong slam on the ground with his hand, Almond flew ten meters off the ground at once, easily dodging the attack.

Meanwhile, Lily was right behind it, where its tail was out of the Nightmare Mist's range! Her daggers glimmered sharply as she judged this to be the chance and cut off its tail!

Its scorpion tail was most lethal because it was very fast, and a single hit of it could kill any one of them. 

At the same time, Alfred was also out of its attack range, so he released Flamesword Wave, a skill that synergized Flame Mastery and Sword Wave!

This move was also considered slash-type due to its shape and attack, so the Lethal Fang Saber's passive effect boosted it!

Natalia didn't want to be outdone and also attack along with Alfred since she recognized this was the chance, shooting a Bog Slither Arrow to the right side of her head from the passage's entrance!

'Take it, bastard!'

Manticore was ganged up hard as it roared and jumped again, Nightmare Mist's effect had kicked in, so it jumped away from everyone and arrived at the far northwest of the cavern at a corner fifty meters away, shaking its head vigorously as its body glowed.

"Damn, it crossed a big distance," Almond muttered, but his eyes glinted as he dug his feet into the ground and grabbed a tiny spear keychain from his belt!

'Too bad you won't escape from our attacks,' Almond's eyes glinted as the spear became big the moment he grabbed it and he aimed at its head.

*BOOM!*

This spear attack's speed wasn't something Manticore could react to, even though it was one of the strongest bosses on the first floor!

But even though it couldn't react fully to dodge, it could still react, which caused the spear to miss its head by a centimeter, Almond knew this could happen, so he aimed the spear to its left.

Even if it managed to react, the spear still struck its intact left wing!

Its vitality dropped 57% with all the attacks so far!

But there was no time to waste.

They had a total of one minute to finish the battle because of the items' effects they had activated, and thirty seconds had passed by!

It was time to go all out!

'Synthesize Tank!'

Chimera Viperfiend transformed as its feet dug into the ground and its upper body bent, its four arms combining into a single barrel.

'What the fuck, it became a literal tank?' 

The four crystals on its chest actually produced a frontal barrier for it with a central gap for the barrel!

It was a tank that could tank damage and attack!

Naturally, Manticore wasn't waiting. After suffering the Spear's attack, it roared strongly and released several blades of dark winds, targetting not just Amond but Lily, Alfred, and Chimera Viperfiend.

Natalia was still in the passage at a safe distance, but she entered after seeing that attack, ready to release an arrow from her new Quiver. She had consumed 100 Mana to summon five strong 2.0 Arrows costing 20 Mana each, so she released them while Almond and Lily successfully dodged the Dark Wind Blades.

Alfred also dodged them while Chimera Viperfiend was struck, its barrier shattering.

However, it also released a powerful shot from its barrel, an attack with acid and poison that could combust.

*BOOM!*

Natalia's first arrow also struck its head, reducing 3% of its vitality.

*Roar!!!*

-11% Vitality from Chimera's attack!

That one shot had consumed all of Chimera Viperfiend's remaining Mana according to Almond's command, but it was worth it!

The blast was big and a perfect cover.

Almond and Lily were less than halfway to their Mana pool, so Almond injected both of them with Spirit Syringe, recovering to full as they resumed their attack.

Lily released her ultimate combo move as the Manticore was damaged and blinded due to the blast Chimera Viperfiend released.

Meanwhile, Almond also dashed and attacked, his sword gleaming coldly as he infused 100 Mana to empower it.

'Lily, we must back off quickly after this attack.'

*Slash!*

*Crissss!*

Both of their full-powered attacks struck Manticore as it could only blindly release its claw attack, which Almond and Lily easily dodged.

Alfred released a Flamesword Wave from ten meters away with all of his remaining Mana at the opportunity as well.

The Manticore was on the verge of death, and that meant it was going to release its strongest attack that could potentially kill them.

But Almond wasn't about to let that happen, and that was why he told Lily to back off after their final full-powered attacks!

Spirit Explosion x 5!

Five was overkilling it since the Manticore had 8% of its vitality left, but Almond wanted to make sure it died with this attack!

*BOOOM!*