The Siege Pt4

Turning only a little to the side to meet the dramatic ax face of Reptor's halberd with the edge of his raid fortress shield, Stonewall blocks the attack with brute force at an angle to mitigate much of the momentum behind the strike.

Basically bouncing off of the attack, both parties immediately flow into their next moves. Reptor tried to go for something flashy because of the size of his weapon, raising and spinning it overhead to change his grip and build momentum. Stonewall, on the other hand, simply turned straight ahead to face Reptor and used his Charge skill.

Over a dozen long spikes on the front of Stonewall's shield thrust into Reptor's unguarded upper body and swept him off of his feet. Carrying the over-leveled boss mob that had just lost ten percent of its HP to a maxed out beginner skill, the fifteen yards of the maxed skill comes to an end with Reptor being thrown from the shield.

Freedom, though, came at a steep price. Not only did the demon lose another five percent but began rapidly bleeding two percent per second despite smoky and charred injuries. However, those same injuries began slowly cracking and closing only two seconds later as Stonewall recovered from his skill.

Now that the boss was actually taking damage, it revealed a very lizard-like passive ability where it regenerated two percent of its HP per second. From the estimated damage of Charge which currently did one-eighty-percent of the user's PATK at max level, nearly twice the multi-hundred value of the shield and then his own stats had amounted to ten percent of the boss' health.

With this swift regeneration effect that Stonewall was currently rushing in to counter, this would inevitably make for a long-winded fight.

Parrying another side chop of the giant ax face with the edge of his shield from close range, Stonewall uses the shield for weight and balance to turn into a harsh mule-kick of one half-giant leg that plants itself right in the demon's scaly gut. Despite a loss of four percent of its health and a single step of stagger, Reptor barely even seemed to register the attack while jumping backward into an extended chop of his poleax from the bottom of its shaft.

Dropping into a brief kneel behind his shield, Stonewall brazenly uses the top edge of his shield to block the giant ax before leaping up and forward from the ground. Creating another open-bodied opening, Stonewall lands from his leap slamming his shield down into the enemy's body with a loud cry.

The effort exerted in the cry was not only to compress his body but also to guide his mana, channeling the properties of his shield and class to create a layered expansion of elemental explosions. Not only did the shield slam take eight percent of the demon's HP but the elemental detonation through the shield shredded and charred the front of its body for thirty more.

Finding itself slammed to the ground and sent rolling away, the demon swiftly stops itself with its tail before shoving itself straight up to its feet. Thrust forward with its poleax once again, Reptor spears right into Stonewall's shield but instead of being thrown by Bash it presses its momentary advantage of trapping the shield.

That same super long tail whipped out from the side and simply slapped around the side of Stonewall's shield to swing around and slam home into Stonewall's side and back. Finding himself taking a turn at taking a spill, Stonewall gets shoved forward and to the side while the demon twists his weapon for traction and shove to the opposing side.

With Stonewall going one way and his shield the other, he was quickly revealed from behind his defenses and the butt of the poleax shaft is spun up and into his chest with enough force to put him back on his feet. Two consecutive drops of ten percent of his health had just brought Stonewall close to half-life. However, he was still without his shield.

Reaching for the alchemy mace at his waist. Stonewall uses the broadened shield-like bracer on his left forearm to block another chop of Reptor's poleax while lashing out with the unsheathed mace. Striking the flat side of the halberd, Stonewall manages to batter the weapon aside and out of the way before simply throwing the twenty-pound weapon like a giant knife.

Attached to his wrist was a long knotted rope of spider silk that stretched out for five feet behind the two-foot mace, allowing the mace of multiple skulls smash right into the demon's chest for eleven percent of its HP before being snatched back. Gripping the rope just behind the mace, Stonewall pretends to spin the mace up from an underhand before stopping and using its falling momentum to spin faster in the other direction.

Having prepared himself for an upward attack by drawing in the head of his poleax and raised it defensively, Stronghold Commander Reptor left himself open to a complete opposite downward sling of the mace. While the mace was coming down from its second revolution, Stonewall released the mace with a deft flick of his wrist that brought the mace sailing down right into Reptor's hip.

Twenty percent of the demon boss' HP was lost in this attack as the found themselves staggered sideways and to the ground.

However, he had only just hit the ground when his tail snaked out and thrust the joint peaks of numerous ivory blades into Stonewall's Chest. The blades managed to sink into the thick prism plate protecting the middle of Stonewall's chest, splitting some primitive troll and wolf augments while forcing Stonewall back to the extent of the tail's reach.

Then, like a yo-yo or Stonewall's own mace, Stonewall himself was snatched back by the demon boss' tail as it jumped up and into a savage stomp kick. Stonewall had no choice but to accept this kick to his got but in exchange he met the kick with a hammering blow of his mace into the demon's inverted knee.

Despite being dropped below half health and throw ten yards through the air, Stonewall had managed to fold the boss' leg with an audible crunching noise. Stepping over to catch my tank with a hand in the middle of his back as he flew through the air, I keep him up until he can stand on his own again before casting First-Aid. Stonewall was swiftly raised by a quarter of his HP while the demon was struggling to get up as well as to get to half health.

"You're a big brute and it shows," I commend him with a loud slap on the rear that shoves him several steps forward. "Even though it costs you a ton, throw in some St. Elmo's Fire to keep him busy and use Frostbite to slow him down. This guy might seem like your limit if you take too many hits at once but Agility is your main stat now go out there and surpass your limits!"

In the time it took to catch, heal, and pep my comrade the enemy had already gained fifteen percent of his HP and was almost the same percentage as Stonewall. Taking advantage of Reptor's limited mobility, Stonewall was able to rush forward and retrieve his shield that constituted most of his class skills. However, he kept his mace out.

Advancing slowly by working his shield with one hand, Stonewall used it for a literal wall to block another swing of the demon's tail before hammering at the tail when it folded around the shield. Scoring what looked like a critical from the sudden spasming of the tail and loss of fifteen percent, Stonewall uses his Bash skill simply to move his shield forward by his full reach while the enemy recovered.

Slinging his mace around his shield by its rope the same way the demon's tail would whip at him, Stonewall meets an incoming thrust of the halberd with the face of one skull before the spearhead could even meet his shield. Then the mace was whipped back and around with a loud grunt as Stonewall actually spun out from behind his shield to the other side for increased reach.

From this position while carrying all of his strength and momentum behind it, the flailing mace streaked through the air with bright arcs of blue electricity before slamming home in the side of the demon's head. Lightning arced all over the demon's scaly body with loud sizzling from melting ivory and blackening flesh. Even the glow within its scales was dimmed as lightning coursed from its head to its toes from the attack.

A whopping thirty percent of HP was stripped away by the attack, bringing Reptor down to around twenty percent overall. At this point, Stonewall threw all caution to the wind by abandoning his weapons and diving forward. Tackling the grounded opponent, Stonewalls wrestles with the concussed and dazed demon until he manages to prize away their halberd and toss it aside.

During this process, the demon had actually managed to regenerate up to thirty percent overall health and gain some of its strength back. Until Stonewall landed a solid left hook, then the daze and concussion was returned. Following this, Stonewall began punching away six HP per second to overwhelm its regeneration while working him down to critical.

In ten seconds, the demon was no longer capable of putting up a fight and could only lay their waiting to die while hoping to recover. "What do I do now?" Stonewall asks in a rush, having never actually captured and tamed a creature on his own before. He had helped capture trolls in Winter Wood but this was entirely different.

Smiling innocently, I say, "First, you're gonna wanna straddle and pin 'em on the ground. Then just start bouncing on his chest until he gives up and you get a notification. If all else fails, you can always try saying 'thank you, d-"

"Shut up!" Stonewall says angrily, simply diving back into the fight to tackle the demon and roll on the ground. Ending the roll with the demon on top in an inverted camel clutch on its back on top of Stonewall. Less than half a minute later in which the demon and giant halfling struggle against one another in a test of raw Strength, Reptor finally loses their will.

The boss fight ended less than two minutes after it began and Stonewall had claimed for himself an incredibly high leveled opponent. With his immense activity in the siege itself, the experience from capturing the demon boosted him right up to next level. After having bested the demon, Stonewall was quick to secure their bonds with a Blood Binding.

I had no way of currently knowing the benefits of their binding but I could tell that Stonewall gained a great deal of energy benefits. His once pale and ruddy skin- what little was visible on his face- turned dark ashen gray like a dark elf characters while his eyes carried faint traces of an amber light. It was almost as though he had changed his race.

Reptor himself also experienced some visible changes, gaining a greater glow about its scales that had lightened to dark gray while the amber light brightened to gold. Even its eyes shone bright to the point I could just barely see its red slit pupils. Otherwise, both of them did not seem to gain any other benefits.

[Outpost A has been taken by: Tragedy's Alliance]

[Outposts B&C will be sending reclamation forces in 10min]

"Ten minutes?" Donna asks with a loud groan from just outside the renovated 'boss area'. "That's not even enough time to get our blessings back. I lost eleven healers taking this place!"

"I lost most of the archers we brought with Mistress," Little Thirteen argues in return before quickly setting about ordering the Strength players in the area to gather up the bodies for loot. Then he sent all the remaining archers and speed fighters to start searching the remaining structures.

Donna's people dispersed with everyone else, seeing to healing and taking inventory of everybody's supplies. Mistress and her small group of elites just moved on toward the archer towers Cweeper and Hermes had made to act as lookouts. My team simply gathered around to admire the new familiar in our ranks while congratulating our main tank.

During the fight there were a few times when I worried I might need to throw my own magic into him to enhance his stats, especially after he lost his shield. However, he held his own and dealt out everything he was given. In the end, his inventive use of his weapon and the combination of electricity had afforded him the victory.

Honestly, though, I was ever so slightly disappointed that I did not get to make a fool of somebody again.

Getting to examine Reptor's weapon made up for this loss of entertainment, though. The halberd had an impossibly high damage of two hundred PATK with twice as much MATK, not to mention a three-percent Life Steal from each attack and a second innate ability to 'cut through magic'. Choosing such a heavy melee fighter like Stonewall was the best choice.

If anyone else had tried to solo this boss, they would have probably been overwhelmed by sheer size and speed unless they were Go. Even then, Go himself did not have an infallible defense like Stonewall and his shield and his armor only had half of Stonewall's stats. Getting hit more than twice would have spelled the end for anyone but Stonewall.

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