27 First Second Phase (1/2)

Black and Red Energy gathered in the boss' sword, clashing for dominance. The monster then slashed at Shesmu with incredible momentum, leaving a black and red trail.

Watching his impending doom, Shesmu thought, Empowered Thrust! Greenlight gathered on Shesmu's sword before he thrust, his target: The boss' sword. The two weapons clashed for a half a breath before the boss' overwhelmed Shesmu's sword. With barely any momentum wasted, the boss' sword struck down like a meteorite, intending on decimating his target.

When the goblord stopped its swing, its face turned into that of surprise. The human that should have been cleaved in half was still standing in front of it, and its sword was plunged in the ground next to his feet.

Shesmu breathed a sigh of relief thinking, Good, deflected it. He then raised his sword and slashed at the boss before it could regain its balance and start attacking once again. As usual, Shesmu used Empowered Slash Cancel and targeted the goblord's neck, activating a critical damage effect.

270

540

With all the new upgrades to his equipment and stats, Shesmu's critical hits did close to enough damage so as to two shot a hobgoblin. When the two damage numbers appeared, even Shesmu's teammate was surprised for half a second before attacking the boss once again.

Even after receiving so much damage, the goblord only lost a quarter of its health. As if all the hits that it received were but ant bites, it stood up proudly with its chest puffed and sword in hand.

Black and red aura engulfed its body, but instead of gathering in its weapon like last time, it entered its skin and merged with monster's body. The goblord's whole frame glowed faintly in black and red, emitting a lethal aura.

I had my doubts when it first attacked, but that sword-it's an evolved weapon.

Shesmu gripped his sword even harder, a little bit of greed showing in his eyes.

”Everyone, beware! This might a buff skill or something, it looks a little bit like the skill the tank hob used, so try not to get hit, understand?”

”Understood!” Both of Leo and Ryan replied.

Well, that's one thing. But now that all of our attack skills are on cooldown, we're in trouble. And I'm still not used to this body goddammit. If it was before, even without a sword or a skill I would have toyed with this boss like it was nothing!

In the face of this unnecessarily difficult situation, Shesmu's frustration grew. However, the boss didn't really care about his internal struggle and attacked him with no prior notice.

Shesmu woke up from his daze and blocked horizontally the Goblord's slash. The clash felt as if someone smashed him with a rock. Shesmu took two steps back and his hands felt numb after the exchange.

Leo, noticing that Shesmu was out of gas, ran towards the boss and attacked him. Leo kept on the offensive so as to switch the aggro of the Goblord back to him.

In the meantime, DepressedRyan stealthily went around the boss to prepare for an attack from behind. Once the opportunity showed itself, DepressedRyan lunged at it.

While his two friends were fighting, Shesmu didn't stand idle. Once Leo firmly took hold of the boss' aggro, Shesmu kept going in and out slowly chipping away at the monster's HP.

After a couple rounds of Shesmu going in and out, the boss slashed Leo before he could recover his stance. With one hit, the boss took half of Leo's Hp and threw him off balance. The boss then raised his sword a second time and slashed at Leo intending to finish him off.

When Shesmu saw his friend getting hit, he immediately dove in and activated Empowered Thrust. Like last time, Shesmu targeted the boss' sword. However, while the boss activated an attack skill in the last attempt, this time he did not.