NOVEL NEXT "The boss we're going to face this time goes by the name of Dinosaur. It is one of the monstrous monsters that is famed for being the real deal. It's also known by its alias; King Di."
"Ohh, just the name alone sounds seriously serious... King Dinosaur."
Hannah's not wrong. After all, the King was attached to the Dinosaur. Just the name alone suggests someone powerful.
"King Dinosaur's build, just like the other bosses we have faced so far, also specializes in HP, STR and VIT which makes it a monster in the physical league, but that also means you wouldn't need to be varied in attribute or magic attacks. But that doesn't mean you should be lax on your guard since it can also use various long range attacks like Earth Fissure or Rock Stamp, so I hope you guys are careful. Appearance wise, though, it looks like the Jurra Rex we had faced earlier."
"I see. So the gist is, even the rearguard can't be sure of their safety, right?"
"Pinpoint as always, Sierra. You would be left eating dust if you didn't pay attention just because the boss doesn't have ranged attacks. Sierra, I hope you are careful to not stand in the same line of sight as the rearguard, and you guys, the rearguard, too, be careful to not move behind Sierra."
It would be awful were they to be caught up in the aftermath, so that's a point to look out for.
"Fortunately, the rest of its behavioral pattern is pretty much the same as other bosses, so you just have to exercise the same level of caution for other things."
The majority of Dinosaur-type monsters had the same attack pattern, no matter who they were, so they should have gotten used to it by now.
After all, they're the members who have been through the F-BOSS five times so far. I have faith in them.
"I understand. In between, would King Dinosaur also happen to have the same attack as the previous Flying Dinosaur Kick?"
"It has. And not just the same; it also packs more punch. So be careful, got it?"
"I will. I will not let myself be caught anymore."
Ester's eyes were shining with determination.
Alright. I wouldn't have to worry about her.
The briefing was soon over, and it was finally time for our last march.
"Everyone, it's finally time for our first Intermediate boss battle. Are you ready?"
" " " "YES!!" " " "
"Great, let's go!"
We passed through the gate of the boss's room.
"That thing... Is that the King Dinosaur?"
"So big. Hey Zephyr-kun, isn't that just tooooo big!"
The boss in the depths of the room was much larger and more sinister than the Jurra Rex.
Its form was like that of the Bipedal Tyrannosaurus, and each step it took echoed the heavy thump-thump sound of footsteps. Even our stomachs were jolted.
Ester and Hannah even let out dumbfounded voices, taken aback by its form.
Holy crap. It's even more visually striking than what I had seen on the screen. Just what you would expect from reality.
But we didn't have time to dabble in leisure talk. Because King Di had already noticed us, its gait switched in our direction. It was taking its time for the moment, but I knew it wouldn't be long before it took the battle stance.
"Spread out everyone! The first attack will be Dinosaur Charge! Spread out to the side! Sierra!"
"Aura Point! Guard Stance!"
Sierra, according to theory, attracted its rage and stepped out.
In the beginning, King Di would attack with Dinosaur Charge to close up the distance quickly, so I, along with the rest of our members, spread out to the sidelines to avoid clustering up. Hannah and I shifted to the right side while Ester and Lana shifted to the left side, it was kind of like a pincer.
"GRAWWWWWWWWWR!!"
As predicted, King Di aimed at Sierra with Dinosaur Charge.
It shook its gigantistic body and performed a dynamic rush. Seeing that body close up once again refreshed my cognition about its size, which was much bigger.
Maybe she had felt the same, as Lana misjudged the route she had to take.
"! Back down more, Lana! You're in attack range!"
"Lana-sama!"
"Hu一Kyaa!?"
Ester took a decision in a flash and yanked Lana to the side, ending the small prelude with nothing serious. That was close! The King Di's tail was considerably long as it swung it widely, almost hitting the area where Lana was.
"Iron Wall!"
"GRAWWWWWWWWWR!!"
"Guh, not nearly as impossible as I thought! Haaa!"
Sierra used her defensive skill and received the Rush attack weaved by that gargantuan body, effectively stopping it!"
The difference between the size of Sierra and King Di was just nothing to speak of. To be able to receive the attack so soundly was the merit of her perfect manipulation of skill.
"I'm staring! The Cane of Flame Ray! The Cane of Flame Ray!"
"Lightning Burst! Shine Lightning!"
Hannah used two magic based items, Cane of the Heat Ray and launched her offensive that goes一 Boom! Boom!.
Holy damn, that was so cool! I should ask Hannah for them next time!
I also followed up with magic attacks after Hannah.
"I'm really sorry for making such an embarrassing mistake! How dare it cause me to make a fool of myself! Shining Sabre of the Sacred Light! Light's一一"
"Lana! Buff first, please!"
"!! Ahh, geez! Divine Protection! Sacred Demon's Blessing! Blessing of the Guardian Dog!"
Lana was back, but she suddenly started firing offensive magic, so I had to quickly call out for buff support.
It seems that small prelude just now infuriated her. Would she be alright?
"GRAWWWWWWWWWR!!"
"Area attack inbound! Step out of its close proximity, Ester!"
"Roger!"
King Di's Tail Spin was an area attack where it used its body as an axis to spin and sweep the area around. Ester, this time calmly, foresaw the movement and took an appropriate distance. Nice judgement!
If one didn't assess the distance to be taken properly, they would inevitably be wound up in the attack because of the boss's long tail. Ester didn't fail this time to judge the situation.
Meanwhile, I switched from Firmament Sword to Dinosaur Slayer Sword. Now was the time for close combat!
"Counter Burst!"
"GRAW!?"
Sierra splendidly pulled off Counter Burst at precise timing, invoking a big knockback effect. This was our chance! Not that I would let it slide.
"Sonic Sword! Swift Strike!"
"GRAWWWWR!?"
I slapped one quick attack after another before the boss could get out of its confused state, and successfully pushed the Down status on King Di.
"Time for all-out! Brave Slash! Lightning Burst! Dinosaur Slash!"
"Splendid, Zephyr! Rise of the Sacred Tree! Light Blade! Sacred Pillar!"
"My turn! Horizontal Slash! Triple Shoot! Precision Thrust! Long Thrust!"
"Backup inbound! The Cane of Flame Ray! The Cane of Flame Ray! ×4."
"Bash Impact! Taunt! Shield Smite!"
"GRAWWWWR!"
Facing our party's all-out attacks, the HP of the boss was gradually dwindling down.
Though,
"What the hell! Why isn't damage getting through to the boss at all!"
"No, damage is going through. It's just that the boss's HP is quite high that you aren't feeling that."
Lana exclaimed upon seeing the HP of King Di.
Not that she's to blame either, for were it to be a Beginner Dungeon boss, it would have long been smithereens under the barrage of powerful attacks. While the HP of the boss before our eyes was dwindling down, it wasn't appearing as effective as beginner bosses, since the bosses’ HP from the Intermediate dungeon also took a spike. That's why HP gauge dwindled down slowly despite all our effort had come out striking to her when everything was so effortless at beginner level recently.
This was also one of the main differences between Beginner Dungeon Bosses and Intermediate Dungeon Bosses.
"GRAWWWWR!"
The effect of Down ended, as King Di got up once again, posing again for another charge.
The target was still at Sierra, she hadn't forgotten to keep the hatred toward herself even while it was down.
The time when Sierra might fail at something comes only once in a blue moon. She had been accurately tanking King Di's attack.
Nevertheless, the damage she was receiving while handling attacks were simply incomparable to the previous boss fights we had gone through until now.
It was so nerve-wracking to see her HP going down by 50 or 100 just from a single attack.
"Great Heal! Divine Protection!"
"Iron wall!"
Fortunately, there was no gap for the boss to exploit thanks to Lana's healing and Sierra's own defensive abilities.
Thanks to Saintess's Unique Skill repeatedly healing her, there wasn't any danger of Sierra's HP reaching a level where she couldn't fight anymore.
Ester was also steadily pulling attacks one after another, even managing to evade attacks like Flying Dinosaur Kick at the nick of the moment coolly.
The battle proceeded smoothly, and around 10 minutes after the start of our battle, we finally saw some significant damage on the boss.
And gradually, from that point on, its HP was pushed into the red zone.
The boss was enveloped in a rage, gaining offensive and agility parameter modifiers ×1.5.
The rage mode had finally arrived!
"GRAWWWWWWWWWR!!!"
"Lana! You don't have to mind attacks; just pay attention to buffbuffs and healing! Same for you Sierra, just switch to defensive mode!"
"Got it!"
"Understood!"
Now that the boss was in a rage, we shifted to a defensive stance.
The rage mode of an Intermediate boss would last for 3 minutes.
We were taking an offensive approach at any given gap until now, but that would be fatal to continue at the current moment, thus I asked Lana and Sierra to focus on HP and defense.
"Ester, remember not to chase it too far! Its speed is simply unthinkable compared to before! Hannah, you take as much distance as possible and continue with long range attacks!"
"I understand!"
"Okay!"
"Fortress Shi一一Kyaa!"
"Sierra!"
Sierra's skill wasn't able to activate in time and she took a direct skill attack. The swiftness of the boss had prepared her off guard.
The attack not only shaved off 200 of her HP, but it even caused a knock down effect. Damnit!
"Sonic Sword!"
"Healing's Prayer! Divine Protection!"
"GRAWWWWWWWWWR!"
"Damn you! Defense!"
I quickly invoked my slash skill that incorporates swift movement and wedges myself in before the path of Sierra using this to accelerate my movement at once.
Lana's heal and buff soon came after.
However, King Di tried to use Rock Stamp at Sierra in the meantime.
Rock Stamp was an offensive skill where a boulder was kicked off towards the intended target like a soccer ball, I didn't need to second guess Sierra would absolutely fall into Down status were it to hit her, who was under knock down status at this moment. Fortunately, I succeeded in wedging myself between Sierra barely in time and somehow managed to fend off the attack defensive skill Defense.
"GRAWWWWWWWWWR!"
"Not yet, Guard Rush!"
And again fended off another attack Headbutt.
一Guh! What a tough guy! Just defending against those two attacks had shaved off 120 HP!
Bloody hell! Just when I thought I was going to face the consecutive 3rd attack, an all-familiar reliable voice called out to me.
"Slide, Zephyr!"
"Oh, you got me, Sierra!"
It was Sierra who had recovered from the knock-down effect.
I quickly slid down to the side without any momentarily hesitation, and so the opponent of King Di was switched to Sierra.
"I will not fail this time, Iron wall!"
"Graww!? GRAWWWWR!"
"Fortress Shield!"
Her timing to activate defense skill was perfect, without falling behind this time. No wait, perfect would be downplaying her achievement, she was too perfect that her skill off-set the attack completely. That was parry!
The Second confrontation between defense and the Rage Mode King Di and the victor was Defense, with overwhelming advantage!
"Begone, you annoying tail! Brave Slash!"
"GRAWWWWWWWWWR!?"
The lady was shining bright this time for the tail of King Di shifted towards my direction while King Di staggered from the impact of parry. I fired off my Unique Skill aiming at the tail and was at play again it seemed as this attack just happened to cross the damage limit of the tail, cutting apart that tail for good.
The threat of tail after losing more than half of its original length was gone. Now Ester could finally fight from the close proximity, who had to open up the big gap in between due to the danger of tail attack.
I also called out for everyone to go all out again seeing King Di staggering from the shock of losing its tail, and now only a bit of its HP had remained.
"GRAWWWWWWWWWR!"
Now woken up from its shock, King Di had intended to use an area attack ‘The Great Tail Spin’ as the final resort to eradicate its enemy but with its tail gone already, of course it was impossible for it to pose any threat again. Meanwhile, Ester continued with her flurry of attacks and made her way directly in front of its chest.
"That's the end, Ester. Decimate it!"
"Haaaa! Horizontal Slash!"
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Ester's single attack beautifully finished the outcome of this battle, and with its HP cut to 0, King Di vanished under the sea of effect.
All that was reminiscent of it were the two treasure chests, sparkling in the golden glow.ƒreewebηoveℓ.com