The witch moves closer, her eyes locked onto me while her scythe, up in the air, ready to tear me apart.
All right. I took a deep breath as I followed along the usual combo path she took and began to dodge at precise moments.
Her attack strategy was simple to read. A forward slash, followed by a diagonal one to the left. And then a step back as she creates some distance for her skill [Drifting Shadows].
Next is.
[Dash!]
Closing the gap with a dash, I use my dual blades.
-Slash! x2
[Critical Hit] x 2
After that attack, it's either the same pattern repeated or she uses the teleportation skill to reach my blind spots.
She looked at me with surprise before vanishing into the darkness and then appearing right behind me. And preparing her scythe to attack me, she takes a step forward.
Let's close the gap once again.
[Dash!]
And using the change in her momentum where she momentarily moves forward, I reach extremely close to her, attacking her neck once again.
-Slash! x2
[Critical Hit!] x2
Since I have damaged her twice in a row, I might have filled her rage points. She would either use a physical enhancement skill now, or simply repeat one of the previous patterns.
Just as I predicted, she used her physical enhancement skill, her eyes glowing purple as her speed increased tremendously.
[Frenzy!]
Using my new skill as I temporarily raise my stats, matching hers, I once again repeat the same pattern, chipping her health at a rapid rate.
While the gap in skills and stats was wide, she became easily predictable now. Every step she was going to take was easy to calculate, enough for me to have a little breathing room in between the fight.
Now that I look at it properly. She seems to be an average NPC with a [Scythe] skill. She doesn't have any innate talent of her own, hence, the patterns of her attack are almost always similar. I thought as I dodged her attacks once again before dealing a few more damage.
As for her skills, they were limited teleport, agility increase and strength increase.
If I remember correctly, there was one more, darkness related. And based on how I was blinded a few times against her in my last life, I guess it was a skill that would make the players go blind.
Though the condition to activate that skill is to connect an attack with the opponent. I felt pity as I dodged all of her attacks without much difficulty. Till now, not a single attack had reached me, having me keep my health at 100%.
While it was tricky in the beginning, a few times lucky as well. As I started getting used to it, it became child's play.
[HP: 4731/10,000]
One of the reasons I chose Inara Village as the start was because this boss monster does not have any regenerative powers. Even if the battle had continued for a longer time, defeating her would have been doable even if I just did it slowly.
-Slash!
Whoa! That was a close one! I barely dodged as I saw her increasing her speed in the middle. Her red pupils were also turning dark black while the black veins were slowly protruding out of her eyes, as an angered look began forming on her face.
"IKAL NOE BOU!(YOU EEL-LIKE PEST!)" she shouted as blood started flowing out of her eyes as well.
Seems like we are entering the second stage of the boss fight. I chuckled as I looked at Raven, Blaze and Kite before shouting,
"Get ready! We are entering the second phase of the battle!"
…
Location: South-West area, New Carlot Town
Sitting on her bed, she played with her deep red hair as she looked at the stream. A small smile was plastered on her face as she giggled a few times reading the comments before taking a sip from the cola she bought an hour ago. Her deep red pupil then took a short break as she turned to see the Arcadia Headset placed on her table before turning back to the screen.
It's better than I imagined.
The red-haired girl, Michelle Inoha, observed the screen with an enchanted look. She was the same girl that Mikeal was 'supposed' to have a crush on, the same girl who came on his birthday, almost souring the mood of the entire party.
As advised by her friends, she joined the game, Arcadia Online, and was slowly getting used to it. There were obviously many difficulties she had to go through, and she was also killed a few times by the monsters before somewhat understanding the rules of the game.
And finally, just like any other newbie player, she also checked guides and forums to see if there was anything she could do to improve in this game.
Though unlike other players, she didn't want fame and fortune within the game. Adventuring was the least of her interests, and neither was she planning to play this game for a long time.
Her aim was simple.
She wanted to be strong enough to potentially land a rich boyfriend or perhaps, if she got lucky, even have her own independent source of money.
Though that changed tonight…
As she was surfing through the forums, she came across a stream that was getting rapidly famous. About a boy named Ezekiel, also the current top player of this game.
It was just a random streak of interest, but once she began watching it… she couldn't stop even for once.
Ezekiel… how handsome…
[EzeFan1: EZEKIEL!!!!]
[Liveaa088: Man, I think I am in love!]
[UniLo: Ezekiel! I love you!!!!]
[Miastreak21: I think I am a fan too now, haha!]
[Live Views: 1,213,451]
As she looked at the stream, her eyes reached a certain part of the comments that were fangirling over Ezekiel.
These gold diggers! She thought as she looked at those edgy and cringe comments, before a feeling of jealousy arose in her heart. With a sour look on her face, she then opened up the chat before beginning to rapidly type a bunch of angry words she could think of.
[Mikki09: Ezekiel! Kill that bitch!!!]
…
Location: ???
A few minutes after dusk, at the edge of the crossroads, two teenage boys stood with tired looks on their faces. One of them, who was barely 15, seemed to be agitated, while the older one, a blonde kid, had a serious expression.
The blonde, muscular kid looked at the stream playing on the cafe stream across the street. His eyes locked onto Ezekiel as he observed his movements, while a slight frown formed on his face. The more Ezekiel moved, the more narrowed look Charles gave him.
"Charles? Is everything all right?" Standing alongside him, the young red-haired kid spoke out, calling Charles Richard out, making him look away from the screen, back at his brother from the orphanage.
A few seconds of silence consumed the duo as they stood there without speaking a single word. And then, with a slight sigh, Charles finally broke the awkward silence.
"It's nothing. Let's hurry up," he said, taking one last look at the TV before mixing in with the crowd in the street.