Fighting The Towering Giant
After choosing the options, Daniel didn't choose to equip anything on Phantom God, on the contrary, he changed each of his equipment into inferior ones!
His Phantom Lightning Boots was changed into the Ethereal Boots, a common equipment amongst the higher tier players, and can be bought in shops! It only gives boosts that are very much lower than the Phantom Lightning Boots!
His Supreme Dark Destroyers were replaced by Steel Piercers, which is another pair of pistols but is also very much inferior to Daniel's Supreme Dark Destroyers. It can also be commonly seen amongst higher-tier players who hasn't acquired much more powerful weapons.
He also changed the Phantom Hunter XII into another lower-ranking weapon, the Rumbling Decimator, another ordinary equipment among the higher-tier players!
Why did he do this? There's actually two reasons.
One, this was a gamble. Although he's the current best player in Steel Tempest, the Wild Boss he's fighting is the Towering Giant! It is one of the most powerful bosses in Steel Tempest, and can only be beaten solo by the twentieth and above ranked players! Furthermore, he wasn't certain he could win even with his Phantom Lightning Boots, Supreme Dark Destroyers, and Phantom Hunter XII in tow, and he didn't want to lose those three most powerful equipment.
Secondly, this was just for the sake of challenging himself, and not for actual personal gains. He wanted a challenge for once, since over his entire gaming time on Steel Tempest, nobody, or nothing, has ever given him a challenge, even with inferior equipment. Sometimes he even need to hold back! It wasn't him underestimating the top tier players of Steel Tempest, it was just his skill was too high that even the one second to him has a very large margin and is not even close. In fact, the second best player of Steel Tempest is lightyears away from Daniel's Phantom God, in terms of equipment, stats, skills, reflexes, and strategy! Daniel was superior in any way possible!
Plus, he equipped Steel Piercers because of the added damage to earth-oriented and metal-oriented entities, and can pierce even steel. In Steel Tempest, there are earth-oriented, metal-oriented, fire-oriented, water-oriented, air-oriented, lightning-oriented, nature-oriented, and special entities.
Towering Giant, it was not Daniel's first time encountering one, and it is precisely an earth-oriented, and metal-oriented creature hybrid. It has an extremely high defense, and also high amount of health. It is very large, and stands at a staggering height of 50 meters! Although it is slow because it is made of stone, and metal, it has a large variety of skills and packs a truckload of damage! Perhaps, with the current set-up of Daniel's character, it would only take one attack to kill him. If not, close to killing him. That's how powerful the Towering Giant is.
Daniel then conditioned himself in real life. He adjusted his mental state, and even voluntarily entered the zone. As for why? Because he was trying something that was never tried before! Again, even with his skill level he wasn't certain that he could win!
If any player saw what Daniel is doing, he would only be termed as idiotic, insane, or irrational! Nobody would ever attempt this, even the lowest-level player will be able to say that Daniel is currently idiotic, insane, or irrational because of what he's trying to do!
...
1 minute and 10 seconds later, every player in a 1 kilometer radius got a notification and was forcefully teleported out of their respective locations.
Daniel also got a notification.
"Towering Giant spawning in 10 seconds."
The sky above a 1 kilometer radius then turned red, and a wall of hexagons was created around the perimeter of a cylinder base on the center of that 1 kilometer radius.
The players who were close, but wasn't in the 1 kilometer radius was surprised when they saw the wall being erected!
The walls will only show when a Wild Boss appeared!
"Who or whose party is challenging a Wild Boss with the first option? Are they crazy?" A player commented.
Nobody was crazy enough to try to challenge a Wild Boss with the first option on, well, there are many cases of this one, but it numbered less than hundreds!
All the players who saw the walls and that were forcefully teleported out thought the same in their hearts.
They then turned on their respective holographic devices and searched for the "Wild Boss" channel. There's only one channel open. Every hour, every day, there can only be one Wild Boss spawning, sometimes there's even none in the whole of The Wilds. Each Wild Boss' level, and elemental orientation is random. At times, even at the periphery of The Wilds, where lower-leveled players are situated, there are level 500 Wild Bosses! And sometimes, at areas outside Tempest City, there are Level 100 Wild Bosses, even Level 50 Wild Bosses sometimes spawn!
Nobody knows why Sentient Corp. would do something like this, but their love for the game, didn't degrade one bit. Actually, it increase their love because of the mystery of what they would get when they encounter a Wild Boss.
All players who opened their holographic device then opened that one channel, and they can see on the top of the screen the name of the wild boss.
All players who saw the name were stunned even more and was gaping at the shock! They all cried out at the same time "Towering Giant!"
But when they saw the name of the player who was challenging the Towering Giant, they were even more shocked!
"Phantom God!" This time, they did not anymore wonder who would be crazy enough to fight a Wild Boss who chose the first option, since even Level 500 Players would choose the second option when fighting a Level 50 Wild Boss. Why? There's actually no particular reason, just for fun.
But, their initial shock was replaced by an even larger shock when they saw the screen on Phantom God. When they are in this channel, they are at a third person view, and can even more around the area of the Wild Boss' spawn point. And when they saw that Phantom God only had Steel Piercers, Ethereal Boots, and Rumbling Decimator, they were floored! He didn't even equip the renowned Supreme Dark Destroyers, Phantom Lightning Boots, and Phantom Hunter XII, and even didn't equip any kind of armor! Was he underestimating the boss that much?
...
In real life, Daniel closed his eyes. In his headphones, a robotic voice counting down could be heard.
His breathing was at a fixed rate. There's no going back now, since once he entered Combat Mode, he wouldn't be able to equip any more equipment, he didn't even have the intention of equipping armor at the last second!
"3"
"2"
"1"
"Towering Giant has spawned."
Daniel abruptly opened his eyes the moment he heard the 't' sound of Towering Giant.
In his screen a staggeringly large stone-like humanoid can be seen. There was also steel all over its body,
Its face was also covered with steel.
On top of Daniel's screen was the health bar of the Towering Giant, and its count was...
25,000,000! Towering Giant's health is actually one of the highest in game, coupled with its armor, it is the toughest to kill.
Daniel's hands started to move at an insane speed. His heart was racing ten seconds ago, but the moment he opened his eyes, the beats of his heart suddenly returned to normal, and if people were watching him, they would be able to sense the unprecedented calmness of Daniel. And his eyes that are reflecting the screen is so calm, that it's like calm waters that even if you drop a stone, it won't be disturbed!
...
In game, Phantom God suddenly moved at a high speed. Although he wasn't equipped with the Phantom Lightning Boots, his speed was still extremely fast with the Sudden Sprint on.
Daniel also pressed some keys on his keyboard, and activated Air Walk. Phantom God then ran towards the arm of the Towering Giant!
The Towering Giant tried to slap Phantom God, but the arms of it were to slow touch even a single hair of Phantom God.
In an instant, Phantom God was at the right arm of the Towering Giant.
He then activated Front Flip, and activated Endless Salvo.
Endless Salvo is a skill that can be learned upon reaching a certain stat points of the Pistol Mastery Stat. It enhanced the attack speed of the pistol by 200%, and also enhances its damage by five times. The pistol will also be supplied with Mana Bullets, which is taken from the mana bar of a character, the mana bar is a bar when using skills. Mana usage is extremely scarce, and cannot be increased. It can only be increased through leveling up, even Air Walk, an extremely powerful movement skill only uses 1 Mana per usage. At Level 1, one's mana bar is only 1, at Level 500, it is also 500.
Also, although the Endless Salvo may seem like an extremely overpowered skill, the recoil of this skill is extremely high, and one needs to continuously move their mouse if they want to hit their target. It is even harder to hit with opponents that are moving, since the pistols will move upwards, and you need to follow the moving opponent.
Daniel activated this for a reason while Front Flip is activated.
One reason is that the character is continuously moving on the direction of the target, which is the arm.
Secondly, because of the pistol's recoil, he wouldn't need to move his mouse to follow the target.
This was a very smart move of Daniel, and players who have thought of this can be counted by one hand among the tens of millions who plays Steel Tempest.
Of course, he still moved his mouse to hit a single spot, which would deal extra damage!
The arm of the Towering Giant was actually being chipped bit by bit! The size of its arm is very large, and 10 in-game characters will be needed to wrap around it.
Coupled with the armor penetration of the Steel Piercers, and the much more powerful Mana Bullets the rate of the chipping of its arm was actually pretty fast.
-6,500
-6,510
-6,520
-6,530
-6,540
-6,550
...
For every bullet hit, it dealt 6,500. And of course, he landed every single one of his bullets, and all at a single spot at that, that's why there's an increeasing plus 10 for each hit. This is the level of skill that Daniel has. He landed exactly 52 shots. He then landed behind the Towering Giant, in a branch of a tree.
"This is not enough. This strategy isn't going to work." Daniel muttered to himself
After receiving all those shots, the Towering Giant still had 24,654,770 (Yes, I actually calculated each and every shot, it was tedious).
He then took out the Rumbling Decimator, and ran towards the opposite direction the Towering Giant was at.
Phantom God was jumping from branch to branch, and tree to tree, like a monkey.
The ones who were watching were stunned by Phantom God's action of running.
"Sigh, I guess even Phantom God wouldn't be able to beat a Towering Giant without his main weapon, the Supreme Dark Destroyers, and his signature equipment, the Phantom Lightning Boots."
They all said in their hearts, some even voiced it out.
But of course, Daniel was not giving up. He just ran because he needed range.
He then looked back, and saw the Towering Giant already facing him, its arms raised and was pointing at him. The Towering Giant then used the Stone Spikes skill, and stone javelin-like projectiles was shot towards him like a mini gun.
"Sh*t." Daniel cursed. He pressed some keys and used back flip. His timing was extremely precise, and when dodging these Stone Spikes, there's a special condition that may happen, and that condition was what just Daniel did.
Phantom God actually landed on a stone spike!
He then squatted on a regular gunner's position, and while moving, loaded the Rumbling Decimator, and aimed it at the very center of the forehead of the Towering Giant. In that exact spot is the very weakness of the Towering Giant, however, hitting it is as hard as hitting a fly with a cannon, since that weakness is so small.
Even snipers who use the Bullet Time State skill can't hit that spot with 100% certainty.
However, who was Daniel? The best player of Steel Tempest! His sniping skills are actually much better than his pistol skills!
He activated the very skill that snipers are feared for, the Bullet Time State! He also activated the most damaging skill of snipers, however, its charging time is extremely high, the Accumulating Energy Bullet of Destruction skill, or AEBD. AEBD is a very special skill that can only be used on special conditions, and is rarely used against players because of the vulnerable state that it puts snipers in.
AEBD is a skill that accumulates energy from the environment, and also uses large amounts of mana. It charges for 10 seconds, however, in Bullet Time State, which allows snipers to slow down their perception of time by twice, the accumulation is also faster by twice. Also, after maxing it, the accumulation is also faster and will be reduced to 5 seconds.
Other than its charging time, it's also very hard to hit this skill. One, only someone foolish enough would use this to a moving target, after 10 or even 5 seconds of accumulation, the target would already be long gone, or has already hit you to disrupt the charging of this skill.
However, its damage is extremely high, and enhances a sniper rifle's attack by 25 times at maximum level, and deals 100% of its damage ignoring every bit of armor.
With Bullet Time State on, 2.5 seconds is all it needs to fire this skill.
While the stone spike was moving, he activated these two skills. Just as the stone spike buried itself on an Ascendor Tree, the Rumbling Decimator on Phantom God's hands fired.
The Rumbling Decimator's attack is at already 25,000 points of health, and with the enhancement of 25 times, it deals 625,000 damage already. With the 100% armor penetration, the attack unleased by Phantom God can kill almost any player in the whole of Steel Tempest, except for those who invested every single stat point of theirs in Endurance and Vitality stat!
A ray of light was fired out of the Rumbling Decimator. It was extremely fast, and hit the desired spot of Daniel!
Daniel's face was still extremely calm at this moment, and not even a hint of excitement appeared on his face when he hit the target.
-1,125,000
Because of the weakness spot, the 100% armor penetration, and the power of that single shot, it dealt 1,125,000 points of damage! It dealt 500,000 more damage!
"Huh, I've never tried this tactic before, just imagine firing that single shot with my Phantom Hunter XII" Daniel muttered, but his expression didn't change in the slightest.
Repeating that strategy for 12 times, the Towering Giant's health was crushed to 11,115,770. Since every shot at the weakness deals more damage by an increment of 500, and becomes higher after every shot, it was reduced to this after 13 of those shots.
He spent 40 minutes finding the right opportunities to fire the AEBD and regaining his mana.
The ones who were watching were currently in a daze. They were wondering if the player behind Phantom God was still human, from dodging the Stone Spikes, to one of the deadliest skills of the Towering Giant, Resounding Jump, and many others.
From the 40 minutes that they were watching, Phantom God wasn't even damaged one bit!
"One more and he'll activate his Rage Mode." Daniel muttered. Rage Mode, a very common system when a Boss or Wild Boss has low health. Although it is common, Steel Tempest has a very confusing way of activating Rage Mode. Steel Tempest's Bosses and Wild Bosses' Rage Mode activation situations are different each one. As for the Towering Giant, its Rage Mode would activate once its health bar hits 10,000,000. Also, it will be impervious to any damage that will make it lower than 10,000,000 while Rage Mode is being activated. So for, example, Towering Giant only has 10,000,001 health, if you shoot it with a gun that has 6,500 damage, its health will not be lower than 10,000,000, instead, it will become exactly 10,000,000.
After 2 minutes, he found the right moment to fire AEBD again, and the Towering Giant entered into Rage Mode!
"ROAR!" The Towering Giant howled, as it activated Reverberating Howl, and launched Phantom God backwards.
In mid-air, Daniel made Phantom God use Air Walk, and used Back Flip to avoid damage from being launched or hitting a wall.
As for the Towering Giant, it became completely covered with steel, and became surrounded by a red aura.
Daniel knew that the Towering Giant is currently impervious to damage.
After 7.5 seconds, Daniel activated AEBD, and accumulated energy.
After 2.5 seconds passed, AEBD fired, and just before it hit, the Towering Giant exited out of its invulnerable state!
The spectators all marveled at the incredible sense of timing that the player controlling Phantom God had.
-600,000
The weakness was repaired and the 500,000 added bonus damage was actually removed! Furthermore, the damage was even reduced by 25,000 points!
There's 9,400,000 health left of the Towering Giant.
"Goodness, because I haven't played this game for such a long time that I forgot about this weakness repairing."
Of course, Daniel already destroyed a Towering Giant before, actually, he killed 10 already in playing Steel Tempest! He previously knew this, but he forgot because he haven't played this game for months!
"Now that I think about it, once his health reaches 2.5 million, 10% of his overall health, he will turn into that...." Daniel suddenly had a realization.
"Sh*t, I messed up!" The final form of the Towering Giant was its human form, and is the Super Enraged state of it. It will actually become a water-oriented creature, and will become immune to piercing-type bullets and will reduce any incoming damage since it will be made out of water! Furthermore, the Towering Giant will be extremely fast. This is why many players had a hard time battling against the Towering Giant, because of its unexpected Super Enraged state that makes it highly
"Good thing I realized this early." Daniel thought to himself and made Phantom God flee as fast as he could. Why? Because he can still fix the situation!
The Towering Giant immediately gave chase and even fired multiple Metallic Spikes, the evolved version of Stone Spikes.
But how could a slow gigantic creature catch up to the Speed Demon? Phantom God even used the Metallic Spikes as a means to be much faster.
In Steel Tempest, the Combat Mode is extremely peculiar. If you were attacked, you won't be placed in this mode, and will still be able to change equipment, and only if you attacked will you then be placed in Combat Mode, not like other games in its era. That's why fleeing and only using movement skills and dodging the opponent's bullets allows you to get out of combat mode and change equipment.
After 10 seconds of running, Daniel's hand speed immediately became faster, and his mind worked at an even faster rate. He immediately changed his pistols to an unusual pair, the Thunder Dragon-Eagle and the Nature Dragon-Eagle, two rare, but still pretty common pistols. After reaching a certain pistol mastery stat count, one will be able to learn Dual Wield, which allows a pistol wielder to use two different pistols at once and produce different combinations rather than using a dual-pistol set.
He also changed his sniper rifle into a stronger one to end this boss fight once and for all faster.
He changed it into the Heavenly Roaring Dragon, the top 10 most powerful sniper rifle in game.
He also changed his boots into the Phantom Lightning Boots.
"The renowned Phantom Lightning Boots has finally made its appearance!" The crowd cried out when they saw the black boots that Phantom God changed into.
Snipers also cried out, "Heavenly Roaring Dragon!" The Heavenly Roaring Dragon was one of its kind and is a sniper's dream, although it is of course inferior to Phantom God's Phantom Hunter XII, which is the third stronger sniper rifle in game.
Surprisingly though, Phantom God still didn't change into any armor.
After changing his equipment, Daniel made Phantom God turn around and confront the raging Towering Giant. The Towering Giant used the Resounding Jump, which allows the Towering Giant to jump so high, and when it lands, creates a shockwave that can KO Phantom God in an instant considering that he has no armor on.
Phantom God's speed immediately increased and ran backwards using the skill Backward Running.
He also multitasked and changed the Heavenly Roaring Dragon's bullets into the special ones, the Crystallized Dragon Energy.
Phantom God then aimed at the Towering Giant at mid-air then shot multiple times, aiming at its crotch.
-100,000
-100,000
-100,000
-100,000
Why is it only 100,000? Actually, 100,000 is significant damage already considering that it's the Towering Giant's rage mode counterpart, and is already the critical strike of the Heavenly Roaring Dragon with the Crystallized Dragon Energy magazines.
Just before the Towering Giant landed, Phantom God hid behind an Ascendor Tree, but the Ascendor Tree couldn't withstand the evolved Resounding Jump and collapsed under pressure. Many Ascendor Trees are also like that.
But with Daniel's skills, he saved Phantom God using multiple movement skills without damaging his character whatsoever.
The Earthen Breath, was also executed right after the Resounding Jump, but this time, it was the Metallic Breath, which produces metallic needles that deals 100 damage each. Although the metallic needles only causes 100 damage each, it is a rain of those needles, and Daniel would definitely die if he was hit by a rain of those needles.
He immediately found another Ascendor Tree and rushed to it. As the character known as the Speed Demon, the metallic needles were of course slower than Phantom God.
Then a volley of Metallic Spikes was then shot again. Daniel made Phantom God go out of the Ascendor Tree he was hiding at and rush towards a spike. He then used Front Flip again and landed on a Metallic Spike and used Bullet Time State, and took aim at the center of the forehead of the Towering Giant once again. He then used the AEBD.
2.5 seconds quickly passed, and a ray of light comparatively much stronger than the Rumbling Decimator's AEBD light was shot.
It was faster, and stronger. In an instant, it hit. The Towering Giant was just too slow to block nor dodge this shot.
-2,500,000.
6,500,000 was all that's left on the Towering Giant's health bar.
After 5 minutes, 2 shots like these were shot without allowing damage to Phantom God.
The 2,500,000 was quickly met, and the Towering Giant became invulnerable once again.
This time, the transformation was extremely huge. The Towering Giant's giant metallic body was actually shed!
In the heart region of the Towering Giant a blob of water appeared, it then took the shape of a human, and grew eyes!
"Towering Giant has entered Super Enraged mode. Water Deity has appeared!"
The health bar of the Towering Giant became full, but this time only at 2,500,000. And the name of the Towering Giant was replaced by Water Deity!
"Oh yeah, that was its name." He forgot its name because of the countless games he played during the time he did not play Steel Tempest.
Daniel slung the Heavenly Roaring Dragon on his back, and took out the pair of pistols he equipped last time.
"Time for some excitement."
The Water Deity quickly exited out of its impregnable state, and was currently floating at its position.
"You dare to destroy my stone and metallic body?" A voice akin to that of a god with domineering pressure resounded all through out the 1 kilometer cylinder and was solely directed at Phantom God. "You don't know who I am! I am the Water Deity, the god of all water creatures. Now that you've seen my true body and for destroying my stone and metallic body, you must die and taste the wrath of this deity!"
The Water Deity immediately summoned an army of water creatures!
Daniel licked his lips, smiled devilishly, clearly full of anticipation for the excitement. "Finally, some excitement."
This is what Daniel has been waiting for, although he forgot that the Towering Giant actually did this. He was waiting for excitement to bloom, and now it finally bloomed!
"Will he be able to beat it without armor?" Presently, the count of the spectators watching Phantom God fighting the Towering Giant or Water Deity reached tens of millions, actually it already surpassed the millions count during the 20 minute mark because of players spreading it to online forums, and that spread even more.
Even the second ranked all the way to the fiftieth rank, were watching, no exceptions. And when they saw Phantom God beating the Towering Giant without any armor on, they can only smile bitterly and shake their heads at their inferiority. Hey, at least they got a good show to watch.
The horde of Water-Oriented Beasts rushed to Phantom God, and the moment that the beasts reached Phantom God, he used Front Flip.
These beasts are weak and can be one shot by the Thunder Dragon-Eagle, and the Nature Dragon-Eagle, the numbers are the one that gives people problems! There are hundreds of water rhinos, tigers, even water eagles were in the mix.
Naturally, handling these are an easy feat for Daniel.
After two minutes, he wiped out the horde, and quickly aimed at the Water Deity. He then shot a salvo without using any skills.
-10,000
-10,000
-10,000
-10,000
-10,000
Six bullets hit before the Water Deity reacted and flew towards Phantom God.
It then assumed a Superman-pose and launched water projectiles at Phantom God. Naturally, Phantom God dodged using Side Flips, and Phantom Shift, even being able to hit a few rounds. He also reloaded every now and then.
This continued on for 10 minutes as well as the summoning and wiping out before the last hit.
During a side flip, Daniel finally beat the Water Deity!
"You've never heard the last of me! You hear me? I will take my revenge!" The Water Deity said before dissipating and evaporated into the air.
At this juncture, a notification was sent to all players in the world.
"Ding~ Player Phantom God has beaten the Towering Giant and Water Deity at 57 minutes."
...
Sorry for the bad naming sense, call me a bad name maker. I just can't think of a name for everything y'know, it's hard to think up of extremely good names.