The Wolf King
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Step. Step. Step.
Although they had entered the territory of the Wolf King, they proceeded to walk silently towards the Wolf King instead of running due to the fact that the Wolf King was in slumber. Since it was in slumber, not only would it allow them to activate all of the buffs they need to deal more damage, as well as last longer against the Wolf King, it would also allow to preemptively attack the Wolf King wherein it would allow them to have an advantage. It took them a while to get into position, with Jean being the nearest to the slumbering Wolf King. As for John, he was a few meters behind Jean, while Jane was the farthest away from Jean, around 20 meters away from where he was.
Nonetheless, Jean did not have any complaints since he knew what his purpose for the boss fight. Anyways, just as he was about to initiate the boss fight, a holographic screen abruptly appeared in front of his field of vision, slightly startling him as he looked at the information on the holographic screen. After a quick glance, he could not help but mutter inwardly, "Oh, it was just the party chat screen."
The party chat screen was what Jean used earlier to send the Wolf Spine Rings and Wolf Furs that they obtained a while ago while he was outside the Azure Forest. Compared to chatting with friends, which opened up a holographic screen that allowed the user to see the friend they're chatting with, the party chat screen was more basic, allowing the members of the party to send messages, and if they wanted to, talk with each other without seeing each other's faces. At this moment though, this quality of being basic made the party chat screen useful to the three since it meant they would not wake the Wolf King with their voices.
Whoosh!
'CrimsonBlossom: Jean, I'm going to cast [Raging Flame] on us and [Flame Bind] on the wolf before you initiate the fight.' A sentence appeared on Jean's party chat screen, prompting him to look at his mother with a smile, with her smiling back at him.
Looking back at the chat screen in front of him, he then replied to her mother with his thoughts.'Tenebris: Alright, mom. Just give me a go signal when everything's ready.'
Not long after, another message popped up on the chat screen, prompting Jean to look at his father.
'Xx_SilverAxe47_xX: Hey son! Look at what I'm going to do! I'm activating [Heightened Offense] and [Heightened Defense]!'
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Not long after Jean turned his head to look at his father, a red aura started to emanate from his father's body as he heard his father softly mutter the words 'Heightened Offense'.
This red aura was not like the aura brought about by John activating [Mass Aggravation], which had the purpose of attracting aggro of multiple Stray Bits at once. This red aura instead gave Jean the feeling that his father was some sort of bodybuilder, allowing him to exert a strength greater than before. A few seconds, he then heard his father softly mutter the words 'Heightened Defense', with a blue aura appearing outside the red aura in response. The feeling the blue aura was quite different from the red aura, giving Jean the feeling that his father had turned into an impenetrable fortress that could withstand any sort of damage dealt to him.
With the red and blue aura now covering his body, John sent a message through the party chat screen, allowing Jean to know what was going to happen next.
'Xx_SilverAxe47_xX: My preparations are done! Are yours done, hon?'
In response to the message that had just popped up, a crimson ball on top of Jane's staff exploded, its energy heading towards John and Jean's body before they were enveloped in a crimson colored aura. After being covered in the crimson aura, Jean could not help but feel that something deep inside his body had been awakened, giving him the feeling that he could punch boulders into smithereens and create a sonic boom with a single slash.
Whoosh!
'You have obtained the [Raging Flame] buff. Your attack has been increased by 30% for 3 minutes.'After the crimson ball was sent out, a dark ball manifested on top of Jane's staff, which was then flung towards the slumbering Wolf King. At the instant the dark ball collided with the Wolf King, instead of dealing damage, it instead enveloped the Wolf King in a dark haze, making the slumbering Wolf King slightly frown.
Whoosh!
'CrimsonBlossom: My preparations are done as well, John. Oh, right. Jean, identify the Wolf King to get an HP counter from it. Open the damage counter screen as well.'
This was what Jane sent to the party chat screen after she threw the dark ball towards the Wolf King. In response, Jean did what he was told, identifying the Wolf King and opening up the damage counter screen. Not long after, two holographic screens appeared in front of his field of vision, which he positioned to the top left and top right of his field of vision in order to not obstruct his view. Nonetheless, this did not stop him from becoming shocked once he looked at the stats of the Wolf King.
Whoosh!
——���————
[Wolf King]
HP: 10,000/10,000
Attack: 250
Defense: 120 (-24)
Movement Speed: 10 m/s
Attack Speed: 6 hps
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'100 Defense? My Attack stat can't even put a dent on that!' Jean thought to himself, finding the Wolf King scary since a single hit from it would take off most of his HP. If he received 2 hits from it, he would undoubtedly die. Just as he was about to send a message to the party chat screen that he was deciding on putting off the fight for later, he remembered the buff that was applied to him by his mother.
'Ah, right. I obtained an Attack buff from my mother,' Jean thought as he opened up the general stat screen with a soft mutter. 'Would the increase be enough to actually let me deal damage?'Whoosh!
Jean ignored most of the elements on the screen, only focusing on the Attack stat. Eventually, when he looked at his Attack stat, he could not help but let out a sigh of relief, allowing him to be confident again in this fight. Although he was in a party of two peak level Cleaners, that did not mean he could just laze around and not contribute to the fight!
'Attack: 58 (+15) (69-77) [+22]'
Even though it was just barely enough for him to deal a few points of damage, that was still better than having his damage nullified by the Wolf King's defense. Gripping on his silver wolf fang with a serious look on his face, he then took a few steps closer to the slumbering Wolf King, before going ahead and unleashing a flurry of attacks, awakening the Wolf King from its peaceful slumber.Slash! Slash! Slash!
'You have dealt 1 damage to the [Wolf King].'
'You have dealt 1 damage to the [Wolf King].'
'You have dealt 1 damage to the [Wolf King].'
'You have dealt 1 damage to the [Wolf King].'
'…'
'Critical! You have dealt 5 damage to the [Wolf King].'
"Awooo!" Although the damage dealt to the Wolf King was just in the single digits, it still dealt a bit of damage to the Wolf King, making it howl in pain as it hastily went into its battle stance, eying the three people that were out to kill it, waiting for them to make their move.
After finishing the first flurry of attacks, Jean was about to send a second flurry, only for him to stop as he heard a shout that was getting louder and louder, prompting him to move to the left abdomen of the Wolf King while a man with a silver axe in hand was charging towards the front of the Wolf King.
"Jean, move to the side! I'm going to show you the Class Skills of a Warrior!" This was what John shouted that prompted Jean to move to the side before continuing with his flurry of attacks. It did not take long for John to arrive in front of the Wolf King, who was currently looking at Jean with malicious intent for attacking it while it was asleep.
Raising its hind left paw to kick at Jean in retaliation, John went ahead and swung his silver axe with great force, colliding with the snout of the Wolf King as it was sent flying a few meters away due to John's high Strength stat.
"[Great Strike]!"
Bang! Thud!
Even though Jean was prepared to dodge the Wolf King's kick with his high movement speed, due to the fact that his father sent the wolf flying, Jean hastily changed his mind as he dashed towards the currently vulnerable Wolf King while he took a short glance at the damage counter screen on his top right.
"What the fuck?" Jean could not help but mutter after seeing the amount of damage dealt by his father with just a single move.
———————
Damage Ranking:
Xx_SilverAxe47_xX - 3253 damage
Tenebris - 42 damage
CrimsonBlossom - 0 damage
———————
Although Jean was surprised at the damage, he calmed himself down, telling himself that this was the strength of a peak level Cleaner as he made his way towards the body of the Wolf King, hastily sending a flurry of slashes towards its abdomen. While doing so, he could not help but think that it was weird for a peak level Cleaner to not kill the Wolf King in one shot, considering the fact that this was a boss of an area meant for starters.
Seeing that his father was getting closer to the Wolf King as well, who was trying to stand up, Jean could not help but shout as he continued to slash at the Wolf King's body, "Dad, you're a peak level Cleaner! Shouldn't a skill of yours easily kill the Wolf King in one hit?"
In response, after arriving near the Wolf King, proceeding to slash another part of its body with his silver axe, he chuckled as he explained, "[Great Strike] is pretty much the first skill I obtained. I needed to reach Level 10 to get it. Since it's the first skill I obtained, it makes sense for the power of the skill to be weak, no?"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
While the Wolf King was trying to stand up, it could not help but howl in pain from the damage John was dealing at it, removing around 300 to 500 points of HP from the Wolf King's HP bar with a single slash. Noticing this happen in the damage counter, Jean could not help but gulp his saliva in fear, wondering what would happen if he and his father fought in some sort of arena.
Eventually, the Wolf King was finally able to stand up, raising its right paw to swipe at John and Jean, who were attacking it without a care for the world. Unfortunately for the Wolf King, before it could swipe its paw at John, who dealt more damage to it, a bolt made out of fire collided with the paw, sending the paw backward in a weird angle, making the Wolf King howl in pain. Not long after, it looked at the one who sent the flame bolt with eyes filled with rage.
Whoosh!
Without hesitation, enduring the pain it felt, the Wolf King started to dash towards Jane, who had sent out a flame bolt to protect John from the attack. In response to this, John and Jean looked at each other in a daze for a bit, before realizing that the Wolf King they were hacking away was heading towards Jane.
"Dad, use [Weapon Throw]!" Jean shouted at John after realizing what could happen to his mother, with John nodding his head before throwing his silver axe towards the Wolf King at his full strength.Swish!
The silver axe flew like a bullet, hitting the Wolf King by the gluteus region. With that, instead of the Wolf King hitting Jane with a swipe of its paw, the Wolf King was instead sent tumbling forward, avoiding Jane altogether…if she had not moved. She was not stupid to let the Wolf King hit her, moving far away from the Wolf King, who had been moving in a straight line after looking at her in rage.
Thud!
Eventually, the Wolf King's body lost its momentum, falling to the ground head first. This made the Wolf King dizzy, allowing Jane, who was closer to the Wolf King at this time, to cast [Flame Bolt] multiple times and shoot it like target practice.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
With every flame bolt hitting the wolf's body, a large chunk of fur would be burnt off, making the Wolf King howl in pain. Unfortunately for the Wolf King, the flame bolt sent at it dealt a lot of damage, shaving off a decent chunk out of its HP, which made its howl gradually turn into whimpers.
And just as Jean and John had arrived near the Wolf King's body to start slashing again, the Wolf King let out a miserable howl before transforming into ones and zeroes that dissipated not long after. This sight could not help but make John and Jean feel like the fight was too short, especially Jean, who had only deal about 100 points of damage to the Wolf King. The two of them then looked at Jane, who looked at the two with a smile as she said, "What can you do about it? It was closer to me, after all."
Not long after the Wolf King faded away out of existence, the three of them came closer to one another before a holographic screen appeared in front of the three's field of vision, informing them of the rewards they had obtained. Surprisingly, after everyone read through the words written on the screen, an awkward silence ensued between the three, with Jean breaking the silence as he said, "Is this…what I think it is?"
Whoosh!
'The party has obtained 1650 XP. This experience has been equally distributed among the members.'
'The party has obtained 175 Bits. This has been equally distributed among the members.'
'The party has obtained 1 [Wolf King's Rod].'
Eventually, John made a coughing sound, which attracted the attention of the two. He looked at the two with an awkward smile on his face as he asked, "Should we hunt more Wolf Kings?"
"Uh…sure," Jane responded to her husband's question in a slightly dazed manner.
"…Mm," Jean responded in the same manner as well, returning the three back to their awkward silence.
Fortunately, this did not last long, allowing them to continue killing Wolf Kings without a problem.