(13) Forest Boss

'Do I attack now, or wait until they surround me and get closer' Kraton thought. Right now, there was at least two people near him, but they had yet to make a move on him. Kraton was unsure on whether they had ranged units or not, if they were all melee units, then he could maybe attack multiple people at the same time with a broad swing, otherwise he would be flanked without any means to kill someone off before they retreat and let someone else close in.

"We're in luck boys, it's a forest Boss!" an aged voice rang out, similar to how veteran leaders or commanders spoke with knowledge and confidence. This man was not scared of the boss, he treated it like a golden treasure amidst cheap stones.

Hearing this, Kraton tensed up. How did they know he was a boss? Surely they wouldn't use the skill 'analysis' on a random strange looking rock, even if it was suspicious.. right?

Kraton's knuckles' were turning bone-white efrom clenching his grasp on his mace so tightly, as soon as anyone started running towards him, he would send them flying once they got in range.

"Ew, these sasquatches are gross, so hairy!" A female voice spoke, her voice sounded especially annoying to Kraton because she had called him gross and hairy, and her voice was nasally, like she was speaking with a clothes peg clipped on her nose.

Furthermore, Kraton was not a sasquatch.

"Positions!" The aged voice rang out, cutting off the small chatter from the rest of the party. "ATTACK!"

All at once, Kraton could hear the breaking of leaves and twigs on the forest floor, yet the footsteps themselves weren't that audible, if one was not listening closely, they would assume that the forest debris was breaking by itself, not that there were four or five humans running on top of it. Kraton also heard the sound of arrows cutting through the air. Kraton hadn't moved just yet because he was confident in his thin layer of armour. He had to determine which direction the arrows were coming from before exposing his vulnerable body, therefore he waited until the impact of arrows before moving.

"Attack again! Before it retaliates after its shock!"

Kraton was very confused. By his understanding, they had already completed their first volley of attacks, however Kraton was yet to feel the impact of arrows or swords on his metal armour. Did they miss? No, that was impossible, maybe his craftmanship and armour was too good!

Kraton hid inside his metallic rock cover for a few more minutes, he was extremely proud of his armour as he had heard frequent wailing from the human party complaining about how tough the monster was, and how it was ignoring the melee units, only focusing on protecting against the ranged units.

Something felt off.

"Let me deal the finishing blow!" A voice nearby to Kraton bellowed out. Footsteps followed, and then a faint pause and a single stonger impact against the ground. In that split second, Kraton deduced that that person had jumped, he instinctively held his breath and waited for the person's aerial attack to land.

*Thunk*

The top of Kraton's disguise suddenly dented inwards, the impact hit Kraton's head and stunned him for a moment, totally forgetting to counter-attack.

"Raargh!" The flying person roared out his 'battle-cry' and the pressure ontop of Kraton's head disappeared. He had seemingly jumped again.

This time, Kraton quickly raised his hand to cover his head, he left his mace on the floor by his knees and focused all his strength to protect his head whilst bracing his body for impact.

*Slash*

"Got him!" The voice yelled out again, followed by a chorus of cheers and relieved exhalations of held-breath. After a few moments, the chatting died down and everything turned silent.

Kraton was still frozen in anticipation for the incoming strike, however after the sounds died down and vanished, he still stood still looking like an idiotic duck. Carefully opening up his disguise, his head peaked out and looked around. He could see the traces of battle all around him, with himself being near the centre of the battle, however the attacking party had left. What was the meaning of this?

After making sure that no-one was hidden in the trees, Kraton got up and inspected the remnants of the battle. Kraton scatched his head trying to make out what had just happened, but winced in pain as his fingers rubbed against the slightly bulging lump on the top of his head.

His eyes finally rested on a large imprint in the ground, the shape roughly resembled a human footprint, however it was much bigger, but more squashed, like the hooves of a cow but with toes attatched to it. Near the footprints was a clump of brown fur, by finally using the skill 'analysis' himself (he learnt it at level 5), he read the item description:

"No-Grade common, damaged, brown sasquatch runt fur. Used as a fuel source for fires, but releases putrid smells when burnt."

Upon reading the desciption and title of the fur, a light of understanding passed through Kraton, he then thought to himself that he was lucky no-one read his thoughts during the entire process, otherwise it would have been very embarrassing. It had turned out, that the forest boss the party was fighting was a sasquatch runt, yet all that time Kraton believed they were attacking him and his armour held up really well. In reality, his armour was only as good as aluminium foil for protection, as it even got bent when someone jumped on it in order to jump higher up and deal the finishing blow on the actual boss. However, his 'armour' was actually really good for one thing: it worked perfectly as a disguise, even after someone landed on him!

After hammering out the dent with his bare fists (Not that it took much effort anyway) Kraton quickly left the scene and went deeper into the forest.

Hopefully he could avoid anymore conflict and embarrassment for the rest of his journey. Hopefully.