Boss Battle

Once the trade was complete, the group took a moment to rest. The water calmed down and the boat continued its slow voyage into the unknown. Markus looked at the server time and saw that it had been 30 minutes since they entered the instance. The fights did not take long but there seemed to be a long waiting period between waves. In the meantime, he took out the branches and cut off equal pieces from each one.

Although the Blade of the Coven looked plain, it was surprisingly sharp. All the small branches coming off the parent branch were smoothly cut. He took out the black feathers and carefully split them evenly to ensure a balanced fletching. After a few minutes, he managed to put together a few more arrows. Surprisingly, the wood he used was more remarkable than he first realized.

[Crude Witchwood Arrow

Rank: Mortal

Effect: 1-3 damage. Increase chance of critical to 100% against [Witch] lineage.

Message: The rowan is a sacred tree to Witches.]

"Punch what's wrong?" Markus's concentration was interrupted, so he looked over when he heard Fists speak. He saw Punch reading the hide-bound tome and crying. She sniffled and looked up at all the strange looks people were giving her.

"It's just such a tragic story. This isn't just an item used for class advancement, it has a story in it! Apparently, this queen fell in love with a goat herder. Despite her advisors' opinions, she decided to bring him in and marry him. However, one of the gods became jealous that the poor and dirty goat herder could get such a beautiful and powerful queen.

So, he transformed into a human and bewitched the queen. The god arranged for the goat herder to walk into them having an affair and succeeded. When the god expected to see the man break down and abandon the queen, he instead comforted her and told the disguised god to leave and never return. Angered, he turned the man into a half-beast and laughed triumphantly.

However, despite this, the queen did not react the way he expected and swore to find a cure. In the end, the god, having failed to break apart the loving couple, cast the man down into the underworld. Then, for years the queen delved into all sorts of ways to return her loved one until finally forming the ultimate sacrifice 'The Final Covenant.' The rest of the story is in the next volume. This one is mostly about the ritual itself, which gives you access to the witch class."

Markus smacked his lips. The story was quite interesting, and he had to give the author credit where its due. The writing for the game was well done and even he, who never pays attention to the lore in games, was sucked in. Due being distracted, he didn't notice a notification in his game log right away. During the story telling, he didn't stop crafting arrows. In that short time he finished 2 more arrows and was rewarded with a nice level up.

[Bows has increased to level 2.]

[Bows Level 2

Rank: Mortal

Effect: Using bows is 10->20% more effective.

Message: HUH!? What was that? Must have been my imagination.]

While Markus was admiring his work, a heavy mist started to rise. The atmosphere quickly turned dreary. Visibility quickly dropped to just a few feet. The group became alert and took their respective stances. Although Markus made the arrows with the intention to use them, the visibility cornered him. He took out the Blade of the Coven and got ready.

"There!" Fists suddenly turned his head and pointed. The group turned to look but they didn't see anything. "Quit messing around!" Punch's heart was beating. The panic was starting to settle in because of the mood.

"I'm not messing around—There!" He pointed another direction, but again there was nothing. Markus looked down at the water at that moment and noticed a light ripple hit against the side of the boat. He narrowed his eyes and his brain went to work. When Fists pointed again to nothing, he saw the water ripple again. Markus was suddenly reminded of something but it was too late to warn the group as the water exploded outward with a splash. A long slender scaled body pounced straight toward Markus.

Despite being a scaled monster, the split second the group could see its face they noted how pretty the creature was. Its face was fair like a human woman and its eyes were a mesmerizing red color. Other than the vertical pupils, it looked human. Another notable feature was a metal crown fused to its head. The crown was embedded with blood colored jewelry which contrasted the dark green skin.

Its mouth was wide open showing hundreds of needle-like fangs. Fortunately, and partly by design, Markus was the first to be attacked. He noticed a pattern previously with the witches that they would target those in the back of the group first. With his danger sense back up, he was confident in taking on whatever came at them. With the strength of his core and lower body, danger sense caused him to lean backward, forming a 90 degree angle at his knees.

The snake like body went right past him and back into the water. However, Markus wouldn't just let this thing attack him without restraint. As it went past him, he sliced upward with [Dismembering Strike]. With precise timing, he managed to nick the end of the monster's tail and cut off an arm-length of tail.

-9

The tail writhed around on the boat before eventually stopping. Markus didn't get a chance to inspect the boss, but fortunately, Baby did. Although this did end up revealing a little about his talent, they were in dire circumstances, and he couldn't hold back valuable information from Markus.

[Queen Elaine the Damned Witch (Deified Hero) Level 4

Message: Oh the tragic Queen of Kosikas, her only mistake was being too virtuous and beautiful that even the gods envied her.]

(Treasured Eyes:

HP: 38/47 | [Enraged] [Cursed]

Skills: Eyes of Madness (???), Witch Invocation (???))

Markus was too focused to question the whole image. He turned his gaze down and made sure not to look into her eyes. He imaged that the ability of the boss was several times stronger than the mobs. There were many factors in this fight that made it easier and more difficult. There weren't any other minions attacking them which made it easier, but they were being restricted by the boat and the mist. Also, the boss could submerge into the water where the group would lose track of her.

"Don't buff me until we get her to half health. Focus on not getting hit and let me deal the primary damage." Markus said quickly and switched to his bow. "Fists, call it."

Markus drew back the bow and activated [Vital Strike]. The reddish-brown wood gained a translucent blue light around it combined with the occasional flame flickers from the bow. The scene was quite magnificent and Punch couldn't help but take a picture.

"0430 O'clock!" Fists didn't need specific detail, he was quite smart despite his personality. Markus turned swiftly and used his newly advanced bow skill to release an arrow into the mist. The arrow instantly lit up in flames and dispelled the nearby mist. The vicious face of the boss was revealed before an explosion of flame elicited a pained scream from it.

Critical!

Burn!

-5

-2

-2

…

The boss's health was quickly shaved away but Markus wasn't done yet. He quickly swapped to his sword and activated [Dismembering Strike] that had just come up. Due to the momentum of the boss's attack, the arrow didn't even slow it down, but it did interrupt her attack. This meant the party was free to strike her as she flew past.

-1

-9

-1

Once her health dropped below half, she didn't submerge after hitting the water. The mist suddenly began to converge at her location and Markus felt a sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach. The boss began to say incomprehensible words and the mist congealed into a giant bow. She grabbed the bow and formed an arrow from a blood-red liquid that poured out of her crown.

"Crap! Quick, buff me!"

Markus took out his bow and started firing as fast as possible. However, the mist seemed to have condensed around her, slowing down the projectiles as if they were moving through water. At this point, his only hope was triggering Hellfire. His senses increased from the buff invocation and he fired even faster. When he finally saw the flames, he realized it was too late as a ballista-bolt sized arrow was coming toward him.

Suddenly, he saw Lloyd jump in front of him. The bolt penetrated through two layers of shields, Lloyd's body, another shield, and into Markus's abdomen. Meanwhile the flaming arrow dispelled the mist barrier, allowing all the arrows to finish flying turning the boss into a pincushion. Before the dust settled and the group could check on the two injured a roar was heard.

"NOOO! Elaine! How dare you, mortals!"