Yi Qiang held his bow at the ready, a heavy silence filling the air. Seemingly intelligent, the behemoth paused its roar and looked at Yi Qiang, the jeweled eyes containing a glint, a shine of something truly dangerous.

Red Mountain Goliath

Level 50

Boss

HP 200,000/200,000

The last thing he thought before his battle mind took over was that's a large jump from the little golems.

The moment the final chains on his battle self shattered into nothing, Yi Qiang's lips curled into an evil smile and he leapt out of the way, preemptively avoiding an overhead, one-handed smash from the well-over 50-meter-tall monster.

A graceful flip allowed Yi Qiang to narrowly avoid the other hand, and gave the now barely-reasoning archer a chance to, while still in midair, send an Arrow Pierce at a perceived joint in the goliath's shoulder.

The arrow shattered.

Along with Yi Qiang's hopes of coming on top of this battle without taking too many risks.

With agility not belied by its size, the goliath rapidly sent two more stone fists hurtling at Yi Qiang, who had barely reached the ground from his previous leap.

The bowmaster continued to dance to a deadly ballad, leaping and rolling and risking his life with every adroit maneuver. If any of Yi Qiang's team members were to have still been alive and conscious, they would have stared in shock at their fellow adventurer's inhuman acts of dexterity and, more than that, technique. Unfortunately(or perhaps it was a blessing - this would have seriously demoralized them) they had been crushed by the goliath's huge hands long ago, not skilled or strong enough to avoid its furious blows and severely weakened by the giant's intimidating aura - being larger than a building will do that.

Unknowingly to Yi Qiang, he slowly began to get faster, even as his Stamina depleted rapidly. Thankfully, the insane Constitution stat he had allowed him to stave off exhaustion, but it wouldn't last him very long if he continued down this narrow path.

Almost as if he was starting to warm up again, Yi Qiang's movements got even more adept, each strike gliding past him at the exact distance so as not to disturb his graceful movements with the disrupted air.

His Stamina expenditure slowed down; it was an ever-so-slight change, but a constant one, and Yi Qiang was no longer burning through 5% of the pool of energy every minute. Yi Qiang, with the pressure now reduced, had time and space(well, at least enough of it; though many might not agree) to think up a plan of attack.

There were two possibilities for Yi Qiang to hurt this behemoth, and neither was very easy. Firstly, he could keep on firing whenever an opening presented itself, and pray for a weak spot to be found, which he could focus on striking. This would allow him to slowly wear out the giant golem, but had its own risks. For example, it was somewhat unlikely that Yi Qiang's stamina would last long enough for him to not only find the weak spot, but target it long enough that the monster fell.

Or, he could create a skill powerful enough to damage the monster, and repeat it for however many times necessary. This also had a Stamina issue, since whatever skill was able to damage the Red Mountain Behemoth would certainly cost a huge bulk of Stamina, further depleting this precious resource.

He was cornered. Suddenly, it occurred to Yi Qiang that plausibly, the best he could hope for was mutual destruction, where the goliath's furious blows caused a cave-in, and Yi Qiang died along with it. But at least I'll revive.

The archer shook those thoughts out of his mind. I have to come out on top.

Filled with a willful kind of hope, one spawned out of a determined desire to achieve something impossible, Yi Qiang redoubled his efforts.

Using an ability he had gained from pushing himself to the limits while trying to complete the impossible under his father's imposing standards, Yi Qiang split his consciousness into three; one part to control his body to dodge the goliath's lethal blows, another to focus on economizing his movements as much as possible to reduce Stamina consumption, and the last to recognize and use any possible openings to strike a weak spot.

The consumption of mental energy like this was insane, but Yi Qiang had no choice unless he wanted to die, and respawn back in the city, having failed the task. He was aware he could always travel back, but Yi Qiang still had no wish to undergo the painful humiliation that was death at the hands of an enemy.

Balancing on this thin line, Yi Qiang's Stamina slowly dropped to 10%, and he was in no way in a better situation than in the start of the fight. The giant golem didn't seem to tire, and Yi Qiang found himself breathing as if his lungs were about to be forced out of his body. He could stave away the intense exhaustion with his finely-honed willpower, but nothing was changing for the better, and Yi Qiang was getting desparate. So he focused entirely on one option, spending his Stamina as extravagantly as necessary to create more openings and fire more arrows.

But there was no weak spot.

Yi Qiang had never had a chance.

The archer, taking one, final desperate leap and a simultaneous arrow shot, that glanced off like all the others, leaving the giant still unharmed.

He landed in an unceremonious heap, unable to even move a finger - there was simply no energy present in his entire body. Dimly, he took notice of a prompt in his field of vision, but his blurry eyesight couldn't read the field that said:

You have gained a debuff!

Exhaustion - You have completely used up all of your body's energy.

-50% to Stamina regeneration

-50% to Health regeneration

-90% to focus

Suddenly, the hopeless bowmaster's eyes latched on to something, even as the onstruous golem approached him slowly. It was almost as if the beast was aware of how weak its prey was, and disdained to use its full strength to finish it off - this bug has lived long enough, it could be thinking, I want to humiliate it. Crush it under a single finger. Die.

But Yi Qiang knew none of this. He only saw that final ray of hope.

A blue bar, full to the brim.

Mana.