-The Specter Guardian(2)-

Unaware of Kenshin’s thought process, Maria dived back a few steps from Kenshin and started chanting something. Kenshin unsheathed his Skeleton Knight’s sword and took on an aggressive stance towards the incoming Specter Guardian.

There was still a minute left before the title’s bonus disappears. With 1000% increment bonus on base ATK, he was pretty sure about evening out the odds.

As the monster neared, it lifted its long scythe and aimed it towards Kenshin’s neck. The way it moved was no way a mindless monster should move; it was clearly an intelligent monster. Kenshin aligned his sword vertically to the ground in a face-down stance to guard his neck.

The boney scythe collided with the boney sword, producing sparks in the process. But the Specter Guardian’s ATK was only 200 while Kenshin’s ATK had a massive upgrade due to his title. Not only that, he also had a 50% more defense against all specter class monsters.

900+ ATK was not something this monster could handle; as a result, it was flung back like a speeding bullet that just left the muzzle. On the other hand, Kenshin didn’t felt a thing as the increased defense covered all the damages. Besides he had his Mirror Reflection passive.

A ‘-660’ text floated above the monster. Kenshin had a surprised expression seeing this. Logically the monster shouldn’t have received any damage as Kenshin was only blocking. But now it looks like the system doesn’t follow such logic. Since Kenshin had used the sword to block the strike, the system had taken it as a form of attack.

As it was often said that an offensive is the best form of defensive, Kenshin’s phenomenal ATK had canceled out Specter Guardian’s ATK and also caused massive damage to it. 900+ ATK coupled with Kenshin’s Mirror Reflection passive had canceled out Specter Guardian’s 200 ATK and 50 DEF dealing 660 damage to it. The 10 ATK was from Mirror Reflection’s 5% ATK reflection.

But it was not only Kenshin who was surprised, even Maria, who was amidst her chanting received a shock too. She had not expected this much power from Kenshin. As If aware of her surprised gaze, Kenshin waved at her and said:

“It’s just a temporary boost. You should continue”

Since they are cooperating right now, Kenshin had to reveal some of his powers. It would make their cooperation yield more results.

“Okay! You keep it busy while I attack it with my magic” Maria nodded her head and continued her chanting; not before giving Kenshin some advice about the plan.

Nodding his head in affirmation, Kenshin ran towards the Specter Guardian that had just stood up. With his 30+ agility, he was like a blur to the normal eye. He dodged the guardian’s scythe slash that was aiming for his head and slashed his sword its midriff.

‘-850’ floated above its head. It screamed miserably and took a few steps back.

[WARNING* Title buff’s time over]

With just two attacks, Kenshin had shaved off more than half of its total HP. Unfortunately, his title buff’s time was over as he couldn’t kill another specter within ten minutes to continue his timer.

Even so, due to this title effect, Maria was provided with enough time to complete her casting.

“I have finished chanting” with Maria’s shout, a red colored ring formed around the Specter Guardian. The ring was around two meters in diameter and was glowing with a faint red color. Kenshin jumped back hearing her shout and successfully escaped the red ring.

Seeing that Kenshin escaped her AOE, she snapped her fingers.

KABOOM!!

Everything inside the ring exploded; a mushroom cloud formed inside the ring as if someone had dropped a nuclear bomb there. Excluding the ring, there were large fissures appeared all over the floor. Dust and debris floated around making a cloud that blanketed the dungeon floor.

Though their vision was blocked by the dust clouds, the rhythmic beeping sound produced by the Radiation Watch reminded them that the monster was still around. They increased their guard, ready to face any challenge.

“Kenshin, this monster had an ability that summons a skeleton with strength half as strong as it. Be careful!” Maria reminded Kenshin.

“Okay!!” although he already knew about it, he still acknowledged her reminder.

A few seconds later, the dust clouds parted slightly as two skeletal figures rushed out. Both the skeletons are holding a scythe in their hands, looking very intimidating.

Kenshin checked out their stats.

[Specter Minion Lv 15]

[HP: 500]

[ATK: 100 DEF: 20]

[Skills]

Death Glare Lv 1 Whirlwind of Death Lv 1

Its exactly as the description; these minions had the exact half of the main’s total stats. Although its only half, this didn’t change the fact they were dangerous. They even got the numerical advantage.

Kenshin ran forth and engaged one of the minions. Sword light flashed as it collided with the minion’s scythe. Sparks flew, Kenshin held his ground against the skeleton minion's attack. Lifting his right leg, he gave it a heavy kick, sending it back a few steps.

Katkatkat!

The bones made a rattling noise as the skeleton dragged itself to standing position and resumed on Kenshin. With a pirouette, he parried the skeleton’s scythe attack and forwarded with a stab. Unable to block his rapid attacks, the skeleton minion allowed Kenshin to stab it as hard as possible.

‘-40’

‘-50’

‘-90’

A series of red texts floated above the skeleton minion as it’s HP plummeted to nearly half of its initial value. Kenshin didn’t give it any time to relax; instantly he initiated a concentrated Flaming Slash its face. He had also mixed a bit of his ‘Will’ to it.

‘-150’

A red text floated above the skeleton minion’s head. Now the minion was only left with a measly 170 HP. Rotating his sword above his shoulders, he aimed it at the skeleton’s head. Flames started to flicker on the edges of his sword before it turned into a huge fire, entirely covering the sword from tip to its guard.

‘Happ!” with a strange shout, he plunged it into the skeleton minion’s head. The sword passed through its skeletal head as if it was going through a piece of butter.

‘Critical Strike!’

‘All damages X2!’

Two red texts floated above the skeletal minion before it collapsed to the ground with a ‘katkat’ noise.

[Ding* you have defeated a specter minion]

[Gained 500 EXP]

[Ding* Bane of Specter's title is active. 1% Base ATK boost was provided for ten minutes.]

He took a breath of relief as the minion was dead finally and he could now concentrate on the main body.

On the other side, Maria was on the verge of killing the specter minion. As she was not a physical fighter, she was at a slight disadvantage when dealing with this monster. But that didn’t mean she was helpless; grabbing her short sword tightly, she danced around the skeletal minion while touching it all over the head and the back.

Every part she touched was marked with a red colored tattoo. When the red tattoos covered it all over the head, she jumped back and snapped her fingers like before.

KABOOM!!

The skeleton minion’s head turned into dust from the force of the explosion. Its bones fell down on the floor making a ‘katkat’ sound, she had killed it instantly.

Taking a deep breath, she turned her head see what was Kenshin up to but surprised to find him rushing recklessly into the smoke cloud that has still not settled.

“Wait!” she shouted and followed him inside.