Author’s Corner: HELLO HELLO! End of a fight and odd skills!

ANYWAY, here I bring forth the ending of the first big hunt of our dear main character, and what are his rewards afterwards! But the arc still isn’t over yet! Whoever thought that he would not be back, was deadly wrong!

ALSO, I ended up late in this release because of 2 things, firstly, I blame ‘Tales of the Blood princess’, I spent a few hours laughing at this story and ended up unable to write, the other is because I just got something shiny, and I spent my time configuring it. (It’s a portable console!)

ALSO(2), I actually use a calculator and excel table when making these damage numbers, so i swear under the name of Cygnas that what happened near the end of the fight was actually a coincidence, and was not planned.

Have a good read!

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The fox looked angrily at me while I kept my smile. I really had to hold myself to not make a mocking dance in front of it right now, after all, compared to our first meetings, this was the first time the one close to death was him.

Slowly keeping myself walking in circles around him, I prepared myself when I saw him slightly crouching his body before darting forward in a normal charge. I though about using the ice knife on the ground once again, but I decided against it since that was the one I had managed to make the least.

I crouched myself slightly and just as he was about to hit me, I rolled out of the way. But it seem that he actually manage to get my trick down, since he immediately turned back in a jump and threw an Inferno Ball at me.

Altough I could only block the attack, I somehow avoided being launched backwards

-23 (343/450)

I Just afterwards, he immediately raised his head while howling. My initial reaction was to get my stun knife and throw it a him, but I didn’t replenish it yet, so I had to hastily get out of the area. I took this time to replace my potions, knifes and flash-bomb.

As soon as his howling stopped, I ran towards him and landed a slash on his flank immediately followed by a roll to pass beneath him. He tried to attack me from where I came, but I wasn’t there anymore, I quickly turned back and stabbed him in the flank, soon followed by the shield-slam.

-18 -19 -62 (Brutal)

Combo! (x1.1)

-109 (836/2000)

Good, only eight or so combos like that and I can defeat him! While readying myself for getting away from the fox, I suddenly felt something soft coiling around my waist. Surprised by this, I didn’t have the time to try and get away before his tail lifted me from the ground and he turned to look straight at me.

Ooh boy. He looks angry.

I tried to give my best appeasing smile to him, but he didn’t seem all that accepting, as he inspired deeply while coiling his head. I tried to squirm my way out from his tails, but since he had locked my arms together with my body, there wasn’t much I could do, so I ended up taking the point-blank Inferno-Ball to the face.

-36 (307/450)

Since this time I didn’t have a place to support myself, I flew pretty far, slamming on the ground with force and even rolling a couple of times.

I quickly lifted myself and saw him looking at me from the distance. I grimaced and thought about chugging another potion, but there were less than twenty seconds since the last one, so maybe I should hold it a bit more.

The fox started running towards me while spitting a few Inferno Balls, I avoided these rather easily as I had more than enough time to dodge them. But when he got close to me, he suddenly pounced forward.

That’s new. And bad. Very bad.

I lifted my shield in panic and activated Nature’s bastion just in time as he fell down upon me. Although I did avoid the damage, I was still thrown to the ground with the fox pinning me down. He immediately went for the bite on my neck, which I barely managed to dodge. As he prepared for another bite, I managed to get my flash-bomb from my belt and use it at the last second.

The effect was much milder, now that three of them had already blinded him beforehand, but it was enough time for me to manage to escape from beneath him. In my best guess, this one should leave him around six to ten seconds blind, opposed to the original thirty or so.

I took some distance to avoid a random-targeted fire-claw, I noticed that my shield slam was barely leaving the cool down. Just then, I noticed the boss preparing for a full circle arc and an idea came to my mind.

Should I go for it? If it works the damage will be really good…

Oh well, no pain no gain.

I quickly ran towards him right before he was about to release the fire circle and used stab on his flank, leaving the sword there. He grimaced slightly at the pain, but didn’t stop the attack. He quickly spun around making his tails draw a full circle around the area.

Waiting for the very last moment, when the tail was about to hit me, I jumped away and activated roll. The tail even glanced my armor, I could feel the fur pulling slightly at the chain-mail, but I still managed to avoid any damage. But more importantly, 30% damage boost!

Before you complain, I really don’t think I can pull that off again, ok? If I had been one second later or earlier I would have taken a blazing tail to the face. Literally, in both meanings.

When the fox finally stopped its spin, now recovered from his blindness, he was probably ridiculously surprised to see me still close to him, but before I would let him try to attack me, I reached the sword still in his flank and used the just-out-of-Cool down Shield-slam. The fox howled in pain as the boosted attack hit it. Sadly, slice ‘n dice was still halfway through the cool down, so I didn’t have much choice besides slashing the guy once more.

-21 -80 (Brutal) -15

Combo! (x1.1)

-128 (708/2000)

I jumped away before he could land a tail lash on me, but it seems that it wasn’t enough, as he quickly jumped towards me and hit me in the chest with a head-butt, flinging me backwards until I hit a tree in the border of the clearing.

-32 -5

-37 (270/450)

Before I could even stand up, I saw the Blazing tail raising its tails for a brief second while gathering light before laying all of them on the horizontal. It took me a moment understand what was happening, but I soon paled.

He was about to use the Blazing arcs, all three of them in the horizontal.

If I was standing, I could simply run to the sides and avoid them, but still being on the ground, I wouldn’t have time to dodge sideways. But if I tried to roll beneath them, I would end up being hit by the ones behind.

While thinking of a possible exit, since forwards, sideways and behind were blocked, I ended up trying to risk it to the last possible direction.

Just as the fox sent the arcs towards me, I turned back to the tree behind me and jumped while stabbing the sword in its bark. Just to be safe I climbed a bit more, but when the arcs hit the tree, it made an ominous creaking sound.

For a moment I stopped while trying to understand what was that sound, but when I noticed, the horizon was already disappearing beneath my line of vision as the sky took over everything.

Just to be safe, can’t forget to say it.

“TIMBEEEER!”

Just as I said that, I jumped away from the falling tree just in time to hear it hitting the ground while bracing myself for the impact.

Hmm? Strange?

I don’t remember the ground being so fluffy…

Lifting my eyes and looking around searching for the fox, I could see that I was a few meters away from the ground, laying into a surprisingly soft furry back. It took both me and the fox a couple of seconds to understand that I had fallen right atop of it while facing his tails. Luckily, it seems that I was the faster one, because I managed to grip my blade and start stabbing madly at his back.

He yelped in pain and tried to coil his tail around me.

I’ve fallen for that one one time too many!

I quickly lifted my arm and slashed at the tails trying to get me, making them recoil in pain. I took back on my job to stab him madly, but suddenly something hit me, interrupting my little fun time.

-14 -15 -14 -16 -17 -15 -14 -18 -14

-137 (571/2000)

-30 -10

-40 (230/450)

Luckily, I managed to grab hold of the still stabbed sword and avoid falling and looked up just in time to see another tail coming to lash at me. I quickly raised my shield and blocked the attack while holding dearly at the sword as a support. When the fox noticed that this also wasn’t working, it stopped the barrage of tails on me and started to shake itself around.

HI HO GOLDIE!

I had to grab to its fur with my shield hand so I wouldn’t fall down. Annoyed by the unstopping shaking, I took a brief moment of calm as the fox stopped to gather its breath and quickly stabbed the stun knife on its back. When it tried to shake me off again, I activated the knife making the fox cringe in pain for a brief moment.

I took this time to unhinge my sword from his body and turn myself to his head, then I slammed the sword deep into his neck with a stab and soon followed by a slam.

-21 -62 (Brutal)

-83 (488/2000)

The sudden impact made by Slam’s knockback coming from a strange direction made the fox slam its head on the ground while losing its balance. I quickly let go of his back and grabbed the sword back from his body just as he got up again and lashed a tail at me. I barely dodged it with a roll, but I was left right in front of him.

He looked at me angrily while I only frowned.

A fire claw came furiously at me before I could even move away. I raised my shield to block it, feeling myself being slightly pushed back by the damage. When he raised the second claw I quickly turned towards and blocked it once again.

-35 -35

-70 (160/450)

Although the physical damage wasn’t much of a problem, the magical one was still too high. Blocking it wasn’t working as well as I had hoped. And barely had he stopped the attack, he came forwards aiming for a bite.

I jumped aside while landing a single slash on his face before taking my distance from him and chugging another potion.

-30 (critical) (458/2000)

+85 (245/450)

…

Really?

Of all the FREAKING times you had to land a critical, you do it when I use my weakest skill outside of a combo? ARE YOU (bleep) WITH ME?

I held back my righteous rage as I saw the fox turning to me and using a Fire charge. I jumped aside at the last moment dodging his attack, but still kept my distance to let the energy recover.

For a moment we simply stared at each other. He looks about as tired of this fight as I am.

Having recovered both my energy and the Shield slam cool down I waited for him to attack while slowly circling around him. But he just stood there looking at me, not even using an inferno ball! We stood at that deadlock of no one attacking the other for almost a full minute. Until I became annoyed and charged forward.

I ran forward towards him as he waited in his place, I raised my sword to attack him, but he suddenly jumped back at the last second while immediately shooting an Inferno ball towards me.

Although I managed to avoid the attack, it took me almost a full second to understand what happened. THE BASTARD WAS USING MY STRATEGY!

As if confirming this, he was already rising his tails readying the arcs before I even could react.

I barely managed to duck beneath the first one and roll away from the next, but the third one hit me straight on, blowing me away.

-93 (152/450)

I quickly stood up and chugged two potions immediately.

+78 +43

+121 (273/450)

God dammit, two potions are almost the same as one potion now!

I almost charged right back at him in rage, he was so close to death right now! All I needed was one last push! But I barely managed to calm myself down and once again take my stance. We once again stood in the deadlock where neither of us attacked. Seeing as he had much more patience than me, I decided that waiting wasn’t going to cut it.

I charged towards him once again, but just when I was about to reach him, I jumped aside, matching the timing on which he readied a fire claw to receive me. What? You aren’t the only one who knows how to trick others, you know?

As his leg landed on the ground and he raised the other, I almost immediately used the stab-slam combo on his still standing leg before he could use the second claw. The loss in balance brought him down once again and I didn’t let this chance escape, as I grabbed the sword and used a full duration slice ‘n dice on him. During this time he tried to turn to me and attack, but I barely managed to use another flash bomb to stop him on his last second. Although he didn’t get the blinded debuff.

-15 -61 (brutal) -7(x11)

Combo! (x1.1)

-168 (290/2000)

After spending all the remaining energy I had on the attack, I quickly raised my shield and blocked an incoming tail. Immediately after he tried to use his tail to grab me, but a quick strike with my sword was just what I needed to avoid it.

-15 (275/2000)

I quickly ran away from him and took my distance once again. I couldn’t help but smile a bit. It was the first time since this duel started that the two of us stood here with the same health left.

But if took in account the proportions, he had thirteen or so percent of his health left, while I still had half of mine perfectly fine! Huh? Potions? What do you mean?

Anyway! All I needed was a couple more attacks and this would mean his end!

His lack of HP actually seemed to have an effect on him, as he started to pant heavily while looking at me. Well, he only looked tired, his charge still had all the strength from before behind it.

I blocked it with nature’s bastion due to the lack of energy to roll. As we stood there face to face, with only my shield between us, he suddenly stopped his pressure while raising his head in a loud howl.

I cringed in panic. I had no way of dodging this one now! We were too close and I had no energy to roll out of trouble before a random pillar would burst into flame around me.

Come on! I didn’t come so far only to die at his lasts breaths!

In a panic, the first thing that came to me was to take cover. But where would I find such a covers, after all, in one second from now this whole area will become a raging inferno, there is nowhere that I can run where the fire won’t get me!

Actually, there might be one place… But I didn’t actually check it before, so maybe I am rushing to my death?

Hell, I’ll be dead anyway, let’s give it a try.

Right when the pillar of fire was about to burst from beneath me, I jumped forward. And fell between the legs of the boss.

I waited for a moment while expecting myself to be roasted to oblivion, but when I noticed that nothing was coming, I laughed and rolled to my back, where I started to attack the boss from beneath. Luckily, his Soul fire skill was ridiculously long, so I had more than enough time to even land my brutal combo from beneath.

-11 -13 -14 -11 -17 -61(brutal) -15

Combo! (x1.3)

-185 (90/2000)

I only stopped when the boss stopped his Soul Fire and used his tail to drag me out from beneath him while throwing me away. Luckily, I used roll right before hitting the ground to null the damage.

Looking back at him, I noticed I was laughing, maybe a bit too madly, even for my own tastes. The boss looked at me angrily while trying to hit me with a fireball.

Huh? Be calm? Wait for a counter? He’s in his lasts breaths! How the hell can I even dream of doing that! I’m way too excited here.

I mindlessly darted forward while dodging the Inferno Ball and used roll when I saw him raising his claw to attack me. I passed beneath the first claw and landed a couple of hits on his flank. His second claw came raging at me, but I simply blocked it with my shield without much care.

-23 -14

-37 (53/2000)

-35 (240/450)

He, probably noticing that he was almost dying, tried to gain some distance from me by jumping away while Inferno balling me. I dodged it with a roll and smiled fearlessly.

I wanted to go ahead and hack his last health away, but such an enemy deserves a better fitting end than a simple sword strike. He quickly started spamming a few Inferno ball to try and keep me away, but as I slowly made my way towards him, carefully dodging all the attacks I saw that my skills cool down had just come out, so I darted forward.

In his last attempt, he once again used Soul Fire, in a desperate attempt to keep me away. But I kept going forward, avoiding a pillar of fire that came from beneath with a side step and reaching him.

I grabbed the fur on his legs and used it to throw me upwards, just in time as I saw the ground right beneath me lightning up slightly. I almost fell into despair when I saw that. Even when I had almost gone berserk, I knew that taking one of those would kill me, so I started to curse at my own carelessness. Immediately recovering, I decided to try and end this as quick as possible.

As soon as I reached his head, I used shield slam to shut him up, however, I was a second too late, as the pillar of fire came around me.

-31 (22/2000)

-80 (160/450)

I cringed, so little left, I can’t die here. Not when I was so close.

Before I fell down, I activated stab downwards, the sudden motion throwing me downwards as the sword pierced the back of his neck.

-21 (1/2000)

-80 (80/450)

ONE HP? ONE BLEEPING HP? I CAN’T ALLOW THAT.

On the last moment before the last tick of the soul fire could get me, I picked a random knife from my bandolier and stabbed it at him, not even bothering which one it was.

-80 (0/450)

-3 (0/2000)

…

I got too excited. Right at the end. How many times did that happen to me before? I feel like a fool right now.

I swear, that if I loose my kill, I’ll kill myself back to level one. Seriously.

Ok, not so seriously.

After some while, the now too familiar feeling of having your soul dragged around finally stopped as I reached the shrine. Quickly dismissing the window that appeared, I started running towards where my body had last been seen.

Since I had now pretty much became used to running on this forest as a ghost, and I was actually running, for a change, I quickly reached my body and immediately revived.

You have no idea how happy I was when I saw that he was lying lifelessly at my side.

A few windows appeared in front of me, but I quickly set them aside for now, because the body of the fox was far too close from the center of the clearing for my tastes, so I put my shoulder on his chest and started pushing him away from there.

Just as I left the clearing while dragging the body, a flash of light indicated that the next blazing tail had respawned. He lazily looked in my direction, but since I was too far, he didn’t bother too much with it and simply laid on the ground lazily.

I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding as I fell with my back against the still warm body of the Blazing tail behind me. I kept like that for almost a full minute before I recovered.

Still a bit absentminded because of the sudden lack of tension, I started to see the windows that appeared before me.

You have leveled up. You now have 2 status points to distribute.

You lost an level due to dying, any undistributed status points were taken away and will be given back after leveling again.

Your one-handed sword mastery skill has achieved Intermediate rank. Now you can derivate this skill. Skill: One-handed sword mastery [intermediate] [lvl 1]

[10%] Your continuous use of one-handed swords has increased your effectivity when using such weapons:

Bonus damage: 10% Passive

For reaching Intermediate level on one handed sword mastery, you have unlocked a new sub-skill: Fencing Sub-skill: Fencing [intermediate] [lvl1]

(levels increase with one handed sword mastery) Be it through style and grace, or brute strength and savagery, your continuous use of the sword have given you a greater understanding of its use, allowing you to guide it with ease as if it was weightless.

Attack speed increased in 5% Passive

You have done what most would consider a reckless, insane and completely impossible act, yet you still strive despite the odds. However your tales are so absurd that your peers doubt either their veracity or your sanity, thus you have earned the title:

The Mad

Since you have a title equipped, you will need to go to a cathedral to change your title The Mad: Altough the NPCs may doubt your sanity, they are more likely to give you quests for levels higher than yours.

For having continuously fought against enemies much stronger than you and having unlocked the title: The mad, you have unlocked the skill: Recklesslness Skill: Recklessness [lvl1] You either are a brave soldier or a fool unable to gauge the odds, however, you are less likely to be intimidated by stronger enemies.

Level increases when fighting enemies much stronger than you.

Increases the difference in level necessary to suffer intimidation by 2 Passive

I was skinning the Blazing tail while reading the window. The first ones left me astonished, because when I fought the blazing tail, I had around 2% of exp to the next level, however not only I leveled up, even with the level loss, I was still around 83% in exp! This thing was a freaking Experience mine!

When it came to the sword mastery dinging, I became surprised, to say the least, but glad. After quickly taking out my sword and making a few test swings, it indeed felt lighter and faster.

Then, I reached the last two windows. My guess, if I were any other person, would be that I should somehow feel ashamed or depressed about this. But me? Heck, I started laughing like a mad man. I loved it!

The first thing I would do when I get back to Eldorrer will be change my title. Just imagine it! I will be know as Gondorrer Tailbane, The mad!

Oops… Sorry.

Gondorrer Gravelheart, The mad!

Doesn’t that sound cool? Don’t say that it doesn’t.

I was laughing happily as I worked on skinning the Blazing tail, and it took me almost twenty minutes to do it. The hide alone took almost all of the time, so big this guy is! Also, for a big bad boss, this guy is surprisingly… Fluffy. I fear that if I ever buy a house in-game, I will come back here and get another one of these guys to make me a rug. I won’t even need a bed!

Anyway, after some serious and stressing minutes of carefully skinning him, I finally got my hand on the huge piece of hide, and…!

Blazing tail Hide (Good) The hide of a mighty blazing tail gotten through manual skinning. This hide is tough, flexible and possess an excellent fire resistance. Professionals would pay a lot for this.

(Crafting Material)

I’m a happy man! Ooh, that I am! This is my first Good hide! Imagine the things I can do with these?

But, this wasn’t all.

Blazing tail Gem (Excellent) A gem often found on the forehead of the blazing tails. Fire magic is almost pouring out of it, even as you hold still.

Used to make magical items.

(Crafting Material)

I’m smiling madly, aren’t I? I know I am, no need to try and hide.

After finally calming down, I finished gathering the fangs and claws from the big guy. And finally reclaimed his body, leaving nothing else on the ground.

Finally, I had taken my first big step into becoming a hunter! I was so happy I was almost crying!

But then… Looking at that other Blazing tail back there… I kind of want to hunt him too, you know? Test the new skills?

That was exactly what I did. And boy, was that easy! After removing the status debuff, it seems to be called intimidation now that I read it in the skill, it became so much easier! I hunted three more Blazing tails after that one, one with the sword and shield and the other two with the bow.

Fun fact, though, is that they are much easier to hunt with the bow, since I can keep the range with more ease and all his ranged attacks are relatively easy to avoid. And I also learned a very neat and mean trick. Piercing shot, if I angle it well, can actually hit the same target twice! If, for example, I aim at his neck, it pierces, then hit a tail after some distance, it count as two hits from my strongest skill.

If that isn’t op, I have no idea what isn’t!

However, even if I shoot at it from head to tail, if it doesn’t leave the body at least once it only counts as one hit, so it’s actually kind of hard to use, so I only landed two double pierces in the whole fight.

There was even a group of players that came here to hunt it when I was using the bow for the first time. They were surprised to see a player hunting a boss alone, but then, who was mad enough to do that?

I let them have the one after that, then finally took on the following one, deciding that he would be the last one.

On the last one I didn’t even use a potion, after fighting them for so long, I could somehow foresee its attacks and dodge them with ease. But I did end up with 100 HP, though, so it’s not like I was invulnerable.

Also, I hit level 14 while playing around, and put everything into mind. My magic resistance was far too low; I had noticed this while fighting them.

After killing him, I took him out of the clearing for skinning, It was already night by then. There was a fast flash of light as the new one came to the slaughter house, but I paid it no heed since he wouldn’t bother me. After finishing my job and deciding to call it a day. And it was one heck of a day to tell the truth.

I passed the clearing without giving even a glance at the newcomer, since I knew his agro range.

However, before I left through the other side, I heard a howl coming from him. Surprised by this, I turned to look at him, but as soon as I did, I started laughing madly, to the point of dropping the bow.

He wasn’t attacking me. The new guy was actually challenging me! How did I know? Because I was looking straight at his eyes, and different from the ones before who came at me like I was a small fly, only to be swatted down. However, this guy didn’t seem to underestimate me.

But it wasn’t this that was making me laugh. It was this.

Freezing tail [lvl 18](RARE BOSS)

Equivalent level: 21

(aggressive) HP: 2300/2300

-Freezing Spike

-Frostbite Arc

-Ice claws

-Soul Storm

-Freezing charge Frozen Tails. The existence of this monster was always thought to be but a myth, as the Blue Tails are always shunned and attacked by the red tails, and thus, many of them die before they can even dream of reaching the alpha status. However, it is said that, should a Blue Tail survive it’s harsh growth period, their accumulated experience makes so that they become such a fearsome beast that even the Blazing tails are unable to compare.

And at his feet, was the dead body of a small rabbit.