Alex’s POV:

I was still having a hard time with my stats. The growth was just too much! This Endurance stat looks interesting too… I searched among the numerous notification windows, ignoring the ones which indicated that I had gained stats, until I found the one I was looking for:

Congratulations!By Constantly getting hit you have gained a new stat: Endurance!You will now feel less pain from physical attacks!

Hmmm… Interesting…

At first I was of the opinion that Endurance was a stat related to defense, but the window indicates that all endurance does is make me less prone to feel pain. It’s still useful though, as my plan to increase the pain setting will be faster now with the help of this stat.

I guess I will experiment with this stat later to learn more…

Going through the windows again, I spotted another window which wasn’t related to stat point gains…

Congratulations!By using your bare hands to fight repeatedly you have gained a new skill: Bare-handed Mastery!

You will now gain a 5% bonus when attacking without weapons!Beginner Level 2 (24%)Passive

Cool! This will definitely make the upcoming boss fight a bit better! The added damage will help me out greatly as I don’t have a weapon yet…

I looked through the windows a last time, just to make sure there wasn’t anything else I needed to see, but there wasn’t anything so I dismissed all of them and started to make my way to the clearing with the Alpha.

I had been practically living inside this forest all this time, so I knew which direction the clearing was. As I came closer to the clearing, I heard a loud howl! That must be the Alpha!

I immediately slowed down and tried to remain as quiet as possible. But as I drew nearer, I heard shouts, growls and the sounds of metal clashing! And they were all clearly coming from the clearing with the Alpha!

It sounded like some other players were fighting with the boss right now. I hesitated where I stood, a part of me wanted to go and watch the fight while another wanted me to stay away from the players!

Finally, my curiosity won and I crept forward, inching slowly towards the clearing. What I saw was completely beyond my expectations!

The clearing was full of wolves and people! The Alpha was towering above the rest, wreaking havoc wherever he moved!

The wolves were fighting with the players, the players were fighting back while also trying to injure the Alpha. But the strange thing was, the players also kept trying to hurt each other!

“Concentrate! Don’t let these shits steal our boss!” A guy with long-blonde hair said from one side of the clearing.

“Use the wolves to distract them and then kill them! The boss is ours no matter what!” said a tall and thin guy, with short brown hair from the other side of the clearing.

The players kept fighting both wolves and each other at the same time, while the Alpha kept jumping around damaging the players. It looked like two parties wanted to hunt the boss at the same time, and neither side would let the other party go first.

There were 12 people in total, 6 on each side. Ah, make that 5 on each side… 2 players just got killed almost at the same time, one got clawed by an alpha while the other got struck by a fire attack from one of the mages.

It all looked so interesting! Everyone was too engrossed in the craziness surrounding them to even notice me, so I happily watched from the sidelines. It was the first time I had seen other players fighting!

I must admit it all looked amazing. I felt my haphazard style of just relying on my strength to be extremely amateurish in comparison. There were swords, axes and spears for the frontline combatants while the archers and mages stayed at the back. This was also the first time I had seen magic!

Fire and ice magic was being shown to me in all their glory. The fire mage on the left side of the field was a thin looking guy wearing glasses, his appearance in complete contrast with the destructive and ferocious nature of his fire magic.

The ice mage on the other side was the complete opposite. She was a tall and slim elf, her long silver hair coupled with her snow-white skin and cold, blue eyes made perfect harmony with the ice magic she was performing. And I say performing because her magic really looked like an art!

But there was someone among the players who caught my attention even more then the ice mage. It was an assassin. Her looks were quite ordinary, black hair, dark brown eyes with fair skin and full lips, but her movements and skill were anything but ordinary!

She moved with grace, swinging her twin daggers ferociously but somehow still maintaining a look of class. She kept disappearing into thin air, only to appear behind an unsuspecting wolf and taking its life with a perfectly executed backstab. I noticed that she was the only player in the entire clearing who solely focused on the wolves, not bothering to attack any player.

Somehow I just couldn’t take my eyes off her! A strange feeling crept up in my chest as I stayed mesmerized by her… it felt both good and bad at the same time… Wonder what it is? I hope I’m not sick…

I kept my eyes on her when suddenly she stopped moving, looked around and with annoyance clearly showing on her face, she disappeared! I waited for her to come back again but a couple minutes passed and she didn’t show up at all!

I looked around trying to find her, and that’s when I noticed. Most of the wolves and all of the players were now dead! The Alpha, breathing heavily, stood in the middle of the clearing surrounded by a few wolves, scanning the clearing for any signs of players still left in the area. I noticed that its HP was still full despite the battle, amazing how it managed to not even get a scratch on himself!

If it had low HP left, I would have turned around and left as I wanted to face it when the Alpha was at 100%, but since it looked fine I can face it now! I waited for a bit to let the Alpha catch its breath, while trying to shake off the image of the assassin still on my mind…

After a while, the Alpha looked completely at 100% and I stepped from between the bushes into the clearing excitedly!

The huge wolf turned to look at me again, this is it!

Growl!

Okay, despite all my training…. this guy is still extremely scary!

All the 12-14 wolves remaining in the clearing dashed towards me, but I made quick work of them. After two weeks of training on these guys they weren’t much of a bother.

I then looked at the Alpha straight into his menacing eyes.

Growl!

Damn, that growl is still frightening!

The Alpha then pounced! It was still extremely fast, I could barely keep up with it now with my increased agility! I managed to roll out of the way in the nick of time while I threw a punch straight into its flank!

-93

Whew, seems like my new skill and increased strength at least enable me to pull off some decent damage! Still would be a lot better if I had some kind of a weapon...

I was happily thinking such thoughts when the Alpha rudely interrupted me by biting my behind! OUCH!

-138

Probably shouldn’t be distracted during a boss fight…

I leap back just in time as a huge paw misses me just by a hair! With my complete attention now on the huge wolf, I start going on the offensive.

Punch, kick, sidestep, dodge, punch again! The battle was exhilarating! Most of my hits landed but some the wolf was able to dodge. Obviously, the Alpha wasn’t just sitting about watching me dwindle his life, and I got hit quite a lot too! Despite my increased agility, the Alpha was just too fast!

It swiped its left paw at me, which I barely dodge by jumping to my right! I quickly kicked out at its left flank, but was met at the same time with another paw attack!

-87

-144

Obviously, the lower damage was done by me…

This was getting dangerous! I tried to focus even more on every little detail about the Alpha, while I kept dodging. I only watched and dodged, forgoing my attacks to see if I could pick up some tiny hint that could help me. This was easier said then done though… A moment's loss of concentration and I got bitten once again!

-132

But this time the damage taken by me was not in vain! I lost concentration because I found something! I had been concentrating on the Alpha’s muscles and I found out I was able to distinguish between the subtle differences of the way the muscles moved! I could now predict what kind of attack the Alpha was going to use next using its own muscles to help me!

I kept a close eye on its muscles… A right paw attack is coming! Using the split second advantage, I jumped towards my left and avoided the paw by a sizeable margin, and immediately punched its jaw!

-92

Success! This method is great!

I kept at it, dodging its attacks completely using the tell-tale signs of its muscles against it! Soon, its HP reached 10% and it started glowing red, it had entered the critical state! I am getting close!

However, my glee over its declining health was short lived, as its paws suddenly started glowing bright red! What’s this?! A SKILL! This guy has a skill?!?

The Alpha attacked me again, fury in its eyes and his movements now even faster! Its bright red paws moved with renewed ferocity! I desperately tried to dodge but soon a paw hit me!

-219!

WHAT! This is too much!

I knew I had to just get in one decent hit to win, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it! I barely sidestepped a furious red paw and jumped! I aimed straight at its face with a kick, the Alpha jerked his head back but I adjusted too and my kick connected with its lower jaw!

-146! Critical!

A critical hit! Yes! I landed just as the Alpha let out a last howl and vanished in a shower of light! A boss doesn’t leave its corpse behind all the time, there’s only a chance of it happening to make it harder to get high quality items like its fur and/or claws etc. Seems like I wasn’t lucky this time…

Still I killed a boss all by myself! As if echoing my words, a window suddenly popped up!

Congratulations!You are the first player to kill a boss solo! Would you like to let your name be known through a system announcement?YesNo

NO!

I immediately tapped no, I had no intention of making my name known and draw unwanted attention to myself! Another window then popped up…

You have levelled up!

You have levelled up!

You have levelled up!

Oh well… who needs levels…

I dismissed the windows and looked around expectantly, the boss would have surely dropped better loot then the measly few copper coins I was getting so far from the wolves… Yes! There it is!

Looks like a few silver coins, a cloak and a dagger! A weapon! Woohoo! I finally will have a new weapon!

I immediately ran over and picked everything up, and was about to look at the information but a glint in the corner of my vision caught my eye…

I put the boss loot away in my inventory and stepped closer to the glint to inspect what it was… It was a sword! Huh…? Where did this come from…?

Looking around the clearing I saw a few other things I hadn’t noticed before! A robe, a piece of chest armor, gauntlets, countless coins and a staff! It then dawned on me, this is all the loot that the players from earlier dropped!

JACKPOT!

I was going to pick everything up with glee when I suddenly stopped myself…

I had no idea how long it had been since my fight with the boss started, it could have been more then 10 minutes for all I know… meaning that players who chose the level death penalty could have revived and be nearby! I looked closely around but saw no one… Just to make sure I decided to call out…

“Hey! Anyone there? I saw you guys fighting earlier, you seem to have dropped your loot. Come pick it up!”

I waited while keeping a close eye on my surroundings! A minute passed… 2 minutes… nothing happened. Still, I had to be sure…

“Come on guys this is all your loot. I’m not here to PK so don’t worry and just take everything. If you don’t come out soon I will have to take everything and leave…”

I tensed up! Surely that would make anyone around come out! If there were too many of them I would immediately run away! I waited for someone to come and soon a beautiful, soft voice came from my right…

“Thank you. I will be taking the loot my friends dropped, the rest is yours.”

A figure materialized from the shadows of the trees! Black hair, brown eyes, twin daggers… It was the female assassin from earlier!

My heart thumped loudly as our eyes met and the feeling from earlier returned to my chest, much stronger this time!

What is this feeling?? I think I really am getting sick… Probably should talk to Dr. Richard...

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Author's note: New character entry! Hope you like the chapter, I had a lot of trouble with the boss fight and I have no idea if I did it justice...

As always, please do let me know of any and all mistakes!

Always looking forward to feedback, whether it be through reviews, ratings, comments or PMs... Thanks a lot for all the support so far and thanks for reading! :)