Corwin gulped down a speed potion and a strength potion, and then engaged by throwing a slow potion at Horax. As the speed potion hit he immediately activated wind charge. Horax let out a sudden roar and chopped with his axe, but the charge was faster and Corwin got under Horax’s guard to slam his swords home. -100, -85. The small damages let Corwin know he was in for a long fight. He bursted thunder slash right as Horax spun and executed double chop. The two skills hit against each other and Corwin was forced backward a few steps while Horax stood his ground. Recovering quickly, Corwin charged in again right as Horax began his Axe spin. A quick parry and rapid retreat prevented Corwin from taking damage. Unfortunately, he wasn’t dealing damage either and the regen tick was upcoming.

Things got better as Horax’s skills were all on cooldown. Corwin struck home with Slash, Pierce and Double slash enjoying pleasant bursts of damage as the skills hit for 100, 100 and 180 respectively. A normal attack with each weapon hit for 25 and 10 respectively. Horax swung his axe in a diagonal slash at Corwin and Corwin ducked inwards relying on the shorter range of his swords to make his opponent miss. Horax merely stepped back and made a downward chop as his skill came off cooldown. Corwin barely dodged but was faced with a dilemma. His thunder slash wasn’t yet off cooldown but Horax’s Double chop was coming sooner. The first blow was parried but the second connected, and 400 of Corwin’s health disappeared in that instant. He came up with a new plan, using parry and slash to keep up with double chop while dodging single chop. That worked and he ground Horax’s health down. When axe spin came off cooldown he saw the animation and leapt backwards quickly, managing to avoid the blow. He used his saved-up wind charge to close the distance after the attack finished and was rewarded with two nice damage numbers. Finally, after much grinding the crucial moment of the fight arrived. Horax reached 20% health and entered his berserk mode.

Horax had a skill cooldown berserk mode, meaning the cooldown were reduced to 60%. Corwin was forced to use thunder slash to parry one double chop and slash plus pierce and slash plus parry for the next. Wind charge could only be used to re-engage after every second axe spin so there was a vulnerable moment where he was in ideal range for that axe to hit him as he closed in manually the other times. He got hit again once this time for 600 damage. But he fortunately had recovered from the previous blow in the minutes that had passed. He managed to stabilize and avoid getting hit again. Things went swimmingly until Horax hit 5% health.

Horax began to charge up his ultimate skill. Corwin bursted all his skills combined with normal attacks but the defense and HP were too much. Horax’s health fell to 150 instead of zero. Horax’s ultimate skill ‘Heart of the Beserker’ went off. His agility and strength doubled. Corwin hit a normal attack reducing Horax to 75. Horax went for his double chop, the first blow landing and dealing 800 damage, putting Corwin to critical. The second blow closed in. At the last possible instant Corwin used parry. He went for a normal attack, dealing 50 damage with his main sword. His short sword hit and did 25. Unfortunately, a regen tick happened right before the second hit and Horax was back to 150 health. He executed Chop and an axe came hurling towards Corwin at incredible speed.

Corwin used Vanishing steps to dodge the axe and reappear behind Horax. At this crucial moment double slash came off cooldown and he immediately used it. -100, -60. Horax fell to the ground leaving an exhausted and wounded Corwin standing over his corpse. As he paused to catch his breath, Corwin smiled. He hadn’t been pushed this hard in a long time and he was enjoying the feeling of battling in life or death situations. In that moment, there was no worry about the next step, or about how hard it would be to defeat the whole challenge, instead it was just one man and his opponent. A test of wills, a battle of skills.

Something came over him and Corwin felt compelled to salute the fallen warrior. “Bravely fought, Horax.” he said before pausing for a moment. Something about looting the corpse felt slightly distasteful, but he pushed such thoughts from his mind, reminding himself it’s just a game. The rewards were worth it as Horax dropped a level 7 Iron shortsword and two mana crystals (9 total). He took a moment to look over the notifications he had ignored in the heat of combat and was pleased to see that double slash, thunder slash and wind charge had all reached level one. He equipped his new longsword, hoping the extra stats would be enough for him to keep up with this difficult challenge. The 36th step awaited. Corwin thought this might be the hardest step of the challenge, as he’d be able to upgrade his ring of hidden attributes with just one more mana crystal. He itched to fight but was forced to wait for his health to regenerate. The usurious 1 gold health potions weren’t worth using to heal out of combat, even with all the gold Corwin had from the special rewards. Corwin mediated and achieved a certain inner calm while he waited. Finally, his health hit full.

He had to ask himself if he was ready for this. Perhaps he could accept the lesser reward from completing only 35 steps. He really wanted the growth item, but he suspected he had taken on too much. He banished his doubts as best he could and decided it was worth the risk of carrying forward. He stepped onto the 36th stair and found that a nightmare awaited. He looked his staff carrying opponent over and had his worst fears confirmed.

Haldrofir, the Sorcerer

HP: 5,000/5,000

MP: 25,000/25,000

Def: 100

MDef: 150

Sorcerer’s and other casters were the most dangerous opponents for someone like Corwin. They had some undodgeable skills, and even the ones that he could dodge were hard to. The only good thing about this battle was Haldrofir’s low health. He cursed the person who put the information on the forums, they must have had all gold equipment by the time they took this challenge on. With his iron gear this was going to be difficult. Corwin looked himself over before downing speed and strength potions then activating wind charge to engage his opponent.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 6: 31% of level 7

Str: 131 (base:5)

Agi: 151 (base:30)

Con: 131 (base:5)

Int: 38 (base:5)

Cha: 38 (base:5)

Lck: 19 (base:5)

Cnc: 19 (base:5)

Sta: 19 (base: 5)

Def: 331

MDef: 138

HP: 1386/1386

MP: 828/828

Gear:

MW: Iron Tier Level 7 Longsword, +14 Str, +14 Agi, +14 Con

Damage: 56-70, Durability 25/25, Requirements: 42 Str

OW: Iron Tier, Level 5 Shortsword, +10 Str, +10Agi, +10 Con

Damage 30-35, Durability 24/25, Requirements: 30 Str

MA: Iron Tier Level 6 Plate, +12 Str, +12 Agi, +12 Con

48Def,24MDef, Durability 29/30, Requirements:36 Str

LA: Iron Tier Level 6 Plate Cuisse +12Str, +12Agi, +12Con

48Def,24MDef, Durability 29/30, Requirements:36 Str

B: Iron Tier Level 6 Plate Gloves +12 Str, +12 Agi, +12Con

48Def,24MDef, Durability 29/30, Requirements: 36Str

G: Iron Tier Level 7 Plate Boots, +14Str, +14Agi, +14Con

56Def,28Mdef, Durability 35/35, Requirements: 42Str

RR: Iron Tier, Level 7 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+14 All base attributes, +14 All Hidden Attributes)

LR: Iron Tier, Level 5 Amulet (+10 All base attributes)

AM: Silver Tier, Level 7 Ring of Elements (+28 All base attributes,

Ignore 1.4 Levels, Ignore 1.4 Equip Levels

Skills:

Thunder Slash, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wind Charge, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Double Slash, Uncommon, Tier 0, Level 1

Slash, Common, Tier 0, Level 1

Pierce, Common, Tier 0, Level 1

Parry, Common, Tier 0, Level 1

Time Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Space Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0