The demon began the fight by activating an aura of fear. Corwin trembled briefly but having long been used to fighting under the oppression of auras he adjusted quickly. Corwin activated wind charge and struck home with both his swords. Ba’al the lesser attempted to claw him, but a quick parry solved that problem. Thunder slash and double slash further ate the demon’s health, as did a slash and a pierce. Corwin held nothing back expecting the demon to have only basic attacks and magical abilities. Ba’al bit at Corwin and he dodged backwards, slicing the demon near the horns as he did so. Finally, Ba’al used his second special ability. Corwin cursed under his breath as he saw what it was. The demon cast haste on itself and suddenly was a lot faster. Corwin defended bravely, but struggled to cope with the speed of the attacks. His health was slowly whittled down until finally the haste wore off. When the demon went to cast it again he was ready with disrupting blow, and fortunately it succeeded. He took the initiative once again and went on a powerful offensive, grinding the demon down. At 80% HP the demon cast pestilence and a plague of insects flooded a region around him. Corwin wasn’t able to escape the radius easily and the insects bit at him. He gained the diseased status, which weakened him substantially. Fortunately, due to his high constitution it would wear off once he exited combat and had time to shake it off. For now though, it was a real concern, as his damage to the demon had been reduced substantially.

The fight became a real grind, and hurting the demon slowed to a crawl. Finally, the demon was at 60% and Corwin dodged backwards avoiding the AoE, not wanting to see if the disease could stack. Another stack of it and his damage would struggle to stay much ahead of the demon’s powerful regeneration. Everything was going fine until at 45% health, Disrupting Blow failed to proc. Instantly, the demon was hastened and Corwin was back on the defensive. Each skill he had was used to block while taking some damage and knockback for doing so. The demon was so fast that dodging was almost impossible. Corwin used Parry whenever its cooldown was over and just waited out the haste, falling to just under half health for doing so. He decided to use a health potion, reluctant to pay the high cost but admitting it was necessary.

Haste ran out and Corwin took the initiative once again. He quickly reduced the demon to 40% health and dodged the pestilence AoE. The fight went smoothly until 20% health, where the demon activated it’s berserk. Demon’s had several different berserk types, and this demon had a summoning berserk. Suddenly Corwin had 5 enemies, 4 of which were imps. Imps were annoying ranged attackers that would throw fireballs at enemies. Fortunately, they were rather squishy and could be killed quickly. Unfortunately, doing so would leave Corwin vulnerable to the demon who wasn’t standing still after summoning.

Corwin got to work and looked with pride as his sword finally killed the last of the imps. The demon had managed to get off a haste spell while he was distracted and Corwin had fallen to 20% health. Another potion solved that problem for the moment, and Corwin stabilized until the haste wore off. Once the imps were gone there wasn’t much challenge left to the demon, until it reached 5% health. It started to activate its special ability. Corwin tried Disrupting Blow, but was predictably shown this skill was immune. He attacked the demon wholeheartedly, comboing out all his remaining offensive skills. Wind Charge, Thunder Slash, Double Slash, Slash, Pierce! The demon fell to 1% health before its special activated. DUAL FORM had triggered. Suddenly Corwin had to fight 2 demons, fortunately they each only had 0.5% health with the health getting split between them. Unfortunately, blocking two of them was impossible. Corwin raced to finish one off as he watched his health bar plummet. His attempts to finish that one off were interrupted when he cast disrupting blow on the other demon that was trying to use haste. Corwin was extremely unlucky as disrupting blow failed to proc. He finished off the other demon while taking even more damage, falling to 200 health. With how long the duration of haste had left Corwin knew he couldn’t hold on. He needed to somehow go on the offensive. Corwin tried to dodge a blow and watched it miss by millimetres. Too close for comfort. Corwin activated Thunder Slash and connected. The next blow he parried and then hit with double slash. On the third blow he was in position to dodge again. Vanishing Steps. He appeared behind the Demon after his dodge and struck home with slash. The demon was turning towards him with his fastest attack. It was enough to kill Corwin and it was not something he could dodge. He frantically used pierce and a normal attack. The demon started it’s attack animation but as Corwin’s shortsword struck home it fell to the ground dead.

Corwin was pleased to see the diseased debuff vanish. He relaxed and looted the monster, receiving a level 8 plate armor that he couldn’t yet equip, and another two magic crystals bringing his total up to three.

Corwin rested to full health and stamina and pressed ever onward. He stepped bravely onto the 38th stair wondering what came next. He looked up to see a beautiful woman with heavenly angel wings, and wished it were good news. Unfortunately, appearances can be quite deceiving in eternity’s wake.

Astrid Nebulae, Seraphim Lord

Level 8

HP 30,000/30,000

MP 30,000/30,000

Corwin prepared for the worst, knowing that angels generally had powerful buffs and even summoning skills. Nonetheless, he looked over his opponent bravely and activated wind charge to start the fight.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 6: 58% of level 7

Str: 149 (base:5)

Agi: 169 (base:30)

Con: 149 (base:5)

Int: 52 (base:5)

Cha: 52 (base:5)

Lck: 33 (base:5)

Cnc: 33 (base:5)

Sta: 33 (base: 5)

Def: 349

MDef: 152

HP: 1494/1494

MP: 912/912

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

Base Damage: 56-64, Durability 24/25, Requirements: 42 Str

OW: Iron Tier, Level 7 Shortsword, +14 Str, +14Agi, +14 Con

Base Damage 42-49, Durability 25/25, Requirements: 42 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: Silver Tier, Level 7 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+28 All base attributes, +28 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:

Time Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Space Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Thunder Slash, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wind Charge, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Disrupting Blow, 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