Chapter 62: Holding Aggro

Geth was a bit surprised at the increased range to his Aura. The damage had only increased to 24 per tick, but the range had extended to almost two yards.

Even with the Chief Goblin's range from its long arms, it couldn't quite cover that distance. 'If I can keep it at the edge of my range I'll be fine.'

:Chief Goblin Bane (Level 35); HP- 52446/52500:

Still, Geth groaned at the low amount of damage that he'd managed. He knew that no one else could have taken the Boss' hit so well, but if he were alone it would take ages to kill this thing. Even his Reflection Talent was almost useless, 3 percent of 38 was barely over 1 damage reflected.

After taking damage, the Boss quickly regained its balance and dislodged its swords. It turned to sprint at Geth.. and slammed right into a semi-transparent wall.

The wall was 11' tall and wide and hosted a solid 219 HP.

'Barrier must be included as one of the Cleric class spells.' He thought, looking at the additional 10% size and health, along with the 10% lower Mana cost.

Chief Goblin Bane didn't take kindly to his face slamming into the Barrier. It brandished its swords, taking the wall down with five strikes.

It didn't take long, but it was enough time for Geth to cast another Barrier behind it. He made sure to consistently maintain a 6' distance to keep his Aura damage going.

'This may not be a fair fight but it has certainly pissed the guy off. Once the others get here I should be able to maintain aggro easily.'

The two of them went like this for a few more rounds. Geth would slightly back up and cast Barrier each time the Boss would crack the previous one.

One time, the Chief had tried going around the Barrier but Geth cast it again, blocking him in. With Barrier still being Level 0, and the 10% reduction from his Class, it only cost him 36 MP to cast.

He could go on like this for a while, with his MP recovering by 4 per second, the cost was actually closer to 27 MP per Barrier. As he was going over the numbers, the Boss shattered another Barrier. Of course, he simply cast it again.

This time wasn't the same, the Chief stopped for a moment. Geth could see its MP bar slowly beginning to decrease.

Fumes began to appear in the air around its four swords, soon spreading around the monster as well. Moments later, flames erupted from the swords!

'Ahhh shit. Why is it ALWAYS fire?' Geth spat on the ground in annoyance.

The Chief slashed at the most recent Barrier with two of its blades, completely shattering it from the strike.

"Fuck."

Geth quickly cast another, which was demolished just as quickly. The back and forth had become much more fierce.

His Mana was depleting as he cast Barrier left and right, every 5 seconds the tick from his Aura would do another 24 damage. The Boss' MP was also draining quickly, but it would still have a bit over half by the time Geth was bottomed out!

There was no time to glance back and check on his party. He was constantly jumping backward or to one side to avoid the flame. Each time a Barrier shattered he would hastily throw up another.

The dance between the two continued for some time, Geth only had a few hundred MP left. The Boss was just a bit under three quarters, its HP had been chipped down under 50,000.

:Chief Goblin Bane (Level 35); HP- 49981/52500:

Occasionally, the flames would brush past him, causing a very low amount of damage. Luckily, Reflection's minimum damage was 1, so every time he took damage so would the Boss.

At this point, Geth was no longer recklessly casting Barriers. After one was shattered, he would block, dodge, and tank attacks for a few seconds before casting another. This gave his recovery enough time to make the Barrier spell almost free.

This came at a cost though. His right side was doing fine from blocking with his staff. On his left side, he had to use his arm to block fatal blows.

He was tanky enough that the Chief couldn't lop off his arm, the bone wouldn't break so easily. It was a different story for his skin and muscles.

The skin on his left forearm was nearly gone. His muscles, smoldering from the flame, were tearing and bone could be seen beneath. Geth didn't dare use the 90 MP to cast Restoration just yet, he would wait until his bone started to crack.

:Geth (Level 26); HP- 892/1460:

After he blocked another strike with his left arm, he cast Barrier and tried to create distance again. There were about 40 seconds left in this round of Corruption Aura, he couldn't afford to cast it again.

The damage to the Boss stagnated after that, the only thing keeping it from recovering was Reflection constantly causing it 2-4 damage. Geth was at a major disadvantage.

Chief Goblin Bane swung two of his swords at one, the blades finally causing the bone Geth's forearm to crack. He quickly cast Restoration, the soothing light alleviating the pain that almost caused him to drop to his knees.

The bone quickly mended, the smoldering stopped, and the muscles and tissues began to quickly heal themselves. 61 HP recovered instantly when the spell was cast and a thin membrane covered his body that would block the next 37 damage.

For the next 75 seconds, Geth fought against the Chief. He would tank blows that would instantly heal on the next tick, blocking and counter-attacking with his staff every chance he could. Instead of casting Barrier, he would randomly cast State Change to trip up the Boss and give himself openings.

It wasn't much, but he caused a few hundred damage with all of the bashing. Still, it barely seemed to bruise the Goblin, and Geth was losing HP and MP a bit faster than he was recovering.

This all-out brawl continued for the next 3 minutes. Geth couldn't cast another Restoration. On top of that, his current one only had a few ticks left. His HP had dropped below 500.

Just as things started to look grim, an arrow pelted itself into the Goblin's shoulder!