Chapter 19: Hunt (3)

Luke's words made sense, but suddenly they lost all that weight when the beast appeared. The creature was round like a golem and tall and large like one as well, but it was also very different since its body wasn't made of earth. In fact, it was green and brown, as if it was made of leaves.

"It is a Tree Lord…" Shalia said. "It is a pretty strong monster, kill it and you will gain a lot of experience."

"That is not the problem here… it is too soon for a monster like that to show up," Rina said.

Luke looked behind him, and while he the dark-haired girl and Amanda's parents armed with knives, it was hard to ask people in their sixties to fight up-close alongside him. To make things worse, Amanda and the other girl were long-ranged fighters.

"Focus on slowing that thing down with your attacks, I will make sure to keep it away from here," Luke said when the monster began to charge at the group.

The monster was like four meters tall, and its limbs were larger than humans. Fighting that thing was probably suicide, but the girls at least realized that they should follow Luke's lead before trying to run away from the monster truly. They fired their ice arrows toward the beast, and even though the beast was fast, it was running in a straight line, so they didn't miss it. When the projectiles landed, Luke noticed that the monster's speed decreased for a second, and the creature grunted in pain. He used that chance to get closer to it by using Stinger.

Luke's rapier pierced the monster's left chest, but the monster only grunted a little… even though he supposedly pierced its heart. Then Luke realized a bit too soon, if that were a tree monster, of course, it wouldn't have a heart… Luke stepped forward when he saw the beast joining both hands upward and preparing to smash him. In the end, the creature only hit the ground, but it created a small crater there. If Luke gets hit by one of those…

Although Luke escaped those fists, some vines came from the monster's back and moved toward him. He didn't want to confirm if those were strong or not, so he retreated a little more before he started to run around the creature. Another volley of ice arrows hit the monster, but Luke couldn't see the damage pilling up…

"This one isn't like zombies, so you will have to cause a lot more damage to kill it," Rina said. "Attacking the vitals won't help."

Luke clicked his tongue in annoyance… that thing was even more difficult than the other which he faced in the supermarket. Nevertheless, Luke's annoyance didn't last for long. Once the vines that tried to hit him stopped moving for a second, Luke dashed toward the creature, and when the vines tried to grab him again, Luke used Stinger. He appeared one meter behind the monster in the next moment, and the creature grunted in pain since the rapier cut a little bit on its right side.

The wound had been too small, so Luke equipped his short sword and attacked. He used Stinger in hoping to hit the back of the monster, where the vines were coming from, but that part was out of his reach, so he only pierced the monster's back. When the vines approached again, Luke had an idea and used Weapon Augmentation. The sword began to spin horizontally and opened a big wound in the monster, even though it only spun for a moment. The vines stopped, and the creature stopped moving altogether. At the cost of one weapon, Luke confirmed that he had damaged the beast a lot.

Luke gained some distance as he equipped his knives since a wounded beast is much more dangerous, but when the boss began to move, it didn't move toward him… it was moving toward the nearest house.

"Don't let it get close to the grass!" Rina said. "It can restore its body by draining the life force of plants!"

That was the kind of thing someone said before the fight and not in the middle, but Luke didn't have time to complain. He used Weapon Augmentation on his knives and began to attack from a distance like the girls. While the impact of the projectiles made the beast stagger, it didn't kill it… even though Luke used all his mana.

"High physical resistance, huh…" Luke said.

It was a bit dangerous, but Luke didn't have much choice but fight up-close again. He equipped his rapier and then dashed and then used Stinger. Even after piercing the monster's back once, Luke used it again, making his weapon pierce the creature's body even more. He had the option of using Weapon Augmentation with the rapier, but he didn't want to sacrifice another weapon against the monster.

In the end, the rapier pierced the monster so much that Luke couldn't even use Stinger again. While he pulled away from his weapon, he noticed that the garden where the monster stopped had lost all of its life, and it was completely gray. Fortunately, the Tree Lord didn't recover all that. In the next moment, two ice arrows pierced the monster's head and froze it for a moment. Luke jumped with all his might and made his weapon pierce it. Making the whole face of the creature break into shards…

You obtained 61 experience points.

You obtained 61 gold coins.

Congratulations! You have leveled up and obtained five status points.

Congratulations! The skill Weapon Augmentation has leveled up, and it was strengthened. You can now select level three of the skill if you want to use it during the activation.

You obtained 05 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Stinger has leveled up.

You obtained 05 status points.

Luke sighed relief and then grinned. With so many status points, he probably won't have many time-fighting bosses for a while… maybe a couple of hours.