Chapter 183 - 177 : Forced Hand

1 and a half minutes before Lu Zhen drew the kobolds over to Soran's side.

'Almost there...'

One man and two kobolds were engaged in a hectic chase as the only human in the group was being pursued by the two monsters.

One of the monsters had an arm lost; to be exact, its right arm. Despite this, its speed was still quick and it wasn't losing out by far as compared to the other two.

While the first kobold was disabled, the other was severely injured with a majority of its front burnt black. If an average human being were to stand in its place, the person would undoubtedly die from such devastating injuries. From this, the vitality of this creature could be easily seen as it wasn't something a human or even a regular kobold could compare to. While it ran, it emitted a red blood mist that stuck closely to its body. The mist was both as a result of the heavy injuries that the monster sustained and also as a result of its anger towards the human in front. As for who this human was, it was obviously Sato Kurosaki, or as he went in the game, Sky Blade.

Sato had been running for less than 30 seconds but those 30 seconds had been one of the most dangerous experience he had ever gone through.

As an [Assassin], which was the class with the most undeniable link with a faster speed and higher burst damage, Lu Zhen had been able to hold out under the pursuit of the kobold chief and its two guards. It wasn't just because of his high [Agility] but also because of the passive bonus from his class. Sato however, was a [Swordsman], a class that didn't receive such a good treatment.

During those 30 seconds, there were a lot of time that Sato was almost caught by the kobold chief and these times numbered far more than Lu Zhen's from the time he left the kobold settlement till he met up with Sato. At one time, Sato was but with an arm's reach of the kobold chief. If not for the general skill, [Sprint], effectively saving him at that crucial moment, Sato would have been forced to face the boss and in a one-on-two battle. Even with the boss and the guard's injuries, Sato didn't believe that he stood a chance against the two.

Luckily, the boss was heavily injured and this somewhat affected its speed and reactions, giving Sato the opportunity to widen the gap even further. Also, as a descendant of the legendary dragons, the kobold chief's forte was in strength and not speed. Even if it was a level 10 world class boss, it wouldn't be much faster than a level 8 [Assassin].

With the current status of the pursuit, Sato was out of danger but this was based on the current state of the chase. Lu Zhen wasn't any faster than the kobold chief but with the aid of his class skills and passive boost, he was able to slightly surpass it in terms of speed. While Sato was a lot slower than Lu Zhen, the kobold chief was injured this time around and so, its speed wasn't as it was before. Even at that, Sato wasn't faster than it by that much. Only by relying on the skill [Sprint], could he widen the gap. Nonetheless, the skill had a 5 seconds duration. Once the time was up, the kobold chief would slowly begin to catch up to him.

'I'm still a bit far from the location. This is bad.' Sato thought as he kept running forward. He had used [Sprint] 10 seconds ago and there was still 10 seconds left in the cool-down time. The kobold chief was already catching up to him and the kobold guard wasn't far behind.

Making use of the uneven terrain, Sato was able to prevent the kobold chief from reaching him any sooner, but such a tactic still had its limits. He estimated that within 8-10 seconds, the kobold chief would close the gap even more and he would be with an arm's length of it.

With only one second left on the cool-down, the kobold chief would surely be able to approach him even closer and attack. Once he got caught up in a fight, Sato didn't believe he would be able to easily free himself then.

This was because a couple of seconds back, the kobold chief had closed the gap between them both, forcing Sato to engage in a fight with it. In the battle, Sato had realised that the kobold chief's fighting pattern was approaching that of a player. He was undoubtedly surprised as this signified that the monster had high level intelligence at the very least and may even possess a sliver of Intellect. Back then, Sato had depended on [Sprint] to force his way out from the one-against-two scenario. He believed that with the kobold chief seeing his method, it would most likely not let the same thing repeat itself again. This was the difference between a monster with high level intelligence and a monster of instinct. If it were the latter, Sato could just keep engaging in a battle with it before suddenly retreating. Such a hit-and-run tactic would be quite effective in dealing a sizeable amount of damage but before he could even consider the plan, he was doomed to fail already.

'If my calculations are right, I'm just 200~300 metres away. Such a distance would take me less than a minute to cover especially with the aid of [Sprint]. But I need to survive this.'

With 6 seconds left on the cool-down time and with the kobold chief less than 10 metres away. Sato realised that he would have to make at least one move against the monster in order to escape safely.

Sato then began to analyse his situation even more.

'The kobold guard isn't that slower when compared to the boss. If I focus on the boss, it would suddenly appear at that moment, holding me down. I can't focus on it either as the monster is behind the boss...if that's the case, then I will have to do this. But I will only have a one second space.'

Originally, Sato never paid attention to his system interface while running as he had to be continuously alert against the kobold chief. He counted down the left over time in his mind and he pushed his senses to its limits, almost to the point of having eyes behind his back.

From those 'eyes' Sato could 'see' that the kobold chief had suddenly stretched out an arm as if it wanted to grab him by the scruff of his neck.

With the mental calculations he had done, Sato realised that there were only 3 seconds left before the cool-down ended and the kobold chief's attack would only take a second to reach him. In other words, he had to hold off against it for just two seconds. Two seconds might sound simple but with such a high difficult task before him, Sato felt that those two seconds were too long but there was nothing he could do about it.

'Here it comes!'

Feeling the slight change in wind pressure, speed and direction, Sato suddenly turned around and swung his sword at the kobold chief.

'[Horizontal Slash]!'

The slash was packed with Sato's full power, with the intent not to kill but to force back the kobold chief.

The kobold chief grinned as it saw Sato's actions but it didn't intend on withdrawing its hands. The kobold chief was going for a hit-for-hit.

Sato's sword moved from his left to the right while the kobold chief's hand approached him from the right. If everything kept going as it is, both parties would get injured. As for who would suffer the most, it was unknown but the fact still remained that Sato would be at a disadvantage in the end. This was because once he got hit, the kobold guard would swoop in on him. Also, compared to the kobold chief, his HP was a meager value. This one blow would, without a doubt, eliminate at least 30-40% of his HP. True say, Sato's attack would most likely take off a chunk of the kobold chief's HP, but when the ratio is compared, the result would be obvious; Sato would be on the losing end.

'Don't underestimate me.'

Sato tilted his body to the side, sacrificing his shoulder for his head. This action effectively prevented the claw strike from striking his head but he would still have to suffer the strike on his shoulder. Sato didn't feel this was bad as when compared to his head, his shoulder at least had the [Dawn Steel armour] protecting it.

"Ha!"

*Puchi*

Sato's sword landed on the kobold chief's body, causing more injuries to spring from the already damaged chest. At the same time, the claw stabbed into his shoulder, directly going through the armour and into his flesh.

'So this is the strength of a world class boss...'

Sato frowned as his system interface displayed damage values of -53. Despite being hindered by the armour, the claw had still passed through and dug into his flesh. Even if the reason could partly be attributed to the fact that the armour was weakest at the joints, the kobold chief's strength still played a huge deal in this round.

Luckily for Sato, the armour had still helped a bit and so, the claw hadn't go far into his body. Unluckily for him, the kobold chief held his sword with the other hand while the kobold guard approached him immediately.

'Damn. Such a crafty beast..' Sato cursed as he stared at the kobold chief who grinned at him, as if mocking his predicament while still ignoring the injuries it sustained and the pain of the sword grating at its palm.