Chapter 197 - 191 : Battle

Two fireballs aimed at the spot that the Kobold chief happened to have moved to. If it were at normal times, the kobold chief would be capable of easily dodging this two attacks as compared to its speed, they weren't worth mentioning. However, having just evaded Seiichi and Yato's assault, it had yet to regain to regain its balance and was unprepared for these two hits. To make things worse, Lu Zhen had struck from the back, at a strange angle that was very difficult evade. Even at its best form, the kobold chief would have to block this attack much less now it couldn't even move an inch.

However, though it looked impossible for the kobold chief to extricate itself from this danger, it could still counter one of the 3 attacks. Of the three, it chose to face Lu Zhen. This was because not only was Lu Zhen closer, but unlike the other attacks, the kobold chief had more faith in overpowering him with the least bit of strength. As it did so however, something unexpected happened.

At the very last moment, just as the kobold chief's claw closed in on him, Lu Zhen suddenly moved to the side, evading the claw and halting his strike. It turned out that his attack was a feint: one that was supposed to grab the boss attention towards himself. Lu Zhen had guessed that if the kobold chief was made to face the two attacks alone, it would clash with one. This would inevitably reduce the damage it would take. However, if the variable of a player was added to the mix, it was quite possible that the monster would go for the player after all, it was still a monster. And as he had this thought, the Kobold chief had actually reacted the same way.

Now with the kobold chief's back wide open -since it ignored the other two attacks- it was doomed to fall.

*Boom*

-83

-46 (769/1500 Kobold chief's HP)

Though a regular fireball attack wasn't an explosion class spell, Fudo's high affinity to the fire elements granted his a similar attribute. But compared to a real explosive spell, it was much weaker. Even still, it was enough to stir up the dust in the area and create a small haze.

"Where's it?" Xue Yan asked. The system interface had already displayed the injuries the Kobold chief took but they couldn't find a shadow of its existence. Of the greatest crimes to commit in a battle, number one would be to lose sight of the opponent and that was just what had happened.

Fudo went silent for a while as he tried to look through the dust haze.

"Watch out!" Seiichi cried out. Out of the 6 of them, he had the highest visual prowess and could see through the haze better than the rest.

*Bang*

An explosive sound rang out as a black shadow burst forth from the haze and darted towards Fudo. It was very fast, at least much faster than Fudo, and with the fact that he didn't notice it in time, it was just less than 10 metres away from him by the time he did. From this distance, he could make out what the black shadow was. It was the kobold chief that had just recently been attacked.

'Shit.' Fudo cursed but he knew now wasn't the time to complain.

It was already too late to run and with the speed of the creature surpassing his, running away was pointless.

"[Fireball]" Fudo pointed his staff at the monster.

The kobold chief swung its bone spear at the conjured [Fireball], surprisingly smashing it to little flame splinters. The kobold chief didn't stop there though. It went forward still and thrust its spear at Fudo.

Fudo had initially thought that the fireball would have been able to hold it back, even if it was just for second, so he would be able to prepare the next spell. He was astounded when he saw the Kobold chief destroy his spell with a spear but he didn't have enough time to be amazed as the Kobold chief had already approached him.

"Die."

At the same time as the Kobold chief was just a few steps away from Fudo, Yato had already approached it. He brandished his sword at the monster, hoping to force it back or stall it a bit for the others to attack.

In response to Yato's slash, the kobold chief simply changed the direction of its spear, making the spearhead move towards Yato instead.

Yato frowned at this as he knew that in a battle of pure strength he couldn't contend with the kobold chief. Luckily for him, it wasn't a one-on-one battle.

*Phew*

Just as the two weapons were about to collide, an arrow approached the kobold chief at high speed. If it went on to clash against Yato's sword, the arrow would inevitably hit the monster.

The kobold chief could easily surmise this but it didn't halt its movement. Having been pushed on the defense against these weak 'creatures', the kobold chief was vexed. It hoped to eliminate one of them even if it meant a hit-for-hit scenario. After all, while they could harm it, the damage it received wasn't so huge so the kobold chief decided to take the risk. Of course this didn't mean that it would just stay still and get hit by anything. As the kobold chief went on to clash against Yato's sword with its spear, it outstretched one hand and swatted at the approaching arrow.

*Bam*

A current of compressed air moved in the direction the kobold chief swatted, clashing with the arrow and blocking it. At the same time, the spear and the sword collided forcefully. Sparks flew off as the loud sound of metals clanging blasted through the place.

Because the kobold chief had used one arm in that move, the force behind the spear wasn't as great as it was meant to be. At the very least, it was at a level where it was bearable for Yato.

Taking only one step back, Yato forced down the untamed force that had passed through his blade at that moment of contact. Because the power behind the attack wasn't as much as when Sato battled the kobold chief, Yato wasn't sent flying, neither did he vomit blood. Apart from a minor dreary feeling in his arms, he didn't feel much.

Because Yato had managed to fend off the first attack from the monster, he had bought enough time for, not only Fudo, but the others as well, to make a counter.

"[Fire Ray]."

With the kobold chief coming to a temporary halt, Xue Yan used the fastest skill in her arsenal to attack.

Fudo pointed his staff at the kobold chief as he completed the last line of his chant in a low voice. With a dramatic expression and tone, he shouted,

"Now, perish. [Explosion]!"

Despite Xue Yan having cast [Fire Ray] first, [Explosion] had struck first. This was because unlike most skills available to current mages, [Explosion] was elusive and even till now, no one had ever dodged the spell once cast.

-224 (545/1500 Kobold Chief's HP)

-67 (478/1500 Kobold Chief's HP)

'What perverse damage figures...' Sato thought as he glanced at the battle report on the system interface. One special feature of the team function in the IR system Interface was the fact that it could exchange battle information. This was, more or less, limited to damage values and battle skills. Of course, this feature could be deactivated but as everyone in this team could be said to be quite close to one another,  there was no need to do such. Having taken a look at the figures, Sato was astounded and couldn't help but feel a slight sense of pure envy at Fudo's damage dealing ability.

Fudo's attack power was way bigger than Sato's not because of his stats or weapons.  Actually, Sato's base attack power was even higher than Fudo's but he still had the lower hand in attack power. This was simply because the effects of [Igneel's Guidance] was very perverted. It could be classified as an OP weapon even in the future, much less now players were still weak. With the fire attribute boost from [Igneel's Guidance] and his [Vermilion Pine Staff], Fudo's attack power was able to go beyond Sato's, to the point of there being quite a considerable gap between them. While in terms of base attributes Sato was superior, it was not a lie to say that Fudo's attack power was greater than Sato's.

'It's time.'

While he had extricated himself from the battle to recuperate, Sato didn't just standstill all this while. He had been making the last minute preparations for the battle. While it looked like everything was going smoothly, Sato knew that the difficult moment would begin once the kobold chief's HP went below the 30% mark, which translated to 450 HP. At that point, the Kobold chief would enter its [Enraged] mode and the effects of the array and poison would be nullified to a large extent. At that point, things would become a lot more difficult for the team and it was highly possible that one of them might even die.. To prevent this, Sato had been making preparations all this while and it was about time for them to come to show.