Chapter 202 - 196 : Wrapping Things Up 2 || Mistaken Target

(AN : All errors would be corrected two weeks later...)

"Yato!!!"

Katsuo screamed from far out just before the Kobold chief made its move. Losing one player might not really affect the progress of the raid that much but it would be better for them all to succeed together. This was because once a player dies before the monster does, they don't receive any bit if Experience points even if they caused the highest damage or were responsible for the last hit.

[Minor Heal]

[Taunt]

Using two [Paladin] class skills in succession, Katsuo tried to lessen the chances of Yato dying. However, because he was not a true healer, the effects of Katsuo's [Minor Heal] was little; against the kobold chief's flesh incoming. As for the [Taunt], the kobold chief had already lost its senses and was determined to kill one of them; it wouldn't stop just as it was a step away, all because of a scream.

"Hmph."

With the punch only 5 centimetres away from Yato's face, Lu Zhen had suddenly appeared just beside the kobold chief. The short distance teleportation was an added effect of the [Assassin] skill, [Silent Steps].

With him bring close already, Lu Zhen didn't waste any second as he swung his dagger and struck at the kobold chief's extended arm, digging deep into its flesh but not having enough strength to cut off the arm.

-25 (100/1500 kobold chief's HP)

"Roar!"

No matter the creature, be it man or animal, none would like to have a dagger sliced deep into their arm.

From the injured spot on the kobold chief's left arm, blood rushed out profusely, staining the entire arm, the dagger and the floor beneath it a brick red colour. From the dagger, Lu Zhen could feel that he had actually stabbed so deeply that his weapon reached the bone. Despite how much force he tried to mobilize, he couldn't cut through it.

Because of the sudden attack on the arm, the kobold chief's punch was interrupted and Yato lived to see another day. Not wasting a second longer, Yato forced himself out of the spear as he retreated quickly to safe spot, hoping to reduce the blood loss and damage caused on his body.

The kobold chief was infuriated with the pain it had just received and the fact that it had missed its target. The monster shifted its attention towards the cause of this incident, Lu Zhen. Having landed a hit on the kobold chief, Lu Zhen wanted to strike a follow-up attack but feeling the kobold chief's gase on him, he quickly retreated. With the passive effects of [Silent Steps] still active, this wasn't difficult for him.

Just as the kobold chief was about to pursue Lu Zhen, the attacks from the others had arrived. Seiichi's arrow had divided into three, a specialty of the skill [Triple Shot], sealing the left and right sides of the monster with the third one going for it. At the same time, Fudo's [Fire Ray] had arrived right in front of the kobold chief. If it was to go on with pursuing Lu Zhen, it might get hurt by the ray and surely get hit by the arrow attackings its left. In other words, the two skills had forced it to ignore the b**tardous 'creature' that injured it.

With blood-shot eyes, the Kobold chief swung its spear at the two attacks, using its uninjured right arm.

*Bang*

The [Fire Ray] disassembled into fiery particles whilst the arrow broke into splinters. Though the Kobold chief had successfully blocked the two attacks, the bone spear it wielded began to show faint signs of cracking.

The bone spear's materials [1] were unknown and the same went for its rank but having come from a wild and barely civilized tribe which most likely didn't have advanced forging methods, it could be said to be of the Mid-tier Mortal rank at most. It was already impressive how the Kobold chief had been using it to smash apart Fudo's fire spells but this would inevitably reduce its durability, especially since Fudo's attacks were already OP for current players. Even if it were one of the top ranked Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons, they would eventually get wrecked at the hands of Fudo's continuous barrages.

After destroying the two attacks, the kobold chief didn't even get a second to rest as Sato had finally gotten within attacking range of it.

'Die.'

The kobold chief had been injured by both Yato and Lu Zhen, with its left hand being disabled. Forced to block Fudo and Seiichi's attacks with its right, it was open to attacks at this moment especially at its left, which ended up as a weak point for the monster. This was the perfect chance and opportunity for Sato to make his move and he didn't fail to live up to the task.

-97 (3/1500 kobold chief)

[Horizontal Slash]

Holding his sword with both hands, Sato brandished it across the monster, leaving behind a horrifying scar as a memento on the kobold chief's flesh.

"Roar!"

With the pain as an added incentive to the adrenaline rush it was currently feeling, the kobold chief forcefully moved its body over to the left and thrust its spear at Sato. The dull white spear point was aimed at Sato with a large amount of bloodlust rushing towards him.

Sato never expected the monster to be able to counter after getting hit because he presumed that with his already high attack power and the kobold chief letting its guard down, he should have ended its life. Not expecting this, Sato was surprised and couldn't react in time. Luckily, at the last moment, Sato had managed to gather himself and barely blocked the attack.

Since it was a hurried strike, unlike the previous ones, added to the fact that the move was performed with one arm, the force behind the kobold chief's thrust was weaker than usual, forcing Sato only two steps back without any loss in HP.

'It's still a tough figure to beat. However, it's on its last leg.'

"Katsuo, finish it!" Sato yelled. One if the reasons that this battle took them long was because of the lack of both an a qualified MT and a healer. The healer could be solved later and as for the MT, they just needed to strengthen Katsuo properly. The Experience points for the last hit would from a high level monster like this would be very precious for him.

"Okay."

As the kobold chief only had a very miniscule amount of HP left, Katsuo felt that there was no need to be so cautious. Using [Charge] to approach the kobold chief, he brought his sword down upon the monster, ignoring his aspect of defense and only focused on attacking.

The last hit that the kobold chief had delivered to Sato was done with the last bit of energy it had left. Facing Katsuo's blade, it didn't have the least bit of resistance. This wasn't because the kobold chief had surrendered to its death but simply because it couldn't do anything about it; like a pig to the slaughter, it didn't couldn't resist.

-27 (0/1500 kobold chief's HP)

[[ System Notification : You have slain the Kobold chief, Jekyll. ]]

'Finally, it's over.' Sato and everyone else sighed with relief.

[[ System Notification : You have levelled up.]]

Apart from Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen, the others had levelled up with the death of the kobold chief, Jekyll. This was because they were already close to the level up mark and with the death of both the level 9 Special Elite, kobold guard Arle, and the level 10 Elite, Kobold chief Jekyll, the large amount of Experience points over-flooded their experience bar, raising their level up by 1.

"Whew. That was one heck of a stressful fight." Lu Zhen sighed.

During the battle, there were times when they had almost died as the entire event was filled with risk. All the way from when Lu Zhen drew the kobold horde out to battling the kobold guard, Arle and the kobold chief, Jekyll. There were too many close-to-death experiences that almost caused the team the battle. Luckily for them, they won.

"Nice job back then, Yato." Seiichi chuckled as he patted Yato on the shoulder.

The defining moment of the battle was when Yato charged right at the kobold chief without fear of death. Because of that, not only had he caused massive damage to the monster but Yato had also drawn its attention towards himself, giving the others the opportunity to strike. That had changed the entire tempo of the fight and given them the opportunity to win, otherwise, who knew how many of them would have died before they did so.

"Now time for the rewards. Hehe~" Fudo grinned.

"Hold on a sec." Sato suddenly said.

"What?" Yato asked curiously.

"The notification. It didn't mention anything about the monster being a world class boss." Sato replied.

As soon as Sato concluded, everywhere suddenly became quiet as they all recalled the notification that just displayed. Opening up their interface, they checked their battle log for confirmation and discovered that it was true.

"What's the meaning of this?" Xue Yan asked with an anxious expression.

Xue Yan was the one that was most worried about this battle most. Sato and his friends wouldn't be much bothered whether they defeated the monster or not but she would be. This was because failure would reduce the chances of success for her again as other guilds had begun making their way here. There was no way Xue could be assured that none of them would win hence, she wanted them to succeed in one trial. Now having defeated the kobold chief, realising that this wasn't the boss quenched her joy and made her heart feel cold. They had just wasted so much time only to wipe out a mob! What's worse is that most of the resources they prepared for the world class boss raid had already been spent. There was no way they could face a world class boss as they were now.

"Are you sure it must be mentioned? I mean, the monster was quite tough. Without our supplies, defeating it would have been impossible." Katsuo commented. He was referring to the system notification about the kobold chief being a world class boss.

About the kobold chief being tough, Katsuo was actually right. This was because without [Kōjin's Arrow], [Aghus' Potential Disperser] and [Low Class Earth Suppression Array], they wouldn't have brought the Jekyll's HP down that low. They might have even died a few minutes into the battle without those consumables.

"If it were just that, I wouldn't suggest this. Remember the monster's attribute panel? There was no mention of it being a world class boss. I thought it might have been an error, a glitch or maybe something else but now I finally understood it." Reaching here, Sato sighed.

"It's because the kobold chief was never the world class boss.. It was never our target to start with."