Chapter 277 - 271 : Beat-down

"[Linear Strike]"

A dazzling light burst out from Sato's sword as he thrust his weapon at the incoming sword with extreme speed. The sword looked like the strike of a master swordsman but lacked that extravagant display and flash most attacks had. Apart from the light that reflected off the blade's surface, the sword looked like a simple straightforward thrust that even a 12-year-old could pull off. 

It was quite strange that Sato had such a move. Considering the size of the Blood king's buster sword, a slash would have been more effective than a thrust in this situation.

Comparing the two different attacks was like comparing a mop stick with a horse-slaying blade. Not only was the difference obvious at first sight, but the momentum of the 2 attacks differed by far. However, that didn't stop Sato from going forward with his attack neither did he dither in his actions. Even so, from an outside view, Sato's actions looked like a last stand.

*Clang*

All of a sudden, something incredible occurred.

At that instant, Sato's sword struck the body of the Blood king's weapon but it wasn't forced back. On the contrary, it not only held its ground but seemed to be forcing the buster sword backward. 

"What-"

Before Varg could react to the change, the sword in its hand was forced back by Sato as a ray of light shot out from Sato's strike and stabbed it on the chest, pushing it back by a couple of steps.

-53 (1340/2000 Blood king Varg's HP)

'It's stronger than I imagined.' Sato thought as he saw the effects of his last attack.

The move [Linear Strike] was one of the 2 skills Sato had gotten from Saimon as a reward for passing the Achiever's test and also one of his 4 trump card skills. Ever since he had gotten it, apart from testing out the skill at the training grounds of the Caventry, Sato had never used it against any opponent yet. As one of his trump card skills, it was very precious even though the cool-down wasn't that long. What made it important was the power of the attack, which could easily change the tide of a battle if used properly, for instance, now.

On a normal occasion, the strength and attacking prowess of the Blood king surpassed Sato's by far but with the additional 50% increase to his attack power from the skill, Sato was not only able to match up to the Blood king's power but even exceed it. This caused the monster to not only be forced back but also get injured by the remnant energy from the attack. Furthermore, the increased penetrative effect made the attack very effective against Varg's armour.

'But that's not all.' Sato's eyes flashed with decisiveness.

The move just now had forced the Blood king off balance and made a hole in its defense. As a result, an opportunity was created for Sato to make a clear hit on it. The window of opportunity was small but for a player of Sato's caliber, it was more than enough.

[Sprint]

*Bang*

Pressing forward, Sato sped towards the Blood king as he immediately swung his sword once he was in reach. 

Originally, the distance between the two was more than 10 metres but Varg had closed the distance to less than 5 metres when it made its move on Sato. If it had attacked from a distance back then, it wouldn't have ended up in this position. Now, this move it made had ended up becoming its bane as a mere 5 metres distance was nothing to Sato in his base form, much less now he increased his speed with [Sprint].

"[Horizontal Slash]"

Wielding his sword with both hands, Sato slashed at the Blood king, aiming his attack at the point that got hit by the remnant force from [Linear Strike]. His intention was to worsen the injury and also deal the highest possible damage with this hit, hopefully landing a critical blow.

Because the Blood king was had just lost its balance and was stunned by Sato's move, it didn't react in time against Sato's follow-up attack. By the time the monster realized it, Sato was already in front of it.

-128 (1212/2000 Blood king Varg's HP)

"Ahhh!"

*Thud*

With its footing being lost after the previous strike, Sato's sword forced the monster to the ground with a heavy thud. 

Instead of following one with another attack, Sato pulled away from it while tossing a few talismans at it.

'I hope this works.'

The talisman Sato tossed were a few experimental works of Xue Yan. 

Even with the warehouse of knowledge known as the library, Xue Yan wasn't able to master everything regarding her subclass so quickly. As the occupation was one that required a lot of experiments and practice, dedication and time were essential apart from the vital knowledge. As a result, Xue Yan was only able to focus on developing a few arrays and learning a few runes. The [4-directional Blast] was one that relied on the fire element, which happened to be her area of specialization, so Xue Yan was able to learn it quickly. However, these talismans were different so not only was Xue Yan's success rate low but also the attack power of the talismans varied.

"[Arcane Spell: Mystical Lock]!"

Sato activated the floating talismans with a shout.

*Clink* *Clink*

Golden lights burst out from the talismans as yellow coloured chains with a sharp hook at the tip, each darted out from the talismans and went for the Blood king. Sato's moves were flawless and continuous, not giving the monster any time to recover so it couldn't even react in time to this attack.

One by one, the golden chains pierced the Blood king. When the first one arrived, it collided with the armour on the Blood king and was deflected to the side. 

Failed!

Seeing this, Sato frowned but didn't make any move yet as there were still some other chains making their way to the Blood king.

Failed 

Failed

-56

-52

Failed

-34

-94 [Critical Hit]

Failed

…

There were 12 talismans and so 12 chains, but of the 12 chains, only 7 managed to pass through the Blood king's armour and pierce its skin. 3 of those had aimed for the limbs; one of them on the right leg and the other two pinned down the arms. As for the other 4, they all aimed at the abdominal area with one getting stuck in its heart.

'At least the success rate's not bad.' Sato sighed with relief.

While it was true that through the aid of arrays and other outside help -like equipment and weapons- players would be able to jump levels, there was still a limit to this otherwise, a level 5 player would be able to slay a level 80 King with a legendary weapon. In other words, there existed a sort of 'natural limit' within these objects. 

Apart from that, each talisman had to be made separately and with Xue Yan's barely passable success rate of doing so, the strength of each one would undoubtedly vary from the other. It was already impressive enough that 7 chains managed to dig themselves within the monster.

"Human!!!"

Varg roared with anger.

One should know that these chains had a certain feature attached to them that made them heavier than they looked. Even for the Blood king, these chains were quite heavy, and with 7 of them stuck in its body, this made things worse.

"Fu." Sato released a breath of air.

[[ Blood King [Varg] (Weakened Avatar's projection) (Elite)

Race: Demon-kin

Bloodline : ???

Level : 10

HP : 861/2000 

… ]]

'Almost there.' 

A glint flashed in Sato's eyes as he saw the status of the Blood king. He had succeeded in taking down the boss' HP below 50% and was closer to victory. Sadly, however, Sato only had one more array left but it was much weaker than the [Arcane Spell : Mystical Lock] and was also a fixed one(it had to be set in a predetermined location ahead of time). So no matter what, Sato would still have to face the Blood king on his own. The problem though was that he would end up facing an enraged one.

"Normally I wouldn't rely on outside help but I'm in a race against time you see. Well, no matter. Time to wrap this up."

Sato dashed towards the trapped Blood king and delivered a heavy chop at its trapped leg, intent on crippling it. If he succeeded in his goal, then the Blood king would be a whole lot less difficult to handle.

-93 (768/2000 Blood king Varg's HP)

"Roar!"

An ear-piercing roar sounded within the entire hall. 

The slash from Sato was done with his full strength and with the Blood king having lost its mobility, it was no different from a lamb on the slaughter block; being incapable of resistance.

Its blood-red eyes glared at Sato before it shifted its attention towards the floating talismans.

The talismans looked as light as a feather and it was quite unimaginable that such an object could support those heavy yellow chains. 

As it was pinned to the ground, the Blood king couldn't easily tug the chains hence, the only way to escape was to force itself up.. However, with the situation it was in, that was very unrealistic.