Chapter 84 First Step, On A Thousand Mile Journey

As the Manticore stood there staring, Astaroth completed his melding, and he dashed forward.

"Gulnur!! You are up!" he yelled, circumventing the manticore for the right.

"Aye aye!" Gulnur responded.

He then smacked his hammer on his shield as a translucent wave spread from the impact point and washed over the manticore.

The monster instantly went from looking at the dashing Astaroth to the small dwarven man looking at it defiantly.

"That's right, you ugly bastard! Look at me!" Gulnur yelled, as he sprinted on his small legs at the creature.

The manticore roared at the affront and tried swatting the dwarf aside. But it wouldn't be that easy.

The teamwork that the party had fined-tuned during their run in the underground maze was kicking in full throttle. Gulnur stopped dashing as the giant paw came at him and braced for impact.

Something slowly covered his feet, going up to his knees and hardening. It was rock, from a spell cast by I'die, that anchored the dwarf in place.

Gulnur took an extra precaution and activated one of his low cooldown tanking abilities, which reduced damage taken by ten percent.

"Steadfast Protector!" He shouted, as his body started glowing with a faint golden glow.

*Dong!*

The claw impacted the tower shield with much force, that if the dwarf had not been held in place with rock, he would have flown away.

He looked at the damage number that appeared, and his face paled.

*-348*

'That wasn't even a critical hit!' Gulnur exclaimed in his mind.

He knew he was blocking a decent amount of damage from his gear alone, which gave him fifty percent damage mitigation, and then his skill gave another ten percent.

So if the damage he took right now was only forty percent of the total damage, didn't want to think about the full amount.

While he was having his internal musings, he failed to notice the other manticore's paw, lifting from the ground, and barreling at him.

"Watch out!" Astaroth shouted, snapping Gulnur out of his thoughts.

The dwarf had just enough time to reposition his shield on the other side, but the rocks from earlier had already cracked around his feet.

When the second claw impacted the shield, the rock broke. The impact sent Gulnur flying like a comet, straight into a nearby cavern wall.

He lost another chunk of his health from the claw attack, but an even larger amount from the wall impact he couldn't protect himself from.

*-348* *-702!*

Gulnur fell to the ground, gasping for air, as the impact on the wall had emptied his lungs. He tried and tried to get air into them, but to no avail.

Then he heard shouts from the side, over the ringing in his ears.

"... t… p!… nur!… et up!" At first, they were hard to discern, but they eventually cleared up.

"Gulnur! Get up!" He heard Phoenix's panicked voice say.

When he finally understood the words, he lifted his head. Coming straight at him was the still-enraged Manticore.

As it reached him and lowered its stance to take a bite of the still-prone dwarf, a sudden force smacked into the back of one of its hind legs.

The force came accompanied by a sharp sensation, as something cut at its tendons, making the leg weak. The Manticore limped on that leg and had to stop running.

The stop in its motion permitted a second event to happen. An arrow with sharp winds around its tip came flying in at high speeds, and hit the monster in the eye, sending it reeling in pain.

It roared in anger and agony, as it desperately tried to dislodge the projectile in its eye, with no meaningful results. The hit to its hind leg had come from Astaroth and his longsword, while the arrow flew off Athena's bow.

They both took action to protect their tank, as, without him, they would die quickly. Maybe Astaroth could flee and survive, but the rest were as good as dead.

Gulnur snapped out of his daze and jumped to his feet. His eyes showed fury as he lunged back toward his foe, fully intent on giving it some payback.

As he ran up to the Manticore's legs, he brought his hammer behind his back, in a lowered position.

"Retribution Strike!" Gulnur shouted, lifting his weapon in an upward diagonal.

His attack struck the Manticore's chin as it was crouched and pawing at its eye to remove the arrow embedded in it.

*Bang!*

The hammer hit true, with a thunderous sound, like that of a blacksmith smacking an anvil at full strength. The Manticore's head flew upwards, the impact jerking its head towards the ceiling as it lifted off its front paws.

Although lifting the monster off its front paws was already impressive, the force was nowhere near enough to send it flying, as it had just done to Gulnur. But the result still satisfied the dwarven player.

*-3'495*

With the damage from Astaroth's slash and the arrow in the eye, the Manticore's health finally budged from its hundred percent mark, dropping to ninety-nine percent.

The amount of health needed to slay this monster slightly took aback the party. Phoenix had kept track of the damage they had dealt up to now, and they had just crossed the five thousand damage mark.

Of course, the massive damage from Gulnur upon it had slightly offset the calculations, but that still meant the monster had easily close to five hundred thousand health points!

After striking the tail of the manticore, Astaroth had jumped back, ready for any sort of retaliation. But it didn't come straight away, because of Athena's arrow, and Gulnur's strike.

So he understood the massive undertaking they had just thrown themselves against. He gulped as he resumed his attacks.

'It's today we know how strong I am.' He thought to himself, steeling his resolve.

This would not be a quick fight, and the band of players knew that. But they would not give up for now.

They could still beat it, they all thought in confidence.