Chapter 31: Red Hob

-Shrrrrrr…On a fine afternoon, the field boss of the beginner forest, a normal old Hob that had been living a mundane life in this forest by himself, went out of his comfortable house to get some brunch.

Just like yesterday and the day before, he had been getting a pretty good sleep with no interference from the flies like humans that harassed him every other day.

"Gurrrr."

He did not like him.

They always came to bother him when he was either eating or sleeping.

They were already weak so they could not even put any decent fight against him, but they didn't even let him live peacefully.

"Gurrrr…"

He did not like them. They were flies that even made it difficult for him to get some good food.

It was only because of them that he could not enjoy the fresh meat that liked.

They were just unbelievable.

-Shrrrr. Shrrrrr…

"Gurrr?"

He did not know why but he did not get any intruders for the last few days now and was living a peaceful life with more food than he usually found.

Surely there was a day when he had to sleep on an empty stomach, but after that, he had been living a life of luxury.

-Shrrrrr.

Food was everywhere, there was sweet meat, there was juicy meat, there was even some new kind of meat that he had not seen in his territory before.

His mundane life of wake up-hunt-eat-fight-sleep had become not just easier but more exciting since a few days ago.

He was eating all he wanted, he was sleeping all he wanted, and he did not even have to fight against those bugs that did not even know how to fight.

His life had become blissful.

"Gurrrr!"

And it seemed to be getting even more blissful as food was now walking to him instead of him going out to find it.

-Shrrr…

This was the first time he had heard any kind of movements around his house in the last few days. And, since he could not smell the flies around, he could tell this was not another one of their dumb tactics.

-Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Gurrrrr~."

He ran with its giant feet, shaking the ground with every heavy step it took. And thanks to its large size, it did not even take him a few seconds to cover tens of meters of distance.

He was happy that now food was even coming to his doorsteps. But sadly…

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"Gurrr?"

The food that had walked up to his house was merely a blob of slime, a creature that the giant red hob, a natural predator, was well aware of.

"Gurrrr…"

He knew this creature. They did not have any taste to them.

They were sticky, difficult to chew, tasteless, bloodless, and there wasn't even any benefit of eating these little things.

-Shrrrr…

They were just dumb yakky things that made one throw up. Something he did not want to eat once again.

"Gurrr."

They were worthless and did not deserve attention from a strong being like him.

There was a lot of meat in his paradise so, he was better off searching for that instead of this disgusting thing.

-Thump. Thump.

Ignoring the worthless creature, he turned around and walked back to do what he had been up to…

-Swish.

He shouldn't have done that.

"Gurrr?"

He felt a strange sting on his back right when he had walked a few steps away from the slime.

And, when he turned his head back to see what it was– he sensed a new presence out of the blue as his eyes widened.

"Gurrr–."

-Shurrrk!

Sadly, it was already too late.

A sword had already pierced through his shoulder.

"Tsk."

He realized this was an ambush.

But, before he could turn his head back and take a look at the ambusher, he felt a change in the air around him.

-Swiiiiiiiiish!

It was sudden as well, and from how the winds started moving abruptly, he knew instantly that this was the magic tricks of those human bastards.

-Ooooooooong!

Sadly, by the time he realized that, it was already too late.

"Gurrrr?"

He wanted to move quickly and block the attack that he could sense coming at him, but when he tried to move his body, he felt like his entire body had been submerged in quicksand.

"Gurrrrrr…!"

He could not move like the way he wanted to, and the opponent that he was fighting was moving absurdly faster than what he could react against.

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

On top of that, with each passing moment, he could sense strange stinging sensations all over his body, as if some big bees were stinging him.

It was not the slashes of swords but something close to a thorn's sting.

It wasn't even painful…

-Swish. Swish. Swish.

And yet, after a few moments of enduring their attacks, he felt as if his strength was leaving his body.

As if something strange was entering his body…

Something that made his blood colder.

Something that he was well aware of…

"Gurrrrrrrrrrr!"

-Oooooooooooooong!

The enemy had been attacking with poison all this time.

And he was dumb enough to not even realize that until just now.

[{ "Is that the second phase?" }]

Elio used their party chat to telepathically talk with Alex on the field as he gave her another movement speed enhancement buff.

He was already out of two Mana potions, but since it seemed like the creature was entering the second phase, their actions until now seemed to be pretty effective.

[{ "Yes. It will start using its skills now. This one was {Physical enhancement}. The {Frenzy} will begin shortly so make sure you time the restriction spells." }]

[{ "Yes…" }]

According to what she explained, this creature had three phases.

In the first one, it usually attacked the players with its Bat and when players dealt a certain amount of damage to it, it used its {Physical enhancement} skill to enhance the physical aspects of its body, making it not only stronger, but also more resistant against debuffs and poison.

The Physical debuffs still worked on it, but right when it activated the other skill {Frenzy} it healed a significant portion of its wounds so dealing physical damage until it entered that state was not advised.

"Gurrrrrrrrr!"

[{ "Now!" }]

A Red Hob mostly only had six skills, and even among those skills, only three really mattered to the players– The enhancement skill, the frenzy, and the last one was called {Blood reinforcement}, something it uses in the last phase of the battle.

-Oooooooooooong!

One needed to deal a set amount of damage to it to make the creature use that skill, however, there were also other methods and ways one could force it to use this skill.

"Gurrrrrrrrrr!"

[{ "Is this supposed to happen right now?" }]

[{ "Nope." }]

Elio did as they had planned.

He gave her the buffs while debuffing the creature.

Their first part of the plan was a complete success and the poison she had used was supposed to be a potent one that would kill the creature with enough time even with the skills used.

In the second part of their plan, he just had to do something similar to what he had done with the rabbit.

[{ "Looks like we fucked up, El." }]

He used his restriction skill and just when the creature was about to move, he used the grass binding to make it fall down.

And since it was so big, it was supposed to fall down as well.

But…

It somehow managed to handle his weight by supporting his body with its giant wooden bat, and in the process, he ended up kneeling right before Alex who had stopped because of her {Blink} skill's cooldown.

"GURRRRRRRR…!"

It had not even been a few seconds since it entered the second phase, and somehow, the creature was already using its {Blood reinforcement} skill– which was not good for either of them.

[{ "Welp…" }]

She was not supposed to face this form when it still had so much strength left.

[{ "New plans." }]

But now that things had come down to this… she had no choice but to face it head on.