Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 558
Chapter 558: First Clear (3)
Each member of the group was standing in the formation that we’d devised after a long and arduous meeting. We stationed a few melee warriors among the long-ranged damage dealers, and we also had an attack force made up of only knights in the back ranks as well. This wasn’t a regular formation, where ranged dealers took to the back and melee dealers stood only at the front. Everyone was situated so that we could fight safely and strategically, no matter the circumstances that might arise.
I was no exception to this either.
Clench.
I was standing right in front of the stone gate, and I had no one else around me.
That meant I would need to hold back that monster by myself, without anyone else here with me.
Of course, I wasn’t displeased by that fact. I had agreed that this was the best plan.
“Grrr…” The beast of the stories that revealed itself from beyond the stone gates let out a low growl, and it looked down as if inspecting me.
Well, in a way, it could be surprising to see only one guy standing under it while holding just a shield.
Don’t stare at me.
I couldn’t help but tense up a little, maybe because this was the first rank one monster I was facing in the flesh. Even so, a barbarian’s specialty was that their Aggression also increased the more formidable their opponents were.
I clenched the hand holding my shield and I looked up at the beast.
The wolf was double my height even after my Giantization. Considering it was a quadruped, I’d wager that its total size was even more than double mine. On top of that huge body, it had red fur and eyes on its three tails, like something out of a legend. It also exuded a dark red fog around itself that made it look even more mystical.
But so what?
“What? Is this your first time seeing a barbarian?”
Like a dog listening to a human, the huge wolf tilted its head a little. This was the best moment to start the battle.
“Behel—LAAAAA!” I let out my battle cry and used Swing with my full might.
Boom!
Even though I attacked its nose with all my strength, the wolf unfortunately didn’t even flinch, as if it didn’t even tickle. However, it seemed that I did end up landing the first blow.
It was impossible to track it with my naked eyes.
When I regained my senses, its huge maw was grappling my shield as if it was going to chew it to pieces.
Even while surprised, I couldn’t help but laugh. Any normal shield would’ve become scrap metal the moment it entered the wolf’s mouth, but this shield was different.
This is indestructible, you bastard.
Even a rank one monster couldn’t overcome the quality that an indestructible, single-digit numbered item possessed. The problem here was that I was losing to it in terms of strength.
Wha-Huh? This little…!
Soon, the wolf lifted me by the shield and swung its head around in a frenzy. Nausea swept over me, but letting go now would be the same as choosing death, so I held on as best as I could.
Thankfully, support fire soon came through.
[Gahuin Versilus has cast rank one attack magic, Orb of the New World.]
It was the rank one attack magic formed by draining the mana of the dozens of elite wizards who were in the expedition group.
A flash of light later, and when I opened my eyes again, I was on the ground without anything on me. I sprang to my feet and glanced forward to see the wolf had taken a lot of damage.
“Graaaaah!”
It seemed to have gotten hit on its hind leg as the hair there was incinerated, and it began limping. I, however, was perfectly fine. While the rank one magic had fired pretty close to where I had been, I didn’t turn into minced meat like I had inside the Bloody Citadel.
[You are taking damage from an ally who is in a Companioned state with you. The light of Trust protects you from the damage.]
I had already used the companionship spell with the old man.
This was the reason Trust was number 12. Not getting hit by friendly fire was such a great advantage in this world.
Since he’ll have to gather mana again before chanting, the next shot will be in three minutes.
With that, the things everyone had to do increased. Three minutes was by no means a short amount of time when facing a rank one monster.
[Kashan has cast Three Eyes of Beauty.]
Its three tails spread out and the eyes on the tips opened up.
Fwoong! Fwoong! Fwoong!
Rays of light like the railguns I saw in the movies fired forward.
The left tail does magic damage and inflicts a curse, the right tail does physical damage and shreds resistances, and the middle tail deals mixed damage and summons token monsters.
I recalled the effects of each tail as I blocked the rays as best as I could.
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis has absorbed all damage.]
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis has absorbed all damage.]
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis has absorbed all damage.]
Usually, this skill attacked random targets, but since my threat level was so high, all of them were aimed at me instead.
[You have lost your balance.]
However, even while successfully blocking them, I ended up tripping on nothing and my stance broke. The rays of light didn’t let this go and hit my body, though thankfully, I didn’t take too much damage.
[All damage dealt to you increases by 10%.]
This was…the resistance shred tail, right? Getting too many of these stacked would be troublesome.
That damn luck stat.
That was a mistake I would’ve never made usually. However, I didn’t feel too bad about myself. In truth, rather than a mistake, it was the effect of the skill this monster had.
Ominous Prophecy set everyone’s luck to -200. Within its aura, things like this were bound to happen while fighting against the beast.
Like this.
[Dodge unsuccessful.]
Attacks that I thought I dodged landed on my body…
[Critical hit. You have taken significant damage.]
And the attack that would’ve ended with me feeling a little numb dislocated my joint.
[Kashan has cast Life Steal.]
Even while all this was happening, translucent red threads extended out from all the adventurers within the library and connected themselves to the wolf. This was the monster’s sole way of recovery. Since there were over two hundred people around it, the damage it sustained was recovered reasonably quickly, but since we had taught the soldiers how to deal with this, it wasn’t a big problem.
Fortunately, 80 percent of our melee damage dealers were knights as well.
“Cut the threads!”
“Aura! Use your aura!”
The moment the threads were created, the knights we had stationed evenly throughout the formation cut the threads to stop the wolf from healing. The threads that usually took around six hits to destroy were instantly cut away by aura, which ignored 90 percent of Physical and Mana Resistance.
Alright, we cut off its regeneration.
Since the skill had a cooldown, we had about two minutes until it tried to regenerate again.
“Charge!”
At the commander’s order, dozens of knights drew their swords and charged at the wolf.
Maybe because we had been fighting side by side for over a week now, but even though I was still worried that they could become my enemies in the future, I couldn’t help but hold hope in my heart.
“Nia Rafdonia…!”
I hoped that many of them survived.
***
Slash, stab! Clang!
The aura of the knights was excellent at dealing damage, and with the long-ranged attacks from the people picked to be a part of this expedition group, Kashan’s pelt fell away in real-time.
This was a strategy that could never be attempted under normal circumstances, not when the threat level required to hold a rank one monster’s attention was exponentially higher than other ranks.
While my threat level is over 500, all monsters prioritize attacking me.
If not for the effect of Wall of Aegis, the knights fighting down there would’ve been shredded by teeth and claws even in this moment.
But with how much damage they’re doing, I guess they could’ve defeated it even without me here.
Though about one hundred people would’ve died in the process.
Just how many soldiers were going to survive thanks to me? I hoped that the commander would notice my contribution—
[Kashan has cast Flames of the End.]
At that moment, red shadows appeared on the ground. This was the thing we determined to be the second most dangerous attack while preparing for this fight.
“Dodge!” the deputy commander shouted, playing his role as a support operator in this fight.
Boom!
The areas where the shadows had appeared for about a second all erupted with pillars of fire.
The AOE attack was practically instantaneous if I were speaking honestly.
Raven was in that direction…
The moment I turned my head, just to check, I spied Ainar running with Raven held by her neck amidst the panicked wizards.
Hah…she’s safe.
It was too early to be sure of that, however, since Flames of the End was a skill with additional effects.
“Wizards, form the barrier!”
As the deputy commander gave another order, the wizards each did their assigned part to create the protective barrier. Unlike the first hit, the additional attacks were weak enough that we could block them with a barrier.
Fwoosh!
With the flaming pillar at the center, many different barriers were created around it.
Drip, drip, drip.
The soldiers quickly ran inside the barrier to dodge the falling rain of fire.
Unfortunately, there were a few who failed to get to safety.
“N-no…!”
“…Ack!”
The cries came from a wizard and an archer who was helping him escape. The two were taken by the flames and disappeared. The knight who saw his allies die like that gritted his teeth as he shouted, “Elton Pashire of Squad 2, Quilcan Bertlern of Squad 3—killed in action!”
No matter the situation, the soldier deemed that reporting the situation was of utmost importance.
I should focus as well.
Truthfully, we needed to consider all the skills of a rank-one monster as instant death. Even the rays of Three Eyes of Beauty would kill someone in one hit.
I needed to do my job properly to keep everyone alive.
“Behel—LAAAAAA!”
I cast Wild Outburst to raise my threat level again and stuck right next to the wolf.
“The cast is complete!”
“Melee unit! Move to the back!”
When the spell was completed sometime later, the knights who were around me quickly moved back.
And then, once more, the rank one spell was fired and landed squarely on the monster. This time, it seemed to have hit it in a more critical spot.
[Kashan has cast Flames of the End.]
It used its AOE attack one more time.
[Kashan has cast Death Sentence.]
Simultaneously, it used a new skill.
This was the skill that we deemed to be the most dangerous when running our simulation.
Death Sentence. Its very name suggested that it was an instakill skill, but to be precise, it really wasn’t. The effect just seemed like one.
[Greatly increases the next damage done relative to Luck stat.]
It was a damage amplifier that looked at the caster’s luck stat.
For every ten points of luck, Death Sentence increases damage done by 200%.
An effect suitable for a rank one essence.
However, the problem here was the base Luck stat of Kashan. After many hours of research, I’d determined Kashan’s Luck stat to be around 500.
10,000%.
Meaning, it was practically instant death.
The normal attacks of a rank one monster could kill even a high-ranking knight in one or two hits. Even though I had raised my physical defense by leaps and bounds, my bones would break if I didn’t block with the shield. That said, if the shield could guard properly, I wouldn’t take any damage.
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis has absorbed all damage.]
The problem was that this was all on luck.
I sighed. Thankfully, I was able to block the first Death Sentence successfully. Yet still, I could feel my heart beat like crazy as I began to lose strength in my legs, maybe because I knew that there was no guarantee when the next attack came.
Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump!
I forced my legs to stand tall and calculated the amount of hits I would need to take.
Between three or four.
If we could defeat the wolf quickly, only three times. If we were a little slower, I would take four hits.
That was the number of Death Sentences that I needed to endure.
Will I be able to block all of them?
I smirked.
This wasn’t a problem of whether I could or not.
Even if I couldn’t block, I would endure. Even if my legs and arms were ripped away, even if my organs imploded, I would face and fight.
Then the problem would solve itself.
[Kashan has cast Life Steal.]
And with that, I continued with the first large-scale battle in my life.
Everyone maintained their positions and did their best.
[Kashan has cast Flames of the End.]
Yet the pillars of fire still erupted, the news of more deaths was relayed, and I found solace in the fact that none of my allies were among the names mentioned.
[Gahuin Versilus has cast rank 1 attack magic Orb of the New World.]
We had already gotten to the third complete spell as the attack landed on the wolf’s head once more, and as a rank one monster should, it moved normally as it continued to aim for me.
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis has absorbed all damage.]
I was luckily able to block the second Death Sentence.
[Kashan has cast Crossed Fate.]
When its life fell below 50%, it cast a new skill.
Fwoong! Fwoong! Fwoong!
Even while everything was happening, the rays from its tails continued to fire at me, and my defenses failed a few times which allowed the attacks to hit me.
The damage I received increased, and curses began to stack.
[Plague Wolves charge toward the highest density of targets.]
Token monsters began to be summoned as well.
Even while that was going on, Flames of the End exploded from underneath me. Since the big wolf was charging me, it was impossible for me to dodge.
[Your health is below 20%. All resistance and resilience stats have increased due to the passive skill Heroic Path.]
My entire body melted away, but not really. My flesh charred and fell away, and it felt like my organs were cooked, as I found it difficult to breathe. But thankfully, my Mana Resistance stopped me from dying outright.
And since I wasn’t dead, I didn’t fall down.
Sparkle!
While receiving the heals from the priests, I held my shield and walked forward.
[Kashan has cast Death Sentence.]
In that critical moment, the third Death Sentence was cast.
For some reason, it felt like time had stopped as my processing power accelerated. There was only one question on my mind.
In my current state… would I be able to survive if I got hit by that?
The answer I got back was simple: I couldn’t survive. It was as obvious as one plus one was two.
The moment I realized that, my vision went white.
However, time could never be stopped.
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis has absorbed all damage.]
The wolf’s front claw slammed down onto my shield.
I was in the middle of falling over when I accidentally blocked the attack.
I couldn’t believe it.
Did I— Did I really survive?
Air rushed in through my open mouth in a choking breath. It seemed that I had forgotten to breathe as well. The deep gasp scorched through me, as my lungs had not yet healed all the way.
Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump!
Of course, my heart continued to race even then.
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has summoned the Elemental Ruler of Darkness, Dicloe.]
The familiar black orbs began to rain down on the wolf. The attacks had finally arrived at the perfect time as all members of the expedition group gave it their all.
Yeah, with this, we’ll be able to kill this thing before the fourth-
But accidents were called accidents because you could never anticipate them.
“Huh…?”
The moment I stepped forward, my foot landed on something slippery and it slipped forward.
[You have tripped.]
When I regained my senses, all I could see was one thing in front of me. It wasn’t the high ceiling of the library, but the mouth of the beast who had been aiming for me this entire time.
Crunch, crunch.
Then came the sounds of the wolf chomping on my head and the sound of its huge teeth touching my skull.
While hearing those wounds taking form, I had a thought.
Wasn’t expecting that.
Even though I could feel everything, it didn’t hurt.
[Your brain has suffered great damage.]
[You have fainted.]
That was my last memory.
***
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has cast Concentrated Fire.]
[You have defeated Kashan. EXP +9]
[Achievement Unlocked
Condition: Defeat a rank 1 monster for the first time.
Reward: Soul Power permanently increases by +10.]
[The top contributor will have the authority to browse the records.]
[The hidden First Records Archives reveals itself.]
[You are healed.]
[You are healed.]
[You are healed.]
[You are healed.]
[You are…]
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