Re; Hell Gate

Chapter 14 : End Of The Second Trial

Not a great increase, but it was enough for him, Leiu was not sure if he can defeat the boss or not, but he was sure that he won't give up without putting a good fight. The boss looked threatening but every monster can be defeated if you can grasp its attacking routine.
...
The giant puppet didn't just stay still, although it's slower than the normal puppet due to its size, that didn't mean it is weak, quite the opposite, in fact, each step it took made the ground shake for a moment.

Leiu also charged at it, his Stamina fully recovered so he wasn't feeling tired, his speed was faster which would obviously give him a huge advantage, but his opponent was not ordinary, it was a boss!

So, albeit its speed, one hit from it will most probably one-shot him.

He may have high stats right now, but the opponent looked threatening with its huge axe, it was swaying it around and producing airwaves, making it look even more dangerous.

The situation was dire, but Leiu didn't retreat.

While using his max speed, he launched himself at the opponent, the problem was the enemy's frame, Leiu could jump 2 meters at best, and the enemy was 5 meters long, so attacking it in its head was a huge no-no.

Even if he wanted to do that, it wasn't possible, unfortunately.

The distance separating them was not big, a mere 10 meters, so it was crossed in seconds by the dashing Leiu, who did not pause for even a split second.

As he was near the puppet's wooden legs, he instantly used [Invisible Strike] at its left leg, he wanted to at least get rid of one of the legs to further disable the opponent.

However, what he was expecting to happen did not happen, his strike dealt some damage to the wooden leg, but it was meager, extremely meager, its Health didn't decrease by even 1%!

So there were two possibilities, one is that his damage is very low so that's why the Health didn't decrease, or the boss's Health was sky-high to the point that his damage is nothing compared to it.

While tightly clenching his hold on the Steel Sword, he leaped two meters back, avoiding the incoming leg of the wooden puppet.

It didn't stay still, while Leiu attacked its leg, it used the other one to try to kick him, with this little ant between its legs, it couldn't aim correctly with its axe so that's why it used its leg.

The speed of the attack was really slow, compared to Leiu's reflexes, of course, so that gave him another opportunity to slash with his weapon at the leg yet again.

The damage was even lower than last time as he didn't use the skill, obviously because it was on cooldown.

Even without using [Invisible Strike], Leiu was able to slash two times, it's a pity he couldn't use the skill but at least he dealt some damage.

The giant puppet ruthlessly stomped its legs, trying to shake off Leiu, who was sneakily jumping between its legs, it just couldn't get rid of him, so it randomly kicked everywhere.

Such attacks would not touch Leiu, who put all his mind to avoid and grab any given opportunity to either thrust or slash his sword at the legs of the boss.

He couldn't attack anywhere else, the enemy was too damn big, so unless he could jump very high in the air and aim at its head, its useless, moreover, if he was in the air, he would be openly exposed to the axe.

After spending 5 minutes using this sly attacks, Leiu managed to decrease the boss' Health by 10%.

Leiu's stamina only decreased by 5 points, so logically, he should be able to do this, however, what happened next shocked him.

The wooden puppet which never ceased using its legs to crush him ignored Leiu for 5 or so seconds and used its huge axe to ruthlessly strike the ground, not even aiming at its opponent.

However, him being an expert in games and fighting bosses, figured out what's happening, unfortunately, it was too late to dodge or block.

The ground shook as a tremor was caused by the axe, it was an Area of Effect attack, also known as AoE, usually made by bosses in similar games, the attack was no different than an earthquake.

Leiu did not have time to dodge as he was sent flying a dozen meters before he fell on the ground, 15 health points disappeared.

The attack caused some of his organs and bones to be damaged.

'This game is too realistic, damnit!'*

Previously he praised it for being too realistic, but now he totally regretted it, he felt like he was being ripped apart as the attack touched him a second ago.

The wooden puppet ran toward him with its big body while chopping down with the axe yet again, it was not the same attack, fortunately.

Leiu managed to get up and jump to the side, barely dodging the incoming attack, he was too preoccupied with the previous attack that he totally forgot about the opponent for a second.

He kept dodging for some time, afraid that the boss would use the same attack again, but even after 2 minutes, nothing happened, it just attacked with its axe without using any skills.

By that time, Leiu knew why the boss only did that attack only one time, it was just a guess, but he was almost sure of it.

With that in mind, he continued used the same tactic, striking its legs again and again, the thick wooden legs were being torn bit by bit by the continuous strikes, but it was not enough to completely destroy them.

Time passed slowly when finally, the Health of the boss reached 80%, and just as Leiu predicted, the wooden puppet somehow took 5 seconds to prepare or do its thing before striking the ground with its two-handed axe.

But this time, he was prepared, although not sure if he could dodge the attack, but at least he could try, right? His health didn't recover, as he was in mid-combat and didn't have any Health Potions, so he didn't have much left, only half.

Just as the axe crashed into the ground, producing an earthquake that touched all the surroundings, Leiu jumped in the air, hoping that it would dodge the attack.

He couldn't jump high, only 2 meters, but it was, fortunately, enough to dodge the AoE attack which would kill him if it hit him again.

When he landed on the ground, the attack was already over, so he resumed doing his tactic, aiming for the legs and dancing between them to avoid the boss's attacks.

Maybe it's really a boss, but it was not that hard, yes! The AoE was dangerous, but if you discover how to dodge it, as Leiu did, then it's a piece of cake to win. Anyone would use the same tactic as him as it is the only way.

Perhaps if someone is a mage or an archer, they could kite it from far away and escape whenever it approaches, but sometimes that won't work as there were some bosses which used long-ranged attacks that are impossible to dodge.

Slashes, simple strikes, accurate thrusts, he used everything he learned while limiting any unnecessary movement to not lose more Stamina, and every time the boss's Health decreases by 10%, he would use the same attack again and again.

..

It has been 40 minutes, a whole 40 minutes since the fight began. The boss's Health just reached 10%, and as Leiu saw that, he gave up on adding another strike and jumped back, keeping as much distance from the boss as possible.

The boss used the AoE attack again, and Leiu jumped on the air for the 9th time, marvelously avoiding the attack and landing after it was done.

Usually, bosses would have an ultimate skill, but for some reason, this boss kept using the same attack again and again, which confused Leiu but made him a bit happy, if it's not going to use any dangerous attacks then that's for the best.

Its legs were almost about to be destroyed, the right leg was in a worse state than the left one as Leiu focused manly on it, he believed that getting rid of a leg would make the puppet fall, but apparently, the boss would die before that happens, it may look in a bad state, but it still could resist for sometime.

Without wasting time, Leiu rushed again, from his 33 Stamina points, only 5 are left, it should be enough to deal with the remaining 10%.

Some messages popped up when he was in mid-fight, but like always, he didn't pay them any heed, he decided to check them later, after all, who is crazy enough to check them when they are fighting a boss?

It didn't take him more than 10 minutes to finish the remaining 10%, he was a bit tired so it took him more time to finish the boss, which finally fell on the floor when its leg was gone.

It didn't make sense that it's dead when only one of its legs is gone, however, it was not up to Leiu to decide, since the system indicated that it's dead, then its definitely dead.

Congratulations! You successfully passed the second Trial!

Reward : +2 Level / 10 unallocated stats points.

Leiu breathed heavily as he sat on the ground, only 1 Stamina point left, he could barely move his body, while unconsciously resting leaning his body on the corpse of the giant wooden puppet, he closed his eyes to rest for a bit.

He noticed that the body of the boss didn't disappear so he must surely loot it, but he didn't do it immediately, he felt very tired, physically and mentally, so he didn't hesitate to log off for now.

He already finished the second Trial, so he surely can log off right now, previously, he tried logging off when fighting the dark beasts, but it warned him that he would fail the Trials if he did that, but now, the system gave him no warning.

..

Leiu opened his eyes, he fought a lot, for more than 7 hours non-stop, although it's just in the game, one would surely feel tired, he was not a robot, after all.

He was planning to log off earlier to get some sleep as he got a job later, but he was so immersed in the game that he forgot about time.

As he checked his phone, he was shocked to see that it's already 18:30 PM, he spent 9 and a half hours playing the game, which is a lot.

His shift begins at 22PM, so there is still some time, however, he would surely have not enough sleep, but it's not like that mattered, right? After all, during all those years he spent working non-stop, he barely slept more than 4-5 hours a day.

Leiu was too sleepy to check the internet for some information or the current top Level in the game, he just put a timed alarm in his phone to wake him up at 21:20 PM then went to sleep.

...

'DINGDINGDINGDINGDING'

The loud alarm completely woke him up, he didn't even feel sleepy after hearing it, the sleepiness would surely come back later, but surely a cold shower would help him.

So, after taking a refreshing cold shower, he noticed it was already 21:35PM, the shift was not far away, probably a 10-minute walk, so he wasn't in a hurry.

He grabbed his laptop and opened the browser, he wanted to check about the new information, surely there must be people boasting about what they found out or their Levels.

In Hell Gate website, there was the official ranking, it only displayed the top 10, so when he clicked on it, a list appeared.

1 Acyle Lv26

2 Emperor Lv26

3 Mister Kind Lv25

4 Dylena Lv25

5 Lucky Dog Lv25

6 Kirito Lv24

7 Commander Luo Lv23

8 Messiah Lv22

9 Little Rabbit Lv22

10 Frankenstein Lv22

Leiu was surprised to see the second one in the leaderboard. Amongst these ten, he only knew Emperor as he was a famous personage in the gaming community. He was the guild leader of Renaissance. It had a large player-base and most of them were experts.

Unfortunately, the leaderboard doesn't show classes, which left Leiu curious about them.

Well, Level was not everything, there may be low-leveled players but that doesn't mean they're weak.

Some anime characters, mythical names and even stupid names, it's not his problem so he didn't pay them much attention apart from seeing their Lvl.

In just 9 hours, there was someone Lv26, just how did they do it? Did they grind more than him? He even got +2 Levels by killing the boss, maybe their situation is similar to him.