Ch 215 – Manor Lord II
Wetting his dried lips, Deacon let his eyes roam over the dungeon boss that had just entered its second phase, taking in the massive transformation the boss underwent as it entered its Second Phase.
All physical stats are definitely increased, he mused to himself as the boss had obviously grown much larger and with a lot more volume, along with gaining a completely new limb in the form of that massive tail.
Dungeon Bosses were notoriously difficult to deal with in prolonged fights and needed to be put down quickly before they decided enough was enough and made a retreat, forcing the group to hunt it down throughout the entire dungeon where it could make use of its minions to whittle them down over time before attacking them again after it had recovered while they were low on resources and it was back at full strength.
While I haven’t seen it use any magic, I won't discount the possibility of it having gained any, Deacon noted to himself as despite not having witnessed the Manor Lord cast any magic during their entire fight so far, it would be foolish to discount it as a possibility given that dungeon bosses were known to gain entirely new abilities upon entering their second phase.
Or hell, any ranged attacks, even beyond just throwing things like tiles, he realized as he kept his eyes locked on the slowly circling Manor Lord, who knows what else it gained from transforming into its second phase, other than just its physical stats increasing and that tail. Maybe it can turn its fur into spikes and become a porcupine rat for all I know.
"You got any more of those taunts left?" Deacon asked Leon while keeping his gaze fixed on the Manor Lord, referring to the skill he had used earlier to forcefully draw the dungeon boss's aggro onto himself and away from Deacon, which had allowed him to slip past the Dungeon Boss’s guard and spear Echoform Reliquary into its side before scoring that deep cut across its cheek.
“My necklace is good for two more uses before it goes on cooldown,” Leon informed him as he tightened his grip on both his shield and hammer. Just like Deacon, he kept his eyes glued on the Manor Lord, who had begun skulking around them in a wide circle, moving on all fours now instead of maintaining its previous semi-upright posture.
While the Manor Lord circled them, it began whistling, and upon its whistling, more Bubonic Retainers began emerging from the smoldering openings that were still filled with and surrounded by burnt charred corpses from Deacon’s spell and Bonehead’s fire bombs.
"Is there just an endless wave of these things?" Bonehead complained as he reached into his Spatial Satchel and pulled out a blood red bar of grease before handing it into Deacon's free hand from behind, having taken notice of just how many of the Bubonic Retainers were still pouring out of the openings on the walls.
"Focus on the boss, I'll handle the retainers," Valorie informed them as she lowered her bow slightly while drawing back an arrow before taking aim and firing at the nearest bubonic retainer that was on their left.
Having apparently decided it had seen enough and caught the attention of enough of its Bubonic Retainers, the Manor Lord suddenly shot forward on all fours with a loud piercing screech that echoed throughout the darkened hall.
Breaking into a full sprint, Leon charged right at the charging Dungeon Boss to meet it head-on with his tower shield raised and positioned directly in front of him to intercept it.
Taking a brief second to Identify what Bonehead had just handed him, Deacon then began sprinting towards the Manor Lord.
Item Name:Hemorrhage Grease
Type: Consumable – Weapon Coating
Rarity: Uncommon+
Effect: Temporarily causes attacks to inflict Hemorrhage, dealing additional damage over time through sustained bleeding.
Description: A thick, dark crimson grease with a sticky, coagulated texture. Made by Bennett Graves, a prodigious Tier 1 Alchemist. When applied to a blade, the grease seeps into wounds on contact, preventing proper clotting and causing continuous bleeding. After roughly fifty-three strikes, the coating loses effectiveness and must be reapplied.
Still maintaining his sprint, Deacon quickly smeared the thick grease across Echoform Reliquary's blade before jamming the remaining bar into his side pouch.
As he buttoned his pouch closed, he just registered the noise of a cannonball being fired in front of him a second before he cut hard to the left, barely managing to throw himself out of the way as Leon came hurtling backward through the air, right past where he’d been running, having been launched several feet by the Manor Lord’s charge.
Immediately casting Flame Art: Flame Steps and activating Power Strike, Deacon kicked off towards the Manor Lord with twin geysers of flame erupting from the soles of his boots, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat and swung Echoform Reliquary at the Dungeon Boss's head in a horizontal arc, only for the creature's head to snap toward him with terrifying speed and his blade to be caught firmly between its four massive incisors.
The blade stopped dead the instant it made contact with the Manor Lord's teeth as though it had struck solid bedrock, and Deacon found he couldn't budge it even an inch no matter how hard he pulled, while all of the stamina he'd channeled through Power Strike vanished entirely the moment his blade touched the creature's incisors as though it had just evaporated into thin air.
Deacon's eyes widened in alarm at both the incredibly fast reflexes displayed by the gargantuan rat and its apparent ability to disperse the stamina he'd channeled into his attack using just its teeth.
In the brief few moments as Deacon processed that Echoform Reliquary was firmly stuck between the Manor Lord’s incisors and that all the empowered force he'd put behind the strike had been negated instantly, he knew he needed to change tactics immediately.
Did it always have that ability to disperse stamina-enhanced attacks if it managed to catch them with its teeth, or was this something it gained specifically after entering its Second Phase? Deacon's mind raced. If this is a new ability it gained from entering into its Second Phase, then is that stamina-dispersing effect spread across its entire body now or is it isolated just to its teeth and perhaps its claws?
With these questions and theories all bouncing frantically throughout his brain, Deacon ultimately decided; fuck it – brute force it is.
Activating Power Boost and immediately pushing it to 10%, Deacon tightened his two-handed grip on Echoform Reliquary's handle while simultaneously digging his feet deep into the cracked marble floor.
With a grunt of exertion, Deacon pivoted sharply to his right while digging his right foot as deep into the ground as he could manage, cracking the marble tiles even further beneath his boot, and using the leverage of his entire body weight combined with his enhanced strength, he began lifting the massive dungeon boss off the ground.
Panicking at the sudden increase in the invader's physical strength, the Manor Lord instinctively dug all four sets of its claws into the marble tiles in a desperate attempt to anchor itself.
The Dungeon Boss, unable to rear up onto just its two back legs to gain better leverage because the majority of its considerable weight had shifted forward from the charge that had knocked Leon backward, and trying to stand upright would only help Deacon lift it even more, the Dungeon Boss frantically dug all four sets of its claws as deep into the cracked marble as it physically could while feeling its body's grip on the ground loosening more and more with each passing second, its panic growing as it realized it was actually being lifted despite its size, before making the decision to use its newly grown tail to stop the invader.
Just as quickly as the thought formed in its mind, its recently formed tail that was still covered in blood and boil-ridded patchy skin, struck like a whip toward Deacon's right side.
The tail was less than a foot away from colliding with Deacon's ribs when it was suddenly smacked backward forcefully by a hammer, Leon, just a couple meters away from Deacon and having thrown his weapon to intercept the attack.
Just as its tail was knocked backward by Leon's thrown hammer, the unexpected attack caused the Manor Lord to loosen its grip on both the ground and on Echoform Reliquary in shock, however before the blade could slip free from between its incisors, Deacon pressed the flat of it up against the roof of its mouth while adjusting his stance for better leverage.
With the Dungeon Boss having lost its secure grip on the floor, Deacon successfully lifted the gargantuan rat, weighing just over half a ton, completely into the air and over his shoulder before slamming it violently onto the marble several feet away with enough force that its back struck the ground first and cracked the tiles beneath it.
Without wasting even a single moment, Deacon lunged forward right after the downed Manor Lord with Leon charging right on his heels, having already pulled out a second hammer that looked nearly identical to the one he'd been using from his Spatial Pouch.
The Manor Lord felt completely dazed as its entire body trembled from the impact of being slammed into the marble floor, its vision foggy and distorted as it struggled to process what had just happened, but the overwhelming panic flooding through its mind was crystal clear despite the disorientation: it needed to run, it needed to escape immediately.
As the Manor Lord lifted its head and turned itself to the side in preparation to roll back over onto its legs and flee, two crimson slitted eyes suddenly appeared clearly in its blurred vision.
Its panic spiked dramatically as those crimson eyes stepped forward into the light cast by the Mana Lanterns, and the glowing eyes revealed themselves to belong to a body that resembled a massive serpent slithering towards it.
As the Manor Lord raised its right front paw high and flicked its tail toward the glowing eyes in a desperate attempt to ward off the approaching serpent, the serpent smoothly ducked under the swipe before sidestepping the raised paw, opening its jaws wide to reveal four sharp fangs as it lunged directly at the Manor Lord's exposed throat.
A sharp pain suddenly lanced through the Manor Lord's neck, and the serpent vanished entirely, replaced by Deacon holding Echoform Reliquary with both hands, and its blade sinking half a foot into the thick muscle before he gritted his teeth and thrust it all the way through with both hands, punching the blade completely out the other side.
*[Manor Lord – Dungeon Boss Lv 27] has been slain – Partial XP has been given*
*Your Class has reached Lv 27 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
Blinking in surprise at how easily the Dungeon Boss died, Deacon shook off his surprise and yanked out Echoform Reliquary – looking up to see Leon, who’d skidded to a stop just a meter away from him as he saw the System Notification announcing that the Manor Lord had died.
That’s it? Leon all but asked with his expression alone, to which Deacon could only shrug.