"Skelly, can you control him now?" Demetri asked.
"I said he is a friend, not a servant. Anyway, you guys look in a hurry," Dave said.
"Yeah, I took your words into consideration. There is no need for us to stay here anymore." Demetri said.
"Good," Dave said and noticed that Tess was nodding at Warlord, he didn’t know what was going on between the two but it seemed that they were talking about something important.
"Skelly," Warlord said. "What’s your level right now?"
"It’s 375, why are you asking?" Dave asked.
Warlord pointed at Dave, "I’ll challenge you to a duel when you reach level 400."
"Aren’t you being a bit presumptuous? Why should I accept your duel, you are more than fifty levels ahead of me."
"You have an SS class legacy, that should be enough to cover the level gap."
"Sorry, not interested." Dave shrugged, "Now if you’ll excuse me I have something to do," Dave said, but just as he finished his words, Dave felt all the hairs on his body tingling.
It was the same feeling one had when they felt someone creeping up on them from behind. You can’t explain it, but you know that there is something behind you.
Dave hastily drew his glaive and swung back, this gave a scare to the players in front of him but they were more terrified when they heard Dave’s glaive slamming into empty air with sparks flying everywhere.
"Hmmm, your senses are heightened, I feel like you earned a spot as a trophy!" a high growling voice sounded from the empty spot where Dave’s Glaive was stuck.
Suddenly, space distorted revealing Leonard.
"Fuck! It’s you again," Dave cursed.
"You had to help that prey, didn’t you. I tracked it to where it should have laid, wounded and bloodied from my sword strike. But, I found the remains of a potion that had your stench on it. You aided my enemy; this makes you my enemy!"
Leonard jumped at Dave, with his curved knife aimed at his chest.
Dave pulled Grumpy’s harness to make him retreat while he fended off the curved dagger with his glaive.
"Let’s help him!" Tess said.
"NO!" Demetri shouted.
"Why not?" Mercy asked, Dave was being assaulted by the large lion-man and not even his undead could assist. There was something preventing them from moving to help Dave.
"Because if we help, the lion will turn on our raid team. I can’t afford more losses, no one moves!" Demetri said.
"Boyz! I could use a hand!" Dave shouted, barely dodging a knife stab to the face.
"Lord, can’t move. Territory aura!"
"What?" Dave was surprised, wasn’t territory aura only specific to World Bosses?
Dave hastily inspected Leonard.
***
Name: Leonard The Pridestalker (beastkin monster)
Tier: Unique (Area Boss)
Danger level: ☠☠☠
Level: 550
Base damage: 250,000-320,000
HP: 5,000,000
DN: 150,000
MA: 155,000
Skills:
[Territory]: Singles a prey to hunt in a given area. They cannot escape Leonard’s hunt and will have to fight to the death. Only targets as strong or more powerful than Leonard the Pridestalker can interfere in the fight.
[Worthy Prey] (Passive): Leonard lives for the thrill of the hunt and is above hunting weak game. He hunts only those he deems deserving of the honor of death by his hands as [Worthy Prey].
[Cut Me, I’ll Gut You!] (Passive): base damage is increased by 20% for every 10% HP Leonard loses to attacks by [Worthy Prey] and on his next basic attack he has 100% chance for a critical hit.
[Disembowel] (passive): Leonard the Pridestalker has 20% chance to eviscerate a target, instantly bleeding them for 30% of their max HP. Additionally, if the target does not receive healing in 10 seconds, the target is immediately [Executed].
[Hunter’s Roar]: inflicts a [Fear] status effect on the target. Damage to targets afflicted with the [Fear] effect is doubled.
[Thrill of the Hunt]: Leonard becomes invisible and base movement speed increases 200%.
Lore:
Leonard the Pridestalker comes from the extinct hunter tribe Destaria. He lives for the thrill of stalking then battling dangerous creatures to the death. He scours the world for the most fearsome beasts he can find. The last of his kind, Leonard stalks his prey neither for food nor glory, but for the sheer thrill of the hunt.
***
Dave skimmed through Leonard’s status screen as he already knew most of what was in it. The only changes were that Leonard was now an area boss, and this increased his hp from 1,000,000 to five times the base. While also gaining a new ability, the [Territory] skill.
Dave was in a pickle, there was no one present in this area that was as strong as Leonard. He was on his own.
"Fuck, even my god-buff is on cooldown," Dave was in a huge blunder. His only hope was to use the legacy skill, but he didn’t even know what it did and he absolutely didn’t want to show it to this many players.
Thankfully, grumpy as Dave’s mount was still aiding him and wasn’t affected by the territory skill. This gave Dave an idea.
"Tiny, can you transform?" Dave asked.
"Yes," Tiny said and changed to his massive size surprising every guild member that they had to take a step back.
"What the fuck is that?" Surprise overcame the players of the alliance, they had never seen a Grave Lord and The current Tiny was both massive and frighting in shape.
Tiny swung down with its hand at Leonard, who easily dodged to the side, side flipping, Leonard sliced down with his large curved knife at Tiny’s fist cutting it off at the arm.
Tiny screeched in pain. But his suffering wasn’t over. Leonard jumped up high and began slicing at Tiny, destroying pieces of it, until Tiny was forced into its slime form and hopped back into Dave’s side pocket.
"That thing’s just for show," A player said when he saw Tiny being destroyed by Leonard.
Dave clicked his tongue, Tiny was still young. It was only natural for him to lose against Leonard, furthermore, the slime was a supporting undead. Mainly he was assisting in stocking Daev’s undead for later use and acted as a tank than a warrior.
Dave waved his hand and sent spectral skulls exploding toward Leonard. Leonard jumped away from the first spectral skull.
"You can’t dodge in mid-air biatch!" Dave said and pointed his hand at Leonard.
Leonard wasn’t panicking, actually, he flung his hand, throwing a bolt tied to a rope. The bolt pierced into a tree and Leonard tugged on it, pulling himself away from the spectral skulls.
The spectral skulls continued following after Leonard. When the Pridestalker touched the ground, he kicked at the base of the tree he landed near, tearing it from the ground. He then grabbed the tree and threw it toward the spectral skulls blowing them up in the air.
"Fuck," Dave cursed. Leonard was too fast.
"Blot the Sun!" Dave shouted. The sky turned dark. Pitch black clouds covered the sun and the entire area was now seething with death and the presence of the underworld. Leonard was held in place, slowed by the shadows encroaching on him.
"Defile!" Dave chanted.
The ground under Leonard turned black. Then a moment later, thorny roots coiled around Leonard, lacerating him.
[-80,000]
[-4,000]
[-4,000]
[-4,000]
Leonard’s black fur was now bloodied, but even the bleeding effect and the damage from [Defile] looked like a drop in the bucket due to how vast Leonard’s HP is.
Leonard grunted and sliced at the roots cutting them. Then raced toward Dave and jumped toward him. Dave’s hands blurred in ninja seals then pointed at Leonard, sending two fireballs at the incoming beast, but Leonard turned invisible in mid-air and most likely dodged the fireballs as they didn’t explode and continued with their trajectory.
Grumpy swung his tail, and Leonard was revealed out of stealth as he tumbled to the side. Like an agile cat, Leonard scrambled on all four and grinned showing bloodied fangs.
"What a feisty prey! You make my blood boil!" Leonard crouched and bolted forward like an explosive rocket toward Dave.
Everyone was watching how Skelly, who was more than 200levels below Leonard would deal with this creature. They knew deep down that besides the legacy holders here, none of them could have managed what Skelly is doing right now. To fight toe to toe against a creature that is stronger, faster and more vicious than any they had ever seen and still be able to wound it and make it admit the other party’s prows, this was something, they knew they couldn’t achieve.
This only served to deify Skelly in front of them, this live show made them discard all doubts they had about Skelly being just a lucky player. Behind those abilities and move, there was pure skill.
"Grumpy, petrify him!" Dave said. Grumpy’s eyes shone bright, slowing the cat down for one moment, that all it took for Dave to hop from Grumpy’s back and slash down with his glaive at Leonard.
Dave had activated [Heaven Slasher] tearing down 200,000 HP from Leonard and coupled it with twin strick, taking another 150,000 HP.
Leonard was staggered, the wound from Dave’s glaive gushed some blood.
"So you do know how to dance!" Leonard said. He was not enjoying fighting two against one so he threw roped rocks at Dave who dodged them. But that was not Leonard’s aim as the bolas spun around Grumpy pining him out of the fight.
"Leave Grumps alone!" Dave ran up to Leonard.
He dodged a swing from the large cat and sliced to his rib, Leonard hoped over Dave’s glaive and twirled in mid-air, slicing down with his own sword.
Dave, unable to balance himself to defend used [Immortal Apparition] teleporting right above Leonard who was already in mid-air.
Dave had switched his glaive to his sworn Stalwart Gauntlets and was able to use his [Fist Fighting Style]. Descending with a leg chop, Dave slammed his leg onto Leonard’s back in [Dragon Kick] crashing him into the ground.
A fire dragon materialized from the pit Leonard was in.
"Strong, truly strong! More, show me more!" Leonard’s muscles bulged.
’Shit, it’s going to become berserk.’
Leonard roared loud and a notification appeared in front of Dave.
***
Your Undead nature makes you immune to fear effects!
Fear from [Lion Roar] Resisted!
***
"NEVER FEAR!" Dave jumped toward Leonard and smashed his teeth in with his stalwart gauntlets.
An ethereal fire explosion echoed from behind Leonard materializing into a dragon.
"Shit, he is making this look easy," Wan Yi said.
"Not, it’s not easy at all, Wan Yi. Skelly has a lot of powerful skills. And he is using them proficiently, I don’t know how many battles was he in to be this skillful." White Ghost said.
"We’ve been playing for three years, I say it’s more than enough time to practice these skills." Wan Yi shrugged.
"Yes, WE have been playing for three years. The first we heard about skeletal was only a few months ago. Do you not see the rate he is progressing at? Tell me, Wan Yi, without your Legacy skill and your high level, do you think you can beat Skelly?"
"I don’t know," Wan Yi shook his head.
"That’s a good answer, we don’t know. Take in this fight, and look carefully at how skelly, moves. Look at his habits and behaviors, I have a feeling that one day, it will be you who he is facing." The White Ghost said.
Wan Yi, though a berserker, he was still a pro player, and seeing a player growing and on the right path to reach their level, this made him think of Skelly as a rival, not just a pesky scrub he wanted to stomp under his boot.
Leonard swung with his claws at Dave and stapped him to the ribs.
-120,000
***
You undead nature makes you immune to [Bleed] Effects!
[Disembowel] Bleed Effect has been resisted!
***
"You can’t bleed the dead!" Dave smashed with both fists on Leonard and activated [Destructive Smash] stunning him in the process. He then used [Advancing Dragon].
His avatar was taken over by the AI control. It moved Dave behind Leonard and grabbed the giant lion-man by the waist. Dave then lunged back in a back-breaking suplex, slamming Leonard’s head into the ground, right after that, Dave’s legs rose up, while he supported his body by his hands. The AI activated [Infernal Tornado] this time, it was Dave’s legs that were spinning as he supported himself by the hands.
The continuous spiral kick attack staggered Leonard several times and sent him rolling on the ground.
Dave repositioned himself and lunged toward Leonard. He jumped forward, both legs aimed at Leonard’s Chest. But the Pridestalker wasn’t a punching bag, he jumped over the incoming attack and stomped at Dave’s chest pinning him to the ground.
"That’s it for skelly," Demetri shook his head.
Leonard’s curved blade stabbed down at Dave’s face.
"Fuck!" Dave cursed, he couldn’t think of anything to do to evade the attack.
But right before the attack landed, a transparent curved blade struck against Leonard’s curved sword, changing its trajectory to pierce the ground right next to Dave’s ear.
A loud ear-piercing screech sounded right above Dave, materializing from thin air, it was a green large bug.
The giant praying mantis KuruKuru had joined the party.
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