Ronan wasn’t sure what would hit first, but he knew that his spell would strike true. The boss’ leap was towards him, but not quite as direct as the first few of its attacks had been. The spell arced as Mark of the Eternal Seeker drew it towards its intended target. He held his breath, then realised how stupid that was and conjured a sword while jumping towards the boss. He wanted to be ready to follow up on the spell, knowing that one would surely not be enough to guarantee victory.
His belief held. The spell struck the boss halfway through its jump and exploded in a blinding flash of bluish-white light. He heard a screech but then was forced to jump sideways as the boss burst from the cloud of remnant mana, claws swinging. Ronan let off another Ethereal Slash, this time empowered with Magic Strike and his two enchantments.
Before it hit he noticed that the scales on Azbab’s chest were glowing with a faint red shimmer. His Ethereal Slash hit, but even with the addition of Magic Strike it simply crashed against the kaiju and vanished without a trace. Did it get even tougher? That has to be something to do with those glowing scales. An unfounded suspicion nestled in the fore of his mind. He hoped it wasn’t the case, but there was only one way to find out.
He formed and launched a mana bolt. The spell would likely not even scratch a scale, but he wasn’t trying to hurt the boss. It saw the attack and bounced to avoid, but screeched when it curved to strike its torso. However, it turned to leer at Ronan when the mana bolt splashed harmlessly against it. And Ronan’s frown turned to a full-blown grimace when he saw that the red shimmer over its scales had spread the moment his mana bolt hit.
Either it was gaining durability each time he hit it with a spell, or it was specifically a magic resistance skill. There was also a third possibility that it was storing the energy from his spells. To what end, he didn’t know, but he was certain he wouldn’t enjoy the results. The third scenario wasn’t so far-fetched. He himself had a trait that let him do a similar thing to magic, but there were no outward effects. That left the first two. He would simply have to find out.
The boss was emboldened by Ronan’s complete and utter failure to meaningfully damage it and leapt towards him. He wasn’t deterred by his lack of damage. He conjured another sword and started evading. With how the battle was going, Ronan felt it was an appropriate time to test the first of his class skills. He hadn’t actually taken a single wager with fate until that moment, and an unwinnable boss battle seemed like the perfect opportunity to squeeze more power out of his class.
Alright, just give me whatever you can. My goal is killing this bastard. He remembered the skill mentioning a target before creating the wager. Nothing happened. The boss struck, and Ronan deflected its claws with his sword.
While parrying another blow he remembered that the skill had changed when his class evolved to Paragon Fate-Dancer. He cursed himself for not checking the description of the evolved class skill. He needed it to kill the bastard.
Ronan pulled up the description while continuing to fight. He couldn’t read it while keeping himself alive, but he knew there would be another opportunity soon. His first attempt at Ethereal Slash had damaged it, so he felt that was the best path to follow, especially after the failure of his spells to do more than make it glow.
Two claw strikes came from opposite sides. He managed to deflect both with a single slash. He created his opportunity. Ronan let the blade dissipate and conjured a new one as he spun, swinging hard and fast at the kaiju before it could attack again. A blade of mana tore across the gap between them and crashed against its chest, the creature unable to guard itself in time.
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Even with the direct hit, the first slash did little more than shake the boss. The second ended in similar fashion. The third cut into its chest, being the fourth consecutive hit including the parry. Ronan was able to force it backwards with three more slashes before it cancelled the skill again, knocking him out of the sky.
While he stumbled and recovered, slowing his fall, Ronan took the opportunity to read the notification of his class skill. He was both satisfied and a little dejected by what it said.
Dance with Fate (Galactic): The fates have taken an interest in you after repeated ridiculous circumstances that you continued to overcome. No longer do you need to gamble with your life and destiny on the line, because those who are favoured by fate often find the path to the future is paved in simple actions. Unfortunately, fate is fickle. Dance carefully, for the moment you lose their attention you may find that it is your foes who are blessed with fortune.
Not having to gamble with his soul and destiny was a blessing. Ronan had never tested the first skill because he had been worried about permanent side effects if a wager went wrong. However, the new skill didn’t have those drawbacks. He was a little upset, though. As reckless as it would have been, he had wanted to gamble with fate at least once. Instead, he would have to settle for a dance.
The boss had recovered and was bouncing downwards towards him. Ronan had an idea. It was terribly dangerous, but for lack of a better word, it would see him dancing the line between life and death.
Ronan started the channeling process for his newest offensive spell and tossed a few conjured throwing knives to distract his foe and buy himself some time. As he threw the blades he had a sudden realisation. All that time spent manipulating his platforms and stressing about a delivery option for his spell and it had been right in front of him the whole time. Conjured weapons were literally the pinnacle of what he’d been trying to accomplish. They were self-sustaining mana constructs that existed outside of his body and could be used in a variety of ways, including but not limited to the delivery of damage—or in this case, perhaps a deadly spell. He didn’t have the time or freedom to experiment with anything along those lines at that moment, but he would make sure to bring all of his magical discoveries together at the first opportunity.
The boss quickly realised that his throwing knives were doing nothing to it and continued its downward charge. It had earned him enough time to finish forming his spell, though. He glanced at the boss. It was big, but its mouth was only a little larger than his body. What he wanted to do was terribly dangerous, but he wouldn’t win the battle without taking risks. He was going to rely on his fortuitous fate and his prodigious luck.
Instead of attacking or evading, Ronan did the only thing a sensible challenger could when faced with a seemingly impenetrable enemy. He jumped upwards and thrust his hand right into the monster’s mouth. The boss was too fast for him and snapped its jaws shut. He felt his hand be severed just beneath the wrist, but he didn’t mind losing a limb to obtain victory. A grin crossed his face as the spell detonated and the monster swelled in size, the explosion contained within its closed mouth.
Ronan immediately realised the danger and started bouncing backwards, but couldn’t avoid the blastwave as the boss opened its mouth and a ripple of mana tore through the air. As he tumbled and regained his stride he looked upwards. The boss was falling too. Its face was mangled, half of it gone and the rest a mess of burnt flesh. Its body wasn’t doing much better, though he did note that almost every scale now glowed with a bright red shimmer. He hadn’t received a kill notification, either, which made him very, very worried. Not wanting to take unnecessary risks he formed a second copy of his spell, his mana dropping below a third for the first time in a long time. He tossed it as soon as it was ready and was relieved when it struck the boss without incident.
Chunks of flesh flew in all directions and when the cloud of bloody mist and mana faded, he was pleased to see the brutal result of his handiwork. The boss’ corpse lay in the ocean in dozens of pieces. The scales still glowed, but there was no doubt that it was dead. Surprised at how easy things were when one was willing to sacrifice their own body parts in pursuit of victory, Ronan went to pull up the kill notification to see… There was no kill notification.
