Chapter 68: A Calculated Risk
"Fuck It!"
Asher cursed, ignored the five attacks, and smashed his sword down at her face.
BOOOM!!!
"AHHHHHH!!!"
She screamed in pain, and simultaneously, the five Magical attacks smashed into Asher, sending him flying back to the ground. The combined force of the knights’ crescent blades struck him like a collapsing mountain, crushing the air from his lungs.
[Damage: 1,571,891. (+721,828 from Devourer Skill).]
[Priestess’s Health Points: 3,243,401/8,000,000.]
"AHHHHHHHHH!!"
Asher slowly stood up from the ground, wiping the blood off his lips: ’Good, the five shields from the Armor didn’t disappoint... It completely neutralized the five Knights’ attacks, as for this blood? Well, falling from such a height is different from falling down a tree.’ The internal impact had still managed to rattle his organs, but it was a calculated trade-off he was more than willing to make.
{Note: Devouring sword stole 721,828 from the target... Master’s Health has been restored.}
{Note: Health given can’t be above Master’s health limit.}
’Huh? I restored all my health... Not bad.’ He thought, staring at the Priestess, who suddenly caught on fire. The vampiric nature of his weapon was the ultimate safety net, allowing him to fight with a reckless brutality that no conventional Awakened could ever attempt.
".....?!!"
"AHHHHH!!!"
She screamed loudly, as her skin turned black, followed by her wings, then her body reduced in height. The massive, towering titan of holy energy was actively melting down, undergoing a violent, metamorphic compression.
"....?!!"
Asher watched in shock as the gigantic Priestess now had the height and size of a full-grown woman, her knights shattered into ashes the moment the fire stopped. The oppressive, overwhelming aura of the giant had vanished, replaced by something far more concentrated and lethal.
"....?!!"
He was dumbfounded, staring at the lady standing before him, dressed in all black, even the sun above him was gone. The blinding, holy radiance had been snuffed out, plunging the dungeon chamber into an eerie, suffocating twilight.
’Is this stage 3?’
[Name: Sorrowful Priestess.]
[Class: Special Boss.]
[Rank: SSS-Rank.]
[Agility: 80,000.]
[Energy: 864,000.]
[Defense: 912,000.]
[Health Point: 4,800,000.]
[Physical Attack: 240,000.]
[Magical Attack: 384,000.]
[Skill: Multiply into Five, each having 100% of her stats, and if you kill the wrong one, 50% of your stats will be siphoned by the original.]
’All her stats dropped by 40%. Still... Her health is still above millions.’ He said, holding the sword tight. The drop in raw numbers was a trick.
’Her Agility remained the same, and I am even faster than her, but I shouldn’t let my guard down... Mainly because of her skill.’ He thought. A fifty-percent stat siphon would instantly cripple him, turning him into easy prey.
"Human, you are such a pain." She said, and with a slight movement of her hand, two red daggers appeared, both Mythic-Tier weapons. The blades hummed with a sinister, blood-thirsty resonance that matched his own Devouring Sword.
’Two Mythic-Tier Weapons?! Damn!!’ Asher’s eyes widened.
"Let’s play a game human." She said with a smile, and the next moment, she divided into five. Her body didn’t just split; reality itself seemed to fracture, creating five perfect, identical entities.
".....?!"
Asher moved his gaze on the five, who simply surrounded him. The predatory formation was flawless, cutting off every angle of escape.
"Why the expressionless face?" One asked.
"No need to hide it if you are scared."
"Already in despair? Anxious?" Another asked. The synchronized psychological warfare was designed to induce panic, forcing a reckless, fatal strike against a clone.
"Come on? You should already know going against my god is a very dangerous thing." The fourth added.
"Come on girls, let’s play with this Human... Make sure not to kill him too quick." The fifth added.
"Oh, I will try."
WHOOSH!
The five shot towards him, their weapons glowing in the dark. They moved like a pack of elite assassins, leaving trails of red light in their wake.
Asher moved his gaze around, and waited; he had spent his years in the Starfire family, but that doesn’t mean he lazed around. While his siblings were gifted divine inheritances and master tutors, Asher had been forced to survive on absolute discipline and hidden grit.
Even when he wasn’t granted any resources, he made a sword for himself, and trained alone in his room. He had swung a battered blade tens of thousands of times until the mechanics of combat were permanently etched into his muscle memory.
He might not be as proficient as the true Masters, but he could hold his ground against many, besides. He had something none of them possessed: an unyielding, unbreakable will forged in the fires of isolation.
"DIE!!"
The five yelled simultaneously, dropping their weapons down on him. The combined force of ten Mythic-Tier daggers converged on his exact location.
Asher leaped into the air, and landed some distance away. His evasion was crisp, devoid of any wasted movement.
He wasn’t the same Asher from the past. The timid boy Luna thought she could easily break was dead, replaced by a sovereign of the battlefield.
"So all of you can actually deal damage... If I stay still, and your attacks connect, it will strike my soul Defense, which will rebound the attacks back. If I mistakenly kill the wrong one, I lose 50% of my stats... Which is why I waited to see if you four were fakes. Oh well... I only need one." He analyzed aloud, turning her lethal puzzle against her.
{Shadow Gaze - Activated.}
"Shadow Gaze?! A Divine-Tier Skill, how did you acquire such a powerful skill??!" One yelled in shock. The Boss’s arrogant facade cracked, utterly baffled by a human wielding magic that rivaled the gods.
"Oh, you know my skill?" Asher smirked, as his black eyes turned red, he moved his gaze to them, instantly pinpointing the main body. The complex, overlapping energy signatures of the clones were immediately peeled away by the absolute authority of his vision.
"With these eyes, no illusion can hide from me... You spoke of despair, let me show you the meaning with my blade." He said, and vanished from sight.
"This?!"
The four moved towards the original, surrounding her, moving their gazes around the place. Panic finally set in as the hunter became the hunted.
{Judgement Strike - Activated.}
{Sword Sovereign - Activated.}
{Curse Daggers - Activated.}
{Explosion Fire - Activated.}
Asher bypassed all the clones, after slowing them down with Sword Sovereign. His movement was a symphony of destruction, perfectly chaining his highest-tier abilities into one inescapable combo.
The moment he reached the main body, he sent countless slashes with his sword, threw two daggers while at it, and an explosion fire. He didn’t just attack her; he overwhelmed every single defensive parameter she had left, destroying her defense in the process.
BOOOOM!!
[Damage: -2,681,719. (1,000,026 From Devourer Skill).]
[Priestess’s Health Point: 2,118,281/4,800,000.]
"AHHHHHH!!! You Bastard!!!"
She screamed, as the fire burned her body. The next moment; The four clones shattered into ashes. The absolute damage output shattered her skill’s tether, forcibly ending the third stage in a blaze of Aether fire.
WHOOSH!
A dark figure leaped out from the fire, hovering in the air with four wings flapping behind her. The transition was immediate, the dungeon actively refusing to let its apex predator die so easily.
"The fourth stage... You are annoying." Asher said with a frown, gripping his sword tighter. The sheer endurance required to clear this dungeon was staggering.
[Name: Sorrowful Priestess.]
[Class: Special Boss.]
[Rank: SSS-Rank.]
[Agility: 1,000,000.]
[Energy: 259,200.]
[Defense: 273,600.]
[Health Point: 1,440,000.]
[Physical Attack: 72,000.]
[Magical Attack: 115,200.]
[Skill: With each slash given, she infuses poison into target, and once poison gets to 100%, Target instantly dies.]
’What the fuck?!! Why’s her agility so high?!!’ Asher stared at the system prompt in disbelief. A million Agility points broke every known scale of mortal speed, transforming the Boss from a heavy hitter into an invisible, instant-death executioner.