“Claw Swipe!” the fox aimed for Stark as he dived toward it, slashing its claws at the boy.
But…
“INVINCIBLE DODGE!” while still in mid-air, Stark did a roll and passed right through the attack, unharmed thanks to the invincibility frames.
“AURA SMASH!” the clone that was also jumping sent two crimson fists toward the fox, who was unable to dodge because it was too focused on attacking Stark.
“-13252! -12726!”
[Enemy stunned!]
“HAHA,” With a maniacal laugh, he brought his hands together and slammed them down on the fox’s head, the flames from the fox’s back licking at his fingers.
“-24626!” the attack was deadly, but Stark also received some damage…
Or did he now?
[The Purgatory Shadow took the hit in your place]
A shadow of himself appeared as the flames were about to hurt him and blocked them, it was the perk of one of the rings he was wearing, and it was extremely useful.
In addition to that, he used the fox’s back as launching pad and jumped back in the air.
“AURA SMASH, CRIMSON SPEARS” he sent two crimson fists and three spears at the already stunned wolf, ready to end the fight.
~BOOM, BOOM, SLASH~
But…
“FIRE SHIELD,” the fox used its fire and aura to create an orange sphere that stopped all the attacks from hitting it.
[Fire Fox (GUARDIAN) HP: 15247/140000]
It was extremely injured, and Stark backed away along with his clone once he noticed that it was getting up.
‘…’ he was ready to fight it up close, now that its HP were reduced so much, he could even go as far as send his clone to finish it off even though it would disappear.
But honestly, he had wished he did that.
“CALL OF THE FOREST!” the Fire Fox suddenly began roaring with fierce urgency several times, over and over, making the leaves of the trees that were still fairly intact tremble.
‘…?’ Stark was taken aback, his confusion quickly turning into unease.
The injured fox was on the brink of death, what could it possibly do to save itself?
And then, as if in response to his thoughts, a feeling stirred within him. It was a deep instinct, almost primal in nature, urging him to move and dodge ‘it’.
Dodge what? He didn’t know, but in his mind, a message appeared.
[Above you]
His pupils burning with aura, he dived forward at the last second.
~BOOM~
Something came crashing at the spot he was at before.
“-27182!” the clone had been hit and died, the aura that formed it seeping back into his body.
“FUCKING HELL!” he shouted, then positioned himself.
As the smoke from the sudden attack cleared, he could finally make out the figure in front of him: a towering green gorilla with vines sprouting from its back.
The creature’s powerful arms slammed into the ground, leaving behind a massive crater.
…
[Name: Vine Gorilla (ELITE – FOREST GUARDIAN)]
[Level: 40]
[HP: 120000]
[Strength: 2182]
[Stamina: 627]
[Speed: 736]
[Defense: 1595]
[Skills: Vine Whip, Vine Grapple, Earthquake, Leap Strike, Earth Force, Muscle Enforcement, Vine Shield…]
…
“TWO OF THEM?” Stark didn’t like that, but he still had a neutral expression on his face, he hadn’t expected the ‘Call of the Forest’ skill to be used to summon another one of the guardians.
That panel when he appeared in this area had informed him there were three of them, and he honestly didn’t want to find out what would happen if all three came to him.
“VINE WHIP,” dozens of the vines that came from the Gorilla’s back suddenly rushed toward Stark, and he swiftly avoided them all.
“AURA SMASH!” he answered with sending a crimson fist toward the Gorilla, and another at the Fire Fox.
“-12372!” it hit the gorilla since its speed was low, but the guardian didn’t even look bothered by his attack.
“FIREBALLS!” the Fire Fox obviously didn’t stay put and dodged the crimson fist all the while beginning to send another barrage of fire balls at him.
‘Fucking hell…’ Stark began running in the opposite direction.
“VINE GRAPPLE,” vines came hurtling from the ground around Stark, catching his leg as he didn’t expect it.
“SHIT,” he saw a fire ball coming, and with the right timing used [Invincible Dodge] to save himself before cutting off the vines with his aura-infused palm.
“CRIMSON SPEARS,” Stark knew that the fox would just avoid them all, but he summoned back his spears and threw at the gorilla, who didn’t even bother avoiding them either.
“Muscle Reinforcement,” The gorilla flexed its muscles and its chest began shining.
~PAF, PAF, PAF~
The spears had indeed reached their target, but…
“-0! -0! -0!”
They just bounced off the gorilla’s chest like they were made out of plastic.
The guardian smirked at Stark afterward, taunting him.
‘I’ll sell your fur at the market when i’m done with you…’ Stark groaned, but he was too preoccupied with avoiding the vines and fireballs that came from all directions to say it out loud.
‘This isn’t working…’ he thought, he knew he couldn’t hit the fox this way since it would avoid all his attacks, and the gorilla would tank everything.
He also didn’t want to use another clone or [Double Assault] yet since they could be needed later.
So he did the next best thing: run.
But of course, the point of running wasn’t to cowardly escape the fight, in contrary: he wanted to outsmart the two monsters while they were chasing him, and if they didn’t, then who cares.
Stark sprinted through the forest, dodging the vines and the constant barrage of fireballs. He kept glancing behind him, making sure he could see both the gorilla and the Fox following him.
He could hear the gorilla’s heavy footsteps behind him as it tried its hardest to keep up with Stark’s and the Fox’s incredible speed.
The fox easily catched up to Stark several times and tried to slash him with its claws, but of course, the boy would just avoid the attacks and force the Fire Fox to back away.
And after a few minutes of that, where none of his [Aura Smash] fists dealt any damage, and where his [Crimson Spears] were all avoided or blocked, he heard something in the distance: the sound of people fighting.
“BINGO!” if they were a higher level than he was, then they could definitely assist him in defeating these monsters.
And so he rushed toward the sounds.
But once he got close enough… the noises suddenly stopped.
“GRRAAAAWWWRRR~” and a massive roar echoed from the location of the sounds.
“What the hell?” Stark kept going, and soon enough he reached the place he had heard the noise from.
And that’s when he saw it: the bodies of four classifiers were on the ground, all mutilated or decapitated.
The responsible was the creature that roared: a giant blue bear that was standing up on its two legs, a fierce blue aura in its eyes.
[Water Bear lv40 (ELITE – FOREST GUARDIAN)]
Right behind Stark were the Fire Fox and Vine Gorilla, and in front of him was the Water Bear.
He was surrounded by the three guardians, and the people he believed could help him were already dead.
‘Life is terrible,’ he sighed.
