Gunner charged forth, channeling Earthen Lariat as he struck the dazed Darm away. While the Vampire Lord hurtled to the ground, Darius and Xela cast their respective attacks once more.
-135! -238! -1!
Both Gunner's Earthen Lariat and Omega Blow dealt basically a single point of damage, and he was lucky to even get that much. Although Earth's Guardian pushed Gunner's Strength and Endurance stat to the master stage, the gap between him and even the weakened Darm was too much.
Gunner had (after buffs) 130 Str and 75 End while Darm (after weakening) had 177 Str and 230 End. If it wasn't for the way the System calculated things, Darm would likely not have even been blown away by that attack.
However, Gunner wasn't disheartened. Rather, he jumped towards the awakened and enraged Lord Darm, then activated his OP aggro-inducing skill, Engage. With this, Darm would not be able to attack Xela nor Darius, giving them the time to bombard the undead.
Darius checked Darm's remaining HP.
[Lord Darm - Level 46 Vampire Lord
HP: 39,589/40,710 MP: 8,980/9,090 STA: 10,200/10,350]
Darius nodded. It seemed that apart from weakening, the Purification Potions had also stunted Darm's vampiric regeneration, so the damage they had dealt to him, although small, would stick.
As such this battle was basically one of attrition!
Even though Darm was far stronger than Gunner, he could currently only dream of one-shotting the large lad.
Putting aside his buffed Strength and Endurance, Earth's Guardian also increased his raw Damage and Defense! So Gunner's defense value which currently totaled 166 points was boosted by 160%!
The final value? A whopping 432 points! Even if Darm had been at full power, he could only beat Gunner down slowly, much less now that his power had been culled.
But just as Gunner benefited from equipment values (which constituted Defense), so too did Darm. In the Vampire Lord's case, this was most prominently the case of extra damage values for his own weapons.
After being struck down by Gunner, he waved his hand and a sword made of blood coalesced in his right arm. It was a refined rapier that morphed into a steel-like weapon with a red hilt and a sharp end.
It was a beautiful weapon and most likely Darm's trump card. The Vampire Lord gazed at Gunner with hatred, whether from being interrupted from his thoughts by that cruel lariat or due to the aggro-inducing skill, it was unknown.
With his 189 points of Agility, he was like a blur as he appeared before the large lad and stabbed towards his heart, intending to impale him once and for all. Darm, unfortunately, hadn't realized that the laws of Faust had made way for the laws of the Supreme System, so instead of a one-shot, all he'd be getting was x3 critical modifier.
This was likely a result of his -3 points of Luck, which Darius had to admit was a first. Even undead, which were treated as an outlier by Lady Luck, had always had 0 points of Luck. None before had had a negative value.
People with 1-3 points would have average or even poor lives, but these few points still meant that Lady Luck would bless them occasionally. She just favored those with more points more, so their success would come at your expense.
0 points meant that you were not getting even a lick of favor and no really 'good' thing would suddenly fall on your lap. You would have to slave for everything you wanted in life, and also have to fight against the 'favor' Lady Luck would bestow on others who had what you lacked.
But to have negative points… this meant that you were in the bad books of Lady Luck and just as she would actively help those with positive points, she would actively try to ruin the lives of those who had negative ones.
This was why Darm had made so many mistakes since he came out of the coffin. First, he let himself be convinced that Darius and co were not the ones who tormented him when it was really quite obvious, so his hatred had slightly dissipated.
He then summoned his armies and did not buff them, only watching on as both were slaughtered thinking that he could confidently handle everything. Next, he was hit with a spell that harmed his foundations and could bypass his defense yet hadn't bothered to think too deeply about it.
Any sensible fellow would have take matters seriously and killed Darius on the spot for being hit with a racial targeting spell with no means of blocking it.
After that, he got trapped in a ward and instead of smashing it to join the battle, he had started studying it like he was at a party and not in a fight.
Then, he fell into a daze when he realized Darius' anomaly allowing his entire army of Blood Warriors and thralls to die, leaving him with no forces.
Darm had made a nonstop series of silly mistakes that no one like him should make, yet they had still occurred, paving the way for even worse mistakes as the battle continued.
His strikes upon Gunner dealt a measly 3 points of damage comparatively! This put into perspective just how nonsensical Earth's Guardian was as a skill and why Darius had dumped so many points into it.
However, Darm's speed allowed him to strike just about a hundred times in a single second, so 3 points per strike quickly became practically 300, nearly half of Gunner's life!
Unfortunately, increased Str and End through Earth's Guardian didn't increase his HP or STA.
At least, Xela's Bless skill gave Gunner 5% increased regen. However, his regen was no match for how much damage Darm could deal per second.
Gunner used his knowledge of swordsmanship granted to him by Weapons Mastery to deal with Darm's skillful strikes.
Alas, his Agility of 25 was simply not enough to keep up. Were they at the same speed he could have dealt with them, but currently he was like Hulk trying to block blows from the Flash.
