'-1014!'
'-507'
"Hiss!!!" Though the amount of damage dealt by two orbs to the Juvenile Shadow Serpent was minuscule compared to the attack Valyr had sent with his spear earlier, the serpent still hissed in pain, feeling immense humiliation at the fact that the human that had attacked it had made use of one of its weaknesses.
'Definitely low in comparison… but I can't really complain.' On the other hand, Valyr had a neutral expression on his face as he watched the damage numbers appear above the serpent's body, retreating at the very moment he noticed the serpent begin to move once more.
Seeing as the serpent was about to cast its own magic in retaliation to the damage he had dealt to it while it was immobile, the young man went ahead and conjured a wall made out of earth before him in preparation, only to conjure more of them around him not long after.
"With my Attack stat scaling off of DEX, I definitely wouldn't be able to use magic to its full potential." Finishing off his defense preparations against the serpent's attack by conjuring a dome of mana above the walls, Valyr thought back to the measly amount of damage he had dealt to the serpent with his magic.
Though his INT stat was his second highest stat next to DEX, the amount of damage he could unleash through it was lacking in comparison to skills that scaled off his DEX.
Unsurprisingly, that all had to do with how the Attack stat operated.
After obtaining the Neophyte Shadow Serpentine Lancer subclass, his Attack stat, which used to scale off his STR stat, now began to scale off his DEX stat, which undoubtedly worked wonders for him. However, because of that, any skills that scaled off any stat other than DEX or STR now scaled off of the stat itself, not the Attack stat.
Naturally, the active skills he had obtained related to magic were affected by this, all of which scaled off his INT stat. Though, unlike the Attack stat, which had a multiplier attached to it based off his current class rank, these skills directly scaled off the stat, which meant that the full potential of the skills could not be reached.
Of course, the young man knew the reason why that was the case… which was the fact that it was intended to be that way.
What use would there be for a mage if a warrior could cast a magic spell and deal the same level of damage? What use would there be for a healer if a mage could cast a healing spell and have the healed amount reach the same level of efficacy?
In other words, one needed to have either a main class or a subclass in order for their corresponding skills to scale properly. Physical-based classes would have their skills scale towards their physical stats, while magic-based classes would have their skills scale towards their magical stats.
Then again, there were always exceptions to this rule.
Those exceptions were all known as hybrid classes. Hybrid classes came in various names and rarities, but if there was one thing in common about them… it was the fact that they brought the best of both worlds in terms of skill efficacy.
A magic swordsman would be able to use sword skills without a problem while casting magic spells on the side with ease. A paladin had no problem making use of their immense strength while healing those who were injured. A druid found no issue sending out a barrage of spells while empowering their allies' strength in the process.
"In any case, I'm making progress at least." Briefly thinking about how nice it would be to get his hands on a hybrid class, Valyr pushed the thought to the back of his head as he dispelled the defense he had put up earlier, seeing that the serpent's rain of terror had finally ended.
"[Severing Crimson Blade]!" Then, with the serpent completely immobile after casting its magic, the young man took advantage of the fact and dealt a couple of magic-based attacks to it, slowly but surely whittling its health down.
…
After realizing the serpent's glaring weakness, Valyr's eagerness to use it to his advantage was sparingly at first, sending out only a couple magic-based attacks to it at most. However, as he went through more and more of what he dubbed the serpent's 'cooldown cycles', he gradually gained more confidence in dishing out more and more attacks within the timespan he had to do so.
In fact, by the time he had gone through what looked to be around the Shadow Serpent's 10th or 11th cooldown cycle, the young man's hesitation in making use of the serpent's immobilization had gone out of the window.
With that, he abandoned his tactic of using magic to whittle its health and deal a large chunk of damage instead, switching to his spear before unleashing a powerful attack after buffing himself to his limits.
"[Strike of the Venomous Night]!"
Bang!
'-8331'
"Hiss!!!" Letting out yet another loud hiss as it cried out in pain, the serpent had already a great amount of rage towards the human that would attack it at its weakest, wanting nothing more than to give the human his just deserts. Fortunately for the serpent, unlike before, where it would remain immobilized while it passively received the human's attack, the Shadow Serpent felt like a shackle had been unchained, its entire body swiftly being covered in Shadow Energy a few seconds later.
"Ah crap." Noticing that the serpent's body was being enveloped in Shadow Energy all of a sudden, Valyr swiftly increased the distance separating him and the Shadow Serpent, activating [Greater Analysis] in the process to get an idea of what was going on.
"Its health is below 40%…" Muttering these words as his gaze remained fixated on the serpent's remaining health, the young man let out a low sigh as he instantly understood what was happening. "And here I thought I was finally getting somewhere."
"To think it would even have a berserk phase."
"Hiss!!!"
Whoosh!
Flaring its empowered aura in its entirety, the serpent's body seemed to be brimming with power, a stark contrast to the amount of health it had left. With that, it moved about for a bit to get accustomed to its newfound strength. Once it had become used to its newfound power…
"Hiss!" With its eyes fixated towards the human before it, the Shadow Serpent slithered through the Shadow Plane's lands at unnervingly fast speeds, hoping to end this drawn-out fight once and for all with an attack of its own.
'I was planning to save this for the inheritance…' Seeing as the Juvenile Shadow Serpent was now more than hellbent on killing him, Valyr let out an audible sigh as he ran to increase the distance between them.
'But now that it seems like death is possible at any moment…'
'Guess I have no choice but to use it.'
…
…
…
"[Hunter's Tracking Eyes]."
