The boss's face was always indifferent since the start of the fight, but Jack could now see anxiety behind its cool expression. It suddenly jumped up straight in the air.
'Another skill?' Jack thought after seeing its weird maneuver.
The boss' body suddenly spun rapidly. Jack heard continuous gunshot sounds as multiple muzzle flashes were seen. Although Jack never stopped running, the bullets were now dropping as if rain. Wherever he went, there were bullets raining at him.
His Barrier was soon shattered by the continuous hit. Luckily the boss' skill didn't last long. However, the force from those hits had caused Jack's movement to stop. The boss immediately followed up with another skill. He put his revolvers on top of each other and then fired. The two shots seemed to combine and create one powerful shot. The shot created a sonic boom effect that was visually stunning and equally intimidating.
Jack's arm moved automatically once he saw the boss' aiming pose of putting both its revolvers together. Jack knew a powerful skill was incoming. He was still reeling and out of balance from the last boss' move, preventing him to use Shooting Dash and his Flash Step, with no magic shield to block the incoming attack. He was left with either Parry or counter using an attack. He chose the latter, he slashed his Flame Strike in front of him right where the boss was aiming at. The bullet with the sonic boom effect arrived as soon as the boss fired, it's a good thing Jack had anticipated and executed Flame Strike beforehand.
Sword and Bullet collided. If it was a normal shot, Jack would most likely miss slashing at the tiny bullet. But the current shot was as powerful as it was large. The energy that followed the bullet which created the sonic boom was as large as a soccer ball. Hence Jack's premeditated slash collided with it.
An explosion occurred. Jack still received slight damage, which meant that the total damage caused by that powerful shot was still higher than Jack's Flame Strike. The explosion also caused Jack to be thrown off. The boss took this chance to run to the shack.
Jack made a back somersault to negate the force of the push. Once his feet landed on the ground and had a solid footing, he executed Shooting Dash. His Shooting Dash could make two dashes at its current level, the first dash did not manage to catch the boss, but Jack sent a Sword of Light before resuming his second dash.
The sword energy traveled faster than his dash and Jack aimed it at the path the boss was running to. He was hoping the boss would stop its advance to dodge his Sword of Light, but instead, the boss ignored it and let the sword energy hit it. With its high HP, some damage was acceptable. It was more important for it to protect the hideout core.
But Jack's second dash still managed to allow him to arrive in front of the boss despite it not being slowed down at all. Jack used Swing. With the boss being a ranged type, Jack was not afraid to clash directly with it.
When he expected his Swing to hit, the boss made an abrupt duck, avoiding the swing while at the same time it did a roundhouse kick in a fluid motion. Jack was hit at the side of his face by the boss' unexpected kick. He was dazed by it. The boss used the chance to step on Jack's unbalance body and jumped over him.
'What the… this cowboy knows kung-fu!' Jack exclaimed with surprise in his mind. The boss had been avoiding melee contact with him all this time so he thought it would be powerless in close combat.
His daze only lasted an instant as he regained his focus. He got a bad feeling after the boss jumped over him. If it was him, he wouldn't have wasted this opportunity when his opponent was unbalanced. So instead of pushing himself up, he dropped down to the ground instead. At the same time, he heard gunshot sounds.
He looked and as expected the boss had made a somersault after jumping over him and was currently upside down in the air with both guns aiming at where he was a moment ago. If he did not drop flat to the ground, the two shots would have hit him.
He countered by shooting a Mana Bullet at where the boss would be landing. The boss' arm moved and made another shot. The Mana Bullet was destroyed by the shot. The boss had landed safely.
'That was one crazy gunslinging move,' Jack commented in his mind. His attack never stopped though. He had already cast Energy Bolts after the Mana Bullet. A spell formation quickly formed after.
The eight bolts chased after the boss, who shot continuously at the bolts as it tried to make its way to the shack. A few that it failed to shoot, it ignored. Those missed bolts hit its body as it continued to run to the shack. Jack chased after it with his spell formation continued to form.
Jack threw the completed spell right in front of the door of the shack. The boss which was about to reach the shack saw three crimson chains shot out from the ground in front of the shack. It could feel these chains were not something it should ignore. It stopped its advance and retreated as the chains were about to grab it. It made rapid accurate shots that hit the chains, stopping them from catching it.
With the Myriad Ensnaring Chains guarding the entrance to the shack, the boss had no way of entering. It turned back with an angry expression. Jack had caught up to it when it was retreating from the chains.
Jack made another slash at the boss, who ducked and made another side kick again at his head.
'You think I will fall for the same trick?' Jack thought as he also ducked and spun his body, utilizing his spinning momentum he did a chop kick at the boss who was still in its kicking position. The boss fell heavily with its face facing the ground due to the kick.
"You are not the only one who knows kung-fu!" Jack exclaimed as he rose and prepared to chop down his sword at the boss who was still on the ground. But his vision was covered by two muzzles aiming at him.
He bolted sideways without hesitation as flashes flared from both revolvers. Although its back was facing upward, the boss could still bend its arms to aim at Jack from behind its back. The boss rose after making the shots.
Since the boss failed to force Jack to retreat with the last shots, Jack was still nearby. Jack didn't let go when the boss was vulnerable during its rise. Jack activated Adrenaline Rush and sent three rapid slashes at the boss, causing a sizeable chunk of damage.
The boss tried to pull away but was stopped midway. A ring of light was holding one of its legs. Jack had started casting Magic Bind when he was slashing the boss. He now continually slashed at the boss while it was immobile.
When the Magic Bind was about to shatter, Jack used Flame Strike. The boss crossed both his revolvers in front of it as a shield, but the impact still sent it flying far away from the shack. It was very angry for being continuously hindered from entering the shack.
The boss was just about to lunge forward again with both revolvers aiming at Jack when Jack heard a notification, "Congratulations! You have successfully raided a Gang Hideout, rewarding 150,000 exp points."
'Great, this should shorten the amount of exp I need to amass,' Jack thought after hearing the notification. Too bad hideouts were rare. If he could only find more of these hideouts with feasible levels, his problem with that Lightning God Blessing would have been solved swiftly.
He looked at the boss who was kneeling down without spirit after the notification. A light soon enveloped him as it disappeared. It must have been sent to the Guild Headquarter's jail by now because Jack received a notification that he had received 300 contribution points for capturing a hideout boss.
He would let Jeanny and John decided if they were to hand over this boss to authority or keep it. This boss was less powerful than Uruk, and from the exchange just now, he could defeat this boss single-handedly if the battle continued. So they should be able to recruit this boss early.
He was elated. He had suspected that he could already go toe to toe with a special elite of a similar level, but only now could he really test that theory. The next target was Rare Elite of a similar level!
He heard footsteps from behind and turned to see Life Runner came out from the shack, he was bringing a large sack. He handed the sack to Jack and said, "You are right, the rewards are indeed extremely generous. This is the first time I see so many high-quality loots. I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty to take my share, I divided the coins and mana cores equally. For other items, I only took the things I need. Inside that sack are 18 gold coins, 14 mana cores, three uncommon equipment and one super-rare equipment for Warrior, one rare gemstone, two uncommon materials, and the hideout core.. I supposed the core should go to you since you did most of the work."
