The party's hearts dropped to their stomach when they realized the information linked to the enemy before their eyes. Even though there was only one enemy, they felt greater pressure than all of the Shadow Wolves faced before this run-in. In fact, Cygnus even started to whimper.
"J-just what is this? I thought we were doing very well… but how are we expected to deal with four thousand health? And what's a Special Elite?!"
Compared to an Elite, a Special Elite eclipsed their combat ability many times over, especially one given a name and moniker. While not every Special Elite possessed a special ability, the likelihood of one with a name having such an ability was one hundred percent.
In Hrulhar's case, his Agility was incomparable to the earlier Shadow Wolves. The only saving grace for this team was the unchanged defense value equal to a Shadow Wolf. Still, it was akin to comparing a Thief to the Warrior class. While both classes were highly physical, the Warrior excelled in defense while the Thief excelled in speed.
However, Kieran couldn't help but frown because of their current situation. Hrulhar was only one of the three possible Special Elites to appear in this dungeon. Any of the three would cause trouble for any party. But truth be told, Hrulhar, in particular, was the bane of all magical classes and even some physical classes at this time.
This was the one monster where a tank was crucial to obtaining victory.
'Its attacks aren't the issue here,' Kieran thought before sighing heavily. He then looked at the 20 Attribute Points in his possession before looking at his Defense and Agility. The requirements for tanking Hrulhar were astronomical regarding the current capabilities of players.
Even a Knight who dumped all of their points in Vitality and Endurance would be foolish to tank Hrulhar's attacks head-on.
Hrulhar's claws were treated as an independent attack because of the second special trait in its possession, Tri-Attack.
"Stay back for a moment," Kieran warned.
Although Hrulhar's eyes radiated with killing intent, it hadn't made a move because the team had yet to cross within 20 meters of the beast. The moment they did, they would be inviting tragedy into the party.
"Aspaira, do not, and I mean DO NOT, move more than 3 meters away from either I or Altair. If you do, you're dead," Kieran said while keeping his gaze frozen on Hrulhar. Three meters was the limit both Kieran could cover with Charge and the distance Altair could transverse instantly with Swift Steps activated.
If she were outside that range, they wouldn't be able to react to Hrulhar's tempestuous onslaught.
"W-why are we being so serious right now? Can't we just defeat it?" Aspaira stammered. Kieran's expression was even more severe than earlier despite the number of times the party had leveled up and their increase in equipment.
"Special Elites are not to be taken lightly. They're stronger than both Elites and Rare Elites. Much stronger," Kieran answered. Rare Elites were only marginally stronger than Elites in terms of ranking but rarely appeared, as inferred by their name. As a result, they rewarded better loot and higher amounts of experience.
Special Elites, on the other hand, were a different monster altogether. Their special traits and increased attributes with a focused specialty made them at least three times more lethal than a regular Elite.
"Did you add your attribute points already?" Kieran questioned.
"Not the one from our last two levels," Altair answered.
Immediately after, Kieran instructed Altair to raise his Agility to 52 while adding the rest of his points to Strength. This closed the divide in Agility. Because from what Kieran remembered, Hrulhar's Agility was at least 60. A player needed at least half of that number to even react to its attacks, let alone land a melee hit on its body.
Otherwise, they'd be touching an afterimage hence, the Vanish trait.
Meanwhile, Kieran made some preparations as well. He applied his stats differently. Only one-fifth of those points were put into Strength out of the twenty points. The rest were applied to stats crucial to the upcoming battle.
〈System: You have used 4 Unassigned Attribute Points. [Strength: 41 → 45]〉
〈System: You have used 5 Unassigned Attribute Points. [Agility: 35 → 40]〉
〈System: You have used 5 Unassigned Attribute Points. [Endurance: 18 → 23]〉
〈System: You have used 6 Unassigned Attribute Points. [Vitality: 22 → 28]〉
「Name: Aatrox
Lv.12 (Experience: 600/5,500)
Class: Warrior
Title(s): None
[«Stats»]-
Health: 240/240 (0.2 HP regen/sec)
Mana: 130/130 (0.15 MP regen/sec)
Stamina: 111 (0.1 Stamina regen/sec)
Attack Power: 122
Defense: 61
[«Attributes»]-
»Strength: 45 (33 + 12 + 0)
»Intelligence: 20 (20 + 0 + 0)
»Agility: 40 (37 + 3 + 0)
»Endurance: 23 (13 + 10 + 0)
»Control: 30 (30 + 0 + 0)
»Vitality: 28 (18 +10 + 0)
»Perception: 50 (50 + 0 + 0)
[Unassigned Stat Point: 0]
[Skill Points: 10] 」
Many of Kieran's Attributes increased to an acceptable level while he took a step forward. Kieran couldn't make another move before Hrulhar's body turned into a black blur. A second later, three noises were heard as Kieran stumbled backward a few steps.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
-24 -24 -24 (Aatrox's Health: 168/240)
"Heal!" Kieran roared. He had lost nearly a third of his health with a single attack. While he could see all of Hrulhar's movements, he couldn't respond fast enough due to the disparity in his Control, movement speed, and Hrulhar's movement speed.
To make matters worse, Sithik and Cygnus were slow to respond. A few seconds later, a light-green glow encompassed Kieran's body, restoring a portion of the health he had lost. But, in that time, Hrulhar unleashed two more attacks, utterly eviscerating his health bar.
The light-green glow surrounding Kieran was a basic Priest Skill known as Healing Light. It only had a cooldown of 3 seconds, so it was a must-have for Priests to be regarded as vital.
+44
+40
Kieran's health returned to above 50% while he immediately activated Warrior's Aura. Since they were out of battle prior to this clash, Kieran kept this skill deactivated to conserve his already limited Mana Pool.
Suddenly, Hrulhar reappeared before Kieran again with its soundless movement. A gust of wind accompanied its arrival as Kieran focused intently on his enemy. The activation of this practice essentially Kieran's mana exhaustion, but it was a technique he couldn't do without.
While the Enhanced Gaze was an impetus to a depleted Mana Pool, Kieran could last at least two minutes before he needed to consume one of his potions.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
-24 -24 -24 (Aatrox: 36/240)
Kieran stabilized himself right after receiving another one of Hrulhar's attacks, successfully absorbing the damage without being forced back. While tanking the attack, Kieran moved forward abruptly, slamming his body into the beast. Naturally, this was the Charge skill.
-205
But, unlike the expected 2.3-second stun duration usually produced by this skill, the stun could barely keep Hrulhar still for 2 seconds. Fortunately, Kieran only needed these two seconds to enact his next move.
A savage aura encompassed his Novice Greatsword as he slammed it down on Hrulhar's head. However, this Savage Break was much different from before. It possessed a heightened violent sensation. Of course, this was because Kieran upgraded the skill by using 8 SP before unleashing the attack. Its qualitative upgrade was one of the matters Kieran was banking on.
「Savage Break (Lv.5)
Skill Rank: D Rank Active
Mastery (00.00%)
Skill Description: Unleashes a decisive blow of destruction that deals 300% of the user's Attack Power and can trigger the Armor Break effect, lowering the enemy's defense by 25% for 5 seconds.
Consumption: 3 Mana Points
Prerequisites: Warrior Class, «Warrior's Aura»
Cooldown: 30 seconds 」
While the damage only increase by 20% overall, this wasn't Savage Break's most remarkable effect. The most valuable trait about it was the Armor Break effect. Compared to before, it lasted 5 seconds instead of 3 and lowered the target's defense by 25% instead of 15%.
Against an enemy like Hrulhal, who didn't specialize in defense, this greatly widened the damage window. Coupled with the fact that Charge's aftereffect increased the next attack by 20%, Kieran was pleased with the damage he dealt in one hit without invoking a critical.
-461
Over one-tenth of Hrulhar's damage vanished instantly. But Kieran wasn't done. He also unleashed a Lv.5 Force Slash. Kieran exhausted all remaining Skill Points in his possession to raise his skills to these levels. But, the trade-off was worth it. At the same time, two more Healing Lights fell on Kieran, followed by a deeper green Aura.
His health immediately jumped back up to over 90%
-334
At the same time, Altair followed up by using Deep Puncture and Vital Stab unleashing a burst of damage that almost equaled Kieran's output.
-301 -378
After all, he too leveled up his burst skills to Lv.5, which resulted in a drastic increase in damage-dealing capabilities. At the same time, Kieran and Altair interspersed their assault with basic attacks and basic skills.
Sadly, a hostile gleam filled Hrulhar's eyes a second later. It retreated and vanished like a shadow, but Kieran's eye constricted to the signs of pins as shadowy arcs of dark energy assaulted his position.
"Dodge those!" Kieran roared.
Whereas Altair successfully dodged the arcs aimed at his position with his Agility surpassing 50, Kieran wasn't as fortunate. He only avoided a handful of arcs before being forced to parry while also receiving some direct damage.
-25 -25
-50
–25 -25
-50 - 25
By the time he received the last arc, Kieran had less than 5 Health remaining.
"Heal, dammit! What are you waiting for?" Kieran yelled in the party chat. His health had grown dangerously low after receiving the attack from Hrulhar. As a result, Sithik and Cygnus began spamming healing chants.
But Kieran felt like pulling his hair out when they did this. Priests only possessed four healing spells—Healing Light, Mending Aura, Restorative Mist, and Regeneration Burst.
The issue with what Sithik and Cygnus did, is that they panicked and overhealed Kieran by emptying their arsenal thoughtlessly. Each of the skills named possessed progressively longer cooldowns.
Even though Kieran and Altair depleted essentially half of Hrulhar's Health, this could only be done twice per minute. But, asking a party to last 30 seconds against Hrulhar's with insufficient healing was a tremendously tall task.
Thus, the team was launched into a precarious position with all those healing skills on cooldown. One where it seemed like not using health consumables eluded Kieran further and further.
"Bruh..!" Kieran groaned in frustration.
