Infinite Realm

"It's time. Use everything you have on hand now guys. We either win it here or lose."

Logically, there should be no reason to rush things since if they proceeded with the steady pace they were going at, the Kobold King would eventually be defeated. The problem, however, lied in the word 'when'. If they took too long that a guild team showed up, Sato and the others would end up in trouble. The best-case scenario was the guild offering their 'help' while the worst-case scenario would be a 'mantis stalking the cicada unaware of the oriole behind' scene. They would just end up doing everything for a group of strangers to swoop in for the kill. Hence Sato gave the order to everything they had on hand.

It should be recalled that earlier on, the group has taken a 24 hours break before heading to the 9th floor and starting their campaign. During this time, Sato didn't just focus on blacksmithing and the others didn't just battle monsters all day long. Unlike most guilds that had set their sights on the Kobold King, having the first-hand experience, Sato and his team knew what to expect in this battle. Apart from the Kobold King being the strongest BOSS they've ever faced, there was also its 100-man army behind it. A team of just 7 players couldn't contend with such a force especially since only one player in the team could barely compare with the BOSS in terms of ability. There was also the fact that the team lacked a healer class player so the battle would be more disadvantageous to them. Hence, they had to make do with external aid.

Luckily for the team, with Sato and Xue Yan completing the Main Trials, they had made quite a lot of money; at least enough to make them rank as one of the richest players ever and even the richest players, if guilds were excluded[IF] that is. Using a part of their funds, they had bought a few supplies to help in this battle. While it was true that the effects of external items wouldn't be able to win a battle alone, it would still be able to make the process easier.

"Grawr!"

As Sato re-engaged the Kobold King in combat, Seiichi, who had things the easiest in the battle, took out a scroll from his space bag and began reading the chants. Xue Yan acted together with Sato to keep the Kobold King busy and prevent it from interfering with Seiichi.

"[Linear Strike]'

Finding an opening in the relentless assaults of the Kobold King, Sato thrust [Astral Blade] through the opening but the Kobold King's reaction wasn't something to be underestimated. It managed to move its body to the side, dodging the sword at the last minute while still slashing down with the bone saber.

Sato was forced to block with [Drakken] before he proceeded to swipe the [Astral Blade] horizontally, in the direction the Kobold King had dodged.

-101 (4510/10000 Kobold King's HP)

While it was true that the Kobold King's strength was beyond anything a player apart from Sato could singlehandedly face, its battle techniques were lacking behind in comparison. Even its [Dexterity] was lower than Sato's by 3 points so its reaction speed couldn't be compared to his. Eating a loss in close combat was unavoidable.

"Hehe."

The Kobold King grinned as it ignored the pain from the slash and stretched out its left hand and grabbed at Sato.

'Shit.'

Sato never expected the Kobold King to suddenly develop a pain tolerance to his attacks so he was caught partially unaware by the move. The reason for the word 'partially' was because Sato had an eye out for any claw attacks from the Kobold King. While this didn't count as such, it was still performed with the arm hence, even though Sato never expected it to suddenly grip at him, he was still on alert for any unorthodox fighting style.

Applying enough force to his right foot, Sato propelled himself backward and dodged the Kobold King's arm. Like a dog-plaster, the Kobold King refused to let Sato off and chased after him.

The Kobold King had discovered that each time it was in close combat with Sato, it could avoid the harassment of the other duo. Even though Xue Yan and Seiichi couldn't do much to it, having them constantly chipping off its HP in little amounts and distracting it with such petty attacks wasn't advantageous to it. This was because it couldn't tolerate that disturbance for long and once it turned to face them, Sato would launch a surprise attack at it.

This was like a pro fighter having a bunch of mosquitoes disturbing him during a battle. The mosquitoes can't do much to it and the damage they inflict is negligible. However, their presence will be very annoying and distracting to the fighter. But once he decides to shoo them away, he would end up defenceless to the attacks of his opponent.

The same situation applied to the Kobold King so the only thing it could do was to remain close to Sato, that way, Xue Yan and Seiichi wouldn't attack so carelessly in fear of friendly fire.

'It's improving in battle.' Sato thought.

Sato was surprised to see that the fighting techniques and pattern of the Kobold King were changing, or rather improving. Because the Kobold King was being raised so carefully since birth together with the fact that its bloodline was purer, there was no match for the creature in the entire settlement so there was no opportunity to improve its skills. Just by relying on its terrifying attributes alone, it had dominated the entire floor. But this came at the cost of having poor battle techniques. Now, however, with the presence of a worthy foe, it began showing massive improvements in its techniques.

If before the techniques of the Kobold King could be compared to a 12-year-old who has been practicing martial arts from 10, now, it was comparable to a 15-year-old with the same starting point. Sato couldn't help but be shocked at this.

'A monster with intellect really isn't something so simple.'

While Sato admired the Kobold King's improvement speed, he also felt troubled by it. The improvement of the Kobold King went to show that if the battle dragged on for too long, the Kobold King would eventually be much more difficult to handle than it is now.

*Phew*

Just as Sato was thinking of a plan, a projectile shot forward at such a great speed that both he and the Kobold King had barely any time to react.

*Bang* *Boom*

With a bang, the projectile collided with the Kobold King and set off an explosion, blasting it back before it could realise anything.

*Boom*

[Critical Hit]

-465 (4045/10000 Kobold King's HP)

The Kobold King was sent flying 30 metres back, colliding with a small hill and creating a crater at the point of impact. With a boom, the crater imploded as a landslide occurred, burying the Kobold King within.

"Aiya~ In the end, I had to use it." Seiichi sighed with a regretful expression but inwardly, he wasn't bothered, after all, it wasn't his money he had used.

The scroll he had used earlier was a special scroll meant for [Rangers] and it improved the attack power of their arrows as well as added a special explosive feature with pushback effects. Even against a level 10 monster, the enhanced arrow would still be able to cause quite a sizeable amount of damage. When paired with a good [Ranger] and a high-quality arrow, the effects would be even better.

The arrow Seiichi had fired was called Hefir and was an arrow made from the peak 2-star material Dawn Steel and the peak 1-star material, Helm Oakwood. It cost him a whopping 17 silver coins and even then, Seiichi wasn't able to bring out the full power of the arrow. Using the spell on it further increased the attributes of the arrow that if a level 10 [Ranger] had used it on the Kobold King, it would be able to shave off at least 30% more HP than the amount Seiichi had eliminated.

Truthfully, such an arrow wasn't easily bought. If it were, a sizeable number of players in IR wouldn't find raids difficult. It was only due to Sato's title, [Savior of Races], -which gave him similar treatment to a noble- that he was able to get it. Aaron Schauks, the manager of Grynx Merchandise in Riverdale, had willingly offered it to him when Sato had requested for a powerful tool.

"The BOSS would be on alert after that shot and I only have 2 more scrolls. I can only use them when you guys have made an opening for me." Seiichi said to the duo.

"No problem, leave it to me.." Sato nodded.