GLITCH

A Challenge

That’s one disgusting creature. Just how did this hideous creature live in here? Is it absorbing energy from Licht the Queen of Island of Maiden? Or is it its sanity that’s being devoured? Either way, it’s disturbing just to think that this is the interior of this cursed crystal, and I’m within it as of now.

GUARDIAN OF THE FALLEN BLOOD CURSE Level 1000

HP: 60 600 600 / 60 600 600 MP: Infinite

Strength: 74 000

Dexterity: 500

Constitution: 9 999 999

Intelligence: 9 999 999

SKILLS:

[Conceal / ACTIVE]

- This conceals the user’s stats and skills, basing on the user’s own will.

[Beam Force Barrage / ACTIVE]

- This is the evolved skill of Beam Force. The user releases orbs and hits the opponent after a delay. The target style is areal.

[Life Siphon / PASSIVE]

- It is a skill that allows the user to drain the foe’s HP upon hit by a basic attack or a skill.

[False Strike / PASSIVE]

- It is a skill that damages the opponent if a basic attack or a skill doesn’t hit.

[Locust Swarm / ACTIVE]

- A skill that summons a swarm of locusts to attack. It could also be used as a distraction.

[Tentacle / ACTIVE]

- A skill that spawns a tentacle to deal damage to the enemy.

[Doom Rage / ACTIVE]

- A skill that toughens the user but draining the HP gradually.

[Self Destruct / ACTIVE]

- A double-edged, last resort attack that obliterates everything and everyone within a specific area.

[Shared Fatality / PASSIVE]

- When a fatal hit has been received, this skill grants a 70% chance to give the 30% of the user’s sustained damage back to the opponent.

[Fallen Forge / PASSIVE]

- Each damage dealt with the bearer of the skill would be granted with extra defense.

[Fallen Sharpness / PASSIVE]

- Each damage dealt with the bearer of the skill would be granted with an extra offense.

[Flames of Corruption / ACTIVE]

- This allows the user to cast flames that could burn the opponent. Anyone hit by this skill would receive additional damage from the next attack.

[Light Barrage / ACTIVE]

- This skill ejects multiple piercing lights to the target. Each light ray deals damage. Additional damage would be according to ten percent of the intelligence.

[Light Maiden / ACTIVE]

- Summons light maidens.

Status Condition:

[THE CORE’S AID]

- The status would be doubled.

“Kid are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Anyway, do you have anything you could do here to help?”

“Give me some time. I’ll check if I could remove Licht’s bindings. Though it would take time so I need you to stall some time.”

“Got it. I got your back, though you can’t be seen physically though.”

I’m fighting one of the scariest bosses.

It’s the so-called guardian of that cursed crystal.

I really want to ask someone if there’s a reason why I keep on encountering bosses and engage in boss fights. This is a pain, I need to calculate my moves this time. I can’t afford to miss a single step, or else I’ll die.

“I’ll be relying on you then.”

“Go on. Save Queen Licht.”

The voice didn’t respond this time, so I guess that he’s starting to free his beloved. That’s good because, to be honest, I find his voice a bit…let’s just put it as something disruptive enough to ruin my concentration. Just hurry up though, I can’t last an hour if I’m not careful this time. The boss is too much for me to handle alone. I hope that some kind of effect would happen after she is freed from her restraints.

“That aside, what’s with that overpowered stats and lots of skills in its arsenal? I guess it’s a given since it’s a GUARDIAN.”

I’m staring at it and started to wonder why it’s not attacking yet.

It suddenly twists its head (bleurgh) and (I think it) glared in the direction where Licht is. Don’t tell me that it detected that guy’s presence!?

The Glitch spewed a lot of gooey substances.

I wondered what are those, but the answer just came as fast as the time all of it touched the ground.

The gooey substance then became brighter in color, from dark purple to yellow, and molded into human-like forms. Shoot, it’s the [Light Maiden] skill!

Seven clones of Licht were formed and started sprinting towards Licht herself. Tch, this isn’t good at all. I used my Tech Boots’ speed and blasted my body to intercept by putting my hands behind me and with all of that, I accelerated faster than normal.

I made it in front of them and started blasting them away. I experimented for a bit and hit them with attacks not imbued with my Mantle’s power. All of them seemed to be unfazed and continued running towards Licht, ignoring me.

Now that’s one thing I can’t let slide. I got wounded when they are unfazed and then they rubbed salt on it as they ignored me.

I guess I need to not overestimate myself.

“[Gravity Seizure].”

“Gwooh!?”

Is it wrong to hit the puppet master instead of the puppets? The Glitch did that surprised noise and fell to the ground.

[Gravity Seizure] is a skill that allows me to cast a shock on an opposing party. It’s more like a goosebumps kind of shock that could be felt by the body alone. I’m pretty sure that that monster could feel that. Even without dealing damage, [Gravity Seizure] could make anyone and anything, Glitch or not, flinch. I looked behind and saw that the clones stopped their movements as well.

Just as I thought, the [Light Maiden] skill heavily relies on the caster’s consciousness. If I render this Glitch incapacitated, I might have a chance.

I hate spamming skills in video games when I was a kid. Now, this skill spamming is my sole chance to defeat this beast. I used [Death Touch] already, so it’s not an option yet. I can’t use my [Death Scythe] too. The only skills I could rely on are these three skills that I unlocked after I defeated that knight.

The first skill is what I used earlier, [Gravity Seizure].

The second skill is [Pulse Grave]. It is a skill that allowed me to deflect an attack and absorb half of it. It’s a double-edged defense. I could lessen the damage I received by parrying it with a blast of my Tech Gloves.

The third skill is [Ability Exhaust]. I already used it after seeing that absurd stats and that long list of skills. Thankfully, my theory is correct all along. After I used [Gravity Seizure], not to mention that shooting those clones unintentionally affected the caster, its stats are now reduced, and the skills are also limited to a certain extent.

GUARDIAN OF THE FALLEN BLOOD CURSE Level 1000

HP: 56 300 100 / 56 300 100 MP: Infinite

Strength: 68 000 / 74 000

Dexterity: 200 / 500

Constitution: 7 500 000 / 9 999 999

Intelligence: 7 500 000 / 9 999 999

SKILLS:

[Conceal / ACTIVE]

- (Limited effect) This skill no longer conceals the user’s stats and skills, basing on the user’s own will.

[Beam Force Barrage / ACTIVE]

- (Limited effect) This is the evolved skill of Beam Force. The user releases fewer orbs and hits the opponent after a delay. The target style is areal, area reduced.

[Life Siphon / PASSIVE]

- (Limited effect) It is a skill that allows the user to drain the foe’s HP upon hit by a basic attack or a skill. The skill bearer could only receive half of the overall damage as healing.

[False Strike / PASSIVE]

- (Limited effect) It is a skill that damages the opponent if a basic attack or a skill doesn’t hit. It has a 20% chance of activation.

[Locust Swarm / ACTIVE]

- (Limited effect) A skill that summons a swarm of locusts to attack. It could also be used as a distraction. The locusts’ health is reduced to ¾’s of the total health.

[Tentacle / ACTIVE]

- (Limited effect) A skill that spawns a tentacle to deal damage to the enemy. Caster could only use two tentacles at the same time.

[Doom Rage / ACTIVE]

- (Limited effect) A skill that toughens the user but draining the HP gradually. The HP drain is 1.5 times faster than normal.

[Self Destruct / ACTIVE]

- A double-edged, last resort attack that obliterates everything and everyone within a specific area. [Ability Exhaust] could not affect this skill.

[Shared Fatality / PASSIVE]

- (Limited effect) When a fatal hit has been received, this skill grants a 70% chance to give the 30% of the user’s sustained damage back to the opponent. The skill now only grants a 50% chance to give the 15% of the users sustained damage.

[Fallen Forge / PASSIVE]

- (Limited effect) Each damage dealt with the bearer of the skill would be granted with extra defense. The defense acquired is lessened.

[Fallen Sharpness / PASSIVE]

- (Limited effect) Each damage dealt with the bearer of the skill would be granted with an extra offense. The offense acquired is lessened.

[Flames of Corruption / ACTIVE]

- (Limited effect) This allows the user to cast flames that could burn the opponent. Anyone hit by this skill would receive additional damage from the next attack. The additional damage is now reduced to half.

[Light Barrage / ACTIVE]

- (Limited effect) This skill ejects multiple piercing lights to the target. Each light ray deals damage. Additional damage would be according to four percent of the caster’s intelligence.

[Light Maiden / ACTIVE]

- Summons light maidens. [Ability Exhaust] could not affect this skill.

Status Condition:

[THE CORE’S AID]

- The status would be doubled. [Ability Exhaust] could not affect this skill.

Okay…?

I understand the part that I nerfed it, but isn’t it too much? Well, the skill description did say to a certain extent, so it’s plain impossible for its stats to reach zero. The skills also were attached with “limited effect”, except for the skills [Self Destruct] and [Light Maiden]. The status condition didn’t change as well. Welp, at least this one is nerfed. I can’t let my guard down though.

The maidens were now focusing their attention on me. Er, should I say thank you?

“Encircling me, huh.”

I felt a shiver from my spine and immediately jumped sidewards. Thanks to that, the [Light Barrage] missed. However, I am greeted by a sword strike from one of those maidens, aiming at my neck. I propelled myself with one of my Tech Gloves and spin around to deliver a kick at the maiden’s side. It knocked back a couple of meters away from me. Even with that short distance, it’s enough to give me a breather.

Ugh, even with that medicine I intake earlier, the pain just won’t stop. This isn’t just some physical damage anymore then.

Three maidens come at me and launched a coordinated attack on me. The one wielding an ax initiated the attack by striking vertically, then comes the one who wields a pair of daggers, jumping from the initiator’s back and released an X-shaped projectile. I managed to dodge it all by a hair’s breadth but the last attack can’t be evaded. I’m still in the mid-air when the last of the three threw her spear at me. I tried using [Gravity Seizure] but it didn’t affect them at all. That’s one grave miscalculation.

I have no choice but to use [Pulse Grave]. My left Tech Glove was covered with a thin orange veil of light. I opened my palm and positioned it as if I’m about to block the spear with my hand.

“[Pulse Grave]. Burst Shot!”

This combo is a good one. I’ll use it better next time. I received a stinging pain after the spear and I parted ways. The spear-wielder who owned that spear flinched for a moment and destroyed.

“Ugh. I’m still lacking in skills. But I have no choice but to protect Licht.”

The queen is just ten meters from me. One small mistake, and the mission to rescue her might fail.