Chapter 131 - 131. Absolute Defense
Jack could feel his whole body aching, but since he could still move around, that's mean he had survived. He hurriedly checked his HP bar. He lost almost 300 HP in that one hit despite it being blocked already by a shield. Combined with the other wounds he had gotten since started tangling with this Queen Ant, he had below 200 HP left.
He looked at his Round Shield, and was surprised to find that its durability was only 6 points left. That one hit had also directly taken 30 durability of his shield away.
The Giant Queen Ant rushed towards his position, it completely ignored the others. Good thing was Jack had been thrown quite a long distance away, hence he had the time to took out a basic healing position and drank it. The Queen Ant made another leap attack. Jack rolled away from its landing point before he engaged it again.
"How frequently can it do that air bullet attack just now?" Jack shouted to the others.
"Not often, once around fifteen minutes give or take," Sinreaper answered.
Good, Jack said in his mind. Fifteen minutes should be enough to chip away its remaining HP. He wouldn't want to face that air bullet move again. Silverwing and Jeanny rearranged their positions to follow after Jack. They coordinated with the Magicians to deliver bits of damage while Jack suppressed the Boss.
"Good! Keep at it, it will fall sooner or later," Silverwing motivated everyone.
When the Giant Ant Queen's HP fell to around 15%, it suddenly jumped back and squatted down. They all scattered, thinking that it would perform another leaping attack. But it stayed in its squatting position. The dark red carapace was giving off a black mist. The mist then enveloped its entire body. After that display, it got back up. Its large compound eyes shined with a mocking glint, as if daring the intruders to attack.
It then shot out, its speed seemed to have increased by a bit. It dashed towards Jack as usual, Jack rolled out of the way. Despite its speed increase, Jack was still faster. The other got into their positions again. Bluedaze sent a Magic Bullet, which hit the Queen Ant at its back.
Did I miss? She was confused.
She saw Sinreaper casted the same spell. She paid attention to the spell as it hit squarely at the Giant Queen Ant's mid-section. Now she noticed it, there was a small 0 number appearing.
"Ze– zero damage?!" She exclaimed.
Silverwing who had also scored a hit at the Queen Ant's rear also noticed the problem.
"I think that mist had increased its defense or even granted it invulnerability," he said.
"This is bad," Sinreaper commented.
Jack took a risk to make a hit. His damage was also zero.
"This type of buff should only be temporary, let's just wait until it expired," Silverwing said.
Easy for you to say, I'm the one that is holding its aggro! Jack commented in his heart.
But the Giant Queen Ant suddenly made a turn and dashed to another corner. Jack was flabbergasted by the sudden change. It seemed like the Boss was now targeting Bluedaze, who immediately ran away.
"Why is it targeting me?" She yelled with frustration. She didn't think that she had done anything that should have made her get targeted. The boss might have gone back to its random targeting mode again.
She could not escape the Giant Queen Ant, she could still cope with the Boss' speed before the buff, but now she was completely outmatched. The Magic Shield that she had summoned could not covered the barrage of attacks. She was soon shredded.
"Damn!" Silverwing cursed, but then added another curse when he saw the Queen Ant was coming at him, "Crap! It is coming to me!"
He rolled away when the Queen Ant's front legs came slicing. He was faster than Bluedaze so he had better chance at survivability. Jeanny who was closed by took this chance and used her special move, Penetrating Stab!
When the spear thrusted into the Giant Queen Ant's body, it produced 69 damage. Both her and the others were surprised by the successful attack.
So the buff was just an improved defense? Since Jeanny's move ignored defense, she managed to damage it.
The Giant Queen Ant cried in anger for the damage and made an abrupt turn at Jeanny. Its scythe leg swiped horizontally. Jeanny who was still dazed by her own successful attack did not react fast enough to dodge. She only managed to put her spear in front of her body to parry the swipe. She was thrown away by the impact.
The Giant Queen Ant strangely did not chase after her, but dashed to another direction again. This time Sinreaper was the target. They realized that in this phase, the Boss was making its assault randomly. Since Sinreaper skills and stats were roughly the same as Bluedaze, he wouldn't be able to survive the assault.
As the Giant Queen Ant came closer to its target, Jack made his decision. If he was still holding back and waited for the buff to expired naturally, there will be another that might lose their lives. The Storm Breaker in his hand made a humming sound, then it broke apart and released tremendous energy. Golden light enveloped the sword while black lightning could be seen occasionally around it.
The others who witnessed it was stunned by Jack's weapon transformation.
What kind of sword was that? Was the question in everybody's mind. They stayed rooted in their place, even Sinreaper who was currently being charged at by the Giant Queen Ant, had completely forgotten about the monster and instead staring with wide eyes at Jack.
Luckily for him, the Queen Ant sensed a threat from the energy exuded by Jack's Storm Breaker. It made a turn before reaching Sinreaper and faced Jack instead. It swiped its fore limb with the massive scythe-claw towards Jack. Jack met it head-on, executing Power Strike at the incoming attack.
The sword and claw met. A loud clang sounded out from the impact. Surprisingly, it was the Queen Ant's fore limb that was thrown back. The force caused the Giant Queen Ant to lose balance.
Jack used Charge at this time and ram himself onto the Boss' mid-section, further causing it to topple sideways. The Charge which connected resulted in 126 damage. Jack figured it must be because of the Chaos type damage from the Overlimit skill. Peniel did mentioned that this type of skill could bypass most defenses.
Not wasting any time, Jack sent consecutive slashes as he remembered another of Overlimit's effect was it could reduce the target defense. Each of his normal slashes caused damages above 100.
The Giant Queen Ant pushed herself up to stabilized Its position. At the same time, it raised all three of its right-side legs and stabbed it downwards at Jack. Jack had to forego his assaults or he would be impaled by three large pikes.
He rolled backwards. When he rose, he swiped his sword in the air and sent out his Sword of Light which was already off cooldown. It cut through one of the Queen Ant's legs and completely severing it before crashing onto its body. No critical, but the damage was still impressive at 216 damage.
After being hit by the Sword of Light, the Giant Queen Ant was just a hair breath away from 0 HP. Jack dashed forward to deliver the final strike. The Boss, as if sensing the danger it was in, leap backwards into the air. But since one of its legs was missing, its jump was not perfect. Its body slanted sideways and the altitude and range from its jump was not as great as its previous ones.
Jack was not about to let it go, his Overlimit ability had a short time limit. He roughly only had half a minute left. He pushed his speed to the limit as he chased after the Giant Queen Ant.
The others were still staring at Jack's battle with the boss with gaping mouth. They were having trouble wrapping their heads around the sight. Not long ago, it was the Queen Ant chasing after them while they were running like headless chicken. The view in front of them now was the other way around. The Queen Ant was dragging its feet trying to run away from a single Player.
Jeanny was the first to wake up from their trances, as the direction the Queen Ant was running to was closed to her. She lifted her spear and lunged at the approaching monster.