Chapter 10 - The Spirit that Wanted to Become a Heavenly Being (1)

"There he is."

Ain pointed to something white that could be seen in the distance.

That thing that looked like a human being was the hidden monster named Leopard.

On the floor under his feet, traces of a previous battle could be seen.

Hyun tilted his head.

"Why is the boss outside? Did someone else try to get him and fail?"

"That seems to be the case."

"I don't know who they are, but how foolish. It's been only one month since the game came out. Who in their right mind would try to catch Leopard so soon?"

Hyun shook his head.

"Well, it really doesn't matter as long as we get the first kill achievement. Let's just hope he isn't a regen-type monster."

Hyun never thought that someone else would try to kill Leopard so soon.

A level 95 named monster wasn’t an opponent that could be defeated by a group of users around level 30.

Within the user base of that time, there shouldn't be anyone who'd be able to counter Leopard's skill, «Snow Shield».

That skill surrounded the monster with thousands of rotating pieces of ice.

The ice not only protected Leopard, but each rotating piece of ice could deal damage, so even getting close to him was hard.

In the stage of the game they were in, Leopard should be the worst nightmare for players.

Of course, that was from the point of view of players with normal jobs, but there's always an exception.

"Even if it's a hidden named monster, to us, it’s nothing more than experience and items," Hyun said while making a grim smile.

"Are we really going to be okay? It's a level 95 boss..."

"Huh? You don't trust me?"

"Hmm... In regards to hunting named monsters, you're quite trustworthy."

Ain nodded.

Ain was better than Hyun in psychological warfare, but Hyun was better than her in everything else. It was hard to catch up to him in certain aspects, no matter how much she tried. It had been a long time since she had started admiring him.

Hyun's abilities that made her admire him were also shining there in Asrian.

Both of them had managed to kill 17 hidden named monsters.

Hyun knew the attack pattern of every boss; that's why he was able to use creative strategies to counter them. Sometimes he used mean strategies, but either way, every single plan of his ended up in success.

Even for a fellow former Asra Online ranker, the things he could pull off were impressive and praise-worthy.

'If Hyun says that it's possible, we should at least try it.'

Ain began warming up while looking up-front.

Leopard had noticed them and was coming to where they were standing.

"There were some small fry left? You're just simple human beings anyway."

Leopard mumbled while pointing them with his wand.

"I'll also send you to the other world."

«Ice Top».

Not long before, no one had been able to avoid his attacks. Even a small touch had been enough to kill them.

Leopard was sure that it would be the same with those two.

Annoyed, he moved his hand and launched his attack. He was about to turn around because he thought he had killed the insignificant bugs.

"What...?"

Since a fearless little girl was coming at him, he launched an attack without thinking twice.

At first, he thought a single attack would be enough to break her neck, but he was forced to turn around.

Even after launching his attack, the opponent was still standing there as if nothing had happened.

Leopard frowned.

Since he had turned around after attacking, he hadn't seen what had happened.

Was it a coincidence?

Did he make a mistake while calculating the trajectory of the magic?

Once again, he pointed at her and launched another attack. This time, he would definitely put an end to her.

The ice made a sharp noise and flew towards her.

And then…

"What...!"

That time, he saw it clearly.

—Why his magic hadn't touched her.

The moment the «Ice Top» was about to pierce her chest, she had brushed it off with the palm of her hands.

The flight trajectory of the magic had changed.

Leopard was in shock after seeing such an amazing stunt.

"How did she do it...?"

During his lifetime as a Magician of the Magic Country and after becoming a spirit, Leopard had fought many enemies. Among them, some people had been able to defend themselves against his attacks.

Most either did it with a shield or defensive magic; some people with extremely good sight were able to do it with their swords, but it was his first time seeing someone using their hands to brush away a magic attack.

Leopard was frustrated after seeing such a feat that went against common sense.

After seeing such an unusual thing, Leopard was lost in words.

How was she able to brush off an attack that could pierce steel with such little hands?

But unlike what Leopard was thinking, Ain wasn't having an easy time.

Brushing off an attack with the hands may have seemed easy, but it really wasn’t. There were a lot of complex strategies involved.

She couldn't make a single mistake.

One mistake meant death.

Ain kept remembering everything Hyun had just explained to her.

"The main attack of the boss is called «Ice Top»."

"It's a simple attack that consists of shooting a piece of ice, but it's extremely fast—even you're going to have a hard time avoiding it."

"The damage output is more than 10,000, so if it touches you, you're dead."

"My «One Second Immortality» gives you 50 extra defensive stats, so it can't block 10,000 damage."

The first time she’d heard Hyun's explanation, she thought it'd be impossible to pull it off.

…A magic so fast it was impossible to avoid it.

The damage output was too high to block it with the «One Second Immortality» defensive skill.

Under those conditions, anyone else would have given up, but Hyun ended up finding an answer.

"When the magic comes flying in your direction, brush it off and forcefully change its path. Normally, you'd lose your arms if you tried something like this..."

"But if I reinforce your defensive stats with «One Second Immortality» during that short period, the situation changes!"

That was what Hyun had thought.

Normally, even if you managed to do that, you'd still lose your hands because of how high the damage was.

In Asrian Online, there was a system that if you received more than 33% of damage at once, you wouldn't be able to use the part of the body that received the attack.

But what if the defense against magic increased by 50?

In Asra and Asrian online, there was a bonus for being precise.

Just like you got critical hit damage by attacking the opponent at a vital point, by brushing off the opponent's attack, depending on the angle, the damage received decreased.

If you could decrease the damage output to a certain point, you could perfectly block any attack with «One Second Immortality».

The problem was that this was all in theory.

"The magic will come flying in your direction when the wand shines."

"There's a margin of 0.2 to 0.3 seconds. But if it's you, you should be able to react."

Whoosh-

Leopard's wand illuminated.

Ain made sure to keep her eyes wide open.

Her body moved faster than she thought was possible.

The moment she twisted her waist, she was able to brush off the incoming attack with her hands.

Just before her hands touched the ice, Hyun applied his «One Second Immortality» on her.

Smash- The piece of ice missed Ain and hit a tree behind her.

The damage Ain received by pulling that off was zero: She hadn't received any damage.

Oof- Ain sighed in relief.

「Do you think you'll be able to do it?」Hyun asked Ain.

Yes, of course. Although my hands are tingling a little bit.」

「Okay, then let's do it.」

They were talking via whisper, which was something reserved for friends.

They had chosen to talk that way because they were in the middle of a battle, and there was a risk of not being able to hear what the other person was saying.

In order to dissipate the opponent's attack, Hyun rushed towards the back of the boss monster.

Whish- The wand illuminated again. And once more, Ain was able to brush it off.

Hyun had been able to synchronize his «One Second Immortality» with the exact moment Ain dismissed the ice bullet.

The time necessary to recast 'Ice Top' was longer than the one of «One Second Immortality», which was 10 seconds. Hyun had already made all the necessary calculations and was ready to use his skill at any moment.

Hyun had managed to cast the buffs at the exact time.

The two moved in perfect synchrony as if they were only one person.

If one person made a mistake, they'd both die. You could say that their harmonious way of fighting was beautiful.

The boss kept attacking them.

The direction in which the wand was pointed changed.

Hyun's eyes widened.

That time, he was the target!

His reaction timing wasn't that much worse than Ain's.

He focused all his attention and brushed off the attack perfectly… Or that's what he thought. Unlike Ain, he couldn't manage to do it perfectly.

[You've received 15 damage!]

He had received some damage because of the angle from which he dismissed Leopard's attack.

But Hyun still had a lot of health left, so that didn't make them change their original plan.

'Unlike Ain, I'm using a skill while also defending. Doing this much while having my attention span divided into two is impressive enough.'

Even if he saw that his magic wasn't working, Leopard didn't give up and cast the spell again and again.

His wand pointed towards Ain once more.

Hyun naturally changed the target of the buff.

«One Second Immortality»!

Whoosh- The moment Leopard's wand illuminated…

He shot his attack right in front of Ain.

Wiping out an attack coming from a short distance required a little bit more skill.

"Ugh..."

Ain groaned a little bit.

The moment she brushed off Leopard's attack, she extended her right hand. Now that she had managed to reduce the distance between them, Ain's first attack began.

Claws covered in fire scratched Leopard's white robe.

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 823 damage!]

"Ugh... How dare you hurt me! Okay, then I'll erase you from existence!"

Leopard hit the ground with his wand.

Whoosh - A magic circle appeared around him, and the air around him began fluctuating.

Hyun already knew what was about to happen.

「Back off!」

Ain had already moved backward before Hyun shouted.

Leopard finished casting his spell.

Thousands of ice pieces, sharp as a knife, began rotating just like a tornado.

It was a perfect defensive shield that could block both physical and magical attacks.

Leopard had just used his perfect defensive skill, «Snow Shield».

"What are you going to do now? Are you feeling the powerlessness of being a criminal who has dared to defy a celestial being?"

Leopard was undefeatable as long as the rotating ice pieces didn't stop.

Since it was impossible to get closer, attacking him wasn't possible.

But Hyun already knew about this skill, so he had already thought of a plan to counter it.

If there were no way to destroy «Snow Shield», he wouldn't have dared to challenge Leopard.

'Now!'

Hyun was watching Leopard from behind when he jumped right into the snowstorm.

Throwing himself into a tornado made of thousands of ice pieces as sharp as a knife seemed silly.

If another person saw him doing, they'd probably think he had committed suicide.

Of course, Hyun wasn't planning to die so easily.

«One Second Immortality»

«Shield»

Hyun applied his two skills to himself at the same time.

Thousands of ice pieces attacked him, but more than hurting, they tickled him.

Hyun's HP wasn't decreasing at all.

It was all thanks to the 50 defensive stats that his «One Second Immortality» gave.

If it was against a skill that consisted of many small different pieces attacking simultaneously, his «One Second Immortality» was practically invincible.

Crumble-

All the rotating pieces of ice fell to the ground at the same time.

Leopard's defensive skill had been canceled by «Shield».

The requirements to activate «Shield» were different from other defensive skills. Instead of the user, it depended on the enemy.

He used to criticize this skill because of this same reason. But right now, what he thought was a weakness was playing in his favor.

Hyun didn't need to penetrate Leopard's defense—activating «Shield» and jumping at him was enough.

[ «Shield»'s casting cooldown has been reset! ]

And there was another thing…

Every time he got hit by an opponent's attack, the cooldown time went down by five seconds.

It was a skill that had been designed to counter Leopard's «Snow Shield» perfectly.

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