Izroth was currently moving at a high-speed around Calder. At the moment, Izroth had yet to acquire the skills necessary for a long-range battle. Therefore, in order to avoid becoming simple target practice for Calder, Izroth stuck close to him and did not retreat in the slightest once he closed the distance.
Izroth did not spend this time simply running in circles around Calder. Every opportunity that presented itself was not wasted and Izroth made sure to attack whenever possible. His strategy so far was working perfectly, as Calder was incapable of landing a solid hit on him.
'He's getting faster.'
Izroth realized that although Calder possessed a high attack stat, his agility stat seemed to be a little lacking in comparison. In fact, Calder's speed appeared to be slower than that of the Sea Palace Guards Izroth fought when he first arrived inside the Sea Palace Graveyard dungeon.
Though Izroth linked this to Calder not being within a body of water and not a gigantic bubble. Hence, he did not receive the increase in agility as the Sea Palace Guard or Yellow-Razored Kryrco Shark did. However, as time passed by Calder's agility was slowly improving.
It was hard to notice such a change since it was happening at a steady pace. But eventually, even if a player did not have Izroth's heightened senses, it was only a manner of time until Calder's speed increase became obvious.
There was another event going on at the same time that was the most suitable explanation as to why Calder was getting faster.
'The water level in this room is rising. The rate at which it's filling up the room has more than tripled since the beginning from when I first stepped onto the platform. Also, there's something else that has been bothering me...'
Although Izroth was pondering a few things, he did not let himself get distracted from the battle in front of him. Izroth swept his Blade of Lightning past the lower left ribcage of Calder, slashing at the location where his gills were located.
«Critical Hit»
-500
With that strike, Izroth dropped Calder's HP down to the 50% mark. When that happened, the water pouring out of the openings leading into the gigantic bubble began to gush out like an endless stream.
There were also numerous Rainbow Coral Fish floating around, though all of them just kept swimming in a circle without a care in the world.
Calder's speed skyrocketed and Izroth could no longer remain so close to him, as his attacks were becoming more challenging to evade.
If Izroth focused solely on avoiding the attacks then it would not be much of an issue, but if he did that then he would be unable to launch any counter-attacks. The battle would then be locked in a stalemate with both sides unable to come out victorious.
Of course, Izroth could always use Flickering Steps or the Lightning Field Skill from his Blade of Lightning to keep up, but something kept urging him to hold off on using them for now.
Izroth could feel a deadly energy gathering around Calder. The golden trident in his hands was shaking violently as if something wanted to burst free from it. Izroth quickly fell back and created some distance between Calder and himself.
"It has been too long since I've last fought a battle in water. Surface dweller, you should feel honored." Calder brandished his mighty golden trident, sending a powerful wave of water in Izroth's direction. There was a light yellow energy glowing faintly in front of the wave releasing a heavy aura.
'The usual strategy in this type of situation would be for the tank to limit the movements of Calder to limit the effects of his agility increase. Although running dungeons solo provides a bountiful amount of EXP, in the end, it's far from being practical and efficient.'
'Though I suppose there is an upside to everything.'
Izroth was referring to the fact that the loot he found would belong solely to him. If he was in a party then the Isolated Water Droplets he uncovered earlier would have been split into equal parts amongst all the members. However, Izroth still believed that sooner rather than later, he would require a party.
His reasons were simple. Izroth did not start things he would not finish. He wanted to become recognized as the number one player in RML. If he wished to accomplish that goal then he needed a way to achieve more recognition.
How does one stand out in a world full of millions upon millions of players this early in RML? The answer was simple, dungeons! Not just discovering them and clearing them, but rather doing so in record time.
Although Izroth was confident in his ability to clear a dungeon successfully, to do so in record time would be practically impossible due to skill cooldowns and various other factors.
While he was more than capable of learning new skills, Izroth felt that learning too many high ranked heavenly laws would cause the system to further delay the skill it was already currently processing, the Boundless Void Emperor Perfection.
Originally the skill only needed a single day to finish, however, as Izroth began to learn additional skills, the time limit shot up to 30 days. While it may not be entirely because of him learning new skills, it could have an unknown influence.
Therefore, Izroth made the decision to limit his creation of new skills for now. Or at the very least those that would be considered S-ranked or higher. He already took a huge risk when acquiring the Second Baneful Sword: Kill.
Izroth's main focus was still on the boss monster before him; he did not let his thoughts distract his fighting capabilities. "I should feel honored? You either think too highly of yourself or too lowly of me." Izroth maintained that carefree expression on his face as if everything was in his control.
Even though Calder's speed was constantly rising, with his heightened senses and countless years of battle experience, it did not take long for Izroth to figure out how to deal with whatever Calder threw at him. The water inside of the gigantic bubble was now up to Izroth's mid-torso area.
As the wave cutting through the water was heading in his direction, Izroth moved out of the way in time, successfully dodging the attack. However, something strange occurred as the wave continued to travel well past Izroth and struck the rainbow-colored coral directly.
This caused the rainbow-colored coral inside the gigantic bubble to form cracks on its surface. The cracks began to grow larger and it appeared as if something was breaking free from within the rainbow-colored coral.
"Come, my trusty steed! Follow me into a glorious battle once more!" Calder shouted as the area where his attack hit the rainbow-colored coral had pieces falling down. It resembled shards of broken glass dropping to the ground.
Izroth narrowed his eyes as he glanced over towards where Calder's attack landed. That attack was never meant for him, it was being aimed at the rainbow-colored coral behind him all along.
Crrrrrrrck! Neeeeeeeeigh!
'So that turned out to be the case...'
The area of the rainbow-colored coral that was cracked completely broke apart and what emerged from it was a magnificent seahorse creature. It was deep midnight blue in color with rainbow-colored scales covering the front section of its body.
The seahorse eyes were filled with boundless confidence and it looked down on other creatures that it felt was lesser than itself. The sole reason Calder had such a noble and powerful steed was that he saved its life when it was weak and no bigger than 2cm.
But now, this majestic seahorse was over 3 meters tall and did not look anything like its former weak self. This was a Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse, one of the few in existence within the Great Kashysh Sea.
The seahorse was not the only thing that came from within the rainbow-colored coral when it broke apart. Water spewed into the gigantic bubble in a seemingly endless stream and it was not long before the entire battlefield was underwater.
The Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse charged over at a frightening speed to meet up with Calder before turning itself to Izroth's direction. When it arrived near him, Calder hopped onto its back and held his golden trident outwards pointing it at Izroth.
Calder charged forward on his Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse at an incredible speed. It was obvious that his agility had easily more than double that of Izroth's. Riding atop his seahorse mount, Calder zoomed past Izroth and as he did, he stabbed his golden trident through him cleaning.
Izroth's body was run through with Calder's golden trident, however, his HP did not budge from its original spot. A split second later, Izroth's body began to flicker and his body that was supposed to be stabbed into with a trident suddenly vanished.
Wooosh! Wooosh! Wooosh!
Suddenly, throughout the entire battlegrounds, afterimages of Izroth flickered everywhere. He used Flickering Steps to evade Calder's golden trident strike. There was no problem dealing with Calder's speed alone, however, once he started using the Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse as a mount Izroth had no choice but to use Flickering Steps.
The sea creature was too fast for him to react in time, even if he could see the attack coming ahead of time, he currently did not possess the base agility to respond properly. Therefore, he was left with having to use Flickering Steps.
Izroth's agility of 235 shot up to 940, soaring past Calder's own agility. But Izroth did not stop there and a faint buzzing sound with low crackles mixed in could be heard coming from his Blade of Lightning.
Bzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzt!
The Blade of Lightning in Izroth's hands began to emit a crackling sound as a field of lightning spread out within a 15 meters radius from Izroth's current position. Purple bolts of lightning began striking down from the invisible spherical atmosphere formed by the Lightning Field Skill.
〈Battle Alert: You have activated the skill «Lightning Field».〉
〈Battle Alert: Your ATK and AGI has been increased by 50%.〉
〈Battle Alert: Your attacks now deal 20% bonus damage as «Lightning Damage».〉
When Izroth activated his Lightning Field skill, his agility went from 940 to 1,410. At this level of agility, even with Calder riding the Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse, Calder was attacking nothing but Izroth's afterimages.
A bolt of lightning struck Calder and his mount, paralyzing them for 0.25 seconds which with Izroth's current agility, enabled him to swiftly arrive at Calder's side.
A deadly and oppressive aura encompassed Izroth's right index finger along with a sharp aura that seemed as if it wanted to cut through everything in its path. Energy began to converge at the tip of the same finger, though it was much calmer than that oppressive aura.
〈System Alert: You have perfectly executed two skills with high compatibility.〉
〈System Alert: Congratulations Player Izroth, you have created a fusion attack! Please name the fusion attack.〉
〈System Alert: Please note, this skill will share a cooldown time with the skill First Baneful Sword: Destruction and will not be usable when it is on cooldown. This skill will also consume 60 Energy.〉
"First Baneful Sword: Destruction Point."
Izroth quickly leaped into the air and his finger penetrated straight through Calder's neck. The power behind the attack was incredibly concentrated to a single point and was able to cut through all of Calder's defenses like a hot knife through butter.
Along with the bonus lightning damage from his Lightning Field skill and Calder being a sea creature, with just one attack Izroth removed more than 17% of Calder's total HP.
«Critical Hit»
-5,704
If anyone saw such a high damage number coming from someone with Izroth's level, they would be dumbfounded. The only players who would probably not be surprised by anything at this point were Luna and Halls.
A small smile formed on Izroth's face, 'It's about time to finish this fight.'