He immediately placed the Magic Shield he had drew up before in front of him, he widened his footing stance to prepare for an impact. Unexpectedly, the Lizardman vanished when it was about to collide with his shield. He was stupefied by this turn of events.
Instinctively, he felt unease at his back. He swiveled around just in time before the Lizardman landed a hit. Coincidentally, the sword in his hand collided with the Lizardman's scimitar when he turned, so the attack was considered parried. Still, he could feel his body being pushed back by the resulting impact. Red number 56 appeared above his head.
He was astonished. Even though he was two levels lower than the Lizardman, he had an additional class with a level that was not low also. His total attributes should still be way higher than a level 12, but both his speed and strength seemed to be lacking in comparison to the monster. The damage he received wasn't such a big deal compared to the Skeleton Captain proportionately, but its speed made this Lizardman much more dangerous to deal with.
As he regained his balance, he saw the monster lunged at him again. He put his Magic Shield in front again, but this time he paid more attention to the monster's movements. When it was a short distance from him, its body became a blur. In his limited peripheral vision, he noticed a red shadow went past above him. He turned around and saw the monster landed a few feet behind.
Shit! What a powerful jump! He exclaimed in his mind.
The Lizardman turned in a flash and executed a slash. This time he was aware of the attack and managed to dodge by backstepping. Once the scimitar went past, he promptly advanced and executed Power Strike. The blow hit the round shield held by the Lizardman's left hand. It stood its ground without any damage.
It returned the attack with lightning-fast two consecutive slashes. The first slash was blocked by Magic Shield but he didn't expect the second one as it slashed across his hip. He felt a stinging pain as he hastily retreated. He lost 79 HP from the slash.
The battle had just started less than a minute ago but it already took out a quarter of his health. The monster didn't allow him time to recuperate, it advanced and made several consecutive slashes. Facing such fierce assault, Jack could only resolve to defense. He managed to block the attacks with Magic Shield and Parry, but he became passive and was still losing health continuously.
When the barrage of assaults ended, he took a risk to leap forward and Power Strike on the monster's bare body. But it turned out its scale was its own armor. He felt like his sword scraped through a metallic sheet. It only left a slight mark on the scales. The damage was a pitiful 32, It was not even one percent from the monster's total HP. This was not a fair fight, he complained in his mind.
He tried his best to stay alive, he even took out two medicines to recover his health during the fight. However, his HP bar kept depleting, while he could only land one or two hits amongst the relentless assaults from the monster. He would run out of his health before he could even take out ten percent of this monster's HP. He needed to retreat!
He backed off while focusing on defense using his Magic Shield and Parry. When he reached the door, he used his back to push the door open. Hopefully, this is the type of Boss that didn't chase you once you were out of his territory, he prayed. The door was locked.
Oh, no! Did I get locked in this room? Won't it be game over for me then? He was alarmed.
In a glance, he saw a similar card reader beside the door, and then he saw another door on the opposite side of this room, it was slightly opened.
Crap, it was the wrong door! He cursed. Under the intense battle and the symmetrical design of the room, he had mistaken the direction. His health was pitifully low now, he could just survive another one or two hits if he blocked it using Magic Shield or Parry.
The monster used his round shield to ram onto him. He blocked it with Magic Shield but his body still slammed to the door behind. Small damage further chipped on his low HP, but he felt his body getting paralyzed from the hard impact. The Lizardman took the opportunity when he was dazed and lifted its scimitar high, it was going to deal a finishing blow!
Jack clenched his teeth and ignore the pain in his back. He jumped out just as the scimitar came slashing down, and dodge it by a hairbreadth. He rolled on the ground, and as he got back up, he cast Energy Bolts. One of the advantages of Energy Bolts spell was that the bolts could home in on the enemy, hence there was no need for accuracy. In fact, he even cast the spell without looking at the Lizardman.
He started running towards the opposite door. He heard four crashing sounds as each of the Bolts hit the Lizardman. It won't give the monster significant damage. However, the impact did halt the Lizardman's movements, which gave him enough distance as he dashed away from the monsters.
However, the room was quite large. Even before he covered one-third of the distance to the entrance door, he heard the sounds of the Lizardman's footsteps closing in. It was very fast. Luckily, Jack had spent some points on his dexterity. If not, he would have been easily caught by the monster before he reached two-thirds of the distance.
He stored his weapons and exerted all his effort just on running, it was pointless to continue the fight now. When he was about to reach the door, he could hear the Lizardman closing in. He gritted his teeth and jumped forward. He crashed onto the door as it swung violently outwards from the impact. He fell onto the floor outside the room and rolled several times before stopping some distance away from the door. He hastily got up and prepared to make another evasion jump, but he didn't saw the Lizardman.
He looked through the opened door, the Lizardman leisurely walked back to the middle of the room. After it arrived there, he went back to sit on the floor. The situation inside the room went back to as before he entered, as if nothing had happened.
He let out a relieved breath as he saw the monster was no longer hostile. So, it only attacked if someone entered the room. He pondered about it. He was taking out medicine to drink when he noticed his health started to recover by itself.
He remembered now that he got the Natural Body Recovery skill, which allowed him to recover naturally when out of combat. In this way, he didn't need to be afraid of running out of medicine. He stored the medicine back to be used in an emergency. He then sat down to recuperate.
"Wait, I can use this natural recovery to my advantage," he said. He thought about it. Even though he didn't give the Lizardman any significant damage, he still wound it a little. If he went back in again after he fully recovered, and fight it before coming out again when his HP was low, he could use this method to chip away on the Boss' HP.
"Haha," he started to laugh. "Just you wait, you overgrown lizard. I gonna skewer you into lizard stick!"
He grinned in anticipation as he rested. His stamina and mana recovered much faster due to the effect of the Egg Fried Rice he had eaten before entering the building. He wished he could find a food recipe that increased his natural health recovery as well.
After waiting for around fifteen minutes, his HP bar finally filled up. He took out his weapons and dashed back into the room with vigor. The Lizardman stood up once he saw the intruder was back, the red bar above its head was full.
"F**k!" Jack cursed out loud. The Monster also had natural recovery ability.