NOVEL NEXT Chapter 124: Round Two
Leon entered the familiar Blackwood Forest with his War Hammer resting on his shoulders. He could have chosen his Baseball Bat to fight since he was more familiar with it, but he had bought this war hammer for this special occasion.
A smash would be returned with a smash. And a hammer worked better for that than a Baseball Bat.
Still, he kept his vigilance at the highest because of the Mosspounder.
This area was perfect for a sneak attack from monsters like Mosspounder and the Demonic Trees.
While walking in this silent atmosphere and keeping away from the Trees, Leon finally spotted some movement in the distance as his lips parted in a wide grin.
He quickly approached the monster moving in the distance and since it was quite slow, Leon easily reached it, but he didn't attack the monster immediately.
Jumping onto a tree's branch, he looked down at the familiar monster. The gorilla-like beast with huge hands made of hardened soil and rock, its back filled with moss, mushrooms, and other parasitic growths, slowly walked on its tiny legs.
Leon frowned and muttered, "This feels wrong."
He peered deep into the Monster to know its status as a hologram appeared before him.
[Mosspounder. Level 11, Tier 2.]
"Knew it! This guy is different," Leon brandished his hammer and smiled. "But what does it matter? I swore to exterminate your whole race and I will do it today."
With that, he jumped down from the tree and used Sprint Boost to approach the Monster.
Before the monster could react, a heavy impact on its back caved in all the moss and mushrooms, and the Mosspounder burst into bright fragments of light that scattered away in the wind.
Leon landed gently on the ground and muttered, "Your nightmare has just begun."
He was a higher level than this Mosspounder and he had also been practicing hard, so his battle prowess had grown much more than before.
If previously Leon was like a greenhorn learning to wield daggers, now he was a veteran soldier who could handle anything.
After throwing the Energy Orb into his inventory, Leon moved on to his next target. He was a little disappointed that he didn't get any Skill Stones, but it was just a weak monster so he didn't think much of it.
Once again, Leon's hunt in the Blackwood Forest began. Perhaps, it was his good luck that he didn't encounter any higher-level monsters, but it did frustrate him.
He wanted to kill Mosspounder and he did kill many, but all of them were weak. They weren't the one who traumatized him.
As Leon was resting on a tree's top after a battle, he spotted a tree falling in the distance and his heart skipped a beat.
'Ah! My inner self is still afraid of that monster,' Leon thought, as he clutched his clothes. 'But not anymore. This is the last day I fear you, punkass.'
With that, Leon pushed his feet against the trunk, launching himself into the air as he used the tree's top to move towards his target's location.
At the height he was on, he would surely break a bone or two if he fell, but the excitement to get rid of his fear was tantalizing.
With a few more leaps, he landed on a Blackwood Tree's top, looking down at the monster who had already sensed his presence.
The moment their gazes met, both of them released different kinds of sounds, but one thing was common. Both held extreme hatred for each other.
[Mosspounder. Level 20, (Tier 2)]
"Oh, so you do recognize me, punkass," Leon said, still looking down. "At least this proves to me that this dungeon doesn't reset with my death. But it's for the better. Now I'll enjoy myself more in killing you."
The Mosspounder opened its maw, releasing a low gurgling sound and making a motion of punching at him. It seemed a simple movement, but Leon leapt away the moment he saw it.
In no time, a loud boom shattered the tree's top as the debris fell from above.
Meanwhile, Leon was already on the move as he circled the Mosspounder using his extreme speed boosted by his skill. It was one of the greatest advantages he held against the Mosspounder.
Even though he seemed insane on the surface, his mind was absolutely calm with calculations running through different simulations.
'This guy leveled up once, so does that mean monsters here can also level up? Thankfully he didn't cross the threshold of Tier 3. Let's start the fun!'
Dozens of vines shot out from all around him at an incredible speed, but Leon had already thought about the increase in the monster's speed, so he dodged all of them easily.
But he realized that the monster was trying to trap him in a jungle of vines slowly and surely.
'Heh, as if it will ever work!'
With a wide swing of his War Hammer, he destroyed all the vines coming at him, effectively cutting off the plans Mosspounder had for him.
Just then, he noticed Mosspounder's hand raising in the air and smiled, "So predictable, Buddy."
He spun with the hammer in hand and then slammed it on the ground in quick movements. With a boom, the Hammer's Enchantment dealt damage to everything around the impact area.
Once he cleared away a path from the vines and the grass spears growing out from the ground, he jumped behind a Blackwood Tree and braced himself for the impact.
A shockwave shook the whole area and Leon felt it even through the thick trunk of the Blackwood tree, or what once it used to be.
He rolled to the sides to avoid getting crushed under the falling wood and thought, 'Just one level and this guy can already destroy something like a Blackwood Tree. What an annoying monster.'
He turned back towards the monster, then at his surroundings, and smiled, 'So it really is your plan. Well, I have to give you my thanks then .'
He waited for a few seconds as the vines all around him began to grow in size instead of attacking him. He knew what the monster was preparing, but he let it be.
After all, it would be beneficial for him too.
Soon, vines grew larger than even the Blackwood Trees, making tall towering walls of green. The monster had trapped him inside this fortress of vines.
This was the Mosspounder's Ultimate as the Mini-Boss. It forced players out of their hiding zones and made them fight the monster in a head-on battle.
But it was very tough to kill it at a lower Level, and once it completed the Ultimate, they would be trapped and forced to fight under a Debuff from the Spores.
Leon knew a secret of it though. The Ultimate cost a huge amount of Essence, so the Mosspounder couldn't use its variety of annoying abilities.
This was the reason Leon had made it look like he was dodging the monster's attacks so easily this time.
The Mosspounder didn't have much intelligence, so it concluded that normal attacks wouldn't work on Leon. Thus, it discarded them and used the Ultimate.
'Dumbfuck! If you had continued to use your basic skills, I would have grown tired before you and lost. Besides, this will also affect your Berserker State,' Leon smirked, as his plan had succeeded.
But now he had to focus on the second part of the battle. He somehow had to survive this Ultimate of the Mosspounder.
He took a deep breath as he sensed the spores slowly mixing in the wind and then stopped breathing. His skin took on a metallic tone as he activated Iron Skin.
'Now, the race is against time. It's a battle of attrition...or it's supposed to be at least.'
Leon smiled and dashed towards the Mosspounder. He knew it wouldn't be able to use its big attacks like Air Cannon, but plant manipulation was still possible to some extent.
So, he was careful and waited for its attack to dodge, but the Mosspounder did something completely unexpected. Vines grew around it and began to envelop it in a dome.
'Not so fast!'
Leon instantly used Sprint Boost, but he was still a second late as the vines had covered the Mosspounder from all sides. There were small gaps from which spores still poured into the atmosphere, filling the air with nothing but poison.
He punched at the vines, but they just bounced his fist away with little damage on them.
It truly was a battle of attrition.
'So this was your plan, huh. You've grown some brains despite being a Tier 2. But you're still dumb enough to believe this can stop me.'
Leon gripped the hammer tightly in his hand and raised it above his head. With a smirk playing on his breathless face, he brought the weapon down while pouring every ounce of strength into it.
With a powerful boom, the impact made the vines sluggish and the whole dome shuddered as the Hammer's Enchantment transferred the force all around it.
But it recovered and still held on against Leon, as if challenging him to break it. If he didn't break it in time, then it would be him who would die.
But none of that mattered to Leon. He wasn't even thinking about all of that. He only had one single thought in his mind at that moment.
'Smash!!'