Chapter 62: Defeating the Forest Guardians
"LET'S DO THIS," Stark and his clone were now both facing the two remaining guardians, they were monsters far stronger than they were, and the clone had only one HP, but there was no other solution now.
"EARTH FORCE," the green gorilla hit the ground beneath it with incredible force, resulting in a giant chunk of terrain being flung in the air right in front of it.
Then it grabbed it and launched it toward Stark.
"HAHA~" Stark wasn't afraid and dashed toward the giant chunk of rock, taking it head-on as his clone faced the bear.
"CRIMSON FIST," he sent a crimson fist at the chunk, destroying it and allowing him to close the distance between him and the gorilla.
But of course, Stark didn't go head on with an enemy more powerful, durable and stronger than he was…
He decided to finally use his legendary skill.
"DOUBLE ASSAULT!"
[Description: Upon activating this skill, all of your stats double in numbers, making you a beast in the battlefield, it only lasts ten seconds, but it should be enough to make both people and monsters fear you, cooldown is 20 minutes.]
As Stark activated Double Assault, he felt an incredible surge of power coursing through his veins. His strength, speed, agility, and aura were all doubled, making him a fearsome force to be reckoned with.
The Vine Gorilla and Water Bear immediately took notice of the sudden change in Stark's abilities, but they didn't back down.
[10 seconds left for 'Double Assault']
His time was counted, and so Stark decided he would make the best of it.
He leaped towards the Vine Gorilla, his crimson fists glowing with immense power. The gorilla tried to counter with its trademark "Vine Whip" move, but it was too slow to react to Stark's lightning speed.
~PUNCH~
Stark punched the gorilla's chest, and immediately the beast was sent flying in the opposite direction.
"-27361!" the damage was phenomenal, taking one fourth of the guardians' remaining HP in this single hit.
And in addition to that… Stark could still keep going.
[8 seconds left for 'Double Assault']
He followed the gorilla while it was still in midair and smashed its body to the ground.
"-26182!"
"V-VINE SHIELD!" it tried to summon its wall of vines, but all of them were easily cut by Stark.
"VINE GRAPPLE," it tried to catch Stark, but there was no use since a single step from his allowed him to avoid the attack.
"OOOUUHOUUUHH~" the gorilla tried to hit Stark, but the boy just blocked the punch with his palm.
"Nuh uh~" he did a no sign with his fingers after blocking the attack, and then punched the gorilla in the face.
"-31627!"
[3 seconds left for 'Double Assault']
The Gorilla using its final willpower and entire force got up and flexed its muscles, trying to stop Stark on his assault as it knew it couldn't defend against such a… monster.
"MUSCLE REINFORCEMENT," it used the attack that had allowed it to block both crimson fists and spears.
But…
~PUNCH~
"-0!"
~PUNCH~
"-0!"
The gorilla grinned as it saw that Stark was dealing 0 damage to it.
But…
~PUNCH, PUNCH, PUNCH…~
"-0! -0! -0!"
He became faster, and in less than a second, his punches became so fast that they weren't even visible to the naked eyes, each one was like a blur.
During those two seconds he had left, he had punched the gorilla 34 times.
"-0!"
"-736!"
"-1829!"
"-7261!"
"-17174!"
Gradually, the damage became higher since the gorilla couldn't tank it all.
And soon enough…
[Vine Gorilla (GUARDIAN) HP: 0/120000]
It fell to the ground while holding its chest, visible marks of crimson aura still in the place Stark had hit.
[10 seconds have passed, 'Double Assault' expired]
"…" he looked down at the gorilla before smiling, "Weak."
And then he diverted his gaze to the Water Bear, who also seemed to have a hard time.
The reason was obvious: the clone was also using 'Double Assault'.
As crazy as it sounds, not only can clones copy skills, inflict status effects, cause high damage, but they can also use 'Invincible Dodge' just like Stark to avoid damage, but also… they can use the legendary skill 'Double Assault'.
When the original Stark went to fight the Vine Gorilla, the clone in opposition rushed to face the Water Bear.
"WATER STRIKE," the bear tried to slash Stark's clone when it was approaching, but it was no use since it easily avoided it, and it hadn't even activated 'Double Assault' yet.
"AURA SMASH, CRIMSON SPEARS," the clone jumped in the air and sent all these attacks toward the bear, who was too slow to avoid them all.
"-4267! -4825! -3351! -5794! -4972!"
It dealt decent damage even though it had reduced aura and the bear's defense was extremely high.
And in addition to that…
[Enemy stunned]
The bear was stunned from one of the crimson fists, resulting in stopping all of its attacks, whether it was the many claw strikes it was attempting to use to kill the clone, or even the 'Water Cannon' that was constantly following it.
"DOUBLE ASSAULT!" the clone also activated the skill upon noticing that the bear was down, somehow it was able to think for itself as it was thinking just like Stark and what he would do in such a situation.
Its eyes glowed red with the newly doubled power surge, and the guardian could do nothing but watch as the clone suddenly kicked it in the jaw.
"-7261!"
And what followed afterward was a deadly combo of attacks…
"-8372! -6744! -7261!"
…
By the end of the ten seconds, the clone had dealt 88726 points of damage to the bear, placing it on its final 5k health points.
Stark had already finished off the gorilla by then, and was just watching how his clone was doing, he was ready to intervene, but honestly, he wanted to see how far it would go.
'Of course, I don't expect it to win,' he shrugged, but was immediately proven wrong as even without the increased speed, the clone managed to land three more good punches on the bear before the 'Water Cannon' finally hit it.
"-3261!" the clone disappeared as it was hit, but it had already done its job.
[Water Bear (GUARDIAN) HP: 0/100000]
The Water Bear let out a final cry before falling on its stomach.
"…" Stark looked at the surrounding chaos, then back at the three guardians he had defeated (or just two because a clone had pretty much taken one by itself).
"I WON!" he shouted as hard as he could, although he was bleeding from his back and leg because of the attacks, and there were traces of fire because of the burning.
Meanwhile, back to the 'Wyvern's Wrath' group that had been observing Stark.
Well… saying they were astonished would be an understatement.
"ISN'T THAT THE LEVEL 16 GUY, HOW?"
"No idea... that boy is insane... I don't think even I would have done something so reckless..."
"But his aura was insane! Did he just take on three guardians at the same time?!"
Murmurs spread around, and Stark's brother, the leader of the group, composed himself, "Probably one of those prodigies, I wonder what his class is…" he scratched his chin.
"Well… we did what we needed to do, let's keep going," he told his members, and they all nodded, what they had just witnessed was insane, but they had more serious things to take care of as the rift was far from completed.