Chapter 69: Discovered Weaknesses
"DOMINATION!" he had been using it until now, but he was calling out to it since he wanted to use the new perk he unlocked after reaching level 10.
[Description: Your class resonates with you, the power you have acquired through all your fights vibrates through your body, and your aura is now stronger than ever before, you are now allowed to place a shield around your body that blocks 5K points of damage]
And just as expected, a barrier of aura suddenly formed around Stark's body, surrounding his figure perfectly, its edges moving like waves.
~CRASH~
Stark tried to avoid it, but he was only half-successful as the attack hit his leg.
~CRACK~
"-4817!" even only hitting his leg, the damage was insane, but it looked like the aura barrier actually endured the attack, meaning he hadn't received any sort of damage.
[HP: 5184/8500]
He had regained some HP both from killing the minotaur, but also doing damage to the golem, that necklace was really useful.
But Stark didn't waste time and immediately jumped in the air at the golem's direction, reaching its head in a matter of seconds if not less.
'GOTCHA!'
He punched its remaining working eyes three times.
"-9271! -8263! -8936!" it did decent damage.
But in contrast…
"-462! -341! -458!"
He also received damage since the golem's thick rock skin and defense were enough to hurt him.
'Ouch,' he dropped to the ground while wiping the small blood that came out of his hands and positioned himself for the battle.
After all these exchanges, the dust finally settled, revealing to the other classifiers on the other end of the canyon the scene of the obsidian golem and determined Stark still standing, although many noticed that the golem had lost one of its eyes in the process.
"He's actually doing it!"
"Did you say something about it being impossible, Jack?" Vex mocked the soul wielder.
"He ain't surviving, it didn't even use its most powerful skills yet," but Jack was confident.
Vex smirked, unfazed by Jack's skepticism. As the battle between Stark and the obsidian golem raged on, the canyon seemed to tremble with each clash of titans.
The golem's strength was truly fascinating, able to shake the entire canyon with a single smash of its rocky arm.
But its speed didn't allow it to hit Stark as he was just too fast for it.
"CLONE FRENZY!" he summoned one of his clones beside him.
The goal of this clone wasn't to attack the golem head on, as he had already proven that when he hit it, he would also receive some counter damage, meaning the clone would die instantly because of its 1 HP, instead it would just… stale for damage and time from afar.
"AURA SMASH!" the clone's hands began glowing with aura, and it sent two giant fists at the golem while Stark toward it.
"-4362! -3827!" the golem was unable to avoid even the 'lesser' version of Stark.
Then while it was getting ready to use another one of its skills…
"OBSIDIAN DEFENSE," first, it doubled its defense, its shiny black body now shining because the obsidian that formed it suddenly became much harder.
And then…
"THE GOLEM'S WRATH!" its burning rocky crimson eyes were ready to unleash horrifying attacks on the human…
The golem's wrath was one of its two ultimate skills, one where it would quite literally shatter its body to make it even harder for Stark to hit or even hope of damaging it.
'…' But Stark knew better.
Every time he allowed a boss to use its ultimate skill, it always ended in him almost dying.
Whether it was the 'Feathered Scourge' with its halo beam, the 'Mayor' with its call of hundreds of monsters, or the 'Mirror Master' and its domain, allowing them to do so always resulted in disaster.
But what if he didn't allow them to do that? What if… he could stop them from casting their ultimate?
Of course, he had noticed that every time, it took at least 5 to 10 seconds for the monsters to use their skills, meaning that between this time… maybe he could do something?
The golden halo's around the golem's limbs and body were now glowing, a fantastic aura surrounding them.
[Note: you cannot stop an ultimate attack from being used, you can only… weaken it =)]
'Send your spears toward the right arm,' he ordered his clone as soon as he read that message, then sent two fists toward that same arm.
The golem was currently busy managing its halos and attack, they were charging up.
But right as the golem was about to unleash its ultimate attack, multiple crimson spears flew toward its right arm, and in addition, two crimson fists as well.
~CRASH, BOOM, CRACK~
"-11271!" the damage was fairly low because of the increased defense, but that wasn't what interested Stark the most.
Instead… he saw an opportunity.
Once all the attacks hit the arm, he saw a crack form on it.
He hadn't really thought about it, but could it be that each of the golem's limbs have HP of their own, like in a game?
He couldn't check them out, and it was only a theory, but one he couldn't refute.
Furthermore, he dashed toward the golem, arriving in front of its cracked arm in less than a second.
And then… he punched it four times at incredible speed.
"-3716! -3639! -3472! -3381!"
Of course, he also received some damage because of the obsidian's increased defense, but it wasn't enough for him to care.
Instead…
~CRACK, CRASH~
The golem's right arm completely cracked and fell to the ground, turning into a pile of dust, and the halo that was around it suddenly turned dark.
[Obsidian Golem (ELITE) HP: 44219/175000]
It had lost one of its arms, and some cracks on its body could be seen.
But this made Stark realize something…
'What if…' he scratched his chin while backing away, 'What if I destroyed its legs…'
It was a rock monster, and if Stark could destroy two… no… even just one of its legs, then wouldn't it just completely crumble and die immediately?
If this was an MMORPG game or strategy game, this was something that would seem obvious.
And so right as he thought about that…
[Monster Weaknesses: every monster has a weakness, whether it is visible or not, there is ALWAYS a way to kill a monster easier than by just reducing its HP to 0]
This panel came confirming what Stark guessed could be true.
'This world is… interesting,' he smirked.
If he had aimed for the golem's leg instead of its arm, it would have surely died.
But it didn't matter.
"THE GOLEM'S WRATH!" even after losing its arm, the elite still used its ultimate skill.