-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

-Doom Fest(6)-

Taking Park Hanbie’s suggestion into consideration, Malena stopped using her collection of skills and instead attacked the being with just her basic attacks. Not only just her, but the others excluding a select few also joined the battle to gang up on the deformed creature. Without the usage of there skills, their damage-dealing speed was much slower than before, and even their efficiency was impaired, but when more than three people attacking with one actively busy on blocking, it became easy for the group to cope with the monster.

As Malena said earlier, this creature indeed had only one skill form what her system’s scanning shown before, but even so, its physical trait that allowed it to regain the lost HP after consuming the ground was very OP and annoying at the same time.

There was another thing about it which made it a very dangerous creature they had ever fought. If a skill was used on it more than once, slowly, it would become completely immune to it. No matter what kind of skill it was, as long as it’s actively used upon it, the creature would gradually get immune to that particular skill. It was the main reason why Park Hanbie suggested them to refrain from using their skills.

“Ha, eat this you piece of shit!!” a Korean man, An Seung-Gi, shouted, giving the creature an upward punch. The intensity of force, as well as the recoil, caused the ground beneath his feet to crack open like a watermelon, as spiderweb fissures formed around. But it achieved his goal, making the creature go airborne.

[-10]

“Nice,” Nicole, British-American man shouted, giving the Korean man a thumbs-up before, giving the creature’s side cheek a heavy and powerful knee slam.

[-10]

Rings of air formed in midair, as the deformed creature sent flying towards another place. But in there, two people were already waiting for it. Malena and Kaori, one holding a huge a hammer while other’s a tanto, they both, like twin fishes, attacked the creature aiming its different fatal regions.

[-10][-10]

When their attacks were finished, they turned midair and slammed their heels on the creature, throwing them down, where Park Hanbie was already waiting to receive it with his massive shield.

[-10]

[-10] [-700]

“It’s no use, we can’t deal it even 800 damage, even though we all worked together and in a synchronized pattern,” Malena complained, stamping her foot on the ground in anger. The ground nearly gave away due to her powerful slam.

Hanbie devised a plan, they would all attack it together and in a definite pattern. The main point was that they wouldn’t allow this creature to ever touch the ground, least it regains it’s lost HP by consuming ground once again.

“It’s alright, we already knew this creature's defense was extraordinary. The plan’s still in effect though, Hanbie hasn’t yet put it down, see~” said Kaori, signaling at Hanbie who was looking at them with a smile as he kept the creature atop his huge shield, not allowing it to touch the ground.

“Round two guys!!” shouting loudly, Hanbie threw the creature towards Malena and Kaori. Like before, they attacked with their specialized weapon first, one dealing blunt force trauma while others doing piercing damage. After that, they both kicked it towards where Nicole and An Seung-Gi stood, ready for Round 2.

Boom!!!

After eating their combined attacks, the creature lost 500 HPs total. From its original 2k HP, only 700 more HP to go.

Hanbie came running and slammed the creature with his shield, using it like a bat. But at that time, something strange happened that flabbergasted the whole team. When Hanbie slammed his shield, it neither looked nor sounded like he had hit a solid object. Rather, it felt like he hit a balloon filled with water.

Splat!!

The creature literally burst like a balloon as it’s fleshy material splattered all over his shield. But that wasn’t the end, though. The truly terrifying and worse thing came later. The grotesque fleshy things started to expand all over his shield and covered it in a matter of seconds. In fear, Hanbie let his shield go as everyone, even the perimeter hunters, watched in horror as the small fleshy things devoured it. After devouring it, the scattered flesh moved to the center and rejoined themselves again.

After rejoining, it no longer had the prehistoric form, but an ape-like form. But what made it weird was that, the ape had an exotic looking exoskeleton made out of shiny black metal. Also, the exoskeleton on it’s left hand had a semi-rectangular protrusion, looking like a man holding to a small shield.

“Fuck me!” Nicole shouted, seeing the newest form of the monster.

As if to agree with him, the ape set it’s sight upon him first and jumped toward shim, with its jaw wide, displaying its razor-sharp metallic-looking teeth.

“You didn't have to take that literally!!” Nicole panicked and jumped back, trying to avoid the ape’s attack. The ape’s new body and limbs gave it better flexibility than previous, so it only stepped lightly on the ground once and changed its trajectory towards Nicole once again.

An Seung-Gi appeared in a flash before the ape. Grabbing it’s right outstretched hand with his two hands and putting one of his legs on it left torso, he used his other leg as a pivot and threw the ape to his left in a very complex maneuver. No matter how weak or powerful a hunter was, they all were master martial artists. Besides, Seung-Gi’s fighting style and skills reflected his mastery over taekwondo, a very lethal and ancient art that focussed almost entirely on legs.

But he wasn’t finished. Rotating around himself in midair while still horizontally in midair, he gave the ape’s neck region a vicious kick, slamming it on the ground, which gave away upon impact, forming a deep crater.

“Thank you, man,” Nicole came running with a relieved expression. Unlike him, he wasn’t a purely physical fighter. He focussed more upon his skill, which would peel away his opponent's defenses and HP upon usage. He also mastered a few fire-type skills, but this creature had become immune to them all, forcing him to fight with his hands and feet.

Unlike Kenshin, who had way too many lucky encounters and exotic adventures that catapulted his stats like a speeding train, these guys had to earn each point with their own efforts. Due to this, they didn’t have the luxury to balance out their stats and thus took the easy way out to gradually advance in power. They completely discarded the notion of balance and instead focussed on the stats which their classes based on.

Take this man Nicole as an example, he had a class called Disabler. In theory, his class was meant for support. His skills were heavily dependent on his stamina and health. That’s why he focussed almost entirely on his physique, agility, and attack. Due to this, his other stats didn’t gain many points in comparison and thus, the only destructive skills he could use were some simple fireballs or sparks.

Now that he encountered a creature that could make his skills useless, he lost almost 80% of his fighting ability. This was the difference between those who had chosen to balance their stats to those who chosen to specialize in one discipline.

This was the epic moment where the ‘master of one’ lost to ‘jack of all trades’.