The spell sent him further than he intended and his body crashed at the ceiling after going inside the opening. He ricocheted from the ceiling and crashed back to the ground. He had finally managed to escape back to the exit hole.
He felt a huge wave of relief despite the pain of crashing twice, "that was a close call just now."
"I wouldn't consider it safe already if I were you," he heard Peniel's voice.
"You think it will leave the mana site and chase after me?"
Before he received Peniel's reply, his thought was shattered by a loud roar. He could sense the anger from that roar.
"I think it will be wise to start running," Peniel said.
Seriously? It was not going to chase after me, right? Jack was still optimistic. Still, he did think it was not wise to stay around to find out. He quickly got up and sprinted away. His Life Burning Art was still active, it consumed bits of his HP each second, but he couldn't care less. He needed the speed increase for his run.
He heard a crashing sound from behind. He glanced backward and saw a blue figure in the distance.
Shit! It was really chasing me! He thought in dismay.
He changed one of his Storm Breaker's weapon skills to the one that increased his movement speed to aid him in running faster. He even used Charge every now and then to increase his traveling speed. Good thing his intelligence stats had increased quite high, he had no problem remembering the route back to the outside amongst the many branching pathways. However, he also knew from his memory that the exit was still far away. The pressure he felt from behind was getting closer each second.
He was depressed with trepidation. He was running out of options, was he finally going to put his Immortal Soul inherent skill to use? He rummaged through the inside of his bag with his mind without slowing down his running speed.
He only had three magic scrolls left, Fireball, Heal, and Magic Bind. Fireball was an Elite class single-target offensive spell. He had no doubt that it could inflict decent damage on the Ice Troll Sentinel, but a single spell wouldn't make much difference. Alternatively, he could use Magic Bind to stall the Ice Troll Sentinel again, but based on the first usage, it would only buy him several seconds. It wouldn't be enough for him to reach the exit of this cave.
He also had five Disruptive Bombs which could deal damage and stop the target for two seconds. The damage was too minuscule for the boss, while the time stop was too short. Even if he used all these five disruptive bombs with the Magic Bind scroll, the accumulated time still could not provide the time he needed to reach the exit.
The other item in his bag that could probably save his current predicament was the Themisphere Beacon Stone. It would summon soldiers and guards within a radius of 300 kilometers that would protect him for the next three hours. But would the reinforcement come fast enough before the Ice Troll Sentinel reached him? And he felt it was such a waste to use this item on a single boss. The beacon stone was a one-time use, after all. Should he just let himself be killed and save this beacon stone for another time? He was conflicted.
He could hear the Ice Troll Sentinel getting closer now.
After a short struggle, he came to a conviction. In his past VR games, even though he could always come back to life and redo his attempt, he had always treated it as if he would really die if he failed. That's how he climbed to become one of the top veteran experts amongst the independent players. It was this will that had pushed him to become better.
Even if he had the Immortal Soul skill which gave him a much more lenient penalty compared to others, he had to treat it as if he had only one life. If he allowed himself to become lax, it would cause a chain reaction that would shape a bad habit of continual compromises.
With his determination set, he prepared to use the Themisphere Beacon Stone. The soldiers and guards would need time to reach his place. He would use the Magic Bind scroll and Disruptive Bombs to stall for time. He would spare nothing to stay alive!
As his hand held the Themisphere Beacon Stone in preparation to use it, a movement in his radar caught his attention. There was a white dot approaching at high speed.
An NPC? Jack turned in its direction and saw a blurry figure rushed past him. His radar's range had been heavily weakened inside this cave, so this newcomer was already very close by when detected.
Jack turned back and watched as the figure made a heavy impact with the Ice Troll Sentinel. Jack was actually rather shocked to find that the Ice Troll Sentinel was already this close. The impact threw both parties skidded back. The Ice Troll Sentinel was driven back further than the ambusher. Its body knocked on the cave's icy wall, breaking chunks of ice from the impact. The monster also suffered some damages, it was clear from the exchange who was the winner.
After that collision, the assaulter stopped and Jack could finally see who the figure was.
"Lieutenant Bailey?" Jack said.
The female warrior was holding a long spear with both her hands. There was a faint green light at the tip of her spear.
"Stand back! I will handle this monster," she said.
Jack didn't try to act brave, he complied and moved back further to allow them some space.
The Ice Troll Sentinel made a low growl as it pushed itself away from the cracked wall. It stretched its arms. Icy breath coalesced on both his palms. The breath solidified into two large icy sabers. Looking at the two sabers and the aura they emitted, Jack realized the monster was only toying with him previously. It could have killed him easily if it went all out from the start.
The Ice Troll Sentinel was completely ignoring Jack now. Its playful mood was no longer evident. It was fully focused on Bailey. It lunged forwards swinging its two sabers rapidly. The two sabers crisscrossed and created a tempest of icy wind, cutting everything that it went past.
Bailey didn't stay still. When the Ice Troll Sentinel came into her spear range, the spear vibrated into many images. Each of the images shot out, painting many straight green lines that met with the Ice Troll Sentinel's rapid swings. Each clash caused the monster to retreat one step.
Jack thought it was obvious. Even though the monster was one grade higher at Special Elite compared to Bailey, but the lieutenant was a whooping twenty-two level higher. It would be weird if she could not deal with the monster. However, the gap was still not that big, Jack thought it could be caused by the environment. The cold temperature in this cave empowered the Ice Troll Sentinel while it hampered others who had no resistance to the ice element.
Slowly but surely, the advantage held by Bailey was getting more palpable. Her spear managed to break through the protection of the monster's two sabers several times and scored some hits. More impressively, as Jack noticed, was that the hits were always on the same point, at the monster's left thigh.
It often used its fast movement speed to try to sneak an attack onto Bailey, but her own speed was not lacking. Combined with her spear's large reach, she managed to deflect each of the sneak attacks and counter-attacked with a thrust to its left thigh.
After a while, it started to limp and lost its previous super speed. Jack thought by then that the battle's outcome was decided.
Seeing her opponent's movements getting sluggish. Bailey prepared a large attack. She arched herself backward, as a torrent of green wind encircled the tip of her spear. After a second of concentrating her power, she unleashed the gathered green energy by thrusting her spear forward. The green energy shot ahead with spiraling momentum, it struck accurately on the left thigh of the monster which had been suffering continuous abuse. Upon this last blow, the monster's limb tore apart. Jack watched with astonishment as the Ice Troll Sentinel's left leg was thrown away.
He had known from his previous battles that attacking a certain part of the body would have added effect, but apart from dismembering Giant Ants' tiny appendages in the past, he never thought that it was possible to dismember an actual limb of a monster.
The monster screamed in pain as it tried to balance itself on its single leg. With the last attack, his HP had fallen to less than half.
Bailey didn't ease up after her success. She threw multiple thrusts at her opponent. Now that the monster had difficulty moving, it had become no more than a punching bag for the female warrior. She moved in high speed encircling the monster while sending repeated stabs onto different parts of the monster's body. Its HP continued to decrease at a steady rate.
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