Shadow Rogue

Vol 1 Chapt 17 Skill Book: Brutal Blow

He had countless thoughts, but none of them deemed effective.

Staring intently at the brutal Gray Wolf King; its stats were alarmingly high, and its level was still higher than Rui's. It would definitely not be an easy battle.

However, since he had already progressed to this stage, he could no longer back out.

Staring fixedly at the Gray Wolf King, Rui was slightly angered by the expression in its eyes. The Wolf King was treating Rui as its prey, and he was not comfortable with it. Was there ever a time when the Crimson Shadow Ghost had been looked at with such eyes? It was just a thing created by a bunch of virtual data, so why was it so cocky?

After taking a deep breath, Rui wielded his Wolf Fang Dagger and prepared his battle stance.

Seeing Rui's action, the Wolf King narrowed its eyes, applied strength on its feet, and rushed towards him at an incredible speed.

'So fast!'

As tough as a bull, speed of a cheetah, a tiger-like brutality, and wild like a lion. This freaking Gray Wolf King was abominably strong. Was it still too much to take on a Boss of a higher grade?

Gritting his teeth, Rui managed to continuously dodge the Wolf King's attacks by a hair's breadth. However, the damn beast was not going to be as easy as the Elite Gray Wolves. Putting its strength and speed aside, the most important factor was its level of AI, which was definitely higher than the Elite Gray Wolves.

Clang...!

As the Wolf King turned its back, Rui raised his dagger to block the Wolf King's claw perfectly. A sound similar to that of metal collision rang throughout the field, and Rui was pushed back a few meters away.

Without giving Rui a chance to recover from his numbed hands, the Wolf King immediately continued its assault.

'What the hell, you keep coming again and again. Do you really think I can't do anything to you?'

Seeing how the Wolf King was being overly cocky, Rui was absolutely furious. He could not win against it in a direct confrontation. His speed and strength was also incomparable to that of the Wolf King's. His circling techniques were also proved ineffective. However, from its earlier assaults, he could finally see the Wolf King's attack patterns.

Just like a regular Gray Wolf, it only kept coming directly at him. It was completely inflexible. If he could grasp hold of its weakness and wait for the right timing, he could definitely kill it. The only thing he had to be wary about, was the incredible speed of its straight rush. If he does not pay attention, he might receive serious damage or even die instantly. In addition, there was also its Brutal Blow skill. When hit by the skill, he would lose at least half of his HP, and he had about an 80% chance of getting killed instantly!

'Damn it, I don't care anymore! I'm going to teach this wolf a lesson!'

Clenching his teeth, he looked at the Wolf King that was rushing towards him again. Rui raised his dagger. When it was about half a meter away from him, he bent his body and dodged its aggressive assault. At the same exact moment, he readied his dagger and ferociously delivered a blow to the front.

Although he was not accurate enough to pierce through its throat, he was able to cut across its neck. Not only that, as the Wolf King was running at an incredible speed, when he moved with the dagger stabbed into it, it made a cut across its body, and dealt considerable damage.

-58

Looking at the boss with 1,442 HP remaining, Rui narrowed his eyes. Even with a critical blow, it still only dealt 58 damage to the Wolf King. Rui cursed. Its hide was thicker than he first thought.

Kill with a single hit, and flee the next moment!

An Assassin is not a Warrior. An Assassin aims for a one-hit kill. If an Assassin is unable to finish off an enemy in a single hit, he is not fit to be one.

Unable to kill in a single hit, flee a thousand miles!

This was how a real Assassin should be! A hot-blooded Assassin who struggles against his enemy, cannot be considered as one.

If it was a normal person, once he slit the person's neck with his dagger, he would have already died. However, in this virtual reality, even if you smash the person's head open, as long as his HP does not reach 0, he would still be able to jump around as if nothing had happened.

However, this still does not change Rui's habits and personality. If he was not able to kill one with a single hit, then he will use 10. The reasons bosses are strong are because of their crazy stats and outrageous skills. However, no matter what, they are still made by a virtual program, and their intellect will never be the same as that of human's. Also, they do not have things like to help them recover, which is their biggest weakness!

With a bottle of potion at hand, I will stay standing!

As long as a player has potions, he can hardly die. 'If it doesn't die with a single slash, how about 10, or 100 slashes? There will definitely be a time when I get to hear your death throes!'

Rui had grasped the Wolf King's openings whenever it attacks, and with his speed and knowledge, as long as there were no incidents, he should be able to slowly kill the arrogant Gray Wolf King.

* * *

"Big sis Sasha, do they really drop equipment? They are only level 3 Slimes. Uwah, they're so disgusting!"

The cute-looking Sweet Little Girl kept muttering as she followed after the tall and radiant swordswoman. Looking at the Slimes that resembled a big slump of mucus, her face was entirely pale.

"Haha, don't worry! As long as you kill at least a 100 of them, and have at least 50 pieces of Slime Coating, you can trigger a quest from the Village Elder, and will be rewarded with a Slime Gauntlet. Unfortunately, you can only do this quest once per person, or else, you could keep grinding this quest and sell multiple gauntlet, and you would have enough money to buy potions to kill monsters of higher levels already."

The tall and slender Sasha responded lazily, and when she remembered she could not grind for equipment, she became frustrated. Looking at her own bare wrists, she could not help but remember the mysterious man whom she traded her Slime Gauntlets with, and was lost in thought for a moment.

"Big sis Sasha, what are you thinking about? Look, I obtained a Slime Gel! Hehe!"

A shout brought Sasha back to her senses. Looking at smiling Sweet Little Girl, who's a beauty, holding on to a piece of Slime Coating, she could not but laugh.

"Alright, big sis will help you fight. Although the you must kill the Slimes yourself, the rate of the Coating dropping is on the low side, so I will help you with it!"

Sasha laughed lightly, and slashed at a Slime with her Fine Iron Sword.

* * *

"Ugh..."

Rui was unable to dodge in time, and got ruthlessly slashed across on his chest. The severe pain caused him to let out a groan.

Using Nimble Wind to speedily retreat to the open and ignoring the pain, he immediately pulled out a HP potion and gulped it down. His HP was on the low side, but he managed to recover some of it.

"A-hole, you have finally used your 'Brutal Blow.' Watch how I'm going to deal with you now!"

Smiling coldly, with the Nimble Wind's speed boost, Rui's body became a blur. He circled around the Wolf King to deliver an immense blow, and was able to finish it off before the effect duration was over.

Looking at the corpse of the Gray Wolf King, Rui finally managed to calm down and sat flat on the ground. Ignoring the Level Up golden glow emitting from his body, he started inspecting the loots on the floor. Looking around, he saw something that exhilarated him. It was a Skill Book!

He immediately scooped it up, and on the book was two largely written words --

Brutal Blow!