13 Learning to Fight
Feeling the taste of blood for the first time, something changed within him.
Not in a literal sense but there was definitely something about his body that changed, he can feel the urge becoming even stronger, and even his eyes glowed red again because of the urge that demands to be satiated.
Blake raises his gaze and finds the giant bear is already getting back up to its feet.
On the forehead of the bear lies a bleeding injury that he inflicted with his attack earlier and the drizzling blood is the only thing inside Blake's mind right now. It feels like he was a dehydrated person looking at an oasis.
If he didn't drink the blood, he can feel that he was about to go crazy.
"Calm down, breathe..." Salana suddenly said from the side when she noticed the desire burning inside Blake's eyes, he was gulping harshly a couple of times. "Control yourself, adapt, and adjust your senses to the new race. Don't blindly follow the urge of you'll go berserk"
Albeit still salty at him for not picking Werefox race, going berserk is not a good thing.
Salana has seen countless people in her time who experienced a free fall ever since they went berserk due to a new race that they transformed into. It happens to those who were not mentally strong enough and went berserk.
It can come in many forms that would incite their downfall.
Offending a powerful organization and losing an important item upon death to name a few.
Upon hearing what she said, Blake tries to avert his gaze away from the blood leaking out of the giant bear's forehead that only keeps on making him thirsty. 'Woosah... I can fight this urge, no worries'
As Blake was trying to convince himself, the bear charges forward once again.
Knowing that he has a slight speed advantage compared to the bear, Blake waited for the bear to attack on high alert. Immediately when he saw the bear swiping at him, he dodged it and use another Thrust skill.
Knowing that he had a speed advantage over the bear, Blake waited patiently for the bear to launch its attack. Immediately when it snagged him with its claws, he dodged it and use the Thrust skill again.
Blake's eyes were glued onto the blood inside of the giant bear.
It was not because of the urge, he was calmer and sought to deal serious damage to the bear. Searching for the perfect place, his eyes fixated on the main arteries near the giant bear's hind legs.
Upon seeing this, Blake aimed at that spot.
If he managed to hit it, he would definitely land a critical hit and the bear would suffer.
'Focusing on agility is not that bad, it'll make it easier to fight mobs like this'
Since the Nocturnal Blood Sight allows him to see through the blood coursing inside other living being, even through solid objects, he reckons that becoming faster would make him exploit this power better compared to focusing on other stats.
If he did it right, he would've been able to land a critical hit every single time.
As he thought of that, he poured all of his attributable stat points into his agility stat. In an instant, he feel his body burns and he could also feel that his speed has gotten faster than before.
Roar!
[Critical hit!]
[-1,200 HP]
[Brown Iron-skin Bear has been inflicted with the Bleeding Effect! -0.3% HP per second]
Landing a successful attack on the back part of the giant bear's belly near its pelvis, Blake smiled seeing the damage text written in red floating in front of him. As he planned earlier, he landed a critical hit!
But the damage it did is not that high, the iron skin is quite tough.
'Well, no matter. I can use this chance to get accustomed to fighting in this world.
Just like that, the two of them exchange attack after attack relentlessly, and neither of them has any desire to back down. Yet, the giant bear is clearly the one in trouble as it hasn't managed to land a single hit on Blake.
While the reverse has happened multiple times already.
[HP: 16,300 / 25,500]
Slowly but surely, Blake started to chip away at the giant bear's HP.
Casting the Shadow Step skill, Blake dodged an attack and reaches the giant bear's back with the intention of attacking the deep wound he successfully inflicted earlier as it has become the giant bear's weak spot.
Now his movement has become more coordinated and agile.
Even Salana who was watching the fight from the side can see his improvement clearly.
It's visible that he's getting better at fighting.
[Improvement in body coordination. Acquired Body Control Lvl. 1]
Gazing at the notification from the system that makes his improvement visible, Blake can't help but get excited. But in the moment of distraction, he didn't realize that the giant bear's skin suddenly turn metallic.
Only when his attack landed on the giant bear that he realized the change.
Clang!
'Eh...? Why does it feel like I'm hitting a metal wall?' Blake wondered with a slight confusion.
Blake refocuses his attention back to the fight and saw the giant bear's skin has become thicker, it has used one of its skills, iron Protection. A defensive skill that increases its defense and also vitality by a slight margin.
[-250 HP]
It was then the giant bear cracked a smile, finding that Blake was caught off guard.
Taking advantage of this chance, the giant bear let out a hefty kick with its powerful hind legs, aiming right for Blake's chest. Upon being hit, Blake gasped in pain as all the air in his lungs was forced out in an instant.
"Buaahhk!"
[-1,300 HP]
Just one mistake and he felt like his chest was caved in due to that kick.
Considering the raw weight of the giant bear alongside it being a level 24 mob, Blake already expected that getting hit by the giant bear is definitely bad news. But experiencing it firsthand is another thing altogether.
Spitting blood to the side, Blake struggles to stand up while holding his chest.
Aside from the excruciating pain in his chest that feels like his ribs were shattered, he also finds bloody claw wounds on his chest. It seems the giant bear's kick also scratches him severely in the process.
Just as his mind is hazy, Salana's shout penetrates his ears.
"Blake! Look out!"
Upon hearing the cries, Blake raises his gaze and finds the giant bear charging at him.
If he was ready then he could've avoided this charge with his Shadow Step skill, yet the attack from earlier rattled him as he was still not used to the pain. Blake knows that he was late to react, the giant bear was already right in front of him.
'I can't dodge this...' Blake thought anxiously.
In a desperate attempt, he could only cross his arms in front of him to defend himself.
Blake hopes that this would at least lessen the damage he will receive.
Crash!
[-700 HP]
Blake got flung back by the pushing force he was impacted with.
'Damn! I'm going to lose at this rate!'
Brak!
[-300 HP]
Crashing into a tree before bouncing off of it, the moment stopped but the giant bear has no intention to stop until it managed to tear Blake to pieces. It was only one wrong move, yet the tide of the fight shifted completely.
Blake is learning a lot from this fight, it takes one action to shift the tide.
But then again, he has never really fought anyone in real life.
If somehow he could control his avatar through his PC or phone then he would probably be much better at fighting than this, the immersive play that involves actual pain to his nerves cucked him very much.
Fighting in the Lunaris game, a VRMMORPG is way harder than he initially thought.
'I need to shift the tide back to me, I need an offensive skill!'
Jumping to the side while simultaneously trying his best to suppress the pain he was experiencing, Blake dodged the giant bear's charge and quickly opens his racial skill tree. Deducting the Shadow Step skill, he now still has 40 racial skill points.
Learning an offensive skill right now is a must for him.
Since he still hasn't learned any skill from the offensive skill section of the racial skill tree yet, there are only two options available for him. One is Shadow Enhancement while the other is Blood Lance.
It's obvious that one comes from the Specter part of him while the other from Vampire.
[Shadow Enhancement]
Skill Type: Racial Skill
Grade: A
Skill Cost: 5 MP/second
Description: Cloak an object or weapon with shadow energy that inflicts damage proportionate to the caster's strength stat with additional moderate bonus damage. Possess a 30% chance to slow the target upon a successful hit, the chance will decrease or increase depending on the target's power.
[Blood Lance]
Skill Type: Racial Skill
Grade: A
Skill Cost: HP (Inactive when HP is below 30%)
Description: Summon a lance made of blood at the expense of the caster's blood and shoot it at a target, the damage will increase with more blood infused with additional high bonus damage proportionate to the caster's vitality stat.
Inspecting both skills that are available to him, Blake ponders for a moment.
Out of the two available skills, both are in the same grade. It becomes a hard choice considering that he can't pick the obvious, additionally, he doesn't have much time as the giant bear is already heading towards him again.
But comparing the two, Blake leans more toward learning the Blood Lance skill.
Although the Shadow Enhancement is quite good and versatile, it inflicts lesser damage as it focuses on slow debuff. On top of that, Blake doesn't have a weapon yet, and its damage is also based on strength stat.
Compared to the other physical stats, his strength is the most underwhelming.
On the other hand, his vitality stat is his current highest physical stat. And from that alone, it becomes quite obvious which skill he should pick considering the Blood Lance skill is proportionate to the vitality stat.
Reaching a decision, he clicks on the Blood Lance skill and learns it instantly.
Just like earlier, he somehow knows what he needs to do to cast the Blood Lance skill.
Blake checks his HP and finds it sitting at 3,300, it was nearing the halfway mark, 'Let's try using 500 HP first, I want to see how much damage it will deal through this damn bear's thick skin. Preferably, it must be another critical hit'
Nodding his head, Blake's eyes fixed on the giant bear again.
Crash!
Looking at the giant bear that is charging at him again like a rabid beast, it suddenly stomps the ground hard one time before continuing its charge. Even though it doesn't seem much, Blake realized what it was trying to do.
Glancing over his shoulders, he saw earth spikes threatening to impale him from behind.
Expecting the attack beforehand, he managed to react perfectly and dodged the metallic spikes. Not stopping at that, the giant bear roared and straighten its body to stand on both hind legs while raising its arms up.
Instead of dodging, Blake finds that this is the perfect chance for his attack.
Since the giant bear's belly was wide open when it was taking this stance, Blake quickly points his hand forward, aiming at the major artery in the giant bear's neck before casting his newly learned offensive skill.
"Blood Lance!"
Under his gaze, Blake saw his own blood seep out of his palm, through the skin.
[-500 HP]
Not even needing a second, the blood turns into an acute triangle-shaped object that ended in a sharp pointy point. With a will from his thought, the Blood Lance flew quickly and hits the giant bear right on its neck.
Contrary to using his hand to attack like earlier, the Blood Lance skill was effective.
Despite the toughened skin of the giant bear due to its Iron Protection skill, the Blood Lance penetrates through its skin and stabs it through the neck, halting the giant bear's attack mid-track.
[Critical hit!]
[-3,896 HP]
[Brown Iron-skin Bear has been inflicted with the Bleeding Effect! -1% HP per second]
Roar!!
Being penetrated through the neck by the Blood Lance, the giant bear choked on its own blood but Blake didn't stop there. In an instant, he fired two more Blood Lances which lands near the same spot as the first one.
[Critical hit!]
[Critical hit!]
[-10,500 HP]
Even though its vitality is strong, the giant bear fell to the ground, trembling.
A pool of blood has already started to form underneath its neck, yet it still glared at Blake with murderous intention. Keeping eye contact with the giant bear, Blake walks over and smiles wryly as he too was pale.
If he was not focusing, he might fall right now.
"Before I kill you, I'll thank you for teaching me and also for the Exp"
Blake then raises his foot after he said that and stomps the giant bear on its bleeding neck.
Under the pressure of his foot, the blood keeps flowing faster until eventually, notifications from the System appeared which confirms the death of the giant bear, and signing his triumph over the giant bear.
[Level 24 Brown Iron-skin Bear killed!]
[Level difference bonus exp: 167%]
[Order of the Enigma skill effect has been activated!]
[Gained a bonus 100% Exp boost]
[Obtained 46,000 Exp and 10 Silver]
