Heart's Desire - 6

I prepared my character and waited for his initial charge...and dodged to the side. That initial charge once killed me back then, and good thing that we had healers that could revive which made our guild last before its second phase.

My character isn't the same as before, and I could probably tank him until the final phase.

Each of his attacks cut a portion of my HP, but I didn't immediately used potions since I can regenerate after his attack delays.

At this moment, both sadness and rage enveloped me, and I was still strangely watching out for its attacks as I dodged his slow attacks.

The first phase consisted of him making fast slices which took a percentage of my HP, and the slow kicks which would kill anyone in one-hit.

It took quite a while and the process was repetitive, but I slowly cut into its health until the mist on its body sizzled and transformed into a red one along with the glow in its eyes.

This time I went back to my corner since I knew the range of its phase change, in which a thick lightning bolt comes in from the skies and charges its Y-shaped spear.

"It's time... to gear up."

It stalled for a bit and I let my health regenerate as it stood, looking for the nearest enemy. Before it went into my safe zone's radius, I charged with one of my longest dashes, 'Undaunting Force.'

"Get wrecked."

My sword hit it before its initial attack could be made, and it entered a 'staggered' state which made him pause for a few seconds which gave me time to perform another dash-skill to go on its behind, 'Shield Plunge.'

"Your tail's done."

After dealing damage as I dash towards its back, I used another heavy damaging skill on its tail which made it howl in pain right after its attack animation.

Those two skills wouldn't have been effective before, but because his second phase had a higher armor, my two skills I used earlier dealt more damage the higher the armor values.

I kept using the same strategy using all of my skills of dash type category, until it finally dispersed its mist and revealed its true form as it removed his helmet.

My health also didn't run out in this way, and a lot of classes usually couldn't beat this boss at this phase because of its high defenses and lightning attacks which usually paralyzed players in mid-usage of skills.

If I'm correct, only characters at the level of that player that killed my Chainer in one hit could also bypass this boss' armor.

A purple aura surged from its whole body as the helmet disintegrated at the same time it dropped on the ground.

The ground opened and a black hole emerged from underneath him, then a few other mobs were summoned in place.

Disregarding the mobs is the most dangerous idea as his damages are split between each of them. Its attributes have also lowered, but its HP had regenerated to full health.

It means its health was restored, but its armor was lesser than before, yet his damage dealing potential has gone high, because even if you defeat him, the mobs will kill you in no time.

This part is rather the easiest if one thought about it, yet few could really pass through the second phase.

It pointed its finger towards me and spun its Y-shaped spear, signaling the mobs to go for me.

I instantly activated my three-second barrier and scrolled to my other skill window, and finally found my few AoE skills.

"Should I level it up later?"

All of my AoE skills were at level 1 only since this character is mainly a tank, yet I didn't know that its armor piercing skills would be that helpful against this Mastia.

The barrier disappeared and I used a dash skill to get behind the enemy line before launching my AoE attacks in a frenzy.

It took quite a while and I also got my HP over half, so I also spammed my potions as I kept attacking.

Behind me, Mastia was summoning more mobs, and we could go on for hours with this, but why should I exhaust myself?

After making the enemies health very low, I used the previous skill Shield Plunge and went behind Mastia before using another set of AoE spammage.

Right now every mob was near me, so I prepared my barrier once more which finally hit the cooldown and used a single attack and defense buff potion which increased both said stats to thirty percent.

Since each one of them was now low in health, as soon as my barrier disappeared, I used one AoE to make sure that I lowered their HP once more.

The few ones behind the massive enemy line vanished and I received experience points, and before Mastia could summon more newly revived enemies, I used Undaunting Force once more and cleared everything on path.

Just to make sure, I used a few more dash skills as he slowly disappeared because I haven't experienced soloing this thing before, and the mechanics might change or something.

I hate that.

Now that he fully disintegrated, loots started to sprout out from where its corpse disappeared, and I picked up everything without looking at the names.

"I'm tired already as is..."

Since the time was just around 6 PM, I thought I'd relive myself some of the stress by taking a nap, but little did I know that I would regret the decision to not look at what I picked up from the boss.

...

I woke up with my hair longer than usual and checked the time.

"Why is it 4 AM already?"

Feeling groggy, I thought I was having an illusion.

"February 8? What the heck..."

Since the masteries were over, it's safe to assume it's a Saturday morning, February 20.

I opened my PC and opened the game like it was a morning routine.

"Now let's see that equipment I got..... huh?"

Gone. Everything I got from Mastia disappeared.

"What the heck?"

I checked my inventory and some of the items I bought last week were also gone, and my gold suddenly increased.

"Shit. Did the server had a rollback? That's too long for a rollback!"

I immediately opened my browser to check the forums, but there was no news or announcements made.

"Did they got hacked or something? Or was it an unplanned rollback?"

Either way, they'll probably compensate players from the rollback issue, but the loot I got from Mastia.....

"Damn. I should've checked my loot."

...

I hesitated for a bit before opening my email since I'll be able to see her image once more, and it might make me sad again.

But if I plan to get over this pain... or is it really fine to look again to get over? Or will it be just worse in the long run?

"Tch."

Without a second thought, I opened my email...and panic ran through my mind.

"Where is it?"

I filtered my email to look for her messages, but they weren't here. Once more I filtered messages with attachments, but her pictures weren't here. I scrolled and scrolled without filter, and the emails I also received from her brother weren't here.

"What the fu..."

I somehow saw the time on my screen and it said February 8 too.

"Is this a prank or something? Aiden!?"

As usual, I was still alone inside my house. I checked every place just to make sure.

Under my bed, the small living room, the kitchen, the toilet and bathroom.....

What the heck?

Once more I returned to my room and checked my phone.

It was already 8 AM, of February 8th.

Is it real?

"Hah... Hahahahh..."

I splashed water on my face from the lavatory and wiped it up after.

"This chill."

Did I just go back in time?