Chapter 16: First Boss Fight (Part 3)

Even though Logan was prepared to fight the gaunt, he couldn't help but be wary of it. In all the time he had spent on the game, he had never come across a gaunt that preferred to engage in melee combat. The gaunt he faced was irregular, which meant it had better stats and possibly an entirely different moveset.

"It would be better to keep my distance for a while and see what it can do."

There were certain rules when engaging a creature that one had never fought before. Well, they weren't rules, but more like guidelines. The first was to maintain a certain distance and learn more about the enemy before engaging.

"You... die... here..." the gaunt snarled at him, interrupting Logan's thoughts.

Even though the Gaunt had a hunched back, it still towered over Logan. The gaunt used to be a human once, according to the game lore, but his lust for blood and death made him who he was.

Just like any other gaunt, this one had his face covered with a hoodie made up of the flesh and skin of his prey. Blisters, injuries, and tumors covered the rest of his naked body, giving it a horrifying look.

To top it all off, the gaunt only had one proper arm. The other arm had transformed into a thick whip made of biomass from its previous hunts. If Logan had not played the game before, he would piss his pants right about now. The gaunt just looked that horrifying.

The gaunt immediately charged at him, his heavy legs creating small pits wherever the bastard stepped.

Thankfully, there was quite some distance between them. Thus, Logan could dodge the incoming attack without putting in much effort.

However, the gaunt seemed to have predicted the move and swung its whip-like arm at Logan. The latter immediately performed [Horizontal Slash] with his kukris, stopping the whip before it could do him any harm.

Little did he know, that was what the gaunt wanted him to do. A moment later, Logan got kicked away. However, he didn't sustain any injuries.

[Horizontal Slash] passive effect: Shield Dome is in effect.

Shield Dome absorbed 132 HP worth of damage.

Shield Dome has been destroyed.

Skill: [Horizontal Slash] is now on cooldown for 15 seconds.

"I used slash on impulse, but it paid off..." Logan thanked the stars before jumping right back into action.

The same thing happened again. The gaunt charged at him, and Logan dodged the attack. But this time, Logan completely served the whip-like arm using [Vertical Stab]. The sudden spike of pain staggered the gaunt, and Logan was sure as hell not going to miss this opportunity.

He grabbed the gaunt's weakness, its head, and slammed his knee into it with all the strength he could muster at the moment.

[Critical Strike! The Gaunt will remain staggered for 3 seconds.]

The gaunt wasn't the same as before, but its weakness still was. There was a reason the gaunt only covered its face and not the rest of its body. The irregular mutation caused the gaunt to become robust beyond mortal limits. But its face was as sensitive as ever.

But there was a bit of a problem. Only blunt attacks worked on the face of the ugly bastard. Logan could stab the face as many times as he pleased, but nothing would happen to the gaunt. Until and unless he hits it in a particular spot.

Judging by the way the gaunt was being protective of those 'spots', it would not be an easy task to accomplish. That's why Logan went ahead and kneed the gaunt's face instead of using Kukris.

Logan was about to use his knees again, but before he could, something grabbed onto his torso and flung him straight into the stands yet again. This time, Logan had no shield to protect him from the damage.

[Current HP: 41%]

"Damn it..."

Two attacks... two attacks were all it took to lose three-fifths of Logan's HP. While he only chipped off 17% of Gaunt's HP after all the gymnastics. It felt he had been taking the bastard a bit too lightly.

Logan was struggling to get to his feet when he saw the gaunt making its way towards him. The tentacle he had chopped off was back in its place.

"Damn it, he can regenerate too!?"

This 'boss' was a bit too difficult for Logan to handle at this stage. Not to mention, the Gaunt was still in its first phase. If it was a pain to handle right now, then god knows what he would be capable of in its second and final phase.

'Looks like I will have to use cheap tricks...' Logan thought, 'Fuck, I swore I would never do it, but here it goes.'

Within moments, the gaunt was standing in front of its prey. The creature wrapped the slimy tentacles around Logan's neck and pulled him out of the rubble. The creature appeared to be pleased when he saw Logan dangling in the air like a rag doll.

However, in the next moment, pain replaced the look of pleasure.

[Slanting Thrust] passive effect: [Vampiric Teeth] is in effect.

[Vampiric Teeth] has absorbed 10% of <Dissonant Gaunt's> HP.

[Vampiric Teeth] has healed 432 HP for the user.

Skill: [Slanting Thrust] is now on cooldown for 15 seconds.

As the notification appeared, a stream of rotten blood filled Logan's mouth. Suiting the theme, <Vampiric Teeth> heals the used by flooding their mouth with blood from the target. Although it didn't have any side effects, the feeling always left Logan dazed. That's why he didn't want to use the skill, but had no option.

This better be worth it!

The gaunt screamed in pain as Logan kept twisting the kukris inside its head. Logan had managed to stab the bastard right where he needed to, all because the boss got cocky. Since the Gaunt was over 8 feet tall, he could not stab it before.

But now that the gaunt had dropped his guard and lifted Logan to eye level, the latter had no problem in attacking the gaunt. The gaunt's HP dropped rapidly. Even though he had let go of Logan, he kept dangling onto the bastard's neck, while repeatedly stabbing him over and over.

"It's about time."

Logan leaped off of the Gaunt and dashed for the 'treasure' while the Gaunt staggered from the pain.

There were two ways of defeating the gaunt. First was the normal way... the player just had to kill the gaunt. But there was a second method of destroying the gaunt as well. Which was to destroy its treasure.

Logan knew defeating the bastard head-on wasn't possible for him. After all, he was only two hits away from dying by the gaunt's hand. That's why he went for the latter method.

Moreover, this method wouldn't allow the gaunt to go into the second phase, which was something Logan did not want to face off against.

"Shop!"

[Would you like to spend 1000 gold to buy the item <Incendiary Grenades>?]

"Yes."

Half a dozen grenades appeared in his inventory, which he promptly took out and hurled towards the pile of corpses. By this time, the gaunt seemed to be aware of what was happening and rushed after Logan.

But the next moment, countless white chains popped up out of nowhere, stopping the gaunt in his tracks.

Skill: [Frozen Chains] is in effect.

Targets around the user have been [Frozen] into place for 5 seconds.

Their agility will reduce by 90% for 5 seconds after the freezing effect of [Frozen Chains].

In those five seconds, Logan turned the tide of the fight upside down. The Gaunt could have easily gotten rid of Logan, had it not been for the [Frozen Chains]. But now, it could only watch as the treasure he had killed so many humans for was burned to a crisp right in front of his eyes.

[You have defeated the dungeon boss: Dissonant Gaunt.]

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