Kan leapt backwards onto one of the mess hall tables while managing to aim and fire the arrow he had just knocked from his bow at John's shoulder.
[Damage Taken: 157 by Kan]
[HP: 840>>683]
"Fuck, that hurts," John cursed as the impact of the arrow caused him to stumble back slightly, just before he heard Mel say, "Healing Spirit."
[Healing Received: 100 from Dream Star]
[HP: 683>>783]
"Not good; his regular attacks are stronger than my heals," Mel said in alarm as she continued to heal him, adding. "Try to block as many as you can."
"Working on it," John replied as he saw Kan knock another arrow, which was then launched towards his shoulder again.
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0]
[Class Mission update:]
[Use Block to successfully nullify 10 attacks: 4/10]
Thankfully, this time he was able to raise his shield in time and block the attack, though the impact of the arrow against it still sent tremors up his arm.
"Rising Dragon."
"Darkness Bolt."
"Darkness Bolt."
"Lightning Bolt."
The four attacking women said, while Shizu used the same attack as Shelur, though anyone could tell just by looking at it that it was obviously a weaker version of Darkness Bolt.
"Damn it, I'm hardly doing any damage," Shizu complained, only for Mel to roll her eyes and say. "And whose fault is that? Healing Spirit."
"Oh, shut up," Shizu snapped just as Kan launched an arrow towards John's leg, which impacted the edge of his shield.
[Partial block. Damage Taken: 78 by Kan]
[HP: 783>>705]
"Gah! Why the fuck do I still take damage even though his attack failed to hit my body?" John cursed as a painful tremor ran up his arm.
"Because the attack isn't fully absorbed by the shield unless it lands dead centre," Emberslag explained. "The shock wave your arm receives from an attack hitting the outer edge of the shield is far greater than the inner. Though that's also why the attack damage you receive is reduced by half."
"It still sucks," John replied as he managed to successfully block another arrow that was shot at him.
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0]
[Class Mission update:]
[Use Block to successfully nullify 10 attacks: 5/10]
Unfortunately, due to his complaining, he failed to notice the attacks that had been launched towards him by Wegub, Alas and Ralad.
"Fire Bolt."
"Power Shot."
"Power Shot."
[Damage Taken: 208 by Wegub]
[Damage Taken: 208 by Alas]
[Damage Taken: 197 by Ralad]
[HP: 705>>92]
"GAH, FUCK THAT HURT!" John yelled as the three attacks hit him before quickly saying. "Fleshnit."
[HP: 92>>192]
[MP: 140>>120]
[Class Mission update:]
[Cast Fleshnit and recover HP 10 times: 2/10]
However, if he was expecting sympathy, he was in for a rude awakening as Mel angrily yelled. "HEALING SPIRIT. STOP COMPLAINING AND FOCUS, THOSE ATTACKS ALMOST KILLED YOU, JOHN!"
[Healing Received: 100 from Dream Star]
[HP: 192>>292]
"Healing Tide," Emberslag quickly said as she pointed her hand towards John, adding. "Focus; we can't afford to lose you, or we're all dead."
[Healing Received: 100 from Emberslag]
[HP: 292>>392]
John quickly grabbed a lesser healing potion from his inventory and gulped it down before saying, "Sorry, it won't happen again."
[+180 HP]
[HP: 392>>572]
[Lesser Healing Potion x 10>>9]
"It better not. You almost gave me a heart attack," Mel snapped as she cast another "Healing Spirit" on him.
[Healing Received: 100 from Dream Star]
[HP: 572>>672]
"We can reprimand him later; let's focus on the fight for now. Darkness Bolt," Shelur remarked as she shot out another dark bolt of energy at Gurak, while Black Dragoon led him around the mess hall, stabbing him with her spear.
"Focus up, Vincarna; you've got two more incoming," Shizu remarked before adding. "Clone."
Suddenly, a duplicate of Shizu appeared directly in front of Shum, causing the bandit to skid to a halt and stare at it in surprise, asking, "How the fuck did you get in front of me?"
"Secret," Shizu's clone replied while sticking out her tongue before firing off a darkness bolt into Shum's chest that did zero damage.
Shum laughed at the attack that he failed to even feel before gloatingly saying, "What was that, little Kitsune? You must be the weakest in your group." And as he finished gloating, he impaled her with his sword.
Shum smiled for a brief second as he felt the resistance from his attack that indicated that his sword had pierced her body; however, his smile quickly changed to surprise as Shizu's clone burst into purple butterflies that lingered for a moment before vanishing.
"Sorry, but you're not really my type, and a sword isn't the type of penetration I'm looking for," Another Shizu said teasingly from beside Shum, causing him to turn his head and stare at her in surprise.
"Do you really think this is the time for innuendos?" Mel asked as she glanced at Shizu's clone with interest.
"You can never go wrong with a good innuendo," Shelur replied before throwing out another. "Darkness Bolt."
"Shelur and I are in agreement on this," The real Shizu replied from her place beside the pair, while her clone winked at Shum before throwing another Darkness Bolt at him, which once again did zero damage.
While Shizu was distracting Shum, Pem arrived next to John and stabbed at him with his dagger. John was paying attention this time and swiftly managed to shift his shield between the dagger and himself.
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0]
[Class Mission update:]
[Use Block to successfully nullify 10 attacks: 6/10]
"Let's try this with you," John muttered as he shot his staff towards Pem while saying, "Cosmic Strike."
[Damage Dealt: 24 to Pem]
[MP: 120>>95]
[Cosmic Strike Cooldown: 3 Seconds]
[Class Mission update:]
[Cast Cosmic Strike and damage an enemy 10 times: 6/10]
"Well, that's a bit better," John remarked as he saw the notification and quickly drank a minor mana potion.
[+100 MP]
[MP: 95>>195]
[Minor Mana Potion x 10>>9]
"Bastard," Pem cursed before swinging his dagger at John again, just as the three hunters all fired arrows at him, and thankfully John was able to position himself in such a way that only Kam's attack hit the edge of his shield.
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0 by Alas]
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0 by Wegub]
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0 by Ralad]
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0 by Pem]
[Partial block. Damage Taken: 78 by Kan]
[HP: 672>>594]
[Class Mission update:]
[Use Block to successfully nullify 10 attacks: 10/10]
"Nice blocks," Shelur remarked as she saw how John managed to position himself. "Emberslag could learn a thing or two from you."
"I agree, you definitely have talent," Black Dragoon replied while Emberslag ignored their comment and brought her mace down on Samblar, saying. "Thunder Clap."
A low clap of thunder was heard while sparks of lightning jumped from Emberslag's mace to Samblar's body.
Meanwhile, John raised his hand in the direction of Alas while saying, "Temporal blast."
[Damage Dealt: 24 to Alas]
[Damage Dealt: 0 to Wegub]
[Damage Dealt: 0 to Ralad]
[MP: 195>>160]
[Temporal Blast Cooldown: 3 Seconds]
[Class Mission update:]
[Cast Temporal Blast and damage an enemy 10 times: 8/10]
"Wait! Temporal Blast has an AOE element?" John asked in shock as he saw the notification, before quickly shifting his shield to block the incoming attacks as before.
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0 by Alas]
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0 by Wegub]
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0 by Ralad]
[Perfect block. Damage Taken: 0 by Pem]
[Partial block. Damage Taken: 78 by Kan]
[HP: 594>>516]
[Class Mission update:]
[Use Block to successfully nullify 10 attacks: 10/10]
"It does?" Mel asked, surprised, as she topped up Emberslag's HP, and Shizu asked. "You didn't know?"
John shook his head while saying, "No, the skill description says nothing about it being an AOE spell; I just thought it was single-target."
"Lunging Dragon," Black Dragoon said before she lunged at Gurak, stabbing him in the chest and adding, "That's not all that surprising. It's rare that a skill specifically states if it's single-target or AOE; it's down to the player to figure that out."
After throwing out another Darkness Bolt, Shelur glanced at Shizu's clone while saying, "I'm kind of surprised at the fact that you're able to distract that NPC so well."
Shizu smirked before adding, "If you think that's impressive, check this out." And as she finished speaking, her current clone winked at Shum while saying. "Charm."
As Shelur and Mel watched with interest, Gurak's eyes seemed to lose focus slightly before he smiled at Shizu's clone while lowering his weapon and asked, "My friend, how are you? Why don't we go get a drink?"
Shizu's clone smiled before stepping up to Gurak and taking him by the arm and saying, "Sure, let's go sit over there and have a quiet conversation away from all this noise."
Gurak smiled and nodded before leading the clone towards a table in the corner, where the pair sat down and began to chat like old friends.