MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

'So he finally decided to join the battle.' Alex thought, looking toward the Boss breaking his neutral stance and picking up his hammer.

The battle was ongoing for over a minute, and the commander centaur was bloody from head to toe with deep gases all over his body that were bleeding profusely while slowly healing as green light illuminated his body.

The Boss didn't move from his place and just used his Partial wood manipulation to save his commander's life a few times, but his little trick stopped working once Alex got the hang of things.

The Boss was intelligent and could see that Alex's phantom walk was a difficult skill and to counter it.

The Boss created the wind barriers around himself and his commander and, at the slightest disturbance, used his wood manipulation to either disrupt Alex or shift his underling position, making the attack miss its mark.

Alex efficiently handled the situation using double and triple phantoms while aiming for the legs and torso that couldn't shift location to avoid his attack.

The Boss jumped high into the air gripping his hammer with both hands and then he came down with momentum and slammed it with an overhead swing, cracking open the ground.

"BOOOOMMMMM"

The hammer cracked the ground open, sending a wave of destruction toward Alex and Edot, but a wood dome appeared around the centaur while a massive amount of ruble edged toward Alex.

'He combined his momentum and strength with earth splitter skill, and on top of that, used wood serpent skill.' Alex thought, looking at the giant crack in the ground.

A forty-five feet long and four feet wide serpent with a massive life-like face with sharp jagged saw-like teeth lined in his mouth with the tip of his tail covered in green vines with purple thorns.

The serpent was made from dark brown wood with multiple sections in his body connected by slim vines crawled out of the crack in the ground and roared toward Alex, who stood above one of the half-destroyed log cabins.

"SRARRRRRR"

The serpent slithered toward Alex at astonishing speed charging through the crack and ruble, and in mere moments he reached close to him, and then, with a swift tail swing, he threw thorns attached to his tail at him akin to bullets.

'He has some crazy good skills for being just an early stage fourth Rank boss monster,' Alex thought, appearing above the serpent with his blade covered in pitch darkness.

'Reaper Slash'

Alex swung his blade, sending a dark energy slash of sword intent and mana toward the neck joint of the serpent, and an instant later, the incision reached its target and sliced right through the hundreds of thin vines without facing much resistance decapitating the snake.

'I expected this to happen but not this quickly.' Alex thought as he used the air jump to avoid the wind slashes thrown at him while looking at the decapitated serpent.

The sliced-up green vines on the body and head grew and started to get reattached to each other, and at the pace it was happening, it wouldn't take long for the serpent to come back to life.

The serpent had the strength and speed of a peak third Rank and had his whole body made from dense and hard wood with rapid regeneration ability, and until the boss had mana, the serpent was pretty much immortal.

The serpent itself wasn't any trouble, but it sure was annoying, which Alex didn't need, while against a fourth Rank creature with capabilities far superior to his Rank.

'I was saving this move to use against the boss, but It's about time I end his life because I can't be fighting against three opponents,' Alex thought.

Alex looked back toward Edot, whose injuries had stopped bleeding, and his condition looked much better, and now he stood in place, swinging his linked axes like two hurricanes sending a barrage of wind slashes.

Alex landed on the serpent skull and sliced the recovering vines before lowering his stance and pushing all his strength to his legs.

After a moment of calmness, Alex vanished, leaving behind a mirage appearing right before the Edot with his sword oozing with darkness and a shade of null energy.

In a split second, Alex appeared behind Edot and then to his right creating three seamless versions of himself suspended in time, griping his pitch-dark sword.

Edot defended by moving his spinning chain axes around him, knowing his opponent's trickery to create two of three mirages before actually attacking, while the Boss didn't sit still and made thin wood spikes protrude from the ground in a circle.

'Phantom Sword Flash'

Alex appeared back on the head of the wood serpent, looking calm and collected, watching as the spinning axes sliced through his three mirages, but he had a smile.

'3... 2.. 1.'

'Now'

Alex counted under his breath as he watched Edot stop spinning his chains, and mere moments later, his arms dropped to the ground, and then his torso started spitting into multiple pieces, with blood and guts flying everywhere.

In just a few seconds, the towering body of the centaur with bulging muscles emanating with life and power became nothing but a pile of chopped-up hunks of meat.

'After the Rank promotion, I won't face these limitations.' Alex thought, feeling pain from his fractured leg bones and dislocated joints in his right arm.

Alex had performed a self-created skill using the skill combination of Phantom Walk, Air jump, and his sword mastery, and because of the speed at which he performed it, it took a toll on his body.

Alex barely had half a second after every phantom step to complete the process and perform it for the second, third, or fourth time.

In that short moment, Alex needed to swing his blade as fast as possible to deal as much damage as he could, but doing it more than two to three times was impossible with his current capabilities.

Alex solved this problem by dislocating all the joints in his arm, making it act like a whip, vastly increasing the times he could slash at his target in exchange for accuracy.

As for the injuries his muscle and bone received by going through such intensity, Alex wasn't worried about them because his passive skill Superior Regeneration would heal them in just a few seconds.

The boss stood in place with a shocked look seeing the gruesome end of his subordinate, and instantly, the carefree look in his eyes vanished, replaced by a serious cold look as he firmly gripped his weapon.

'Now that only the boss is remaining, I don't need to worry about my mana and mental energy and can go all out.' Alex thought, seeing the Boss charging at him.

The Boss could see Alex was injured, and without wasting any time, he galloped toward him, launching tens of wood spears toward him.

Alex avoided that by appearing on the opposite side from the boss and repeating the process without engaging in a battle, buying the time he needed to recover from his injuries.

The Boss used the fairy blessing on the wood serpent, sacrificing 20% of his health and mana, making the wood serpent come back to life with his size increasing to over sixty feet.

The Boss threw giant boulders of wood, wind blades, and earth vine, lashing like whips at Alex while the wood serpent chased him around, wreaking havoc on the field.

'Let's end this battle as it had stretched for long enough.' Alex thought, back to peak condition.

Alex stopped running and stood in place, griping his sword with both covering it in sword intent and vans amount of mana, then condensing it on the tip of the blade, and then he waited for the serpent to reach before him.

'Darkness Veil Reaper Slash'

Alex slashed his sword just before the serpent could reach him, sending forth a wall of pitch darkness that went through the hardwood body of the serpent without facing any resistance.

'Now, he won't recover for quite some time.' Alex thought, seeing the serpent's body split into two halves.

Alex vanished from his place, appearing before the Boss, his sword covered in null energy and sword intent, forcing the Boss to engage in a close battle.

The boss was physically weaker than Alex making him get dominated in a head-on battle, but he had multiple long rage skills and had yet to use the fairy blessing or his berserk to boost his strength.

While Alex was burning through mana and mental energy at a rapid pace, and if he stretched the battle for long, he would be forced to rely on his trump card to end the fight.

The Boss used his partial wood manipulation combined with physical strength and speed to match Alex in battle.

But with Alex not holding back and giving the boss any chance to create distance and use his big damage moves, he was getting dominated.

The clash continued, and after getting dominated for over a minute and losing 20% of his health, the Boss finally used the fairy blessing on himself at full 30% capacity.

The Boss regained some ability to fight back with boosted strength and speed, but the situation didn't change much, with Alex not giving him room to create distance to use his skills.