The Chieftain roars while raising its jagged sword high into the air just before it charges at us with surprising speed for its size.
I sidestep its initial swing and counter with a thrust of my spear. The creature blocks with its spiked shield, after which sparks fly all over the place as metal clashes against metal.
Ayame moves with swiftness befitting her 50 Agility stat points, circling around to flank the boss monster. She slashes at its back with her blade cutting through the cloak but barely penetrating the tough scales. The Chieftain roars in pain and frustration before spinning around to swing its sword at her.
Ayame dances around the Chieftain’s strikes with an elegance that borders on supernatural. Each swing of its jagged sword misses her by mere fractions of an inch, which is completely intentional on her part. Dodging in wider motions would be just a waste of a good opportunity to strike back at the monster while it’s exposed from the missed attack.
The Chieftain’s sword whooshes by her close enough that a single misstep would spell disaster. She shifts her weight just enough to avoid the blow with her body flowing like water around the weapon. In the same fluid motion, she counters with her own blade as she delivers a swift, calculated strike that finds its mark.
Her control over both her body and mind is a marvel to behold.
Every movement is deliberate, servings as a perfect testament to the countless hours of rigorous training she underwent and her immense innate talent.
She embodies the very essence of ’living on the edge,’ her combat style a daring dance with death itself.
The Chieftain’s attacks are relentless. Each swing is aimed to kill, yet Ayame meets them all with unwavering confidence and nerves made of adamantite.
A particularly fierce strike comes close enough to nearly graze her cheek. The sheer force of it sent a gust of wind past her face.
Ayame pivots gracefully, using the momentum to bring her sword down in a counter that slices across the Chieftain’s side. Her ability to remain in the danger zone and to use the proximity of the enemy’s attacks to her advantage is nothing short of extraordinary.
If she jumped away from harm’s way, like I often do, it would take her longer to reposition and strike. Instead, by barely moving enough to dodge, she stays within striking distance, ready to exploit even the smallest of openings.
Even when the Chieftain attempts a wild, sweeping attack meant to knock her off balance, Ayame’s agility and foresight keep her one step ahead.
She ducks under the swing and her feet become a blur to my eyes as she sidesteps and thrusts her sword into the Chieftain’s exposed flank. The precision of her movements and the razor-thin margin by which she evades each attack leave no doubt - Ayame is a true master of her craft.
Her battle style is a breathtaking dance on the razor’s edge.
I wake up from my daze finally as I stop watching my gorgeous companion’s mesmerizing battle style shine brilliantly on full display in front of my eyes.
I use the opportunity of the kobold spending all its mental capacity on keeping Ayame in check by lunging forward and activating [Power Strike] to impale the kobold on my spearhead, though sadly I only manage to make a small dent on its scales. I see some blood pouring out, so I’m able to deal damage to it as well.
This action earns his ire as he finally realizes that he is not in a duel and tries to bash me with its shield, but I leap back, avoiding the blow.
Ayame seizes the opportunity this time and delivers a powerful slash to its side. The Chieftain howls in agony as its movements become slower and more erratic.
The Chieftain’s heavy armor and high Vitality stat make it a tough opponent to kill in a quick fashion.
It swings its sword wildly, but Ayame and I are able to avoid its blows with coordinated movements. With him strategically pinned between the two of us, he has no chance of victory which becomes more evident with each passing moment until it finally collapses on the ground while bleeding from dozens of separate wounds.
We exchange a congratulatory glance between the two of us and simply nod; there’s no need for words of ’good jobs’. We pick up the boss drop, which ends up being a large piece of its red scale.
Hopefully, this one will fetch a good price.
We move onto the 4th floor and after a brief rest, we begin to ’explore’ the labyrinth, or to be more accurate, slaughter our way through. The difficulty spikes are getting noticeable with each floor we descend towards the core of the labyrinth, though the fourth floor is not hard enough to slow us down significantly.
I may be level 9 at the moment, but since I haven’t invested my free attribute points yet as I’m waiting to see whether I can become a spellcaster to decide which stats to put them into, I would say that my actual level is closer to level 7 numbers-wise.
The two of us arrive at the doors leading into the 4th floor’s boss room, and this is the first time we don’t need to wait in a queue in my - albeit short - labyrinth-clearing career.
The boss fight itself went similarly to the previous one, with a pincer strategy where it had to decide which one of us to focus on while the other exploited the openings this created. We dwindled it down to its last HP and soon found ourselves in the first chamber of the 5th floor.
"How are we on time?" I inquire from my trusty samurai. I’ve completely lost track of time, but I would bet my left nut that my companion can tell how long we’ve been inside accurately.
"Good. Once we are done here we should have about two hours until the market closes down for the day."
"Great. Then let’s get this over with." This exploration session has been the unexpected but certainly welcome fruit of us having too much time on our hands, so we decided to spend it productively instead of procrastinating on our asses.
It was about time I finally managed to officially take ownership of Blossom by executing the plan I cooked up.