"Kill the others!"
"Sure. Careful."
Nod.
That was a short exchange between the 2 humans.
With the order issued, Arceede hit every single weaponless hobgoblin.
This would be their toughest time. The amounts of concentration they put were at its peak.
Avia would lure the biggest monster there. And as a civilian with low stats and no combat skills, he would try his best not to get hit.
One hit of the current armored hobgoblin would surely make his HP to be in a red zone. The indicator for players if they reached below 30% HP.
On the other hand, Arceede would face the 5 enraged hobgoblins alone. He had the range advantage with his crossbow, but once he messed up, it might be over for the two of them.
The hobgoblin lackeys were all unarmed and could only do melees attack, but their coordination was still strong.
And on top of that, they were all [Fervor] in the first place, so their melee was strong as ever.
Avia and Arceede were separated quite far. Arceede was at the entrance location while Avia was on the opposite side of it.
5 rushed to Arceede's direction while the 'big guy' was still roaring in front of Avia.
Arceede inhaled and exhaled deeply. He put his highest level of focus. Now, the current Arceede was different than the other time, his gaze was sharp and inducing a scary aura.
In this current state, there might be less than 5 people who ever witnessed such a gaze from him. Even Avia in this same area could not see it.
PANG
A headshot from Arceede on one of the hobgoblin.
"About 20%. It might be around 18%ish."
Avia was shouting. He was still running away while blocking some of the armored hobgoblin's attack.
If it was the usual Arceede, he would praise his companion in his mind. But now, the current him only processed the information as a useful pointer for his next move.
The hobgoblin who got the attack on its weak spot was staggered a little.
It was the effect of any accurate attack on the weak spot. The attack eliminated a different poise break bar. It was a hidden stat for weak spot attacks.
For the previous game, some of the boss monsters would require more than 10 hits on its weak spot before it could be staggered.
PANG PANG
He dealt more attacks to the same hobgoblin. He was not moving at all while doing this accurate shot, so the other 4 hobgoblins were coming closer and closer.
Dodge
He dodged a hook punch from one of the hobgoblins by sidestepping away.
He continued to run away from the current location while still kept his firing rate.
While running like this, he couldn't accurately deal headshot like before. He could only choose the sure option to attack the hobgoblin's body, the biggest hit zone for the monster.
PANG
Finally one of the hobgoblins down.
He continued his dragging battle with the combination of his other skills: spread shots and rapid shots.
"Ugh!"
On the other side, he heard a groan from his companion that made him lose his focus level.
He looked in Avia's direction who was on the ground some meters away from the armored hobgoblin.
And with that, he got some punch from the hobgoblins who chased him tenaciously.
"Okay? Avia?"
He shouted while running and open a potion now.
"His movement! I am afraid my potions can't keep up!"
'Shit! This is tough!'
Arceede directly changed his running course to the Avia's place. He brought more guests to the feast.
"Change! Change! Pick two!" He shouted to Avia.
Arceede shooted magic projectiles at the 'big guy' and Avia began to run away.
Since Avia was not giving the 'big guy' a decent amount of damage, it was easy for Arceede to shifted the aggro from him.
Avia who took a ran in the opposite direction jumped to one of the hobgoblins while giving it his full swing.
"Damn!"
The cursed came out from Arceede's mouth as his reflex of giving praise to Avia's movie-like move.
The closest hobgoblin around Avia was aggroed by that sudden move.
It was not like as Avia's expected since he aggroed three of the hobgoblin, more than what Arceede ordered, but an excitement lit on his eyes.
"I draw 3! Kill the small fry!"
Arceede changed his target to the only 'lackeys' who followed.
Avia was giving a spectacular performance. Arceede who took a peek at him was amazed. The human was unexpectedly dominating amidst the lower stats.
'Damn! I think he should aggro them in the first place.'
Another two down.
Arceede was successfully killed one of the lackeys and followed by Avia not long after that.
This was a really long fight. Fortunately, the game was not giving the stamina penalty. There were other games that used stamina stuff to limit and challenged the player, but it was different for Ranker's Quest.
You got a parameter if your real physical body's real ability reached the limit, but you could still run.
The parameter was made for the 'healthy life healthy gaming campaign' by the government.
At the current time, Avia and Arceede stamina parameter shown was pretty much on its limit. There was no way they could endure the run and might even die if they did it in real life.
All lackeys down.
"My mana! Give me more time."
"It will be hard to shift the aggro. Just run!"
Arceede could only rely on mana regeneration provided by [Impetus] at this time. The inventor had a portion of all three paths, but now he got the worst effect from it.
He could not use energy potion and could not have [Fervor] and [Mystic] ways to recover while still in the battle.
Arceede decided to put away his magic crossbow again. He chose to face the last monster with his sword.
Now, it would be a battle between a full power hobgoblin against weakened humans.