Dodge. Duck. Slash. Dodge. Duck. Slash.
Over the past fifteen minutes, I had fallen into a familiar routine, drawing Akash to a total stalemate. After a while I had learned that his attack patterns were actually fairly basic, relying on large arcing strikes to try and hit the most area that he could in an attempt to swipe me out of the air.
He had, at one point, launched a series of explosive projectiles at me, but those had been easy enough to bat back with my sword and he hadn't tried them again since.
While he had a strong body in his attack form, the extra bulk must have also made it harder for him to move quickly, which was the only reason that I could come up with to explain why he hadn't charged through the now fleeting smoke to try and grapple me in a bear hug again.
But all of that was about to change.
[ Daily tasks complete! All debuffs have now been removed! ]