[Description: The armor was forged by an experienced blacksmith who wanted to give low level warriors enough defenses to fight higher level beings using easily available materials. Despite being forged from the bones of low level defense oriented beasts, the forging technique of the blacksmith has brought about the hidden strength of the armor. Uncharacteristically high physical and magic defense allow the user to take 3 blows from an opponent one rank higher than the user without losing durability.]
[Weapon Skills]
[Impenetrable Wall]
[Effect: The user has 60% increased physical defense in exchange for 30% increase in magic damage received for the duration of 6 seconds.]
[Cool down time: 2 minutes]
[Anti-Magic Shield]
[Effect: The user will have 60% increased magic defense in exchange for 30% increase in physical damage received for the duration of 6 seconds that the skill remains active.]
[Cool down time: 2 minutes]
[Death Incarnate]
[Effect: The unnatural skeleton like appearance of the armor induces fear in the enemies. Upon activation of the skill all those who can see the armor fall into a state of fear and will be unable to move for 3 seconds. The effect will vanish if the user takes damage during the duration of the status effect or the armor vanishes from the line of sight of the opponent.]
[Cool down Time: 10 minutes]
This was one of the low level armors that Zach had loved to use when he had been low level in the world of Nebula. Now that he had gotten his hands on two of his favorite items, Zach was planning to unleash himself onto his enemies. He was going to give them the same kind of despair that he had felt while fleeing for his life along with Luna previously.
But first things first, he had to take care of the Earth Bear who was still sitting guard outside the cave as if Zach had been its mortal enemy in his past life.
Zach had no enmity with the beast but the way the bear had almost pushed him and Luna to their deaths, Zach could not forget so easily.
Zach gave the sleeping Luna a last glance. From the up and down movement of her chest as she breathed, Zach could tell that she was still in deep sleep. Without disturbing her, he gathered his things that had been strewn around the cave during their tussle and put them all in the backpack before heading out of the cave with sneaky but determined steps.
Sunlight assaulted his eyes as he took his first step out of the cave. In the previous chase by the bear, Zach had failed to notice that the canopy of the skyscraping trees was missing in this particular area and in its place was a lone hill that rose into the sky some distance away. The crevice that he and Luna had rushed into was only the beginning of the inclining ground towards the hill.
The bear who had been pretending to be asleep with one eye open, saw that the human had come out of the hole in the ground and roared as its body arched like that of a cat about to pounce on its target.
Zach didn't wait any longer and equipped both the Fire Gloves and the Artificial Skeleton Armor (Low Level) before rushing towards the bear with the ferocity of the savages in the ancient times.
A guttural roar escaped his lips as he launched an offensive on the Earth Bear even before the bear could use his raised claws to attack.
The gloves on his hands let out a crimson glow as the area around his hands burst into fire before making contact with the golden brown fur of the giant bear.
Fear flashed in its intelligent eyes as the smelling of burning fur permeated the air. Beasts were inherently afraid of fire and this bear as it turned out wasn't any different.
Luck was with Zach as the effect of Firestorm skill attached to the gloves activated on his first hit even though the activation rate of the skill was only one in five hits.
The golden brown fur turned sooty black as fire creeped all over its skin. It gave out an angered roar as it went berserk with its eyes turning red with bloodlust.
Zach ignored it he attempted to dodge its berserk attacks. Thankfully the bear wasn't as agile as he had imagined. In fact the earth bear specialized in defense and vitality. It was an enemy that was hard to take down but not a difficult enemy to defeat.
Zach didn't stay in his position for long as the bear was attacking indiscriminately. Zach had to be very careful while attacking in order to remain unscathed. This was imperative since Zach had more enemies to deal with after the bear. And for that he had to be in his optimal condition.
The bear didn't get an opportunity to attack Zach as he never stayed in front of the bear after the attack. Instead of staying in the attack range of the bear where he could receive some damage, Zach preferred to attack from the back. Although such attacks couldn't be critical hits since the back clearly wasn't the weak point of the bear, Zach could avoid all incoming attacks while launching punches of his own.
Slowly but surely, the Bear began to be exhausted by his relentless attacks. The attack pattern of the bear didn't change at all but its movements became increasingly chaotic and random. Zach put some distance between himself and the bear just to be careful.
But by doing that, he also gave the Earth Bear some respite.
The Bear let out a pained roar as it charged towards the human that had been the reason for all its pain.
As if Zach had been waiting for that to happen, he activated one of the skills attached to his armor.
"Death Incarnate"
Zach broke into a run in the direction of the charging bear as he knew that the bear would soon fall into the fear state under the effect of the skill.
The pupils of the bear dilated as it saw the bony armor of the human and fear of the predator took over all its senses. It paused in its steps, unable to move even in an inch. In its eyes the human grew larger and larger until it was right in front of its eyes.
Zach made sure that the eye contact never broke as the bear remained in the paralyzed state as he punched the bear in its eyes.
Flames burst out of his gloves and penetrated the delicate defenses of its eyes.
[Critical Hit]
The effect of Firestorm allowed Zach to increase the chances of burning the enemy with flames after each successful critical hit. Therefore, Zach didn't stop with a single punch and broke into a flurry of fists as the bear used its arms to try to swat him away.
[Critical Hit]
[Critical Hit]
[Critical Hit]
[Critical Hit]
…
Unfortunately, it had already lost its vision from the previous attack. The flames were wreaking havoc in its eye sockets as Zach continued to pummel its face without stopping.
Fire raged on the skin of the Earth Bear as it writhed in agony. A part of its precious fur burned with every activation of the skill attached to the gloves. With the increase in the number of the critical hits dealt, the burning effect came more and more frequently.
The bear swung its claws in front of its face to shoo away the human that was burning him with fire. Its mouth at the same time reached forward and tried to bite the enemy that kept attacking its face. However the loss of vision was too much of a handicap for it to overcome. And Zach who always managed to anticipate its movements in time, dodged perfectly every time.
As the bear reached the end of its rope, its movements became too difficult to predict, so Zach activated the defensive ability of his armor as he continued to rain down infernal hell onto the gigantic beast.
"Impenetrable Wall"
The physical defense increased immediately. And a protective shield enveloped Zach which was strong enough to minimize the damage from its haphazard attacks.
When the bear fell, there wasn't a single part of its fur that was still intact. All of it had been burned away by Firestorm.