Through the gaps in the doorway at the end of the corridor, a nefarious substance oozed through, squeezing past the threshold as it entered the hall with its shapeless form. The crimson liquid coalesced, growing into a recognizable shape: a bipedal, humanoid resemblance, standing well over three meters tall with a featureless face.
[ENEMY: "Blood Boil" | Lv. 80]
Steam exuded from the liquid-formed creature as it began slowly approaching.
Vangrave stepped forward, brushing by Zero as he held a confident smile, "Let me handle this one."
"Oh? Sure. It's all yours," Zero responded as he accepted the proposal, lowering his own weapon.
The spiky-haired warrior held an excited grin as he got into a readied stance, with his shoulders squared and leaned down, holding his halberd as if it were a javelin.
Zero stood back and spectated, using this opportunity as a chance to gauge the strength of the warrior-class player.
'Usually the downfall of the warrior class is purely outputting physical damage. Sure, warriors can dish out the highest physical attacks in the game, but against an enemy that is resistant to that–they're out of luck. Let's see how you handle this, Vangrave,' Zero thought.
"Let's do this!" Vangrave shouted as a vibrant, golden wind exuded from him.
["Dance of Victory"]
The warrior's skin became glossy, almost shifting to a golden shine as he burst forward, rapidly covering the distance between himself and the Blood Boil that stood on the opposing end of the corridor.
'A stat amplification skill. Looks like it prioritized agility and dexterity,' Zero observed.
A quick reaction came from the humanoid, scarlet monster of ooze as its arms whipped around, releasing their shape as they extended rapidly across the walls.
"Careful!" Zero shouted as a warning.
Vangrave responded with a fiery smile, "I know, I know!"
As the steaming limbs of blood thrashed around, pinching the warrior, a flexible counter was taken by the spiky-haired man, who nimbly jumped and spun around while swinging his weapon.
["Visceral Cyclone"]
The unorthodox attack cleaved against the surrounding walls of the narrow corridor, repelling the gooey limbs with slashes of wind.
'That's not going to work,' Zero thought.
As quickly as the human-resembling goo's extended limbs were cut apart, they instantly reassembled, whipping around as they aimed for the warrior's body. With how quickly the Blood Boil launched its offense, there was no space given to Vangravr to react; the boiling limbs were hardly inches away from making contact, and the warrior had already swung his halberd, landing on just one leg after his initial attack.
However–
The waving limbs of the crimson monstrosity were suddenly repelled by a powerful, luminous force of golden light.
"Gotcha'!" Vangrave yelled with a smirk.
Into the warrior's left hand, another weapon was manifested into his grip: rather than one made of physical material, it was bound to him through a coalescence of magical energy in the form of reinforced, golden light.
It was a long, shrewd battleaxe that was as large as the player who wielded it, using no effort to flawlessly repel the enemy's attack.
["Arsenal of Heaven: Light's Brutality"]
"Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! It's "Vangrave's Ultimate Chop n' Drop" time!" The warrior yelled out as he began sprinting forward again.
The humanoid slime's form bubbled up as it strained itself to rebuild its limbs, seeming to attack more desperately as it unleashed a dozen whips of boiling ooze towards the player.
With speed and a fearless heart that was driven by the adrenaline of combat, Vangrave used his magical weapon to cleave through the slime's attacks, flipping around to avoid strikes as he gained ground.
Seeing the astral axe be wielded gallantly by the warrior was a relieving sight to the player in all-black armor, who smiled to himself.
'Looks like I was worried for nothing. As I thought, Vangrave isn't a pushover: he's covered his own weaknesses for his class and acquired unorthodox skills. That's what separates the nobodies from the legends in games like this–making a playstyle of your own,' Zero thought.
Just as the warrior got within striking range of the tall, humanoid slime, its midsection suddenly parted–
"Huh–?!" Vangrave reacted.
THWAAAAAAAAM
–A shock wave of sound blasted from the opening in the slime, directly slamming against the player with thunderous force.
As the tall, muscular warrior was thrown across the corridor, his fall was broken as Zero caught him by the collar of his armor.
"Nn…That smarts," Vangrave winced.
Zero helped him back to his feet, patting him with some words of advice, "Be more aggressive. It prefers to fight at medium-to-long range. Obviously, don't let it get what it wants. If you lose here, I'm not saving you."
"Don't remember askin' for yer help anyway!" Vangrave said frustratingly before huffing, "But yeah, I gotcha."
Pressing his metal boots against the scarlet marble, the warrior sprung forth with renewed resolve. Vangrave swung both his halberd and astral ax, cleaving through the boiling defenses of the slime as he grew closer.
Normally, dual-wielding was considered a fruitless effort unless one was fully-specced towards it, however, the usage that the spiky-haired player used was a different case altogether: the axe itself counted as a spell, not a secondary weapon.
"C'mon and get it!" Vangrave roared.
Leaping forth, the reckless warrior was met with a fearsome last ditch attack from the scarlet, gooey humanoid as it lashed at him with razor-sharp tendrils, landing multiple hits.
"Argh–! Die!" Vangrave shouted.
Slamming both weapons down at the same time just as he landed, the boisterous player cut straight through the formless enemy. It wasn't a clean offense by any means, but it got the job done as the crimson slime faded away, dissolving into particles.
"Ha-ha! Easy peasy!" Vangrave confidently said, resting his halberd on his shoulder as his astral axe vanished, giving a thumbs-up to the other player.
Though the celebration seemed a bit premature as the eccentric warrior coughed, spitting up blood as he keeled over.
"Gah, damn…!" Vangrave growled, looking at the sizzling wounds on his armor, "I forgot about that stupid corrosion…!"
Zero sighed as he walked over, pointing his hand towards the afflicted player as he spoke an incantation, "Dark Cleanse."
A hum echoed against the crimson walls as the spell manifested itself through a sparkle of sable particles around the warrior. The stains of corrosive blood evaporated from Vangrave, removing the status ailment as the player stood himself up with a huff.
"Careful. That protective spell I put on us only nullifies passive inflictions, it won't stop ailments that come from attacks," Zero warned.
Vangrave huffed before smiling as he replied, "Yeah, I see that now. Pain in the ass domain."