"Interesting. This should be fun." The masked man said while looking at Atlas and Ferin with a sinister smirk on his face. He clapped his hands in excitement and looked at them with a cold tone in his voice.
"Archmage's gloves really give birth to a unique monster. Come on then, Pioneers! Entertain me!"
A cloud covered the masked man's body as he said that. A second later, he disappeared, leaving only an echoing laugh in the warehouse. This was something that BunBunBoy never had to deal with.
[Ding! Hidden quest is updated.]
[Defeat Unique monster Ironbeak and retrieve Archmage Fyll's gloves.
Reward: Unknown]
"Shit, we're in trouble." Atlas said while pulling Ferin behind him and taking out his wand before casting his spell. "Fer, take its aggro. Your sword will be useless against this thing."
"Got it." Ferin nodded at him seriously without hesitating even once.
She stared at the monster before broke into a run, unsheathing her blade and attacking it immediately.
"Argh!" Ironbeak roared angrily and swung its claw at her.
Ferin dodged it and tried to attack its arms with her sword. The monster didn't flinch and only continued attacking her while trying to grab her with its claws.
"Ugh, it's so hard! My attack only decreased its HP to 99% and my second attack didn't even do anything!" Ferin exclaimed loudly in frustration while jumping backward to dodge its attack and retreated behind Atlas, "At, this thing is so tough!"
"I know. This is a Mage's hidden quest, so I should be able to damage it. However, please find its pattern for me. I don't want to risk the quest ending in failure because we lower our guard against it." Atlas said with a calm expression.
"Alright~"
Ferin smiled at him brightly and nodded her head slowly. She understood the plan and immediately went back to fighting the monster without any hesitation. She waited for an opening and managed to land a hit on it, which only decreased its HP to 98%.
The monster's defense was too hard. If she fought it herself, then she would need to struggle hard to defeat it. However... Her job wasn't to chip its HP away but to find its attack pattern.
"Left arm, pull back, right jab, claw attack, beak attack, bite, and then kick. At, you got it?" Ferin shouted at him while dodging the monster's attacks without stopping even once while interrupting its pattern. "If I block its attack, it will do either a claw attack or beak attack! We can counter it by attacking its opening."
"Yup, I got it." Atlas nodded his head quickly and started casting his spells without showing any hesitation. "[Mana Bolt]!"
He imitated Ferin's pattern and attacked Ironbeak while predicting its movements. A bluish bolt launched from his staff and hit the monster's left arm, preventing it from attacking Ferin.
98% -> 91%
As expected. While this monster's defense was strong against a physical attack, a magic attack could still damage it. Its HP was slowly decreasing as Atlas and Ferin continued their coordinated attacks.
When Ironbeak opened its beak to bite Ferin, she raised her sword and blocked it, pushing it back before counter-attacking it quickly without giving it a chance to dodge or move away.
Atlas used the chance to activate [Fireball] and launched it at Ironbeak's head while it was distracted by Ferin's attack.
90% -> 72%
Fireball was indeed strong. Compared to [Mana Bolt], which only took 7% of its HP, [Fireball] chipped 18% straight away. However, that didn't mean [Mana Bolt] was useless. It had faster cooldown than a [Fireball] and a faster casting speed, making it a perfect magic to use in a fast-paced battle.
"[Mana Bolt]!"
Atlas continued attacking with Ferin, slowly decreasing Ironbeak's HP until it was at 20%. They could feel its strength weakening.
At that moment, something changed with Ironbeak's armor. The black armor became brighter and slowly bulged. Its body enlarged again, and its beak transformed into a sharp spear.
"It's entering the second stage!"
The almost empty HP bar suddenly increased to full. Ironbeak was now Level 22, surprising the couple.
Its face was split from the middle, revealing a pair of yellow eyes with red pupils inside rows of sharp teeth. It screeched loudly as if mocking them for their effort.
"Wow, this is scary. I don't want to look at it." Ferin muttered softly under her breath while staring at Ironbeak with a worried expression on her face. "At, do you have any ideas?"
"Just beat it up like usual." Atlas said calmly while staring at Ironbeak's transformation, trying to figure out its weakness.
'How? I need to find it or this won't end well for us.'
Just as he thought of that, the Ironbeak moved once again, rushing toward them in a tackling motion.
"At!" Ferin shouted loudly and brought him back from his thoughts. She grabbed his hand tightly and jumped to the side while dragging him along with her.
They rolled on the floor as Ironbeak smashed into the wall, creating a big hole in it.
Atlas took a deep breath and patted his clothes lightly before saying with a calm tone in his voice, "Thanks, Fer."
"You're welcome." She smiled sweetly at him and stood up from the ground before raising her sword and pointed toward Ironbeak, which entered the warehouse once again. "Come on! It's not over yet!"
"That's true." He nodded at her while gripping his staff tightly, preparing himself for another battle.
Ironbeak was Level 22 now. Its HP bar was full, and its armor was stronger than before.
'It's also faster than before.' Atlas thought as he observed the monster's movement before nodding his head slowly. He pointed his staff at it and activated [Mana Bolt].
The bolt landed on Ironbeak's body and scattered.
100% -> 98%
It only made it pause for a second before rushing toward them once again. This time, it went straight toward him, ignoring Ferin completely.
"Now this is bad." Atlas commented with a wry smile on his face while pointing his staff at it, trying to predict its attack and dodge it at the same time.
His reaction was fast enough, but the monster was still faster than him. He was grazed by its claw attack. When he landed and looked at his HP, he found out he only had 36% left.