Aurora took a few more steps, coming out of the bushes she was in, and soon she finally saw the source of that pressure with her own two eyes. She now stood face-to-face with her next big trial.
But it seemed that she was in for a suprise as her next enemy, the source of that immense pressure, was a tree. Yes, a tree that looked like a perfectly normal tree.
The tree in itself was quite small, only about 3 meters high, with its trunk being about half a meter wide. Despite being on the smaller side when talking about trees, compared to Aurora, whose tiny body was only about 30 centimeters long, it was massive.
'Is it trying to blend in with its surroundings? Sorry, buddy, you can try to hide all you want, but you can't hide that absurd aura of yours.' Aurora chuckled inwardly and prepared to attack.
As if the tree sensed that its trick didn't work, its branches started moving. Soon after, two black holes opened up at the center of the tree's trunk, and below those two holes, a much bigger one opened up.
'Eyes and mouth, huh? So you finally dropped the act.' Not giving the tree any more time to prepare, Aurora charged in and closed the distance of a few meters within moments.
'Scratch!' Without a moment of hesitation, Aurora activated her good old Scratch, her claws nearing its target by the second.
*Swish* *Clink*
As the claws, powered by the strength of a level 5 skill, collided with the tree's bark, a dull sound like that of metal clashing against metal resounded all around.
'Tsk, as expected.' Aurora clicked her tongue in annoyance when she saw the result of the clash. Her claws barely left a scratch in the bark of the tree, proving that this monster's defense is unlike that of any other monster she has fought with until now.
Seeing that her attack had failed, Aurora quickly jumped back. The tree also didn't wait around any longer, and it quickly attacked.
Its branches prolonged and shot out towards Aurora, intent on piercing her back. But the tree's expectations were broken the next moment as Aurora nimbly dodged its attack without any problems.
'Two on the left, one on the right...' Aurora's brain worked like a machine, taking in all her surroundings as well as focusing on every incoming attack. She even tried to here and there counterattack, only to obviously end up doing basically no damage.
'Its defense is really high. On the contrary, its agility is nothing special, probably about the same as mine, and although higher than the agility, its strength is at best only a few points higher than mine.' Even in the middle of a fight, she still had enough time to think.
The tree was undeniably the most powerful opponent Aurora fought with up until this point. Its attacks were relentless and powerful. Its defense was nigh inpenetrable. But despite all of this, she felt as if the tree wasn't all that powerful after all.
'Its attacks are almost identical to those of a Trapper, only more powerful and faster. But just making them stronger and faster won't make them something special. They are simple and easy to dodge.'
During the two weeks she spent in this world, Aurora fought with many monsters, among which there was no shortage of Vicious Trappers.
Though she mostly killed them before they could do much, she sometimes used them to practice her dodging. This made her realize that, by just calmly observing and moving as little as possible, dodging such simple attacks was, well, simple.
As long as she could react to them and was able to move fast enough, this kind of attack posed no problem at all.
'This is quite disappointing.' Such a thought appeared in her mind. Yes, the tree was strong, and yes, she wasn't able to damage it, but something inside her just wasn't satisfied.
Rather than fighting something new, something special, she felt like she was just fighting a more powerful Trapper.
'Boring. Other than finding a way to get through its defense, this monster poses no threat at all.' Aurora sighed both internally and out loud. She felt truly bored.
'Then again, considering how much defense it has, it probably has a ton of stamina too, so if I don't figure something out soon, this tree will tire me to death.' This was the bigger problem in Aurora's eyes.
Unless the tree had some super-strong skill it still hasn't used, it wouldn't be able to defeat Aurora. But if things continued on like this, the first one to go down would be Aurora rather than the tree.
'Come on! How small is a 'very small' chance in the system's eyes, goddamn it!?'
Since she definitely couldn't prolong this battle, Aurora decided on a different approach.
Actually, this was something she was trying to do from the beginning, when she realized her attacks wouldn't do much. Every so often, Aurora would use Scratch to counterattack a branch that attacked her.
Of course, this did basically nothing, but her goal wasn't to deal damage. You see, other than just doing some damage, according to the system, Scratch also has a very small chance to inflict a debuff (negative status effect) called Minor Bleed.
Obviously, even the skill's description mentioned this, but Aurora mostly ignored it before because of the words 'very small' and chance, something she truly doesn't like since she knows how bad her luck is.
She even forgot about it until she managed to actually inflict it on a monster she had fought before. Since it managed to catch her attention back then, she decided to look for some information about it in the archives.
[Minor Bleed]
- Grade: Very Weak
Attribute: Blood
[While active:
- Deals damage over time (DoT) every second
- The damage is equal to 0.5% of the target's max HP
- Duration: 2 minutes
As the name suggests, Minor Bleed is, well, a bleeding effect that deals damage over time; it's as simple as that. But it's exactly that simplicity that Aurora needs at the moment.
As of now, it is obvious that any kind of physical attack she may try won't work on the tree due to its high defense. But even if the attack is inefficient, it can still trigger the second effect and inflict Minor Bleed on the target.
Furthermore, since the bleed does percentual damage, it won't be affected by defense. Basically, all Aurora needs to do is inflict the tree with the effect and then survive until the tree dies.
Now you may ask, how can you make a tree bleed? This is a valid question since trees don't exactly have blood, now do they?
Well, as said previously, Aurora already managed to inflict a monster with the bleed once before. Not only once, but multiple times, actually.
And guess what? All of those enemies were plant-like. They didn't have blood or any other bodily fluid similar to blood, but the bleed still affected them.
That means that it's not exactly about bleeding and blood loss but rather about losing HP over time, something that the system can do regardless of whether or not the target has blood. And since that's the case, it means that even this tree will be affected by the bleed.
'The only problem is that I will need to apply it at least once, if not more times, if that thing resists the bleed to a certain degree.' This was also something Aurora realized.
Since the bleed that Scratch can trigger is only a minor one, which Aurora thinks is the weakest one, it can't kill the target on its own unless the target is especially vulnerable against it.
The Minor Bleed deals 0.5% of the target's max HP as damage and has a default duration of 2 minutes, resulting in a total of 60% max HP loss. So at best, Aurora will need to inflict the effect at least two times.
*Swish*
[You have inflicted the status effect Minor Bleed on the target.]
[Due to the target's high resistance, the effect duration is halved.]
'Tsk, I shouldn't have said anything! Not that I did, but you get what I am.' While Aurora complained internally and talked to who knows who, the tree finally showed first signs of feeling pain.
"Screee!"
The tree let out loud, screeching sounds, and its branches, which were on their way to attack Aurora, twisted in response to the pain the tree was feeling. Clearly, due to its high defense, the tree wasn't used to feeling pain, so its pain tolerance was low.
'Yeah, that's a better expression, bastard.' Aurora couldn't stop a cruel smile from forming on her small lips. Though this 'cruel' smile looked cute rather than menacing.
Either way, not wasting this precious opportunity, Aurora quickly spent 20 mana and cast two snowballs at once. This was also something she learned in the two weeks she spent in the forest.
Back then, she called it dual casting—original, I know. Well, either way, it is exactly what it sounds like it is: casting two spells at once. Though this sounds simple, it proved to be quite difficult the first time Aurora tried it.
Of course, it took her only a few tries to pull off, but that was Snowball, one of the most simple spells there are. When she tried it with the Frozen Snow as a test, she immediately realized that she severely underestimated how difficult it can be.
Just a slightly more advanced spell than the Snowball, and Aurora was already unable to cast two of them at once, even after wasting all of her mana trying.
Dual casting is actually a huge burden on one's mind for some reason. It was mostly with a super-simple spell like Snowball, but more complicated spells were a big no-no.
Well, anyway, boring talk aside, the two snowballs Aurora cast quickly shot out towards their target—the tree's eyes.
The two balls of condensed snow hit the tree's eyes spot-on, dealing what was probably serious damage. This thought was further reinforced as the tree's struggles and screeches further intensified.
'Heh, seems like I was right; those were probably weak spots.' Aurora had an idea while she was dodging the attacks of the tree.
Every part of its 'body' was covered by its back, but its 'eyes' that were basically just holes didn't seem as tough. This was what Aurora thought, and to test it out, she decided to use some magic.
And, as previously seen, the results of her little test were a complete success.
'Not only are they most probably weak spots, but the tree's magic resistance is probably nowhere near as strong as its physical one.' Aurora smirked, and without hesitation, she cast two more snowballs and quickly shot them out.
Unfortunately, the tree seemed to have finally snapped back to reality as two branches moved in to block the two spells.
Even then, though the tree managed to avoid critical damage, the spells did a number on those two branches.
While the snowballs got smashed into pieces, the parts of the branches that they hit got blown to splinters.
'Tsk, annoying. Well, at least now the bleed should be enough to finish it off.' Aurora rolled her eyes when she saw that her attack had failed.
Either way, in her eyes, this fight was already a done deal. The first two snowballs that hit the eyes, plus the other two that blew the two branches into pieces, should have gotten the tree below 60% HP.
And indeed, she was correct. The tree's HP was definitely below 60% health, but she shouldn't have considered this her victory just yet.
"Roooar!"
'Hm?' Aurora immediately focused all her senses on the tree, and her guard shot up. The tree's previously painful cries and screeches have now turned into heavy, loud roars.
Its previously painful expression changed in an instant, becoming one of a pure rage. Suddenly, a crimson-red aura started to surround the tree.
'Shit! I need to finish this!' Sensing that something was wrong, Aurora didn't waste a second and immediately cast two more snowballs, shooting them towards the eyes once again.
But unlike what happened before, the spells didn't hit their target, nor did they get blocked. Instead, as soon as they approached that crimson aura, they blew up in tiny, glassy crystals of ice and snow.
'Not good!'