Endless Leveling Done Right!-Chapter 109: The Beginning Of The End [Part 3]

"It’s coming!" Roselia warned.

"Roselia, Plan X!" Alex shouted.

The maid of the Hartwell Clan nodded in understanding and braced herself to face the charging stag.

Just as the beast closed in on Roselia, Alex slammed his sword against his shield with a resounding clang.

"Come here you piece of sh*t!" Alex roared, drawing its gaze.

< Taunt [EX] activated! >

Aurhorn’s charge was forcibly canceled. The sudden change almost made the monster trip.

The Horizon Striker, who had been waiting for that moment, unleashed her chain combo.

"Ascendant Edge!" Roselia’s short swords glowed purple as she unleashed six devastating strikes that emitted shock waves with every hit.

Aurhorn staggered upon impact, allowing Roselia to follow up with her second combo move.

"Gale Fang Drive!" Roselia lunged at the Boss Monster and unleashed another six alternating slashes, causing the monster to suffer increased bleed damage.

Her attack dealt 10% extra damage with each successive strike, and the final strike had a high chance of staggering its target.

The Horizon Striker was a Job Class that specialized in creating chain combos that made it very difficult for opponents to counterattack.

Roselia’s consecutive strikes dealt increased damage and caused massive bleeding to her target, decreasing its Health Bar dramatically in seconds.

It was said that once the Horizon Striker’s first combo connected, it was nearly impossible for it to be stopped!

After two consecutive chain combos, Roselia finally unleashed one of her finisher strikes.

"Blade Horizon!" She jumped up and made a single thrust targeting Aurhorn’s eye.

When the attack connected, blood spurted out of the Boss Monster’s eye and it shrieked in pain.

To the untrained eye, the maid’s attack looked like she simply stabbed the monster’s eye once.

However, in reality, Roselia stabbed the Boss Monster’s right eye eight times, inflicting devastating damage with each hit.

———

< Aurhorn the Stag of Twilight >

Monster Rank: Rank 3 Boss Monster

Monster Grade: Named

Type: Wandering Boss Monster

Health: 3,169 / 6,800

Attack: 200 - 450

Active Skills: Gleaming Rush, Twilight Bolt, Pulse of the Deepwood.

———

The maid’s chain combo had dealt a lot of damage to the Boss Monster, bringing its health down drastically.

Alex stepped forward, ready to follow up with a Shield Bash, when the ground trembled beneath his feet. His eyes snapped toward the opening of the path they were blocking.

"Roselia, retreat!" Alex shouted after seeing dozens of Rank 2 Monsters headed in their direction.

As much as the young man wanted to finish the Boss Monster off, staying was not an option. Not to mention, Roselia had just unleashed three consecutive skills with her full power. Even without asking, he knew that she must be pretty exhausted.

As for Roselia, she was reluctant to leave, but she also understood that staying for more than a minute would result in their deaths. Without any hesitation, she followed Alex as they ran away from the horde of monsters about to catch up to them.

Aurhorn, who had suffered a one-sided beating from Roselia, roared in anger as blood streamed down from its injuries.

As a Named Monster, it was very intelligent, and it understood it could no longer treat its foes lightly.

Glancing at the pack of Rank 2 Dire Wolves behind it, the Boss Monster did the unexpected.

It charged at the pack of wolves, killing all that stood in its way.

Confused by the sudden betrayal, the wolves attacked Aurhorn. But with a single stomp of its hooves, it unleashed its skill, Pulse of the Deepwood, sending the Dire Wolves flying with a powerful shock wave.

The Stag of Twilight then began to eat the monster cores on the ground. As it ate, its injuries slowly closed up and healed.

The only saving grace was that the right eye Roselia had stabbed didn’t regenerate, making Aurhorn roar in anger, which reverberated within the First Floor of the Dungeon of Beginnings.

"Looks like we just made it angrier," Alex noted as he continued to run as fast as he could.

"It’s a shame," Roselia commented. "We could have killed it if there had been no interference."

Alex also found it quite regrettable, but the circumstances prevented them from having their way.

After checking his map, he saw that Cairo and the rest of their team were only six hundred meters away from them.

Monster cores littered the ground, which proved that their vanguard had met their fair share of trouble along the way.

"Alex, who is Charles to you?" Roselia asked. "And why are you doing all of this for him?"

"Didn’t we already talk about this in the past?" Alex replied.

"You only said that you wanted to help someone in Briarwood Village," Roselia answered.

"But after asking Charles some questions, I found out that the two of you have only recently been acquainted with each other. I don’t understand why you are risking your life to save a complete stranger."

Roselia paused a little, as if choosing her words, before continuing, "Don’t get me wrong. I find what you are doing very noble and righteous. My only concern is the fact that you seem to know a lot about Charles while he knows very little about you."

Alex frowned. "Now is not the time for this, Roselia. We need to survive first. You can ask me questions when we are safe in the City of Harmonia."

"..." Roselia eyed the young man, but she no longer asked any questions.

She understood that this was indeed not the time and place to ask these things, and conversing while running would only wear them out faster and make them less alert.

The sound of fighting finally reached their ears as they caught up to the main group.

Cairo, Lavinia, and Efa were fighting the mobs, while Elaine kept Charles safe.

The Catkins siblings noticed Alex’s and Roselia’s arrival and breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened to the Boss Monster?" Cairo asked. "Is it dead?"

"No," Alex replied. "We managed to inflict some serious injuries, but we were forced to retreat because the monsters were gathering at our location."

"How far are we from the exit?" Lavinia asked. Despite her look of determination, sweat dripped down her face, showing how tired she really was.

"Less than an hour away," Alex answered. "Let’s go. The Boss Monster is now coming after us."

The young man was paying close attention to Aurhorn’s movements because it was currently the greatest threat they faced on the First Floor.

"We need to hurry before Rank 3 Monsters start appearing," Roselia commented. "We cannot allow them to encircle us."

Everyone nodded, turning their full attention back to the desperate struggle toward an exit that felt impossibly far.