CHAPTER 156: DEALING WITH THE KNIGHTS

The dark brown threads wrapped around the knight, holding it in place while the others focused on the remaining archers.

The threads were too strong for the boss with only one of its bodies dead, so Jax moved on to the other one.

More arrows flew, but the party had adapted to the attack pattern. Melayne’s shield work, Ning’s agility, and Jax’s armor allowed them to suffer the barrage while closing distance. Once they were there, they began focusing on the archer knights one at a time.

The defeated one then another, then another.

Three archer knights fell to them in a relatively quick succession. Barely a minute out of the total 10 available for the round had been used up by them.

Jax moved on toward the next archer when he heard a noise. Everyone heard it as well, and they turned around to see what was happening. To their horror, the boss had gotten stronger than before.

"What? But it’s only been 3 knights," Jax said in confusion. He immediately ran toward the boss who was beginning to tear through Jax’s threads.

"Look out!" Jax warned.

The boss knight, now empowered by the absorbed essence of its fallen bodies, moved with frightening speed toward Roman. He was the closest to the boss right now, and the most vulnerable member of the party.

Roman froze in fear upon seeing the boss descend upon him. He didn’t know what he could do. All his training went out the window upon seeing the hulking figure clad in armor move at him with its sword raised high.

He was going to die. The three fighters weren’t close enough.

Roman had never feared like he had at that moment.

The knight’s sword descended toward Roman in a killing blow, but suddenly Lucille was there. She had sprinted toward him and threw her entire body into a punch, her newly acquired metal knuckles connecting with the boss’s armored chest.

The impact sent the boss stumbling backward, giving her time to grab Roman and move to safety.

"Dammit!" Lucille said as she shook her hand in pain.

"Lucille!" Roman shouted in surprise and relief. There were tears about to fill his eyes.

"Save the thanks for later. Focus on the battle. He’s coming."

Roman turned around to prepare, but the others had arrived back already.

Jax and the others quickly moved to engage the boss while it was still recovering from the unexpected blow.

Melayne and Jax struck the boss from two different directions, its armor dented and charred.

Ning found one of the critical spots and drove his spear into it with precision. The boss knight collapsed, its consciousness immediately transferring to another archer.

"Five more remaining!" Ning announced.

The new boss knight was even stronger than the previous one, having absorbed the power of five fallen bodies.

"Take care of the others. I’ll hold this one off," Jax said and engaged the boss directly.

Lucille helped the others as well, using her lightning bolt to strike at them. When another one died, Jax felt the impact.

"Shit! It’s faster than me now," Jax grunted, barely parrying a sword strike. "And hitting harder too."

The boss’s sword, which had been weak before, now seemed to have gained considerable strength and durability.

"Lucille, what about its weaknesses?" Jax asked.

"None at all," Lucille said.

"What? No weaknesses?" Jax asked in surprise.

"No, but it has no resistance either," Lucille said.

Jax got his hit in where he could, and dodged when he could as well. It was difficult to parry with the boss’s strength so dodging was the only option.

Suddenly, the boss’s power increased again as Ning eliminated another archer from the field.

"Two more lackeys left!" Ning called out.

But the power boost made the boss even more formidable. Jax was forced to move back, his defensive posture becoming more desperate.

Melayne finished off another archer, and the boss’s strength surged once more.

"Only one remaining!" she shouted.

The boss, however, became too strong for him.

"Help!" he shouted. "It’s too strong for me."

As he called out, the boss struck his sword down at him with enough speed that Jax barely had the time to react. He swung with his axe, pouring all the energy he had in his body into that attack.

His axe met the boss’s sword, and to his horror, the sword blew his axe back, flying out of his palm. The impact sent him flying backward as well, his armor scraping against the arena floor as he tumbled.

"Jax!" Roman shouted, immediately beginning a healing spell.

The boss knight stood with its head held high, its power now consolidated from eight fallen knights. Only one archer remained, and once it was eliminated, the boss would reach its full potential.

The boss slowly moved toward Jax and Roman.

Jax rushed for his axe and dragged it up. However, he felt something was off. Had he gained some new strength? The axe felt... lighter.

Jax turned toward his axe and his eyes went wide in horror. The head of the axe, that was thin and flat, had been chipped, a large portion of its upper half missing. Some of those portions contained runic symbols.

The rune of his axe, the one that made it sharper, was no longer working.

"Move back!" Lucille shouted to alert him.

Jax moved away from where he was standing and cleared his head. He was fighting a boss. A loss of a weapon shouldn’t be that bad for him. It was only missing a portion. The lower half of the axe was still sharp and usable.

’The axe was weak. I was bound to switch it from the start,’ Jax told himself. ’I got it back in the 10th Carriage after all. This shouldn’t be a surprise. This shouldn’t stop me.’

He had to continue fighting.

Ning came back to deal with the boss along with the rest while Melayne stayed behind to defeat the final knight.

When that knight finally fell, the boss suddenly surged in power, the energy of all dead knights flowing into it.