"ROAAAAR!!!"
The sudden, ferocious bellow shattered Daniel's chain of thought.
Before he could even react, the [Stoneback Colossus] lunged at him once more!
Now empowered by the Blood Moon, the [Stoneback Colossus] had not only regained full HP and MP, but its aggression and skillcasting had reached a terrifying new level.
It had gone berserk.
The massive creature lifted its enormous forelimbs and slammed them violently toward Daniel's position.
[Madness of Moon]!!
Faced with such a wide-area attack, Daniel could only choose to temporarily back off, narrowly avoiding being crushed.
But just as he escaped one disaster, another came for him—
a beam of crimson breath slashed through the air behind him.
[Breath of Moon]!!
"Damn it! Is this thing ever going to stop?!"
The barrage of area-of-effect skills left Daniel with no room to maneuver.
Cornered and bleeding, he gritted his teeth and chose to take the hit—while countering with a retaliatory strike:
[Great Fireball]!!
—9,951,585!!!
A direct hit!
He had taken a massive chunk off the colossus's HP—a full 10% in one blow!
Daniel's eyes gleamed with hope. He prepared to press the attack—
But before he could cast again, a deafening roar thundered in his ears.
The sound was so intense that the ground itself began to tremble beneath him.
His vision blurred. His body staggered. He could barely stay upright.
[Roar of Moon]!!
"What the—!? It's a control skill?!"
Daniel's heart sank.
He struggled desperately to move his limbs, to break free of the binding effect, but it was no use.
He was immobilized.
The [Stoneback Colossus] would not waste such a golden opportunity.
It raised its forelimbs once more and brought them crashing down—
[Madness of Moon]!!
BOOM!!
The sheer force of the impact sent Daniel flying like a ragdoll.
The crushing shockwave felt like it could tear him limb from limb.
Blood spurted from his mouth.
His earlier gamble—to tank a [Breath of Moon] and counterattack—had already stripped away his shield.
Before he could reapply it, he was caught in the control of [Roar of Moon], and slammed into the ground in a devastating follow-up.
—83,024!!
Just one hit, and a fifth of his total HP was gone.
Potions. Now. Immediately!
With trembling hands, Daniel dumped every potion in his pack down his throat.
He had severely underestimated the damage output of a World Rank boss in its blood-maddened state.
There was no room left for pride or restraint.
Especially not when the system had warned him: death here meant true death.
No resurrection. No second chances.
He had to recover HP. At any cost.
He cast [Ode to Life] once again, trying to top off his health bar.
But that cast brought his MP dangerously low—below 10%.
The short moment of MP recovery he had enjoyed during the Blood Moon's arrival?
Already burned through in mere seconds of frantic spellcasting and survival.
What now?
10% MP—even with potions—could at best bring it back up to 20%.
That meant, at most, 10 casts of [Ode to Life], or 20 [Great Fireball]s.
But here was the problem—
The [Stoneback Colossus] still had 90% HP left.
Mathematically, to bring it down with 20 fireballs, at least 9 of them would need to trigger special effect damage.
Yet, according to the skill description, the chance of that happening was only 10% per cast.
So what could he do?
Nothing, except gamble.
Drag the fight out. Recover MP. And pray to every god that those lucky procs would come through.
"Damn it all… Let's do this!!"
Daniel clenched his fists, summoned all his remaining strength, and launched another [Great Fireball] at the boss.
This time… no special effect.
—116,953
The damage was still phenomenal—godlike for a Level 30 Awakener.
But to the [Stoneback Colossus], it was a mere 1% dent.
It was more an annoyance than a wound.
The colossus responded with rage.
ROAAAAR!!!
Once again, [Roar of Moon] echoed across the battlefield, and Daniel was immobilized.
He wanted to cast [Thunderfall Shield] to grant himself a temporary super armor buff—but the skill required 5% MP!
He couldn't afford it.
A shield might help him survive for a moment…
But in this battle, it was just drinking poison to quench thirst.
He needed his MP for damage and healing, not survival stalling.
If he wanted to win, it would be by landing special-effect [Great Fireball]s.
And for that, he needed as much MP as possible.
"ROARRRR!!!"
The [Stoneback Colossus] opened its gaping maw once more.
Crimson energy surged inside—
[Breath of Moon]!!
BOOM!!
Even though Daniel dodged as best he could, the breath still grazed him, knocking out another 20% of his HP.
His back was on fire.
The searing pain was almost enough to make him collapse.
"Damn you!! I'm not going down without a fight!"
[Great Fireball]!
[Great Fireball]!!
—116,953
—9,951,585!!!
YES! A critical hit!
Daniel's eyes gleamed with hope.
But before he could celebrate—
BAM!!
Another barrage of boss skills crashed down upon him.
…
In just three minutes, Daniel had experienced countless brushes with death.
With every cast of [Ode to Life], he had to consider carefully.
Even a single mistake could end him.
But even with his best efforts, his MP was hanging by a thread.
Blood poured from his wounds.
He was drenched in sweat, panting violently.
His HP: 123.
His MP: 0.
It was over.
It seemed Lady Luck had finally turned her back.
Daniel looked up at the [Stoneback Colossus], despair filling his eyes.
Honestly, his luck had been insane.
Out of 14 casts of [Great Fireball], he had landed multiple special-effect hits, shaving off 70% of the boss's health.
He had turned a 10% trigger rate into nearly 50% by sheer will.
But this was the end of the line.
He had less than 30 MP left, not enough to cast anything.
And even if he waited for potion recovery…
Would the [Stoneback Colossus] give him ten seconds to do it?
Of course not.
With another earth-shaking roar, the colossus reared up.
Its enormous body loomed over Daniel like a mountain preparing to fall.
The glow in its maw intensified—
It was charging up both [Madness of Moon] and [Breath of Moon] simultaneously.
An unavoidable combo.
There was nowhere left to run.
Nowhere left to hide.
Is this it?
Is this really how it ends?
I only just awakened… and now I'm going to die here?
"I refuse! I WON'T ACCEPT THIS!!"
Daniel screamed in anguish, using the last shreds of his strength to roar in defiance.
But at that very moment—
The boss's skills were fully charged.
The ground trembled violently beneath Daniel as a blinding beam of crimson light engulfed him.
[Breath of Moon]—impact confirmed.
[HP: 0]