Chương 19: Boss (2)

"Robert!"

"Is he alright?"

"He's breathing. He should be fine."

"It looks like he's out of mana. Someone give him some mana crystals."

"..."

"Wake him up! Force the crystals down if you have to! Come on! We don't have time to waste!" Agh! Was I dead? Was I in the afterlife?

"Cayman? Theo? Ben? Maya? Ellie?" I sat up. I was puzzled. What the hell happened?

"We have no time to talk about it right now," Theo said, holding out his hand. I took it, and he pulled me up with his muscular, athletic arms.

"What's more important is that we have this abomination of a monster to deal with, and he's coming back for more." Theo pointed to an area of the wall away from all of the action.

"Sit over there," he said.

"Recover. Use the healing and recovery skills simultaneously. I, along with your other friends, am going to fight against that thing for now." I smiled. Those were my lines. If I could remember correctly, I had said those words to Theo about ten to fifteen minutes ago. I looked at where the Boss was standing. Cayman was doing a really good job holding it back for now. Theo knelt down and began to heal my wounds.

I had sustained quasi-legendary level wounds, but Theo still used his skill on me even though it wasn't going to do much. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a few red mana crystals.

"Use these to replenish your mana," he said, handing me the crystals.

"We're going to fight that thing. Sit here and rest for a while before joining in. If you don't feel like joining in, you don't have to. Nobody's forcing you to fight after what you've just been through." I nodded.

"You did well," Theo said before leaving to join the fight.

"Just sit back and enjoy the show." I couldn't make myself truly comfortable, however, since I was sitting on rocks with extremely rough edges that pierced my back like little daggers. It wasn't like I was on my bed reading Night Hoppers. I missed that feeling. I missed living a completely normal life. Without thinking about the pain, and without thinking about Night Hoppers, I checked the mission log again.

Mission 1/1: defeat the beasts Beasts to defeat: Iron-horned rhino (100/100) Black Spotted Jaguar (103/100) Boss (0/1) They had done it. Thank God. They had managed to meet the quota given. All we had to do now was to defeat this Boss monster. I could finally rest with ease. Although I was supposed to be resting, there was one thing that I was extremely curious about, and that was the stab wound I had sustained from fighting the Boss.

I lifted my shirt and saw that there was a long dark scar in the area where I was stabbed. It wasn't dripping blood, which was a good sign. Roar! I turned my attention back to the fight in front of me. Maya, Ben and Theo were darting all over the place; one moment, they were in front of the Boss, and the next, they were behind. That showed me how useful the teleportation skill actually was. Clang! Like my sword, Theo, Ben and Maya's swords all did no damage to the monster.

At the end of the day, they were all identical basic-level swords, whilst Theo, Ben and Maya were dealing with a monster flirting with the legendary level. Cayman, on the other hand, was showing exceptional swordsmanship. His movements were extremely elegant, effortless and satisfying to watch. I could tell that the sword he was wielding wasn't the same as what we were using: it was definitely at the advanced level or higher. Stab! He managed to land a clean hit on the Boss. I was astounded, dumbfounded.

I couldn't believe I was friends with, no, comrades with, a guy as strong and as confident as him.

"Theo! Ben! Maya!" Cayman hollered.

"Continue to distract that thing! I managed to land a clean hit on it. We can defeat it! It's possible!" Ben and Maya looked like they had seen better days. Ben had black spots all over his face, shirt and trousers, presumably beast blood, and his arms were full of shallow scratches. They had dried up, however; his appearance showed that we had to level up to get stronger. Maya had sweat dripping from her face. Her face seemed to be gleaming, presumably from her excessive sweating.

Whenever she teleported, her dishevelled hair fluttered and danced behind her. She looked like she needed a shower as soon as possible, since she had mana beast blood all over her skin. Stab! This time, it was Ellie who landed a blow on the Boss. She stabbed her sword so deep into the monster's body that fresh black blood spurted onto her clothes and her face. Several strands of her silky light brown hair were dyed black from the blood.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Still, she didn't say anything; as always, she was as silent as a ghost.

"You're doing good, everyone!" Cayman shouted.

"I know this seems daunting, and you may be out of mana soon, but this fight will end soon! I promise!" Cayman's voice reflected the fact that he may have made another mistake sending us here. Maybe he hadn't anticipated that we would be fighting legendary-level beasts on this planet. He must have been attracted to the fact that we only needed to complete one mission on this planet before we could claim it for ourselves and underestimated the difficulty of the mission.

"I'm running out of mana!" Ben yelled.

"I don't think I can hold it down for any longer!"

"I've got spare crystals!" Theo replied. He was also busy trying to hold off the Boss from attacking me.

"Hold on a second! I'm going to give them to you!" Theo was struggling to reach into his pocket whilst trying to hold off the Boss. Did they need my help? No, I thought. Theo said I should stay here and rest. I definitely need that rest. If I go out there now, I'm basically asking for death. Mana consumption. [Mana consumption] Available mana: 20% Time left until fully replenished: 10 hours, 23 minutes Damn. I was not going to stand a chance against the Boss with that miniscule amount of mana.

I watched patiently as Theo reached into his pocket and dug out a few red mana crystals. He threw them to Ben.

"Take these," he said.

"Take them quickly as well. We need you on our team!" Sometimes I wished I had Theo's leadership skills. He could probably lead a team of skill users on his own without Cayman's help in the future.

"No, not you as well, Maya!" Theo was distraught. Hastily, he threw three mana crystals in Maya's direction. Maya, who had been teleporting non-stop for the past five minutes, was really feeling the effects of the long fight. Sweat was making her hair wet, which stuck to her bloodied face like glue. She looked like she was going to double over and puke if she stopped. She, too, took the mana crystals Theo gave to her. Stab! Cayman had landed another hit on the Boss. Stab! So did Ellie.

They were making really good progress. Those two seemed to understand each other really well without words, just like in Night Hoppers. There were times when I thought that this was still a dream, and that I was going to wake up in bed panting and covered in sweat. There were times when I thought that my whole life was a dream. There were times I thought that the world wasn't real. That I wasn't real. That I was in someone else's body. But no, this was a hundred percent real. I was on a different planet.

Planet 501. Roar! Thud! There was a giant earthquake. The Boss, which must have weighed at least five hundred pounds, collapsed, sending dust and debris flying. I coughed. Cayman had done it. He, Ellie, Theo, Ben and Maya had defeated the Boss of this planet.

"Wait a minute," Cayman said after he confirmed the monster wasn't moving.

"It's still alive. It hasn't lost enough blood to cause a risk to life yet. We have to be careful." Whoever lands the final blow to the boss of the planet gets to claim and name the planet. Why was that line of Night Hoppers in my head now? That was true, and Cayman was always the one who dealt the final blow to the boss. However, why was I thinking about it? Was it because I wanted a planet of my own? I wasn't thinking about it, but my body began moving. My mana core was only twenty-one percent full right now.

What was I doing? I didn't even have enough mana. I pounced. With my sword out, I nearly stabbed Maya in the back of the neck.

"Eek!" Maya shrieked. Stab! Stab! Stab! While the boss was down, I stabbed it. I stabbed it where I could. On the chest, on the arms, and even on the neck. I wanted the blood to ooze and drip out of the body like a dam about to break. I wanted this planet for myself. Stab!

"Robert!" Cayman shouted.

"It might attack again, and you need to recover. Stop this right now!" No, he was not my parent, or my guardian, or my teacher. He was just my comrade. He couldn't tell me what to do. I want to claim this planet. And I will do any means possible to claim it. That was my thought process. Nothing else. Stab! I sliced the monster's skin like it was meat on the chopping board. I wanted all the blood to flow out so that I could claim this planet. Nothing will stop me.

Theo, Ben and Maya couldn't believe their eyes, but that was fine. They could see the determination in me and the insatiable will of getting stronger. Stab! Slice!

"It's dead," I said after my sword broke, walking back where I had been sitting. There was no emotion in my words. I said those words like I had no soul in my body.

"I can confirm it." Even Cayman's jaw dropped.

"W-what?" Theo stuttered; his eyes were open wide and ready to pop out of their sockets.

"What did he just do?" Ben, Maya and Ellie shrugged their shoulders.

"Robert…" Cayman was lost for words. It was like he had something to say to me but he couldn't say them out loud. Everybody else just stared at me holding a broken sword. That was the third sword I had broken already. The basic swords only had a durability of fifty swings after all. I could confirm the beast was dead, since a message appeared in front of me after I jumped off its abdomen. [You have gained 1500 XP for defeating a 'Boss (advanced/legendary)'.] [Total XP: 1840/800] [You have progressed to stage 4!] [You have unlocked 5 new inventory spaces!] I could finally rest easy. One step closer to being an advanced-level skill user.

"Look over there! There are some yellow-coloured mana crystals!"

"They're legendary-level mana crystals. Good work, all of you, for helping me defeat the beast." They were all congratulating each other. They definitely deserved it; defeating a legendary-level beast was no easy feat. I rested for a while before a system message appeared in front of me. [You have defeated the boss of this planet!] [You have completed all the missions on this planet!] [You have successfully claimed this planet!] [What will you name this planet?] There it was.

I could choose the name of the planet. Any name I wanted. I wasn't that good at thinking of names, so I thought about what Cayman would call this planet. Planet 501. [Congratulations!' Planet 501' has been claimed by skill user Robert Ryan!] Planet 501, confirmed. I walked over to the rest of my group. Theo looked like he was about to bear hug me.

"That was insane," he said.

"The way you slashed that beast like it was nothing, and how you intervened, that was absolutely crazy." I thought I was going to blush. Theo had just completed me. The Theo Parker. A former bully. Ben and Maya also had smiles on their faces, whilst on the other hand, Cayman's face showed an anxious, concerned look.

"Guys!" Maya yelled, before Cayman could say something about my erratic behaviour a few minutes ago. She was trying to get our attention.

"Do you see this glow in the tunnel?" Glow? What glow? Theo and I walked deeper into the tunnel where Maya was standing, and yes, there was a blue glow in the vicinity. I think I knew exactly what it was.

"Good spot, Maya," Cayman said as he walked up to where we were. He was more focused on what Maya had just found compared to my sudden outburst when landing the final blow against the Boss.

"That's a really good find." Maya's eyes were gleaming.

"Why? Is it something valuable?" Cayman nodded.

"Of course. We might've just found a huge vein of mana crystals."