Black Online-Chapter 173: Arrival of the King - Final Part

"Aurel’s Blade Dance!"

Fang Raon spun pirouettes, and his sword whistled through the air before running across the White Tiger King’s neck and disappearing into its fur.

"ROAR!"

White Tiger King howled in pain and scratched his claws across Fang Raon’s chest, leaving deep gashes that dripped with blood.

"Ugh!"

Fang Raon stumbled back and chugged down his last remaining healing potion.

Meanwhile, Machary screamed and pressed forward, his furious sword slashes attacking White Tiger King from all angles.

In that moment.

[The Choice Activated]

It was his newly acquired Innate Skill—the Choice—and this was the first time he had used it in a battle.

Within Machary’s mind, he got three options of attack. He saw how those attacks would go. As if he could see the future.

One was a straightforward attack, but White Tiger was going to block it with his claws and come up with a counterattack.

The second attack was a feint to the left, and then a quick low slash to the right—it was going to graze White Tiger King’s leg.

The third one was to abandon Fang Raon, wait for White Tiger King to target him, and then attack him from the back.

He didn’t see what would happen to Fang Raon in the end, but it looked like the White Tiger King was going to kill him.

’The time seems to move slowly...’

Machary thought as he saw everything moving in slow motion around him, and it gave him time to weigh his options.

He didn’t have a lot of time.

Some of those options would disappear if he wasted too much time to think, so he had to make his choice quickly.

’The first one is not it. It doesn’t achieve anything. Except get myself into a vulnerable position.

’The second one is a winning move, but it doesn’t really achieve anything either, except a small wound.

’The third one is the best one—damage-wise—but if I only knew what would happen to Fang Raon in the end, I could make the decision easier.

’I don’t want him to die, so the second choice it is?

’Hmm... In this situation... I should trust Fang Raon to survive White Tiger King. I shouldn’t underestimate him.

’I see the fire in his eyes... He won’t die!’

Machary screamed inwardly.

In that moment, he chose the third option.

[You have chosen the third option!]

Machary moved to White Tiger King’s flank—completely leaving Fang Raon defenseless—and everyone felt critical about that choice.

"Why is he leaving Fang Raon alone? He was just chugging the healing potion, so he needed protection!"

Ira cried out.

"I think that was a really bad move!"

Niall said with a serious look on his face.

"ROAR!"

White King Tiger lunged towards Fang Raon—determined to finish him off—and his claws were coming straight for him.

However.

He didn’t happen to notice that Machary was sneaking up on his backside, and with this attack, he had left himself vulnerable.

However.

It was fine.

White Tiger King just wanted to get rid of one of them, and Machary’s attack was not going to be enough to kill him either way.

"Ah..."

Fang Raon saw the claws coming from him, and all he could feel was the approaching death that was coming his way.

’Move... Move... Move!’

Fang Raon tightly gripped his shield.

[Closing Sequence Activated!]

He swung the shield and parried White Tiger King’s claw attack, and his claws shattered suddenly.

It was a parry without the activation word.

Thus, it wasn’t an actual Basic Parry, but a parry that was all him.

"That’s... Perfect Parry?!"

Joanne screamed out.

There was a thing called Perfect Parry—it happened under rare conditions—but one condition was to do an absolutely perfect Basic Parry without an activation word.

And it had to be perfect.

Not a single discrepancy.

If done perfectly, you could actually parry your opponent’s attacks even better than with Basic Parry.

And as a bonus, you could actually damage your opponent, and that’s what happened now with the claws.

"Haaah!"

At that moment, Machary plunged his sword into White Tiger King’s back, and White Tiger King roared in pain.

"Sword Stab!"

Fang Raon drove his sword through the White Tiger King’s chest.

[HP: 44%]

’It doesn’t have more phases, it looks like. It would’ve been bothersome otherwise.’

Fang Raon thought with a serious look.

In that moment, White Tiger tossed Machary off his back and backhanded Fang Raon with a powerful blow.

The two of them landed on the ground with a loud thud, causing dust to rise up around them.

RUMBLE~ RUMBLE~ RUMBLE~

In that moment.

The entire chamber started rumbling, and it sounded like wheels were turning inside the walls for some reason.

At that moment.

The door started to slowly creak open, and the cold air breezed in—but it felt so nice and refreshing.

"T-The door is open..."

Rae whispered with shaky eyes. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

She felt like crying, but in that moment, Joanne grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the boss chamber.

"We’re free!"

They cheered as they ran out of the boss chamber, and they knew that White Tiger King wouldn’t be able to follow them out of the room.

"Come on guys, the door is open, so let’s go!"

Ira shouted.

However.

Machary and Fang Raon were ignoring them for some reason, and they looked at White Tiger King with a heated gaze.

"You go... We have some business left here."

Fang Raon said.

"W-what? You can’t possibly think about fighting him till the end? It’s insanity. We can just leave and do this raid another time with an easier boss!"

Joanne shouted.

"Come on guys, please come out!"

Rae shouted.

"If you keep fighting, so do we. You need us, and we can give some support!"

Luke shouted, and he already had his grimoire flying back in the air—even though his mana was quite low.

He didn’t have any more mana recovery potions anymore.

And everyone else was also low on their mana, and Rangers didn’t have any more arrows left either.

"This is an order. Head out. We’ll join you guys over at the wagon!"

Fang Raon shouted.

They really didn’t like that, but they didn’t have a choice, as the order was an order—even if they didn’t like it.

"..."

Nico left the camera, engulfed in an invisible bubble, in the boss chamber and ran after everybody else as they left.

"ROAR!"

White Tiger King slashed through the air with his only remaining claws, and everything got cut around him—the floor, the ceiling, and the walls.

Machary and Fang Raon weaved through his deadly claw strikes and attacked him from both sides.

"Driving Sword!"

"Hard Slash!"

White Tiger King roared in pain and lunged at Machary with his big nasty fangs—Machary put his sword sideways into the beast’s mouth.

The beast tried munching through the sword, and the blade started to lose durability drastically.

While Machary kept the beast distracted, Fang Raon circled behind, and his sword flashed—the steel bit deep into White Tiger King’s back.

White Tiger King roared. He turned and swiped his paw. Fang Raon slipped underneath and ran his sword through White Tiger King’s flank with all his might.

The blood spewed and left a nasty gash across White Tiger King’s hips.

"Argh!"

Machary drove the sword through one of White Tiger King’s eyes, and the beast finally fell to one of its knees.

"ROAR!"

White Tiger King suddenly punched—like a human—and the fist went straight through Machary’s chest.

It was a big hole that was quickly filled with the blood of Machary.

"UGH!"

Machary’s face turned pale.

"Basic Slash!"

Fang Raon cut off White Tiger King’s arm—which was currently stuck inside Machary’s body—and both of them fell.

Machary dropped to the ground, and while gritting his teeth, he pulled out the detached arm of White Tiger King.

White Tiger King roared in pain.

[HP: 18%]

"You alright?"

Fang Raon asked.

"I’ll... Survive..."

Machary reached out to his last healing potion and gulped it down—it was also the most expensive healing potion of his.

It was expensive because it was extremely potent.

Potent enough to recover his health back to full, and even the hole on his stomach fully closed without leaving a single trace.

He stood back up and looked at White Tiger King with rejuvenated energy—ready to finish this beast once and for all.

"You’ll go high... I’ll go low."

Fang Raon said.

"...As you say, team leader."

Machary made the first move and attacked White Tiger King from high—completely taking his attention away from Fang Raon.

White Tiger King only focused on him.

’It looks like ever since Beast King transformed into White Tiger King, he lost some of his intelligence. He fell back to his primal self, which, in my opinion, was a horrible mistake on his part.

’Maybe it was the game developer’s intention. For Beast King to be stronger at first and weaker at the end—quite opposite from any other boss.’

Fang Raon thought, and then he attacked White Tiger King from below, and the beast couldn’t handle their attacks at all.

[HP: 8%]

[...]

[HP: 4%]

[...]

[HP: 1%]

Machary and Fang Raon hurled themselves at the beast and, at the same time, swung their swords through the beast.

"Hard Slash!"

"Slayer Slash!"

[HP: 0%]