Chapter 32: Turning from A Loser to Be A Hero!
Everything else happened per usual, he used his dash skill to escape the monsters, while the team started their barrage of attacks until all the hall was cleared.
While everyone was collecting materials, Bloom was feeling an odd feeling, a bad omen.
This slight change meant the next hall might be much difficult, but he didn't have another option except to do his best. He was this close to clear the dungeon, and there was no room for any hesitation here.
"Let's go," he said after collecting only eight materials this time, as his mind was pretty occupied by what just happened here.
Bloom moved, in complete silence this time, as he was trying to speculate what the last hall difficulty would be. This time he was lucky enough to catch the last monster barely on time, so he was thinking perhaps he should move sooner, as one second might determine everything.
However moving too soon had its own risk as well. Monsters needed time to move, disturbing their original formation. If he moved so early, he might pump into a bigger problem.
The other problem he had was his limited view over the whole battlefield the moment he started his attacks. The skills moved him, forcibly, in no time, giving him no room to inspect the surroundings better.
He couldn't waste a moment standing there looking around him, besides that would waste precious seconds, which wasn't a good thing, though.
'I should attack the monsters earlier than the twenty seconds window, as this would give me more time to adapt,' he thought to himself, however he knew he couldn't move too early, or else the monsters from behind might catch him.
So, he decided to move one second earlier, hoping this one second could make the whole difference.
From the surface of things, this last hall was typically like the previous ones, and its monsters were also moving the same like all the monsters he fought before. He took a deep breath, calming down his mind, and sharpening his instincts.
He knew he had to perform one hundred percent perfectly this time, doing his best wasn't enough as he was sure there would be a challenging change in this hall.
"Let's do it," he gave the order, one second earlier than usual. Others could feel he gave the order sooner, but they moved nonetheless.
The first was the AOE skill of Gimmy, which attracted the monsters' aggro. Bloom didn't wait all the way until they reached the opening of the tunnel, as he moved one second earlier, using his two usual skills in a row.
"Stab."
"Slice."
"140"
"300"
Two figures of damage appeared from the last monster's dirty head, while Bloom's body drifted forcibly away, following the course of his skill, to evade all the monsters, putting them just behind him.
"Roar!"
Another monster was waiting for him there, just like the previous time. Bloom anticipated this, and thus he moved with extreme calm, while trying to assess the whole field around him.
"Slice."
"300"
Another crit emerged, and Bloom followed the skill course, to bypass this monster. just as he looked up ahead, waiting to use his dash, the change he was worrying about had welcomed him!
There wasn't one monster there, but two! one on each end of this hall! Although he bought two more seconds to himself, they weren't enough to make him adapt to this sudden change!
'Damn it! I will hit them no matter what!'
He gritted his teeth and at once directed one sword towards the distant monster, while micro tuning the other to face the second.
"Dash!"
He moved, at once, towards the distant monster, hitting him hard. Just as he was about to use the other dash towards the second monster, hoping he could do it in time, his eyes were caught on this small rounded shield in the hand of the monster he just hit.
"Miss!"
A big strange word appeared on top of this dirty monster's head. This was a shocking change, one he never expected before! The monster didn't feel fazed by this attack's result, as it dropped the shield, and moved its claw to hit him, while moving the other one to touch the rock!
'Damn!' he inwardly cursed. This monster had forced his hand, so he didn't hesitate and pointed the second sword towards it, muttering with extreme frustration:
"Dash!"
He was so close to the monster, but when he used the skill, both moved towards the nearest wall, hitting it so hard, while his sword pinned the monster on it.
"1000"
It was a really scary damage dealt here, but this didn't make Bloom smile at all. He hurriedly glanced at the second, very far from his reach, monster, which was moving its claw to hit the rock.
"We lost it… huh?!!"
Suddenly, at that second monster's place, two monsters popped up out of nowhere. The two stood just at the space between the monster's claw and the rock, blocking the claw with their bodies.
"Plop."
"Plop."
The two monsters were weak, and couldn't stand the single hit of the monster's claw, so they popped out, vanishing from this world. However, their minute intervention was amazingly so timely, that managed to delay the monster's claw for two seconds, enough for the monster to miss his chance, and the runes were finally activated!
"Yeah!!"
Bloom wasn't the only distressed one here, as everyone else just pictured themselves losing the fight already. When this brilliant move was pulled, and the runes were activated, all of them screamed in triumph, venting out part of their welled up stress.
"Now, let's get this done fast and clean," Bloom muttered, with a big smile over his face. He didn't wait for the rune to be fully activated, as he pulled out his sword, while hacking the stunned monster in every place he could reach!
"Stab."
"Stab."
"Stab."
"Stab."
"Stab."
"Stab."
"300"
"300"
"300"
"300"
"300"
"300"
Six crits in a row! He didn't know if his mood would affect his results, but he didn't look back to the monster, while darting towards the other monsters, joining his team members in killing them.
They all did like him, venting what was left inside of stress and frustration over these monsters, who were now standing still in their places, with a high two thousands damage appearing on top of their heads!
Just in mere two to three seconds after the rune was activated, the fight simply ended like that! That was all thanks to the final high damage Bloom did to the monster, which was augmented by the hard shocking collision between the skill high momentum and the sturdy rocky wall.
"We did it! San is the hero, San is the hero!"
They all cheered once the monsters fell and shouted out loud celebrating their friend, who once was thought of as being a hopeless case!
This last brilliant move that saved their lives, saved all their hard work, was pulled out by San! He just stood there, beaming with pride and self confidence, couldn't believe he actually did it!
Everyone else was collecting materials, but for him, he didn't need anything anymore. This was one of the rarest glorious moments in his entire life, if not the only one in it!
He would live up his life recalling this amazing feeling, remembering every single bit of it. he suddenly grew a desire, a desire for more moments like these, a desire to be remembered as a hero, not a loser!