Infinite Realm

Just as the Blood king, [Varg], lifted his eye lid, an insurmountable pressure descended in the hall. It was as if a demon god had descended upon the mortal realm as a suffocating blood aura suffused through the entire hall.

At this moment, Sato didn't bother to wait and see if the [Astral Blade] made contact. He turned around and took to his heels as if he tried to create more distance between himself and the Blood king.

The aura it exuded at that point made Sato realise something; he wasn't its match in direct combat. Luckily, Sato had already made plans for this.

At the moment, right before Sato retreated, the dazzling arc of light that had was released from his sword which was the embodiment of the [Astral Blade] skill, had already approached the Blood king. As it did so, the arc released the entirety of its energy.

If the light was like a highly compressed slash of energy barely giving off any energy signal, then it was now like a resplendent arc of light that glistened within the hall. The aura it gave off alone at that very second was one that sent danger signals to the Blood king. Even though it was much stronger than Sato, this move of his threatened it considerable. It was because of this that the Blood king had woken when the attack was within 10 metres of it.

Despite waking up just before the sword arc arrived, it was too late. The speed the vivid sword arc moved at was very fast and this was easily seen from the fact that it had crossed no less than 10 metres within an instant. Even with the Blood king awakening, there was just less than 10 metres between it and the arc which was easily crossed by the attack within a second.

The Blood King wanted to react and block the attack but its weapon was a few metres away from it. While it could stretch out its hand and grab the sword, once it did so, the attack would come before it could make any move.

In response to this tricky situation, the Blood king lifted its left hand and placed it in a guard position before it, intending to use the arm and to block the attack. It then stretched out its right hand towards the sword. The plan of the Blood king was to make make an attack right after it blocked the one before it. The reason behind this was to prevent the attacker from getting the upper hand and forcing it to be on defense.

This plan was one of the most logical option as the arm it used to defend had a guard wrapped around it and the muscles on the arm would also provide some defensive measures, preventing the attack from causing too much of a damage. But as they say, man proposes and heaven opposes. The same applied for monsters too.

[Critical Hit]

-243 (???/??? Blood king Varg's HP)

"Arggggh!"

Varg had underestimated the power behind the slash as the attack wasn't a regular one from Sato but one that had more than 120% of his focus and strength attached to it.

It should be recalled that Sato's [Strength] attribute was at 20 points and with the extra 14 points of [Strength] and 25 points of Attack power, he got from his equipment, his damage could be said to be amongst the top of his class. Apart from a few strength-obsessed psychos and some others exceptions, Sato could be said to be the most strongest in terms of offense, not just for the [Swordsman] class but for the two jobs of Specialists and Warriors, which constituted the entire physical classes. Sato was even capable of rivalling the top [Assassins] in terms of damage when they use their class' trump skill.

Not just that, but the skill [Astral Blade] dealt damage not just based on Sato's attack power but also the special effects of Astral points, which were the quantification of the special energy collected from the stars. The increase in damage brought by this energy wasn't specified as it could vary based on certain hidden conditions, one of which was the potential of [Astral Might] and the user's state upon activation.

When Sato had used [Astral Blade], his focus was at its highest as his breath was concentrated in one flow. Even the aura from [Astral Might] was influenced by him and gathered into the sword. The end result was that the multiplication factor of the Astral points on the skill's damage, was at its highest.

In other words, if on normal occasions the skill [Astral Blade] had an additional 30% boost in Attack power, then when Sato used it just now, it had a 60% increase in Attack power! This was double the usual standard!

When applied on his already high Attack power, the damage of this skill was beyond anything a player could do with their own ability. When added with the increased damage from the attack being a critical hit, this had resulted in Sato making a new record for himself for the highest damage caused in a single attack.

A bone-deep injury was left on the spot where Sato's slash had made its mark. It was very gruesome to see and it was still bleeding profusely. Even for the Blood king whose height was estimated at 7 metres or so, the injury on its arm wasn't simple.

-101

-89 (???/??? Blood king Varg's HP)

The remnant energy from the slash broke off from the main body that was impeded by the arm and attacked the Blood king's main body. However, the armour it wore wasn't for show as it blocked off a majority of the force from the spillage. The remainder, though it caused harm to it, didn't do as much as its original counterpart. However, it was still higher than what most players could do if they were in his shoes.

Overhearing the monster's roar, Sato turned his head behind and clicked his tongue at the sight of the monster's injuries.

"It would have been better if your entire arm got sliced off."

At the same time though, Sato was shocked at the amount of damage his one attack had caused. It was almost 50% stronger than his strongest base attack with [Horizontal Slash]. When added with the last two blows, it was already double the damage of his strongest attack! And this was after the monster's defense had kicked in. Supposing the Blood king had no armour or defensive abilities, the damage would have been more.

'If only I can replicate it so easily.' Sato sighed.

While thinking so, he didn't forget to use [Inspect] on the Blood king to be cognizant of its stats.. As they say, know your enemy and victory would be close at hand.