The wind in the canyon suddenly turned scorching, carrying the Boar King's ragged, bestial breaths as they crashed against the rock walls.
Kiriya stepped forward, shielding Lina behind him. Under the dim glow, the blade of his Reinforced Bronze Sword gleamed with a cold, unyielding light.
Two newly summoned Clones spread out in a pincer formation, their half-transparent silhouettes pulsing with the same taut vigilance as his own.
"Can you still hold a sword?" Kiriya's voice was low, steady, his gaze locked on the Boar King's swiveling head.
The massive beast's bloodshot eyes scanned back and forth, clearly weighing which prey would be easiest to strike down.
Lina leaned against the stone wall, flexing her wrist. Though still numb, she could just barely manage to grip her weapon.
She picked up the longsword that had fallen at her feet, fingertips brushing the frosted etchings along its spine. A pale blue glow of mana seeped through her fingers.
"I can still cast Frost Thrust three times… but the control duration will be shorter."
"Good Enough," Kiriya replied firmly. He had already noticed it—on the Boar King's left hind joint, a thin crust of ice still clung to the old wound Lina had inflicted earlier. "Its left rear is vulnerable. And it's injured there."
Before his words had even faded, the Boar King lunged.
But instead of charging the seemingly weaker Lina, it hurled its tusks toward the left Clone, its enormous frame tearing through the air with a howl of fury. The provocation from earlier had not yet been forgotten.
"Now!"
Kiriya's shout cracked through the canyon. He and the right Clone surged forward together.
Rather than meeting the strike head-on, he unleashed mana beneath his feet, propelling himself like an arrow loosed from its string, angling toward the Boss's blindside.
"Phantom Thrust!"
The right Clone struck first, its half-crescent sword-arc cutting into the beast's cheek with a sharp crack.
The attack only inflicted -210 damage, but it was enough. The monster's charge faltered—just 0.3 seconds of hesitation. Yet that fleeting moment was all Lina needed.
Dragging her wounded arm, she dashed to the Boss's left flank. Her longsword gleamed with jagged ice, refracting a piercing light.
"Frost Thrust!"
She didn't strike the joint injury. Instead, she drove the blade straight for the Boar King's left eye.
The suicidal angle made Kiriya's pupils contract—but in the next breath, he understood. The beast's eye was the only point unprotected by thick hide. The pain would force it to lower its head.
"ROOOAR!"
The Boar King howled, its deafening cry reverberating across the canyon. Its head snapped downward, tusks plowing into the ground instead of the Clone. And in that instant, the rear of its neck—the blind spot Kiriya had marked—was completely exposed.
"Blink Step!"
The moment Lina pulled her blade back, Kiriya vanished, leaving a pale blue afterimage where he had stood. He reappeared five meters away, precisely within the beast's dead angle.
His Reinforced Bronze Sword swept in a silver arc, the force of his teleportation driving the strike as ripples shimmered in the air around it.
"Phantom Thrust!"
This was no probing blow. The 150% damage multiplier slammed into the Boss's old wound.
The blade carved deep, and the muffled tear of flesh was unmistakable. A crimson number flared in the dim canyon: -585!
The Boar King's HP plummeted. Its enraged bellow cracked, betraying the first trace of fear.
It thrashed wildly, trying to dislodge the "insect" clinging to its back, but Kiriya was already retreating, using the recoil to spring backward.
He landed beside Lina, the two of them standing back to back within the narrow stone crevice.
"It's about to use an AoE," Lina warned between ragged breaths, sweat trailing down her pale cheek. "When its HP dropped under 30% last time, it triggered Savage Trample."
Kiriya's eyes darted to the Boss's bar: 29%. Without hesitation, he summoned another Clone to guard the crevice entrance, then pulled two Mana Potions from his bag—shoving one into Lina's hand while downing the other himself.
"Countdown three seconds. You flash left, I go right."
"Understood."
Their eyes met briefly in the charged air. No extra words. Yet an unseen current seemed to leap between them.
Kiriya, who once scoffed at the idea of "party synergy," felt a strange flicker of recognition in this unspoken rhythm.
"Three! Two! One!"
"ROOOAR!"
The Boar King's roar and Kiriya's command rang as one. A surge of ochre energy erupted outward from the Boss, shattering stone into dust.
Kiriya seized Lina's wrist, dragging her into a Blink Step to the right, narrowly skirting the shockwave's edge. The Clone guarding the entrance, however, was obliterated in a burst of azure fragments.
"Now, while it's staggered!"
Using the momentum of her Blink, Lina spun, her longsword again coated in ice. But instead of striking a weak point, she drove the tip between the Boss's foreleg and hoof—the junction where muscle met bone, the easiest point to freeze.
"Frost Thrust!"
Blue frost surged down the blade, instantly sealing the limb in a crust of ice. Only 0.5 seconds of freeze, but enough—the giant beast faltered, its front leg buckling. Its massive body lurched forward, neck fully exposed.
"This is it!"
Kiriya felt his blood ignite. He didn't call his Clones. Instead, he poured every drop of mana into his legs. This Blink wasn't for distance—it was for speed. His form blurred into a streak of black lightning, reappearing at the beast's nape the instant the ice shattered.
"Six-Strike Phantom Blades!"
Not a wide-area skill—this was his deadliest single-target combo. The Reinforced Bronze Sword lashed out like a venomous serpent, striking the same spot six times in rapid succession.
The first five blows pierced the hide, prying the wound wider. On the sixth, the blade erupted in a dazzling white flare—
Passive Skill Phantom Blades triggered!
Critical numbers bloomed like fireworks: -320! -320! -320! -320! -320! -416!
Over two thousand damage in an instant. The Boar King's HP bar collapsed, bottoming out.
The beast gave one final, broken shriek before its titanic body crashed into the mud, splashing filthy water across Kiriya's back.
[System Alert: Congratulations to players Kiriya and Lina for defeating Lv. 15 Boss "Bloodthirsty Boar King." ]
[EXP Gained: 4000 (Party Distribution) ]
[Loot: "Boar King's Tusk" ×2]
[Loot: Uncommon grade "Frost Bracers" ×1]
[Loot: Copper ×150]
Golden light radiated from both players, leveling them up in tandem. Kiriya soared to Level 13, while Lina rose from Level 12 to mid-13.
Sliding down against the rock, Lina let her silver-white hair fall messily across her sweat-streaked face, her eyes still shining with exhilaration. She looked at the still-steaming tusk in Kiriya's hand and suddenly laughed.
"Your Blink Step… it was far faster than I ever imagined."
Kiriya sheathed his blade, then lowered himself beside her. His taut nerves finally eased, and only then did he realize his back was drenched with cold sweat.
He tossed the glowing Uncommon Frost Bracers into her lap; their icy Bracers were tailored for a "Frost Knight".
"Your timing was just as sharp."
If she hadn't risked that suicidal strike to the eye, forcing the beast to lower its head—
If she hadn't frozen its foreleg right after the AoE—
He would never have found the chance to unleash his Six-Strike finisher.
This rhythm of your control, my damage flowed smoother than any solitary grind he had ever endured.
Lina traced the icy carvings on the gauntlet, then looked up.
"You once said parties are a hassle… Do you still think so?"
Kiriya met her ice-blue gaze, mischievous and gleaming. For the first time, he didn't refute her outright.
His mind replayed the back-to-back dodge, the synchronized timing, her awed glance at his finisher. Something had struck his chest like a soft, sudden knock.
"…Sometimes," he murmured, averting his eyes as a faint blush crept to his ears, "it isn't such a hassle after all."
Sunlight slanted into the canyon, casting their shadows in a tangle across the stone. Behind them, the Boar King's corpse dissolved into drifting motes of light, vanishing into the air.