[SP-F8] A Rapier Grandmaster? (Complete)

[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah had arrived onto the 8th floor to continue her training. Within a few months, she had seen her rapier skill continue to level up constantly, up until this moment, where she had one final hurdle to go, the last level. This was going to be the hardest one yet, as she would have to prove to herself that she deserved the designation, of mastering a skill. While she knew that she would not be the first nor the last to ever max out a skill, she decided to set up one last trial for her to complete by herself. Far too many times had she faltered on boss fights, freezing at unnecessary movements during her turns, or missing her swing from in close. She knew that it happens to even the best, but she often had these at a higher frequency than anyone else she knew, or at least it felt like it. As she left the town, and headed far deep into the wilderness, she knew that she was alone, and it would only be herself and the monster that she had specifically chosen for this event.

[Rebekah 0]

After what it had felt like an hour's walk away from Florenthia Village, she was getting close to her destination. She could already feel a bit nervous at the upcoming task at hand. Defeat the monster, and she would feel worthy of the designation, but if she were to fail, it would be a blow to all her hard training. Even then, it would just signal to her, to try again another day from now, after she became strong enough again to tackle the beast on. She did not remember why she choose this floor, perhaps it was neither too hot nor cold, like some of the floors that have been cleared so far by the people at the front lines.

 

She looked ahead, and she knew that she was almost there, a giant mini-boss for her to fight, just up the hill. She knew it was going to be tough, but she had all her best equipment with her, her shiny rapier, as well as her leather armour, and metal boots. There was nothing else she could prep for this battle, except for getting a bit more combat experience, but she was at the point where, attacking any other monster would not yield a large enough experience gain for her.

[Rebekah 0]

As she got up onto the top of the hill, she could see the mini-valley below. At the bottom of the valley was her destination, as she was thinking about all the monsters that she had faced up until this point. She actually had no idea what she was going up against, except for the fact that this was a giant forest, so she should expect something foresty. She had heard about these strong monsters that most players end up fighting at least once during their time in this game. Rebekah of course spent most of her itemization on being able to deal as much damage as possible before possibly focusing on some more "defensive" stats. As she felt that getting the damage output to kill things is more important than trying to survive as long as possible.

 

She had already set her eyes on the list of skills that she had wished to learn, but only had 2 out of the 9 skills locked in officially, which was because she wanted to save room, just in case she wanted to change her playstyle to become more of a tank or damage dealer. Either way, it would give her the flexibility to fill a roll that would be required in fights.

[Rebekah 0]

There it was, right in front of her, the monster that she had been waiting to fight against in this forest. A giant tree, how could she forget about a giant tree, as she was expecting something more along the lines of a wolf, but a tree was going to be hard to fight. Even though it would not move very quick, it would have a lot of health, as they were giant. She was wondering about any of the other abilities that she may have to look out for, but she was not expecting much from this giant tree itself, as it was clearly something she would be able to hack and chip away at with her damage output over time.

 

The sun was shining bright, and there was no other reasons to wait, as she was going to do this alone. Rebekah took off, hoping to land a surprise attack before it could even respond, as she needed every advantage she could get, being way weaker in terms of health against this monster.

 

[bD=9249]

BD = 5 + 2 = 7

Damage = 1 + 3 + 4 = 8

 

Rebekah 38/38

 

Giant Tree: 92/100

[Rebekah 0]

The Giant Tree

 

It had been resting in the same spot for what it felt like days after it had been respawned. Occasionally, some stupid human would look for a challenge in an attempt to fight it, without realizing that it had a super high health bar, relative to all the other monsters that live inside this forest. However, it could tell that this girl was prepared, and had come ready to attack it. She had caught it completely off guard, as usually most players would swing and miss, or wait for him to swing its branches around to deal massive damage. But, she easily dodge its branches as the tree tried to attack.

 

[iD=9455] Mob = 2 - 2 = 1 (Miss)

 

Rebekah 38/38

 

Giant Tree 92/100

[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah wondered if that was the only thing the giant monster had up its sleeve. It probably does have more tricks, and she had to watch out for them, just in case anything were to come around. It was something that she was looking forward to, fighting a giant monster all by herself. It had felt like that she had been useless in all the boss battles previously, as she missed about half the time. That was the only reason she was looking for something stronger by herself, as she was not that reliable. Truthfully, people around her also miss their attacks, but it had felt like she was more prone to miss than others.

 

She dodged the attack and decided to attack quickly before it could swing its branches back in position, however the tree suddenly moved its roots, and shifted over to the right just enough for her to miss her attack. Somethings never change, she thought.

 

[iD=9476] BD = 2 + 2 = 4 (Miss)

 

Rebekah 38/38

 

Giant Tree 92/100

[Rebekah 0]

The Giant Tree

 

It had already noticed somewhat of a pattern of attack by the player, as she seemed one of those that would charge straight at it without thinking too much with respect to the rest of the battlefield. That was something that she had lacked, the knowledge, but her determination and the force that she attacked with was something to be reckon with. It knew that it had to be careful, and swung its branches at the girl. However, she was fast, and easily dodged the attack by the tree.

 

[iD=9655] Mob = 4 - 2 = 2

 

Rebekah 38/38

 

Giant Tree 92/100

[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah looked up at the monster above, it seemed as if had no intentions of tiring out anytime soon. That was going to be a problem, throughout her battles, she often had trouble with stamina, and she would have to train that in the future. She just got worn out the longer the battle progressed, and wondered that was probably normal for a smaller player such as herself. However, she kept in mind that she relied heavily on speed and accuracy which made her burn more energy than most players as she does not have a high defense yet.

 

With that in mind, she knew that her aim is to finish the battle as soon as possible, and that meant to attack as hard as she could possibly now in an attempt to end the battle a lot earlier. She charged up to the tree and swung her rapier at one of its smaller branches. She knew the trunk would be strong and nearly impossible to penetrate deeply but the smaller branches was a completely different story.

 

[iD=10839] BD = 9

Damage = 1 + 1 + 3 + 4 = 9

 

Rebekah 38/38

 

Giant Tree 83/100

[Rebekah 0]

Giant Tree

 

It had been struck yet again by this fast and agile girl. It had began to underestimate her, but the tree knew better. It had lived there for as long as it could remember, but did not recall the last time that it was facing a possibility of wiping it out. Over the years, there had always been pests, adventures, monsters that had wanted to wipe it out, but it survived, as they all gave up discourage after a while, or was wiped out. However, this kid seems different, there was a different aura or perhaps a different feel of this battle.

 

It had been lacking in that feel all game, and the tree thought about the last time it had been disturbed, the player had been wiped out. It then turn to the girl who was standing well in range after attack its branches, it swung another branch at her, which had caught her and knocked her back. But luckily her armour saved her from taking huge amounts of damage.

 

[iD=10929] Mob = 9 - 2 = 9 (Crit)

Damage = 1 + 1 - 3 = 1

 

Rebekah 37/38

 

Giant Tree 83/100

[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah slowly got back up onto her feet. It was something that she had been waiting for, the tree to show it's true power. However, that attack had barely made a dent in her hit points, so she knew this would be a relatively easy battle, if she could survive for the length that she needed. It was reassuring that she was not in a life or death situation at this point, but rather the battle is easily winnable. That released a lot of stress in her.

Rebekah charged at the tree once again, but the tree was ready for her, and it dodged her attack at a speed that she was not expecting it all. The tree was fast for it's size, and that will be annoying to deal with.

[iD=10981] BD = 2 + 2 = 4

Rebekah 37/38

Giant Tree 83/100

[Rebekah 0]

Giant Tree

 

This time the girl had kept her distance away from the giant tree, but the tree had a different plan. Many people did not know that it could utilize ranged attack from a distance, which was its sapling toss. They thought that if they could get far enough away from its branches, there was no way for the tree to attack, but that was wrong. The tree tossed out a sapling into the air, which missed wide, but unknowingly to the girl, it was slowly creeping towards her. The sapling had caught her by surprised and managed to attack her, but she was able to easily kill the sapling before it could do further damage.

 

[iD=11054] Mob = 8 - 2 = 6

 

Rebekah 36/38

Giant Tree 83/100

[Rebekah 0]

The sapling toss had completely caught her by surprise, but she was able to dodge the attack before anything else could happen. She knew that this was going to be a problem in the future, especially if she would be unable to foresee any more 'cheese' attacks by the bosses. Rebekah hated it more than anyone when the boss was able to switch its attack pattern and catch her completely unaware of it. Even though she had only taken minor damage from the attack, it was still enough as a deterrent to keep her mind clog with more things to think about rather than keeping it as simple as possible.

 

She put her concentration into attacking the center of the tree, where it would have a hard time dodging. If she aimed for the sides, it could easily avoid her attack, but she knew that it was best to aim for the place where she had the highest chance of being accurate, as she thrust her rapier into its bark and pulled out once again.

 

[iD=11123] BD = 8

Damage = 1 + 3 + 4 = 8

 

Rebekah 36/38

Giant Tree 75/100

[Rebekah 0]

Giant Tree

 

After thinking about what it would do next, it still had the idea that saplings would be the best method of attack. As she could easily dodge most of its branches, it knew that the only way it could win, was to constantly keep the same attack pattern. As the tree would expect the girl to expect it to change patterns, it would be a lot easier for her weaknesses to the saplings be exposed by continuously attacking her with the same method.

 

It tossed another sapling into the air, but this time the girl was smart, she sliced the sapling in mid-air before it could land on the ground and attack her. As the saplings were a lot smaller, and could move faster than the tree, the tree did not need to aim directly at the girl to do damage, as long as it was able to make its way towards her, it would deal damage, but she was able to destroy them before they even got nearby.

 

[iD=11513]

Mob=6 - 2 = 4

 

Rebekah 36/38

Giant Tree 75/100

[Rebekah 0]

As the battle continued to continue, she knew that these battles often come down to whoever was more determined. She had been in many longer battles than this, against many boss raids. However, those were often big battles that she would only be given around 3-5 attacks maximum for a lengthy battles. Thus, it was these battles like this one where she could try out the new things, and improve as there is not much time to adapt on the fly in them. It was just the nature of how battles had worked in Aincrad.

 

Rebekah was tired of the boss only using ranged attacks, and decided to stand a lot closer than she would normally. These saplings were getting quite annoying, and she would rather be hit by the tree, as opposed to trying to fight against these tiny pests, which she were thinking was similar to how mosquitoes were annoying to humans. But as a result of standing closer, she needed less time to build up her attack, and thus would only be aiming more precise, using more accuracy over power, this allowed her to easily land a critical hit on the tree.

 

[iD=11702]

BD=9; Damage=2+3+4=9

 

Rebekah 36/38

Giant Tree 66/100

[Rebekah 0]

It was the giant tree turn again to attack again. It was looking for a way to attack her once again, and realized that it was barely scratching her at this point with the girl's damage mitigation. It was going to take a lot more to seriously injure her as it had already lost a third if its health and would be losing a lot more. It knew that the saplings were ineffective but was the best attack that it had so far. But this time the saplings had missed wide, as the tree threw it at where it thought the girl was when she was standing somewhere else.

[iD=20528]

Mob=6-2=4

Rebekah 36/38

Giant Tree 66/100

[Rebekah 0]

As Rebekah stood still, she knew that she still had a lot of work left in order to finish off this boss, however, she was confident in her own skills now, as she had grown a lot stronger over the last eight months since she started this game. In the beginning she was always worried about little things, and almost died trying to kill a boar, but that was a long time ago. Nowadays, she is taking on powerful creatures that have a lot more health than she does, but she packs a lot of damage per strike.

The tree had barely moved since its last attack, and this was her chance to hit it before it would move once again. Therefore, Rebekah made sure to do everything in her power to land a clean strike, as she was no longer looking for critical hits, but to continuously landing normal attacks was all that she wanted.

[iD=20529]

BD=6+2=8

Rebekah 36/38

Giant Tree 58/100

[Rebekah 0]

It had begun to notice a change in the girl, she was trying a new strategy, yet she stayed just out of range after every hit to avoid being hit by its branches. Effectively, she was staying just outside the zone where it could hit her with the massive heavy tree branches, which would do massive damage. She was smart but the tree had something planned up its sleeve. There was no way it was going to allow the girl to easily kill it without giving a fight. However, the tree began to feel the pressure to do something massive as she was having no trouble at all trying to kill it.

Perhaps the girl was standing a little too close, and without warning, it slammed it's branches at her dealing a massive critical strike. Yet, the girl quickly got back to her feet as if nothing had happened to her, but looked a lot more focused than ever.

[iD=20530]

Mob=10

Rebekah 33/38

Giant Tree 58/100

[Rebekah 0]

The old Rebekah would have acted differently after being hit, looking around for scratches and bruises. But she knew to ignore the temporary pain, as this was combat. It would be highly unreasonable to expect escaping a fight such as this without feeling any pain, but she had been hurt even more badly in the past, so this was nothing compared to what she could expect. Besides she was not in any danger of dieing soon, so she turned her focus towards the tree.

She returned to what had been working for her lately, simple strikes, land clean hits, as there was no reason to force herself to try to land critical strikes and miss. That was not what she wanted to do, as her mindset began to change. Attacking the tree had felt like it was second nature to her, and she just started to hit it without much thinking.

[iD=20531]

BD=4+2=6

Rebekah 33/38

Giant Tree 50/100

[Rebekah 0]

As its health bar fell to exactly fifty percent, it was time for it to change forms a bit, and it began to pull its roots out of the ground. The tree was no longer a stationary boss, but rather a slow but mobile one, which allowed it to slowly chase after a player, although it had never successful done it before. As it can walk slowly, it adds another dimension into this fight which will force the player to think more before deciding what to do. However, the tree was still too slow to strike the quick and agile rapier player, as those are the typical traits of a rapier. Thus the attack was easily avoided by the player.

[iD=20532]

Mob=6-2=4

Rebekah 33/38

Giant Tree 50/100

[Rebekah 0]

As the tree began to grew legs, she began to become scared, but was relieved to find out that the tree was moving very slow. It was slow enough for her to easily dodge the attempted attack. As long as she stayed out of range unless otherwise necessary, it was her strategy for this battle, and would remain the same unless something would convince her otherwise. However, she was always thinking about different possible scenarios. She had always wanted to become a strategist in battle, and not crazily hit things randomly.

She did not need to overthink, and Rebekah made sure to focus on the simple things even with this minor change in form of the giant tree, just a simple strike, and she closed her eyes, and dashed. The attack was clean, and she struck the tree once again.

[iD=20533]

BD=9

Rebekah 33/38

Giant Tree 41/100