Debuff Master

Siegfried was able to run away extremely fast, thanks to his title Pesky Brat.

“W-Wait for me!”

Taycan and Hamchi hurriedly ran for their lives as well.

They had no idea how Duke Taranis was able to come back to life when he clearly fell from such great height, but they knew fighting was no longer an option. Duke Taranis returned with a +16 weapon, and fighting him right now would only mean certain death.

“You little brats dare make a mockery of me? I’ll make you pay with a slow painful death,” Duke Taranis’ voice reverberated across the fortress.

He did not run after Siegfried and the others. Instead, he flew in the air like a jet while shooting out laser beams at the trio.

Duke Taranis’ laser beams were so powerful they left a crater on the ground.

“Hey! What the fuck is that?!” Siegfried screamed while running for his life.

“He what?! Transformed?!”

“It’s incomplete! That’s a secret ultimate technique, but that’s just an imitation! Still, it’s ridiculously strong! He probably used his remaining Lightning Force to transform to make the imitation possible!”

Turns out, Duke Taranis was able to survive Death’s Touch by activating the ultimate skill, Thunder God’s Descent.

“Hey! Then you can do the same and fight him, right?!”

“I-I can’t!”

“Why not?!”

“I did learn it, but I can’t use it yet!”

“Damn it! Hey, are you sure you’re the Descendant of Thunder God Vajra?! It’s starting to look like he’s the real descendant!”

“HE’S NOT!” Taycan shouted in anger. Then, he retorted, “Taranis is only imitating the ultimate technique! I guarantee he can’t use it for long! The real Thunder God’s Descent isn’t as unstable as that one!”

“I see!”

“We still have to keep running! He’s a monster no matter how unstable he is right now!”

It was a fact that Duke Taranis’ current form looked extremely powerful regardless of whether it was an imitation or not. The sparks he was giving off made it seem as if a god had really descended upon the continent.

Duke Taranis teleported like a magician and closed the distance between them.

“What the hell was that?!” Siegfried screamed.

“Lightning Flash!”

“What…?”

“It’s called Lightning Flash! It’s a skill that changes his body into lightning and allows him to travel extremely fast! That wasn't teleportation!”

“Damn it!” Siegfried growled.

Thunder God’s Descent?

He was going to face it head-on now!

Why?

Because he still had Torrential Flower Rain up his sleeves…

He was confident of his victory. He just had to wait for his debuff skills to go off cooldown and cast them together with Torrential Flower Rain.

However, there was one problem…

[+16 Thunder God’s Lightning Hand]

[An artifact containing the Thunder God’s authority.]

[Type: Weapon]

[Rating: Legendary]

[Level Restriction: 250]

This damned NPC, Taranis, was using a +16 weapon.

From those who were born with insane luck, obtained an overpowered class, possessed innate talent, and simply overgeared, the overgeared ones were definitely the scariest.

Of course, Siegfried was the Debuff Master, so he could easily close the gap with his debuff skills, but that was only if his opponent possessed +12, +13, +14, or, at most +15.

A +16 weapon was on a completely different playing field. Enhancement bonuses started to scale from +12 explosively, so it was safe to assume a +16 Legendary weapon was capable of causing mass destruction incomparable to those beneath it.

It was obvious Siegfried’s chances of winning were slim in his current situation.

Thus, he decided to use his brain and—run.

He had no reason to overexert himself and try to kill Duke Taranis right now.

A person had to use their brains and be clever at times, and that time was now for Siegfried.

He focused on dodging Duke Taranis’ attacks while giving the order to retreat.

“Retreat! Retreat!”

Siegfried's voice rang throughout the fortress.

***

“We are abandoning the fortress! Run for your lives! Retreat! Retreat!” Siegfried continued shouting.

The soldiers gathered their supplies and ran away as soon they heard Siegfried’s command to retreat.

“I’ll kill every one of you, vermin. Every last one of you,” Duke Taranis said. Then, he mercilessly shot his laser beams and committed a widespread massacre.

“Provide cover for our soldiers while you run!” Siegfried shouted.

“Alright!”

Siegfried, Hamchi, and Taycan shot back at Duke Taranis to minimize the death toll, but the duke simply erected his barrier once again and blocked all of their attacks.

Then, Duke Taranis shot a flare into the dark night sky.

“That’s the signal!”

The Rebel Forces waiting outside the fort immediately responded to the flare.

“Kill them all!”

“His Highness has opened the gates!”

“Occupy the fortress!”

The elite soldiers of the Rebel Faction flooded into the fortress.

“There’s no escape. Only a painful death awaits you,” Duke Taranis said as he continued his pursuit.

Conquering the fortress was now secondary to him as his rage would only be quelled after he got his hands on Siegfried van Proa and ripped him into pieces.

“Resistance is futile.”

Right after he said those words…

He used Lightning Flash four times to appear right behind his prey.

“Die,” Duke Taranis said as he gathered both hands to shoot a laser beam from point-blank range.

When the duke was about to channel his Lightning Force, Siegfried threw two disks in the air.

The disks separated into one thousand projectiles that flew ferociously toward Duke Taranis. It was the other trump card of Siegfried, aside from Death’s Touch—Torrential Flower Rain.

“I already told you. Resistance is futile,” Duke Taranis said as he erected his Electric Barrier.Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on ɴo(v)elFɪre.ɴet

The barrier seemed to hold up quite well against the rain of projectiles, but that was only for the initial few seconds.

Every projectile from Torrential Flower Rain was considered a single-hit attack, and the Electric Barrier started to form cracks after being subjected to the barrage.

Duke Taranis’ Electric Barrier shattered, but Torrential Flower Rain was still far from over.

The projectiles were about to turn their target into a pincushion, but…

A powerful surge of electric current spread out from the duke’s body. The projectiles lost their momentum and ended up falling down to the ground one by one.

“What the hell is that crazy monster?!” Siegfried exclaimed in absolute disbelief as he used Flying Sword to retrieve all of his projectiles.

Then, he ran away with all of his strength once again.

Fortunately, his worries were unfounded.

He ran and ran as far as possible. He was now five kilometers away from the fortress, and there were no signs of Duke Taranis anywhere.

Still, there were no signs of Duke Taranis anywhere.

“Did he… give up?”

Siegfried’s party was exhausted to the point that their lungs were on fire, so they stopped for a while to catch their breaths.

However, there were still no signs of Duke Taranis or his soldiers anywhere, and it seemed the duke gave up on chasing them.

“Whoa… I really thought I was a goner,” Siegfried let out a sigh of relief.

“M-Me, too…”

Hamchi and Taycan let out sighs of relief.

“Hey, what was that monster? Forget about strong or weak; he was just bizarre. I think it’s impossible to defeat him unless a Master comes…” Siegfried grumbled.

He was right. Duke Taranis was not that strong as a person, but he was as strong as the Masters when taking into consideration the fact that he was overgeared with an overpowered class.

***

After the fortress was conquered by the Rebel Faction…

“Congratulations on the victory, my lord! But… Are you alright, my lord? Your wounds seem deep!” the commander asked.

“I’m fine,” Duke Taranis replied. He had reverted back to his original human form; the Thunder God’s Descent was no longer active.

“I’m just a bit tired. I want to go rest somewhere quiet,” he added.

“Would my lord require some potions or Healers?”

“No need for that,” Duke Taranis replied as he waved his hand. He left the cleaning up to the commander and retreated to the quarters used by the feudal lord of this place.

“Damn it… I only have a third left…” he grimaced while patching himself up with potions and bandages.

Duke Taranis could only be considered half-complete. Using Thunder God’s Descent required complete control over one’s mana to prevent a huge loss of Lightning Force.

However, he couldn't learn that secret technique, so he was forced to activate Thunder God’s Descent despite the risk of losing a huge amount of Lightning Force.

So why did he the Thunder God’s Descent despite being aware of the huge loss he was going to suffer?

The reason was the damage he had suffered...

He instinctively knew that he would have died to that pesky brat’s attack if he hadn't activated the Thunder God’s Descent.

“Siegfried van Proa… I’m going to kill you, kill you, and kill you a hundred times over and over again until you completely disappear from this world!” Duke Taranis growled between gnashed teeth while thinking of the perpetrator behind his series of misfortune.

***

Siegfried’s party gathered all of the soldiers and went back to their base with heavy footsteps. The defeat of the battle weighed heavily on them, and the atmosphere was solemn despite not a single one of them falling in battle.

Taycan bit his lips and muttered under his breath, “What should we do…? I don’t see a way out of this…”

Siegfried heard him and replied, “We have to find a solution.”

“Do we even have one?”

“We do.”

“Really?!”

“We just have to become stronger.”

“Become stronger…? I don’t think that’s something we can easily do in a day or two. Besides, both of us are at the point where our growth has slowed down, right?”

“You’re technically right.”

“Realistically speaking, there’s no way we can catch up to Taran—“

“There is.”

“What is it?”

“Taranis is relying on his items, so I just have to do the same.”

“Are you talking about enhancement?”

“Yeah, I just have to catch up a bit.”

“I don’t think enhancements will be enough. Also, don’t forget that enhancing artifacts is not an easy thing to do.”

Siegfried shook his head and said, “I said I just have to catch up a bit. I didn’t say I needed a weapon enhanced like his.”

Then, he added, “And I think we need some special training.”

“Special training…?”

“The very thing we need right now is…”

A quest popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: You have received the Quest – Special Training From Hell!]

[Alert: Do you wish to check the quest contents?]