He had already guessed the truth. Making Abyssal Shadow Bolt instant-cast with no cooldown couldn't be without cost. In Glory, every broken skill came with a limitation. For Faelion, it was clear the instant bolts would vanish if his concentration was broken by taking damage.
Kaito's plan had been to use Odin's Wrath to burn through the effect entirely. But the level gap was too wide, and most of his lightning had been scattered before reaching Faelion. So instead, he pushed forward relentlessly, blades in hand.
Three sword phantoms flashed out, swirling around Elder Faelion to cut off his escape routes. The boss raised his staff in defense, forced to block.
But Kaito wasn't done.
"Flame Arc Slash!"
His blade blazed, and a massive arc of fire carved through the air. It slammed into Elder Faelion's body, the flames exploding on impact.
The effect was immediate. The moment the fiery strike landed, Faelion staggered. His continuous barrage of shadow bolts stopped abruptly. The "mobile turret" status broke, and the silver boss reeled under the force of the attack.
The battlefield erupted into cheers.
Kaito exhaled sharply. He had taken a gamble, and it had paid off. With the lightning and fire striking together, Elder Faelion's terrifying rain of shadow bolts was finally silenced.
"Is he coming? The Thief's Way?"
Although Kaito had just broken through one crisis, his nerves stayed tense. Elder Faelion was no ordinary boss. Who knew how many tricks he still had hidden? Kaito's voice came out sharp in the team chat, his anxiety clear.
He had already learned the hard way how tough this opponent was. His earlier slash had only shaved away twelve miserable points of health. That alone told him brute force wasn't enough. So, without wasting time, he had summoned The Thief's Way the thief he'd recruited because he knew that man had an armor-removing skill. It was exactly the kind of ability needed to deal with such a heavily defended boss.
"If we only rely on Viscount Elrick's buff to break defense," Kaito thought grimly, "we'll be fighting forever. A twenty percent chance to ignore armor isn't enough when this guy's defense is through the roof."
And worse, Elder Faelion wasn't just any kind of demonized foe. He was originally a priest, an Abyssal Shadow Priest. Which meant he had access to healing magic.
Kaito's fears proved correct almost immediately. Elder Faelion swung his staff and muttered a chant. A green glow burst out around him, and the words Cure Light Wounds flashed across his nameplate.
A massive +2000 floated above his head. In an instant, all the damage Kaito and the players had inflicted vanished. The boss's health bar, which they had been painstakingly shaving down, returned to full in one go.
Kaito almost coughed up blood in frustration. His eyes bulged as he stared at the glowing health bar. All that effort… gone in one second?!
The other players erupted in curses. They had thrown everything they had at this boss, hammering him with spells and skills. Viscount Elrick's auras had boosted them, giving them more power than they normally had at their levels. Still, after all that, the enemy was back at full strength.
"Damn it, what kind of monster is this?!" someone shouted.
"We've been fighting so long, and his health just fills up like it's nothing!" another yelled.
At this moment..
"Here I come! Damn, it stinks! Boss, why did you have to make me come in through the sewers!"
The Thief's Way's voice echoed through the team chat, full of frustration. Earlier, Kaito's second uncle had sent the thief's way on a small material gathering task, but when Kaito learned he was back and was coming towards the church to fight the boss, he immediately gave him a different order. Since the church doors were blocked and the windows too high for anyone to climb, Kaito had told him to sneak in through the sewers that connected to the church's inner court. It was disgusting, but it was the only way in.
"When God wants to give a man a great responsibility, He must first let him go through the sewers! Stop complaining, hurry up!" Kaito quipped, remembering bitterly how, in his past life, he had also crawled through the sewers of Astralis City while escaping his enemies. That memory carried a faint sting, and he shook it off with a sigh.
"Damn it really stinks!!" The Thief's Way kept muttering, gagging in disgust. But on Kaito's minimap, his teammate's light marker was rapidly approaching. As expected, he was the type who would keep grumbling but still follow through honestly. Kaito smiled faintly complaints aside, the man was reliable.
Meanwhile, Elder Faelion's voice rang out, heavy with grief and anger. "Why don't you understand? The so-called God of Light has never given us hope. It is the Abyss Duke who truly cares for all living beings!"
The words chilled the air. It wasn't just infiltration. Elder Faelion wasn't pretending to serve the Church of Light he had been truly corrupted. He had been brainwashed by the Abyss.
Kaito narrowed his eyes. "In that case, I'll send you to meet your God. Don't resist."
He said it casually, almost like an idle remark. But, to his surprise, Elder Faelion faltered. His chanting stopped for half a heartbeat, as though he had actually begun to think about Kaito's words.
The onlookers gasped in disbelief.
"You can actually fight a boss like this?" one player muttered.
"I'm truly impressed," another said.
"A master is a master. Just watching him fight teaches us so much."
Kaito's lips twitched at their praise. He hadn't meant anything serious it was just something he had said offhand. Yet even his careless words seemed to shake the boss and amaze the players. Still, he didn't waste the chance.
With a swift movement, Kaito lunged forward. His blade flashed and cut cleanly across Elder Faelion's right elbow.
Most players in the crowd probably wouldn't notice, but almost 80% of Kaito's attacks so far had been aimed at the same spot Elder Faelion's right elbow joint.
This wasn't random. Glory had a hidden feature that very few players knew about. If someone repeatedly struck the same area on a player or elite monster, and the total damage dealt to that area exceeded 50% of the target's maximum health, a localized wound effect would trigger. That meant the injured spot would become a weak point, lowering the enemy's combat ability in that specific limb or area.
But pulling it off was far from easy. Even ordinary monsters moved constantly, and landing multiple precise hits on the same place was almost impossible. For elite monsters or bosses, it was even more difficult since they had higher agility, strange movement patterns, and could retaliate at any time.
That was why this hidden mechanic was so rarely triggered. Yet here was Kaito, calmly and methodically targeting the same elbow again and again, stacking damage strike by strike. It was a level of precision and patience that ordinary players could hardly dream of achieving.
Kaito knew from the start that the battle against Elder Faelion wouldn't be quick. The demon fanatic could heal himself, making it almost impossible to wear him down with normal strikes. That was why Kaito came up with a plan, if he could disable Elder Faelion's right arm, the fight would tilt heavily in their favor. A paralyzed arm meant slower spellcasting, weaker staff strikes, and fewer chances for him to recover.
After what felt like forever, light flickered from the church's inner chambers. The thief's way finally emerged, slipping into stealth the moment his boots touched the main floor. He moved like a shadow, darting across the battlefield straight toward Elder Faelion.
In an instant, he struck. His dagger flashed, catching the fanatic right in the side with a precise gouge.
Unlike certain monsters immune to control effects, Elder Faelion was an NPC living, breathing, and therefore vulnerable. The blow landed cleanly, and his body froze in place. The stun only lasted for a moment, but it was more than enough.
Seizing the chance, the thief's way unleashed another skill. His blades glowed faintly as he performed his armor removal skill. A sharp crack rang out as his daggers tore through the fanatic's defenses. Instantly, Elder Faelion's armor rating dropped by 30%, leaving him much more vulnerable for the next thirty seconds.
Kaito's eyes widened slightly. "Dual Dagger Mastery? When did you unlock that?" he muttered, surprised. That advanced mastery was rare at this stage, and it explained how the thief's way had managed to pull off such a devastating combo so smoothly.