A/N: Moose sounds, for enhanced enjoyment of this chapter:

  8:50 AT, Day Nine | Arena of Achilles The Ravenous

  Everyone's all set, but, just as we are about to approach the arena, we get a message from the game masters.

  ‘In conference with some experts, we have decided that those with inae-based abilities are strictly limited to only modifying their own person unless fighting another opponent with similar abilities. This means: No modifying weapons, armor, or the environment. Perception and personal movement are still allowed.’

  “Klack, it appears they have nerfed me.” I groan.

  “Well, darling, I guess even the game masters thought you were too cool. Will you believe me now?”

  “I’ll never be cool with a title like ‘foolish hero.’”

  “Hmm, then I guess I'll just have to sweep the entire universe into my charms and make them refer to you as ‘super duper cool hero who is ultra cute’ instead.”

  “That actually sounds like something you’d do. I am not deserving of such a title, at heart I am just a worthless NEET.”

  “Wish you'd stop saying that, it's been almost four years at this point. Guess I'll just have to make it so that your heart can be nothing but love for your super duper cute girlfriend, huh?”

  “You're not far off from attaining that goal, I'll have you know.”

  The insensitive redhead with a real superiority complex choses this exact moment to cough loudly. Then he has the audacity to say, “Ahem, could we perhaps get this show started? I’d much appreciate getting back to my nice and comfortable bed as soon as possible.”

  I was just about to go give the guy a black eye that would definitely send him to that very bed. But, April beats me to him and gives him a nice slap on the back of the head.

  The impact resounds through our gathered people, turning the air dead silent in its wake.

  “Darling, as much as I hate to agree with such a klacker, he does kinda have a point. We should get this show started, that way we can get back and engage in lots of headrubs!”

  “Tsch, well then, let's get this party started, shall we?”

  April and I walk up to the boundary and get menus asking us to confirm our participation.

  ‘Do you wish to begin the Joint challenge: Legend Raid for Achilles The Ravenous?

  Recommended Party: At least 12 great-level challengers, or similar equivalent.

  Current Party (5): Contains 102% of recommended combat strength. Estimated Difficulty: High.

  Estimated reward for Legend Raid: 75 Ri (halved due to multiple parties), 700 Ti (halved), Slayer of Achilles The Ravenous commendation and Three Legend Equipment Drops (halved) + 1 per participant (26).

  Yes / No’

  Naturally, both of us quickly click yes. Though, it is a bit scary that even with so many, it says the difficulty will be high. Oh well, I'm sure we can manage, somehow.

  Quickly, the Molan surrounding Achilles runs away and the terrain changes. This time, everything looks very white and bone-line. Almost as though we are inside some massive ribcage.

  As expected, a five-segmented health bar appears once again. It also seems to have 5 skills. Though, we have no clue what they do. Only one way to find out, and that's to get hit with them.

  Everyone immediately grabs their weapons and gets into a ready stance.

  Achilles turns his head in our direction, horrifying teeth glinting in the light. I could almost swear he is smiling.

  After a few seconds, he lets out a roar. Then, he charges right for our group, conveniently clustered for goring.

  “Folks, you better scatter, unless you wanna be a beast chow!” Ray shouts, causing a mass scattering event.

  I run to the left, with Ray trailing close behind me, a glint of excitement visible in her eyes.

  First things first, ima go for its skull, I doubt it, but perhaps its left that as a vulnerable point.

  “Ray, time to do the thing!”

  “You got it, darling!”

  She catches up and grabs onto my waist, taking off into the air using her fancy armor. It's a bit of a rocky flight, I don't think it's meant to carry two people.

  She accelerates quickly in the direction of its skull, just as it turns to face us. She releases me and I propel myself forward with a massive burst of inae. Spear aimed right for what should be the weak spot.

  I cruise past Achille’s gaping mouth, looking quite ready to swallow me whole.

  My spear makes contact, with a resounding crash. But, it doesn't go through.

  Rather, it feels like the skull is a bouncy wall.

  I feel all of the force of my charge reflect back into me, and I go flying backwards at hypersonic speeds.

  If you weren't aware, going from high speed, to standstill, and then flying backwards at high speed is very painful. It feels as though all of my organs slam against the back of my body, only to immediately hit the front.

  I fly backwards and impact against the border of the arena. Hard.

  I think I've broken at least three ribs, and likely fractured many bones.

  Without my improved defense, I'm certain I'd be dead.

  Ray rushes over and manages to catch me before I hit the ground. “Ohmygosh, Ko! Are you okay?” She shouts, seemingly quite worried.

  “Dontcha worry, darling, I've had far worse from Initae. Just gimme one of those healthy things and I'll be right back to it in no time.” I say through gritted teeth.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Naturally, she quickly gives me one of the health packs and I can feel my body knit back together at record speed.

  At least this pain wasn't for nothing, I can now see that one of the skills of achilles is {Thick Skull}. Which, as you saw earlier, gives him a very thick skull. Perhaps if we studied mooses beforehand, we would have known that they have thick skulls.

  While I'm recovering, Ray dashes out to help a group that manages to land a nice blow to Achille’s front right knee. Causing it to limp a bit and can no longer charge for a while. Unfortunately, it seems this guy is very healthy as it only does 3% damage.

  Rigar with their massive warhammer and Rao (surprisingly) seem to be working together on a strike against its side.

  Rigar lands a devastating blow and then Rao quickly follows it up with a piercing strike, leaving a nice hole in Achille’s side. Taking off a nice 6% from its health.

  Guess it makes sense, a big guy with a hammer softened it up, then the klacker with the poky stick went all the way through.

  Before anyone can land another strike, Achilles lets out a roar that shakes the entire arena.

  Suddenly, his antlers start to grow even more pointy bits.

  After a few seconds, the roar ends, only to be followed by a massive shake of his head. The motion seems to break off a lot of its newly-grown antlers and it creates a strong whirlwind effect.

  The result, a storm of very pointy, very deadly, spikes now flying through the air.

  I am now on my feet, though with some pain left. So, I am thankfully able to dodge any that come my way.

  But Emil is not so lucky, as well as many of the high-levels from both teams.

  Emil gets a spike right to the gut, and falls down, but he quickly regains his composure, extracts the spike and drinks a health pack. It's amazing to watch the wound stitch itself together within a few seconds, then he is back and running.

  The High levels are far weaker, and most of them seem to die as soon as the spike impales them. Though several do manage to recover. All told, we lost five of them.

  It is at this point that I realize the nature of this arena. I ditch my shield, which conveniently falls into my inventory. Simply put, agility is key, and that shield was really slowing me down.

  I dash over to where Ray and Emil are preparing another attack. Geo is also there, with a pretty fancy looking gun. It appears to fire a large plasma projectile, not dissimilar to the hellsphere cannons.

  The plan is that Geo attacks the back left knee while we go for the front left one. Causing Achilles to fall onto its side, where everyone can rapidly poke it to death.

  I come up with my own plan and we execute.

  I activate my {Lighting Bolt} and aim directly for the beast’s skull. Now, you might be thinking I haven't learned my lesson. But, in that you'd be wrong.

  My lighting bolt speeds towards Achilles skull, only to be reflected right back at me. Very predictable.

  But, what it's not anticipating is that I use my spear’s special ability to capture the lightning bolt. My spear seems to redirect the lightning until it is orbiting around my body. How the physics work, I've got no clue.

  My hypothesis is proved true. The lighting arcing around me is far more powerful than my bolt skill. Meaning it does indeed have a magnifying effect. That's excellent, always fun to game the boss’s abilities for your own benefit.

  I charge in, my spear aiming to strike for its front left leg. Just as Geo, Ray and Emil strike at its other knees, I impact.

  The lightning flows into my spear and into the leg.

  I nearly puke at the stench of burning flesh.

  The other two groups' attacks also succeeded, and surprisingly a third group managed a strike against the remaining knee.

  I hear a familiar charging sound, moments later Linda shouts from across the arena “Everyone! Get down!”

  Everyone near the beast drops down to the floor.

  Seconds later, Linda’s rifle barks and its projectile goes flying, right for the beast’s left flank.

  It makes contact with a sickening thud, then it buries itself deep inside and detonates.

  A massive hole is now missing from Achilles' side, its knees also collapse and it falls to the ground with a massive thud.

  Its health bar drops to 40% with that one series of attacks.

  Ray rushes over and gives me a big hug.

  “Oww! Darling! I just broke several ribs!” I shout

  “Oh, stop being such a baby, what's a few broken ribs compared to a nice hug?”

  “Yeah, you're right, somehow it's not that bad. You were so cool out there, darling!”

  “As were you, Mr. Wielder of Lightning!”

  “Oh please, that was all thanks to my cool spear, not me.”

  This earns me a quite deserved flick to the forehead and a scowl. But she quickly goes back to that brilliant smile of hers.

  In our time of celebration, the others are busy poking at the beast. April especially seems to be really going at it. Her rapier just won't stop poking it.

  Achilles tries to crawl away, but it can barely move. Honestly, it's quite a sad sight, all things considered.

  Well, that is until it reaches an unlucky high-level and opens its mouth. Sucking in it creates a vortex and devours the poor guy. That's gonna leave some mental scars for sure. Wouldn't be surprised if they wish to retire after that.

  Immediately, the regeneration increases to an absurd degree, and its health, which was crawling towards 30%, shoots back up to a whopping 70%!

  “Ah klack, that's not good.” I say, solemnly.

  “Not good indeed, is it, darling?”

  Indeed, it is not good. This is another of Achilles’ skills, {Expansive Stomach}, it allows it to increase its health and speed up regeneration when consuming a challenger.

  Everyone quickly dashes away, now deathly afraid of its mouth after seeing what happened.

  With a great effort, Achilles manages to stand up once again. Its knees and side repaired fully. And somehow, it's back at 70% health. This just doesn't seem fair.

  Cant believe the game masters would design something so devious. Every MMO player I've met hates bosses that can heal.

  Achilles gives off a massive roar, seemingly telling us all of its overwhelming supremacy.

  Then, it uses what I can only guess is another skill. I would later learn that it is called {Devouring Vortex}.

  It stomps around, using its claws to make a massive vortex that seems to suck everything towards the center of the arena. Most people manage to resist it, but a high-level falls victim and is dragged into the center.

  Where they are promptly consumed by the beast. Rising its health back to a full 100%.

  This time, it's Ray’s turn, “Aww klack. That's really, really, not good.”

  I agree, it really is not good one bit. But, I'm sure that with Ray and I together, we will be able to overcome this beast. Plus, we've got all our other allies with us. This beast is gonna go down, hard. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 95

  Next: Chapter 96 | Devouring a Legend

  Skills For Achilles The Ravenous

  {Expansive Stomach}: Passive. Any challengers consumed regenerate health points as well as greatly increase regeneration temporarily.

  {Thick Skull}: Skull is extremely thick. Any attacks rebound against the attacker with magnified force.

  {Spike Storm}: Spiky protrusions grow from the beast’s antlers and are shaken off, creating a storm of deadly spikes.

  {Devouring Vortex}: The beast uses its claws to create a vortex, sucking any unlucky being into close range, perfect for devouring.

  +1 Unknown Skill