The Rat Boss continued to hurtle towards Max, like a freight train careening along its tracks, its frame casting an overbearing shadow that towered over him.
Max knew that although he could beat it, he would need to burn the fire within, putting every fibre of his being into the fight.
Max kept dodging the Boss's attacks, and as he never gainedthe opportunity to counter-attack, the boss kept forcing him to dodge while he patiently waitedfor an opportunity in this standstill.
Max remained vigilant and kept persevering in an attempt to constantly chip away at the opponent's HP.
While none of his attacks had hit yet, due to the Rat's high perception and dodging abilities, Max had yet to give up, deciding to continue the fight until someone dies.
The fight was at an impasse, both sides doling out consistent waves of attacks and both sides dodging said attacks within the breadth of a hair.
Max knew something had to take the initiativeand decided to do it himself. He activated Swift Dash and started sprinting around the bushes, seemingly for no reason except to confuse the Rat.
Every time the cooldown for swift dash refreshed, he continued to sprint in the same manner. While his fireballs still missed, the Rat was kept on his toes due to its confusion about Max's actions
The circles started becoming more defined, and whilst anyone who looked at it from above could now see a circle surrounding the vicinity, the Giant Rat Boss had a limited view, meaning that it was unable to figure out Max's plan.
Max planned to continue circling it with his talent, and swift dash in precise circles to achieve a small furrow in his tracks. When Max believed that the hole was sufficient, he shot one last fireball at the Rat Boss, which, of course, missed, as he had planned to set the entire track on fire. Hitting the hole, he sparked a great big circle of fire, while Max leapt outside to stay safe.
He had also subtly gathered the bushes towards his hole, slowly shifting their spots while using swift dash, all to create a massive fire wall that surrounds and traps his enemy.
Exclaiming in relief, his hard work and quick thinking had paid off, all Max had to do was hit the Rat with one last fireball. He kept aiming at it, trying to just get one hit in.
This kept going on for a few more minutes, and while Max was improving at aiming, the Giant Rat was also getting better at dodging his attacks.
Soon, it was almost like the Rat was able to predict his attacks and where they would come from, with Max not even getting a close hit in.
Naturally, at this point, Max had already downed 3 of his HP potions, leaving only one left, but getting him up to full HP.
Astonished, Max realised the improving gap between the Rat Boss and his fireballs, and quickly checked its status.
He then saw something that completely dumbfounded him.
[Talent:] Enhanced Perception (E) (Evolution in progress)
Max had never seen nor heard about anything like this in any game he had ever played, however, he soon realised that this was Genesis, and the laws of normal games didn't apply to it.
Realising the direness of his current situation, Max attempted to find any way to stop it, shooting fireball after fireball, not caring about his MP anymore.
However, none of them hit.
Soon, the Rat started glowing and Max realised that he couldn't do anything about it anymore. Instead, he decided to wait for the situation to resolve and react for the next part with the rest of his MP conserved.
By the time the Rats' evolution had finished, Max had also restored his Mana, deciding to think twice before making any decisions and even considering running away, before he remembered that it was futile and running away would just provide the Rat Boss the opportunity to kill him.
He took a look at the Rat's new status and couldn't believe what he saw. Its HP, stamina and MP had all been restored to the maximum, while its Perception had doubled again.
Max was sure that the Rat had also gained another special effect from its new Perception talent, just like he had received from Accelerated Speed.
While Max had no idea what the new special effect was, Max still had one job to do, and that was to kill it, so that's what Max worked on.
While the sea of fire was still running, Max could see that it was about to go out, as the bushes were turning to ash quickly.
Max knew he had to take as much advantage of the limited time left as he could, and instead of aiming his fireballs at the Rat, he aimed them at he sky.
After shooting a few fireballs, Max decided to re-shoot them at the Boss, hoping to predict it's movements instead and actually kill it, however, Max's prediction skills were no match against the Giant Rat Boss's perception and all attacks had failed.
Suddenly, some giant fireballs started raining from the sky and the Rat realised that it was the fireballs that Max shot earlier.
While the Rat was focusing on dodging the raining fireballs, Max decided to use this opportunity to kill it, hoping to attack it on 2 fronts, giving it no time or space to react. Knowing that he would only have one chance to surprise it, Max focused on getting just 1 hit in.
The Rat Boss had dodged most of the fireballs at this point, and just as it dodged the last one, Max had shot his fireball at it too.
It was almost decided that the Rat would be hit, with the fireball less than 1 metre from it, with it still at maximum velocity; however, just when he believed he won, the Rat suddenly managed to dodge it and the fireball hit nothing.
Max was confused, yet realised that this must have been the special effect of the Rat's new talent. He had no time to revel in that discovery, however, as the fires had finally disappeared and the Rat Boss lunged towards him.
Max tried to dodge it with his superior agility, however, the Rat almost knew exactly what he was going to do and changed its direction.
It had finally caught Max and took a great, big bite out of him,
-130
Max realised that he couldn't do anything and was trapped. He couldn't even use his talent's ability, as all he could see was the Giant Rat Boss and its silly donkey ears.
'Am I going to die here? No, I can't! I have an SSS-ranked talent and I am not going to lose this!'
These thoughts filled Max's mind as his mind started getting crazy with his thoughts. Raged filled his mind a all he could think of was killing the damned Rat.
The last straw broke when he saw the stupid Rat wave his stupid ears around, almost tauntingly, as he finally let his rage take over.
"Aaaaaaagh"
He grabbed the donkey's ear and stuffed his staff inside it. He summoned his fireball and exploded it inside the Boss.
-98
[Congratulations …]
Max saw a notification turn up, but ignored it, focusing on killing the Rat once and for all.
However, just as Max was about to unleash his final fireball, the Rat disappeared in front of him.
Max stayed wary, believing that it had been another one of the Rats abilities, however, as it never came back, Max was shocked to hear the sound of someone or something grunting behind him.
As he turned around Max percieved a tall warrior with glasses, clad in leather armour and a iron helmet with the visor flipped up, holding a crossbow in one hand. His other hand was wrapped tightly around a short dagger. It didn't take long for Max to realise that it was a rogue, and he immediately increased his guard. His eyes trailed up to the username above the stranger.
KingMadwinner
'What kind of egotistical prick calls himself a king and a winner,' wondered Max, cringing from the, well, cringey nickname.
KingMadwinner smirked, flaunting his superiority over Max, most likely from the rewards of killing the boss.
"Thanks for the free kill, man, I'll make sure to repay you by letting you take a rest"
Max realised that KingMadWinner was about to kill him, the gears in his brain started turning as fast they could, to look for a way to either run away or defuse this situation.
While Max could teleport out of there, he was pretty sure that this 'KingMadwinner' would find out that he had teleported and continue to pursue him.
Instead, Max decided to kill himself. He took his staff out and jumped as high as he could while knocking himself in the head with the staff..
KingMadwinner saw his avatar fade away as he thought, 'Well, at least this guy has balls", and, not giving him another glance, turned and walked out of the clearing.
10 metres away, in a bush, Max was holding his breath, desperately trying to not be heard or seen.