While Elias did not know how much damage he managed to inflict on the Human, having its Vitality go down from S+ to S should mean a lot.
'And that is if my guess about the increase in one grade leads to an exponential increase in points for the stats.' Unfortunately, his only test samples are Human Puppets with insane Vitality.
"Checking once in a while should help me confirm that theory,"
Yet, as Elias slammed another Heavy Earth Slash on the Human Puppet, it burst out in a terrifying might, sending him flying.
Elias managed to roll, reducing the damages though a part of him would be aching if this was the real world. Then again, if this was the real world, he might already be dead.
"Wha- oh dear lord, it's the second phase!" he cursed the developers under his breath. Bosses having a second phase are not rare in games. But for tutorial bosses to one, yeah, it might be the first one he has seen so far.
Clutching his sword tighter, Elias took the chance to recover some of his Energy while the Human Puppet was going through its transformation. As for why he was not attacking the Human Puppet while it was clearly vulnerable, he had thrown a rock at it and the result was the rock being sent to the stratosphere, or at least the ceiling.
So, Elias was left with no choice but to watch as the Human Puppet went through its second phase. The sole good thing was the fact the Human Puppet did not intend on grabbing its weapon, which was good news for him.
Still, the fact might change so Elias made sure to put the weapons behind him, so he can block the Human Puppet from getting them.
'Still, how long will the transformation take?' he wondered.
-x-
5 minutes. It took the Human Puppet five minutes to reach its second phase. It clearly shed some of its part, the Behemoth Human Puppet turning into a still big, but smaller than before Human Puppet. It also opts to remove the casing of its arms, revealing thinner and longer limbs connected by spherical joints.
It also loses the hands, instead fusing its weapons with its arms. As for the arms without weapons,the hands were replaced with needle-like blades.
"Games logic suggest that shedding armor will lead to being faster." So, Elias kept an eye on the Human Puppet, expecting it to move quickly and took him by complete surprise.
As expected, the Human Puppet moved very quickly, slightly surpassing him in speed. On the plus side, it decided to showcase how fast it was by running in circles and performing dashes and sprint in a small section of the hall.
"Hopefully, I can hurt it no more now that it has shed its defenses." Elias couldn't really call what it dropped to be armor, so he used the term defenses instead.
'And how long will it show off?!' it's getting annoying at this point. Thankfully, the Human Puppet stopped playing around, turning it's head towards Elias.
It then ran towards him, before stopping just before it reached his sword's range. As it stopped, it performed what could be described as an elegant dance routine, twisting it's body with the ball of its feet being the only thing on the ground. As it performed a twirl, it used the momentum during the spin and strike Elias with all of its right arms.
Elias, having seen the attack, barely dodge it, before being forced to take a step back, dodging the left arms this time.
He created an Earth Wall, hoping to stop it. However, the Human Puppet had learned it lesson and instead of attacking the Wall, it instead opted to use the Wall as a leverage point. One of its weapon hands, a spear if he remembered correctly, stabbed the Earth Wall before it pulled it's entire body, catapulting itself with the aid of his Earth Wall.
"Crap!" Elias cursed, creating another Earth Wall, but instead of using it for defense, he break the Earth Wall, sending all the shards and dusts flying towards the Human Puppet.
With the cloud of dust and very sharp rocks heading its way, the Human Puppet raised its shield-hands, while coating itself in Earth Aura, at least judging from the color.
The protection stopped the shards from doing any damage but the dust helped hide Elias from being instantly spotted by the Human Puppet, the dust covering his figure just enough for the Human Puppet not be able to distinguish him from anything else.
However, the dust cover could not last long with the Human Puppet swinging its weapon hands, utilizing Wind Magic to clear the dust with a single gust.
'Crap!' Elias cursed as his cover was no more, forcing him to run. Unfortunately, the Human Puppet was faster than him, almost covering the distance between the two of them in two mighty leaps.
'Running away won't help me, with the Human Puppet being was faster,' Elias thought, as he quickly realized the only viable options that will not just delay his death.
He gathered his Energy, transforming them into Earth Aura before engulfing him with it. If he is correct, he would make himself tougher and stronger, able to withstand the Human Puppet's relentless onslaught. And if he was wrong, well, it won't work and he just wasted most of his Energy on a failed endeavor.
To his slight surprise, it worked, to a degree. He could feel there was some wasted Energy, but overall, most was utilized in this act of Magic, strengthening him, just enough to hopefully withstand the Human Puppet.
So, when the Human Puppet fell on him, Elias blocked two of its weapons with his single sword before pushing them away so he could block the next series of attacks.
And so, he was forced to block attacks after attacks, constantly taking a few steps back to dodge some while blocking the rest. Frankly, if not for him empowering himself with Earth Aura, the sheer onslaught would have pushed him to the brink, his defenses broken in probably like 20 seconds.
With the Earth Aura strengthening him, Elias could hold on for much longer. Still, the situation was still bleak, as he couldn't do anything other than blocking.