Zombeast boss fight. A battle of attrition

"Hunter! Look out!"

I ducked just as the creature’s mace swung for my head and missed. If I was even a second late in my dodging, the spiky weapon would have smashed into the side of my face.

I barrel-rolled to the side and came up holding my sword. The monster's back was exposed to me. Maybe that was my opening. I couldn’t let the opportunity pass.

Using my enhanced speed, I launched forward like a torpedo, delivering a flurry of slices and cuts to the colossal walking corpse that was the Zombeast. Worms and maggots flew from its back as my cold steel repeatedly tore away at rotten flesh, but other than that, the creature didn’t seem to be getting weaker.

“Damn, how much health does this thing have?”

I asked Rachel as I jumped back to avoid another attack from the monster. The creature grunted when it swung for my head and missed again, then it went agro and began charging toward me.

“Calculating…” Rachel responded, taking a few seconds to process my request. But the Zombeast wasn’t planning on giving us those few seconds.

Just as the distance between us shrunk to an arm's length, the creature swung for my face again and missed, slamming its weapon into one of the stone pillars in the castle corridor. The structure cracked as a result, sending dust and debris pouring onto the checkered tiled floor. I launched another attack of my own, this time aiming for its face, chest, hands, and legs. I slashed away, sliced, cut—but nothing. The creature still didn’t look like it was getting weaker.

It was letting out grunting noises every time I struck it with my sword, but other than the maggots and worms dripping from its wounds, it didn’t appear to be slowing down. What was taking Rachel so long with my—

“Hunter! Move!”

The monster swung its mace this time in an upward arc, hitting me square in the chest and sending me flying backwards.

It was my fault. When I first attacked the thing, it was from behind, so I was able to deliver more blows because it wasn’t looking. When I attacked it from the front, however, I should have spent less time trying to hurt it, and more time trying to keep my distance, since I was already directly in its line of sight. But I didn’t, and it retaliated faster than I was able to avoid.

I came crashing down and slid across the floor on my back, blood leaking out of the wounds in my chest and stomach where the spikes from the weapon had done some damage. "Crap," I muttered in pain. I really hoped the Zombeast's rusty club wasn’t infected with some weird zombie disease. Who knew how many people he had bashed with that thing.

The familiar flash of my health dropping appeared in its usual spot in the lower corner of my vision, just as the pain from being smashed like a baseball began registering throughout my body. “Shit,” I winced. I must have broken a rib or two, I thought.

Still lying on the ground, I caught sight of my health bar. “What the…?” I trailed off, my breath catching in my throat. That one hit alone had cost me 30% of my health. I was now at 55%.

“Well, the good news is, you still have six temporary healing potions left in your inventory,” Rachel said, just as I heard the heavy footsteps of the Zombeast beginning to get closer. He was probably coming to finish me off. “My advice, take one now before you lose any more health.”

I slowly got to my feet, summoned another vial of healing potion, then drank it down as I gripped my sword tighter. I was lucky—I didn’t lose my weapon when I was airborne.

My health went back up to 75%, and I watched as the colossal creature continued to walk closer. It was out of the darkness and fully illuminated by the fire lamps in the castle, and I could see all of the cuts and injuries I had done to its body. It wasn’t charging at me anymore, maybe because it knew it had the upper hand at the moment. At least it was considerate enough to give me a moment to think.

“Rachel,” I called out to my AI companion, my tone sounding a little urgent. “Where are we on the creature's health status I asked you about?”

The monster was halfway across the castle, getting closer by the second. It was still dragging its weapon on the ground beside it, sending orange sparks flying everywhere.

“And… done,” Rachel responded. “Check this out.”

A bright green health bar suddenly appeared just above the creature’s head, showing me that it had only gone down 10%.

“Now, enemies you fight will have their health displayed to you at all times like this,” Rachel said as she explained the new feature she had added to my HUD. “And, my apologies for the late response. I was trying to set it up.”

When the creature was only five feet away, it swapped tactics and charged toward me. But instead of trying to fight it head-on, I gracefully dodged to the side, putting some distance between myself and it.

The creature ended up smashing into the wall, frustrated that it had missed. And when it turned toward me and rushed me again, I did the same thing.

I dodged, making sure to put some distance between us afterward.

I was trying to buy some time while I thought of a better way to fight it. It was clear my flurry of attacks wasn’t doing much damage, even though the same strikes easily cut through the smaller earlier zombies like butter.

The creature rushed and swung at me again, and I ducked just in time, rolling to the side. When I got back up, I jogged a few steps back. Was the problem my sword? Was it less effective against this thing than the smaller zombies?

“Actually, your sword is fine,” Rachel suddenly responded while I continued avoiding the creature’s attacks. “I didn’t get to show you all of the monster’s stats the last time because we were interrupted, but basically, like the Widowmakers from the fields, the Zombeast is extremely durable. Its body was designed to take a lot of damage.”

“So, I have to do a lot of cutting then?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” Rachel responded.

***

A few more minutes into the fight, and I was starting to lose stamina. I had kept up my strategy—dodging, avoiding, ducking—whenever the creature launched an attack at me. I was 60% successful in the tactics I had employed. The monster was unable to lay a single finger on me. The remaining 40%, however, not so much.

I managed to get body slammed, knocked aside by the monster's mace, smashed into the wall, and nearly had my head caved into the ground when I slipped up and fell. Fortunately I was able to roll away at the very last second, avoiding what would have definitely been the end of my story.

Basically, I was beaten down to nearly a quarter of my life, but just before I lost more health, I would quickly down a healing potion. I suffered, yes, but it was all for a reason. I was looking for a weakness in the creature’s armor and eventually found it.

It was its back.

Every time I avoided the creature’s advance and circled behind it, its back was always exposed to me for a total of five seconds before it regained its composure and tried to charge at me again. That was its weak spot. That was how I was going to kill it.

“Just be careful,” Rachel said. “You’re down to three vials of healing potions, and we can't get more while still stuck in here.”

“Got it,” I replied.

I waited for the creature to come at me again, and when it did, I moved out of the way, jogged around it, then delivered a bunch of slashes and cuts to its back before pulling away at the last second, immediately putting some distance between us.

“Nice going, Hunter,” Rachel cheered. “Keep it up, but remember...”

“Yeah, yeah. Be careful. I know.”

I took a look at the health bar floating just above the creature’s head. It had dropped another 10%. It was now at 80% of health. I kept up my assault.

Slashing. Cutting. Stabbing. Slicing. Cutting. Stabbing. With every strike of my blade, the monster’s health continued to rapidly drop, while worms and maggots spilled out of its injuries, staining the castle floors. I was winning, and I could feel myself getting faster and stronger from all of the XP I was racking up.

The Zombeast tried retaliating a few times, but since I had studied its attack patterns and found its weakness, it could no longer land a hit on me. And after several more minutes of repeated combat mechanics, I eventually brought its health low enough and finally delivered the finishing blow—a clean-cut, perfectly executed decapitation.

Its body exploded in a shower of guts, worms, and maggots. It was so gross, some of it got in my hair and on my jacket.

“And that’s the first floor cleared,” Rachel announced. “Nicely done, Hunter. There are two more floors left before we reach the necromancer we saw earlier. So come on, let’s get going.”

Still holding my sword, I took a moment to just breathe. I had drank so many temporary healing potions, I was scared to know what the actual percentage of my health was, underneath all of that magical assisted performance boosters.

I turned my attention over to the now-opened door the Zombeast had come through. Although the corridor remained a bit dark, I could see the soft glow of firelamps coming from the other side.

"Well, here goes nothing."

I began making my way toward the opened door. However, the moment I crossed the threshold into the next room, an excruciating pain shot through my head, causing me to drop to my knees as I experienced another memory flashback.