The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

Otto held his breath slightly, as adrenaline coursed through his system.

His body was in full fight-or-flight mode.

And Otto was not preparing to flee.

His eyes twinkled. It was the final battle!

Otto only heard a smattering of rough breathing and heavy footsteps coming from the corridor in front of him.

The Wolf King didn't seem to be too sensitive to mana. It couldn't recognize the wall in front of it for what it was- a door.

However, while the Wolf King was not sensitive to mana, its sense of smell more than made up for the lack.

Its nose was telling it that there was a prey beyond that wall.

But…how to get there?

Otto also waited with bated breath for the Wolf King's decision.

Plans and counter plans swirled through his head one by one as he crouched behind the jewel's pedestal.

If the Wolf King barged through the wall, the fight would be harder.

There were no traps directly beneath the wall-door: Otto hadn't had time to set them.

Otto also made plans for if the Wolf King entered through the normal doors.

Maybe it would think itself clever? Otto shrugged.

Entering through the door would mean it'd have to traverse the tunnel, an enclosed space with a strong array.

That would grant him an advantage he wouldn't turn down.

Otto continued to patiently wait inside the room.

The Wolf King was still prowling around in the corridor as it considered the best route to eat its prey.

Its instinct was to smash right through the wall, but it hesitated at the sight of the three doors.

If the wall proved sturdier than expected, the collision might alert the prey inside.

What if the prey ran away?

This was the only prey left in the entire building!

Who knew if the prey had the stone with him?

Then it'd have to go on a long chase, and it was admittedly already a little winded from killing the few hundred prey upstairs.

More than anything, it didn't want to waste any more time.

It was deeply unwilling to let its five year plan go up in smoke so simply.

That stone was its property!

And since the prey clearly didn't break the wall to get in (little did it know), it was likely that one of those doors led to the room in which the prey currently hid.

Heh.

It could surprise its prey and take it out in one shot!

The Wolf King quietly opened the door nearest to it with its paw, doing its utmost to make as little noise as possible.

It was one of those lamentable situations where the Wolf King's arduously developed wisdom betrayed it.

A loud noise erupted throughout the base!

Alarms went off and blared through the night.

The base had been breached!

It was a pity…there was no one left to respond to it…

The Wolf King's eyes turned red in rage. It had been tricked by those dastardly prey!!

Now the one remaining prey was definitely alert. What if he ran away?!

The Wolf King carefully sniffed the air in front of it.

A scent? Ah! The prey!

To its surprise and delight, the prey didn't seem to be running away?!

Did it want to fight against this King? How thrilling!

The Wolf King smiled with sinister intent.

Well, the Wolf King was still a wolf, so its smile looked a wee bit like it was panting…

The Wolf King directly ignored the alarm and quickly entered through the door on its left.

It carefully sniffed near the prey's hideout and found a small tunnel, barely big enough to fit a wolf of its size.

With no hesitation in its movements, the Wolf King bared its teeth and ran into the tunnel.

It would kill the prey in a single strike!

Alas!

Little did it expect that even the tunnel would be a trap!

As it stepped into the middle of the tunnel, the ceiling started to drop on an incline.

The Wolf King suddenly had to hunch to fit inside.

Even Otto hadn't expected such a big advantage.

Now that the Wolf King had squeezed itself in, it would be much harder for it to dodge Otto's preemptive attack.

Otto decisively activated the magic array in the tunnel.

WHOOSH

A giant fireball erupted from the array, siphoning all the mana in the tunnel to condense into a white hot fire that flew straight at the pitiful wolf.

For an instant, the Wolf King was filled with terror. Fire!

It shrunk back and subconsciously tried to escape, before recollecting itself with great difficulty.

Then, it got angry and roared loudly.

The roar was partly to slow the fireball and show its anger, and partly to rid itself of the innate fear of fire that was instinctually embedded into its very genetics.

A puny fireball wants to threaten this King?! As if it would bow to a measly fireball.

The Wolf King didn't even try to dodge the fireball. Not only did it disdain to do so, it...wasn't able to.

But when the fireball actually hit the monster right on his belly, the Wolf King discovered that this fireball was not as simple as it had imagined!

BOOOM

HISSSSSSSSSSS

The fireball exploded onto the Wolf King's abdomen.

Pain!

PAIN!

ROOOAAARRRRR! AH-WHOOOOO

It hurt so much!

As the Wolf King howled, the wolf monsters in its pack were in the process of sieging the city.

They perked up their ears as they heard a pained howl.

Their king was calling them!

Suddenly, their eyes turned red, and all the wolves were stirred into a frenzy.

Their king! Their king was calling them! They had to help!

But there were too many preys in front of them!

No matter.

Bite through!

Zeller and the other nobles watching the battle from the city wall were shocked when the wolves suddenly seemed to go crazy.

But they immediately seized on such a good opportunity.

Zeller shouted,

"Darius, Renora, lead the charge. I want each of ya to kill 100 wolves! The rest of yer', follow 'em. Don't let yer families die out there to those bastard wolves!"

None of them could afford to hold back in the face of a frenzied horde of monster wolves.

But even with the support of their leaders, it was unavoidable that most noble families were forced to suffer some losses.

In contrast, it was the soldiers that were protected surprisingly well by their noble fellows. The soldiers were slightly touched and fought even harder to protect their comrades.

Though it took over an hour to beat the frenzied wolves back, Zeller did not consider it a loss.

The wolves were easier to kill in their enraged state because they ignored all else to charge in one direction.

Thus, many of them fell prey to simple tactics like encirclement.

The Bront army wiped the sweat from their brows as the wolves temporarily retreated from the wall.

Zeller sighed. Even though it was a good opportunity...it was tiring.

He couldn't help but hope that the frenzy didn't come again...

***************************************************************

The Wolf King, being a monster of some limited wisdom, hastily rolled around on the tunnel floor as it tried to put the fire out.

Only... this was not normal fire, but magical fire.

Until the mana within the fireball dried up, the fire would not extinguish so easily!

Otto, who was still hiding behind the pedestal, smirked as he heard the Wolf King's howl of pain.

Hopefully, the fire from the second grade array would take at least a good bit of health off of that stupid monster.

Plus, this was the best opportunity to attack!

Otto's legs kicked him into gear.

He ran over to just beyond the boundary of the now defunct array.

It was the first time he had laid eyes on the powerful monster known as the Wolf King.

And it certainly lived up to its might.

The Wolf King stood at a huge 9 and a half feet tall.

It was covered in beautiful metallic, silvery fur, which would have looked exceptionally majestic if not for a few mitigating features.

Namely, its scarlet eyes, vicious looking teeth that would have looked more at home in the mouth of a shark, and steel-like claws that protruded just a bit too far out of its paws.

The Wolf King was evidently more monster than wolf.

Otto didn't visibly react to the sight of the Wolf King.

He instantly took the opportunity and hurled a supercharged mana bolt at its face.

The first one hit its snout directly, causing the Wolf King to let out a yelp of pain.

It glared at Otto.

It must be this prey that was responsible for all its pain!

The whites of its eyes gradually turned red.

It started rapidly recovering from the pain of the fire.

While it shakily stood up, Otto managed to hurl two more supercharged mana bolts at it before he rapidly backed away.

Otto was obviously not intending to get caught by such a vicious looking monster.

Now, the Wolf King's fur was in tatters.

It sported many wounds of various sizes, including a huge charred patch on its stomach.

A small fountain of blood leaked out of its snout and mouth.

There was no longer any sanity left in the Wolf King's expression; even the whites of its eyes had turned scarlet red, making it look more like a demon than animal.

It was the look of a beast who was prepared to die to take down the prey in front of it.

The Wolf King had indeed completely forgotten its initial intention in the face of such horrific pain.

Well, no matter how strong it was, it was still a monster of the [Tutorial].

Its wisdom would ultimately be limited.

Otto took a second and a half to distance himself from the Wolf King and lightly landed back in the room.

He cast 'Analyze' on the monster.

And inhaled sharply.

[Wolf King]

BOSS Monster (I)

Health: 5,264/14,450 (1.67/second)

Stamina 4,023/11,150 (1.12/second)

[Attributes]

Strength 89

Speed 103

Stamina 67

Sturdiness 100

'FUCK!'

Otto wasn't upset because of the Wolf King's outrageous attributes.

No, those had been expected for a monster as powerful as the Wolf King.

Even if all four had exceeded 100, he would still have been confident to kill the monster.

No, Otto felt despair at the Wolf King's designation as a BOSS Monster!

'Why the hell does the [Tutorial] have a BOSS Monster? I thought those only appeared after at least like 20 floors!?'

Perhaps it was because no one had ever really faced the Wolf King, but this was not something that Otto had expected.

Grade 1 BOSS Monsters had quite a few special advantages over regular monsters.

The first was that their health was multiplied by 10 compared to a typical monster.

Second was that their health recovery speed was multiplied by 100.

The Wolf King would be able to regenerate his entire health pool in a matter of two hours!

The third, and by far the most troublesome for Otto at the moment, was that their resistance was multiplied by 5.

It was likely that Otto's full powered ten-mana supercharged mana bolts would barely be able to hurt the Wolf King had they hit it anywhere but his snout.

Otto suddenly thanked the gods that he had set up those three Grade 2 arrays.

Even with 14,000 health, that array must have caused some serious damage, as evidenced by its health which was still under half full.

Otto felt that if the Wolf King was hit by even a single additional array, he'd either be dead or on the brink of death.

He just didn't know if a) the Wolf King would stay enraged long enough to be lured into a tunnel, and b) if Otto himself could survive for that long…

The Wolf King ran at Otto with red eyes. It wanted to gore him directly with its claws.

Otto was slightly alarmed at its speed.

Knowing what '103' speed meant theoretically was one thing, but witnessing it first-hand with his own piss poor attributes was quite another!

Otto barely had time to activate the Grade 1 array that added a 'slow' to the Wolf King.

The Wolf King slowed noticeably, though it was still at least four times as fast as Otto.

With a cry, Otto activated the array to 'paralyze' the Wolf King.

Caught off guard, the Wolf King was stopped in its tracks for a full three seconds, unable to move.

Immediately capitalizing on that opportunity, Otto shot off two supercharged mana bolts right into the Wolf King's snout.

A deafening roar of rage almost burst Otto's eardrums, causing him to lose three health points.

But Otto had a bigger problem.

In the tunnel, there was a significant buffer distance between the two of them.

But now, they were barely twenty meters apart!

Otto regretted his choice to fight in this room a little.

There weren't any obstacles he could reasonably use to evade the Wolf King's charge.

Otto had planned on kiting the Wolf King to a slow death, but for it to be a BOSS Monster that he was almost incapable of seriously hurting...

He thanked his foresight for preparing those three Grade 2 arrays.

Now, Otto was forced to rely on activating the arrays to buy himself slivers of time before he was able to dodge the beast's charges.

It was fortunate that the room with the [Rainbow Corinth] was rather large, suitable for continuous evasion, or else Otto may have been caught and killed already.

But despite his mental complaints, his mouth ever so slightly curved upwards.

As soon as the Wolf King entered the room, Otto felt the electrifying feeling of walking on a knife's edge.

This battle would require his all, while a single misstep would guarantee death.

The thrill of battle was engraved deep into Otto's bones!

A rush of adrenaline hit him once again as he dodged the Wolf King's charge by a hair's breadth.

The battle started to enter into a pattern.

The Wolf King would charge and get caught by one of the innumerable grade one arrays that were laid out like a net on the floor.

These arrays were not single use, so it was impossible for the Wolf King to avoid all of them, no matter how careful it tried to be.

Otto would then take the opportunity to cast a mana bolt at the beast, shaving off small bits of health from it to mitigate its recovery speed.

Then he would frantically dodge its subsequent charge.

Double Jump showed its extraordinary use here.

There were many times when Otto's momentum was off to dodge the Wolf King's attack, and he would have to forcibly alter his own inertia in order to properly evade the attack.

But the Wolf King was starting to catch on.

Right as Otto was about to use Double Jump to evade to the left, the Wolf King anticipated it.

If it could be said that its intelligence was rather low, then it would be a genius in terms of its battle instincts.

The Wolf King reached out with its hind leg and gave Otto a kick, snarling with deep menace.

Fortunately, Otto had kept his mana shield up consistently throughout the fight for just this situation.

And with virtually no time to react, Otto could only maneuver his body as best as he could.

CRUNCH

A sickening crunch was heard in Otto's chest as the crushing blow tore through his mana shield as if it was paper.

Otto let out a small "oomph" as he decisively cast a second mana shield before he crashed against the wall, hard.

Even with the mana shield, his ribs all cracked under the double might of the kick and the crash.

Otto groaned.

Being thrown about like a rag doll was not a particularly fun activity.

He quickly checked his health:

Health: 44/110 (0.08/minute)

Otto would have absolutely died without his mana shield.

He was mostly unfazed by the pain itself, but he couldn't start running and aggravate his injuries.

He needed time!

Time that the Wolf King was certainly not planning on giving him.

Seeing its attack finally land, it immediately rushed at its prey to quickly finish him off and properly vent its anger.

Otto's eyes blazed with determination. There wasn't time to activate an array, but Otto gritted his teeth.

He would pull it off anyway!

Otto's mental power roiled in his brain. It propelled his mana to shoot out like a bullet towards an array that the Wolf King had just barely stepped on.

It was a 'stun' array.

As Otto rapidly consumed his mental strength to speed up the process, the array successfully activated!

But the Wolf King was too strong.

It had realized that most of these arrays weren't actually strong enough to hold it; they took advantage of its momentary surprise to temporarily bind its body.

Now, it only had to pause for a fraction of a second before directly breaking out.

It was the same this time. The array couldn't hold it, and the Wolf King continued to rush Otto at lightning speed.

But for an experienced battle freak like Otto, though, this fraction of a second was enough.

Otto took the opportunity to instantly cast a 'Heal', which got him for '80 health,' bringing him back to full health in a second.

Then, in a flash, Otto rolled hard to the left, temporarily escaping from the clutches of the raging wolf behind him.

Otto was even warier now.

He knew he could barely take a single hit from the Wolf King.

Moreover, his stamina and his mental strength were quickly draining.

If the battle continued like this, Otto would undoubtedly lose.

He had to lure the Wolf King into the tunnel, and fast!

Otto finally decided to use his trump card as the Wolf King charged at him again.

He pushed off the wall as if he was completing a quick turn in a swimming competition, then used 'Double Jump' to step on the air and stabilize his body.

The Wolf King didn't forget to follow.

But this time, Otto was prepared.

It jumped up to catch him.

But Otto was a step ahead this time.

He displayed an incredible acrobatic prowess as he flipped around, stepped on the air again, and jumped straight up, sailing right over the Wolf King's head.

He then displayed a perfect expression of fear on his face and ran directly into the second tunnel, frantically 'escaping' the Wolf King.

The Wolf King was still in its enraged state.

It followed Otto from twenty meters behind, and quickly started to snap at his heels.

Despite his prepared trump card, Otto truly felt the fear of death from this huge beast.

Luckily, his vast experience meant his mental state wasn't so easily shaken.

Occasionally, it would lunge at Otto.

The first two times it lunged, Otto jumped up, jumped on the air again, then shot a supercharged mana bolt directly at the Wolf King's head, making it howl in pain.

Then, it kept chasing Otto.

After the third lunge, the Wolf King wised up, and was ready to snap at Otto in the air, but Otto did something unexpected this time.

He was only ten meters away from the tunnel with the Wolf King hot on his heels, so he used the second skill in [Great Mage Ofrand's Boots]:

Blink.

His trump card came out.

Otto teleported straight into the tunnel, where he kept running forward as fast as he could in 'fear' of the Wolf King.

The Wolf King chased him even faster, deeply enraged by Otto's provocative actions.

Yes! He just needed the Wolf King to enter the tunnel...

But the next thing that happened made Otto's heart sink.

The Wolf King paused at the edge of the tunnel.

The redness in its eyes slightly receded to reveal the whites behind.

Rather, its eyes showed an expression of slight fear upon seeing the tunnel.

Obviously, the tunnel triggered a strong 'fear.'

A 'fear' which removed its 'enraged' state.

It was the worst possible situation for Otto.

If the Wolf King didn't follow him, and he had to battle it out in the room...it wouldn't end well for him.

Even if he wanted to kite the massive monster, his super charged mana bolts had to be able to deal enough damage first.

The Wolf King's mind warred between hatred for the unknown prey that had hurt it so much, and fear that entering this tunnel would spell its doom.

Just as the fear was about to win…

A small jewel that shined in every color 'happened' to drop out of Otto's pocket.

That's right. Otto had gambled it all on this attempt.

He decisively let go of his final safety net, a safety net which could be used to instantly escape from the [Tutorial] and the Wolf King's pursuit, in hopes of luring the wolf into the tunnel.

Otto continued to run away in fright and ignored the jewel on the ground.

He also revealed a timely expression of 'panic' for the Wolf King to catch.

As expected, the Wolf King's eyes showed hints of redness once more as it caught sight of the jewel.

This was what it came for! It was ITS STONE!!!!

ROARRR

So what if there was a little risk!? It was the Wolf KING!!

It wouldn't be afraid of one puny little prey right in front of it, right??

The Wolf King abandoned all its doubts and entered the tunnel to furiously chase after its almost escaped prey.

Of course, it would also take the opportunity to snatch up the enticing jewel it had so lusted after.

But it was a pity.

Almost as soon as it entered the tunnel, Otto activated the Grade 2 array at full power.

A whirlwind of mana was sucked into the array.

Soon, a fireball even larger than the previous one formed in front of the Wolf King.

The Wolf King's eyes were wide with horror as it tried to evade.

The power of this fireball was carved directly into its flesh. It wasn't something the Wolf King was liable to forget.

Alas, Otto had perfectly calculated the timing.

He even sped up the fireball with the small bit of mental power he had left to absolutely ensure it hit the Wolf King.

It hit the Wolf King dead in the face.

BOOOOOM

The Wolf King's head exploded.

Bits of blood, flesh, and brain matter rained out and deep into the tunnel.

Otto was forced to evade the revolting 'blood rain' by scrambling back at top speed.

After it ended, the ground was covered in blood and gore.

The first thing Otto did was check to make sure the Wolf King was truly dead.

In the floors of the tower, monster corpses disappeared after a certain amount of time.

But until then, they could also fake their deaths, and it would be tough to tell the truth at a quick glance.

Otto stepped up to examine the corpse.

He only breathed a sigh of relief when his 'Analyze' confirmed the Wolf King was truly dead.

Otto walked back over to pick up the [Rainbow Corinth], his ultimate prize and his amulet.

Then, he slumped down to sit in a dry area of the tunnel to catch his breath for a minute.

Reflecting on the battle, Otto felt he had played his trump cards too close to his vest.

He would not have used so much mental power had he used up a few more casts of 'Blink' on his boots.

For example, he could have blinked away from the Wolf King's leg that broke his ribs.

Actually, at the time, it hadn't crossed his mind as an option.

Since he was used to never using his trumps until an absolutely critical moment.

Apparently a chest full of broken ribs didn't count as 'critical' to his subconscious mind.

But this could be a handicap, too. One that he placed on himself.

He would need to get out of the habit, to go all out from the very beginning.

A lion uses his full strength to catch even a rabbit.

Let alone if the lion had to fight a wolf.

Otto sighed and cast 'Rejuvenation' on himself to start recovering his stamina and his health.

His body may be physically fine, but his fatigue was enormous after such a grueling battle, and in more ways than one.

Yet a carefree smile hung on his lips.

His most powerful enemy was now gone. Basically nothing else could hurt him in the [Tutorial].

He was also sure that his rewards would match his effort! Getting rid of that damn wolf was no easy task.

Alas, Otto was almost instantly forced to eat his words.

He recalled something weird about the battle.

'Wasn't the Wolf King supposed to have cast that huge meteor magic to plunge the city into chaos…? So...why couldn't it use magic...'

'Oh, shit.'

Right after he spoke, meteor fragments started raining down onto the base.