The One Luna

A monster having question marks as it's level after the usage of <Scan> meant that it was at the very least 10 levels higher. Right at this moment, Luna felt as if they had quite possibly rushed this a bit too soon.

He was currently at level 39, so the Kapre was at least level 50. This was fight was something the rest was qualified to be in. Luna looked towards Sura and Max as he said, "It's going to be up to the three of us." Looking back at all the soldiers, he issued one last command. "Protect these trees at all costs!"

As he said that, he finally, for the first time, used his Draconic Armor in full force. Sura initiated her 3-Heads and 6-Arms Mode, surprising everyone.

"Whoah, is this leader's final form?"

"Lord Luna didn't use this form when fighting against that huge Croc last time. It seems he was holding back quite a lot." commented one of the Rangers.

"They're finally letting loose." Apple declared. The usually calm duo she knew were finally letting loose.

"Let's go." As soon as he said that, Luna, Sura, and Max dashed towards the gigantic Kapre. Luna used a full force swing on it's leg, slicing it open a little bit before he couldn't go in any further. The worse part is, as soon as he inflicted a wound, it started visibly healing in front of him.

"We can't fight here, I'll risk damaging the trees too much. Follow me!" Luna gave out a command towards the people on top of the southernmost walls for everyone to clear the area. His plan was simple, it was to lure the Kapre out of this vicinity and more outside towards his territory. Although he'd have to sacrifice a portion of the south wall, it could easily be defended by the soldiers.

He would have asked Boni to rebuild it as soon as he lured the Kapre away, but unfortunately, building wasn't allowed during a challenge or if someone was too close to the vicinity. This was so people couldn't just continuously build walls to fight off any opposition.

The trio ran up the walls and looked towards the Kapre, as if taunting it even more before heading towards the other side. Unexpectedly, it didn't destroy the wall, and merely jumped over it.

Commanding the rest of them to guard the tree, Apple took the level 30+ Mages to station on top of the walls. She was prepared to lay siege on the Kapre should Luna ask for it.

Meanwhile, the trio were already locked in a battle against the Kapre. They were aware that should they lose here, everybody would inevitably go down with them. The good part was that the Kapre was relatively slow for it's level, albeit, it almost matched Luna's speed even with his current constitution with the Draconic armor fully activated.

The bad part was that this thing was definitely mostly VIT-based, even with the trio's constant attacks, it would barely take damage due to the fact that it's rate of regeneration matched the current damage output they had.

There was the option that he could have the Mages rain down spells on this thing, but if it suddenly turned on them, they would all inevitably die. Even if Boni himself tried to fight this thing, he would die in a few hits as well. The only reason Luna could afford to fight this thing was due to his ability to dodge it's attacks.

But how long could he keep it up? The Kapre had more VIT than them by a long shot, so trying to have a battle of attrition against it is a guaranteed slow loss. He had to think fast, but thinking while keeping yourself alive against this thing was easier said than done.

After fighting intensely for a few hours, Luna was starting to feel more worried. Expending the most effort with every second of fighting this thing was more tiring than reaping the other zombies with one swing of his weapon.

As he was fighting Apple sent him a message. "Luna, that thing isn't going to die before you exhaust yourself. Please allow us to help you!"

"No, I can't risk your lives." Luna replied back.

"At least let us cast Lightning Cloud and Fire Wall at it, something that it can't visibly see where it's coming from." Apple urged. He knew that Luna was fighting a losing battle, and she didn't want harm to come to him.

Just as Apple mentioned "Lightning Cloud" an idea finally popped in Luna's head. "Apple, take all the Lightning Mages with you and take one of your most skilled Earth Mages and follow us from close behind. Take some soldiers to guard yourselves as well!"

"I'm on it!" As soon as she received the orders, Apple was incredibly efficient. As she was doing this, she noticed Luna running directly west.

"He seems to be running directly west... but that's the BREDCO Port, that's a dead end? Is that why..." Apple quickly realized his plan, hastening everybody else, while the ones remaining continued to defend on the walls. Some of the people from the first regiment went over to help as well, leaving just enough people by the Life Trees in case some zombies still managed to spawn.

Luna was incredibly tense until he finally reached the port and the Kapre was still hot on his tail. Heaving a sigh of relief, he was incredibly afraid of this Kapre having a leash range not far enough to reach this area. He was hoping this thing wouldn't have it at all, actually.

(Author's note: Leash range in MMORPGs is basically when a monster stops following you and runs back to the area where he spawned.)

The moment they got there, he proceeded to kite around the Kapre until Apple and the rest got there.

Not long after he got her message. "Luna, we're here. Where's the Earth Mage?"

"I'm here, Lord Luna." It was Gabriela Silang, the woman whose husband died at the hands of Buencamino's thug. He didn't notice it, but she was the hardest working Mages, even surprising Apple at times, adding on to that, she was naturally talented in combat.

"Alright, listen up. Gabriela, I'm going to do my best to knock this guy towards the water, I need you to accurately use your <Earth Spike> to try and help me push him over. Lightning Mages, as soon as that thing hits the water, I want every single one of you to cast <Lightning Cloud> on it and channel <Chain Lightning> on it non-stop. The rest of you soldiers, prevent any interruptions, I want two squads on clearing duty to prevent any mishaps. Understood?"

"YES, LORD LUNA!" they all acknowledged.

As soon as he found a spot where there weren't any boats nearby that the Kapre could possibly hold on to, he proceeded to lure him closer. Just as he was getting ready, a pair of tentacles suddenly shot out from the murky waters, and grabbed on to his leg. Luckily, he reacted fast enough and sliced them up. When he looked over, he could barely make out the silhouettes of countless mutated sea creatures, as the Kapre was dashing towards him, Luna jumped out of the way.

It stopped just as it was about to fall off, when Gabriela instantly conjured up multiple <Earth Spikes> ones long enough to hit the back of it's knee, some conjured up from directly beneath it's feet, almost pushing the Kapre over towards the water, but it was still not enough.

Not even a second later, another one got conjured up, accurately zipping towards the Kapre's rear end, targeting it's sacred exit hole. While this wasn't exactly what Luna was expecting, nonetheless, it was incredibly effective, as it finally pushed the Kapre over.

The moment that it landed on the water, all the mutated sea creatures instantly attacked it.

Luna looked over to see it getting feasted on. "You're not stealing that EXP from us."

Right away, multiple stacked Lightning Clouds approached from above, landing on the water, followed by multiple chain lightnings. The EXP was shared at this time, mainly because Luna wanted to hit level 40 from these kills, and sure enough, after receiving the life force from the mutant sea creatures.

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<Congratulations on getting to level 40! You are now considered a Rank 4 evolved being!>

You have gained 40 stat points to distribute!

<Enhanced Vision> increased to rank 3

<Advanced Novice Regeneration> has now become <Intermediate Regeneration>

<Scan> can now be effective on monsters up to 15 levels higher than you!

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Seeing as his stats now had a healthy balance, Luna knew that despite Apolaki and Mayari's blessings, despite the Draconic Armor, the higher the levels went, the bigger the difference. If it weren't for these advantages he currently had, he would not have been able to match up against the Kapre at all, but if he had more strength, that means he would have actually done enough damage to wittle it down.

Thus, he appointed all 40 stat points to STR bringing his total base strength to 95.

Sura and Maxene also felt themselves grow stronger, Maxene was actually closer to 41 than the both of them, due to her constantly absorbing energy even when she wasn't fighting, with that energy being a bit faster now that she reached level 40.

The Lightning Mages were still channeling chain lightning at this point, after all, a level 50 VIT-based monster was not something even Luna could underestimate, what more them? Even Apple who was closing in at level 38 and appointed a huge majority of her points to INT, did not fully trust that her damage would be enough with just this amount of time.

They kept it going for a few minutes until Luna signaled for them to stop. A few seconds after they did, he still didn't receive a notice, which could only mean one thing.

Sure enough, a giant arm leaned on the side of the port, as the Kapre, struggling as it may be, tried to get out of the water.

Of course, Luna wouldn't give it the chance to. With their current strength, Luna, Sura, and Maxene dashed forward. Luna struck the left side of it's neck, while Maxene got the right side, Sura who was still in her 3-Heads 6-Armed Mode stabbed both it's eyes, both it's ears, and two towards it's mouth.

Lopping it's head off, the Kapre was finally slain.

Instantly everyone got the notice, people jumped in levels by a huge amount, the people like Apple who were already at level 38, instantly jumped to level 41. Luna who was already at 40, jumped to level 43 with Sura, while Maxene hit level 43.

Conquering a large territory, along with the bonus EXP from being the first <Nation> to conquer a large territory and clearing the objective brought amazing results indeed.

Luna then proceeded to check what bonuses he received after this whole ordeal.