Re-Awakening: I Became a Pay To Win Boss Monster

[Zafira's POV]

She brought her sword upward, parrying an attack and dashing backward.

The opponent in front of her wasn't just strong, he was easily one of the strongest she'd ever faced.

"What's your name?" Zafira asked, twirling her sword and wiping the trickle of blood from her mouth.

"Donovan," the man replied, steadying his sword. "Though you might know me by the more formal title. The first Grandmaster swordsman."

"Ooh... yeah, that makes more sense," Zafira remarked with a sigh. "I was wondering why I couldn't land a hit on you."

Donovan shrugged. "It's impressive you were able to keep up with my attacks, even if I wasn't using aura."

"Well, neither have I," Zafira replied with a faint smirk, causing Donovan's eyes to widen.

"You can wield aura? Are you a Master swordsman?" Donovan asked, amused. "Here I thought there were only a handful... who knew a ruler such as yourself could reach this height."

Yet despite his quick conclusion, Zafira shook her head and focused on her sword, then infused it with aura.

[Aura -10,000! | 24,500/34,500 (x1 Colorless Aura Manipulation: Aura Selection)]

—

<Choose your aura affinity!>

<Light / Darkness / Fire / Sound / Chaos>

—

She could use most of the affinities, but these five were her favorite ones. Sound was a new addition after she saw how effective Rael's weapon was.

But despite that, if she wanted to win this fight, she had to use the one affinity that was a double-edged sword.

—

<Chaos Aura Affinity>

1. Imbue your body/weapon with Chaos. Bypasses any and all defenses. Wounds inflicted by chaos can't heal. Extreme sharpness.

2. Constantly take damage while wielding the Chaos affinity. Base rate of 4% HP per second.

3. The more you use the Chaos affinity, the less in tune you will be with the other affinities. Current Chaos compatibility: 44% → 49%

—

She chose the Chaos affinity despite the compatibility. It wasn't like this was her first time using it.

Immediately, her sword lit up in a pale purple light, and that was when Donovan's jaw dropped.

"Y-You're also a grandmaster swordsman? How?"

"It's simple, really," Zafira chuckled. "I trained a lot, unlocked aura. Got even more aura, and then it just came to me."

But she decided to cut the chatter short. After all, even if she was a grandmaster swordsman, Donovan was more experienced and powerful. His aura was likely higher too.

She took a quick peek at her stats, making sure everything was in order.

—

Name: Zafira Sutekh, The Colorless Goddess

Age: 18

Race: Human

Boss Variation: The Colorless Goddess [General Class]

Level: 276

Experience: 53,455/804,367

Chaos Compatibility: 44% → 49%

•—Balance: 1,932,003,448 Trell—•

•—Stats—•

Health Points (HP): [482M / 521M]

Mana Points (MP): [35.3M / 35.3M]

Aura: [24,500 / 34,500]

Strength: 66,535 (+33,560)

Agility: 82,511 (+33,560)

Constitution: 602,500 (+51,330)

Intelligence: 99,424 (+31,396)

Wisdom: 55,366 (+29,449)

Aura: 34,500

Charisma: 185,500

•—Skills—•

Colorless Goddess Transformation: [Level Null] (Divine)

Colorless Aura Manipulation: [Level 204] (Legendary)

Sword Dance: [Level 100 | MAX] (Mythic)

Void Step: [Level 100 | MAX] (Legendary)

<Expand [+482 Skills]>

—

Her Colorless Goddess boss variation gave her a drastic boost to each stat, and it made it more effective than what was shown in the status screen. Coupled with the stats she got from the armor Rael made for her, her stats were pretty high.

And of course, with stats came the skills. The Colorless Goddess gave Zafira a skill once per month for the last 15 years.

While some skills were good, the majority were garbage.

Even so, she activated Void Step.

[MP -1,000,000 | 34.3M / 35.3M (x1 Void Step)]

It was a skill that closed the distance between her and her enemy. And the range? Limitless. As long as she could see them, she could appear behind them.

And that was exactly what happened.

Zafira vanished, then reappeared before Donovan, her sword heading straight for his neck.

As it was about to land, Donovan ducked, then slashed his sword in an arc, trying to cut her arm off.

But she reacted in time by raising her sword and activating one of her favorite skills.

[MP -15,000,000 | 19.3M / 35.3M (x1 Sword Dance)]

Immediately, the time around her froze.

She couldn't move, but that didn't matter. The skill didn't require her to.

The Sword Dance skill had a total of 9 attacks. And in this frozen time realm, she had to select which areas those 9 attacks hit.

She chose 6 attacks toward the neck, 1 at the heart, 1 to the abdomen, and the last one, as a courtesy to Rael's weird fighting style, to the crotch.

Time resumed, and the moment it did, her eyes turned white. Then, like a flash of lightning, her body moved on its own, slashing her sword as if she was dancing.

Donovan was surprised at her speed and power, to the point where she managed to push him back to the city wall.

The buildings lining the road were reduced to rubble, and she could even see some innocent civilians lying around, lifeless.

Anger boiled within her at that sight as she finished the last 3 attacks.

Her sword missed the heart, grazed the abdomen, and lastly...

—SNIP

The last attack was the most successful of them all.

But as her skill ended and she thought she had won, Donovan's body grew in size, and without wasting even a second, he banged his head against his sword.

She was puzzled for a moment, but then she fell to her knees, her head dizzy.

[HP -92M! | 390M/521M]

Huh? A sound attack...?

But once she realized what had truly happened, her brows furrowed.

Donovan banged his head against the sword and sent out a wave of aura. Since his aura was much superior to hers, he managed to overwhelm her.

That was the problem with fighting swordsmen who had more aura, when it came down to it, power beat skill.

Donovan swung his sword down. With all the strength she could muster, Zafira raised her sword, redirecting the attack, and using the force behind it to launch herself back.

Of course, Donovan was a grandmaster for a reason, so he followed up right away. And as it seemed like the sword was about to mortally wound her, time slowed down.

The world turned gray and colorless. Yet Zafira's hair lit up in a monochrome of colors.

This was her ultimate skill.

[MP -19.3M | 0 / 35.3M (x1 Colorless Goddess Transformation)]