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MAZE - Chapter 1083 - Training Day
🕑 Added 2025-07-09 13:00:15 +0000 UTC"Again," Insomniac said, and Hera got back on their feet, her body to the side and facing the man.
They had been practicing for a couple of hours already. And the debuff caused by the [All-In] skill was almost over. She commanded her court to come out once more, summoning every single member to participate in this exercise.
Over the course of the last few hours, Insomniac had been trying to help Hera understand her shortcomings. More specifically, he was trying to change her view. She kept feeling like she was missing a powerful finishing move. But according to the man, the problem wasn't just the lack of a skill or spell to act as the final strike.
Another big part of the problem was the fact that while Hera and her court were able to work together better than most people would be, they were still acting as different people attacking the same target. They were not behaving as a single cohesive unit. And that, according to the strongest man in the MAZE, was what was holding her back the most.
Still, Hera wasn't getting it. So instead, he explained it to her in a different way to help her see things as he was seeing.
The Ophidianite and her court were a pack of wolves. Working together to exploit every weakness of their opponents. However, they were still a pack. Various beings working side by side. This was fine for any one team. But Hera wasn't a team. She was a single person, and the legacy was a part of her.
She had to behave not like a pack. But as a hand. Every movement flowing effortlessly to follow one another. Every strike part of a single thing that was being made by the entire court all at once.
Hera's attacks, and the court's, always followed the same pattern. They would try to overwhelm their opponents and, in doing so, would create openings for bigger attacks. Which was fine, it was the type of thing that an experienced fighter would always do.
But a masterful warrior wouldn't just force their opponents to make mistakes in order to create openings. They would lure their enemies into a false sense of security, making them go for wider moves, letting them get cocky, careless. In turn, this would make them show more openings themselves without Hera having to do a thing. She would control the pace of battle effortlessly if she mastered that ability.
And while that was something that one individual would struggle to achieve. It was one of the biggest benefits of Hera's legacy. She didn't have to control the battle on her own. But then it came the issue. All the court members would need to be acting in a way to create openings for each other.
That required a much deeper sense of awareness, not just of oneself but also of the other members of the court, who were all swinging in battle.
Hera was great at understanding the position of her court and what they were doing. But she wasn't very good at capitalizing on that. If one of her court members was able to parry a blow and leave an opening, they would have the same court member try to counterattack. When instead, they should have another blade who was close by jumping for the finishing move. And that wasn't going to be just a benefit of general combat style, but also the actual finishing move that he wanted to teach the Empress.
This would come in the form of a pair of skills. The first was called [Opening Exploit ]. And it was something very self-explanatory. If the person who had the skill took advantage of an opening to strike an enemy, the damage would increase.
It was very simple and very expected considering the type of the name of the skill. The different effect was that the skill considered who created the opening. If it was a mistake by the target, then the extra damage would be good, but not amazing.
On the other hand, if it was created by Hera herself, things would be very different. The damage could go as far as tripling depending on how big of an opening was created. And in that scenario, even minor attacks could become finishing moves.
But that wasn't going to be all. Insomniac also had one more skill to teach the Empress. It was called [Wide Open]. And just like the [Grasshopper] series of attacks, this functioned very much like an attachment. Something that could be added to any other move in her repertoire.
By itself, the attack was already somewhat powerful, not as strong as the [Grasshopper] skills, but powerful enough to do some damage. But the real power behind that skill came if the user was able to hit an opening. In that case, the damage would be at the very least three times as high as it would be with the [Grasshopper] attacks.
And adding that to the passive, that increased even more the damage that someone would take in an opening, caused the compound effect that could really function as a finishing move for the Empress. Especially since creating openings wasn't as difficult as one might think. Not against monsters, at least.
The only time when skills like that could become a problem would be when Hera was fighting a person. But according to Insomniac, even beings who lived in dungeons had their tells and the lack of flexibility that a truly intelligent enemy would have.
Hera and her court jumped into action once more. They were all trying to attack Insomniac, more specifically to force him to create an opening. His level was much higher than the Empress, and he also had a couple of skills that increased his defenses, meaning that most of the attacks Hera was delivering couldn't even harm him. But that wasn't the point.
The point was for her to force him into giving a chance for the Ophidianite do a proper attack. Even if the damage in the end wasn't really relevant, just by forcing that opening to be created would already help a lot.
As a matter of fact, Insomniac knew that if the Empress was able to create an opening without him holding back, she would get this skill. At the very least, one of them. Maybe even both at once. He had done something similar in the past when he was a few levels lower, and back then he already was aware that the difference in strength between the two fighters mattered a lot when acquiring the skill.
The big problem was just in how this happened. First up, he couldn't be holding back, and if he gave an opening on purpose, the skill wouldn't be acquired by the Empress. Second was the type of opening that Hera had to create.
She couldn't simply have her court holding down his limbs in order to hit the side of his stomach or something like that. He had to be free to move around, and only then would the hit count for the particular result they hoped.
Hera jumped towards Insomniac again, a hand ax and a sword in hand. Clay was moving right beside her as they had agreed that they both should be the ones trying to go for the opening. Even if they were not entirely sure that by having one of the court members hit the man, Hera would also get the skills.
Everybody else launched into an attack on Insomniac, leaving Vulcan trying to bury his weapon to get him off balance while Filigree worked on restricting his movements enough to make moving around an issue, but not so much so that it would stop him from fighting completely.
Nimbus had placed a few mana barriers around the fighter's sword, hoping that they would slow the weapon down just enough to cause some issues. Lurize was also joining to take Insomniac out of balance, but instead of using his weapon to fight, he was going for a tackle.
Shadow had teleported behind the man hoping to get him over the shoulder while all the other blades were going from different angles of attack. It was probably impossible to block all those attacks at once. And Hera, aside from the two weapons in her hand, also had Pyro attached to her tail. Ready to strike at a moment's notice if everything else failed.
Crimson and Viper were also around, but instead of actively participating in the fight, they were waiting for a chance to strike. They were positive that, thanks to the memory filter armor, Insomniac didn't even remember their presence.
However, everybody was aware that their attack was the least likely to have a good result. After all, even if they were hitting an opening, it was likely that, due to the fact that they were both assassins and took advantage of the assassin skills that Hera had, they wouldn't get the skill. It was more likely that they would [Sneak Attack] instead of [Wide Open] or the [Opening Exploit] skill that they were hoping for. But even then, they were not going to not join in the fight.
Yet despite all the preparation, all their attempts, Insomniac didn't really have to use any skills to defend against this attack. He waved his sword using the pommel to parry a couple of the blades, the long part of the sword to parry a few others, and the tip to threaten Vulcan and Lurize. It was enough that they were not able to continue their attack.
Using the momentum from Livy, he also shoved her towards Nimbus and the twins. Who, despite not being directly in front of him, were in his mind's eye. That left the only ones to continue the attack should be Hera and Clay.
The chain whip tried going for a snake bite attack over Insomniac's shoulder and trying to reach him from the back, but the man simply stepped to the side and spun, shifting the entire weight of his body. It was a movement that was both extremely quick but also so gentle that it almost felt like he was barely moving.
Still, Hera saw an opportunity to hit the man just as he spun around since that left the side of his body open. Even though she felt like that could be a trap, there wasn't really anything else she could do aside from giving up the attack entirely. The sword and the ax went for a pincer strike from two different angles that should not be possible for the man to block.
Yet, Insomniac shifted his knee to hit Hera's hand before she could reach his body, blocking the hand axe. At the same time, he pulled back his sword in another quick motion to defend against her own venomous sword. And he pulled his attackers to the side, causing her to fall forward.
But the Empress wasn't done. She also had Pyro ready to strike on her tail, and with a quick jab aimed at the side of his body, she tried to hit him.
That wasn't something that was outside of Insomniac's expectations. He was already moving out of the way before the Empress's attack even started. However, just then the debuff caused by the [All-In] skill finally ran out. Increasing Hera's attributes once more, pushing them all back into the regular values.
The increase was not insignificant. And thanks to it, her tail moved fast enough to overcome the difference in speed as Insomniac was not expecting the sudden movement. That finally allowed the Empress to land a hit in an opening created by the relentless assault on the strongest person in the MAZE.
The tail spike struck the target, causing the man to take a step back. It was still far from being an attack that could damage him. But it was enough to push him ever so slightly. More importantly, it was enough for the Empress to get her skill.
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Opening Exploit - Rank 1
Increases the damage caused by attacks when the attacks hit openings given by your target.
If the opening was intentionally created by the own of the skill, the damage will increase.
The bigger the opening, the bigger the damage bonus will be.
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Wide Open - Rank 1
This skill increases the power of an attack by 20%.
That value is increased to 100% if the attack strikes an opening given by the enemy.
The damage is increased by another 300% if the opening was intentionally created by the wielder of the skill.
Base mana cost: 1% of maximum mana
For every 1% extra of mana spent, the power of the attack will increase by another 5%
The skill can only utilize up to 23% of maximum mana.
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The Empress opened a big smile when she read the description of the skills, and by what Insomniac was saying, it was likely that the effect was not a simple addition. Meaning that if she used the [Wide Open] skill, [Opening Exploit] would increase its power exponentially.
Insomniac seemed to notice her lack of interest in the fight and assumed, correctly, that the Empress managed to get the skill.
"Was it everything you were hoping for?"
Hera just smiled and nodded.
"Yeah. Like, if I'm being honest, I was hoping for a more direct skill. Like one big powerful move, but this works even better."
Insomniac smiled.
"I figured it would. Big, powerful moves are good, don't get me wrong, but I find that versatility ends up being better in the long run. And since you're already very focused on that part, I thought it was better to just lean into it."
Insomniac didn't need an explanation to understand what had just happened. He knew that the Empress was under a debuff and assumed correctly that it had run out. But since he was so used to the way she was fighting before, he wasn't expecting the sudden increase in speed.
It was a funny situation, but one that worked in their favor. And while he was somewhat considering if he truly was not paying attention enough, the man quickly dismissed those thoughts. The fact was that he understood that this really wasn't a dangerous fight. And because of that, he was more willing to be more casual about the entire thing.
"So, now that the debuff is gone, do you still want to see if you can destroy the cave in one shot?" Insomniac asked with a smile.
Hera nodded.
"I do. But do you mind showing me one of your biggest skills too? Either in the cave if mine doesn't work, or just in any of the mountains nearby?"
The man looked around, just checking if there wasn't anything too dangerous nearby, and nodded.
"Sure. After you. I'm not entirely sure if there is going to be much left after your attack."
The Empress opened a big smile and started walking towards the cave where the dungeon boss was located. It was hard not to act like a kid who was seeing their idol for the first time when she was going to have an up close and personal demonstration from the strongest person in the MAZE.
