@Trov
I'm not confused about there being a health pool on his shell/barrier. I'm more wondering how his 9999 compares to other people or hits taken. We have zero frame of reference other than "He's the highest".
Is it actually a health pool so 1 point of damage makes it 9998? Or is it a durability, where X hits at Y attack power make it go down to 9998?
@Varler yeah, wrong novel, plus this is a battlefield, not a dungeon, but according to DC that's where you should pick up all your women, bonus chance to hit it off if there are bodies scattered around too.
@Riger
It's actually a reference to husk or outer skin. As long as he has it, his inner, softer body is safe. It's like HP and how you need to reduce it to 0 to get K.O. He has 9999 Endurance, so someone dealing 1 damage need to attack him 9999 times.
The hero was not wrong when he said that there was something that chipped at Rude's shell. It's because Rude has Shield of Sacrifice, a Super Super Rare skill compared to his Provocation skill, which was only Rare. It takes damage from party members and gives it to Rude. The hero never got hurt, because Rude's been taking the entire party's damage. So when the hero gets hit for 20 damage, it's Rude's hull that gets hit with 20 damage while the hero gets no damage.
In other words, the reason Rude's gaihi was damaged, was all the hero's fault.