Chapter 30: Class Awakening Quest 4
Pyro charged in next, with its body igniting as it unleashed a storm of barraging flaming projectiles that rained down like meteors. The embers exploded on impact, setting two stalkers on fire and forcing the pack to scatter. One screamed as its tendrils caught fire, flailing widely.
I dropped into the ravine, using the chaos to my possible advantage. A stalker lunged from the msit with tendrils whipping toward my face. I parried with my left dagger, the bone blade slicing through the creature like it was mere paper. Black shadowy mist ooze sprayed and I wasted no time and countered with my right, stabbing into its flank. The dagger absorbed the hit, glowing brighter as I yanked it free and spun to face another.
This one was faster, dodging my initial slash and countering with a bite. I blocked with both daggers crossed defensively, the force jarred on my arms as exhaustion began to set in.
"Cryo..." I shouted.
From the side, Cryo hured a spear like instrument, made of solid ice and sent towards the creature, impaling it through the side and pinning it to a sturdy rock nearby. It writhed in pain and thrashed here and there but it was frozen in place and I finished it with a dual thrust— my left dagger to the throat region and the right straight into the heart. The blades drank deep, then their surface veined with Anti-arcane energy seeping through it and into my body.
In a matter of seconds, we wiped out a majority of the pack and the last three stalkers regrouped, know fully well they were outmatched.
Cryo erected a wall of ice between the last three creatures and where I stood, blocking their initial attack, their tendrils cracked against it, shards flying every which way. Pyro retaliated, channeling a counter wave of flames that burst through the barrier, turning it into superheated steam that scalded the stalkers, weakening their shadowy forms.
I vaulted over the melting ice with my daggers raised, and landed in their midst, unleashing a flurry of strikes to my left, right, a slash, a thrust, parry and riposte. One fell to a decapitating blow from my left blade, its head dissolving mid air. Another took a piercing stab to the chest from the right, its core shattering on impact.
The last one tried to run, but I hurled my left dagger like a throwing knife and it struck it at the back. The creature staggered and I immediately closed the distance, reclaiming the blade with a twist that finished it off.
The entire space immediately fell quiet as the mist settled. My arms burned from the exertion and the gash on my left arm throbbed in pain. I straightened and scanned for more threats but their were non.
Then suddenly, an overwhelming aura surged through my body like a riptide. The dungeons core energy was pulling me, and it was stronger now, like a heartbeat echoing through the ground.
Then—
Ding!
~Time Remaining: 10:00~
Ten minutes.
"Damn it!" I growled while wiping blood from my blades.
Wed cleared the minions, but the boss monster awaited even deeper in the dungeon. Id have to push harder than to beat it before the time collapsed.
It didn’t take long for me to find the final boss of the gate, it was a massive Shadow creature with glowing eyes and monstrous claws.
It was going to be a test of endurance, strength and intelligence. My heart pounded as I stood before the final with its massive form towering over me.
The beast was a terrifying amalgamation of muscle, thick shadowy fur and scales streaked with Anti-arcane energy, coupled with glowing eyes that burned with an unnatural intensity.
Its claws were sharp enough to carve through stone, and every step it took shook the ground beneath my feet.
I clenched my blade tightly, feeling the weight of the battle ahead, "This is it," I thought. "If I can take this thing in less than nine minutes, I’ll prove I’m ready for anything."
The beast let out a deafening roar, and the sound reverberated through the dungeons territory like a shockwave.
Without wasting anymore time, it lunged forward, its claws slicing through the air with malicious intent.
I barely managed to dodge, rolling to the side as the claws gouged deep trenches into the ground where I had stood moments before.
I quickly sprang to my feet, then retaliated with a blast of fire from Pyro’s position, the flames roared to life and engulfed the beast’s arm.
But it shrugged off the attack as if it were nothing, swiping at me again with terrifying speed. I managed to raise a shield of spatial energy with my Space Manipulation skill just in time to block the strike, but the force of the blow sent me skidding backwards.
I had to rely on my agility to stay ahead of the beast’s attack, darting around the battlefield and landing precise counter strikes whenever I saw an opening.
I unleashed a barrage of elemental attacks from my pets who were stationed at a safe distance; fireballs, ice shards infused with the advanced fighting techniques I had mastered.
My pets were ordered to keep a safe distance because I didn’t know what would happen if they were to be killed in battle.
The beast roared in frustration as each attack chipped away at its defenses, but it showed no signs of slowing down.
The battle ragged on, each exchange of blows pushed me to my very limits. The beast unleashed a powerful roar, and waves of Anti-arcane energy rippled out from its body, tearing though the battlefield.
Use my Space Manipulation skill, I was able to warp in and out of different rift pocket to avoid the brunt of the attack, but the sheer power of it left me winded.
I gritted my teeth, refusing to back down. Summoning all my strength, I launched myself at the beast, my bone white blades glowing with black fire. Then with a powerful slash, I struck the beast across the chest, leaving a deep, smoking wound.
The beast howled in pain, stumbling back, but it wasn’t defeated just yet. Summoning its remaining strength, the beast charged at me with reckless abandon with its claws glowing with anti-arcane magic.
I met its charge head-on, using my Space Manipulation ability to teleport behind it at the very last moment. I created a rift in the air, pulling the beast partially into another spacial rift. It thrashed widely, trying to escape, but I pushed my Arcane reserves to its limit, expanding the rift until the beast was fully consumed.
The battlefield immediately fell silent and I collapsed to the ground gasping for breath as I could feel my arcane energy dwindle.
Sweat dropped down my face, and my limbs trembled from exhaustion. "Its’ over," I thought as relief washed over me.
I turned to the already active system interface and the timer was at a low, four minutes left to complete the task.
But something was wrong, I had defeated the boss monster but the timer was still on its jolly way counting down.
"What?"
Just that instant, a thought flashed in my head and my body jerked as a corresponding system message popped across my peripheral view.
Ding!
~Warning: weight limit for the spacial rift has been compromised~
"Tch! I almost forgot, the space doesn’t allow for anything that weighs more than I do..."
I opened the rift immediately and it felt like something had been awaken from the dead. My eyes widened in shock as a massive Shadow creature loomed over me, emerging from the depths of the glass like rift aperture, it was unlike anything I had ever encountered.
It was a serpentine abomination with multiple glowing crimson eyes, black scaled armor and an aura of pure malice.
Ding!
~Spacial rift has been relieved of compromise~
~Time Remaining: 3:44~
So this is the true essence of the dungeon’s boss. The form it took earlier was fake and deceitful, now it looked and felt stronger, oozing a strange aura of killing intent unlike anything I have ever seen before.
The creature’s body twisted as its shadows writhded and I steadied myself, tightening my grip even as my lungs felt heavy under the pressure of it new form.
My instincts screamed at me to strike first, to end the battle before it could gather more power or running out of time.
But then I felt something, something different. A sudden, suffocating aura pressing down on me as if it was heavier than the air itself, almost as if the world around us had been shackled. My chest tightened, and for a heartbeat, I thought my senses were betraying me. That was when the systems’s chme rang in my head.
Ding!
~Warning: Dungeon boss has activated Soul Manifestation~
My blood immediately ran cold as my thoughts stumbled over themselves.