There was an explosion, and The Abnormal stubbled back.
Several more explosions followed as Lanner used up all his wands.
I could have kissed the gnome right then. Good job!
My armor and body protested as I ran. As the monster turned its head, I circled it, exposing Lanner to attack. I attacked the monster's side.
"SOUL STRIKE!"
I aimed for a weakened point in the monster's armor after I put everything into the thrust. Several more wand blasts stunned the monster, forcing it to use its bladed legs nearest to me to keep its balance.
My blade struck the monster's armored dark green carapace. There was a moment of resistance, and then my blade went deep into its body.
It let out a scream.
My entire soul was shaking with the monster's own. I felt like it was going to rip out of my body. I stumbled backwards, pulling my sword free. The monster stumbled away from me, equally damaged.
Blood poured out of my mouth, and my eyes had bled heavily. My vision had gone blurry.
I could make out green ichor pouring out of the wound I had given the monster as it struggled to stay on its bladed feet.
Lanner let out a shout and was rushing at the Abnormal with his little pointed stick. Stupid gnome!
I tried to shout to tell him no, but only blood shot out of my mouth. The monster recovered enough and turned its head towards Lanner, who drove his pointed fencing sword into one of the monster's eyes.
The monster's head twisted around. Half of its scissor mouth that was still intact struck Lanner, who took a vicious cut across his face and chest and went tumbling away. His blade, stuck in the monster's head as a green ichor dripped out from the ruined eye around the pointed blade.
I forced myself to move, reaching into my spatial pouch, pulling out Mana potion. I popped off the cork with one thumb and downed it. There was no time for a second.
Ozy had recovered enough Mana to use a single spell skill. He used Petrifying Gaze.
The monster froze up for a moment as I forced myself to run forward once more, sword in hand.
"Lightning Burst! Vibration Blade!"
My first spell skill struck Lanner's blade in the monster's head. This time the monster locked up, and I swung.
I severed another bladed leg, reducing the monster's legs to four. I took another swing, and the third leg was severed.
The spell skill ended, and I retreated. At that moment, I was feeling Mana exhaustion. It would take much longer to recover my reserves after this fight than normal. The monster collapsed to the ground.
Reaching into my spatial pouch, I pulled out a healing potion and used that as well. The monster was struggling to move. Now that the monster was disabled, I rushed over to Lanner.
He was bleeding heavily, but still conscious though barely. I pulled out another healing potion and poured it into his mouth.
"Swallow," I told him.
He swallowed. He shouldn't die now.
My Danger Sense flared. I spun and blocked as the monster forced itself to leaped through the air towards us.
I brought up my sword and blocked its blow. Attacking with its missing limbs, the monster couldn't advance or jump while fighting, but if I moved, Lanner would be killed.
Retreating would be the smart thing to exhaust the monster, but I would not let my teammate die.
I didn't know who was screaming, me or the Abnormal as we continued to exchange blows.
Ozy had moved in. He had been biting down on the monster, but I didn't have the mental bandwidth to focus on him.
Lanner slowly crawled away as I continued to protect him. I could finally step back as well. Ozy retreated off the monster. He had left behind many more punctures on the Abnormal as it continued to bleed out.
I was breathing heavily as my sword hung limply in my hand. There were several chips in the blade. Thankfully, it had a self-repair enchantment. After this, my armor was going to be difficult to repair.
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The monster tried to stand, but it had lost the muscles needed to jump because of Ozy. The creature lived, yet couldn't move.
I pulled out another healing potion and took it. I went over to Lanner and gave him another one as well. While they were important supplies, now wasn't the time to be stingy. Fixing up wounds as quickly as possible would avoid scarring.
I didn't take another Mana potion though. There was no need. The monster slowly bled out. My Danger Sense had decreased as the monster continued to struggle. I debated what to do with the monster.
It definitely had a green core. It was over level 150. If it had been more intelligent, it wouldn't have lost this fight. It would have simply slammed into me with its large body. However, its instincts made it use its bladed body parts, while its strongest aspect was its armored body.
Smashing into me and then carving me up would have been the correct decision. Well, it had tried that, but I had blocked its attempts.
As the monster was breathing its last breaths, I gave a nod, and Ozy flew in. I would let him consume the core of the Abnormal. Perhaps it would also benefit him, like the core of the demon.
As for the rest of the monster, my equipment wasn't good enough for a monster of this caliber. And after removing and consuming the monster core, its body parts would weaken anyway.
Abnormals didn't have extra value for their body parts that I knew of, beyond being at a higher level. My ignorance of Demons led me to process its corpse. But I couldn't care less about this bug monster.
I was too tired; the fight had been way too tough.
Ozy slithered over slowly after consuming the Abnormal's core from inside its chest cavity. He was also completely exhausted, but he did not pass out like he had after consuming the demon core.
Lanner was slowly sitting up and poking at his chest and face where he had been cut.
"Still alive?" I asked him.
"Yes," he said nervously, like he wasn't sure. "That…I almost died."
"Yes. Yes, we did. That was a tough fight."
I hadn't had a fight like that since the last Abnormal I had faced.
These things were the true adventurer killers in the dungeon. "We are resting for a minimum of five days."
"Five days?"
"Yes. I overdrew my Mana. I have Mana exhaustion, and Ozy isn't much better. It will take far longer to fully recover, but the worst of it should pass by then."
I made my way to the edge of the chamber with no monster corpses.
The rest of my team dragged their way over as well. I pulled off my armor before passing out. I could rest and lightly sleep with it on, but with the damage, bent metal, I wanted it off before sleeping.
My soul was still shaking, but thankfully it had calmed down. I pulled out Lanner's pack and my pack as well, which I kept a lot of odds and ends in . I wanted to use Clean, but it was better to avoid any spell skills. If I used one, it would only prolong the time I needed to recover.
I got out water for both of us. I was too tired to prepare any food. That could happen tomorrow.
I put on a simple robe and laid down with my head resting on my pack. A light blanket covered me. Lanner was the same. Despite lying down and closing my eyes, I couldn't easily sleep.
That fight had been intense. Beyond intense. Even against the demon, I hadn't felt that kind of pressure. Sure, the fight had been dangerous, but it had been stronger than me and couldn't handle trading blows like the Abnormal could.
While the demon was smarter and more powerful, it was a less capable melee fighter and was concerned about getting hurt. The Abnormal had been relentless even in the face of overwhelming damage.
As I lay there, everything hurt. While the wounds had closed, there was still lingering pain, and my body had pushed itself beyond its limits. The Soul Strike on a more powerful monster hadn't helped either.
I could feel the dried blood on my face. Thankfully, my vision had recovered. I wasn't about to lose my eyesight or keep coughing up blood.
While the attack might not have done much to the monster on a physical level, it had hampered it. The monster was hurt more than I was. That was the one thing helping me keep up with it in our last exchange.
The fight kept replaying repeatedly in my head.
I slept for just under 12 hours when I finally woke up. Having a sense of time was quite handy.
"Clean. Clean."
I cleaned off Lanner as well while he slept. Ozy opened one red eye to look at me and let out a light hiss. Everything was sore.
Checking my reserves, I saw they were all in the double digits except my Mana, which had dropped to single digits after using Clean twice. Everything was exhausted, not just my Mana. I had dug out every bit of stamina that I had. My healing was also exhausted.
Getting up, I made my way away from our temporary campsite and relieved myself. The corpse of the Abnormal was breaking apart. With no Mana core and not being Alchemically preserved, its body was crumbling away.
After returning, I got to work, getting out a cook set to make a meal. Lanner woke up as the stew simmered.
"Morning," he mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.
"A late morning. We slept for about 12 hours."
"That long?"
"Yes. We were both exhausted after that fight."
"Oh, thanks for cleaning things."
"I probably shouldn't have, but I couldn't help myself. We are staying here for several days. I need to rest for a while after that fight and work on patching up my clothing and armor."
"Yeah. My armor…it did little."
"That monster's blade legs resisted my weapon. A tier 3 weapon with a tier 4 skill on it. It's a minor miracle that the monster didn't cut you in half. Rushing at a monster with your pointy stick… really, Lanner?" I scolded him in a light tone.
"It seemed like a good idea," he replied with a small pout.
"Well, you are incredibly brave. Also, foolish. You are lucky I have potions with me. Without them, we would both be dead for sure."
"Thank you for that."
"A team sticks together."
If they remained a team. Once a team broke apart, it was everyone for themselves. But until that point, sticking together and having each other's backs was important.
Even if Lanner had been an idiot, I had done similar things. Thankfully, he survived and would learn from the experience. His skills would improve and next time he would be stronger, better, and more capable.
My mind went to the knowledge I had gained from the beastkin. If there was an Abnormal, there was probably a natural treasure of the dungeon nearby. I had Ozy figure out the tunnel the monster had come from, and I had a guess as well. I was going to get that natural treasure; hopefully, it was a soul fruit.