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Chapter 117- Snake Rider?
🕑 Added 2023-12-01 23:59:01 +0000 UTCIt turned out the apocalypse beast at 30% strength was still a force to be reckoned with. The fight had started off well enough. A minute after the purple orb had formed, it had expanded rapidly to encompass the space the hydra had initially fled. Only Alyssia’s warnings had kept him from attacking it. Apparently, it was a barrier equivalent to 2,000 constitution, impossible for the current him to even scratch. It was unfortunate, but you couldn’t cheese boss fights in real life.
Things started to go to shit the moment the orb started to crack. Arthur had wondered why the area within, barely visible through the hairline fractures, was so bright. He realised why a little too late. The damn hydra had filled the orb with fire. Just as he had started their fight with a shadow bomb, the hydra decided to return in kind with an explosion of its own. Except hers was far more deadly.
With a resounding crack, the orb shattered to pieces and the fire the hydra had spent the past sixty seconds filling the enclosed space with was let loose with an explosive boom. The heat reached him first and he barely managed to close his eyes before he was sent flying backwards. The flames were hot. Enough that if he wasn’t facing them at 30% strength, he would have lost his vision. The fire would’ve burnt straight through his thin eyelids and fried his pupils.
As things were, he’d compare it to a high-end restaurant stove, not that he knew how hot that was. For all he knew, it could have been nearing a thousand degrees. All he knew was that it was dangerous enough that if he stood in the inferno, he could certainly die. As he’d been blasted back, however, it meant he’d been in contact with it for half a second which was enough to burn off his eyebrows and leave his skin singed but nothing else.
Oh, and his dick was on fire. Literally.
Arthur screamed, more from shock than pain as he flew through the air, cursing whatever deodorant he’d decided to use that morning. His crown jewels were only aflame for half a second but it cemented its position as one of the most traumatising events of his life. He was so shocked he barely even realised it when he hit the ground, the once bone-breaking impact barely registering through his 698 constitution.
It was Alyssia’s laughter that made him snap out of it. She was far away from where he’d landed, which meant she’d used air magic to carry the sound of her laughter to him and let him know how funny she found his predicament, wasting ether she should've been recovering just to mock him. Arthur couldn’t find it in himself to blame her. If it had happened to someone else, he would’ve found it funny too.
Groaning, Arthur got back to his feet. "That's why you told me I smelt weird this morning. You wanted me to use deodorant knowing this would happen." He called out, knowing that she’d hear him. “Just wait. I’ll get my revenge. You’ll curse the day you met me.”
He was joking. Mostly. He couldn’t just let her get away with this and her redoubled laughter told him that it was indeed intentional. Arthur shook his head. He’d deal with the childish idiot later. Right now, he had a very angry hydra running towards him. It wasn’t very fast, but that hardly mattered when you were the size of four elephants. This was the first good look he’d actually gotten of the creature since all of its heads were awake now instead of resting in a tangled heap. He noted that three of them seemed to be missing, no doubt due to its revival at 30% strength.
Still, shouldn’t it only have two of the original seven heads? The maths doesn’t add up. Arthur shrugged, dismissing the thought. There was no point worrying about Hydra power mechanics right now. He’d have time for that later. Right now, he had one to kill.
Arthur checked his status. His health was practically full, the 300 pints of damage the hydra had done had almost fully recovered as his stored healing got to work. His ether reserves, however, weren’t looking so good. His shadow lock and healing Alyssia had left it sitting at just over a thousand points. Enough that he could deploy his domain for five minutes. He needed to stall for twenty. Arthur used it anyway.
Early into the fight, Arthur had decided to fight this creature with the intention to kill it. To do so, he needed to pile on damage as fast as possible and using his strongest skill was a no-brainer. If he failed, well, he was certain he could keep the creature entertained for the required fifteen minutes expected of him.
The air grew thick with misty vapour but didn’t affect his vision in the slightest. His domain expanded to its twenty-metre range and then the hydra was upon him. It was a slow creature. Arthur would put its agility at 100 points. Slowed down by his skill, that number dropped down to double digits, practically slow motion compared to some of the things he’d fought.
Arthur didn’t really even need the speed reduction effect of his domain. He’d summoned it for a different reason altogether. The hydra struck one of its massive heads darting forwards. It was the size of his torso and getting hit by it wasn’t on his to-do list. The hydra was a poisonous creature, and its fetid breath was already costing him some hit points. He didn’t want to learn what its saliva would do to him. With a resounding snap, its jaws clicked shut. On empty air. Arthur had taken a step back angled slightly towards his right.
What he was about to do was stupid, he knew it. That didn't stop him from following through with his plan though. Before the hydra could draw its head back, Arthur stepped forward, pivoting off his left leg, right rising rapidly to deliver his strike. Arthur kicked the hydra. A creature that weighed as much as five cars, with a head weighing well over 500 kilograms and he decided to roundhouse kick it in the face.
Arthur was honestly surprised that it did anything. Relatively speaking, he was tiny. He felt scales crunch beneath his shin, and the next moment, the overgrown lizard head was blasted to the side, directly into the path of a second that was preparing to strike him. The physics of it didn't make sense and he didn't understand stats well enough to understand why he’d ended up victorious in the exchange.
He suspected his high constitution carried most of the weight but it was just speculation on his side. Sadly, his attack, while flashy, did little to no damage. In half a second, the hydras scales were as good as new. Not for the first time, Arthur cursed his locked soul affinity. Soul mages were notorious for their high damage output, they were the ones called in to deal with hydras and their ilk when they got out of control, the few people recognised for their ability to successfully deal with apocalypse beasts.
If he had access to his, he was certain the hydra would lose their fight. Sure, it might take a few hours, but it would be done. At high enough levels, the damage done by soul mages was known to negate even a hydra's revival abilities.
There was no point crying over spilt milk though, and he'd have to work with what he had. For a brief moment, there was a lull in the battle, where the two opponents simply stared at each other, four pairs of eyes to Arthur's one. The primary head's fire breath was on to cool down but he didn’t know how long it would last. Arthur made the first move if he could even call it that. It was more of a testing strike.
Manipulating the vapour in his domain, he spent twenty points of ether on molecular water shot to strike the overgrown lizard. The results were… underwhelming. A mere trickle of blood, more of a drop really; a pinprick of damage on the huge beast. The head he’d kicked looked down at the affected zone and then stared up at Arthur, palpable disbelief apparent in its gaze. It snorted. Arthur’s eyebrows twitched. The damn lizard was mocking him.
There was nothing else for it. Arthur had one trick left up his sleeve. If this didn’t work, he’d have to call it quits and wait for Alyssia to come finish off the beast. He cancelled his domain skill. He’d only used it for twenty seconds and realised it was a waste for this fight. He didn't have enough ether to shadow lock it long enough to matter and the monster was slow enough that he didn't need the 20% speed of reduction to face it.
Poring 200 ether into his shadow bomb skill matrix, he targeted his own. At first glance, it looked like Arthur had lost his marbles, but he had a plan. Whether or not it was any good still left to be said but he had a good feeling about this. The primary hydra head looked at him cautiously and took a few steps back. It had seen first hand what that spell could do and it wasn't keen to experience it again. Arthur smirked.
The first time he’d done this, it had been insanely difficult, but he had been juggling multiple skills at the time. His second attempt at catching the physical shadows produced by his shadow trap was far easier. Five seconds later, he was left with a pool of tangible shadows about a metre wide. It was far more than he needed to fulfill his purposes, so he let half of it go and watched it explode harmlessly against the muddy ground. He had, of course, followed the hydra in wisely stepping away from the explosion.
Arthur’s shadow manipulation had been subsumed by his domain skill. That didn’t mean he suddenly lost his ability to control them, only that he no longer had a crutch to rely on. Compared to normal mages at his level, Arthur’s willpower stat was exceptional, comparable to people who’d made it their go-to attribute. Its effects were clear here, and he found the shadows relatively easy to manipulate. His first order of business was to slowly release the explosive potential contained in the remaining shadows. Holding them at bay was costing a lot of ether, and he’d run out in a minute if he didn't do anything.
This process, from the moment he'd activated the skill till now, had taken all of ten seconds and he was finally ready. Arthur was glad the hydra feared his magic enough to leave him for that amount of time to prepare. The creature's caution, however, was rapidly disappearing and he could see it building up the nerve to strike again. It didn't matter, Arthur was ready now.
The pool of shadows rushed towards him and climbed up his arms and legs, coating them in a black so dark it swallowed light. Shadows enhanced by his trap skill were always far darker than the normal stuff you’d find naturally occurring. A spike formed at the end of each of his clenched fists, about a foot long with tips as sharp as he could make them, with smaller ones farming across the edge of his outer forearm. At his elbow, he manipulated the shadows to create a curved blade that jutted outwards a few inches. A similar spectacle was being replicated across his shins. Arthur grinned.
He’d made some shadow gauntlets. Arthur knew he looked ridiculous, like some crippled mantis of one kind or the other, but he didn’t need it to look pretty. If he still had his manipulation skill, he was certain he would have gained a level or three. Looking at his status, Arthur couldn't help but laugh. The upkeep for this was so cheap he could potentially maintain it indefinitely, his regeneration recuperating the energy as it was spent. One ether every eight seconds.
Arthur was pulled back into the present when he saw the hydra's primary head open its mouth. Oh, shit! It’s gonna breathe fire. He was in an open area, with nothing to take cover behind. Arthur went to the only place the hydra couldn’t strike. He ran forward, jumping off the ground when he got into range. The beast had already demonstrated that it could set itself on fire, and to great effect too. Arthur had his eyes on a different target.
His jump launched him straight into the preparing beast’s lower jaw. Its mouth clicked shut, and the prepared flames, with no outlet to leave the creature's body, ravaged the hydra's throat. Being a creature that breathed fire, it was highly resistant to high temperatures. That didn't mean immune, though, and so the hydra suffered. Before gravity could claim him for the ground, Arthur punched the creature's reeling throat. His shadow spike pierced the creature's scales with only a hint of resistance and he did the same with his other fist to get a good grip. The monster reared back in pain, dragging Arthur with it. The strain it put on his shoulders was immense, but his high constitution made him immune to such minor g forces.
Tensing his core, Arthur swung towards his right, his left hand leaving the hydra's flesh. His momentum pushed him upwards fast enough that his right gauntlet slipped out of the monster too as he flipped sideways through the empty air above the beast.
The world spun rapidly, his perception struggling to keep up with the changing stimuli his eyes received. He didn't close his eyes though.
Arthur's heart pumped rapidly, not from fear or exertion but from excitement. He’d timed things well. His predictions hadn’t been off. With a jolting start, Arthur landed… on the hydra's head. He clenched his knees into its sides and plunged his spikes through the creature's eyes. They popped with a disgusting squelch, and his fists followed through into the monster's skull. Using its eye sockets as handlebars, Arthur held on tight as the animal screamed in agony, shaking its head in an attempt to dislodge him. It didn't work.
The fight had just begun, the hydra a minute into its second life. Arthur would ensure it didn't survive past ten.
Next Chapter- Thursday
