Chapter 417

Ajax P.O.V.

The worm was coming for me faster than I had expected. This meant that it would find it hard to change its strike area, the lack of limbs also meant that once I was out of the way of its charge I shouldn’t have to worry about its physical attacks. 

Right as I prepared to jump off to my right I felt my [Danger Sense] flare for a moment so I changed the angle of my jump and launched myself to the right and high above the ground. The decision turned out to be the correct one as the moment I jumped the worm opened its massive maw and managed to turn right to follow me by munching on the ground, the only reason it didn’t barrel into me was that I was above it. 

Just because it missed a direct collision didn’t mean it didn’t land an attack. Flame jests much hotter than before rushed out of the worm's side in my direction, thankfully the creature's magical potential was low enough that between [Mana Syphon], my enchantments and a small coating of ice around me I fully mitigated the fire. 

This wasn’t an opportunity I was willing to give up however and I used a small blast of air to send myself towards the worm’s body as it passed under me while preparing a Void mana infused strike with my hammer.

Like always the moment my hammer made contact with the worm’s scales it killed my entire momentum without any obvious effects, the surprise came a moment later when the worm’s body jolted slightly during its charge.

“RRRRRGGGGHHHHH” The monster took about thirty feet to stop its momentum before it turned and roared at me. Oddly enough this didn’t seem to be a roar of pain, like I had experienced many times following my Void attacks, it seemed like I had just made it angry.

“Don’t bother with Void.” the prince’s voice came from afar. “Even if it bypasses the scales all you’ll hit is a dense layer of muscle.” 

That’s when I realized it, the worm’s internal organs were all deep inside in the center of the massive tube of meat, the amount of mana I would need to infuse into Void to bypass all the muscle and scales would be enormous, more than that with the size of the organs even hitting its brain once might not be enough to outright kill it since Void didn’t actually bolster the strength of my attack.

The worm was charging at me again, for all its defensive ability it was very much a one trick pony. This time I launched myself upwards towards the left side only for the worm to open its maw, eat a chunk of the ground and pass right under me again. This time I infused my axe with Metal mana as I launched myself through the flame jets to land a blow on its scales.

Unlike my previous attack there was a clear action and reaction at the moment of impact. I could feel tremors coming up my arm as well as see how the scale cracked slightly. As the worm slowed down to a stop again it didn’t seem all that impressed by my attack. For the first time in a long time it seemed like my axe, hammer and sword wouldn’t be viable. 

It was times like this that I congratulated myself for so diligently training with my spear despite my preference for the shorter reach weapons. This was clearly going to be a battle of attrition whether i like it or not, the extra foot or so of reach the two handed spear would give me wouldn’t be as impactful as the amount of mana I would save by using a shield so I swapped my weapons for the trusty commoner combination. 

On the worm's third charge I didn’t bother with right or left and simply jumped straight up, this turned out to be a mistake as [Danger Sense] started humming the moment my legs extended. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why that was as I could see the worm already rising the tail end of its body, more than that it didn’t have to slow down at all since it wasn’t using its mouth to turn. I had to channel a big blast of air through my shield to move myself out of the way, limiting the impact to a glancing blow on my shield that sent me flying to one side. 

This wasn’t good, I was already down a third of my mana and I had barely managed to do any damage to this thing, the only upside I could see was that the worm didn’t seem to have any other option than tiring me out, I would need to make the most out of every strike.

Without waiting I took out my enhancing potion out of my storage space and chugged it all as the worm charged for me once again. I jumped out of the way to the left once again. As the worm rushed by beneath me slowing down slightly as its now open maw gnawed on the rocky surface my opportunity to strike came.

With the longer reach of the spear I had more options, I infused it with Lightning mana and this time I aimed my spear for one of the opening the worm was using to launch its flame. The tip of the spear went about eight inches deep before I even felt any resistance, the thickness of the scales was more than a little surprising. Once it bit into the flesh however it discharged a powerful current but, it was half as strong as the one created by my opening arrow but it seemed to be just as effective since it was administered directly to the flesh and past the scales of the mini boss.

While the damage the lightning did was good, more impressive was the damage the worm did to itself. The sudden jolt of lightning caused its body to spasm mid charge, with its maw already digging slightly into the rock the uncoordinated movements sent its entire head crashing into the ground and the rest of its body launched upwards from the sudden stop. 

This wasn’t an opportunity I was going to let slip. Not only was the worm’s maw stuck underground but it had also only stopped ten feet or so from me so I dashed straight for it and stuck my spear through another of the openings in the creature's scales. This time my attack was infused with Ice mana. 

“RRRRRRGGGGGEEEEE” THe worm’s screech this time seemed to be one of agonizing pain. I wasn’t sure if that was because of how effective Ice mana was against it or just because of how much it hated the cold.

I managed to get two more stabs in with Ice mana in the same area before the worm dug itself out of the ground and I was forced to back away once more. The mini bosses’ next charge was a lot slower, maybe half as fast as the previous ones were, not only that but its head was no longer close to the ground but lifted about two feet off the ground. Despite its simple attacks the creature was clearly somewhat intelligent as it realized the damage potential of my lightning and altered its pattern to something that wouldn’t leave it so exposed to it

With the speed of its charge reduced and the head no longer being close to the ground however I had no more issues dodging directly to the left or right of the creature. The next five charges I alternated between Lightning and Ice, it was clear from the marks on the worms body that Ice was much more effective as the scales surrounding the point where I had stabbed it three time were scraped off in the subsequent charges leaving an open section of mangled flesh that was started to bleed more and more as the ice thawed from the flame jets.

The only issue remaining was that despite the damage I was doing the mini boss would still most likely outlast me. The creature had over eighty levels on me and as I dodged it’s latest charge I made sure to time my attack to land in the already wounded area. I needed to focus my attacks and break through the wall of muscles in one spot so I could go for the kill. 

Two charges later and the entire area was now frozen solid. I briefly swapped over to my hammer for its next charge and augmenting it with Magma mana I scraped broke away chunks a large two feet wide section of flesh about one foot deep.

Seemingly sensing the danger the worm didn’t charge towards me again, it instead raised its head like a snake and opened its maw wide, [Danger Sense] flared stronger than ever before and [Sense Mana] let me know exactly what it was trying to do. 

I kneeled down and curled myself into as small a ball as I could manage behind my shield. Not only that but I also infused the shield with Ice mana while using Earth mana to bring up the rock around me. I couldn’t see it but I felt it when the worm spit a massive column on fire directly on top of me. I was casting spells with Ice and Wind to prop up my shield while also focusing my [Mana Syphon] to take as much power away from the attack. 

The attack seemed to go on forever, by the time it ended it felt like a few minutes had gone by even if I knew it couldn’t have been more than twenty seconds. The small patch of blacked rock I now stood on was surrounded by a small two feet wide moat of magma and I was forced to toss my shield to one side as the rock I had brought up to shield myself also melted as now covered my shield.

I could feel the burns on my arms and legs, the only upside seemed to be that the attack had taken a lot out of the worm as well. As he came for me once more I couldn’t even call what it was doing a charge, more of a dash in my direction. My problem was that I only had about five hundred mana left, casting continuously with three spells at the same time had eaten up a large chunk of my mana.

I wasn’t ready to give up yet however. I would put everything I had into this last attack. I held nothing back as I used [Empowering Restriction] to not only boost the power of my [Mana Augmentation] by limiting it to only one more use in the next week but I also limited myself to only using my Ice affinity for the same amount of time.

Without my shield available I swapped out my hammer for my two handed spear, getting out of the way of the monsters attack was comparatively easy as I pushed four hundred and fifty mana into my spear lunging straight for the open gash that left a long trail of blood. 

[Empowering Restriction] had definitely earned its name, I felt the ice affinity gem in my gauntlet not just crack but shatter as the mana I pushed through it was imbued into the tip of my spear. Once the tip made contact I felt a chilly breeze as a wall of ice seemed to explode from the point of impact.

Unlike my previous attacks I didn’t have the strength to pull back the spear after the attack, despite the relatively slow speed the worm moved at I was thrown off my feet and to one side as my spear remained stuck in the side of the creature. 

The last thing I saw before my vision went black were the prince’s boots, a soft ringing in my ears not letting me hear anything, my consciousness faded before I knew the outcome of the fight.