143 - Fifteen Minutes

Surprisingly, my poison domain reached the dragon first. The shaping process was pretty intuitive and fast. Considering how much mana I was pumping into the spell, it damn well better be. I kept an eye on the debuff icons provided by the archive, waiting to see how long it would take for another stack to be added to the pile. The rate at which the stacks would increase was pretty crucial, since if it took too long, I would need to pump even more MP into the spell to increase the rate. The dragon didn’t want to let me figure things out calmly, though, since it was ready to bite me in half. A last-second teleport let me escape, and I reappeared just behind the dragon, watching it sail past my previous position while I frantically repositioned my domain.

The stacks would deteriorate pretty fast while the dragon was out of the domain, so I needed to make sure it was inside as much as possible. It must have sensed me now being behind it, and instead of turning around like a normal dragon would, it somehow inverted itself. The whole process looked creepy as all hell, but I suppose that was an advantage of having a body that was made up of tons of tiny organisms. It swiped its claws toward me, and parts of its body detached in the form of energy blades. 

I managed to dodge the blades without teleporting by twisting my body in a way only boneless creatures could, and retaliated with a void rend. I’d sent it right down the middle, causing the dragon's head to explode. It didn’t care all that much, since the head was essentially just decoration, formed out of habit. The head got reshaped almost immediately, even before the dead cells had dropped to the ground. It didn’t stop there, though, and around twenty spikes shot out of its head without detaching. All they did was hit empty air since I had already teleported further back. Since I was still facing the same direction, I only needed to adjust the length of my domain to keep the dragon inside. 

The fact that the poison stacks hadn’t ticked up yet was making me sweat. The whole exchange had happened within twenty seconds, so things weren’t terrible yet, but I really needed to see another stack, and soon. The dragon saw me appear ahead of it and kept charging, the spikes getting properly assimilated again, only for the head to explode once more due to a void rend. I followed up with a barrage of void javelins and lasers in an attempt to slow the damn thing down, but its unique constitution made it so that it barely got hindered by losing thirty percent of its body mass.

I couldn’t help but be impressed at how fast it could reconstitute itself, the little organisms practically boiling outward to replace what was lost. This thing had essentially infinite HP, not factoring in that it all hinged upon a core that could be destroyed. I kept up the barrage, but it eventually smarted up and split into four projectiles to avoid my spells, coming at me with increased speed. Just before I teleported once again, the poison domain finally did its job and added a stack of both regular and deadly poison. 

The stacks were immediately lost, the two seconds of it not being in the domain being enough to remove the extra stack, but five seconds later, they got added back. It would seem that there was a sort of hidden timer or something that even degraded the progress to a stack after it was lost, which was good, since I didn’t have to wait another thirty seconds to recover the lost stack. I started implementing void jumps into my tactic after a bit of experimentation. 

As it turned out, I could extend the domain through the portal, which, if done properly, could drastically cut down the time the dragon spent outside of the domain. It added a level of difficulty, though, since there was yet another thing I needed to keep track of and coordinate amidst the already hectic and unforgiving battle. Still, it was worth it. I needed to squeeze out every tiny bit of advantage I could, or I’d find myself on the losing end once my mana ran out. It helped that, compared to void teleport, void jump barely cost me any void mana. This did come with the downside of not being an instant teleport, though, which led to a few dicey situations over the next three minutes of frantic battle. 

I watched the stacks tick over to double digits with immense happiness, dodging an attack immediately after. My poison was “only” of the tenth tier, which was incredibly potent against monsters around my tier, but against a tier twelve monster, the effect was greatly reduced. That was, considering that I stuck to the system-approved two stacks. Now that I was allowed to go above and beyond the stack limit, it was only a question of time until the poison started to properly take effect. And then, after that, it might even become deadly.

I didn’t know how things scaled, exactly, but surely there would come a point where even my lower-tiered poison would become an issue if I stacked it high enough.

Easier said than done, I thought as I had to emergency teleport once again as the dragon shifted into the form of a giant net and tried to engulf me. It still hadn’t quite realized that I was teleporting, instead of moving fast, which worked out to my advantage. A couple more minutes passed as we followed the same song and dance. The dragon did its best to catch me, while I kept up a constant barrage of spells while desperately keeping the dragon within my domain. 

I’d lost a few more stacks due to bad positioning, but eventually, I managed to pile on twenty stacks, which was when I finally noticed a change. A few, tiny black spots appeared within the icy blue of the dragon, a slow trickle of organisms constantly sloughing away from the main mass. It was barely noticeable, but I was reinvigorated, finally seeing some tangible effect of my desperate battle. I wasn’t the only one who noticed the change, as the dragon roared angrier than ever before and redoubled its efforts. If before, I was an annoying fly that was potentially responsible for its relocation, now it was personal.

The shift in effort was immediately noticeable as it grew an extra two heads, each spewing forth one of the deadly ice balls it liked using. I panicked a little, hastily retreating through my prepared portal. The three balls eventually hit some buildings, the effect amplified by each other, and a larger than usual area froze, producing an even bigger icicle to sprout. Forget being hit, being anywhere near that would probably freeze me instantly! The battlefield was littered with the smaller spikes by now, and I could tell that the temperature was dropping. It wasn’t much of an issue, thanks to my dear little symbiotes, but if things continued like this, I might be in trouble.

I somewhat doubted that my symbiotes could protect me from the cold produced by a tier twelve monster forever.

I kept up my efforts, happily noting that each time a poison stack got added, the black spots in the dragon either got bigger or some new ones got added. Seeing progress really motivated me, but the more my poison stuck, the more agitated the dragon became, pulling out some previously unused skills from its repertoire. Unused, and much more destructive.

When I hit twenty-five stacks, the dragon suddenly stopped chasing me around, instead dropping to the ground, flattening three buildings in the process. I was wary of what it was doing, even more so when it grew additional limbs whose only purpose seemed to be anchoring it down. I switched priorities from a mindless barrage to cutting off the extra appendages, but achieved little since it could just regrow the damn things almost instantly. I teleported a few hundred meters away from the dragon, as far as I dared to go while still barely managing to keep it in my domain.

Once the anchor limbs had been deployed, the telltale glow of a skill started creeping up its tail. It continued, slowly illuminating the dragon's entire body, eventually reaching the head that was pointed straight at me. A sudden premonition of death and destruction flashed through my head, and I immediately teleported as far away and behind it as I could while still keeping it within sight. I momentarily gave up on keeping it within the domain, happy to lose some stacks in exchange for living to tell the tale.

In a similar fashion to my own void laser spell, the dragon unleashed a bright blue laser. First, at the location I had been moments before, then sweeping it across a large area, shifting its head to bring destruction all around it. The laser lasted an impressive ten seconds, and wherever it touched, things froze instantly, exploding into icy shrapnel shortly after. I couldn’t help but be amazed by the degree of destruction the dragon managed to wreak with a single skill, wondering what I could do when I reached the same tier.

Though there was no way that wasn’t its trump card, which most likely came with a hefty cooldown. Barring any more surprises, I felt that I should be able to win, provided I managed not to get hit by anything. My teleport ability was my biggest advantage here; without it, I would have perished approximately three seconds into the fight. Both my MP and VMP pools were declining rapidly, though, and since about ten minutes had passed by now, they were getting closer to running out than I was comfortable with. Judging that I had just lost some stacks and the effect so far was negligible, I needed something more.

I still thought that the poison stacks were my best bet, but they simply didn’t stack fast enough. Not seeing the point in hesitating, even though it felt like a bit of a waste, I used the remaining four skill level buys in the shop on poison domain. It was only a B-tier skill, and considering that the shop would have let me level even EX-tier skills, it was a massively wasted opportunity for such a limited resource. Still, even if I used it to level up void rend, what would be the point? Sure, it would become more destructive, and I would be able to cast it faster with less mental strain, but ultimately, it wouldn’t bring me victory against the dragon.

What I needed was more poison stacks, and I needed them fast.

As soon as the ice laser stopped, I teleported back to the dragon, cursing when I realized I had lost a full six stacks in the twelve seconds I’d been away. The poison domain expanded once again, and I noticed the difference immediately. I could manipulate it more easily and faster, and I could feel a definitive improvement in efficiency. Deciding to go all in, I even increased the amount of mana I pumped into the skill, cutting my remaining time even shorter. It was concerning how fast my mana was ticking down, but with the added levels and fuel, adding another stack of poison was significantly faster.

The frantic pace didn’t relent, and I had to continuously dodge away from ice balls, limb spears, energy projectiles, smaller copies of the dragon, breath attacks, regular claw swipes, and the occasional net meant to trap me. At this point, I rarely had more than a few seconds before I needed to teleport or void jump again, making my VMP drain away scarily fast. I had to increasingly rely on void jump, or my VMP would run out long before my regular MP did. 

It was an extremely stressful situation, but the poison stacks kept coming, and once the thirtieth stack got added, a qualitative change appeared. All at once, the increasing dark spots in the dragon grew considerably and even started slowly expanding. It would appear that I finally had enough poison stacks to counteract the dragon's ludicrous recovery ability. By now, the poisoned spots were all over it, and every second, a huge amount of the crystalline organisms fell off.

Eventually, I had to completely switch to using void jump since my VMP was getting dangerously low, my MP being close to getting into the danger zone as well. Not having the instant teleport available meant I needed to recast it as soon as I exited the last portal, sometimes having to dodge a projectile that followed me through. I cheered as the poison caused an entire arm to fall off the dragon that didn’t regenerate as the poison kept burrowing further into its body. I cursed as this only caused it to redouble its efforts once again. 

Shortly after, its tail was the next to go, and apparently, this was the last straw for it. It once again crashed to the ground, stumbling a bit since it was missing an arm and a tail, giving me the heebie-jeebies as I remembered the ice laser it used last time. Surely it wasn’t off cooldown already?

Much to my relief, no extra limbs started growing to stabilize it, which meant this had to be something different. I started sweating when the entire dragon lit up like a Christmas tree, even brighter than when it used the laser. Something big was coming!

I quickly weighed my options, but looking at the pitiful state of my mana reserves, I really couldn’t afford to lose another round of stacks due to leaving it alone for a while. I readied an expensive instant teleport and kept a watchful eye on the dragon, ready to react immediately. I was so focused that it almost felt like time slowed down as I waited for the skill to activate, but at most, it took five seconds until all hell broke loose.

First, a loud snap could be heard, even through my sealed ears. The dragon's body had frozen solid in an instant. The dark poison spots were still there, but their progress had been halted. I was already cursing the damn thing since this was a waste of time. Time I didn’t have. But that wasn’t the end of the skill, far from it. With the frozen dragon as the epicenter, a massive blizzard started up, covering a huge area within seconds. The inside of the blizzard wasn’t just unnaturally cold, but a strong wind blew around razor-sharp icicles every which way.

That was a life-saving skill if I’d ever seen one. I had the dragon on the ropes! But all the same, I was out of time. Judging by my reserves, I had barely a minute left before I was out of juice, and I had no idea how long this blizzard would go on. Thankfully, the cold wasn’t too bad thanks to the symbiotes, but I could feel the icy bite of the cold trying to invade my body. At the same time, the blizzard was battering my ice-attuned shield, accelerating the depletion of my MP. I was on more than one timer, and all of them were rapidly running out while I searched for a solution.

My last hope presented itself shortly after, as I was flying directly above the frozen dragon. The dark spots of poison had corrupted all of the legs to a significant degree, one leg and the tail having fallen off, even. There were dark spots in the main body as well, with the head being the only place that wasn’t affected. The dragon was frozen solid, so the core wouldn’t be able to shift in that state, and, if I were the core trying to stay safe, there was a clear spot that was the safest.

Praying to my lucky stars, I started unloading spells onto the head. The frozen state induced by the skill gave the dragon a pretty strong defence, but I was still able to chip away parts with every rend, every laser, every javelin. I was desperately casting spell after spell, slowly dismantling the head, acutely aware of the fact that I was about to run out of MP. The moment my shield would fall, I had at most a second or two before the blizzard would drain my HP. 

Then, all of a sudden, a massive crack ran through the middle of the dragon. More cracks started appearing, and for a split second, I feared that I had failed. But a system message appeared before me, letting me know that the fight was over. The dragon started falling apart, and with my last vestiges of energy, I teleported once again, out of the blizzard that was still raging. I plopped down on a random roof, my vision dominated by the white storm. I was exhausted, both mentally and physically. 

Yet, I couldn’t help but smile as I fell unconscious.