Chapter 693 - A Hard Fight

"This is going to be troublesome." Alex squinted his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Looking at their weapon, the Minotaur will fight me in close combat while that Lich will support him with its Dark Element. On the other hand, the Dark Elf would try to assassinate me the moment I leave my back open."

"It's really hard to fight, especially considering their strength could be higher than Ryuu. If only I can see their power…" Alex clicked his tongue as he saw the boundless energy reside in their body. The amount of energy was similar to those in the 9-Star Martial Monarch, like the Centaur. However, they should be troublesome and had some hidden power like the Centaur's extraordinary strength, Alex thought.

The three creatures didn't let him think any longer and attacked him. The Minotaur appeared in front of him, showing the speed at the same level as him. Meanwhile, the Dark Elf shot him with her arrow to give cover fire.

Alex looked at the last monster who was gathering all Dark Energy around him. The situation was dangerous, especially for him, making him wonder whether Ryuu would be able to solve an assault like this.

"Pure Fire." Having no choice other than fighting with his full strength, he utilized his Pure Fire and Dragon Aura. He leaped toward the Minotaur while avoiding the arrow before slashing his weapons right in front of the Minotaur.

The Minotaur was not a pushover and swung its club toward him. Unfortunately, Alex already had preparation and summoned all the chains and Space Plates to stop his movement for even a split second.

"Heaven Light Slash." Alex combined the attacks with his Space Cut and Triple Draws, summoning twelve attacks. He was sure that was enough for the Minotaur until he saw a Dark Aura coming from beneath its feet.

"Dark Claw!"

"Moo! Grand Slam." The Minotaur also struck Alex.

A few dark spikes came out of the ground and destroyed half of Alex's attacks before the Minotaur shattered the other half. It didn't stop there as the swing forced Alex to summon his Space Plates and Phoenix Aura. Luckily, its strength was a little bit weaker than the Minotaur, so these two techniques were enough to block the attack, albeit the force still blew him away.

The Dark Elf didn't let this chance slip and appeared not far beside Alex and released her arrows.

"Flame of Extinction." Alex also used his attack and shattered the arrow. Luckily, there was a big difference between her element and Alex's Pure Fire, allowing him to survive from this arrow's assault.

The Minotaur advanced once again and struck Alex with its giant club.

Alex glanced at the Dark Elf and the Lich first before he smirked. The Minotaur club was easy to dodge, but the problem would be if the Lich helped the Minotaur once again. Hence, Alex swung his sword and spear simultaneously, but in different directions.

The first one was toward the Minotaur while the other one was toward the Lich.

"Mythical Fire Slash!"

The Lich saw these three Mythical Fire Slashes and felt the Three Space Cuts. He put his hand on the ground and created the spikes earlier, but formed multiple layers to make sure it had enough strength to block Alex's attack. Unfortunately, the Lich underestimated Alex's strength, or maybe overestimated himself.

Those several layers of Dark Wall were not enough to stop Alex's attacks. It kept advancing until everything was broken, and the Lich unleashed a dark attack from his hand. The clash created a shock wave that somehow got dampened by the Space Element around.

Meanwhile, the other attacks from Alex were shattered by the Minotaur. Alex already predicted that his attacks would be like this and struck once more at the Minotaur's weapon.

"Heaven Light Slash!"

Obviously, Alex was still losing in terms of strength as the Minotaur blew him away.

Seeing this, the Dark Elf drew her arrow and shot Alex.

Little did they know that this was within Alex's calculation. After seeing how her arrow got easily destroyed by a single attack, Alex realized there was a big difference in strength between these three creatures. No, he would say there was a big gap in their specialization.

The Minotaur and Centaur had an unbelievable strength that would be troublesome if they fought together. Meanwhile, the Dark Elf had very little presence and made a little sound when moving, making her hard to track. Alex didn't care about this as he locked the Dark Elf by using his Spirit Eyes. As long as he knew her position, her power wasn't that powerful as the Minotaur and Centaur. On the other hand, the Lich's techniques were mostly for support purposes. It wasn't packed with strength. If it wanted to create a powerful skill, the Lich needed time like how the first time he blocked Alex's attack.

Knowing all of their characteristics in the first exchange, Alex formulated a new plan in his head and made sure he could kill one of them in the next exchange. At the very least, he had experienced how it felt to fight with the Centaur, giving him an image of what he needed to do. And his first target was one of the weakest but the most important role, the Lich.

As soon as he was blown away, Alex created hundreds of Firebirds. He wished he had mastered Sherry's technique and turned them all into swords to create a stronger attack, but he had no time to regret it. He sent all of those Firebirds toward the Lich. Meanwhile, he created a few Space Plates in front of him to block the arrow from the Dark Elf.

Seeing this condition, the Minotaur suddenly appeared right in front of the Lich and blocked all of the Firebirds with its giant body.

"Moo!"

"Boom Boom!"

Alex rained them down with his Firebirds without mercy. When it was over, the Minotaur was almost charred black, but his energy was still strong. At this moment, it was easy to see that the Minotaur only got physical injuries.

"What a tough monster," Alex complained before smirking. "Though, I can simply change my target. I will show you the advantage of having two elements."

Little did they know that one of the Firebirds had yet to explode, and it carried Alex's Space Mark. He realized soon after that he could actually use this technique despite the explanation of Space Mark telling him he could only create a mark in living beings. It turned out that the explanation itself was wrong. What it meant by living beings were the ones that were created from the real world, not Space World. This was why a single Space Element user couldn't use it.

This underestimated technique was elevated once more to the point Aileen wanted to learn it. This was a variant but not a variant because the Firebirds were like living beings for him. However, Aileen thought that he could actually make a Space Imprint on their weapons or arrows and teleported. Alex still had yet to master this technique due to the limited time, along with the trial and error process. It wasn't like Aileen didn't practice for years to create a single variant of her Space Technique.

Hence, Alex could barely imprint a Space Mark on a single bird. But that was enough for him because, at this time, he could utilize it by teleporting right behind the Lich and Minotaur.

"Die." As soon as he appeared, he slashed his weapons at the Lich and Minotaur. "Mythical Fire Slash."

The Sword Waves appeared again. The Lich and the Minotaur realized that their positions were aligned. If the Sword Waves killed the Lich, it would immediately fly to the Minotaur. They shifted their bodies, trying to avoid, if not destroy Alex's attacks. But…

"I'm sorry, but I can't have you move!" Alex raised his hands and summoned chains and Space Plates to bind them.

"Moo!" The Minotaur roared as he used every ounce of his strength to move his body. Knowing that he couldn't save the Lich, he jumped to the side in order to save his life.

The Lich was struggling for his life as he summoned another wall to block these attacks. Albeit, it was already hard for him to fend half of Alex's attacks, let alone this full-power attack.

The Sword Waves cut the Dark Walls and finally sent the Lich's head flying. The skeleton body immediately lost its energy and fell to the ground while the head still had some energy. Meanwhile, the Sword Waves continued its way toward the escaping Minotaur.

"Boom!" The Minotaur was a bit too late because of the surprise attack and decided to sacrifice one of its arms to escape. He grabbed his club from the other hand and jumped toward Alex.

Alex furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting the Minotaur to attack him right after. "No! He wants to help the Lich!"

He instantly realized the Lich was still alive when he saw the Energy on the Lich's skull and leaped toward the Lich.

He and the Minotaur slashed their weapons at the same time with the Lich's skull right under them. Alex used his Dragon Aura and Spirit Step to increase his strength and stomped the skull. However, before he could do so, the Minotaur kicked the Lich's skull toward the Dark Elf, asking her to take care of him.

Alex didn't let it happen and created Space Plates to stop the head mid-air and let it fall down. The Dark Elf then released her arrow toward Alex, which once again was blocked by his few Space Plates, albeit this time the arrow was a little different. The arrow exploded and released a dark cloud.

"A smokescreen?" He snorted as he could see everything with his Spirit Eyes. He summoned a few chains to bind the Dark Elves and sent one Firebird equipped with his Space Mark.

Seeing Alex wanted to kill the Lich, the Minotaur utilized his strength once more. "Grand Slam!"

If the Minotaur had two hands, Alex might be scared, but he only had one hand. The Minotaur couldn't push him even if he used all of his strength. Suddenly, Alex felt pain in his abdomen before he realized the Minotaur actually kicked him and blew him away. The Minotaur then ran toward the Dark Elf to help the Lich creating his body again.

Alex, of course, didn't let them do so. The Firebird that he sent earlier finally reached the Lich. "Space Mark. Activate!"

He, who was blown away, appeared once again above the Lich's skull. In front of him was the bound Dark Elf, and behind him was the raging Minotaur. Even so, Alex stomped the Lich's Skull and shattered it into pieces before sending many Firebirds toward the Minotaur to slow him down as he made his way toward the Dark Elf.

But stopping the raging bull was easier said than done. The Minotaur still charged at him with full speed without caring for the injury he got from the Firebirds. Albeit, that raging head missed a single Firebird, and it cost him his life. As soon as that particular Firebird arrived, Alex teleported behind the bull and slashed his weapons.

"Mythical Fire Slash!"

The Minotaur was taken aback by this attack and quickly swung his club backward without looking, albeit the strength wasn't comparable to Alex's twelve Sword Waves. It split the bull into half and disappeared.

Alex then looked at the Dark Elf. She stretched her hand toward the Minotaur and the Lich as if she was sad. She glanced at Alex for a few seconds before creating an arrow in her hand.

At first glance, she looked like she wanted to fight to the last breath, so Alex raised his weapons, but…

*Stab—!*

She used that arrow to pierce her own heart and died. Before falling to the ground, she looked at Alex mysteriously and disappeared.

Meanwhile, Alex fell on his butt and let out a sigh of relief. "That was hard. How can there be such terrible creatures like that in Illusion?! The difficulty was far too different than the other floors."