Suffering considerable damage, the roach was utterly infuriated, screeching threateningly at Shye before madly crawling towards him, eager to rip him in half using its enormous and sharp mandibles.
This time, it acted smarter, crawling in a zigzag as it furiously crept toward Shye.
The roach's anger-driven yet calculated evasion tactics made it increasingly difficult for Shye to land a hit.
And with every missed spell, shards of crimson crystal plummeted into the abyss, devoured by the seemingly endless darkness below.
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This realization hindered Shye from simply casting spells without consideration. Why? Because if he destroyed every crystal growth, there would be none left for him to grasp and it would be exponentially difficult to continue his journey towards the other side.
'Tch...still three more minutes until my wings come off cooldown...'
Inevitably, the roach finally reached him, poised to tear him apart. Now, he had to not only defend himself but also cling tightly to the crystal growth he was holding onto.
'Three minutes! If I can hold on for three minutes, my situation will improve!' With gnashed teeth and unmatched determination, Shye stored the ruby-tier elemental staff back in the system's inventory, replacing it with his adamantite-tier greatsword, Adamance.
Meanwhile, the roach finally launched its first attack. Its left front leg thrust forward aggressively, attempting to seize Shye with its crystalline claw tips.
Naturally, Shye would never allow such a thing to happen.
Waiting for the right timing, Shye narrowed his eyes into slits, then, just before the crystal claws grabbed him, he leaned his right shoulder to the side, allowing him to narrowly dodge the claw.
As a bonus, he was now in a position to counterattack.
'Power Slash!'
Ferociously swinging Adamance downwards, green blood splattered across the air, devoured by the never-ending darkness along with the hideous creature's entire left frontmost claw.
Well...in reality, the claw merely dissipated back into mana long before it even had the chance to make contact with the abyss' ground.
Nonetheless, small as this triumph might be for Shye, it at least slightly impaired the Abyssal Roach's movements.
Hopefully, he could kill the darned roach without encountering any issues.
As the Abyssal Roach's elongated mandibles closed in to grasp him, Shye activated his ability, [Stoic Lv.5], to mitigate the pain. Then, with ruthless determination, he thrust his blade forcefully into the creature's forehead.
Green blood spurted from the wound, almost killing the crystalline creature in one hit.
Such a lethal blow to the brain should be enough to kill any creature, however, for some reason, it was still alive—truly living up to its reputation as a cockroach.
Still, though alive, the Abyssal Roach's legs stiffened up, causing its ceiling grip to loosen.
The next moment, the roach found itself falling down the dark chasm.
Gazing at the crystalline ceiling that had once been its home, the Abyssal Roach realized that it was too late to try and reach for its home.
It never imagined that one day, the length of its long legs would not be enough.
Everything was because of that darned human!
...Its legs would surely not be enough to reach for anything, however...the antennae in its head would!
Even facing death today, it was determined to take down the human responsible for its demise with it!
With furious determination, the roach's antennae surged upwards, encircling Shye's waist.
And since Shye was already heaving a sigh of relief in the wake of his assumed triumph, he was caught off guard, failing to cut the crystalline yet flexible antennae as it approached.
Now, they tightly bound his waist.
As high as Shye's strength attributes were, there was no way he could support his weight and that of an overgrown crystalline roach with a single arm.
Hence, the ceiling... gradually receded from his view, growing further and further away.
'I'm...falling?'