Chapter 417

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.

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.