Chapter 427

Chapter 427

Much like Ajax expected it wasn’t going to be easy to land an attack on the ettin. His main objective right now was to conserve his own mana all while trying to draw blood and poison the boss. As he was running away Ajax fired two more arrows this time however he empowered one with Wind and one with Shadow mana.

The Wind arrow was much quicker but it met the same fate as the Void arrow, this time however the barrier was put up further away from the ettin’s body costing more mana to keep it active, not only that but the power of the arrow was also much higher. The impact of the Shadow arrow even managed to crack the mana shield by striking in the same spot.

“Good, come on.” Ajax smiled as he ran, he could feel it when the ettin changed from a bubble shield to a tower wall separating the two of them. “Keep following me.”

It had been a long time since Ajax had last used his [Trapping] skill, none of his most recent fights were a good fit yet the skill was part of the foundation Ajax’s entire fighting style had been built upon during his first few years of combat training with Hatchet.

Ajax knew that by continuing to fire arrows that had some mana infused into them at the ettin it would not only force the creature to keep up its shield so that he could use [Mana Syphon] on it but it would also make it less likely to look for any attacks that had no mana infused into them.

As they raced down the narrow mountain path Ajax was forced further and further on the defensive as the mage started tossing one fireball after another, the attacks didn’t have all that much mana infused into them so Ajax could almost syphon them entirely before they even reached him.

The chase ended when Ajax arrived at his prepared spot and the crude traps managed to stab two spears into the ettins legs. The traps had barely enough power to break the skin and draw blood but that was enough for them to poison the boss.

“GRRHHH” one of the heads growled as it dislodged the weapons with a swipe of its hand.

“Too late now, the poison’s already in your blood.” Ajax’s smile died on his face however when he focused his mana sense on the boss’s eye, specifically the eye he took out with his opening shot. “So you’ve got [Regeneration].” While the eye wasn’t yet fully restored he could feel the mana healing it slowly, it wasn’t the first time Ajax had come up against a creature with that skill but he hated dealing with them.

There weren’t all that many differences between a healing spell and [Regeneration], both of them healed the user and both of them cost mana to use, the big difference was that while [Regeneration] was a bit slower the entire process was internal so Ajax’s [Mana Syphon] couldn’t weaken the effects.

“Let’s see what you can do.” Ajax stored his bow and pulled out his hammer and his axe as he suddenly dashed towards the ettin.

Engaging the monster in melee combat had been inevitable, Ajax knew he simply didn’t have the power to kill it from range, despite this Ajax was very much on the back foot, his only saving grace was that the size difference between him and the boss helped him in terms of speed as much as it helped the ettin in terms of raw strength.

Despite the initial wounds closing, Ajax could see a black roadmap forming across the skin of the ettin from the initial wounds as the poison started to spread through the creature’s system.

As Ajax dashed towards the ettin once more the creature had finally stopped throwing spells at him, it had finally realized how worthless the numerous weak spells were and it instead focused on augmenting the physical attacks with magic or going for much fewer but stronger spells that [Mana Syphon] wouldn’t be able to disperse.

“The poison is working.” Arianwyn smiled as she noticed the black veins that were popping out on the boss’s legs from the initial trap.

Ajax knew he wouldn’t be able to get a large enough dose of poison into the boss that any quick acting poison would be effective. Instead he had decided to go for a paralyzing poison that got stronger over time if left untreated looking to capitalize on his speed advantage, with the ettin’s legs being sluggish Ajax was finally able to get into position and land a solid blow with his axe to the boss’s knee.

The [Mana Skin] the boss had returned to using following the trap had shattered like glass as the Magma infused swing embedded the axe into the back of the knee. The strike carried so much force that it even sent the behemoth stumbling forward on one knee.

Despite the creature’s crumbling form Ajax had overextended himself by throwing his entire weight behind his axe. The club swing was horrible to begin with, aiming for a low spot behind the wielder, falling forward had sent the swing low but it had still managed to get a glancing blow onto Ajax as the end of the club smashed into the ground beside him and it sent him flying into the side of the cliff.

Both Ajax and the boss took a moment to recover, Ajax exited the small outline his body had dented into the side of the cliff and the ettin climbed back to his feet as the squared off once again. For once the ettin didn’t roar of charge towards him.

Ajax didn’t hesitate as he felt the large amount of mana the boss was channeling and he charged. The boss tried the same trick a second time as it empowered a powerful blow aimed at sending Ajax airborne, instead of fighting it however Ajax played into it and used the blow to launch himself into the air and towards one of the boss’s heads.

The boss quickly leaned out of the way but it wasn’t far enough, Ajax may left his axe stuck in the boss’s leg but he was quick to pull out his one handed spear. As he flew by the boss’s head he faked going for the eye causing the boss to toss its head backwards trying to take the blow on the chin and instead stuck his spear into the freshly exposed neck. The strike was infused with Lightning mana and the shock was powerful enough that the ettin lost control of its muscles causing its arm to miss swatting Ajax out of the air.

With that Ajax went over the edge of the cliff, aiming for the small tree branch he knew was waiting for him before he slowly dropped down to the valley below.

“Time for round two.” Ajax said as he pulled out his boosting potion and focused on healing his body as much as he could while he waited for the boss to limp after him.