Stark watched in anticipation as the crimson ball flew through the air, his heart pounding in his chest. He knew that this was his last chance, his only hope of survival.
The ball seemed to hang in the air for an eternity before finally connecting with the platform.
As stated before, the crimson ball doesn't bounce at all, so the moment it hit the ground...
~DING~
[Target set, teleportation is safe!]
"GOT YOU!" Stark at this point was within range from the serpent's mouth, beginning to enter it.
And so...
~SLAM~
It closed its mouth on Stark.
For a moment, all the boy could see was darkness, and the laugher echoing from inside the serpent terrified him.
But...
~SNAP~
Instantly, faster than ever the giant snake could act, Stark teleported out of its mouth and materialized on the platform at the end of the bridge.
He didn't even take the microsecond it took him to usually adjust to his new surroundings this time: he immediately dashed toward the small hole below, and slid down.
Yet again, it didn't even take more than a single second for the apostle to realize it had been fucked for the second time, and so using all of its speed, moving instantly, almost as fast as the crimson ball, it opened its mouth and rushed toward Stark as he slid down under the hole.
"..." the timing was so close that even a delay of a tenth of a second would have resulted in Stark's body to be cut in half, or at least crushed.
But thankfully enough...
~FWISH~
He managed to slide down, and the serpent hit the wall instead.
"NO, NOT POSSSSIBLE-" the serpent was absolutely enraged, and so it assaulted the wall that protected Stark as he emerged on the other side several times.
~BAM, BAM, BAM~
Normally its sheer size and strength would be able to take out any walls, yet this one was SPECIFICALLY designed so that the apostle couldn't get out if a human ever passed the third zone.
Meaning... that Stark had won.
"You... ah, forget about it," the serpent growled as it backed away, then its body slowly descended back into the void, its piercing crimson pupils staring intently at the human, "You will die, chosssen, do not forget."
And so it disappeared from view.
~FWISH~
Silence.
There was complete silence now that the apostle was gone.
[Please do check the "Great Serpent's" square.]
"Huh?" Stark, while now standing up, clicked on the third square of the third line, which revealed the white snake.
And suddenly...
~FWISH~
....
[Name: The Great Serpent (Godless Demon Apostle)]
[Level: 820]
[Rank: Universal]
...
"Yeah...?" this seemed normal, as it was the information he had already gotten.
But... Stark noticed a new line below it all. Continue the saga at m v l e mpyr
And it was...
[The Great Serpent has a special weakness that can kill it almost instantly, look for that.]
"Oh?"
To be honest, Stark wouldn't usually believe that such a giant and powerful thing could have a hidden weakness, a weakness so powerful against it that it could kill it instantly.
But... after remembering about the many times monsters or even bosses were overwhelmed by their weaknesses... then maybe it was possible.
Let's take example of this rift and the previous one Stark went through!
The [Sniper Monkey]'s weakness was their head and close combat, killing them really fast if they were hit, the [Tongue-Claw Ambushes] on the other hand would INSTANTLY die if their tongues were hit too.
And as for the previous rift, the [Corpse Cemetery], well the weakness was obvious: all the undead in it would instantly if Stark used his [Exorcist] attack, and even [Reaper] and [Lother] were easily defeated once by an attack.
Every monster has a weakness, all you needed to do was to find and exploit it.
"...Oh well," now that Stark knew this, he put it at the back of his mind to remember and try to look for it when possible.
But now... he needed to go forward, as resting in this place forever wouldn't do anything, though it did seem to be like some kind of safe zone as no monster spawned or could reach him here.
Around him were stone walls, and all he could see what the sky above him.
And right in front of him... at the place he needed to go to... was a black fog.
Yes, this was the entrance to the boss zone, which was the fourth.
He had survived the first two zones easily, and the third almost killed him, but he couldn't forget that he still needed to beat the boss to leave.
And now you might ask, what kind of boss could be waiting in a [Determination] rift, right?
Well... only one way to find out.