Left with no other option, Alex was forced to charge back into the fight with what he had already at his disposal.
His own abilities.
He grit his teeth, rolling to the side as he was forced to dodge the beast's incredibly fast claws once again.
'Fuck, that was too close!'
Alex couldn't confidently dodge until he was well out of the range of the beast's attack.
'With such tough scales, surely there has to be a weak point somewhere?'
Alex was reminded of the novels he used to read in his childhood.
The dragons in those novels that the protagonists used to face all always had one Achilles heel.
The reverse scale.
Alex momentarily thought that maybe this could be the case for this beast, but he shook off those childish thoughts instantly.
This was real life, not some fantasy novel.
'The beast's weakness has to be much more realistic, like its joints or something.'
'Wait... what about its joints?'
Alex felt like he was onto something with this train of thought, as logically, it made sense.
Creatures like this beast, which were covered from head to toe in tough, thick scales usually had softened areas near their joints so their movements weren't excessively rigid from the thick, hard scales preventing any flexible movements.
And considering Alex hadn't spotted any sort of rigid movements from the beast at all, not even once since it had emerged from the Floodgate, then it surely had to have a similar quality.
'Target it's joints!'
Considering the size difference between Alex and the beast, the only joints he could realistically aim for were its ankles.
With his strength, Alex could probably jump a kilometre straight up from the ground if he put his back into it.
But if he jumped up to try and target a joint like its elbow or shoulder, he would leave himself much more exposed to an attack.
He couldn't dodge in mid air, after all.
Alex didn't have the ability to fly, yet.
But they were still very clearly deformed.
'A few more attacks like that one, and I'll be able to make it through these absurdly tough scales.'
'Then my Phoenix flames can start to deal some real damage to the beast.'
Alex was a little unlucky with this match up, as the beast's scales were practically the perfect counter to his newly obtained Phoenix flames.
Its scales seemed to be oddly resistant to fire and heat, though it couldn't block everything Alex's special Phoenix flames threw at them.
There was still a mark left on its skin where he had attacked previously.
The beast, now aware of the threat Alex posed, swung its massive tail in retaliation.
Alex ducked, attempting to dodge the oncoming school bus sized appendage, but he was too slow.
The beast's tail slammed into Alex with a force that felt like being hit with a freight train.
He was flung across the battlefield, crashing into the ground with a bone-rattling impact.
Gritting his teeth, Alex forced himself to stand despite the pain that coursed through his body.
"Cough... Cough..."
'That's gonna take a big chunk of energy to heal.'
Alex wasn't sure exactly what had been injured on his body, but he felt pain all over.
Whole body injuries would surely be much more costly for his Phoenix flames to heal than one small injury to his shoulder.
And his assumptions were correct.
A few seconds later, he was back in peak form, but he was left with 20% less energy in his tank.
'I can't keep going on like this. I need to pierce through those scales quickly.'
The longer the battle lasted, the more urgency Alex felt to end it.
Time was ticking, and it wasn't in Alex's favour.
The beast was a Variant C rank beast, so it had a hugely higher energy capacity than Alex, even without taking its huge size into account.
But even though Alex knew where exactly he should target now, so did the beast.
It was tightly guarding both of its ankles now, so Alex was much less likely to find an opening as easily as before.