Chapter 596 Addressing the ‘Lizard in the Room’ IV
For Greed who already had an S rank strength stat at his base, and was currently stealing Strength from the Lizard Lord's SS-, 50% of all that was a force to be reckoned with.
The kind that blasted off the arm of a Lizardman in a single strike.
What's more, any arrow that hit reduced the target's Stat Efficiency by 20%, making them unable to use 20% of their strength stat for 20 minutes.
But these Lizardmen targets did not even get to last that long under the combined onslaught of the Covetous Archers and the spirits.
The three giant Lizardmen let out Primal Roars to boost their power, and three spirits decided it was best to attack the insides of the Lizardmen's open mouths.
Amy flashed in front of one and chucked her black flame great sword construct down its throat, before flashing to the top of its head and punching it from above, forcefully snapping its mouth shut.
Kuro appeared on the monster's body through a means it could not comprehend, and tossed three balls of shining black light down into its mouth, before disappearing into the shadow of its neck.
As for Milena, she helped the third giant Lizardman to pick its teeth. With giant Frostfire spea—toothpicks. Except that she pressed them so hard that they pierced through the Lizardman's teeth and out the bottom of its jaw.
[[[Explode.]]]
The three called out simultaneously, and ensuing blasts had Eliza creating overhead barriers to prevent the flesh, bone and organ fragments from raining down on her.
Whilst that happened overhead, she infused her ether into the staff and swung it downwards, sending a Cutting Wave flying forward, carving the ground as it went on to split three of the smaller Lizardmen in two.
It reached the Lizard Lord who was behind them, but Bhak easily coated its arm in aura and swiped the attack away with the back of its palm.
However, what came right behind it was a flower cannon beam, the kind of attack that could not be swiped away with its palm.
Bhak stomped its foot on the ground and generated a dozen layers of 50cm thick earthen walls to block it, but the concentrated beam of power tore through them all with ease.
It jumped into the air and summoned more Lizardmen Minions, summoning a giant Lizardman in the air. This one opened its mouth and was about to roar, but Kayla's fist of lightning blocked and punched its forehead so hard, that its brain could not even process a scream of pain.
What followed was a slap that sent its body hurtling towards the edge of the Boss Room, slamming into the wall and imprinting itself there, long enough for the scissors to come in and snip its head off its neck.
Bhak's expression was a sight to behold as even it did not expect that a level 300 monster would die so easily.
[Inferno Aura.]
Its body was suddenly enveloped in a blazing aura of fire, with its physical attack and flame elemental attack power amplified. What's more, just being near it dealt continuous fire damage to you. n(-O-(V.-e--l/-b.(1)-n
The energy burst from it sent Milena who had come in with an array of fist-sized icy projectiles, even so, she still managed to launch them faster than Evan's blade cannons.
Too bad they melted after getting within a 30-metre radius of the Lizard Lord.
Gravity pulled Bhak back to the ground, but the Lizardman didn't have any plans of staying there for long.
[Pyroclasmic Leap!]
With the activation of another skill, Bhak executed a powerful leap through the air, creating a seismic shock that spread out omnidirectionally upon landing in the centre of the room.
[Summon Torrential Flood.]
The ground cracked open and erupted in a wave of molten lava that surged towards its opponents with unbridled intensity.
Eliza slammed the Memoria into the ground and spawned a multi-layered barrier to block the flood of lava, but when it started melting the four layers, the girl could not help but begin to doubt the strength of her barriers.
'Rather than my barrier being weak, isn't it this guy's attack that's just too strong?'
Indeed, that was the case. Bhak was momentarily surprised that she could block the lava, but its hands were moving to encase its spear in a mass of darkness-attributed aura, read to send a 'Dark Lance of the Abyss' her way.
[?!]
But at the last moment, its senses alerted it of danger and it switched up its grip on the spear, from the hold required for a thrust, to that of a slash.
It spun around and swung downwards, meeting the Upward arcing slash that came from our resident hero who just 'materialised' behind it.
"You noticed that?"
Bhak tuned up its flame aura to try and engulf Evan, but the boy only retracted the flames on his sword and activated another unique skill.
"Harbinger of Ice."
**BOOOM!
Evan's body surged with an icy aura that matched Bhak's Inferno Aura in intensity, and the Lizardman was caught off guard for a second, but in the next, there was a bright red four-ringed magic circle spinning around in front of Evan's face.
[Flame N-]
"Ice Nova."
[-ova.]
The boy's spell activation was faster, the initial flash of light blinding the Lizardman's eyes momentarily, keeping it in place for the ensuing icy wave to surge over it.
Luckily for it, Bhak did not cancel its spell so its body was not encased in ice like Evan had planned.
The two Nova Magic spells clashed with each other in a loud earth-shaking explosion, with clouds of hot steam filling the air right after.
"You're not the only one who knows Nova Magic, Lizard."
Bhak's pupils darted to the side as he heard that, activating Scalebound ward in the direction the sound came from, but Evan blinked to the other side and attacked it with five consecutive slashes of golden ice.
Each one was preceded by five fist-sized aura bullets of the same energy.
The Lizard Lord quickly repositioned the barrier, but not fast enough to prevent the first two from coming through, so it had to block with its spear.
The bullets covered its spear in patches of ice, but it just flared up its inferno aura and broke them, spinning around to dodge Evan's thrust before swinging down to block Pride's slash.
Another exchange Bhak did not want began, and the Lizard Lord quickly thought of a way out.
'Summon Household: Lizardman Assassin.'
Only one Lizardman was summoned, one who had a better concealment than Evan, armour-piercing abilities, and an array of stealthy abilities that allowed it to blend seamlessly with the environment, such that even Pride did not notice any changes in her surroundings.
Until the Lizardman's short sword encased in dark green poison pierced through her back and burst out of her stomach, that is.
"?!"
[Finally!]
Bhak spun around and used both its spear and tail to slam into the shocked demon's body, knocking her into the air and towards the Boss Room walls.
But right after it did that, the flat side of Mammonas' blade bashed into the side of its head and sent it hurtling in the same direction as it had sent the demon.
A giant red avatar of energy emerged from the steam clouds right after, swinging down its massive great sword towards the airborne Lizard Lord with flames and lightning crackling around it.
[Summon Household!]
Bhak summoned the giant Lizardman from its household, but Greed's avatar's great sword sliced through the Level 350 beast like it was a knife going through butter.
[Dark Lance of the Abyss!!]
It had no choice but to use one of its strongest and most straining techniques on it, sending the spear of darkness flying towards the great sword and eventually destroying it.
But the Avatar still had its two hands left.
One fist came in from the right and punched its body into the wall of the Boss Room. The second one punched it in there, and then the two fists alternated in pummelling the Lizardman's body.
Whilst engulfed in flames and lightning, of course.
"Life Energy Draining Prison."
Eliza decided to add to the mix, sucking a huge chunk of its life energy whilst applying numerous debuffs on the monster with her Life ice.
Bhak instinctively felt the threat to its life from the prison of light encasing it, and though Greed paused pummelling the Lizardman, it was only to give way for Kayla, Amy, Kuro and Milena to unleash a four elemental spirit combo on it.
'Flame Breath!'
Its maw opened it breathed out a devastating cone of searing flames, burning the energy prison it was in and causing the Spirit's Combo attack to blow up mid-air.
It turned its head around to make sure the flames spread in all directions, and just when it sensed the spirits moving further away, Evan appeared beside it and spoke.
"So, you wanna play with fire?"
[?!]
"Hope you're ready to get burned?"
***BOOOOMMMM!!!!!
A huge explosion of prismatic flames that blasted apart a section of the Boss Room's wall rang out, with the entire floor of the dungeon and even some higher floors trembling heavily.
Mesarthim burned through scales, and the flesh underneath, engulfing Bhak's whole body and forcing the Lizard Lord to turn its Inferno Aura to 'maximum overdrive', barely being able to cancel the flames that dealt damage based on its maximum Health stat.
"How did you say it before again? 'There's more where that came from'."