The first physical blow that hit Kaizen was certainly a powerful one. He started the fight with 810 HP, and watched as his health bar dropped to 560 HP after a single hit.
The Estheno Gorgon was definitely one of the most powerful creatures he had ever faced in Rise Online. However, as we know Psyker well, he was not the least bit intimidated by this, but rather excited, as facing powerful enemies was his favorite thing to do in this game.
So when he got up from the rubble of the statues beneath his feet, he was even more excited than before.
Since he still had double the amount of attribute points from the <Giant's Lungs> skill, he looked like a hungry cheetah as he ran to where he was before.
Kaizen knew that he couldn't look directly at the Gorgon, at least not without something to protect himself, so he created a four-sided barrier around himself as he ran. That way, even if this creature came at him by surprise, it wouldn't turn him to stone, and even a surprise attack from it couldn't hurt him.
All said and done, as Kaizen ran back to where he had fought before, Esteno appeared in the middle of the road, taking him by surprise. Swinging her tail violently in the air, she projected her body forward and tried once again to cast her magical gaze at her enemy. It was useless, because once again the look had no effect. Once again, Esteno was surprised, certain that this time she had caught Kaizen off guard.
The Psyker smiled at her at that moment, and it annoyed her to no end.
Instinctively, the Gorgon dived to the ground, spun around, and flicked her tail in Kaizen's direction. This time, however, the player was more than ready for it.
Her tail slammed into the <Telekinesis> barrier and once again tasted the power of that mighty invisible barrier, instantly being pushed back harder than before. The Gorgon felt as if her tail had hit a very strong rubber that not only withstood the blow, but also caused her tail to recoil.
At that moment, Kaizen saw a window of opportunity open before her eyes, and in battles like this, there were few moments when such an opportunity would arise.
Steno's thick, long tail came back, and for milliseconds that tail was motionless due to the inertia of the impact. Basically, this meant that Kaizen had a golden opportunity in front of him, an opportunity to not only attack, but to capture.
Kaizen then closed his eyes as quickly as he could, and instead of deactivating the <Telekinesis> barrier and then forming his energy to grab the Gorgon, he made the wise decision to twist the barrier itself to trap the creature.
Since this barrier was only large enough to protect Kaizen, it was certainly not large enough to trap the Gorgon in a cage, and it would take at least a few seconds for it to grow a bit.
With that in mind, Kaizen removed the barrier from around him and, immersed in the deep black world he entered when he closed his eyes, used all four parts of the square barrier to wrap around the Gorgon's tail like he was wrapping a turkey for Christmas. Somehow, even with his eyes closed, he could feel where the pieces of the barrier were, and he could feel what they touched. So he was able to do exactly what he wanted to do.
All of this happened in a fraction of a second, and before Esteno could think to react, she saw her tail immediately enveloped by the same barrier she had just hit. This left her in shock, and the startled expression on her face was at odds with the aggressive behavior of the snakes that formed her hair.
"Kshaaaaaa!" She instinctively roared in another desperate attempt to intimidate the psyker.
The choleric sound, however, was the signal to the player that what he longed for had worked.
"Now is the time for you to regret hitting me, damn you!" shouted Kaizen as he began to close all the fingers of his right hand in an attempt to form a fist.
Thanks to Psyker's movement, the barrier surrounding the creature's tail quickly began to close. However, the Gorgon's skin was very thick and its tail bulky, much more so than the stone statues, so it wouldn't be easy to crush it. Nevertheless, Kaizen insisted on this idea, as he had no other. After all, he didn't even have time to use <Analyzing Eye>, let alone open his inventory to grab one of his swords.
With as much strength as she had, Kaizen kept trying to close the fingers of her hand, and the Gorgon certainly didn't sit still as she felt that mysterious force gradually compressing the lower part of her body. She began to flail incessantly, making thunderous thumps as she swayed and banged her heavy tail on the ground.
Kaizen saw his MP bar begin to drop rapidly. He normally had 450 mana points and had used many skills since the beginning of the battle, but nothing that would exhaust him. However, the Gorgon's resistance to <Telekinesis> required Kaizen to use more and more of his mana to keep from seeing the barrier break, and that took a toll on his mana reserve.
In essence, this was a contest of endurance between the monstrous nature of the Gorgon and the paranormal strength of the Psyker. A contest that many would not dare to guess the winner of, and others would not even believe could happen.
Soon, however, the excruciating pain of being crushed began to take its toll on Estheno, causing her to finally lose some of her strength. This gave Kaizen the opportunity to close the fingers of her hand completely, allowing her to squeeze the tail and half of the Gorgon's body as if she were squeezing a mere tomato.
"That's it!" shouted Kaizen, eyes closed. He was panting a little, but he couldn't hold back his scream.
In the next instant, there was an explosion of blood, muscle, and flaking skin, because just like when you crush a tomato or any other fruit, when you crush it, everything that was protected inside the skin is exposed.
"KSHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Esteno screamed in pain as he struggled to free himself from the barrier, but Kaizen kept up the pressure.
"Now you'll learn your lesson, you monster!" Kaizen shouted triumphantly.
The Estheno Gorgon's health bar was reduced by 90% as half of her body exploded, and Kaizen was a little surprised that she was still alive, as he had expected that to be enough to finish her off. However, he didn't have time to think about it, because after all, the Gorgon was a monstrous creature and a boss that still posed a threat, so Kaizen knew it was time to end this story once and for all.
With his eyes still closed, Kaizen raised his left hand and began to use <Telekinesis> one last time in this battle. He didn't have any mana left to prolong this attack, and he didn't want to suddenly discover that Esteno had a special ability that allowed her to heal herself.
The Gorgon Esteno panicked as she saw her enemy begin to gather several statues near the ceiling of the chamber. She immediately began crawling with her claws in the direction of the psyker. She was not going to run, for that was not in her nature. However, her hands were very weak compared to her voluminous tail that provided so much dexterity, so Esteno moved only a few centimeters per second.
A few moments later, she heard Kaizen snap his fingers as she crawled towards him. At that moment, she looked up to see that the statues he had grouped had simply been shattered into small fragments, fragments that Kaizen was free to form into a very large stone spearhead.
And with another snap of his fingers, Kaizen sent that spear flying at the living, crawling remains of the Steno.
*Tlec*
The last thing this living Gorgon saw was a pointed object made from the remains of some of her victims, and then her vision turned red, her eyes covered with her own blood. Finally, all she could see was the endless darkness.
…
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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