Chapter 4
'How big is this dungeon!?' Antares asked as he spewed a column of crimson flames into another wave of blood bats.
[300 Exp gained]
[50 gold gained]
Antares continued walking deeper into the dungeon until he reached another part of the cave dungeon.
'Before I walk in, I should probably check the item I got earlier.' Antares said as he examined Demour's ring.
[Demour's Ring of Blood
Rarity: Rare
Type: Ring
+15 INT
+15 VIT
+10 SENS
A ring made of Demour's flesh.]
'Wow, maybe fighting that nightmare-inducing beast wasn't so bad.' Antares said as he walked into the deeper cave and a notification popped up.
[You have entered Nure's Domain.]
[Nure has used Blind]
[Effect Cancelled]
[Nure has used Deafen]
[Effect Cancelled]
[Nure has used Fear]
[Effect Cancelled]
Antares ignored the system popups and made his way through the maroon-colored cave.
"SHAAA!!" A large bug with two blades for arms and 4 legs dropped from the ceiling. Antares wasted no time and cut the bug in half.
[50 Exp gained]
[25 gold gained]
'Eww, I got its blood on me.' Antares gagged slightly at the sight of green goop on his hoodie. Antares heard the clicking of chitin on stone and looked up.
'Holy.Fucking.Shit.' Hundreds of red eyes stared down at Antares and he spit a plume of flames towards the ceiling. Screeches could be heard and most of the scissor bugs jumped down.
[450 Exp gained]
[300 gold gained]
[MP:83]
Antares was surrounded by the scissor bugs and smiled.
"Come at me bugs!" Antares yelled as he began cutting scissor bugs into pieces. Antares decapitated one of the scissor bugs and burned the other with fire coming out of his hands. Antares then jumped into the air and spit a torrent of crimson flames that killed a lot of the scissor bugs.
[750 Exp gained]
[500 gold gained]
[MP:66]
Antares decided to test Guttural Strike on the remaining few scissor bugs and wasn't disappointed.
"Guttural Strike!" Antares' sword glowed red and launched a 3 claw slash attack. It ripped the scissor bug in front of him into three and traveled until it reached the cave wall. It left a claw mark on the cave wall and Antares grinned. Antares activated Stealth and killed the rest of the scissor bugs with haste.
[750 Exp gained]
[500 gold gained]
[MP:36]
Antares continued exploring the dungeon until he finally reached two blood-red doors. He kicked the doors in and was met with a wave of blood bugs, blood bats, and scissor bugs.
"BURN!" Antares spit fire into the large number of creatures and killed a huge chunk of them.
[1200 Exp gained]
[750 gold gained]
[Level Up!]
[+3 Stat Points gained, All stats +1]
[Ailments Recovered!]
"Alright! Guttural Strike!" Antares used Guttural Strike on the remaining monsters and cut a huge portion of them into pieces.
[750 Exp gained]
[500 gold gained]
[MP:90]
Antares decided to move on so he activated Stealth and made his way deeper into the room.
[Space locked. You have entered Nure's Dwelling.]
As soon as that notification popped up, Antares seemed to be locked in a giant hive full of scissor bugs. Only these scissor bugs were bigger, stronger, and more ferocious. Antares immediately began setting the hive on fire and giving no chance of the juiced-up scissor bugs to fight him.
[1200 Exp earned]
[750 gold earned]
[MP:75]
As the hive was burning, Antares used Stealth and traveled deeper into the hive until he reached the queen's quarters. A huge red scissor bug with 4 blades for arms and 6 legs was surrounded by armored versions of the scissor bugs.
'Examine.' Antares said as he bought a Mana Recovery Potion and drunk it.
[Hive Queen, Nure.
Difficulty: Hardcore
Type: Boss]
[Quest: Kill Hive Queen Nure and her entourage.
Hive Queen Nure [0/1]
Armored Scissor Bugs [0/5]
Reward: 1 Epic Item, 1 skill rune, 6000 Exp, 3400 gold.]
'Let's hope she isn't as difficult as Demour. I'm definitely wrong.' Antares said as he deactivated Stealth and was immediately attacked by the Armored scissor bugs. A giant chitin blade swung at Antares' head and he ducked under it and counterattacked.
'What!?' Antares was shocked to see that his blade didn't even scratch the scissor bugs' armor. Antares leaped back and dodged another giant blade.
"SKREE!" A scissor bug shot acid towards Antares and he burned it with fire. A smokescreen was created and two scissor bugs attacked Antares from the front.
"BURN!" Antares breathed a plume of fire hoping it would damage the scissor bugs a little bit. Antares' fire did nothing to the scissor bugs and they walked right through it. Antares immediately activated Stealth and went behind one of the scissor bugs' backs. He deactivated Stealth and struck but his blade didn't scratch their armor at all.
'What the hell is their armor made out of!? I'm having trouble fighting minions, I haven't even fought the boss yet!' Antares said as he leaned back to dodge a giant blade trying to remove his head from his shoulders. As Antares dodged one of the scissor bugs blades, another one also swung at him, and he used Fire Control to boost himself into the air.
"If striking them normally doesn't work, then this will! Guttural Strike!" A red claw strike shot out from Antares blade and struck the scissor bugs below. Antares specifically aimed for the openings within their armor and cut one of them into pieces.
[500 Exp gained]
[200 gold gained]
[MP:50]
'Why didn't I try that earlier?' Antares asked himself as he landed on the ground and dodged a glob of acid. Antares dashed forward and bisected a scissor bug as he aimed for the armor openings.
[500 Exp gained]
[200 gold gained]
Antares kicked one of the scissor bugs in the head and used that kick as propulsion as he stabbed his blade through a scissor bug's neck.
"SKREEE!!" The scissor bug didn't die immediately and threw Antares off its neck and into a wall. Antares crashed into the wall hard and created a crater.
"KAH!" Antares coughed up a small amount of blood and wiped his mouth.
[HP:196]
'Damn, that one throw did ten damage. I need better armor.' Antares said as he dashed towards the heavily bleeding scissor bug and finished it off.
[500 Exp gained]
[200 gold gained]
[Level Up!]
[+3 Stat Points gained, All stats +1]
[Ailments Recovered!]
'Place 3 points into AGL, STR, and INT!' Antares said as he felt his body get stronger once again. Antares dashed at the 2 remaining scissor bugs with Olympic athlete level speed. Antares' blade clashed with a scissor bug's blade and he used the momentum to spin and decapitate the scissor bug behind it.
[500 Exp gained]
[200 gold gained]
"Guttural Strike!" Antares finished the last scissor bug and looked at the queen who was beginning to move.
'Looks like the real battle starts now.' Antares said as the queen screeched and launched hundreds of blood spikes at Antares.
"BURN!" Antares melted all of the blood with a quick fire breath. Antares dashed forward and clashed blades with Nure. Antares and Nure clashed blades across the boss room and Antares couldn't find an opening within each of her attacks.
'For a bug, she's really skilled!' Antares said as he jumped back and fired a plume of flames at Nure who tanked it what nothing.
[Nure has used Blood Chop.]
Nure's blades turned red and she swung them at the distant Antares. Antares was confused until he a red wave of sharp blood moving towards him at high speeds. Antares used Fire Breath again to melt the blood and dashed forwards again.
'Time to get creative.' Antares said as he used Fire Control to coat his blade in flames.
'Going by my MP, I have 63 seconds before my MP runs dry.' Antares said as he clashed with Nure again and tried to create an opening within their blade clashing. Antares ducked under one of her blades and swung upwards but was blocked by another blade. The bottom left blade swung at Antares' side and he jumped back to dodge it.
[MP:48]
'Fuck, 48 seconds.' Antares dodged and counterattacked Nure's blades but she still didn't have any openings. Antares bought a Mana Recovery Potion and used Guttural Strike while his blade was covered in flames. A wave of fire bursted out from Antares' blade and struck Nure in the thorax.
"SKREEEE!!" Nure screeched in pain as her thorax was cut open and dripping with blood. Nure began to glow red and Antares got a notification.
[Nure is entering Phase 2, prepare.]
'Don't have to tell me twice!' Antares said as he bought enough Mana potions to recover his MP completely. As Antares finished drinking all of the Mana potions, Nure was finished going into Phase 2. Nure got more blades counting up to 6, her body got larger and her blades got longer and more jagged.
'Round 2.' Antares said as he coated his blade with flames.