Chapter-34 Too Strong

After a few hours of sleep, everyone had woken up, some were unsure if it was actually the next day, as they felt no change in the temperature of light around them even when they couldn't see their surroundings.

Zack looked around at everyone. "Now that we're rested, we should be able to do a lot more today." he said.

When everyone continued walking down the ice solid hallway, it felt to them like they were going deeper, why as they hadn't encountered any runners or demonic creatures, which made them suspect they were descending further under the maze, as the demonic mines are usually were typically located.

Kofi tightened his grip on his luggage strap. 'This is getting really weird now...why haven't we run into any demonic creatures?' he thought.

Just when Kofi had this thought, something suddenly appeared through the chamber wall. At the same time, everyone felt a chilling mist it also appeared to start to block everyone's vision as it slowly drained the warmth from their bodies.

"What's with this mist?" one group member said.

"Is the maze melting?" another chimed in.

"That's impossible especially with the demonic mine still active," another added.

As everyone kept trying to swat away the mist with their hands and trying to see through it, they suddenly heard the sound of something dropping, they became curious but cautious, when they moved toward the sound's location, there, they found one group member, his body frozen into a statue, with his eyes wide open.

"Everyone be careful, there's a demonic creature here." one group member warned.

Meanwhile, Selene who was moving through the mist, saw something white flowing toward another group member, with her dagger quickly unsheathed, she quickly moved behind it and managed to stab it in the neck before it disappeared in the mist.

'Specter.' Selene thought. "We're under attack again, and this time it's a frost specter." she warned.

At the same time, Kofi had heard a notification that he had gained experience points from the frost specter Selene had just killed, that when he realized that once he had a contract or some kind of agreement with a runner or runners, he was able to gain half the experience points from the kills of demonic creatures, while thinking this he felt a sudden strong pull on his shoulder.

"Watch out!" Kofi heard Selene voice beside him.

"Thanks." Kofi replied, thinking, 'How did she manage to sneak up on me? the stealth and speed of a assassin class is really good.'

...

In the world, Assassin runners are a unique breed, blending of agility and specialized sprinters with the lethality of close-quarters combatants mainly for assassin but also they are masters of stealth, precision, and quick strikes.

Assassin runners excel in hit-and-run tactics, using their speed and agility to strike swiftly and disappear before their enemies can react, they often utilize a variety of weapons, such as daggers, short swords, and throwing knives, depending on the situation and their personal preferences. Additionally, they employ stealth tactics like camouflage, distraction, and evasion to outmaneuver and outwit their opponents.

...

Through the mist, after being pulled back by Selene, Kofi saw what she had saved him from, the demonic creature body was translucent also wreathed in white mist, and its icy blue eyes glowed with an otherworldly light toward him.

'Frost specter so there also stealthy creature like the fiend there can easily freeze other' Kofi thought.

The Frost Specter is an undead demonic creature, a haunting ghost that drifts silently through the icy corridors of the maze, the Frost Specter mainly possesses the ability to manipulate the very essence of cold, creating freezing gusts of wind and chilling mists that obscure vision and drain warmth from runners, as it uses it to close in for the kill on runners, its mist touch drains the life from runners bodies until they become frozen statues trapped forever in the depths of the maze.

"Keep back! We won't be able to do anything with this mist." Zack commanded. "Selene, you protect us!" he shouted.

While backing away, the group stuck together, but also mainly thanks to Selene's stealth and speed, she was able to move through the mist easily, killing a couple of Frost Specters that were about to reach the group.

Several times the specters got close to Kofi, but he managed to dodge their attacks barely evading them why because undercover and when the group saw they knew he was a fighter class, so they understood how he managed to dodge the specter attacks.

When everyone escaped the mist, Selene glowing black eyes slowly walked out saying. "We should be good for now."

Everyone nodded to each other before continuing, this time, Zack wanted Kofi and Caleb up front because he felt they would be more easily protected there as he said he didn't want them to die.

While they walked down an ice-cold, narrow passage with towering walls of solid ice, a solid ice gate suddenly slammed down, separating Kofi and Caleb from the rest of the group.

Caleb looked at Zack and the others in a panic. "Guys, what's going on?"

"I don't know," Zack said his smile dropped. "Lets see if we can break it down."

Before anyone could react, there was a sudden loud noise, and from Zack and the rest of the group view they saw the ground underneath Kofi and Caleb start to sink like it disconnected from the walls holding it.

Caleb began to breathe rapidly he looked up and shouted. "Guys, quickly help us!"

Kofi looked around sensing something was off, he always thought and felt that most places in a maze like this also felt like the setting for a guardian or boss fight.

"Roar!"

A sudden, loud roar vibrated the solid ice around them, making Kofi snap his head toward the sound despite the pain of how loud the roar was but what he saw was a thirty feet away, a demonic creature descended from above, Its body resembled a dragon-type demonic creature with a chilling and imposing body. Its body looked like a rib cage sculpted from solid ice, each bone encased in frost. From its gaping mouth of razor-sharp ice shard teeth, two long, sinuous tentacles extended of the outside on the side and atop its head, a pair of curved horns glowed softly with a purple light. The creature had no wings but it floated gracefully.

'Is there dragons in the world...but this doesn't really look like a full dragon' Kofi thought.

Caleb's eyes widened as he looked up. "We are going to die," he shouted in panic, looking around frantically. "What do we do? What do we do?" he repeated his breath coming in quick gasps.

Kofi, standing in front of him with neutral smile, flicking a bit of snow off his sleeve that dropped off the dragon. "Can you calm down?" he said, thinking, 'Why did this just happen as soon as we stepped in? Did they know this was going to happen? It didn't seem so.'

Caleb turned to him disbelieved. "What do you mean? This is a C-rank maze! That means that's a C-rank maze boss! Do you think I can calm down?"

Kofi slowly rolled his shoulders. "I know where we are," he said, his eyes scanning the surroundings with sharp precision to mark their location of how he can fight before the guardian arrived. "All we have to do is defeat the guardian, and we'll get out."

Caleb stared at him bewildered. "How the hell are we going to get that done?"

Kofi cracked his knuckles a smirk appearing on his lips. "Simple," he replied. "We fight."

He stepped forward slowly but controlled relaxing his body. "Stay behind me, and do exactly as I say," Kofi instructed his eyes locking onto Caleb's. "Trust me, I've faced worse."

Caleb gulped but something about Kofi's demeanor gave him a sliver of hope. "Alright," he said, trying to steady his voice. "What's the plan?"

Kofi's looked up at the guardian at the same time his eyes gleamed with a red light. "We lure the guardian into the open," he said. "Then, we hit it with everything we've got. No holding back."

He glanced back at Caleb, his eyes cold taking off his hoody. "Ready?" he asked.

Caleb nodded. "Re-Ready," he said before taking out a short sword from his side.

When Kofi locked eyes with the guardian dragon, named Isabella Frost when he check her stats 'Level twenty two but I did managed to defeated kronar...I may come out a fight extremely hurt again' he thought biting his lip.

Kofi then drew his sword Soulrender from his side tightening his grip, as Isabella drew closer, Kofi used fifty percent of his strength to leap up toward the her, he wanted to get first strike but before he could swing his sword, Isabella large tail struck him, slamming him into the solid ice wall, the force of the impact destroyed the ice making a hole and trapping him inside.

Caleb on the ground was frozen in fear and shock, watching Isabella ignored him and flew toward Kofi still embedded in the ice wall.

'She is faster than I anticipated,' Kofi thought as he climbed out of the hole. "This demonic creature will be perfect to test my strength better than the D-ranks before." he muttered before checking his stats. 'Just that attack alone took down a one hundred of my health points.' he realized just like before his past experiences with stronger people like the Mistress of Plague had rid him of fear of others.

Halfway out of the hole Kofi saw Isabella already in front of him. 'I can use my gorilla might to do more damage and also test its body,' he thought quickly

Roaring and exhaling a ice cold breath, Isabella lunged to slam into him, before it could happen Kofi jumped into the air, landing on Prime's head and then launching himself upward again.

-Skill: Gorilla Might activated. Consuming 60 energy. Your physical strength has been increased by 50%-

With his adrenaline high and his muscles bulging of strength, his veins surged with power with his fist clenched, dropping down above Isabella, his eyes locked onto her, the air around him almost rippled as he descended.

"Ahhh!" Kofi screamed.

Kofi's fist crashed down onto Isabella's head with the force of a speeding bus, that it managed to create a shockwave, Isabella roared in pain and surprise as the ice ground beneath her cracked and splintered from the blow slamming her into the ground creating a crater.

Caleb's mouth and eyes widened in shock. "What the hell? You are too strong? Were you hiding your strength all this time?" he shouted bewildered. 'Is he already a C-rank?' he thought.

When the dust and debris filled the air as Kofi fell he also noticed that Isabella, though injure a little injured of one hundred health points, was already getting up. 'Her ice ribs are very solid.' he observed.

On his way down, Kofi saw Isabella opening her mouth and roaring toward him, then an icy breath mixed with sharp shards flew toward him, 'Those shard might be hard as gold and diamonds' he thought knowing he would instantly die if caught in the middle of the breath, he remembered his Soulrender's abilities.

-Ability: Resonant Guard has been activated. Consuming ten energy every five seconds.-

Swapping his sword back into his right hand, with a cold blue light, forming a protective barrier around Kofi just in time ass the frost breath collided with his guard, Kofi still felt the force of the breath pushing back against him, still the shield absorbed some of the impact, but it was already starting to crack.

'Even with just its ice breath, it can do a lot of damage, and right now, there's no way to go but forward,' Kofi thought.

Descending toward Isabella, Kofi positioned his sword downward, his guard broke in an instant the ice shards began cutting into his clothing and armor, though some of it managed to withstand the force.

Still he gritted his teeth as he arrived at Isabella, slamming his sword into her head, blood instantly flew out, but his sword was barely deep to do enough damage.

-Effect: Vibration has been activated. Time: Fifteen seconds stun.-

Soulrender vibration effect made Isabella stop causing her frost breath to also stop without giving Isabella time to awake he used his steel sword slamming it into her head causing bleeding

-Effect: Bleeding has been activated. The target's health will decrease steadily-

Isabella roared into the air from pain and thrashed strongly, shaking violently that sent Kofi flying off her head, landing hard on the ground, Kofi quickly hopped back up and locked eyes with Isabella, she took a step forward and at the same time multiple large sharp ice shards shot out of the ground toward him, their scraping and shattering sounds causing pain to his ears.

Kofi sprinted to the side, but after a few seconds, he felt his legs growing heavy. looking down, he saw ice creeping up his legs that mean one of shard injected him with cold cause him to slow down. 'Damn it,' he thought, glancing over his shoulder he saw the ice shards closing in on him, that when he also felt himself growing tired.

-30% stamina remaining-

-50% health remaining-

With his stamina and health now low, he was getting weaker and slower. 'I need speed and stamina. As a runner, I should have more.' he thought in frustration.

-Skill: Swift activated: Consuming ten energy per minute. Your Speed has been increased by 30%-

With his speed now enhanced, the ice no longer slowed him down, he swiftly dodged the incoming shards, jumping off some and moving toward Isabella.

Kofi stared intently at Isabella, who looked back in surprise. 'I have gotten stronger since the fight with Kronar. Now that I'm level 11 with double attributes of the survivor title, I should be at level 13 or 14. I can hold my own against a C-rank guardian,' he thought.

While strategizing, he heard Caleb shout from his side, "Kofi, target the horns!"

Kofi took Caleb's advice, though he wasn't sure if it would work. 'One wrong move and it's over,' he thought.

Both Kofi and Prime moved toward each other, their speeds matching, Using one of the ice shards in front of him to give him height before he springboard, launching himself toward Isabella, aiming his sword at her head.

"Ahh!" Kofi screamed.

Swinging his sword at Isabella horns, the blade connected, resulting in a sound of shattering ice. atthe same time he force from Isabella headbutt launched Kofi backward.