17 The Molten Heart

The whirlpool drops him into another chamber. But this was... it felt way different than the rest. The room felt a bit like the halls of the first trial, it was fiery hot, although not as searing hot as the first trial's.

The air was thick with the suffocating mix of sulfur and burnt stones. Towering statues carved with the images of what seemed to be like various ancient deities held up a ceiling painted gold with constellations. 

In the center of the room, there was a very large and deep indentation in the ground. The rims were carved with numerous weird runes. In the middle of the dent in the ground, a dragon with shimmering red scales lay.

As if sensing Lucian's presence, its eyes snap open and it stands up from its slumber before releasing an earth-shattering roar.

"Man... you've got to be kidding me." He unsheathes his dragon sword and summons the Crystal Talon into his other hand. Beads of nervous sweat form along his forehead.

He pauses as they stared each other dead in the eye for a couple of seconds.

>>Ignis, The Molten Heart<<

HP: 500,000

He was about to go in when he inspected the boss. He froze for a moment.

'Holy cow!'

Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse...

Time: 10:00

—

Time: 9:59

—

He gripped his blades even tighter. He didn't dare think of what would happen if the timer hit zero. He had played to many games not to know what happened if a player failed to clear a dungeon on time—He restarts. 

But this wasn't a game, he had no extra lives—not that he had tested it—and he didn't just want to gamble his life away. He had to take down this BOSS, and he had to do it fast.

The dragon's maw curved upwards slightly into some sort of creepy smile, as if smelling his fear. A guttural roar reverberated shaking the ground before his feet.

It flew towards him, stretching its maw wide, flames erupting from within, bathing the chamber in orange light.

Lucian dives, just in time before the steam from the flames turned him into roasted meat. As he got up, he throws a fireball at the dragon's, but it dissipates against the dragon's obsidian scales.

'Of course, its got immunity to flame magic'

He evades a swipe across his neck. He could only dodge, barely, for now, until he figured out a way to get past the defenses of th...Defenses! That was it!

He remembered he got a weapon that allowed him to ignore both physical and magical defenses, to some extent.

He stood his ground held his dragonblade firmly whiled the dragon growled at him, ready to pounce. They continue to size each other like this until Ignis could take it no longer and flapped its wings, gaining some height before shooting towards Lucian like a missile.

Lucian waited.

Ignis inched closer to him, condensing magic in its maw, before shooting continuous balls of fire at him. 

Lucian waited, beads of sweat trickling down his head.

The fire balls inched closer. This gamble was risky, but he had to land a hit somehow and he had to make sure this was a vital hit.

"Now!" He decided. Time seemed to slow down, as he pushed his feet against the floor and jumped to the side evading the fireballs. Immediately, he pushed himself forward again, closing the gap between he and the dragon.

The moment, he was within range, he stretched his hand and a short sword made entirely of crystals slowly manifested in his hand. 

With the momentum, he activated the active skill of the blade even if was for physical defense. He bent on his knees mid-dash and dug his blade right into the underbelly of the dragon, blood spurting on his face.

Excitement flashed on his face, he gripped the blade tightly and made a deep horizontal cut, causing blood to spurt all over the floor. Ignis roared in pain, shaking the whole area with his voice.