62 (62) You feel... too weak

The 'come at me' gesture was meant to infuriate the opponent. Summoned monsters - even from Necromancers, would often form a mental link with their master. This gesture was something the young man Lloyd had done several times when initiating a fight. To him, it was a way to look down on commoners.

Alas, Barren hardly knew what it meant as an insult, only simply thinking that the shadowy monster wanted to start the fight.

Without any indication, a jade vine burst out from the wall behind the cloaked being, but even with the tremenodus noise, the shadow monster stayed still, not even attempting to dodge.

"Shadow Reaper, attack now!" Lloyd commanded just before the vine struck. The Reaper lifted its scythe with its dark, bony hand and slashed. Not towards the incoming vine, but at Barren.

The crystal Golem stared dumbstruck as the vine penertrated through the Reaper's body. Wisps of smoke exploded from its chest were it got pierced, yet the Sahdow Reaper didn't even twitch in pain.

Instead, the Reaper continued attacking, not caring about the massive crystal vine which had pierced through its cloak and back into the ground.

The deadly scythe was full of dark energy, the air hissed as it was split by the sharp edge. Barren quickly summoned two slanted spikes, one slanted left, the other right in front of the first.

The scythe scored directly on the crystals spikes in front of Barren, its curved point caught between the two spikes. For a moment, the scythe seemed stuck, unable to break free. Barren breathed in relief - his body turning a bit cloudy.

But he relaxed far too soon. The Reaper's green eyes flashed and a burst of power entered its weapon, with a loud, shattering sound, the hooked scythe tore through the front spike, flinging it away.

The Reaper glided forward, right through the large jade vine still implanted in the ground. As it moved through, the darkness that made up the reaper appeared to burst outwards, but then fix itself. It was like the dark energy couldn't occupy the same space as another object and would part to give way.

The dark energy wasn't a physical body, and its speed in parting away was incredible. Even the large rapid moving vine earlier had been completely evaded.

Most beings would fall into despair when faced against the Shadow Reaper, unless they too could control dark energy or wielded a holy aura. But Barren did not give up, his observation gave him an idea, but that entirely depended on the other characteristics of the Shadow Reaper.

If the Reaper was a spectre or a ghost, then his plan might fail, but if it was purely a manifestation of dark energy, then there could be a light of hope.

To check his speculation, Barren summoned two spike right underneath the gliding Reaper, at the same time he controlled the Jade Vine to flick back up out of the ground.

And true to his conjecture, the Reaper continued advancing forward, not caring about the three attacks which tore through its body. If one looked closely, the darkness would ripple around the physical crystrals. One of the erupted spikes had twin peaks which twisted together, the dark energy could sense that there were minute gaps, so some particles flowed through and maintained the shape of the Reaper.

When jade vine pulled upwards through the cloaked heads, the green eyes performed in similar ways, made out of millions of coloured particles.

The advancing Reaper swung its gigantic scythe and a fierce gale followed behind it, the power behind the attack was very clearly shown. Barren quickly constructed several layers of rounded shields, hoping to deflect some of the power away.

What he didn't expect was for the blade to cut through the crystal walls as if it were paper. The scythe's power remained unaffected and it forced Barren to cross his arms and brace himself.

Several additional layers of crystals coated his arms and body in strange polygal shapes. Compared to his usual look, he looked like a larger low-poly version of himself.

Lloyd was still sitting, he had brought popcorn out of who knows where and was happily munching on it whilst watching the battle. He had complete confidence in his monster as all of Barren's attacks were rendered uneffective.

Completely to Barren's unexpectation, the scythe didn't slash against his arms. A second after he braced for the slash, a sharp pain erupted across his back. A sharp pull and a swing tossed Barren to the side, a large crack ran through his side and back, ruining his crystalline body.

The Reaper had extended its scythe further than were Barren anticiapted and had hooked him with the sharpened edges on the inside. Barren flashed red and grey in pain. He was lucky the Reaper didn't aim any higher or cut any further, otherwise the concentrated core in his chest might have been destroyed.

Again and again the Reaper struck, its movements were becoming considerably faster, the two hands that held it seemed disjointed from the shadowy body - if it even had a physical body.

Barren tried adapting to the relentless attacks, his defence sealed up like a tortoise shell, but even then each cut left a deep crack in his body. All this time, whilst Barren had been suppressed, the blonde Necromancer watched on, sipping at a carton of juice and munching on his snacks.

Something pinged in Lloyds mind; something felt off. But he was left with a clear reassurance as if he was merely paranoid. Maybe it was that this Boss... felt too weak?

After a couple of minutes, shattered crystals layed sprawled all over the floor, chunks of stones were missing from Barren's body and all that was left of his leg was a stump.

Nevertheless, Barren defended with all his might, he used the cut-off carcass of his leg as a baseball bat, deflecting the slashes from the scythe with powerful whacks.

However, as time went on, his attacks grew slower and the Reaper grew faster. By now, most of his crystalline body was clouded in exhaustion. With one final roar, the room trembled, responding to his command.

Lloyd felt the shaking floor under himself and laughed. He constructed a dark shield around himself as he waited. "You can't hit me now fool!" he shouted out of his shield and continued jeering. "It's a waste, your petty stone attacks will just pass through us!"

The first counterattack was a column of white quartz, it jutted out at tremendous speed smashing against the large blade of the scythe. The scythe flew away from the Reaper, two bony hands still clung to the black handle. Where the wrists of the hand should be, there was a ring of darkness like a corrupt rift.

The flying weapon slowed to a halt before it could collide with the wall, and then it began to make its way back to the shadowy cloak.

The room continued rumbling and the entire room seemed to have become pressurised, if there was any puncture in the room, it would definitely explode.

*Crack...*

The stones and rocks that built the room started falling off like plaster. Behind the falling rocks laid a shine, an opaque crystal full of colours.

A second later, the whole room shrunk, the glinting ceiling caved in as if a Hooved-Titan had stepped through. Large, horizontal, hexagonal pillars burst out from the walls, making the space shrink at an alarming rate.

Small crystals spikes grew out from the hexagonal pillars to fill any room left. The crystal walls surrounded everything, smothering it and incasing it in the beautiful glass.

Barren sunk into the depths of the crystals, he was able to move around inside with ease. The same couldn't be said for the the Reaper, the first pillar pierced through where it's chest would be. The dark particles sprayed outwards, avoiding the stone but trying to reattach to the rest of the body.

Several spikes locked the scythe from moving any closer, soon it too was consumed by the crystals. If it was cut out in a block, it would be perfect for a museum exhibit.

Another pillar burst through the Shadow Reaper, and another. And yet another. It wasn't long until every space in the room was filled with crystals, the dark energy laid dotted around in small pockets. Even the green eyes had been split up into many pockets in the crystals.

Yet even after this disasterous attack, Lloyd was still fine in his dark bubble. The crystals could crack the spherical shield, let alone crush it. Unfortunately, this led to a stalemate. Neither the Sahdow Reaper, Barren of Lloyd could attack and defeat the opponent.

Barren had pounded hard againt the shield, but just like the crystals, not even a dent was made.

Lloyd stared in awe at the scene around him. His dark shield gradually turned transparent allowing him to view the crystalline structure from the inside. It was like peering into the depths of an ocean whilst in a glass submarine, utterly breathtaking.

After examining the beautiful scene, and taking a few photoes with his metal device, Lloyd let loose a chuckle and a grin.

He raised his palm and called out, "Return to me Shadow Reaper, you did well!" but after a second or two, nothing changed. Lloyd scratched his ear in awkwardness as he realised the dark energy couldn't make his way back to him.

"Fine," He groaned in boredom, "Self-destruct."

The dark energy started to resonate with the crystal, making the entire place hum with vibrations. Tremors passed through Barren's skin; it felt like pins and needles, just scarier and more dangerous.

The black particles sizzled in their pockets, they grew hotter even with the abscence of oxygen. The crystals that confined them shimmered slightly and began to melt, the light the dark particles radiated was anything but dark.

Like a prism, the light poured through the crystals, illuminating them with the radiance of every colour. If one stared at the dark energy, a black spot would burn right through your eyes. Lloyd had concealed his shield in darkness again as he waited fro the explosion to occur.

He didn't have to wait long as the whole space inside the room erupted in a brilliant light and a deafening boom. The cystals shattered into nothingness, completely dissolved away.

The notifications rang in Lloyd's mind and he slowly deactivated the dark shield into a pebble-sized relic. A dot faded on the surface of the relic, leaving only three dots left.

Seeing this, Lloyd felt somewhat dejected. Who would have thought that the stone Golem's final attack would have forced him to use such destructive measures. The relic he held was incredibly strong, but if an attack was able to break through the defence, it would use up one of the five life-saving uses. The uses left was displayed as a white dot.

Once the last dot would be used, not only would he lose the life-saving function, but the whole relic would also be destroyed, meaning even the shield function would disappear.

After he dismissed the shield, Lloyd collected the loot on the floor. Luckily, loot drops could not be destroyed until the owner(s) left the room, whereby it would destroy itself automatically.

His eyes gleamed when he picked up a large, middle-quality crystal. Large crystals like these could also be vut into multiple smaller crystals, or just be refined as a large gem. In other words, this was a handheld fortune.

Lloyd shook his head after clearing his thoughts, it was probably still inefficient to challenge the Bosses, maybe he'll do so another time when his family wasn't suffering problems.

He turned turned around to make his way out of the door, but after looking up he felt shocked.

The door was at least a metre or two above the floor, the might of an ultimate summon self-destructing was incredible... incredibly devastating!

After a bit of climbing, Lloyd left the dungeon, he had earned enough for the day, and he had two weeks anyway. He needed a good, hearty meal and drink in the Tavern now.

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