Dungeon boss (2)

"Oh, I didn't expect you to evade that attack," the dungeon boss uttered, a hint of surprise in his tone.

Hearing his words, Alex froze in surprise. He wasn't shocked by the fact that a monster was speaking; after all, he already knew that high-level monsters were intelligent. What truly caught him off guard was the fluency and clarity of the dungeon boss's speech. It was almost as if he was speaking to a fellow human, rather than a beast from the depths of the dungeon.

Not only that, but the subtle mannerisms of the dungeon boss, like his raised brow as he spoke, unsettled Alex. These human-like gestures were unsettling. From just this sentence, Alex sensed that something was amiss with the boss, something beyond the usual dangers of a dungeon.

To confirm his suspicion, Alex glanced at the dungeon boss and smiled, "It's not very nice of you to attack your guests."

The boss chuckled at Alex's words, "That's true, it's not nice to attack guests," the boss flashed Alex a cold grin and continued, "But from my understanding, guests don't usually come into your home with the intention of killing you, right?"

"I guess not," Alex chuckled. Yet, internally, he was frowning in confusion. 'It feels like I'm speaking to a human,' he thought.

He understood that at its level, the boss should grasp what he was saying, but still, its manner of speaking and reactions were disturbingly human-like, almost unnervingly so.

Taking advantage of the boss's clear lack of aggressiveness, Alex cast a glance around the boss's room. The architecture and layout of the room were going to greatly impact their plans after all.

Finally concentrating on his surroundings, Alex couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of the room.

The boss chamber is a vast, circular room filled with an aura of majesty. Tall, gray pillars line the walls, their imposing presence supporting a high golden ceiling. Mounted on these pillars are lit torches, their flames flickering and casting a warm yet eerie glow throughout the room. The design is like a giant funnel – as you step inside, you're on the upper rim, and every step takes you lower and lower, towards the heart of the room. This bowl-shaped design funnels everything towards the middle, the lowest point in the chamber.

"I never thought about it, but who created the dungeons and for what endeavor?" Alex wondered.

What made Alex think of things like that was ultimately the architecture of this dungeon. It looked too grand, too majestic for it to have been created by mere lizardmen.

'Forget that, it's not the time to think about such things,' Alex thought, concentrating once again on the dungeon boss who was sitting exactly at the very middle of the chamber, staring at Alex and Amelia with a peculiar light in its reptilian eyes.

Placing Amelia down, Alex glanced at her and nodded his head. She nodded back with a determined expression and concentrated on the dungeon boss.

"Is it time to begin?" the dungeon boss asked, his grating voice echoing in the chamber.

Alex didn't respond; instead, he took a deep breath. When he exhaled, a familiar, ominous-looking purple smoke emerged. The smoke moved through the air as if it had a life of its own, swirling around Alex's body with an eerie grace. Gradually, it enveloped him completely.

The dungeon boss raised a brow in surprise at this sight, but he made no effort to stop whatever it was Alex was preparing. It could only be said that this dungeon boss was peculiar.

A few moments later, Alex's figure reappeared once again, clad in a purple armor that covered his entire body.

The armor extended down his arms and legs, fitting snugly yet allowing for swift movement. At the tips of his fingers, the armor ended in razor-sharp claws that gleamed with an ominous purple sheen, ready to rend and tear at his enemies.

The helmet of the armor was sleek and angular, concealing his features behind a visor. The only visible part of his body were the two shining orbs of silver behind the visor of his mask, staring straight at the boss monster with cold resolve.

Multiple tentacles of smoke suddenly shot from the smoke armor and swiftly coiled around Alex's surroundings, adhering to every surface with a chilling grip.

Although the tentacles were composed of smoke, their movements resembled those of elastic material, stretching and contracting with surprising agility.

Using the tentacles as a springboard, Alex propelled himself towards the boss. The ground under his feet did not shatter, nor was there a massive explosion accompanying the force with which he launched himself. Yet, in what felt like a blink of an eye, Alex had crossed the dozens of meters separating him from the boss, his claws sweeping in a wide arc, intent on severing the lizardman's head.

However, at that moment, something odd happened.

The closer Alex's claws came to the lizardman, the slower they seemed to move, as if encountering resistance that defied normal physics.

Just as Alex's claws were about to reach their target, the dungeon boss's hand flickered and the spear it held deflected Alex's arm.

The boss's hand flickered once more, and the spear moved swiftly, aiming directly at Alex's throat!

In that split second, as the spear was about to pierce his throat, the smoke forming Alex's armor shifted and coalesced into a shield, protecting him just in time.

Bang!

The spear passed right through the smoke shield, but Alex wasn't there anymore!

Taking advantage of the split second it took for the spear to break through the shield, Alex explosively retreated, putting as much distance as possible between himself and his opponent.

'He's fast,' Alex thought as he came to a stop, 'incredibly so, but it's more than just speed. That sensation as my attack was about to land...' Alex frowned behind his mask.

He had deduced what that odd feeling was, but he found it hard to accept that the boss monster at the peak of level 5 could accomplish such a thing.

As one ascends through the levels, they begin to exert a pressure on those weaker than them. This pressure is something that can't be controlled; it comes naturally and often depends on one's state of mind. If a person is angry, it's more likely for that invisible pressure to leak out. On the other hand, someone who is calm is less likely to emit such a pressure.

What remains consistent regardless of one's state of mind is the fact that this pressure cannot be controlled. It affects everything and everyone in their immediate surroundings; if someone around them is significantly weaker, it's not uncommon for them to be crushed by that pressure or experience a decrease in their movement speed.

An example of such a thing was what happened between Alex and his uncle Robert when the latter asked him to free En from his suffering during the competition. At that time, Alex couldn't even lift a finger until he increased his strength with the system's help.

This was actually what happened a few seconds ago as Alex attacked the boss. The feeling of his arm swiping through a "swamp" was exactly what he experienced.

However, there was a hitch: the dungeon boss was definitely not at level 6, so how could it have such high control of the pressure it emitted?

The reason Alex was certain that it could control the pressure, at least far more than its level should allow, was because the range at which the pressure was deployed was just within the immediate surroundings of the boss. Even the pressure Alex could emit easily covered dozens of meters; it was difficult to believe that a peak level 5 monster couldn't do as much.

'It means that it is either dangerously close to level 6, perhaps just a hair's breadth away, or it had a method to control that pressure. Whatever the case may be, I don't like it,' Alex thought as he prepared his next move.

Of course, if he had to choose, Alex would rather have it be that the dungeon boss was just a hair's breadth from level 6 rather than the boss having a special way to control the pressure that he emitted. While in the former case his fight would be more difficult than he thought, he found it still better than fighting an opponent who might have a special way to control the pressure he emitted.

Well, at the end of the day, it didn't really matter which of the two cases was true; the outcome of the battle was already decided before it even started, making all of this just a formality.

Alex took a deep breath and exhaled a thick purple smoke that condensed into a ball of swirling mist.

The ball of smoke hovered over Alex's head for a moment before it began to ascend. As it rose higher, the ball grew larger until it completely covered the entire ceiling of the room.

Soon, the smoke ball started to shape itself, transforming into sharp and deadly needles each one meter long. Although made of smoke, each needle looked as solid as iron, glinting with a menacing aura.

Without hesitation, Alex hurled hundreds of these needles towards the boss!