Ch 820 - A Battle of Beasts

Not willing to admit defeat, Alex stretched out his hand and summoned the golden dragon sword. He stabbed the blade into the massive grayish-brown claw of the creature, but the action didn't go as planned. His blade failed to penetrate the outer skin of the beast. It was too thick and was covered with many, many layers of dead skin.

He drew his sword back, and as he did so, he noticed that on one of the beast's horns, there was something shaped like a key and surrounded by flames. He was momentarily frozen as he realized that it could be the key of fire that he had remembered hearing about.

But he decided it was more important to protect himself before trying to grab it. He turned himself into a gust of wind and retreated, ending up about ten yards away from the giant beast.

Where he landed, there were deep pits of all sizes from the creature's footprints. The smallest one was still several yards deep.

He gaped at the scene in front of him, pondering his situation, when the beast suddenly cried out loudly. Alex instantly covered his ears and was thankful for his powers. Without them, his body might have shattered from the sound waves.

It was obvious to him that this was a simple creature with no pattern to its fighting style. It did have tremendous strength, though its agility was nowhere near as good as his own. He also knew that he couldn't keep dodging it forever; eventually, the beast would only get angry, and would make it more dangerous.

As he thought, he realized that a messy fighting style with no conceivable pattern was his opponent's biggest weakness. So, he stood his ground and stared straight at the beast while he thought of a plan.

He decided that speed would be his best chance of winning. Even a tiny insect could defeat an elephant if it moved quickly enough.

Facing the giant, his mouth curled into a mocking smile.

His opponent was simply a big, clumsy beast. It had no brain power, and it would only win by luck.

Alex bellowed and summoned the golden dragon sword. The beast seemed startled by his shout. The other creatures in the cave were also roused by the sound and fled as one. The scene was breathtaking.

Oddly, the blade seemed to understand Alex's intention as the flames surrounding it burned even more intensely, and the golden dragon was summoned once again.

The vast flames swept toward the gigantic beast, and Alex felt his power gathering and dispersing again. The huge flames surged toward the beast's face, forcing him to retreat.

Alex could feel the force building inside him, and he smiled, convinced he was going to beat the creature.

But then, in a sudden move, the beast changed direction and charged toward him with as much speed as it could muster.

Alex could feel the ground shaking violently. He retreated, but it was merely part of his plan.

The beast let out another thunderous roar. It seemed angry and was redoubling its efforts.

"Bring it on," Alex muttered to himself. He didn't think the creature would hear or understand, but it seemed to and rushed over, running even faster than before.

Sweat was dripping down Alex's face, and veins were bulging on his arms. He gripped the golden dragon blade in his hand. When the creature reached him, then his plan would be half complete.

If it all went well, he would only need to leap forward and deal with the enormous beast quickly and accurately.

He knew the weakest parts of the creature were its abdomen and its eyes, and he chose to go for the eyes first. He figured that if he stabbed the sword into its abdomen first, the beast might crush him by accident when it fell.

The beast rushed toward Alex. It opened its mouth as if to take a bite out of him, but Alex reacted quickly. With the blade clenched in his hand, he slashed at the creature's eyes, one at a time. They weren't deep cuts, but they were enough to blind it.

The beast took a few steps back, bellowing with pain.

Alex stood up straight and plunged the blade into the beast's soft abdomen, granting it a quick death. It crashed into the stone wall beside him and fell down heavily.

Alex covered his ears, wincing at the deafening sound.

Then he walked over to the beast and squatted down. He looked with curiosity at its face before finally turning his gaze to the pair of horns. He was surprised to find that the key of fire actually grew on one of the horns, so he used a little of the power he had left to release it, and then he held the key in his hand.

The key emitted a scarlet light. It was exactly the same color that had come from the eyes of the creature he had just defeated.

He still had no idea how he was going to use the key, but at least he had it.

As he was about to place the key into his bag, he realized that the black sky above his head had split open, indicating that another barrier had been broken.

The fragments rained down heavily, and Alex thought to himself, Why am I so unlucky?

He created a shield from his power to protect himself.

It hadn't been easy for him to defeat the beast, and now things were changing again. The sky had collapsed, and he hoped the ground wasn't going to crumble beneath his feet. Each of the pits that the beast had created with each step was several yards deep, so he didn't want to venture too far and risk falling into one.