Dungeon boss (3)

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

The sight of hundreds of needles falling from the ceiling, each one measuring a meter in length with a sharp end, was incredibly dreadful. Anyone who witnessed it would certainly feel a shiver running down their spine, but the dungeon boss seemed calm as it stared at this deadly rain.

It was as if it couldn't feel the threat of the oncoming attack and perhaps because it knew that this assault posed no real danger to him.

With his head still raised, staring at the rain of needles, the dungeon boss opened its mouth wide.

The air around its mouth began to heat up, the scales on its throat glowing faintly. An orange glow appeared at the back of its throat, and the air around its mouth started to shimmer with heat.

Traces of fire danced around its mouth, signaling the intense heat building up, and it seemed ready to launch it towards the oncoming rain of needles in the following second. However, it didn't act immediately. Instead, it waited until the rain of needles was just ten meters above him to strike. prepared to unleash in a devastating counterattack.

At that moment, a torrent of fire escaped the boss' mouth, scorching through the air like a blazing comet. The intense wave of fire quickly crossed the distance separating the boss from the needles and was about to engulf them when the lizardman caught sight of something peculiar happening.

Just as the two elements were about to meet, the smoke's color changed from purple to a sinister green.

Before the dungeon boss could figure out what was going on, it happened.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions, each more devastating than the last, echoed inside the dungeon boss's room the instant the immolating fire launched by the boss interacted with Alex's smoke.

The explosions quickly spread, and in the blink of an eye, they were upon the dungeon boss.

Unwilling to be caught up in the explosion, the dungeon boss swiftly got on its feet and began to run to escape the blast, its expression no longer as calm as before.

However, Alex appeared in the running lizardman's view, his fist rapidly closing the distance to the boss's face.

At that moment, the boss seemed to realize that somehow, Alex had predicted that it would move exactly like he had.

It was right in its thinking. Alex had indeed predicted that the boss would act like he did, or at least he had an inkling. Alex hadn't forgotten that the boss had a fire ability and had counted on the boss actually using that ability to counter his rain of needles.

Of course, the boss could have decided not to use its fire ability, but even then, it would have had to move to evade the needles and they would have ended right in this same situation. As for the boss using its pressure to stop the attack, Alex didn't even consider that option.

Controlling the pressure one emitted was useful, but it came at a cost. If used for too long, it would ultimately drain one's mental strength.

So Alex had more or less thought of every option the boss could have used to escape his attack and planned how he would move to take it off guard.

What he didn't anticipate, though, was that even when caught off guard with Alex's fist so dangerously close to its reptilian face, the dungeon boss would still manage to dodge his attack.

The boss sidestepped at the last moment, and Alex's fist missed it by a hair's breadth!

Its grip on its spear tightened, and it counterattacked Alex by swinging the spear horizontally.

Alex had to take a step back to avoid being cut by the spear, and just as he wanted to engage once again, the boss's spear appeared right before his head, intent on piercing through it.

Alex took a step back once again to evade, but not before the spear had grazed against his smoke mask.

The point of contact where Alex's mask and the spear met suddenly crumpled, and the spear dug a little into Alex's cheek.

However, the following second, the mask reconstructed itself, and Alex took a step forward and counterattacked.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't get close to the lizardman and was forced to dodge another pierce of its spear.

The same thing repeated each time Alex attempted to get close to deal a blow to his opponent. Using the long reach of its spear, the boss kept him from getting anywhere close. It was like he couldn't step within a meter of the lizardman; each of his attempts was met with failure.

On the other hand, each time the boss attacked, a new wound would appear on Alex. The worst thing was that each attack of the boss seemed to carry the weight of mountains while his spear's strokes were fast enough to outpace Alex.

Quickly, Alex found himself overwhelmed by the boss's attacks. The astonishing part was that it wasn't just because of the incredible strength and speed of the monster, though those played a big part; rather, he was being overwhelmed by the technique of the lizardman.

The dungeon boss was a true master of the spear. It was as if the spear wasn't an external weapon but an extension of its body. Its strikes were fast, precise, and, most of all, absolutely deadly. Its spear moved through the air in an elegant dance and landed on Alex's body with pinpoint accuracy.

Fortunately for Alex, thanks to his high defense stat, he could shrug off most of the wounds, but still, if things continued like this, it wouldn't be long before he was cornered.

'It can't continue like this,' Alex thought as he blocked the tip of the boss's spear with his forearm.

The tip drove through his smoke armor and pierced Alex's forearm, drawing blood.

Taking advantage of the momentum behind his opponent's attack, Alex explosively retreated, creating distance between them.

However, the lizardman pressed forward and followed right after him, its spear's strikes whistling through the air.

Using his smoke, Alex managed to avoid getting wounded once again. He leapt backward, and in the blink of an eye, several walls made of smoke appeared between him and the dungeon boss.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

One after another, the walls of smoke were obliterated by the boss, but as soon as one wall was destroyed, another took its place just as quickly.

'It won't last long,' Alex thought as he willed his smoke to keep coalescing into sturdy walls. He knew that those walls couldn't keep the boss at bay for long. While constructs of smoke didn't consume too much mana, if he kept creating so many in seconds, it wouldn't be long before he depleted his reserves.

However, Alex didn't care and went all out in his attempts to stall the lizardman. Soon, the dungeon boss was flanked on every side by five smoke knights, each wielding different weapons.

Taking advantage of the few moments his smoke knights might be able to grant him, Alex dove his mind inside a spatial ring around his finger. Of course, he made sure to still focus on his smoke knights so they wouldn't crumble. Thanks to the increase in his mind's capacity, Alex could now focus on several things at the same time, and he didn't hesitate to utilize that ability when needed.

'No, nothing here,' Alex thought in disappointment upon seeing that what he was looking for wasn't in the spatial ring he was holding.

What he was searching for was a weapon. His smoke claws weren't effective; they couldn't even scratch the hard scales of the lizardman, let alone pierce through them. He needed a weapon solid enough to get past the boss' natural defenses.

As for the rings he was looking through, they were obviously the rings containing the Night's base treasures. Alex didn't carry any weapons in his own spatial ring, mostly because he thought he wouldn't need them, relying on his smoke ability to create weapons with a snap of his fingers.

During this battle with the boss, he had come to realize that he might have overestimated the strength of the smoke element. Thanks to his sovereignty, the smoke element was maybe the most versatile element he knew, but it ultimately wasn't suited for offense nor defense, or at the very least, Alex didn't know how to get the best out of those two fields.

This was the reason why he needed a weapon right now. However, he scanned over three spatial rings and found no weapon in sight.

It wasn't until he was looking through the seventh ring that he caught sight of something. However, by that point, the dungeon boss had already obliterated the knights and the walls of smoke.

Shooting past the knights before they could reform themselves, the lizardman lunged towards Alex. Its spear spun with deadly precision, and in the blink of an eye, it was in front of Alex, its spear thrusting towards him.

Caught off guard, Alex couldn't do anything but pull out the weapon he had caught sight of and defend himself.

CLANG!