Chapter 183: Continuous Trial and Error

Mid Afternoon - Late Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)

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*WHAM-CRUNCH* As my head got slammed into the ground, I stuck out my wing and set the tip of it on the underside of the monster.

Almost instantaneously, a tiny sphere of clear gas formed around the tip. -GET OFF ME!- *BANG*

With a blinding flash, my wing was launched back into my body, driving me further into the ground, and the creature was thrown out into the water.

Climbing out of the rubble, I took a wide stance and opened my mouth towards where I assumed it was. -Suck on this!-

*flash-BUURRRMMM* The space around me was instantly lit up as a wide beam left my mouth.

The ground around me shattered as the water in front of me instantly turned to plasma, causing a secondary explosion of water pressure.

The damage to my surroundings and the cave was nigh-unfathomable with the nearly three-quarter gram of antimatter detonating with a force greater than the earliest nukes dropped on earth, but even that wasn't enough to really hurt the monster in front of me.

-The water weakens the explosion so f*cking much!- Getting agitated, I spread my wings and launched myself up through the tunnel of plasma left in the wake of the blast, but instead of colliding with the creature like I expected, I slammed into the ceiling.

*WHAM* Getting embedded deep into the rock, I used earth magic to shatter the stone and threw myself back out, but the instant I expected to hit a wall of water, several giant claws slammed into my back and shattered countless scales and bones.

"Ackk-" *CRUMBLE* Immediately realizing the situation was getting out of hand, I hastily made a gate and disappeared into the void. *Vwoom*

*crackle* The stone rubble that followed me through the gate was instantly devoured by the space mana as I floated and tried to calm my nerves.

-F*ck fighting that bast*rd is annoying...- Although compared to when I first met the monster, I fought far better and was incomparably stronger, I was still unbelievably far from killing him. -To think that I still can't kill it even after a month of fighting it nearly every day...-

With a bit of agitation, I finally took a close look at my body and noticed the countless cut or shattered scales along with the several fractured bones all around my body.

It was quite a bit of damage and looked quite extreme, but it would all heal in a little less than 24 hours and would only help my skin, bones, and scales to grow even more durable. -I really wonder just how durable I am compared to other dragons now...-

Compared to when I first started fighting the monster, I no longer had to fear its jaws snatching my life away should it decide to ignore my attacks and bite all the way through. By now, although its teeth could still get through my scales in one bite, they would get stopped by my skin and muscle. -But it still hurts getting bit...-

Quickly finishing my self-damage analysis, I floated over to the marker for the laboratory and left the void.

*Vwoom-blub* Immediately letting the water crash into me, I sank into the middle of the structure and swam to the control room, this time, remaining in my dragon form. -Those changes were really worth it...-

During my off time between fights, while I let myself heal and recover, I spent my time studying either antimatter or the power management of the structure.

At first, when I was just trying to learn what cables led where, I expanded a majority of the hallways to accommodate my dragon form. -It was truly a convenient change...-

Finally making it to the end of the hall, I pushed back the water and cut a large hole in the wall. *Clang-Thud*

Walking into the dark control room, I quickly resealed the wall and let out a deep sigh. "Haaah..." -What should I work on today?-

Looking around the room, I tried to find something I was yet to look at in detail, but there was nothing that immediately came to mind. -I feel like I'm at a dead end in terms of figuring out this damn electrical grid...-

Although I hated to admit it, I was stumped. 

Without being confident enough in my theories to risk the integrity of working equipment like the computer, my progression towards figuring out anything was excessively slow.

There were simply too many missing pieces of information I needed to figure out before I could take a single step beyond the basics. -High-sensitivity electronic currents are just not things I can guess at...-

Feeling demotivated, I laid down in the middle of the room and got ready to play with antimatter. -If only I had an example to look at...- But that was when a lightbulb went off. -Wait.. the structure at the bottom of the dungeon has been powered for nearly a month now. If everything has worked for that long, maybe I could use that as a model...-

At the time, I figured I would be able to kill the monster within the next month, giving me another month to play around with the alien electrical grid before I needed to meet up with Amara. 

But that was well before I noticed that I wasn't the only one getting stronger with the continuous fighting.

Before I knew it, two more months had passed, and I was still sitting in the control room trying to think of ways I could kill the creature. -To think I genuinely believed I was close to beating it two months ago...-

Simply put, the chasm of strength between the monster and I turned out to be far wider than I initially imagined. 

All things considered, it was a monster I would not normally be able to compete with. -But, thankfully, it can't use advanced magic.-

It was the one singular advantage I had over the monster, and it helped close the vast chasm of strength between us, but that seemingly massive advantage was less impactful than expected.

The routine spells I had come to rely on over the years were rendered completely useless. The monster's durability, combined with water's annoying properties, made it almost immune to everything I threw at it, including railguns, thrusters, or even city-busting nuclear blasts.

But this didn't mean there was no way to damage or kill it. In reality, I had already dealt quite a bit of damage over the previous three months, going as far as slicing off a few tentacles or eviscerating an arm with a point-blank antimatter explosion.

But the common denominator to everything that dealt damage was that it needed to be used point blank. It exposed my magic's weakest link, by far, as everything I had come to adore back on the surface comparably struggled when used underwater.

Eventually, to overcome this difficulty, I started spending more time developing new spells and managed to come up with a brutal but effective wind and earth magic combination.

All I needed to do was come into contact with an area with bones, then I would use earth magic to shatter part of it like normal, but then I would amplify the shockwave of the cracks, causing an insane chain reaction that shattered the entire bone the crack originated in and left millions of razor-sharp shards embedded in the creature's flesh.

"It's really gruesome magic, but I don't have the strength or time to show mercy." Sadly, I had almost completely run out of time. -I have five days left till I need to meet up with Amara, so I need to make this fight count.-

It was a little down to the wire, but as I swam down the hallway, I felt a little more confident than usual.