The Tyrant 2

The Tyrant, however, did not want to give Liam any more time to think. Dropping down onto all fours, it roared once more. The roar released so much wind pressure that Liam had to steady himself on the ground to avoid being blown away.

After roaring, it charged at Liam, swiping one of its claws toward him. Liam charged at the same time. He jumped up and dodged the claw, spinning around as he changed his spear to Dragon Mode. Pouring in energy, he unleashed a 2000-degree Celsius flame beam at the Tyrant.

The Tyrant's fur burned slightly while its claw tore through the ground as if cutting butter. 

'As expected, it isn't the real Tyrant,' Liam thought. 'There's no way Dani had enough energy for that, after all. It isn't nearly as tall, fast, or strong as the one I saw in the dream. Despite that, its claws are still super sharp.' His eyes went to the destroyed earth behind him.

The next moment, his expression soured as he felt and saw the Tyrant absorb energy from the surrounding area. The patches of fur that had been burned stopped taking damage and regenerated completely.

"It replicated its ability to adapt and it can also heal like the other beasts?" Liam doubted it was possible, but somehow, the Tyrant had done it. 'What a monster.'

Another claw came his way. Activating his Eldritch Sights, Liam jumped up and landed on the claw, running up the massive arm while dragging Neontote in its normal form through its skin. The spear left a large cut wherever it sliced.

The Tyrant suddenly changed its stance, putting its hind legs right beneath its body and raising its upper body instantly.

 With a violent motion, it threw Liam meters into the air. Spinning uncontrollably, Liam managed to regain some control mid-air. He glanced downward and saw the Tyrant's mouth open wide, energy flowing from the surroundings into a growing fireball.

"Really? Fire again?" Liam muttered, rolling his eyes. Shifting Neontote back to Dragon Mode, he propelled himself downwards. The beast unleashed its fire breath just as Liam flew past its mouth, narrowly avoiding the insanely hot breath.

On his way down, Liam noticed a claw and saw an opportunity. Changing Neontote to its normal form, he held it above him. As he passed by the claw, he sliced downwards with all his momentum. Neontote's sharp blade managed to severed one of the five claws on the Tyrant's hand.

The Tyrant roared in pain and instantly began absorbing more energy from the surroundings, completely healing itself and reattaching the severed claw.

"That's not going to work, huh," Liam thought grimly as he hit the ground, cracking it on impact.

He used Eldritch Sights to observe the energy flow around the creature and discovered something disturbing. "It's disconnected itself from Dani," he realized. "That means even if the caster is killed, it won't disappear until it is somehow killed."

While observing further, he noticed something else. "It's absorbing energy passively, but where is all that energy going?"

The Tyrant began gathering energy on a larger scale. This time, ice shards erupted from the ground around Liam.

Liam tried to escape by running in different directions, but the Tyrant kept blocking his path, eventually trapping him in a cage of ice spikes. 'It definitely didn't have that ability in the dream,' Liam thought as he noticed a spike shooting up from beneath him.

Summoning an eldritch construct shield with his left hand, he blocked the spike's point. Using the momentum, he propelled himself atop the spike, launching himself into the air and out of the icy prison.

Grabbing Neontote by the end of its shaft, as he saw another claw approaching. He wanted to change the spear to Dragon Mode but didn't have time. The claw slashed across his chest, breaking away a section of his armor. Blood spilled as Liam was hurled back.

"Is it getting faster, or is that just an illusion?" Liam wondered, gritting his teeth.

'While its speed wasn't particularly fast because of its size, its claws are still incredibly fucking sharp.' Liam thought, as he used Neontote's Dragon Mode to softly burn the wound on his chest, stopping the bleeding. 

"I have no way to counter its healing either," he thought, his mind racing for solutions.

As ice spikes erupted around him again, Liam thought of a far-fetched idea that might just work. He kept running across the battlefield, dodging ice spikes and evading the Tyrant's claw swipes. 

Summoning a whip construct, he bound it to the end of Neontote and turned to face the incoming arm. Using the momentum of his sudden turn, he hurled Neontote with all his strength and leapt up himself. The spear pierced deep into the Tyrant's upper arm, straightening the whips line.

Pulling on the whip, Liam swung himself onto the Tyrant's shoulder. He charged forward, but ice spikes started appearing there too. Reaching one of its glowing red eyes, he leapt back as a claw slammed into the shoulder in front of him. 

The claw moved sideways to shake him off like an annoying pest. Liam jumped over it, landing on the Tyrant's face. Summoning a needle-like construct, he focused on making it as sharp as possible and drove it into the side of the Tyrant's head.

Using the needle as foothold, Liam leapt up higher. Raising Neontote, he plunged it as deep as possible into the Tyrant's eye.

Clinging to the weapon, he transformed it into Dragon Mode and poured in a massive amount of energy, including a small amount of white energy from his body.

 Inside the eye, a flame appeared—starting light blue, shifting to deep purple, then light purple, and finally a pale white. The 4000-degree Celsius flame erupted, melting the entire eye in seconds. The fire spread deeper into the creature's head. But the Tyrant's massive claws were closing in fast from both sides.

Liam had no choice but to let go and fall. The Tyrant's claws collided, the impact accelerating Liam's descent. As he fell, the Tyrant sucked in more energy from the surroundings to heal its eye and simultaneously prepared another flame breath.

Its mouth opened, and another fire blast followed Liam downwards. Just before impact, a blue portal appeared beneath him. The flame struck the ground, but Liam had already vanished, reappearing from another portal some distance away.

As he hit the ground, he noticed someone beside him. "Why are you back?" Liam asked, recognizing Illyana, who stood with her Soulsword in hand and Lockheed flying beside her.

"I can't let you fight this alone; you'll die," she replied. "The others are safe and a few miles away."

The Tyrant roared crazily, realizing its eye wasn't healing. 'It worked,' Liam thought. The white energy from Incursio had disrupted its regeneration. 'That white energy must have adapted the other energy to counter the constant healing.'

But something terrifying was happening. The Tyrant was absorbing energy at an insane rate it hadn't done before, its body growing taller rapidly.

'It's absorbing all the energy from its surroundings to grow stronger. A monster capable of never-ending evolution has been created, if not stopped now, it will be hard to imagine what it could possibly do.' Liam thought, before feeling a sense of danger.

"Move back!" Liam shouted to Illyana as the energy suction reached them. Even Incursio roared in his mind as he felt his own energy being drained.

"What the fuck?" Liam cursed, feeling Incursio's energy being pulled away as if called back by its original owner.

"What's happening, Liam?" Illyana yelled.