I Alone Breed Dragons

Chapter 42: The Dungeon Boss

The shroud of dust slowly settled.

I strode closer into the main hall, stepping through the rubble of the reinforced door and ice chunks of the Wolf’s body. I walked inside.

On getting in, it was a wide hall with silence towering. High pillars held it up. The torches rounded the halls.

The pillars were grey with several designs of ice creatures. They bear the talons. Everything like motifs in pattern. I traced them with my hand, feeling the cold stone under my fingertips. I walked forwards.

I half noticed a figure sitting on an elevated stage. There was a half-destroyed throne made of ice.

The mana which filled the room was chilling and all came from the figure before us.

It had a humanoid shape. But I couldn’t classify it as a human. Its skin was too pale to belong to a living thing. Metal armor crept from under its skin, plated outwards.

It sat on the throne. Its head hung down as it leaned forward from its chair. Fingers tangled together like it was thinking about something deeply.

I halted at the center of the hall. Quinette hovered by my side.

I watched it sit there for a full minute. The adrenaline I had from breaking in here ebbed.

"Is that thing going to attack or what?" Quinette said.

"I don’t know," I said, keeping my eyes on it.

If it is not attacking we’ll attack first. I made up my mind. If we were a lower class I wouldn’t have suggested that, but now with our new rank that was a possible decision using our built of momentum while the Dungeon boss still sat. I thought.

I advanced, just a step. About to dash towards the boss to put up a fight. Then it disappeared from its throne. My eyes widened. The throne was empty.

It reappeared.

Dropped from the stage. Its feet touched the ground gently. But a loud rumble arose.

Cracks radiated out from its foot into every corner of the large temple. From the cracks, a liquid energy seeped out coating the ground. I spread my wings, leaving the spot behind as I flew into the air.

The boss took another step and the rumbling grew louder. The walls cracked. The pillars shook.

What’s this. I didn’t wait for an answer. I dived down to attack. No better than to find out its magic or technique than to taste it.

But shooting down at the dungeon boss, it raised its head a little. I glimpsed its eyes under its kind sapphire hair. Plain white with a golden ring at the point.

I prepared Adapt. Absorb. Charging Ice Affinity to my palm. My wings gave me the aerial speed and angle I needed. Quinette too flew from the opposite direction so we could hit it from both angles.

As we neared the gap, it disappeared. One moment it was standing there. The next empty space. I thrust my dagger at nothing. Quinette altered her direction, taking up higher so my blade wouldn’t get at her.

Where’s it. Before I could land my eyes on it, it found me. It passed me by side and brushed my shoulder.

"Soulfreeze," it whispered.

From where it touched.

My veins from my shoulder down turned deep blue. A sharp pain shot at my veins. It burrowed into my flesh.

Not just painfully. Like my soul was being sucked out from my body. I groaned, tightening my jaw. I felt half of my mana left. My body grew weaker. Putting my affected arm in paralysis state.

"A paralysis technique..."

I held it in. Whipped my other dagger with my other arm which wasn’t affected.

It vanished again. I scanned around. Couldn’t land my eyes on him once more. His mana filled the room. It was hard to place him out from the dark halls. No sounds, no movement.

’It doesn’t seems like his using spatial magic. It Different.’

[Adapt: Magical Technique: Soul Freeze (SSS Rank)]

[Damage Reduction: -6%]

My adapt ability triggered. But due to the power level of the technique, my body took gradually to adapt to it.

I did a full check around. He wasn’t there. Quickly I looked above me. Quinette was descending to me. Behind her he was there. Its motion looked slow. But still I couldn’t catch why it moved so faster. My eyes widened as I noticed it reached to Quinette’s back. She couldn’t sense him too.

Before I could realize it I already propelled myself towards her. My wings flapped as fast as I could. I veered past Quinette, twisted with a slash at the Soul knight. I caught it. It didn’t teleport away. My blade inched closer to its head. A fatal blow that would land before he could touch Quinette.

Clang. But he intercepted my blade. A sword suddenly appeared in its palm from nowhere.

Our eyes met once more. His hair parted like a veil. I stared into its eyes.

Its golden circle in its eyes glowed. I thin lines trailed in my mana vision, a negative coloring. The thin line traced to behind me. Then it disappeared. This time I knew where exactly he had vanished to. Without looking I blocked its sword that was about to claw down at my shoulder from behind. I grinned. "You’re ain’t vanishing are you," I said.

It didn’t reply to my words at all. Holding my grip against its sword as it applied harder pressure. My muscles tensed. Mana kept my strength to bear the weight a bit. But closer. The knight’s sword inched closer.

I spun and kicked off the Soul knight’s body, creating space between the both of us. Skidding back.

I now understood why its mana seemed to be confined in this place. I caught the web cracks that spread throughout the house with mana. This entire room was its mana.

And at a close look when I looked inside its eye it felt hollow. Like an empty shell being pushed around.

It moved again, blinked then appeared behind me. Clang. The forced weight crushed me down. The ground beneath me dented. Its sword chipped at my dagger. It splintered. I fought to keep myself from getting sliced in two, but the knight looked like it wasn’t even trying.

"You’re giving me a hard time I would admit." Its sword began to cut deeper at my dagger.

Quinette circled through the air then closed in to cut at the knight.

I abandoned my dagger, spun, held its arm in a lock, then pushed it upwards using ice as a prop.

Quinette’s cutting slash streaked at the Soul knight, a large arc which cut at nothing.

The knight once again disappeared. Quinette slash collided with the wall with explosive force. Rubble exploded out, revealing the outer air. Immediately it did I turned around using my dagger to stab at the nothing at first. It seemed then.

The knight teleported just in the way. I stabbed at it piercing my blade into its eye. Blood dripped down from the stab.

It remained motionless with my ice dagger still embedded into its socket.

"I already figured out your technique. If you don’t take this seriously your eye wouldn’t be the only thing you’ll miss."

For the first time it wasn’t emotionless. It grinned.