A few kilometers from the last hunting spot of the boys, a very powerful monster is consistently watching us from afar. I constantly changed places and concluded that it's definitely observing us.
It was strange that it didn't attack us while we were occupied and busy fighting. For their safety, I made a reasonable excuse and had them leave the forest as soon as possible.
I don't know what its intentions are yet, so I warped myself a few dozens of meters away from its location. It doesn't seem like something I can communicate with, but I have to confront it anyway.
I somehow knew it could detect me, but I still tried to hide myself behind a tree. From there, I peek between the gaps of the tree trunks and conduct a detailed analysis on it.
The monster is quite long, estimated to be around thirty meters in length. It's serpentine in shape if you ignore the only appendages that sprout from its body, a pair of black bat wings that flapping consistently to levitate itself in midair constantly.
Coated with tough and lustrous black scales that reflect myriad colors like a prism. Has a head of a reptilian and slit eyes that are sternly glaring at my hiding spot. I only activated Concealment so it can still perceive me with the sensing Skill of it.
It's a species of monster that I have never seen before. From the characteristics and skills it possessed, I can only conclude that this is a dragon-type monster. It's probably an evolution of a Wyrm, a limbless and wingless race of dragons.
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Name: Wormy
Race: Amphiptere
Title: Dragon Slayer
Condition: Normal
LV: 864
MP: 19236
STR: 11332
DEF: 10178
MAG: 21034
MDEF: 14550
AGI: 16982
Racial Skill: Dragon Scales, Kin Command
Extra Skill: Auto-Recovery, Auto-MP Recovery, Intimidation
Skill: Magic Sense, Detection, Danger Detection, Thought Acceleration, Breath Attack, Bite, Steel Wing, Sky Dive, Enhanced Senses, Heat Detection, Scale Shot, Wing Blast
Magic Skill: [Elemental: Fire: 6, Wind: 6, Water: 5, Earth: 5, Lightning: 3, Compound: 4] [Non-Elemental: Pure: 5, Force: 4]
Resistance: Pain Resistance, Exhaustion Resistance, Impact Resistance, Hunger Resistance, Mental Attack Resistance, Physical Attack Resistance, Natural Effect Resistance, Blast Resistance, Poison Resistance, Magic Resistance, Infliction Resistance, Temperature Resistance, Visual Effect Resistance
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This Amphiptere has a whopping Level of more than eight hundred, almost two hundred more than that lizard we fought before. Of course, it's much more powerful and stronger than Griffith in terms of overall stats.
It's currently the most Leveled monster that I've personally encountered so far, if we exclude the over Level 2000 Ancient Dragons my Clairvoyance recorded.
All its tabs are in five figures, with magical power exceeding twenty thousand. It's remarkably agile since its structure is pretty slim and it hovers in the air.
But the thing that caught my attention the most was its name. It has a freaking name! That means it has an owner who probably sent it to intently observe me, probably.
But for what? I don't remember having someone with whom I have an account. Is it probably from the Five Headed Hydra that my egos encountered with? If it's them, how did they know about me? Finding out who's behind the party's identity is low but not zero.
The way the owner named it, it turned a Level 800 monster into a mere pet! The owner must be a lot more powerful than its monstrous pet. I have to deal with that problem later. I have to deal with this monster first.
From the looks of it, it seems it can't form a communication to begin with. I can't fathom its unnatural behavior since then, but it is definitely waiting for me to approach it.
As if impatient, the Amphiptere finally made its move. It started to take in air and expand its chest. Since it's a dragon, I immediately knew what specific attack it was about to release.
When it took in enough air, it unleashed its stored energy from its mouth. A huge wave of freezing air is being released and targeted at the spot where I am hiding.
I immediately teleported myself away from the range of its frost breathe and let the trees solidly freeze in an intense chill. As I looked back at the site, a small tundra unfolded in front of my eyes.
The Amphiptere sensed my location and reeled in its breath to mine. I moved away, but it is still aiming its chilling breath at me.
Before I realized it, the kilometer radius area where we are became a pale blue forest of ice, and I mean that literally. Many nearby monsters froze to death or were completely immobilized for those who barely survived.
The damage of its single attack is greater than I thought. That attack alone could freeze an entire city in a single attempt. Good thing we are in the middle of the forest.
The Amphiptere finally stopped its Breath Attack, but changed the element of its breath. After the bone-chilling cold, a blazing flame spewed out of its obtusely opened mouth.
"Hot!"
Although I managed to avoid the flames, the heat it convect still reached my bare skin. Despite having Temperature, Pain and Magic Resistances, I could still feel pain from it, and it would inflict damage to my body due to its white colored flames, a flame heated by Level 6: White Flame.
Every time I step on the iced earth, it is immediately melted and evaporated by the white fire. Not even a minute has passed, and the frozen forest has turned to char, as if the extreme cold from before was nothing but a lie.
The white flames subdued, and the Amphiptere took a deep breath again. Not wasting that moment, I unsheathed my Sanguine Lotus from its scabbard and drew myself closer to the occupied hovering dragon.
I cannot afford to let this destructive monster run havoc in this forest, even though it is quite distant from civilization. It might come closer to any settlement if I leave this monster unattended.
I don't have to leave a bad taste in my mouth if it causes massive, unnecessary killing and destruction.
But before I could come closer, the serpentine dragon suddenly whipped its tail, shooting dozens to hundreds of clearly sharp and hard black scales at the future track. It was probably the Scale Shot Skill.
I instantly stopped from dashing to avoid the relatively huge scales along my path. I look up to see another volley of bullet-fast scales at my stopping point, to which I spring myself up in place.
But what awaits me midair is a dazzling yellow streaks of lightning that flew meticulously at the zero velocity of my jump. The lightning breath is too fast for me to react, so I let it writhe through my body.
"Ack?!"
It's too late to deploy a barrier, and I was blown up as I was descending to the ground. Thanks to my five-digit magic defense, resistance to magical attacks, and my gears, I was able to tolerate the damage.
My back felt pain as I snapped a few thick trees from the knocking momentum of the lightning before landing on the earth scorched by its fire breath.
"Another thanks to my stats again for reducing the impact dam—?!"
I cut my words halfway as I felt a huge amount of mana in the air. Upon looking up at the cloudy sky, a hundred meter diameter sky blue magic circle manifests a kilometer above the surface. Only two words came out of my mouth after I saw what spell the circle contained.
"No way…"
It's definitely a Level 10 magic spell, one I once witnessed being cast by Mom before. A massive spell with destructive area of effect output. Water Magic Level 10: Iceberg Meteor.
The current me couldn't handle the damage of this spell and would get crushed like a tomato if I took it personally, so I have to get out of this situation.
But one of my minds, the one tasked with Omnidirectional Perception, reminded me of the deployment of some barriers around me.
As I looked around, multiple translucent membranes erected themselves around me. The circumferences of the barriers are exactly the same as the gigantic magic circle above.
"So you gonna trapped me in here? It looks like you forgot about somet—?! Huh?"
I tried to cast Warp to escape, but I didn't get transferred. I tried other Teleportation spells but they all gave the same results. The spells worked, but the teleportation was delayed by several seconds. There's only one spell that could prevent me from teleporting.
"…Space-Time Magic Level 8: Transfer Delay…"
One of the barriers deployed was a Transfer Delay, an attribute that wasn't on its skill board. I glanced at the Amphiptere and finally realized it was still stationary, hovering in midair, didn't cast a spell since the lightning bolt.
It was at that moment that I knew, I fucked up. The Iceberg Meteor and barriers were not cast by the Amphiptere, but by someone from afar. Its owner was the first and only thing to surface.
I looked up at the sky and saw the magic circle just finish its casting. Then a ridiculously huge chunk of solid ice dropped off of it, large enough to fit the barriers.
"Oh no! I have to get out as quickly as I can!"
I ran as fast as I could as the iceberg went inside the kilometer-high barriers like fired bullets passing through the rifling. But one of the barriers erected was an Anti-Physical Barriers so I cannot break it by normal means.
I drew my katana and swung it with all my might at the barriers, but it didn't waver a bit. The strength of the barriers depends proportionally on the caster's magic power. Which means the caster has, probably by a factor of two, more magic power than I do.
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