Then there was no time to think, as the monster was already upon them. Jonathan had a suspicion that it would be using a lot more of its power than it had the first time he had encountered it. Both men jumped to the side, Jonathan using his raw strength, and Edgar using his wind. The monster barreled by like a runaway freight train, its claws digging deep furrows into the ground. Each tread caused the ground to crack beneath it, and its breath heated up the air by hundreds of degrees.
Jonathan sighed. It seemed like this creature had fiery breath, just like what he would expect for a drake. It wheeled around, far more accurately than a monster of that size should have been able to, and unleashed a searing wave of fire that melted the earth into glass for hundreds of feet in every direction. Jonathan hunkered down and summoned his mana in front of him, creating a loose cloud of destructive energy. Meanwhile Edgar removed the air from around him, creating a vacuum that fire could not exist in. However, the heat still took them head on, cooking Jonathan inside his armor. Edgar did a bit better, as he used the air to funnel the heat away, but he was still suffering.
Dozens of health points were draining from Jonathan’s bar every second, but eventually the fiery stream of power ended. Jonathan staggered backwards, and Edgar seemed to right himself with a stream of compressed air, pushing himself to his feet. Both of the men sported copious burns, but none of them were anything worse than simple flesh wounds. Jonathan’s skin was already starting to knit back together with his regeneration, as he had barely taken even a twentieth of his health bar in damage. That had been a powerful attack, but it seemed to have been tailor made for dealing with larger groups of enemies, rather than a single target. If it had been in a beam format, then perhaps it would have done more damage to them, but as it was, most of the energy had been wasted on the surrounding land.
The monster blinked, as if confused that they had survived, and then roared, projecting a cone of force across the land. With its high level and massive size, the roar was like a physical attack, and Jonathan had to root his feet to stay standing in its path. The attack was like a hurricane, and Edgar was forced to unbind the air pressure with his own mastery over the air.
When the effects of the roar ended, Jonathan charged the monster, realizing that if he was to defeat it, he would need to engage it in close combat. There was no room for error here, so he would have to fight to the best of his ability, rather than letting Edgar get off most of the attacks. Doing that here would get them both killed.
Jonathan sprang towards the monster as it took in a breath, recouping the air that it had lost during its fiery attack, and the subsequent roar. It looked at him with beady eyes, and swiped through the air with its massive, clawed foot, but the attack narrowly missed Jonathan, sending its deadly force through the air rather than through his body. He landed on the beast’s head, and started to run up its length, trying to get to its skull. The monster snorted, and then started to buck, trying to dislodge him.
Jonathan grabbed onto a few of its spikes and held on as he moved, keeping himself close to the monster. It was unable to send him flying off with its motions, and he was soon able to get to the base of its skull. Edgar was sending up all manner of supporting fire with his elemental abilities, and bolts of wind were landing all around him, cracking scales and sending bits of flesh flying. However, the monster ignored Edgar, focusing instead on Jonathan, who was in a far more dangerous position.
The creature reared up on its hind legs, and then began to teeter backwards, evidently trying to force him to let go by landing on its back. Jonathan started to punch as the monster went down, trying to get in as much damage as he could before he hit the ground. The skin warped under his hands, sending the powerful vibrations from his attacks through the monster's flesh and into its brain. It hissed in pain, but by that time, it was about to hit the ground, and Jonathan was forced to let go and vault off to the ground.
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The creature made contact with a world shaking thud, and scrambled to its feet, likely anticipating that Jonathan would target its stomach next. So far, the monster was proving to be a difficult, but not impossible fight, at least judging by the strength that the monster was showing so far. If it was still holding back on them, or playing with its food, then they would be in trouble.
As the reptilian monstrosity slammed back to its feet, it stomped the ground with its front two feet, causing it to shake. A moment later, the ground began to rumble of its own accord, and lava began to bubble up from it, despite the fact that there was no lava underneath its feet. It was some sort of elemental ability, and as the oozing lifeblood of the earth headed out into the world, the heat started to notch up. This lava was on a similar level to that of the golems, enough to hurt Jonathan. However, he did not need to let it hit him, unlike what had happened with the golems, when he had been forced to clamber over their skin to reach them. The only difference here would be if the monster was able to use the lava to attack him.
Then the creature raised one claw, and the molten stone began to swirl around it like a vortex of heat, turning into a spear of fiery rock. It hissed through the air at Jonathan, causing him to throw himself to the side. The molten attack splattered everywhere, and Jonathan hissed in pain as it struck his armor, imparting its heat into his skin. Edgar was better off, and he used his abilities to funnel the attack away from him. Edgar was actually quite hard to hit, but the problem was that when he was struck, he took far more damage than Jonathan did. His elemental skills made him more durable than he normally was, but he was still quite frail in comparison to Jonathan. Jonathan was suited to being a solo fighter but Edgar was better off in a group, and he was able to accentuate Jonathan’s skills. When they fought together, their overall combat abilities increased dramatically.
Edgar sent off an enhancement skill towards Jonathan, as if to prove this point, causing him to speed up. He used that extra speed to dart around the pools of lava lying on the ground, and dodge the bolts of energy coming from the direction of the monster. The lava was formed into tight balls of heat by the monster’s will and power, and they sped at the speed of a bullet towards Jonathan, an impressive speed given how large they were. Each of them was probably made up of an entire bathtub’s worth of lava and they must have weighed quite a bit. However they moved through the air like they were made of nothing, and Jonathan was hard pressed to avoid them.
Some of them ruptured midair, and they bathed him in scorching liquid, but he managed to turn most of the heat away by twirling his armor as he moved. The surface of his armor was very smooth, and because of its high durability, it was able to let lava slide off of it that would have otherwise stuck to the surface and burned through the metal. Even though it was not Tier 2 yet, it was still showing its worth in a way that was extremely valuable to Jonathan’s prospects. He had magical abilities, but they were too weak to strike from afar effectively, at least against monsters like this. In order to use his full power, he had to get up close and personal with his opponents, and let them feel the power of his fists. With over five hundred points in Strength, he was like a human wrecking ball, especially with his threshold crossed.
His body contained immense power, and one strike from his fist was enough to take out a small hill. However, he never really got to see the full extent of his power given that the monsters that he was fighting were durable enough to shrug off his attacks like they were nothing more than regular punches. However, he still managed to even the odds with his other skills.