Without another word, they watched as the ritual blossomed into existence. Muscles swelled within the mage’s corpse, and flesh came back together in a twisted parody of a human form. The body erupted with muscles, turning into a ten foot tall hulk of twisted flesh. The newly born monster roared across the ash, before beating its chest with misshapen hands. Then it locked its eyes on the party, grinning through broken teeth. Raising one hand, the monster summoned a thunderbolt from the clear skies, creating a red spear in one hand. With a grunt, it threw. The thunderbolt seemed to pierce through space, moving far faster than it should have. Edgar hurriedly summoned a barrier of wind that deflected it, but to his surprise, the shield almost cracked.
“Bastard must be juiced up on hundreds of thousands of mana points,” Edgar said. “However, that sort of stress will kill it before long.”
“You have a scanning ability, right?” Eva asked Jonathan. “You should use it.”
“Right. I forgot about that. This whole thing was rather distracting.” Jonathan quickly leveled Truesight at the monster, getting results immediately.
Manawoven Hulk(Boss)
Level 150
Health/Mana/Stamina: 250000/250000
Status: Unstable
The interface was rather strange. Rather than simply having health, it almost looked as if the monster had a single pool of energy that was shared for everything. In addition, the unstable status was new, likely to do with how the mana roiled beneath its flesh, fighting to escape. Jonathan shared this with the others, but before they could make a plan, the monster loped across the plain, exploding forwards with detonations of mana. It moved like a bullet, streaking forwards in a straight line. Its body hummed with power, and bits of flesh fell off as it moved. However, that was beside the point. It was still capable of doing a lot of damage.
Jonathan raced forwards, meeting its charge with his own. His fist slammed into the Manawoven Hulk’s body, but to his surprise, it seemed to slow down as it impacted, doing far less damage than it should have. This was likely the result of the shared resource pool of the monster. A moment later, a fist blurred in, slamming into his gut. Without his armor, Jonathan’s flesh was exposed to the world, and the fist seared it with roiling energy as the mana leaked out into the world around it. He took the blow in stride, coughing up blood. The monster was strong, but he was stronger yet.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Another fist came blurring in, but Jonathan parried it with his left arm, before stepping in and under. With a roar, he threw the monster over his shoulder, and before it could hit the ground, he snapped through space, using his stamina to propel himself, straight beneath its falling body. A fist as hard as diamond slammed into the monster’s spine, cracking bones and tossing it into the air. As it hung there for a moment, Edgar and the others attacked, bathing the monster in energy attacks. Flesh tore under the barrage, but the corrosive mana rushing through the monster’s form kept it moving. It landed a second later, panting heavily. With a howl, it pounced towards the others, seeking to punish those who had harmed it.
Jonathan tackled it, gritting his teeth as his flesh steamed. With a series of brutal blows he knocked it to the ground, breaking bones in the process. This was a fight that he could use his Martial Arts skill to the utmost potential. Drawing upon his knowledge of weak points, he hammered the monster with a barrage of blows, breaking apart the creature’s flesh.
It punched at him again and again, but he knew its pattern now. He moved like a dancer, pistoning in and out of martial forms, utterly devastating the beast with nothing but his strength and speed alone. Then everything changed. The monster started to glow brighter and brighter, and Jonathan’s intuition told him to scan it once more. As he did so, he screamed for the others to move.
Manawoven Hulk(Boss)
Level 150
Health/Mana/Stamina: 124560/250000
Status: Detonating
Jonathan rushed forwards, moving at the very peak of his speed, and swept the others up, carrying them away from the monster. As he ran, the creature exploded, sending a pillar of light up into the sky. A rolling shockwave picked him up, tossing him hundreds of feet into the air. His flesh sizzled in the heat, but he used his body and Void energy to shield the others. The blast wave carried him away, but this time, it was nowhere near as strong.
When he landed, he was the only one injured. He let the others go, and collapsed, panting heavily as his body regenerated from the damage. This was starting to get annoying. If they had to deal with a constant assault from ritual abusing mages the entire way to the capital, something would eventually go wrong, much like it had before.
The attack shook Jonathan more than it should have, stirring up memories of the first ritual explosion that had wiped out his weaker allies. Although he had barely known them, they were still part of his city, and he had failed them. As he lay there, he clenched his fists so hard that they audibly creaked. He let go, and channeled his anger into the ground, cracking it as tendrils of Voidlight surged outwards. Rising to his feet, he set his gaze towards the Ashen Citadel. To hell with taking this slow and steady. It was time to take the fight to Granath.
“Let’s go,” Jonathan said stonily to the others. “I’m getting tired of this.” Something in his voice scared them so much that they simply followed as he started running towards his target.