Ray and the rest of his teammates all quickly dashed out of the way as the Gargoyle barrelled at them. The monster was fast due to the sheer high level it possessed, but it was still a hulking stone behemoth. One that was constricted by petrified vines and had the least aerodynamic form of any creature possible.

So, even with the ton of power and speed it possessed, it didn’t manage to hit any of them with a direct charge.

But the narrow canyon corridor was going to make things difficult. Something the Gargoyle was determined to take advantage of. Its body started cracking and flaking apart, bits and pieces of it starting to storm around it.

Storm…

“Watch out!” Ray shouted. He didn’t know if the others had seen the entire list of abilities the creature possessed, but it didn’t hurt to warn them. “That thing’s going to blow!”

While Ray and Marcus were able to get even farther back, the canyon’s narrowness posed a strong problem for Gritty. She was backed up against the wall. The Gargoyle had essentially cornered her.

Thankfully, Marcus cast a spell that enveloped her in a golden barrier. Gritty had her own defensive abilities too.

Together, they were a powerful enough bulwark against the storm of stony shrapnel that the monster unleashed. Ray was a little too busy with using his own ability to notice how effective Gritty’s defences were, but he was satisfied that he didn’t hear anything too dangerous from her.

As for his own spell, Mottling Aeonguard was a lot strange than Mottling Spiritguard had been.

Spiritguard created sparking orbs of chaos that he could reshape into whatever form would be the most effective for a given purpose. That was why Ray could configure it into either defensive or offensive forms.

Aeonguard maintained the same ability of shaping the orbs however Ray saw fit. But in addition to that, they were now a deep blue, one that was almost black, instead of the mix of black and red they had been before. Ray understood it was entirely different Mana empowering the spell now. Aeon Mana.

Ray expanded one of the Aeonguard orbs as the storm of stony shrapnel rushed at him. The broken chunks of rocks passed into the orb and then slowed to a stop, as though it was made of molasses.

He grinned. There. Just as he had known, there was a time element to Aeon Mana. Good thing he had squeezed in a read of his new spell descriptions before coming to the dungeon island.

The stones didn’t simply remain frozen in place, though. As Ray pushed out more of the Aeonguard orbs, which started combining into a huge blob in front of him, the concentration of Aeon Mana increased. This made the broken stones start to coagulate, slowly reforming into a recognizable shape.

That of their aggressor, the Depthless Gargoyle itself.

Ray swallowed a little as he found he could exert some control over the newly created half-Gargoyle. The Aeonguard had only been able to create one leg, but even that was enough to make the monster inside its blue depths turn around.

As Stone Storm came to an end and the real Gargoyle faced the imposter version inside the huge Aeonguard orb, Ray quickly rechecked the spell’s description.

[Information Request—Spells]

Mottling Aeonguard [Barrier] [Tier 9]

A barrier spell that erects a shield of temporal energy around the caster in a radius of 9 meters. All damage slows to a stop within the spell’s vicinity, and further concentration of Mana allows any matter within the spell’s vicinity to revert to its original form. At Tier 9, this spell blocks up to Tier 12 attacks, but can be concentrated to block even higher Tiers, and costs 400 Aeon Mana.

Yes, there was the confirmation. He could not only block anything from reaching him, but he could also manipulate the cycle of anything caught within the spell itself.

Ray tried to control it further, forcing the spell itself to rush at the real Gargoyle. The deep blue orb and the stone monster it contained grinded forward.

But they failed to even reach their target. The Depthless Gargoyle roared out. A storm of petrified vines ripped away from the canyon walls, letting loose a violent, rocky avalanche that forced Ray, Marcus, and Gritty to get away from the walls.

Worse than that, the vines acted so fast that they crushed the fake Gargoyle inside Ray’s Aeonguard.

He frowned. Why hadn’t the vines been stopped by the spell? When he looked closer, trying to pierce through the veil of dust, he found that a lot of the vines had indeed shattered apart.

Hmm. Could it be the level difference between them? Or rather, it had to be the Tier difference between their respective abilities. The monster had access to Tier 20 and above skills. Ray’s Aeonguard was at Tier 9. Of course it was going to struggle to stop everything.

But that was where the concentration could come into play. If he pushed in enough Aeon Mana, he could survive. He could win.

Marcus: Gritty, get back on this side!

Gritty: Why? So we can all die together?

Marcus: That thing’s too strong. We need to combine our defences to hold it back.

She didn’t argue against that. Good plan by Marcus. Ray himself would have considered it, but he was still trying to figure out how to fight back against the Gargoyle instead of just standing on the back foot. He had to focus on winning, not just on exploring his new spells.

As Gritty tried to slip past the monster, it roared again. This time, Tectonic Reach came into play.

Glowing white cracks spread everywhere. Ray and the others shook where they stood—or moved, as was the case with Gritty—along with the entire canyon around them.

“I don’t like this!” Marcus shouted over the horrific fracturing.

“Just amp up your defences!” Ray said.

He was about to cast a series of spells to follow his own directive, but a new idea popped into his head. Just as the monster detonated its ability, Ray used Temporal Passage.

The spell worked just as he had envisioned it would. The world flashed with those chromatic outlines everywhere and Ray moved instantly. He didn’t really get to pick his direction as he would have with Spectral Step by sending out his summons everywhere.

Instead, he reappeared where he had been moments ago. In a safe spot, just a few feet behind and to the left of the Gargoyle.

As its description had stated, Temporal Step would teleport him to wherever he himself had been. Neat.

Ray didn’t waste a second. A part of him was worried about whether Marcus and Gritty were making it alive through that huge explosion Tectonic Reach had set off. But he knew he couldn’t let go of this chance.

So, Ray unleashed his own spells to attack.

His go to was using Lifeblood Soulform to create the flying Windbane heads to belch out their devastation, along with Primal Spiritcraft to do the same from his own hand.

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The spells were different now. Resurrect Recollect did create the spectral maws as before, a deep blue instead of a dark crimson. But Ray would never not recognize the furious maw brimming with flames that came to life. He would never not be delighted at the way it immediately attacked his target.

There was just a small difference this time. It wasn’t just the winged head that appeared. There was a faint outline of something more, trailing out of the back of the head like a ghost. Ray frowned. He focused his Mana more, pushing more Aeon Mana into the spell just as the maw yawned and blasted out a stream of temporal energy.

The attack didn’t have much of an effect on the Gargoyle. It was just too strong. The stony skin cracked but didn’t shatter, even when the construct continued applying its stream of energy into one spot.

Then the Gargoyle roared and countered. Its feet crunched across the ground as it rushed the draconic head down.

But it didn’t hit before Ray had finished applying the final touches of his spell. The rest of the construct formed in a split second. A long neck leading to a draconic body, wide wings stretching out from its back, a thick, heavy tail swishing across the ground for stability.

It wasn’t just the head that had formed. Ray had recreated the entirety of a Windbane. Wild.

Ray really wanted to take the time to determine just how he could do the same with his other constructs. He had the Viledrake tail. Did that mean he would be able to recreate an entire Viledrake? That seemed a little too insane.

Or… maybe not.

The Gargoyle slammed into the construct with its entire resurrected body. Ray would have thought that the presence of the rest of its form would grant it greater strength, but apparently, it didn’t matter against the Gargoyle.

With surprising ease, the monster crushed the construct to motes of sparkling blue energy. Ray cursed.

To be fair, his constructs were at Tier 9. Of course they wouldn’t stand a chance against an enemy that strong. Not one on one, at least. Which was why Ray created more of the constructs next, forcing more and more Aeon Mana into them to make them huge and whole.

And he didn’t even need to make as many as he thought he might. The one that had been killed was slowly resurrecting, reforming from the dispersed energy back into a single, solid form.

Ray shook his head with a smile. Resurrect Recollect was quite an apt name.

He did his best to control the constructs to make the battle more efficient. While one attracted the Gargoyle’s attention, the others fell farther back to fire at it from a distance. Slowly but surely, the monster was cracking apart, chunks of it falling off and shattering. They were getting there.

But it wasn’t enough. The renewed mass of the constructs made them slower, so they couldn’t evade the Gargoyle as easily. Ray winced as one got caught and was ripped apart.

“I got it!” Gritty shouted all of a sudden.

Somehow, while the Gargoyle had been distracted by the spectral Windbanes, she had leashed their enemy with her blood. Lurid scarlet liquid ran across the Gargoyle’s shoulders and right arm in separate little runnels like tiny snakes, cracking the limb and seeping inside.

The Gargoyle roared out as it was forced to stop. Ray’s lips set in a hard line. There. That was the opportunity he needed.

While his two remaining constructs continued their barrage, Ray was about to cast his next spells when he found his Mana stores empty. Specifically, his Aeon Mana stores. Crap. A crystal got him back to full capacity, but he had wasted a precious second.

With another grinding roar, the Gargoyle simply ripped itself free from the bloody lock Gritty had it under. Sure, that left almost a third of its body still trapped in the blood. But it was free. Free to barrel straight at Ray as though it had determined that he was the biggest threat here.

Summoning more constructs didn’t help. The monster charged through them bullishly, so fast that the Windbane maws couldn’t even get their pulsing breaths away.

Ray dodged with Temporal Passage, appearing behind the monster again. Good. He could keep repeating the process, cycling between positions whenever one got too dangerous.

The Gargoyle turned around with a deafening roar, ready to attack again. Gritty had engaged it directly this time, weaving fast between its huge legs and attacking with more blood that tore off chunks of it. The monster tried to stomp her, at times swiping with its one arm, but she was too small and too fast.

“Watch out!” came Marcus’s yell.

It was a little too late. The canyon shook again, the trembling preceding all the stony vines ripping themselves free to attack Ray and his team.

He cast Resurrect Recollect again. A black shell appeared just in front of him, but it didn’t stay as the shell like it always did. Instead, as Ray pushed a little more Aeon Mana into the spell, the Duskshell itself started forming around him.

Poor, resurrected monster took the brunt of the Gargoyle’s attacks. All those smashing petrified vines, even the blow from Titanic Reach. The Duskshell took all of it.

Keeping Ray perfectly safe.

“I’ve got it again!” Gritty yelled.

She was right. All the bloody punches and jabs she had dealt had caused her glowing crimson blood to coagulate around the Gargoyle’s neck.

Ray didn’t know if that thing could even be choked, but it was stationary. Held back, for just a moment, even as it struggled to free itself. His brows scrunched together. He would not let the opportunity slip by him.

The series of spells he cast was already familiar. Nothing different from what he had already tried. At first.

Resurrect Recollect brought up more Windbane maws flying on their own, their jaws brimming with deep blue fire. Aetheric Trace was next, creating a draconic head around his fist too. Ray conserved his Aeon Mana, not wanting to spend extra when the heads could already do what he needed them to.

They fired. He fired. Multiple streams of blue fire, compressed to the consistency of a laser, all shot at the Gargoyle at once.

The collision let loose a huge explosion, shaking everything around Ray, including himself. Not that it meant the monster was severely affected. It was attempting to protect itself, crossing its arms before itself. That included the formerly torn off limb too, which had been reattached by the petrified vines.

It wasn’t enough, ultimately. The Depthless Gargoyle was just too powerful, a monster that was at a high Tier suited for a Tier 35 dungeon.

But Ray wasn’t done. The Gargoyle roared, tearing itself free from the leash Gritty had applied to its neck. It lunged at Ray, despite the wounds, despite the cracks across its body and the chunks that fell off it.

Ray disappeared. Temporal Passage took him next to Gritty, who was close to where he had been moments ago.

Then, he cast Momentous Domain.

A field of blue energy gave birth to a spectral version of the monster where it had been just seconds ago, a ghostly blue representation of its prior temporal state. A state that had been attacked by a half-dozen coruscating, obliterating fiery lasers.

As soon as the explosion was done, as soon as the broken and battered time ghost started lunging forward, just like the real one had, it shot into its original version.

The Gargoyle screamed as this time it really did start falling apart. Once more, Ray was glad he had squeezed in a read of his spell descriptions before getting into the dungeon. Soulsurge Field hadn’t been something he had used often, but Momentous Domain… Ray shook his head. He was basically reapplying all the damage he had dealt a moment ago.

His new spell was cracked.

The Depthless Gargoyle was still not dead, but that was fine. Marcus rushed in, his hand glowing. His missing hand.

“Time for me to finally step in!” he yelled as he shot forward.

That statement held nothing helpful or even a warning, but Ray heeded his instinct that told him to fall back. He retreated several feet. Just in time.

As the Depthless Gargoyle tried to reform itself from its crushed remains, not dead even now, Marcus struck. His hand, the glowing, missing hand, exploded the second he was within a foot of his target.

Ray had thought that the blast from his combined Windbane maw breaths was strong. This was something else. He was forced to close his eyes as searing light covered the entire place, the shockwave from the blast forcing him back several steps.

By the time he was blinking his eyes back open, the kill notification had popped up.

[Enemy Defeated—Depthless Gargoyle]

Tier 31 Monster: Darksign [Level 64] x1

Essence: +19,840

Knowledge: +3

Aeon Mana Restored: +1,984

Essence to Level 51: 33,680/262,000

Knowledge to next Threshold: 2,539/3,500

Ray cleared the dust in front of his face. “I thought you were getting a new hand, Marcus. Not a nuke.”

Marcus laughed. “I like to call it… my holy hand grenade.”

Ray stared at him. Gritty joined in the staring. Marcus unflinchingly continued laughing.

Shaking his head, Ray turned to the remains of the Depthless Gargoyle. “That thing was tough.”

“Well, yeah,” Gritty said. “It was, what, Tier 31? Fucking nuts.”

“Right, but the point is we can’t waste so much time on one monster when our real goal is wherever the boss room is.”

“So we just need to find a way to deal with them quickly.”

“Using my holy hand grenade!” Marcus said with an almost manic grin.

Ray stomped down on that idea before it could really take root. “No, we stop fighting them. It’s a waste of time. Or at least, we all don’t need to fight them. Next one that comes up, only one of us is going to stay back and deal with it while the rest of us move on. Got it?”

Gritty saluted with a bloody hand. “Aye, aye, boss.”

“No holy hand grenade?” Marcus was seriously making puppy dog faces at Ray.

Ray sighed. “We’ll see. For now…” He cast Resurrect Recollect again, giving form to the flying eyeball. “Whoever’s going ahead will need to take that thing with you. Just so we can meet back up quickly.”

“Oh, I get a pet!” Gritty said. “Wait, I can make my own to—”

The canyon shook hard. So much so that Ray had a hard time not falling over. That was when they spotted the enormous corridors shifting. The petrified vines were literally dragging the cliffsides around to reshape the direction they were supposed to go.

“I don’t like this…” Ray said.

Gritty was all serious business now. “Yeah. We should get moving. Let’s go!”

With their path clear, Ray and the rest of his team hurried forward before the canyon collapsed on them all.