“Fireball! Wind Blade!” Narias was using every opportunity to attack the Crystal Hornhead the moment he engaged the monster. His attacks seemed to be ineffective, but Narias wasn’t giving up. “Damn it. It has to have a weakness somewhere. Huh? Wind Burst!”

- ‘Swipe!’ – A swipe of the Crystal Hornhead’s arm blade slashed through the thin air where Narias was standing a moment ago.

Narias was becoming good at anticipating the monster’s attacks. He had fought it several times now, even if only to try and escape from it. It might’ve been more difficult before, but Narias was doing a great job keeping himself safe. The reason for it was that previously he was trying to get away, so he wasn’t exactly focused on the Crystal Hornhead’s movements, but now that he was actually trying to fight it, the oversized bug’s movements seemed to be slower than before.

“I can’t even make a dent on it. Its shell is too tough to penetrate. Maybe if I attack it from above. Humph, Wind Burst!” Ideas were rushing through Narias’s head as he was pushing his mind to think of a solution on how to defeat the rare monster. “Huh? Is that? Ah, Wind Shield!”

With the help of his Wind Burst spell Narias jumped up higher in an attempt to attack the Crystal Hornhead from above, noticing a spot on its back having some sort of scratch or a crack. He couldn’t see it clearly, but it was evident it wasn’t supposed to be there. Then he remembered Miss Alifur fighting the Crystal Hornhead at the beginning, giving him a hint she could’ve been the one who damaged the monster’s shell.

“Alright, I’ll just… Oops, Wind Shield! Wind Burst!” As soon as Narias landed on his feet, he was planning to attack the Crystal Hornhead again, but the monster moved, rushing Narias and ramming itself at the wall behind him after he successfully got out of the way. Narias fell on the ground, however, his body receiving a few extra bruises again.

Oh, no. My body doesn’t move the way I want it to. Must be because I hadn’t eaten anything for too long. As determined as Narias was, lacking food or sleep, or both, might’ve been the factor preventing him from giving his all. He was trying to save food to last him longer, but his body couldn’t ignore the lack of energy it needed right now.

“I need to… Fire Wall! Boost!” Narias had enough strength to cast his spells, even if they were less effective. He erected a wall of fire to hinder the Crystal Hornhead’s sight before darting to the small tunnel to get away. “You better leave while you still can, you hear me? Because I’ll be back!” Narias shouted from the small corridor, removing himself completely when the Crystal Hornhead charged at him again, its horn smashing into the wall. A few rocks scattered on impact, but the small entrance was unaffected by its powerful charge attack.

“Right, I need to eat and get some rest too. Only half a portion left, huh? That’s more than enough for me. Let’s dig in,” Narias sat down, crossing his legs underneath. The look in his eyes and the determination on his face showed he had forgotten about all the pain he was feeling just a moment ago. Narias ate slowly, savouring every bite, his mind calm yet busy. He was playing the fight against the Crystal Hornhead in his head, vividly imagining how it will go step by step, also asserting himself how hard he’d need to push himself if he was to win.

“Right, I’m ready.” Narias declared aloud, ready to leave his safe spot.

He had woken up after the long rest, feeling very good about himself. The last bits of food were gone, eaten before he laid down to rest. Narias hadn’t left any other option to himself other than to win. If he wanted to get out of the Magic Dungeon, his only option was to defeat the Crystal Hornhead. Even without the food left with him right now, Narias figured he’d be fine. All he’d need to do would be to find a Supply Point room where he hoped he’d find some food left behind.

- ‘Bump.’ – A sound of rock falling was heard, attracting the Crystal Hornhead’s attention.

The huge bug monster charged towards it, leaving an open space for Narias to pass.

“Boost,” Narias whispered and was as quiet with his steps as he possibly could, wanting to reach the exit of the cave before the Crystal Hornhead would notice him.

Unfortunately, Narias wasn’t so lucky as to have the huge bug let him pass without getting spotted. That didn’t matter. All Narias wanted to do is to get a head start, so he could reach the next cave room faster. His plan was to fight the Crystal Hornhead in the other cave, but he wanted to kill the Pincer Ants that might had respawned in it first, so it would be safer to do so. To slow the Crystal Hornhead down to not get to him while running through the wide tunnel, Narias was zig-zagging from one side of the tunnel to the other. This made the Crystal Hornhead rush, charge and ram itself into the wall, forcing the monster to stop, giving Narias additional time to get away again.

Huh? No Pincer Ants? That means they haven’t respawned yet. Not good. Narias became a little worried about that part, but it was too late to worry about it now. He had to fight the Crystal Hornhead no matter what.

“Alright, it’s just you and me now!” Narias yelled out, getting ready to fight like never before. “Fireball!”

A burning ball of fire flew at the approaching huge bug monster. It lowered its head for the Fireball to hit the top part of its head, just above the massive horn on its forehead. Even if the Crystal Hornhead was resistant to magic, Narias already knew it didn’t like fire too much. The creature’s mouth might’ve been more susceptible to damage, but it was easy for the creature to protect it. All the Crystal Hornhead had to do was to lower its head and allow for Narias’s spells to hit its forehead which most definitely had the biggest resistance to any damage.

Narias might’ve tried to devise a plan to somehow hit the Crystal Hornhead’s mouth in order to defeat it, but now that there was a chance the mark on its right side upper back was an actual crack left by Miss Alifur’s attacks, he was going for it instead. The only problem was, Narias wouldn’t be able to hold on to anything to keep himself on the monster’s back. The Crystal Hornhead’s back was covered with two hard shells closely connecting in the middle with the shells being smooth with nothing to grab on.

I need to stop it in its tracks if I want to get on its back. Narias was looking for a way to make the Crystal Hornhead stop, so he could try to get on its back.

“Wind Blade!” The Crystal Hornhead didn’t even try to block Narias’s spell. At Narias’s current level, his Wind spells were totally ineffective, but that didn’t matter right now. Narias was baiting the Crystal Hornhead to charge him. “Wind Pressure… Blast!” Narias timed his spell, charging it for a second longer in order to release it at the right moment.

- ‘Smash!’ – The massive bug rammed its horn into the wall, leaving a crack in it.

“Woah… Wha… Wind Burst,” Narias just barely managed to stay on its feet when he landed on the Crystal Hornhead’s back. Unfortunately, he ended up too far away from where the visible scratch mark on its shell was. “Hey, it’s… Aah… Woooa… Wind Burst.”

The Crystal Hornhead shifted, turned and shook to get Narias’s off of its back. It moved to the sides before turning around one hundred eighty degrees, shaking Narias off. Narias used his Wind Burst spell to safely land on the ground without being able to do any damage to the bug monster, but the good thing was, he was able to confirm there was an actual crack on its shell.

I can’t keep myself on top of its back for even two seconds. Dang it. Narias was springing away and around the half crescent moon cave to make distance between himself and the Crystal Hornhead. The cave’s layout worked in his favor, not allowing for the Crystal Hornhead to gain speed or rush Narias in a straight line.

- ‘Slice! Slam!’ – The Crystal Hornhead smashed a five feet tall rock boulder that was blocking its way with a swipe of its arm blade.

“Boost! Wind Burst!” Narias attempted to execute a feint, so he could attempt to get on its back again. Unfortunately, the creature didn’t charge him this time, but used its front arms to try and slash Narias to pieces. “Fireball!”

Narias countered by shooting a ball of fire into the monster’s mouth, making it duck and having its arm blade hit the ground before it could reach the spot Narias was standing at.

“Now! Wind Burst!” Narias executed a daredevil’s move and charged the Crystal Hornhead himself, using its stuck into the ground arm as leverage to jump up and on top of the monster. The Crystal Hornhead lifted its arm up, in an attempt to lift it up above Narias, so it could slash him with it again, but that just helped Narias jump even higher again. “Wind Burst! Gooo!” He sprinted towards where the crack on the monster’s shell was, charging a spell. “Fire… Blast! Bhaaa!”

As soon as Narias’s spell hit, the Crystal Hornhead twisted and shook, swiping Narias off of his feet. The monster pushed itself up with its front feet, making Narias fall on his butt and slide down Crystal Hornhead’s shell.

“Woah, woah, woah! Wind Pressure Blast!” Narias was about to fall off from about four meters high when he used his spell to propel him up and away, landing on the ground abruptly some distance away from the monster. “Aagh… tss… Huh? Boost! Dhaaa!”

Narias had no time to daze off, because as soon as the Crystal Hornhead shook him off its back, it turned around to try and cut Narias in pieces. Narias managed to escape death only by a hair, not that he escaped from getting hurt at all. But the pain had to wait, because the fight was far from over. Narias had confirmed that his spell had hurt Crystal Hornhead, so all he had to do is to get on top of it and blast it at the same spot again. Unfortunately, the Crystal Hornhead wasn’t about to let it happen again easily. A game of tag had started, with the Crystal Hornhead being ‘it’. Yet it wasn’t the same game like the one Narias was playing with his friends while training. Here, getting tagged by the Crystal Hornhead meant a certain death for Narias.

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“Fire Wall! Fireball! Fireball!” Narias tried to slow the Crystal Hornhead down, so he could get around it. The bug monster has cornered Narias at the end of the cave and was about to crush him, so Narias cast his fire spells to give himself an opportunity to escape. “Huh? Wind Burst! Hop, humph. Boost!”

As so it happened, the Crystal Hornhead chose to charge at Narias, ignoring the Fire spells thrown at it, but that worked in Narias favor. He used the opportunity to get on the monster’s back, instead of running around it.

“Stay still!” Narias yelled, as if the Crystal Hornhead was to listen to him. “Fireball! Fire Blast!” Narias blasted two spells at the cracked spot. The spells hit, but it didn’t look like they were able to damage the spot to make the crack bigger. “Huh? No way! Whoaaah! Naaa…”

Narias fell on all fours, desperately trying to hold on, so he wouldn’t fall when the Crystal Hornhead moved, rushing towards the wall in front of it. There wasn’t much distance left in between, so it couldn’t gain much speed, but the impact was enough to knock Narias off his feet. Fortunately, he managed to stay up on the Crystal Hornhead’s back.

“Again, again, again,” Narias was crawling back up to get to the cracked part of the monster’s shell. “Fire Blast! Wooooah! Oooh…pa. Boost! Wind Burst!”

Narias’s spell hit the cracked spot again, and it was obvious it hurt the monster, but it wasn’t that easy to break its shell. Each time Narias’s spell hit the spot, it produced a fiery explosion, but it wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate the crystal shell. Narias was thrown off of the bug monster’s back, scrambling to get away to not get crushed when the Crystal Hornhead slid sideways in an attempt to crush him with its massive body.

Its shell is so hard, my spells can’t penetrate it. Narias was thinking in his head, running to the opposite direction of the cave. Come on, think… There should be a way to penetrate it. If only I was strong enough physically to smash through it or if I had something to stab, or pierce it. Huh, hey! That could work.

Narias stopped in the middle of the cave abruptly, turning to face the Crystal Hornhead on its way to catch up to him again.

“Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!” Narias threw a bunch of spells, aiming at the monster’s mouth and forcing it to lower its head. It didn’t slow down its charge, however. Its horn was pointed forward and its front arms were raised up and extended to the sides in front of it, reducing the available space for Narias to get away. “You’re not going to win! Wind… Pressure…” Instead of turning around to cast his Wind Pressure Blast spell, Narias lowered his left hand to the ground when he spoke ‘Wind’ and his right hand when he spoke ‘Pressure’, and then he released his spell with the final ‘Blast’, launching himself up when the spell shot from both of his hands simultaneously. Narias was so focused he could feel mana flowing through his body when he controlled the spell to blast himself in the direction he wanted to. Two more Wind Burst spells afterwards landed him near the spot he wanted to get to.

“Boost!” He used the spell not to run faster, but to ram his feet onto the Crystal Hornhead’s back to keep his balance before chanting another spell. “Wind… Bullet!” A flash of light shot from his finger, smashing itself at the cracked spot and Narias could swear he saw it made an additional dent on it. “Again! Wind… Whaaa! Nooo! Wind Bullet!” Narias rushed to release another spell, but the Crystal Hornhead was already moving around, making Narias miss and fall off on the ground.

“Wind Burst!” – ‘Slash!’ – “Wind Burst!” – ‘Smash!’ – Narias was jumping and throwing himself to the sides to not get slashed by the Crystal Hornhead’s arm blades. The monster looked really mad, but instead of charging Narias, it changed its tactics and was full on slicing and slashing its way through the whole place, trying to get Narias for hurting it.

“No, argh… Boost! Whaaa… Wind Burst! Huff,” Narias was panting, only barely managing to keep himself alive. “Fireball!”

Narias’s Fireball hit the Crystal Hornhead’s face, close to its mouth which honestly surprised him. The bug monster didn’t try to hunch this time but took the hit head on before rushing Narias again. It seemed like it was more determined to catch Narias than to protect itself at this point.

“Huff, oof…” Narias was trying to catch a breath when he finally managed to fake the Crystal Hornhead, making it ram itself at the wall again. At this rate, I will get tired faster than I can defeat it. I have to make my next attempt count.

“Boost!” Narias rushed towards the Crystal Hornhead before it turned around. He sprinted to the side to stay on the monster’s behind when the creature shifted to find him. Narias used the moment of confusion to quickly propel himself up, running on top of the Crystal Hornhead’s back until he reached the cracked spot on its shell. “Wind… Bullet!”

The creature was standing still, looking around to try and find where Narias was, which gave him enough time to charge his spell. Narias put as much force into his attack as he could, but it still wasn’t enough to penetrate its hard shell. The Crystal Hornhead felt the pain, however. It pushed itself up, wanting to shake Narias off, ramming itself backwards at the wall behind it when it couldn’t.

“No, no, no! No, you don’t!” Narias was doing everything he could to keep himself on the monster’s back. At the same time, his mind was struggling to come up with a solution on what to do. Narias put all his strength into his last spell and it still wasn’t enough to penetrate the hard shall. Any other options were futile at this point and Narias wouldn’t have enough energy or strength if he changed his tactics to pull it off anyway. He didn’t have any food left either, so he had to win now or else. “I… WILL… BE GOING… HOME! WIND…” Narias positioned himself above the cracked spot, pointing his hand down at it. But differently from before, Narias was pointing all of his fingers down this time. “AUTO BULLETS!”

A rapid barrage of flashing shots was released from each of Narias’s five fingers. Like from an assault rifle, Wind Bullets were shooting out of Narias’s fingers, smashing themselves at the crystal shell, making the crack on it bigger and bigger with each hit.

“AAAAHHH!” – ‘Crack! Smash!’ – Narias pushed himself over his limit, the spells shooting out of his fingers and smashing through the hard shell. Blood splat from the injury while the Wind Bullet shots were firing down the cracked shell.

- ‘SHROOOK!’ – The loud trumpeting was released, forcing Narias to grab onto his ears. The sound was so deafening, it hurt Narias’s eardrums so much he thought he lost his hearing.

The Crystal Hornhead twisted and shook, smashing itself left and right into the walls. The pain it felt earlier was nothing compared to when Narias Wind Bullets hit its body after its protective shell was penetrated. The elephant-size bug monster was throwing itself into all directions even after Narias was thrown off its back, ignoring him altogether.

I… can’t hear nothing. Narias tried to shake his head after he picked himself up. Tch… aargh… my arm.

He felt intense pain in his left arm. It felt broken, and in several places too. Narias threw himself away when the Crystal Hornhead shook him off, falling and rolling on the ground with a harsh crash. Narias managed to properly injure the massive bug monsters, but it wasn’t enough to kill it, unfortunately.

“I have to… finish it off. Huh? Wha… DHAAAAH!” Narias was about to make a step forward when something approached him from behind. Narias couldn’t hear anything that was going on around him due to the Crystal Hornhead trumpeting, preventing him from noticing a monster sneaking up to him. A Pincer Ant bit on him on the side, throwing Narias on the ground again. That which Narias feared the most has happened. The half crescent cave was empty of the monsters when he started fighting the Crystal Hornhead and he knew Pincer Ants will respawn at some point. Narias didn’t know how much time had passed since the last time all the other monsters were killed, but he had already engaged the rare bug monster and there was no turning back at that point.

“Fire Blast!” Narias blasted the Pincer Ant that bit him to bits, but it didn’t change the fact he was now bleeding badly. “Damn it. Not now.” He knew more Pincer Ants would respawn soon. “I need to… finish it off. Move!”

Narias yelled at himself, ignoring the pain from his broken arm and his bleeding side. He gritted his teeth when he used his ripped shirt to tie the knot hard enough to slow the bleeding from the bite injury. Narias looked around to see if there were any more Pincer Ants around somewhere before turning to face the Crystal Hornhead which was calming down by now. Narias still couldn’t hear a thing, but that didn’t matter.

“You… are… going down!” Narias yelled his lungs out with each step as he rushed forward towards the Crystal Hornhead with the monster rushing back at him. “Boost. Wind Burst.”

Narias calmed his mind before assessing the situation, throwing himself to the side to avoid getting trampled over by the massive creature. That made the Crystal Hornhead ram itself into the wall thanks to Narias running on and around the wall himself.

“Wind Pressure Blast,” Narias used only his right hand to cast spell, but he was able to control it well, jumping on top of the Crystal Hornhead’s back again.

The monster was probably aware of what Narias was about to do, because it threw itself into the wall on the opposite side, smashing itself hard. Narias wasn’t about to take any chances, so instead of rushing to attack the monster as soon as he landed on it, he used all the strength that he still had to keep himself on top of it without falling. The Crystal Hornhead stopped right after it hit the wall and that’s when Narias knew he better use this chance now, because it would be the last one he would get.

“FLAMETHROWER!” Narias rammed his right hand, palm down, onto the open crack in the monster’s shell, releasing the most intense flames he could muster and burning the Crystal Hornhead from inside.

- ‘SHROOO… GHOOO!’ – The trumpeting the Crystal Hornhead has released, probably from the intense burning pain it was feeling, was changed into the bug monster coughing up red flames from its mouth. It shook and jumped, trying to smash itself into the wall again, but its legs were shaking so much, it couldn’t move.

“Flame… bhah… cough…” Narias tried to cast another spell as soon as his Flamethrower spell subsided, but couldn’t. He overexerted himself too much and was barely holding on. “Ah, whaaa… Wind… Burst!”

Narias threw himself away when the Crystal Hornhead slammed itself on the ground before trying to push itself up again. Rocks started to fall from the ceiling from all the shaking inside the cave, forcing Narias to scramble to get away too. Unfortunately, he was so badly beat up and out of breath, Narias wasn’t able to avoid all the rocks that fell down on him.

“Aaaah! Tss… Ghaaa… Get… move… aargh…” Narias pushed a sizable rock away from himself before pulling his leg out from under it. “Damn it… come on…” He limped as he tried to walk, just barely holding on without falling.

The Crystal Hornhead was still alive, but it didn’t look like it would last long at this point. Smoke was coming out of its mouth and the spot where its cracked shell was, releasing a smell of a burned meat from within. The rare bug monster’s legs and arms twitched before its body slumped on the ground, showing no signs it would lift itself up again. Narias couldn’t see it, however. He was desperate to reach the safe place before he collapsed in the meantime. He was making his way through the tunnel to the secret Supply Point room, afraid a Pincer Ant would respawn somewhere and get to him before he reaches it.