Alexia

I quietly walk through the long tunnel, hearing nothing but the sound of my own footsteps along the way. That is, until a few minutes pass and I begin to hear bubbling sounds. Like something was boiling.

It takes another minute or so of walking before I arrive at the opening of a rather massive cavern. One filled with large pools of purple poison, some spanning the size of small ponds and others simply just puddles. But the thing that catches my attention the most is the large pool at the end of the cavern that seems to continue the cavern but under the poison’s surface.

I slowly step through the large cavern until I’m about at the center point of it, when more and more bubbles suddenly begin to appear at the large pool of poison at the end of the cavern. So I stop moving and tighten my grip on my polearm while narrowing my eyes on the poison itself.

The boss is no doubt in there. And it sounds like it’s waking up.

Bubbles of poison continue rising to the top of the pool, rapidly growing in number until I finally sense something with Quantum Attunement. So I raise my left arm and send a Quantum Bolt directly targeting that source of magic, making the bolt go straight through the poison before striking something.

A loud screech echoes throughout the cavern as the poison is sent flying away while a massive scorpion-like creature jumps halfway out of the pool with hatred clear in its purple eyes. The creature has two pincers next to its mouth with purple poison dripping out of it, two large horns sticking off its head at angles backwards and to the sides, and a very sturdy purple carapace covered in purple spikes around its body. Meanwhile it has two thick arms at its front connected to strong claws, with a narrower body connecting it to its lower half which is much more like a scorpion and only barely visible through the poison it’s still in.

{Nightshade Queen – Level 100}

A Class C monster.

The thing lets out another loud screech before swiping one of its large claws at me, making me teleport myself back a few meters. Then I raise my hand to send several more Quantum Bolts at it, followed by throwing my polearm. But the monster just raises its other claw and blocks the attacks, showing nothing more than a simple burn on its claw as a result.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

I grit my teeth at that before using Quantum Echo the moment it moves its claw away, making another Quantum Bolt appear right behind where the others hit. The bolt then takes the creature by surprise, passing right by where it had moved its claw to strike at its head, knocking it back with another loud screech.

But the attack doesn’t do that much damage beyond lightly burning the carapace covering its head, letting the creature turn its hateful gaze back towards me again just a moment later.

Well, guess it would’ve been too easy if it ended just like that.

I teleport backwards right before a spray of purple poison shoots out of the monster’s mouth and hits where I was standing. Then I sprint in an arc around the pool while launching Quantum Bolt after Quantum Bolt at the monster, feeling more than a little warry about the idea of getting near the pool of poison itself. Because I’m pretty sure I don’t want to take a dip in there.

Probably not very good for my health, or my life expectancy, for that matter.

The boss repeatedly swipes its large claws at the bolts to stop them, but it turns out to be too slow to stop all of them, letting quite a few of the Quantum Bolts slip past to strike at its upper body. And after several of them hit, I realize something.

The narrow connecting area between its upper and lower body seems to have weaker carapace than the rest of its body for some reason.

A weakness.

So I focus my attacks there, making the thing grow more and more infuriated with me till it finally lets out another loud screech and jumps out of the pool of poison, creating a small wave in the process that I only barely teleport away from. And when I reappear, I find myself gazing up at the massive scorpion-like creature that is now standing on the same level as me, spanning nearly seven meters in height and eight in length.

The thing is so tall that I have to look up at an angle of forty-five degrees even from several meters away just to look at its head.

Also, now that it’s out of the poison, I can clearly see its tail arcing over its scorpion-like lower body with a stinger at the end of it dripping some sort of purplish-red liquid that I should probably avoid being stung by.

It lets out a loud screech before beginning to rush over to me, moving faster than its size would suggest but still too slow for it to catch up to me as I simply teleport across another poison puddle to avoid it. Then I return to sending Quantum Bolts its way again.

After several seconds of bombarding it with Quantum Bolts and finding this battle a little too easy for my tastes, the creature suddenly stops chasing after me with a loud hissy screech sound that makes me think it’s mad. Then it spreads out both of its claws and raises its head to fire a large glob of poison spanning several meters in diameter straight up at the ceiling.

My eyes widen with more than a little fear right before the glob smashes into the ceiling and breaks apart, sending droplets both large and small of purple poison all across the entire cavern. Droplets that immediately start searing my flesh when they make contact with me.

Fuuuuck, this hurts! I shouldn’t have jinxed myself!