Alexia

The boss suddenly begins to move a lot faster than it was before, and at the same time, I feel the energy in my body growing even more sluggish. And it’s not just the energy in my body. Even the energy I sense in the air itself is slowing down.

This is not regular ice magic. No way in a frozen hell.

I raise my hand back and throw my polearm straight at the monster, deciding that it’s my best bet right now. Considering how my magic isn’t exactly the most useful thing right about now. At least, not from this far back, and not without preparation.

I’m starting to regret choosing an ice aligned dungeon to fight in.

My polearm flies through the air as the monster brings both of its pale blue flaming wings around in front of it to block my polearm. But fortunately, my weapon still manages to pierce a little into the bones making up its wings.

Only a little though.

I resummon my polearm back to my hand and repeat the process, throwing it repeatedly at the monster and resummoning it again after the weapon strikes.

The monster doesn’t just sit there at the top of the pyramid taking the hits though, instead letting out another roar and flapping its wings once while flying through the air towards me. And instead of using its wings, it’s now using its arms to block the polearm, slowly causing them to whittle away bit by bit.

Right when the boss begins to slow down, its head glowing brighter as if preparing for an attack, its arms finally snap as my polearm makes it all the way through them and continues on its trip to its chest where it barely pieces into its ribcage. But before I can celebrate the loss of its arms, the creature’s head continues to glow and it opens its mouth, making a blue fireball appear in the air in front of it.

Shit.

I try to teleport away, only to find that the skill is so sluggish to activate that the monster finishes the fireball and sends it flying at me before can finish. Leaving me to be hit by half of the blast, sending me flying even while I’m finishing the teleport, ending with me continuing my flight after teleporting out of the main blast.

A coarse scream fills the room as I feel the frost flames causing my armor to freeze at first, then my skin, and then my entire arms before I manage to start the reversal process. One that only makes my scream go up another octave as the flames continue to freeze me all while my frozen arms are unfreezing, creating a seemingly endless loop.

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I eventually manage to close my mouth and stop screaming despite the pain to instead focus on my surroundings again. And immediately after doing so, my eyes widen at the sight of the dragon opening its mouth again.

Shit!

I quickly try to teleport away, finding the skill to be just as sluggish as before.

This isn’t going to end well.

Right as I’m mentally preparing myself for another blast though, I realize the dragon is gathering the mana in front of its mouth a lot slower than the previous time. And… is its body glowing a bit less brightly than before?

I frown at the realization before grinning.

So that’s how you work!

I manage to finish my teleportation this go around right about the time that the frost flames on my arms finally die, following which the boss sends another frost fireball towards where I was just standing. But this one seems to be a lot less powerful than the last one, proving the conclusion I reached about the monster.

Its flame is stronger the more bones it has.

With that in mind, I begin throwing my polearm again, and this time it can’t proceed towards me while blocking because it doesn’t have any arms. So it’s forced to use its wings instead.

Also, the very fact that it’s blocking proves that its chest is important. Most likely that core within its ribcage.

I grin, finally seeing the path to victory as I ignore the rather tattered status of my armor and clothes as I continue throwing my polearm at the frost dragon over and over again. And after who knows how many throws, the monster’s wings finally shatter as well, leaving it stuck on the ground at the top of the massive stairs.

At this point the battle becomes rather simple since the creature has no arms or wings. Which makes balancing itself rather difficult.

Especially on a massive set of stairs.

I watch with more than a little amusement – and maybe a tiny amount of vindication due to the pain its flames caused – as the monster takes a tumble down the stairs. Then I teleport down to it, finding that it’s a lot easier to use my skills again now that its flames have died down, before summoning my polearm one last time into my hand.

The dragon simply turns its head around as I stand on the back of its ribcage, flipping my polearm around to face the blade downwards. And before it can do anything, I put all my strength into thrusting it straight down, through its bones, and into the core, making the thing crack like ice.

Almost immediately after its core shatters, all of the remaining pale blue flame on the boss’s body dies out along with the flames in its eye sockets. Then the bones making it up just collapse, falling out of form as I find myself tumbling to the ground, only to teleport away to save my landing.

And that’s a wrap.

I hear a cracking sound, making me glance towards my polearm where I find a tiny little crack around the part where the blade meets the staff.

And that’s gonna be a pain to fix.

Guess it’s about time to go find a crafter anyways.

Come to think of it, that Shawn guy from the wendigo island mentioned a crafter a while back.

Maybe I’ll look for them.