Liam waited before jumping to either platform closest to him on the left side if the watery arena. Since the Wave Rider Crab fell back into the water after destroying the stone platform it was on, he wasn’t sure if it would climb back onto a different platform or do its wave attack. He soon got his answer as a pair of legs surfaced from the water and gripped onto the broken platform that was behind the one it had recently destroyed.
That answers my question. Its aim is for the outer platforms. Without them I will need to try and swim to the rocky lanes and I’m not sure I can beat it in terms of swimming. Liam thought as he jumped towards the next platform. As soon as his feet touched the ground he scowled.
Three new Wave Sword Crabs appeared on the other side of the platform. Making it a bit difficult for me to get to you huh? Liam thought as he mentally prepared himself and raced towards the three new contenders.
As Liam approached the three, he focused both the swing of his hammer and a punch from his Earth Hand onto the crab in the middle. He tried to have the Lightning Hand attack the Wave Sword Crab on the right and his Lunar Hand on the one on his left. However, his Lunar Hand didn’t respond to his mental command while his Lightning Hand delayed its attack by a couple of seconds and was slow to move.
Liam quickly jumped backwards to dodge the attack from the Wave Sword Crab on his left after landing both attacks on the Wave Sword Crab in the middle. The one on his right tensed up after his Lightning Hand connected with it. Liam then mentally commanded his Lunar Hand to strike the crab on the left as he swung his hammer down on the crab that was attack by his Lightning Hand. He had mentally commanded his Earth Hand to attack with him, but like his Lightning Hand from the previous attack, its movement was delayed and only struck down a couple of seconds after his hammer landed and he moved away from it.
My control over these hands still isn’t the best. I was able to move smoother earlier probably because I wasn’t trying to make them all move at the same time while swinging my weapon. I’ll have to try and change that as I keep fighting. Liam thought as he focused even harder on making his Lightning Hand attack the left crab while having his Earth Hand attack the middle crab once more with his hammer swinging down.
To Liam’s surprise, his Lightning Hand move slightly faster than earlier. A grin grew on his face as he lifted the hammer up from the dead crab. It’s not much, but its progress. He then used his Lunar Hand to blind the crab on his right before turning to the one on his left and attacking its side with his Earth Hand and the top of its shell with his hammer.
His Earth Hand moved at normal speed making Liam think his Lunar Hand moved slower. He wasn’t sure since he had his back facing that one. He jumped to his left to dodge a strike from the Wave Sword Crab he was attacking and then jumped back in with his hammer over his head and coming down while his Earth Hand punched it from the front.
He focused hard to make his Lightning Hand attack the other while he was in motion and to his surprise the Lightning Hand move quicker than before. It moved at normal speed along with his Earth Hand. This was better than he had hoped for. Now he needed to keep being able to move the two at the same time while trying to get a third Hand Type Spell to move to his will.
It didn’t take long for the last crab to die after he was able to move two Hand Type Spells while swinging his weapon of choice. He spun around to look at the Wave Rider Crab Boss. As he did so he let out a dissatisfied noise as he watched the second platform on the outer left side fall apart.
He mentally cursed himself for wasting time trying to get used to moving more than one Hand Type Spell while swinging his weapon. If he had finished these crabs quicker then there was a chance he could have stopped the destruction of the platform. An exceedingly small chance, but a chance he was willing to try for.
Now he had to figure out if the Wave Rider Crab was going to make its way over to the other side or if it would finally try and fight him head on. His answer came quickly as the Wave Rider Crab emerged from the sea and onto the platform he was on. Coming to me are you? It saves me time trying to run to the next platform.
To Liam’s relief the Wave Rider Crab was the only creature to appear this time. He prepared himself as he noticed the Wave Boss monster’s mouth started to bubble as liquid dripped from the corners of its mouth. Liam jumped to his right and was about to start running forward as a jet stream of water shot out, however, he realized something was different this time as the Wave Order Crab kept the stream going and started to move to its right making the line of water follow Liam.
“Shit!” Liam cursed as he kept running just to stay away from the stream of water. He kept running until the Wave Rider Crab made it back to its starting point. After the jet stream of water stopped being spray, Liam took this chance to try and strike at it. As soon as Liam got close enough, he jumped up into the air while bringing both his hammer and his Earth Hand over his head. He watched as the Wave Rider Crab boss lifted its massive claw up to defend itself. As that happened he mentally sent a command to his Lightning Hand to float around and hit the creature in the face.
As his body, weapon, and Hand Type Spells went to strike, Liam tried to focus as hard as he could on his Lunar Hand, but failed to get it to move. He didn’t let it bring him down as he landed a strike with his weapon and both Hand Type spells. After landing those, he swung his hammer around and swung down once more bringing his Earth Hand and Gravity Hand down with it.
He didn’t stop there as he attacked once more with his hammer, Gravity Hand, and Earth Hand. He did this combo two more times. When he went to strike a third time he noticed the Wave Boss start to shiver a bit. The Wave Rider Crab then lowered its massive claw down enough for its mouth to be see. A three foot bubble was starting to form as Liam swung his hammer down. In a panic he mentally sent his Lunar Hand in to slam down right in front of the eye stalks.
The Wave Rider Crab let out a loud shriek as it turned its body and swung its massive claw around. The claw slammed into Liam and sent him flying, however at the same time the claw hit the newly formed bubble and made it pop right in front of it knocking the massive crab backwards to try and balance on its back legs.
After Liam hit the ground and rolled back to his feet he sprinted towards the staggered creature. He noticed the exposed section on the Wave Rider Crab’s underbelly that Liam had created. He smirked as he focused his Lightning Hand to strike that specific spot while having his Hammer attack right above it and his Earth Hand right below.
More of the exposed area grew after landing the blows while surges of lightning raced along its exposed skin and into the shell. The Wave Rider Crab shrilled loudly before falling backwards into the sea. Bubbles formed around the ripples of water before separating into three pools of bubbles.
Three Wave Sword Crabs climbed up from the sea as the water below started to form waves. Liam, knowing the Wave Rider Crab was starting up its wave attack, didn’t want to stick around and try to fight these monsters. Instead, he turned around and ran towards the platform in the back. As he landed on the next platform, three Wave Sword Crabs appeared blocking the path to the next platform.
Cursing out loud, Liam didn’t slow his speed. Instead, he increased it and decided to try and maneuver past them. He barley dodged the strikes as he approached them, however when he jumped into the air to the next platform, one of the Wave Sword Crabs was able to run one of its sharp claws against his left leg.
As he landed he took a quick glance at it and saw the cut wasn’t deep. Only feeling a slight stinging sensation, Liam push forward as three more Wave Sword Crabs appeared on this platform. The left crab moved more towards the left platform while the right crab moved in the path for the right back one while the middle waited where it was.
Liam made a choice to move for the back right one and as he did the other two crabs started to make their way to the other crab. Liam noticed this and thought of a plan. Right before reaching the group of crabs he swiftly changed directions towards the other platform. After successfully dodging the crabs on that platform he had two more to get through in order to get out of the way of the wave that was starting to raise the Wave Rider Crab. He made his way through the next set of crabs and was now on the back platform that had cracks on it thanks to the first attack the Wave Boss had made.
To his surprise no Wave Sword Crabs appeared on this platform. Glad to know he wouldn’t have to face any creatures, Liam sprinted as fast as he could to the rocky lane. After he landed on it, he quickly pulled out a Mana and Stamina Potion and drank them as the wave came crashing down on the back platform.
Liam heard the platform exploding from the impact as the Wave Rider Crab fell down on it. After he finish drinking the potions though, his widened in alarm. Pieces of the rocky platform shot towards him as a wave taller than his head came up and over him. He didn’t have any time to react as he realized there was nowhere he could run. Instead, he embraced for impact and hoped it wouldn’t hurt as much as he thought it would.
As the wave came crashing down on him two decent sized rocks hit his head as the force of the water knocked him off his feet. He brought his hands up to cover his face right before he was flattened. Pain erupted along his forearms and head as he hit the ground and a few more rocks hit him from behind.
After the wave died down, Liam slowly stood back up. His entire body was drenched. His head and cuts both pulsed and stung as the sea water touched his open wounds. He took a look at his health really quickly and was shocked to see it was close to a quarter left. He cursed for his bad luck as he pulled out a health potion and drank it. While the health potion healed his wounds and replenished his health. He still felt a small bit of pain thump a couple of time on the back of his head. He waited for a few seconds for it to go away, but instead of disappearing it only lessened. Liam wasn’t sure why, but he decided to push his concerns off to the side for now.
He looked out at the watery arena and saw that three of the four outer platforms were now completely gone. The final one was fully intact, but after this last round he believed the Wave Rider Crab was going to try and change that. He needed to finish the fight this round. If he didn’t then he would be stuck out there and had to try and swim through the waves when the Wave Rider Crab did its wave attack. He didn’t want that.
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He took stock of his Hand Type Spells and saw they were still intact. He was happy they didn’t disappear after that surprise attack. He slowly made his way over to the last out platform, taking his time to think about how he was going to try and finish the Wave Boss out for good.
His combination of hitting the larger with his Earth Hand and Gravity Hand while attacking with his hammer was good, but the damage wasn’t much. Meaning it would be slow and arduous fight till the end. However, now that there was an exposed area, he could try and mix his Lightning Hand into the mix and try to land a few strikes there. The lightning damage should increase the amount done to it. he would need to time things right while keeping an eye out for when the Wave Rider Crab tried to use its bubbles to knock him off the platform.
He would also need to make sure not to allow the bubbles to pop right in front of it so it wouldn’t fall into the sea. If it fell into the sea one more time then it would be dangerous. He would also need to make sure it didn’t do its little tantrum stomp on the platform either. He was going to need to push himself in this last push.
Liam took in a deep breath before slowly letting it out. He did this two more times before jumping onto the platform. He scanned the water the moment his feet touched the surface and waited. Like he thought, the Wave Rider Crab was making its way onto the other side of the outer platform he was on.
He readied himself as he stared at the creature. He then let out a slew of curses as three Wave Sword Crabs made their way onto the platform as well. Liam’s annoyance filled him as he stared at the creatures. The slight pain that thumped in the back of his head increased just slightly. Having to fight the Wave Rider Crab and making sure it wouldn’t fall back into the sea or destroy the platform while he was on it was hard enough, but adding in the Wave Sword Crabs had made the difficulty of his task increase even more.
Resigning himself to this situation, Liam took in a deep breath and slowly let it out while mentally repeating the words, Calm the Storm. He did this a few more times. Each time he let out a breath he felt his body relax. As his body began to relax, his mind began to calm down. The annoyance of the three Wave Sword Crabs appearing, the urgency of needing to make sure the Wave Rider Crab doesn’t destroy the platform, the pain that was rhythmically thumping on the back of his head that had slowly disappeared. He could still feel the thumping, but no pain was felt. Instead it felt like a beat from a drum that he could focus on. He then noticed the rhythm of the thumping was keeping in time with the beating of his heart.
This rhythm helped his mind calm down even more. He closed his eyes to focus more on this. He felt that what was happening was familiar. Minus the rhythmic beating, he remembered his mind had done this before a couple of times. After Roman’s experience and their talks about what he went through, Liam now had a name for this phenomenon that has happened a couple times alright. He was about to enter a Trance. Which type of Trance? He didn’t know. He didn’t want to get excited as he thought about the possibility of what this meant and kept his mind calm till it finally became tranquil.
The moment his mind became tranquil, he felt something within him start to stir. It started at the center of his body and then pulsed out. Last time this pulse swam through his veins. This time it not only pulsed through his veins, but also through something else. Without thinking, Liam felt his Mana Sight activate. Through that he saw four thin lines flowing from both hands. These thin lines were color coated and connected to his Earth, Gravity, Lightning, and Lunar Hands that were floating above his head.
He wasn’t entirely sure what he was seeing or what this meant. When he created these Hand Type Spells and had Mana Sight activated he had never seen these thin lines before. However, now that he was seeing them he saw a change happen. The thin lines grew in size.
At the same time, Liam felt his body start to slowly move on its own. He had released his grip on his hammer and pulled out his Meat Cleaver. His Lightning Hand had moved and grabbed the weapon. Lighting Mana outlined the weapon the moment it took the tool weapon. After that he grabbed the small hatchet axe that was on his belt loop and handed it to his Lunar Hand. Just like with what happened with the Lightning Mana, Lunar Mana outlined the Hatchet Axe tool weapon. After that he passed his hammer over to his Earth Hand and watched as Earth Mana outline it.
Liam, trying not to ruin the experience he was having, kept his excitement of learning something new down. At the same time he felt his Danger Sense light up all over the front of his body. As he opened his eyes he saw one of the three Wave Sword Crabs was swiftly approaching him. It was almost within striking range as it lunged its sword claw straight for Liam.
With a smooth motion, Liam watched as his Lightning Hand swung the Meat Cleaver across the space in front of him and through the Wave Sword Crab’s arm. At the same time his Earth Hand swung upwards underneath the creature’s underbelly while his Lunar Hand slammed the hatchet down on the shell of the creature. The force of the hammer’s blow allowed the hatchet to drive in deep into the shell cutting right into the creature’s brain, killing it on the spot.
While it was surprising to Liam that he was able to move the three Hand Type Spells with ease and no issues, that wasn’t what had him shocked. It was the tool weapons that each hand was wielding. In the past whenever Liam handed his Shadow Hand a dagger it only carried the weapon. What he was seeing right now was something completely different.
Sparks ran along the blade of the meat cleaver as his Lightning Hand held on to it. A rocky surface started to form on the blunt end of the hammer, much like how Blair’s Battle axe did when she ran manna through it. A lunar pulse flashed along the bladed edge of the hatchet as well. Liam wasn’t sure what was going on, but if he had to make a guess, he guessed it had something to do with the elemental mana that outlined the tool weapons when he handed them over.
Without warning, Liam felt his body begin to move again. It jumped into the air right as a tremor ran along the surface of the platform. Liam’s sight fell upon the Wave Rider Crab and noticed it had started to do its ground and pound movement on the platform. To his surprise the Wave Sword Crabs weren’t immune to it. Their bodies were several inches off the ground and coming back down fast.
A crack ran along the area the Wave Rider Crab had hit. It lifted its massive claw up and moved to the right before stopping and lifting it up as high as it could before slamming it back down. Liam’s body jumped once more right as it crash down, allowing him to not be affected by the tremor. After his feet touched the ground he ran as fast as he could and got within striking range of the next Wave Sword Crab. This creature was coming down from being lifted off the ground making it vulnerable to attacks.
Like the last Wave Sword Crab, Liam swung his Lightning Hand as fast as he could. This time it didn’t just cut one of the creature’s arms, but also a couple of its legs. The miss appendages didn’t matter because the forceful impact of the earthy hammer slamming into its underbelly and the lunar hatchet that chopped into its shell killed it quickly. Not only did Liam see sparks of lightning crackle as the meat cleaver sliced through the arm, Liam also saw pale white flashes light up within the shell after the hatchet broke through the shell.
Liam’s body once more jumped in the air to dodge the next tremor the Wave Rider Crab created. While in the air he noticed the Wave Rider Crab was now half way around the platform. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Liam’s body ignored the final Wave Sword Crab and sprinted straight for the Wave boss.
He heard the shriek of the Wave Sword Crab from behind him as his body continued straight for the final wave boss. He watched as the giant crab lifted its massive claw up and over its head before slamming it back down. Liam jumped into the air missing the tremor. As his body soared forward his four Hand Type Spells raced ahead of him.
The Wave Rider Crab stopped moving and was about to launch another attack on the platform, but as it came down, Liam’s Earth Hand swung the rocky covered hammer upwards colliding into it. The strength of the strike was enough to soften the massive claw, but not stop it from hitting the ground. However, since it had softened it there was no tremor when it hit the platform.
The Wave Rider Crab foamed at the mouth and was about to shoot a Jetstream of water. However, the Lunar Hand holding the hatchet swiftly slashed at one of the eye stalks, chopping it clean off. A pulse of lunar light flashed causing the remaining eye to be blinded. The Wave Rider Crab opened its water filled mouth to let out a gurgled painfilled shriek releasing a small flow of water.
Liam’s Lightning Hand holding the meat cleaver dove right into the water and slashed at the inside of the creature’s mouth. Sparks of lightning discharged inside the monster’s mouth and danced all along the creature’s shell. Liam watched as the wave boss’s health plummeted down quickly. He was almost there. Just a couple hundred more until it finally died.
The Wave Rider Crab lifted its massive claw once more and tried to crush Liam with it. Liam’s Earth Hand swung his hammer to counter, however upon impact the handle of the hammer snapped. Liam felt a bit of dread wash over his body as the massive claw continued to come down on him.
To Liam’s surprise and luck his body jumped backwards, barely dodging the attack. A tremor ran through the platform underneath Liam. He heard an angry shriek behind him indicating the Wave Sword Crab that was probably making its way towards him got caught up in it.
The creature lifted its massive claw once more in the air as Liam touched the ground again. As it lifted in the air he noticed that even though his hammer had snapped it still did some damage. A small area of the shell under the bottom part of the claw had broken and revealed unprotective skin.
Liam’s Lightning Hand soared towards it as his Lunar Hand swung the hatchet upwards and his Gravity Hand slapped the claw. Sparks of lightning discharged out of the exposed shell as the hatchet broke off a chunk of the shell right by it. his Gravity Hand slapped the claw a few times, stacking its debuff on it till it hit the max amount it could land.
The massive claw fell down fast as his Lunar Hand ran the hatchet across the shell from the exposed area. A thin crack followed the blade of the hatchet exposing a small bit of the skin underneath. Liam’s body ran forward towards the claw. As soon as he reached the claw he dug his hands into the cracked line and started pulling back. He could feel the crab trying to lift its massive claw up but due to the debuff it had received from his Gravity Hand along with the paralyze debuff from his Lightning Hand, it was having a hard time.
Liam could hear the shell start to crack as a small part of the shell he was pulling started to move. He could hear the protests the Wave Rider Crab was making as it tried to move away. At least he thought the Wave Boss was trying to move away. Instead the monster was repositioning itself to allow its other claw to race towards Liam’s face.
However, before it could reach Liam, the meat cleaver his Lightning Hand was hold sliced through the joint of the arm severing it completely. After a couple more pulls from Liam, a giant chunk of the claw’s shell broke free. Liam threw the piece away before he put an open palm out and above the creature’s exposed skin.
Liam wasn’t sure what the trance was going to do next but when he heard himself chant the Light and Burn spell he grew confused. That confusion quickly disappeared as the orange and red flame changed into an eerie ghastly green as his body muttered, “Soul Flame.” Liam quickly jumped backwards as the eerie flame quickly dropped onto the exposed skin.
At first nothing happened. He thought that maybe the Soul Flame had died out before it could do anything. However, after a few seconds had passed the Wave Rider Crab started to shriek loudly as smoke began to escape from the exposed areas of its shell. It started thrashing about violently soon after that as ghastly green flames began to grow through the shell.
Liam was shocked to see what he was seeing. The shell hadn’t melted. There wasn’t any signs of the shell cracking, besides the two areas created by him. It just looked like the flames that were engulfing it were flowing through the shell almost like the fire was a ghost itself.
Liam continued to watch as the creature violently thrashed about on the platform running in circles all around him. He was quite surprised that even though it had the debuff going, the creature was able to move around so quickly even with its massive claw being dragged around. He chalked it up to that’s how bad the pain must feel. What made him think that was how quickly the creature’s health bar was dropping. It wasn’t ticking slowly like when he used his afflictions, but instead it was dropping fast.
As the boss’s health swam down to zero, Liam felt his Lightning Hand suddenly swim through the air behind him and slice through something. He turned to see the last Wave Sword Crab laying there, all chopped up. Shortly after that he received a message that made him smile.
[Congratulations! You have defeated the Dungeon’s Final Wave Boss, Wave Rider Crab of the Stoney Crab Beach!]