Dasha rose to his feet. The monstrous maiden known as Scylla was ferocious with dark green hair that went down her back, red eyes lacking a human’s pupils, and a slimy green complexion. Hovering around her were the six hydra heads. Then, dipping in and out of the waters were her tentacles, so fast that could barely keep track of them. The distance between himself and Scylla was over thirty feet. A useless distance. Both he and the maiden could cross that distance in seconds.
‘Those dragon heads and tentacles…I’ll have to look out for both.’ Dasha raised a hand. ‘Black Cards.’ Appearing between his fingers were the cards of darkness. Scylla let out a roar and lashed her tentacles at him. Dasha burst forward, gauntlets growing heavy with darkness, and activated Qi Sense. At full speed and slower than the tentacles. The water splashed behind at every intense step.
The green limp flew closer and closer. Dasha cleanly twisted his body and propelled through. Another tentacle arrived. He dodged that too. If he got caught, then Scylla would bite his head off with the hydra heads. Game over.
As if that would happen. The tentacles were long and fast. Without Qi Sense, he would have been forced to rely on instincts. An impossible tactic given the heavy cards he was holding. With this, he could think and react and dodge.
Splash!
He jumped high in the air and faced the six hydra heads. Scylla barked and the heads flew at him. He raised his arms in an X-mark, ready to throw the cards. Four heads came from above while the remaining two came from under. He was trapped. Shadows were forming. His boots touched the hydra’s teeth—and he sank inside.
Ultra Magic Barrier, Ultra Elemental Manipulation, Darkened Pulse, and The Shadows: the four Class Skill of the Dark Sorcerer Class. Darkened Pulse increased all darkness-related spells by 66% in exchange for over a thousand MP per minute. The presence of Darkened Pulse alone made Dark Sorcerer an overall risky class that drained an absurd amount of mana during battle. But in exchange, a player gained access to the great spells the class beheld as well as The Shadows Class Skill. This was the skill that granted the ability to swim in the shadows of the realm.
The realm of shadows felt murky like water and was a dark empty reflection of the real world. He swam through the neck of the hydra, down Scylla's back, trapped in the realm and seeking for an opening. Peering out, it was as though he was inside a dark-tinted crystal container.
Splash!
He knew where he wanted to go. The hydra heads above had created shadows on the water beneath. Dasha jumped out of one of those shadows and threw the Black Cards, striking the confused hydras’ necks. His disappearance lasted less than a second. It didn’t make sense. They cried out in pain, dazed, and gave Dasha the chance to jump and strike Scylla’s maiden head directly. Her green leg tentacles attempted to protect her. Dasha turned invisible, causing three of the tentacles to miss and using the fourth to jump again.
‘Blazing Fury Combo!’
Dasha was the same size as her head. His fists were, in terms of size, like flecks. Size could be deceiving, however, and the moment the skill was activated, his invisibility came down and Scylla was able to witness the human for herself.
Bam! Bam! Bam! His fists alight, he hit her with three punches and three kicks that left tiny burn marks. The maiden barked as she was forced back. The tentacles went down into the water and attempted to help her balance herself. Dasha landed on the blood lake. For some reason, unlike her, he could stand on this. ‘The magic is very thin in this blood lake. The buoyancy must be absurdly high then. I wonder what it is…’
Scylla recovered fast and the tentacles lashed out on him again. He dodged and weaved, silently counting how many there were. ‘She’s using eight tentacles to fight and four to stay afloat. The issue is—’
Scylla was excellent at switching between their functions. Almost at random, one tentacle would go down and be replaced with another. The angles of the attacking tentacle would then be slightly different and faster, forcing Dasha to focus harder. ‘But it’s not random. This creature, regardless of whether it’s human or not, must have habits. I just have to see through it.’ Then there was the fact that she was further away. He was surrounded and he needed to bridge the gap to deal damage again. The tentacles went faster. Black Cards weren't an option. He needed to understand her attack pattern.
Being able to activate invisibility, Qi Sense, and fight at full speeds—the results of his training were showing. He was understanding. He was getting there. Twenty seconds, thirty seconds…
Looking left and right while dodging and sensing, he almost forgot about the dogs attached to her waist. Turning in the air, avoiding another tentacle, he noticed the dogs had their mouths wide open. At that moment, he remembered that the hydra heads above hadn’t attacked. Why hadn’t they attacked in conjunction with the tentacles? Simple; the dogs were charging up a six-elemental blast. Lightning, fire, water, earth, wind, light, and darkness. The build-up was slow but the execution was fast.
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‘Ultra Magic Barrier—!’
He raised his arms and summoned the spherical barrier the moment the six brown dog heads roared and sent out their attack. Dasha saw black, white, yellow, and red all at the same time. The sphere cracked. He could feel himself flying through the air, the semi-transparent barrier cracking. His world spun and he ended up like another pebble skidding across the lake. The six-element blast kept going and going and Dasha knew it was only time before the sphere broke. He deactivated the barrier and pushed himself down. Falling, facing the blast whizzing past him, he went into full analysis-mode. His back hit the lake and he followed the blast till it was gone from view.
‘Forty seconds.’ Dasha leaped to his feet and glanced at Scylla. A massive amount of distance had been made. A hundred feet almost given that he could barely see the giant maiden now. ‘Forty seconds for the build-up and one second for the actual attack. It’s too fast to dodge but the focus required prevents Scylla from using her hydras. That is where I have to counter.’
The attack was absurd. It didn’t seem to have an end. If he hadn’t reacted when he did, he might have died. ‘Black Cards,’ he muttered, five black cards in his left hand. Each card uses up a hundred and fifty mana. The Shadows cost two hundred mana per second. He was burning through his mana fast due to the Darkened Pulse. Even with Foundation Establishment, his MP regen per minute was at 600.5. Often, when he wasn’t fighting, he had to unequip the class entirely.
But against Scylla, he couldn’t afford to lose it. Not yet. The health bar that loomed above it was halfway down. His attacks had been super effective. First the Black Cards, then the Blazing Fury Combo. Offensively, he was a monster. However…
‘What?’
A bright, multi-coloured aura was glowing from her waist. Six distinct glints that, as he came closer, he recognized to be the same attack. There was a roar, then—
‘Ultra Magic Barrier—!’
How fast! How absurd! After one charge, Scylla could do another blast back-to-back!? He grit his teeth. Even though he knew it was coming at that split-second moment, the sheer speed of the attack was too much. It was the light-element! It seemed like its natural speed was melding with the other elements into an ultimate attack with no weakness. Scylla's attack was beyond anything he had faced before. The barrier strained against the force of the assault, crackling and groaning under the immense pressure.
And then, with a deafening roar, the barrier shattered like glass, unable to withstand the overwhelming force of Scylla's blast. Dasha was engulfed in a blinding explosion of light and energy, his body tossed about like a ragdoll in the ferocious maelstrom. For a moment that felt like an eternity, Dasha was lost in a whirlwind of pain and chaos. He felt himself being tossed and battered by the force of the blast, his senses overwhelmed by the searing heat and blinding light.
But he was alive. Just barely, he was alive, face inside the blood lake. He waited for ten seconds and found that Scylla wasn’t attacking him. He rolled over and stared at the sky of codes and symbols. Lying there, teetering between life and death, Dasha muttered, “Open status.”
[ Status: Dasha Pang
Class: Dark Sorcerer
Level: 52
HP: 760
HP/Minute: 126
MP: 6700
MP/Minute: 450.5
Attack: 611
Defence: 623
Attributes
Strength: 156
Resilience: 152
Agility: 963
Deftness: 479
Vitality: 252
Magical Might: 1250
Magical Mending: 150
Distributive Points: 122 ]
His health was in the red and Foundation Establishment was turned off. He had over a hundred points to spend and eight classes to choose from. There was no need to think for each, there were only three to focus on: Sorcerer, Dark Sorcerer, and Intermediate Martial Artist. He considered the Sorcerer Classes. Some of the skills involved were truly powerful. But then he remembered the Class Skill that could potentially turn around everything.
‘Counterflow Stance.’
Swimming between shadows and activating power skills, they were mighty indeed. But they weren’t him. He was a martial artist first and foremost. It wasn’t a matter of being good with it or not, it was merely about being himself.
[ New skill learned : Thunder Clap ]
[ Stamina Surge Lv. 1 upgraded to Stamina Surge Lv. 2 ]
[ New skill learned : Thunderclap Palm ]
[ New skill learned : Electro-step ]
[ New skill learned : Super Speed Lv. 1 ]
[ New skill learned: Storm Surge Kick ]
[ New skill learned : Rocky Chin ]
[ New skill learned : Stone Stance ]
Stamina Surge activated on the spot. His body, once burning, became filled with newfound energy. Twenty seconds had passed. Twenty seconds remained until the next six-elemental blast. He had been sent far, far away. Scylla had not moved, however, focusing everything she had on recharging her attack. Dasha saw six different blips of light.
‘Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five…’
There was a roar. Dasha was running across the lake at record speed. If Scylla wasn’t moving in the slightest and her focus was fully on recharging then—
A sound that seemed to tear through the air like a ferocious beast unleashed itself. Each syllable of the roar carried a primal fury that shook the waters beneath Dasha's feet. It was a declaration of an attack. Dasha didn't blink. He simply saw white.