I stood on the platform as another Giant Centipede the size of four school busses was blasted apart. Burning chunks rained down into the exploding lava that was the moltenlands. The intense heat was making me sweat slightly. My team had it worse.

We were making progress, but I hadn’t done anything yet. It was mostly Michelle, Joyo, and to a lesser extent Doctor Katz in a supporting role. I was keeping an eye out for any monsters. We were reaching the center of the zone and our pass was fairly steady.

Michelle was seated in a reclining chair with her eyes closed, focused on the senses of her monsters. I noted ants and spiders on individual portions of the Infinite Block around us staring around us.

We passed through some lavalands as the Hell Lords, large burning skeletons in armor, attacked in melee and with fire beams. Each one walked on top of the lava and was about twice my height. Level 4 monsters intercepted the beam attacks while the Infinite Block launched return attacks.

The border between terrains was much more irregular as we quickly entered the moltenlands again and ran across Giant Centipedes. They shot out a tornados of fire, using the moltenlands as cover. They were clever enough to put effort into dodging, but Michelle could track monsters unlike the monsters we had encountered so far. That was my greatest fear, monsters that could actually track and anticipate targets with ranged attacks.

I noted a massive explosion in the distance. I felt a sense of fear grip me. A Molten Millipede of Fear And Destruction, a level 7 monster. Its armored carapace was burning. My breathing sped up. Its massive form rose up into the sky. Its thousands of pointed legs each glowed with energy.

“Fear!” The word was like nails on a chalkboard in my mind. I could see the subtle vibrations as the monster emitted pure thought into the energy around it. I knew the trick of mental communication like this. It was just a matter of infusing energy containing a specific thought and projecting it outwards.

It was easily disrupted, unless you went for a blanket effect like the monster was doing. At this range, over a mile away, the sheer amount of energy it was giving off was a blazing inferno in my Sense stat. There was a gap between level 6 and level 7 monsters. It spiraled through the air towards us. A massive amount of energy gathering in its pincered mouth.

Void Beam! Radiant Beam! I used my skills three times right away, without hesitation. The Molten Millipede of Fear And Destruction twisted through the air, one of my attacks missed, another struck prematurely, not activating the annihilation effect. The third succeeded in striking its carapace, and a large car sized chunk was blown away.

Its blood was burning as fire rushed out. The heat increased even more. Michelle was pulling back to buy us time, but the level 7 monster was rapidly advancing. The very air itself was trembling. We were going to die. I forced the thought away. It was coming from the energy hitting me. But it was just so much.

Energy continued to gather in its mouth. “Michelle! Defend!” I shouted loudly. The Eclipsing Moon was already growing between us and the level 7 monster.

“DESTRUCTION!” The exploding terrain below was pushed to the side as a massive beam of blinding energy lanced out. The Eclipsing Moon interposed itself between us and the attack. It was blown apart. Falling to the ground in molten chunks that were quickly turning to dust. A massive level 6 monster, that resisted energy based attacks had just been killed in an instant.

If another attack like that came at us, dodging would be impossible. As the Molten Millipede of Fear And Destruction closed in, it began to gather energy in its mouth once more. Time for me to man up. I was standing on a specific portion of the Infinite Block just for this. I kicked downwards and it shattered instantly, as I went soaring through the sky towards the level 7 monster.

We had been idiots. Level 6 monsters were not a match for a level 7 monster. It was so dense with its own energy, it would easily repel any kind of curse damage near instantly, even from the Book Of Curses. Beam attacks from the Infinite Block, would just tickle it.

The only option was to engage in close combat with it. Long range attacks weren’t cost effective to the amount of damage they did. If I had 100,000 in my Spirit stat, I would have been okay spending half that bombarding it, but right now that wasn’t an option.

If I bombarded it, then I wouldn’t have the energy for close combat. For a massive monster, the size of a bloated train, it was incredibly quick. Air Burst. But my skills were level 6 skills and fully upgraded. I moved directly for its head. The heat increased immensely as I came closer to it.

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Acid Shot x100. I used my acid tsunami attack, as I mentally called it. There was no dodging such a massive amount of acid. You could retreat, and maybe get away with a skill like Air Burst, but you weren’t dodging. A bigger monster meant a bigger target.

“Burn!” The monster screeched with its energy. The heat surged. The energy around its head was pulled into its body, and its carapace flames turned from red to blue. My acid still got through landing across the monster from about half of the orbs of acid. It twisted around, rising up into the sky. The air whooshed around it as it moved.

Air Burst. I moved in closer to attack as its flames died down. The acid was working on it but was quickly burned away by the armor. But there was heavy damage. Acid Shot x50. Air Burst. I targeted better this time across its body and followed it as it twisted in the air. Making sure to concentrate my attacks on a specific segment. Force Shot x4.

Annihilation effects quickly spread out, carving a third of the way through the Molten Millipede of Fear And Destruction. Air Burst. I followed the damaged segment, staying in close. Acid Shot x50. Force Shot x4.

The massive monster tried to spin, but I kept up with it in midair as the heat rushed over me. My armor helped mitigate the massive amounts of energy pouring off of it as another series of annihilation attacks took place in the wound I had already dug out. The blasts of white light, cleaving into the fiery flesh.

I had managed to cut through it, with only two portions on either side of the massive wound keeping the monster togeather. Air Burst. The level 7 monster began to plummet back down towards the ground, as its head rushed for me.

Acid Shot x50. Acid Shot x50. I targeted both the head and the wound. Force Shot x4. Air Burst. I split my attacks between the wound and its head as I sailed back. Air Burst. I had less than 2,000 energy left.

As I retreated from the inferno of the monster’s wound and carapace, I touched down on an Infinite Block, Michelle adjusting its orientation to allow me to land and made it move with my landing to help absorb the impact of my landing without damage.

Several fire flying type level 4 monsters raced in. They were pumped full of energy as they exploded with annhilation effects one after another against the massive monster. I got back to the main group. “Everyone okay?” I asked.

“Yes,” Doctor Katz said as he charged up another monster with his imbue skills.

“I am out of support monsters,” Michelle said.

“I barely felt my skills take effect,” Captain Francis said. “There was a lot of raw energy being thrown around-“

“Die!” The level 7 monster, ripped itself into a third at the wound I had done. The rear quickly began turning to dust was it raced forward once again. Its head was damaged, but it was still capable of attacking. Dammit, time to do something I really didn’t want to do. This was going to require a lot of time to fix.

“Beat stick,” I said and Joyo handed one to me. It had null enchantments. I leapt off an individual portion of the Infinite Block again. It really was pulling its weight this battle, so we weren’t standing on exploding molten rocks.

I went right for the monster’s head and it seemed to content to race at me as well. I brought up the beat stick in front of me like a spear. It tried to juke at the last moment, but I was ready. Air Burst. The beat stick slammed into its massive head, right below a burning golden eye. The blade began to melt, but I didn’t get the blade so I could stab something this large.

Touching monsters was a bad idea. I used the beat stick to create a grip for me to repel myself from. This was going to suck massively. I was going to be out of commission for a hundred days or so from doing this, but I just didn’t have the energy and began drawing it from the air.

The curse damage was already infiltrating my body rapidly as I pulled in the energy. But it was best to get it over as quickly as possible. Acid Shot x1,000. Force Shot x10. Air Burst! A massive annihilation effect took place around the monster’s head engulfing it in a blinding white explosion. Pain wracked my body and it felt like it was burning from the inside out.

Dammit! I really didn’t want to do this. It was my trump card, I had reversed engineered from all the nonsense I had seen the Astrologer do. But it was a bad idea. “Ahhh!” I let out a scream in pain. The energy from this zone really sucked. Air Burst.

The Molten Millipede of Fear And Destruction was dusted and there was a skill point crystal hovering in the air. I crashed on the Infinite Block platform, Michelle making sure to stop me. Doctor Katz rushed in and poured a life flask on my face.

It kind of helped a bit, but not much. I overdid it. “Ahhh!” I let out another scream of pain and couldn’t stop myself from contorting. The rolling pain was immense. Each breath felt like I was breathing in fire. My eyeballs wanted to explode out of their sockets. The curse damage was rampaging through me.

“Michael, stay with me! Joyo, help hold him! Michelle, make sure we don’t fall, cover us!” Doctor Katz shouted. I could vaguely think of the fact that he was in charge of medical emergencies. I felt hands grip me and hold me down against the platform as I continued to scream.

I wanted to stop, but I just couldn’t. Dammit! This had been a stupid idea. I had been stupid. I felt a flask pushed against my mouth as Doctor Katz tried to pour more life infused water down my throat. Some trickled in and I coughed most of it out as it ran all over my face.

Wave after wave of pain shook my body. I should have gone for the head. But it had dodged. Dammit! A bar was put into my hand, and I squeezed down on it, focusing on that instead of the pain. I was holding the curse damage at bay. But I had really overdrawn myself to ensure the level 7 monster was killed.

It was a good emergency attack and ultimate trump card, but the blowback was immense. Stupid! “Michael, you with us?” Doctor Katz asked me while leaning over my head.

“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth. I heard several sighs of relief at that. Well a win, was still a win.