The wave weaver stomped onto the platform and galloped towards Rana, stomping a trail of shadow flames with its hooves. The floor she stood on rumbled with each passing stride of the monster and the intensity of the tremors became louder as it got closer. She lowered her form and struck the bottom of her staff towards the surface of where she stood in an attempt to maintain steadiness. If she were to lose her footing now, she would be doomed.
The monster knew what the prey before it was planning. It increased the power of its stomp and its hooves blasted even larger shadow flames with its dozens of steps per stride. The prey was attempting to counter-attack and it would not make it easy for her. The monster stamped onto the floor and leaped forward, the impact the jump made sent out cracks like lightning towards her. It was a powerful jump, and now the monster trampled towards her ferociously.
Rana could not counter-attack, her footing and form were imbalanced. She would not be able to fully utilize her strength if her body was not in a position to do so. Fortunately, she never planned to counter-attack. She dug her toes and staff into the floor and pushed herself towards the side and off of the platform.
She fell, the air rushed against her like a chilling wind. However, her supposedly fall into the abyss did not happen. Her body slammed onto another platform below and her back exploded with an icy grasp. She checked her health points, the fall only took around one-tenth. She was glad she was a zombie. Her body did not suffer physical injuries from physical critical damage, and fall damage was very oddly calculated. If one does not suffer a critical hit, a fall usually does not do much damage. However, this mostly only applied to exceptional circumstances.
Rana stood up and rubbed the back of her neck. She was sore, but not in a traditional sense. Her body was numb and her mind was dulled, but she had to quickly focus if she were to win the battle.
The wave weaver still glided through the air above her. It knew where she was and it was only a matter of time before it attacked. She had to come up with a plan, but there was still too little information.
Wave Weavers were water-bound creatures. They were stallions that galloped in the waves rather than swim in them. They were close-ranged hunters and had no long-ranged options, but given that their hunting grounds were mostly coastal areas, the ability to dive in and out of the water and run on the land gave them tremendous mobility and speed. It was also because of their unique method of movement, they were unhindered by the currents of the ocean and the raging of storms. This made them incredibly dangerous as foes even though their attacks boiled down to charging at the humans.
Wave weavers required an entire team to take down. Warrior-class marked ones had the durability and strength to withstand its onslaught, but they lacked the speed and agility to move in the waters, restricting them to the land and defending. Rogue-class marked ones had movement Skills that ignored physical limitations, but because they had to spend their mana into using Skills to move, their fragile durability and lowered damage output could not sustain a prolonged fight. Mage-class marked ones could of course deal a significant amount of damage to a wave weaver, but they required teammates to restrain the monster or else their Spells would be hard to land on such fast foes, and the time they needed to charge up their mana meant they were helpless until then.
That was not to say soloing the monster was impossible, but due to its nature, it simply required higher stats than what was normally needed for a monster of its level. However, what means to accomplish that was mostly unusable against this mutated wave weaver. The conditions were just too different. The marked one was on dry land, but the wave weaver treated solid objects as if they were water. This meant that the marked one could not even hit the monster since the solid ground acted like a shield for the monster that could move freely in it.
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However, was that true? It was true that the wave weaver could move freely in solid ground as if it were water, but was it a property of the monster, or was it something else?
To fight a wave waver normally, one has to dodge its charges while preparing for a counter-attack. It was doable, but for Rana, the conditions present made it extremely unlikely for success. The platforms and narrow tunnels restricted her options when it came to avoiding attacks, and the mutated nature of the monster made every decision one based on incomplete information. Not to mention that although this Dungeon was new, the monsters therefore weaker, wave weavers were still one of the more powerful monsters and her Status was too weak for her to take on it one-on-one reliably.
That was not to say there were no other methods.
Rana scanned the platforms below her quickly. Was there one that matched what she needed? Yes, there was. She threw her staff towards one below her and its burning crescent blade lodged itself onto the narrow path. Now, it was time to analyze the monster’s behavior to see if her hypothesis was correct. If not, she just threw her weapon away for nothing.
The waver weaver charged at her from above, and like a meteor, it crashed towards her. She surged her mana and it crackled like crimson lightning. The boost was not enough to give her an advantage over the enemy, but it was enough for her to dodge the incoming attack. She rolled to the side and braced for an impact that never came. The monster shot through the platform and did not break the floor she stood on. It chose to finish her right here instead of giving her more room to maneuver around. With the monster keeping low, it also meant she could not freely drop to safety.
The waver weaver continued its attack, it dropped like a meteor and returned to the sky to dive below once again. Her mana flared and boosted her speed, but it was also decreasing steadily due to the enhancement. The monster could sense its victory nearing, but it didn’t know its prey was hiding a smile.
There was a reason why the wave weaver solidified itself when it attempted to break her footing earlier. There was also a reason why it chose not to when crashing like a meteor.
Rana stuck a vial of life-essence in between her teeth and leaped off of the platform when the monster was about to begin another dive. She made sure she had positioned between her crescent bladed staff and the wave weaver.
The wave weaver charged. It was a one monster stampede and it was going to trample the falling Rana. She clasped her arms together and guarded against the meteor that crashed into her and an explosion of ice expanded from within her arms and into her mind. The Talent Support Defend was not enough to prevent it from being a killing blow. It was her gritting teeth and the vial that broke that saved her from death. She swallowed the life-essence and glass. She felt the shards cut into her throat, but that was nothing compared to the invigorating juice that soothed her darkening mind.
The monster shot past her, like a giant club it batted her towards the wall. She crashed into the stone surface, but her mind refused to surrender to the darkness.
She waited. It was an instance, a singular moment, and it was enough.
Fool’s Fire ignited the surging ashes hidden within the platform path when the monster dove into the solid rock. The explosion fired off shrapnel and cut off the platform from the tunnel it connected to. The red tint that shaded the stones dimmed and a loud screech could be heard. The monster screamed in agony as the stone that was supposed to be its water now consumed half its body still in it.
The platform fell into the abyss with one half of the body still in it. The other half of the wave weaver soon followed.
Rana slowly pushed herself up and stuck her head over the ledge to witness the death of her enemy. She spat out the glass shards still in her mouth and felt a phantom headache coming. Her hypothesis was correct but the implications brought only bad news. Things were going to become a lot more troublesome.