I don’t want to wait any longer, even injured and quite exhausted my body trembles with excitement and anxiety. I want to keep testing my limits and put an end to this, now it has become something more personal.
I teleport in front of him, my sword in motion is stopped by his, he even manages to defend against my second strike. This monster must have a slight affinity with space mana to have sensed me beforehand, maybe last time I was lucky because of the explosion of mana around us.
I don’t give up, I keep moving my body as fast as my brain allows. Every movement calculated and precise, my body moves in sync with everything around me. Not a single step is wasted, not a single muscle moves without purpose, I am a set of gears working at full capacity.
That is reflected in how the fight is unfolding right now. The Lich is slowly retreating every few exchanges, my swordsmanship is overcoming the small difference in strength between us.
That is possible because of all the spells I must construct at the same time to keep his powerful magic under control. His constructions have somehow become stronger, I don’t know how that is possible if he is in his weakest state of the entire fight.
A massive dark spear comes straight toward my head from above. I move my head just enough to dodge it, the chaotic mana on the edges manages to rip off one of my ears even without taking the hit directly.
I bite my lips to avoid cursing, I put all my willpower into staying on my feet and eliminating the traces of that horrifying mana from my body. Now it is even more disgusting, it is nauseating.
That attack also cost him something, some of his defensive spells have disappeared. I take advantage of that opening to go all out, I construct as many Joyeuse as I can in an instant, even with my improved body and a much more capable brain, this is a heavy burden.
My mouth and one of my nostrils are bleeding slightly, I can feel the metallic taste. Punishing myself has its reward, in record time I manage to create two dozen fully charged swords ready to strike him.
The swords surge forward, the Lich desperately tries to retreat to avoid this overwhelming attack. He doesn’t have enough time to get away, his speed has dropped considerably.
The first swords are stopped by his few remaining stable constructions. In such a desperate situation, the Lich knows how to use his resources to the maximum, managing to block most of the attacks without being injured.
For his bad luck, there are still more Joyeuse left, and more importantly: me.
I join the assault as quickly as I can. The swords corner him against the cave wall, the momentum of my strikes puts him in a situation where escaping without damage is impossible.
I hear his bones breaking little by little. His entire body becomes a disaster as we reach the wall behind him. The last Joyeuse embeds itself in his forehead, pinning him into the wall.
In those short seconds, the monster stopped trying to defend itself, it tried to take me with it into death. His final attempt almost worked, I have lost my left arm and have a massive hole in the middle of my abdomen, I cannot even close my mouth because it is full of blood.
I know he can recover as long as I don’t destroy the layer protecting his core, it doesn’t matter if his head has been vaporized. I can already feel the corrupted life and death mana swirling around his body trying to heal him, the only thing stopping it for now is my Imra and Dominion.
My arm gathers great momentum, I don’t want to fail the first strike, I must finish him and not give him time to recover. In difficult situations he has pushed me to my limits, I don’t want that again.
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The fibers in my arm ache, the muscles tear and even my shoulder feels like it is about to dislocate. The movement completes faster than expected, my mana control is not sufficient due to my condition, my body is failing slightly from the strain and injuries.
My arm is almost destroyed due to the power behind the movement. It is something I didn’t expect, I see how blood and what should be my bones and muscles scatter to the side.
As I fall to my knees, I am not sad, a wide smile spreads across my face. The monster’s core has been shattered, I see how his body slowly begins to fall apart, the death and corrupted life mana dispersing little by little.
My expression changes in an instant when I feel it is not dispersing completely, instead it is gathering near what remains of the core.
This is a particular trait of undead-type monsters. When their core is broken, the life and death mana gather again to reform it, if that were not the case, no one would risk actively hunting undead, there would be no benefit.
This time is different, I feel the mana is completely unstable. My brain acts before my body, I gather space mana as quickly as possible to move away from the wall.
The corrupted life and death mana explode before I can finish, I bite my lips with all my strength to avoid losing concentration. My willpower does all the hard work, finally I manage to activate my ability and move away.
I have suffered both minor and severe injuries from the explosion, miraculously I realized just in time and escaped before taking more damage. I would have probably died if I had stayed one more second in that explosion.
My injured body just wants to rest. Slowly I eliminate all the traces of death and corrupted life mana from my body. That is the first thing I must do before healing myself, I can feel my Yin-Yang Law working overtime at maximum speed.
Glia runs toward me at full speed. The other monsters disappeared the moment the Lich’s core exploded. At least it hasn’t been completely destroyed, thanks to my Personal World I can still feel it in that place, even without my perception ability I would notice something with that much accumulated mana.
“You’re a mess.” Glia lies down beside me.
“You’ve had better days too.” I reply to my sister. She is covered in wounds that are slowly closing.
She started to get injured and lose ground, her mana and energy reserves were drained from fighting so many monsters at once. That is another reason why I rushed to finish the fight, I didn’t want to risk her life.
“Today was a reality check, I never thought we could end up like this, I felt incredibly powerful when I ranked up. Now I know I’m not invincible, I’ve been humbled.” Her words echo in my mind.
“I also felt invincible at ruby rank, I couldn’t have been more wrong. There will always be exceptions, individuals or groups strong enough to threaten my life.” I let out a sigh, my stomach has already healed, there is no longer blood in my mouth.
This Lich is one of those exceptions, and I’m sure someday I’ll face a group of humans capable of cornering me, I must be prepared for when that happens. I look at Glia, at least together we can overcome anything, her strength is remarkable.
I use my Imra to bring the monster’s core toward me. Glia and I analyze it quickly, the accumulated mana is something we have never seen in a grade 4 monster, it is identical to a grade 5 core.
“Congratulations on clearing a corrupted dungeon!” The omnipresent voice echoes in my head. “This is a reward for overcoming this challenge!” An object appears floating in front of me, shining brightly.
When I grab it, all the information flows directly into my mind. It is just an earring where I must place the core I just obtained, apparently the other earring is lost in the depths of another dungeon.
This object was created by a renowned craftsman hundreds of years ago, he was an obsidian rank individual. It increases my affinity with life and death mana, enhancing my abilities from the base. Most importantly, it is bound to my cube, I cannot lose it, and when the other earring is near, I will know immediately.
As I put it on, I feel how life and death mana become more… alive? I don’t know how to describe it, it feels closer to me. Manipulating it has also become easier, and my Yin-Yang Law reacts positively to this new object.
I explain everything to Glia. It seems she also receives a slight benefit because her existence is technically linked to my cube and my being. It is a benefit we both gained.
“Earrings of the Limbo.” A rather dark and strange name.
“Patrik Muk.” That is the creator’s name, I have never heard of him. It is something I must investigate once I return.
“You will be expelled from the dungeon in five seconds.” The omnipresent voice appears again. Glia moves into my cube immediately and I wait to be expelled. I let out a long sigh of exhaustion. A light surrounds my body and space mana does its job, taking me away.