Treant nodded. ‹Very well. Then let’s get ’em!›
‹Yeah! Let’s send that slimy sucker to space and get back to farming deathadders!›
I flew low over the swamp, searching the area with Psychic Sense. Under the surface, that reddish-colored newcomer swam around at high speed. It was fast, but not so fast that I couldn’t track its movements. Its bite, too, was powerful, but still much weaker than Lilyxila’s Legendary rank attacks.
“Givaaaaaaaa!” The deathadder pack unleashed another round of Cursed Fireballs at me. One of them hit my back, sending out a burst of purple flames.
“Gale!” Allo created another whirlwind and blew the deathadders into the air. Masses of swamp mud splashed into the air in all directions, revealing the swamp’s depths, where a massive snake with shining purple scales slithered frantically, trying to find cover. Like the deathadders, it had three eyes. Its head flared out like a cobra’s and shone with golden streaks, like the sarcophagus of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. As I watched, large, batlike wings spread out wide from its back.
‹Wh-what the hell is that thing…?› And where did the red slithery guy go?
The thought barely popped in my mind before the purple serpent opened its mouth to hiss. Behind its fangs, I saw my reddish pal from earlier, grinning wryly.
‹Seriously? It has a face on its tongue?!› I was horrified. No wonder it looked so weird. It was a tongue with a freakin’ face!
But now, I knew exactly where I needed to attack.
The boss snake had already disappeared into the murky water again, but I slashed at the swamp around it with Dimension Claws. Muck flew into the air again, but there was no response from the serpent. Well, I knew it was there now, but it’d be hard to hit if it kept on moving around…
Five Cursed Fireballs flew at me from a group of deathadders. I dove down lower to avoid them. At that moment, the boss snake’s creepy humanoid tongue shot through the swamp’s surface and straight at me.
It’s fast, but I should be able to counter it soon. Time to check its status!
Merhotepre
Species: Apophis
Status: Mad God
Lv: 130/130 (MAX)
HP: 2154/2154
MP: 1765/1765
Attack: 1842
Defense: 1369
Magic: 1756
Agility: 2058
Rank: A+
Sacred Skills:
Beast Realm Path (Replica): Lv —
Special Skills:
Serpent King’s Scales: Lv 8
Grecian Language: Lv 2
Human Tongue: Lv —
Automatic HP Recovery: Lv 8
Automatic MP Recovery: Lv 6
Heat Sensor: Lv MAX
Stealth: Lv 9
Petrifying Gaze: Lv 9
Fly: Lv 6
Mad God: Lv —
Resistance Skills:
Physical Resistance: Lv 7
Magic Resistance: Lv 7
Petrify Resistance: Lv 9
Poison Resistance: Lv 6
Paralysis Resistance: Lv 6
Curse Resistance: Lv 6
Falling Resistance: Lv 6
Hunger Resistance: Lv 6
Fear Resistance: Lv 5
Instant Death Resistance: Lv 5
Confusion Resistance: Lv 5
Normal Skills:
Clay: Lv 8
Diseased Breath: Lv 8
Curse: Lv 7
Gravity: Lv 8
Foul Bite: Lv 7
Regenerate: Lv 7
Filthy Tongue: Lv 6
Wide Quick: Lv 6
Wide Berserk: Lv 6
Title Skills:
Final Evolution: Lv —
Serpent King: Lv —
Former Beast King: Lv —
Sorcerer: Lv 9
An A+! And it used to have a Sacred Skill!
I was glad it wasn’t a Legendary rank. If a monster as strong as the Origin Matter could just pop up out of nowhere down here, I would’ve needed to reconsider traveling on foot through Ngai Forest.
Even so, a max-level rank A+ was nothing to sneeze at. And unlike the deathadders, this Apophis specialized in attack and agility, meaning it could strike fast and hard. Its agility rivaled mine. But while it excelled in attack, its defense left it vulnerable to enemies’ attacks. Ideally, I wanted to take advantage of that to defeat it with a single blow.
If we’d been fighting on equal footing, the battle would be over in seconds, but the Apophis seemed content to hide in the swamp with the deathadders and attack me with its Human Tongue instead.
I readied myself to unleash another round of Dimension Claws, this time at the tongue. But then I stopped. Cutting its tongue off wouldn’t kill it. If I made it hide completely, it’d be even more likely to hurt Allo or Treant.
“Vliiik!” The Human Tongue extending from the Apophis opened its mouth again. Black smoke poured out of it—I couldn’t see.
What is this? Diseased Breath?! The tongue can use breath attacks?! What a freaky monster! I doubted the Diseased Breath would affect me; I was more concerned with the fact that I couldn’t see through it. That was probably exactly what it wanted too.
“Gale!” Allo called from my back, creating a small tornado in front of me to blow away the Diseased Breath smoke. Beyond it, I saw the Human Tongue moving; it slithered past me to my left. I spun my wings to the side to catch the Human Tongue, and it sank its fangs into my wing. I felt the tongue’s venom seep into my body, numbing my senses while my wing throbbed in pain. I twisted around with blind force and thrust my claws into the Human Tongue.
“Viiiii!” The Human Tongue shrieked.
‹Gotcha!› I dug my claws in deep and swung them around with all my might. All according to plan. I’d given up on long-range attacks with Dimension Claws and grabbed the Human Tongue instead to fish the rest of the Apophis out of the swamp. The Human Tongue immediately went rigid, attempting to retract back into its host’s mouth. Its face twisted in pain as my claws tore through it. The Apophis tried its best to stay beneath the surface, but it was in vain.
‹Sorry, but I’m way stronger than you!› I pulled harder, putting all my strength into my claws.
With a sploosh, the Apophis’s massive body broke through the swamp’s surface. It stared at me with three wide eyes, shocked. Guess you weren’t expecting that much power, huh?
I gave it a yank, pulling the Apophis toward me by its tongue. The Apophis used its wings to right itself and faced me. It looked like it had given up on resisting and was now preparing to counterattack.
I used Illusion to create a fake copy of myself, trying to throw off its trajectory. There. That should distract it. When the Apophis goes after the illusion, I’ll slice it up with my claws.
The tongue pulled at my claws again. I pulled back, bringing the Apophis closer. When it was within reach, I let go of the tongue and tried to swipe at its head with my claws, but at the last moment, the Apophis flew backward, and my claws sailed past it.
Huh? I totally had that! Is my Illusion not working?!
No, that wasn’t it; the Apophis had Heat Sensor. It didn’t need to rely on sight when it could find me by my body heat!
The deathadders had Heat Sensor too, but they were still easily fooled by my Illusion, so I thought it’d work on the Apophis too. I’d figured the Apophis was just an extension of the deathadders, but this was a former Beast King I was facing. It was on a whole different level. I should’ve assumed it might see through Illusion and prepared for that.
The Apophis lunged forward and bit down on my extended paw. Immediately, my paw went numb, and a slight wave of nausea passed through me.
Suddenly, a ring of black light appeared around the Apophis. I felt my body get heavier, and I dropped down in the air, struggling to stay airborne.
“Graaaah!” It was using Gravity! Was it trying to drag me into the swamp to fight me on its home turf?! Seeing that I was struggling, the Apophis swooped down to sink its teeth into my head.
Oh yeah? Good luck with that! I swung my paw in a wide arc, bending backward to aim straight in the air, and stretched out my claws. They slashed squarely through the Apophis’s abdomen.
My foe fell into the swamp, spraying blood and venom everywhere. I quickly used Dimension Claws, hoping to finish it off. But then a black light covered the Apophis’s body, and it dove into the swamp even faster than before and disappeared.
‹Y-you did it, Master!› Treant cheered from its spot on my back.
I shook my head. ‹Nah. I was hoping I’d finish it off now, but it ran away.› Between the venom from the Foul Bite making my body go numb and the Gravity throwing me off balance, I couldn’t hit the Apophis with my full strength. And because of that, it got away.
The Apophis only came out of the swamp and went on the offensive to get me to let go of its tongue. It suffered the most damage in our fight, but really, I felt like I was the one who was outmatched. Sure, I had it beat in stats, but the Apophis had the upper hand in terms of technique and skill usage.
‹It knows it can’t beat me outright now, so it’ll be even more careful the next time around. We’ll have a hard time beating it now.›
I doubted the Apophis would risk using its Human Tongue against me again either. From now on, it would likely stay in the swamp and employ a safer strategy to fight us. That meant I had no way to outsmart it. To defeat it, I’d have to get much closer to the swamp, but that would put Allo and Treant in danger.
Maybe it’d be better to find a safe spot for Allo and Treant to hole up, then come back to kill it? If I didn’t take down the Apophis, we’d have to hold off on leveling Treant up. I couldn’t drop Treant into the swamp with the Apophis lurking around.
A reddish-purple figure peeked out from the swamp’s surface—the Apophis’s Human Tongue. It had to be using it to scope things out while it kept its body safe in the swamp. Even so, it seemed even more cautious than before; I’d done some serious damage to it earlier.