This time, when I unleashed Dark-Dispelling Flash, Hecatoncheires dodged it without any need for Shadow Dance. Then he retaliated with a slash of his own. I let go of my Oneiros Reisszahn, jumped back, twisted my body, and somehow caught his blade with my claws.
This guy was crazy strong. If he’d evolved into an offensive type instead of a defense type like Hecatoncheires, this wouldn’t have even been a fight. He would’ve killed me on the first hit.
Hecatoncheires swung his greatsword at my waist. But instead of dodging or defending, I let his blade bury itself in my waist. Wait for it…
Hecatoncheires pulled his sword back and swung again.
Now!
I lunged forward and wrapped my claws around Hecatoncheires’s sword. I knew I wasn’t going to win this way, but there was one last skill I wanted to try: Oneiros’s most powerful attack skill, Hell Gate.
Normal Skill “Hell Gate.” A type of spatial magic. Summons part of the now-abandoned underworld to burn away enemies with hellfire. The hellfire does not affect the skill’s user. Maximum size of the summoned area is determined by skill level. Powerful but costly.
Still holding onto Hecatoncheires’s greatsword, I activated Hell Gate. Black flames erupted around us as the head and arms of a jet-black skeleton rose from the center. The skeleton peeked out from the flames, then grabbed Hecatoncheires and began to drag him into depths of the gate beneath it.
“Graaaaaaah!” I opened my mouth wide and sank my fangs into Hecatoncheires’s body. He quickly dissolved into black shadows and retreated. Where there was once a sword, my claws now met thin air.
I can’t even hold on to his weapon…?!
I could feel Hell Gate draining my HP and MP with every second. I leapt forward to chase after Hecatoncheires. There was no turning back now!
‹I can’t let you get away!›
I passed Hecatoncheires, turned around, and used Hell Gate again. Its black flames engulfed Hecatoncheires once more. He used Shadow Dance again to retreat, but now the black flames covered the entire area, limiting his ability to escape. I knew he didn’t like depleting his MP, so his best bet was to try to flee through the closest opening—which meant I knew exactly where he’d be, and I could hit him.
I opened my mouth wide and gathered as much magic as I could inside it. A ball of black light began to form between my jaws.
As an Oneiros, my magic power was higher than my attack power. Hell Gate should’ve done a number on Hecatoncheires’s armor and HP. So if I wanted to take him down, I needed to do it now, before he had a chance to heal!
“Groooooaaaaaaaaaa!”
‹Gravidon!›
The black orb shot out of my mouth in a straight line toward Hecatoncheires in the very moment he reappeared. It exploded, spraying black light everywhere. The Hell Gate flames around me disappeared as I fell to my knees. My body was enveloped in light, and I shrank in size. Maintaining Diabolos with Dragon Mirror was costing me too much MP.
I used Hi-Rest to recover my HP, but I could feel my MP bottoming out.
I can’t…take much more of this. With effort, I flapped my wings and swooped toward Hecatoncheires to attack whatever was left.
The cloud of dust cleared. And in the center stood Hecatoncheires, unmoving. The cracks in his stone visage were already starting to heal.
Hecatoncheires
Species: Hecatoncheires
Status: Mad God
Lv: 140/140 (MAX)
HP: 9435/10000
MP: 8628/10000
…Huh? No way. All that, and it barely made a dent…?
That shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise as it did. Deep down, I’d known it already: I simply didn’t have the stats to take on Hecatoncheires. From the moment I saw his skills, I knew how I’d have to beat him. He excelled in bringing his opponents into simple one-on-one exchanges—that was his specialty. If I had the stats to overwhelm Hecatoncheires during those exchanges, I could easily defeat it. But if I couldn’t, then victory was impossible.
It didn’t matter how many handy countermeasures I could think up to combat him, my stats simply weren’t high enough to compete with his. Surely there were plenty of more efficient ways to deplete his MP than anything I was trying, but even so… After all this time, I’d only knocked down his MP by about 20 percent. Even if I found a strategy that was three times more efficient, it still wouldn’t be enough to take him down.
I had no other choice. I kicked off from the ground and took to the air. There was no way I could beat him right now. My only option was to beat a tactical retreat and level myself up enough to contend with him another time.
Hecatoncheires’s headless frame gazed up at me as I flew away. For a moment, I thought he might come after me, but instead he turned around, walked back to the tower, and returned to his perfectly immobile, statue-like pose in front of its door.
So his duty is to protect the tower, let the other Sacred Skill users prowl the forest alone, and wait for them to succumb to Mad God, huh? Well, too bad. I’m faster than he is.
Defeated, I flew away, intent on returning to take him down soon. But that fight hadn’t all been in vain: I managed to get an idea of which skills could prove effective against Hecatoncheires. That knowledge would be useful when I went up against him again.
…But not right now. That experiment drained far too much of my MP for me to continue fighting. But there had to be a way for me to defeat Hecatoncheires somehow.
Part 4
I RETURNED TO ALLO AND TREANT, waiting a ways off in the trees.
‹Oh, Master! I’m glad to see you’re okay. But that giant statue seemed like…quite the handful,› Treant said with a frown, still in its tree spirit form.
‹Yeah… I wanted to take care of him nice and quick, but I’m just not strong enough yet. Next time, I’ll have to challenge him with all my MP intact.›
“Does that mean you think you’ll be able to beat him next time?” Allo asked, tilting her head.