The lightning beast was more massive than any monster I’d ever encountered. Due to its size, it would be difficult to aim for any vital organs around its head and body, at least right away. First, I’d make use of my speed to stay clear of its four long legs, tangle its limbs, and watch its stance crumble.
Well…that was the plan, but it fell apart almost immediately. Instead, it snarled and lunged for me faster than that hulking body should allow.
“Dammit!” I cursed.
Nameless’s passive effects were in play, and Gale Wind was at full force, but my speed didn’t guarantee victory. The lightning beast reared up on its hind legs. I barely dodged the blow that followed. I put distance between us and recovered my stance, but the beast growled and stalked toward me, undeterred.
“A follow-up attack?!” I cried, bewildered. The way this beast maneuvered its body defied the laws of physics. It landed smoothly and lunged in a whirl of claws and teeth, as if it understood the concept of multihit combos. I had to dance around, constantly on defense.
In the middle of evading, I saw a way to turn the tables.
“Now!” I shouted.
The window of opportunity was small, but I didn’t let it go. I slipped past its outstretched claws and ducked under its forelegs, where I swung Nameless upward.
What happened next struck me with disbelief, rather than the beast. As my aggressive strike collided with the lightning beast’s stomach, a noticeable tink sound crackled above the noise of battle.
“How—”
I panicked.
I knew the lightning beast’s hide would be tough. A level-20,000 monster wouldn’t die in a single hit. But what was that? It sounded as if the blade had rebounded off an invisible barrier before it even reached the hide.
Invisible barrier?
The second those words entered my mind, I couldn’t drop them. I struck again, determined to use this chance, but the same thing happened.
Crack.
Wait. Was that sound—
The beast snapped at me, but I spun away with a grunt. In front of an enemy as strong as this one, I didn’t have a spare second to think. The beast stomped furiously, trying to crush me. I dodged and backed out of range.
Wary of its unreasonably fast movements, I circled warily as I considered my next action. On the one hand, this monster was blocking all of my attacks to the point where even a direct hit didn’t connect—but that wasn’t necessarily how it would always be. When it blocked my second attack, I’d learned something. Upon a second look, my blade didn’t rebound off the beast’s body. It rebounded off something surrounding it. I didn’t miss that cracking noise. Nothing else should’ve existed here but this beast, so what made the sound?
I had a theory.
An invisible shape around the lightning beast—it was cloaked in some sort of defensive barrier. The changing sound proved I was doing damage. The fact it cracked on the second hit meant the barrier wasn’t impenetrable.
Ultimately, my theorizing didn’t change what I needed to do.
I slipped past the swiping of the beast’s front legs and slashed Nameless repeatedly. With my plan in place, I slammed my sword hard again and again. The lightning beast opened its mouth wide and roared at the sky, so loud it felt like it might shatter my eardrums. The roar itself was a hassle, but things were about to get serious. Answering the beast’s call, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky—directly at me.
I sensed the mana and leapt out of the way in the nick of time. Lightning struck and scorched the ground where I’d been standing. The reverberations shook through me.
“No way…” I said breathlessly. I’d evaded the bolt of lightning by a fraction of a second. If that had struck me, I wouldn’t have simply taken damage: it might’ve killed me in one shot. My body trembled from the thought.
“Too soon to be relieved!” I told myself.
The beast roared on and on. A litany of lightning attacks rained from above.
What could I do? I barely dodged the last attack, and my success came from pure instinct, not strategy. Sensing traces of mana before it struck wouldn’t work every time.
Should I give up?
Of course not. This was no time for jokes! Back to being serious!
“If I can’t always sense the traces of mana, I’ll track the flow of mana more closely. Enemy Detection!”
I activated the skill, which allowed me to detect all mana within the designated range. Tracking it above my head cost a ton of MP, but I couldn’t complain. It made the flow of mana clear and the lightning easier to evade. The problem was that I’d need to take this beast down before my MP ran out. Now was the critical time to find an edge.
“Here I go!”
As I evaded the lightning bolts, I beelined for the beast. As I closed in, it stopped roaring. Would the lightning harm it? No time to wonder. It snarled at me as I sped in with a yell, both of us brimming with speed and strength. It was stronger than I was, and it rivaled my speed. Nevertheless, the harsh battles I’d faced in the past taught me a lot about going toe to toe with a daunting foe.
I had a chance.
My first swing rebounded on the beast’s defensive barrier, but the second made a noticeable cracking sound. The third one—at long last—shattered the barrier. I focused my subsequent attacks on that vulnerable spot. Quick with my sword, I slashed with abandon at the lightning beast’s body.
Stronger. Faster. Stronger! Faster! I repeated the mantra as I swung my sword. At this rate, I would win!
The beast roared again, heedless of the fact I was cutting into its body. I kept Enemy Detective active to track the mana. With its help, I could dodge more lightning strikes easily, or so I thought.
Then the mana flow changed!
“What’s going on?” I said with alarm. This strike wasn’t manifesting like the others. Mana concentrated above the beast like a blazing sun, dozens of times stronger than the other lightning strikes. Did it intend to electrify itself to damage me?
“Argh!” No way I could block that. As frustrating as it was, I had to put some distance between us again. This way, the beast would likely cease the attack.
It didn’t. Contrary to my every expectation, its raucous roar continued. Mana still gathered above its head. After building to a fever pitch, a hyper-powered lightning strike crashed down on the beast in a searing, bright bolt.
“That’s a flashy way to kill itself,” I muttered as I watched the cloud of dust billow around it. I couldn’t help but scoff. I mean, it should’ve known the strike wouldn’t hit me, right? Yet it didn’t stop the attack.
At any rate, the blow it took was devastating. Even if it wasn’t dead, it was on the verge of it.
The dust settled and revealed the fate of the lightning beast.
“…What?” The sight stunned me. “Hold up. What’s this now…?”
I thought it would be scorched beyond recognition, but what stood there was something else entirely. Every wound I’d dealt to its body was healed, and if that was any indication, the defensive barrier was also fixed.
If that was the extent of the change, it would’ve been obnoxious but manageable. But unlike its previous form, lightning itself now cloaked the beast’s body. The pressure and malevolence it emitted had increased several times over, like it could crush me without moving a muscle.
I used Appraisal without thinking. My instincts told me it must’ve gained attributes unlike anything I’d ever seen, and they were spot on.
Lightning Beast (Form: King of Lightning)
Level: 25,000
I gasped. “Level 25,000?!”
This was a death sentence.
It had taken everything I had to survive against a level 20,000 monster, but this? Another 5,000 levels on top of that knocked my survival rate below 1 percent.
Defeat.
Despair.
Death.
Negative words like those flooded my mind, but still—still, it was precisely because of that desperation that I grinned so defiantly.
“I get it,” I said to the air.
The preceding quests, from level one through level nine, had tested my stamina, determination, and intelligence. I pushed them to the limit in order to succeed. Level ten was different. It was designed to be insurmountable, even if I gave the quest my all.
Did the system want me to die?
No, that couldn’t have been it. The system only wanted one thing.
If I couldn’t overcome this lightning beast even at my best, then it was clear what I had to do.
“I’ll win anyway.”
With unwavering willpower, I raised Nameless against it.
“Here we go, King of Lightning. I will surpass my own limits!”