The golem slammed its weapon down onto the cavern floor, and the rock exploded upwards, before fusing with the mace, melting around its head until it was many times its previous size. The construct locked eyes with Sam, and teleported, flickering across the rot filled air of the cavern.
Sam roared, his body tensing as he swung his hammer, a charge of Dao energy racing along it. It struck the lightning wreathed mace in midair, blowing the coating of rock off it, and striking the metal beneath. Both weapons struggled for dominance, and a cage of scarlet lightning expanded outards, striking the ground, melting parts of it as it went. Sam gritted his teeth, pushing his Dao into his body. He slowly gained ground, but without warning, the Crypt Guardian teleported, letting Sam’s momentum carry him forwards. No stranger to battle, Sam teleported into the momentum, continuing the arc of his hammer, straight into the golem’s knee joint as he appeared behind it.
The scale encrusted armor buckled, nearly tearing apart as Sam’s full might was directed into it. The golem fell to one knee, lashing out with its mace as it did so. A hidden joint in its abdomen appeared, and it rotated a full 180 degrees, slamming its mace into Sam’s unprotected side.
Sam was pushed away, his flesh tearing and rippled beneath the blow. With his Resilience being at the third threshold, however, he held firm, barely losing a few thousand points of health. While the Draconic Crypt Guardian was durable and strong, it wasn’t a true challenge, even with Sam limited himself as he was. It was time to finish this.
Another teleport took him to the golem’s rear, and his hammer swept across, blasting its head off its shoulders with a wave of red and blue as his Daos tore his foe apart. The golem fell apart, chunks of scales and metal clattering to the floor. Sam frowned at it, feeling that the battle had been a bit too easy.
Really? That was what a dragon left to guard such an important place? What a joke…
Before Sam could leave, he noticed that his layer quest was still marked as ongoing, and he narrowed his eyes, noticing that the pieces of metal were beginning to shift around. They rose up into the air, a web of lightning holding them tougher, and then shot towards a nearby dragon, embedding themselves into the heaving flesh of the crippled beast. Too sick to even cry out, the dragon merely shifted, air whooshing out of its mouth, carrying a sickly scent.
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The lightning sank into its flesh, the scales beginning to light up. Tumors exploded along the length of its body, and the missing scales were replaced by the ones from the golem. Sam took a step back, and watched as the last bit of light left its eyes, replaced by pure red.
The dragon rose to its feet, half of its face made of metal, and half of flesh. Its ruined wings flexed behind it, extending outwards with a mighty flap. Holes were visible in the appendages, but the monster was undeterred.
“Who… are you…” the monster said in a rumbling, unsteady voice. “My dream…. Interrupted for this…”
A snarl entered its voice at the end, and it slammed one of its forelegs down, shaking the ground. The entire asteroid seemed to groan beneath the stomp, and massive chunks of the ceiling fell, pulping some of the other monsters, their swollen bodies bursting like ripe fruit, even in the lowered gravity. Sam realized that the gravitational field was still far higher than it should have been. Because of his high stats, most gravitational fields meant nothing to him, and as a result, the fight with the Crypt Guardian had told him nothing about the local gravity. It was a bit weaker than Earth’s but still considerable.
The dragon took advantage of this to push its massive form forwards, roaring so loudly that the stone nearby shattered from the pressure. A corona of red electricity coated the beast’s form, and a pillar of energy erupted from the middle of its wings, taking the top off of the cavern, opening into space. Sam quickly scanned it, even as he prepared a powerful attack, Manifestation of Vengeance, his offensive Primal Skill, forged within the head of Terra’s Will.
Abrinadus Clone #243
Failed Dragon
Level 249
The monster’s level was considerable, but most of its power was just for show, as far as Sam could tell. Its body was crumbling apart, even as it moved, vast chunks of flesh splattering to the ground below. Its every move was filled with madness, a raw, rabid hatred of everything and everyone.
Sam was almost invisible to it, a mere part of the region that the beast wanted to destroy in its entirety. Shockwaves rippled through space as the monster moved, the small amounts of gas present within the asteroid venting off into space as they were accelerated to incredible velocities. While the dragon was far slower than Sam, it was still hundreds of times faster than any mortal beast. To an F Ranker, it would have been a blur. To a G Ranker, it would have been invisible.
