Alexia

  My sword strikes directly on the piranha’s forehead. Right between its eyes. And the moment the blade makes contact, the energy bursts out, sending shockwaves all around us that carve a path through the aura.

  I grit my teeth as I feel the feedback of the blade striking the piranha vibrating through my arms, proving just how strong the creature is.

  But despite the pain rushing through my arms, my blade begins to slowly make progress into the piranha’s head. Digging into it millimeter by millimeter while making the part of the boss around the wound glitch apart and reappear.

  The feedback rushing through my arm starts to decrease as my blade slowly makes its way into the monster’s head. Only for the piranha’s eyes to open wide, clearly being woken up by the attack. Then waves of black and purple energy rush out of the piranha’s eyes.

  I feel pain flood me the moment those waves make contact with my skin. Meanwhile my skin begins to flake away, followed by my flesh beneath.

  Damnit, I’m not going to lose to a fucking piranha!

  When the damage from the aura grows too severe, reaching all the way down to my bones on my arms, I use Quantum Stasis Copy to revert the damage. Only for it to quickly grow severe again as the aura grows in power. Meanwhile my blade continues digging further into the monster’s head.

  My eyes widen when the piranha’s eyes begin to squint and it opens its mouth. Making a powerful sphere of black and purple energy form within its mouth.

  A sphere more powerful than anything I’ve seen before.

  Shit.

  I barely manage to pierce through the piranha’s skull and just slightly into its brain before the sphere suddenly stops growing and is sent my way. Seemingly stopping mid-formation as the piranha’s eyes glaze over from its brain being partially cut into.

  The sphere slams into me, sending me flying like a cannonball straight out of the aura and crashing into several parts of the boss’ outer shell. Shattering them as I pass through, with my body rapidly withering away over and over again.

  I repeatedly use Quantum Stasis Copy to revert the damage to my body before dying. All the way until I just about run out of energy and soul. At which point the sphere very nearly kills me. Only for the items I have on hand to save me.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Multiple items, all activating one after another.

  Several barriers, damage absorbing spheres, energy absorbing spheres, healing items.

  They all activate, burning through all of my on hand one-time-use items and barely saving my life.

  And that’s with me taking soul from Luna, who is currently in perfect condition outside of the dungeon, on top of it all.

  Even with all that, I still lose consciousness for a few seconds before regaining it again to find myself so far away from the boss that I can only see it in the distance. Or the shell, at least.

  I can’t see the boss’ true body anymore thanks to the shell being too large.

  A few seconds pass as pain wracks my body from the wounds I still have, but my automatic regeneration skill, Quantum Regeneration, soon goes to work regenerating my soul. Which, in turn, begins to heal said wounds.

  Nothing chases after me from the shell. No attacks, and no tiny piranha.

  I narrow my eyes before slowly teleporting in the direction of the boss’ shell. But since I’m still regenerating my energy, I can’t teleport the entire way in one go. Leading to me having to teleport bit by bit as I recover my energy.

  And when I finally get into the area covered by fragments of the boss’ shell, I manage to catch sight of the boss’ true body.

  Huh…

  The boss looks incredibly sluggish despite having woken up earlier. No doubt because of the injury I gave its brain. And it’s doing nothing but reflexively defending itself now from the other monsters attacking it.

  Monsters that have drastically reduced their number since.

  I glance at the System Messages playing in the corner of my vision, telling me that a lot of the monsters must’ve been caught up in our clash earlier and were killed.

  Just watching the monsters rushing the boss with both their attacks and bodies before dying to the boss’ aura is enough to fill up part of my energy tank again. Enough that I finally manage to heal myself back to full soul.

  Unfortunately for me, the monsters eventually dry up completely. With all of them dying to the boss and thereby getting rid of my free source of energy.

  Damnit.

  Despite the boss no longer being attacked, it continues sitting in place with its aura covering it. Just completely still and with a very dull look in its eyes.

  The corner of my lips quirk upwards at the sight. Because it’s clear now that I managed to mentally cripple the boss with my attack earlier. Even if it didn’t kill the thing.

  Now the question is how am I going to kill it from here without my source of energy.

  Seconds pass, then entire minutes. All while I let my soul and energy recover.

  And while it’s nowhere near as effective as the monsters that were attacking the boss, the boss’ aura alone does manage to give me energy. Even if it’s just a small tenth of the previous energy. What with it not being an attack.

  So I’m only getting energy from Quantum Vampirism and not Observation Effect Absorption.

  Once my energy supply has grown enough, I launch another attack at the boss. But since it’s nowhere near as powerful as my previous attack, it doesn’t do much. It doesn’t even manage to pierce halfway through its aura to the boss. Despite its aura being significantly smaller than it was before.

  And I don’t have the power to survive in the middle of its aura right now.

  Which leaves my only option being to just sit here and gather energy.

  This is going to be a rather boring next few hours…

  Then again, it’s better than dying.

  Patreon Link - Read up to 20 chapters ahead for and , 8 chapters ahead for and , up to 13 chapters ahead for , up to 25 chapters ahead for as of posting this chapter, up to 60 chapters (almost an entire book) as of posting this chapter ahead for , up to 33 or so chapters as of posting this chapter ahead for , up to 35 chapters as of posting this chapter ahead for , gain access to the chapters of all of my new series that aren't on Royal Road yet, and gain discord benefits by becoming a Patron.

  Discord Invite