Chapter 121: The final challenge and its reward
"Now it makes sense."
The moment they crossed over to the other side of the door, the door that led them here had already vanished behind them.
Once again, they were trapped in a place that only had one exit: the ceiling this time.
There was no escaping this place now, at the very least, not until they dealt with That.
"Meow..."
{ "That’s not a normal beast, master. I can feel a strange power from it." }
As a mystique, she could tell the creature that was present out there before her was also a Mystique creature.
And unlike her, that thing was far more powerful. Offensively powerful.
"Well of course, dear... that’s an Imugi."
The creature from the martial myths, a pseudo dragon that could ascend to a divine status after enduring hardships for over a millennium... as well as an SSS-rank creature of legends.
Coiled up in the centre of the room, as big as the giant room itself, the creature sat on the epitome of the food chain.
"You don’t see them much anymore." They were rare creatures that one can barely see even on the Stanox mountain, a place that arguably has the most species of beasts and creatures around it.
They were famous beings of legends. Descendent of the dragons.
Sam had never thought he would see something like this in this place... The golem scorpions and the snakes were one thing but this?
This wasn’t something you should see in a place that was supposed to be a barren island.
’I mean, it has the wind element. They are even more rare.’
The most common Imugi you see have red or blue colored scales. They represent the elemental type they possess.
The red Imugi breathe fire, the blue ones control water, the golden ones can use the power of the earth, the green ones can control winds, and though rare, there are ’multicolor’ and ’dark’ Imugi in this world as well.
But, even though he had lived to see some of the rarest species on this planet, Sam had never seen all six kinds of Imugi before.
And, this was his first time coming before one that had the wind attribute, a green Imugi of winds.
"How are we supposed to fight this thing?" Sam questioned what he was supposed to do while Felix was already lost in her thoughts.
Unlike her master, she was seeing the true form of this creature: the world that it expressed.
This creature was the reason behind the previous stage, and if it was able to create (maintain) something so complex for so long, it was definitely strong enough to kill them both in a direct confrontation.
Perhaps they could have had a chance if Art was here and Sam could use his magic powers, but, with only Felix by his side, he did not have nearly enough offensive powers.
"Turrrrr..."
A low vibration was spread across the chamber as the creature that had been sleeping all this time slowly woke up.
The giant snake was bigger than any creature he had faced in this dungeon.
It had shiny green scales that glimmered with the sunlight that shined directly upon this creature from the only exit above them.
If they consider the size of this entire dungeon and how it was structured, it did not make any sense to them how the exit of the dungeon was present in the middle of something that was surrounded by water.
It was like they were in a tabletop dungeon’s very bottom, in the sharp tip.
Sam had the Az-map, but the dungeon that he had experienced and the dungeon that he had been seeing on the map were pretty different experiences.
To see it in two dimensions and to see things by yourself was something uniquely distinct.
"TU..."
The Imugi had deep green eyes sharpened by hundreds of years of imprisonment.
It did not seem like it had been waiting here for the right challenger but instead, guarding this place with its life.
"TURRRRRR...!"
The roar of the creature shook the entire empty hall.
The pillars present all around the circular hall shook, and it felt like an earthquake had hit them all of a sudden.
In their eyes, the giant beast was the ruler of this place. Not just a guardian, but the master of the realm that they had seen until now.
"...!"
It did not take the creature any time to detect the intruders.
It just knew where they were.
-OOOOOOOONG!
It instantly summoned half-moon wind blades around it and shot them all throughout the targets, not giving them any chance to escape.
-Swish!
But Sam had already started preparing the moment he encountered this creature.
-Oooooooooooong!
Golden strings appeared all around the hall and the two of them vanished from where they had been a moment ago.
-Zaaaaa...!
The gray fog that had saved them so many times thoroughly their journey in the waters and the ground was deployed once again.
They wanted to make the fog a shield even if they cannot use it against the mystique creature.
If their plan worked, they could have tied the creature down with a false strategy and escaped through the open exit... but that was not going to be possible.
-OOOOOOOOOONG!
The moment the green Imugi saw the gray fog cover the area, he deployed his own domain and a storm swarmed the entire stage.
"TURRRRRR...!"
The creature knew about the powers of the feline mystique. Understanding that power and denying its presence did not seem anything new to the deaconic being.
The creature made it look so effortless that when Felix was forced out of her fog and thrown to one of the pillars, she crashed heavily and choked on her own blood in that instance.
"Meeee... ugh!"
She coughed up more blood, and standing on the other side of the stage, Sam watched the scene unfold with blank, enraged eyes.
"FELIX?!"
The scream only escaped from his mouth after a moment... but even that moment wasn’t his own.
"TURRRR!" The Imugi knew about the boy as well and he had already shot three balls of condensed energy bombs towards him.
-Swish!
-BOOOOOOOOM!
The wind bombs were so powerful they exploded right upon contact and destroyed the pillars and created craters where they had ended up.
Some craters were so deep that they created shallow holes on the ground, from which water started entering the stage area.
"Ahem!"
Sam had succeeded in avoiding the attack but the impact of the blast threw him off.
-THUMB!
-Creeek!
He crashed into the wall, breaking two of his ribs as he could feel.
The impact was so powerful it could have hurt him even more, but the LaVan that he was still wearing absorbed much of the physical impact.
The clothes that were originally only meant for the party were now an armour that was protecting him.
"Turrrrrrr!"
But that armour alone was not going to be enough against this draconic creature.
"Ahem ahem!"
He coughed up some blood.
-Oooooooooong.
His storage ring’s passive healing function was activated as well.
But, none of that would matter if he died here.
-Swish!
Also, he was not going to survive on his own, so first of all, he secured his fallen partner...