The sand holding the summoning crystal in place seemed to melt as the room hummed with sudden life.
Green toxic ooze spilled as the crystal forced it's way out of the ceiling, the creature groaning as it spilled into the ground.
The slime came together, forcing two hind legs and two front legs to for from his broth, both armed with sharp claws while the face was covered by the crystal.
It stepped on one of its superior stalagmite salamanders, causing it to instantly dissolve before snarling at the players.
Each step it took shook the ground, each growl sent vibrations through Nico's ribs and although it lacked eyes, he could feel its bloodlust by simply gazing at it.
His spine tightened and so did the grip around his knife. 'It's over...'
"Not so fast, you ferocious piece of mycetozoa," Alice extended both her palms, causing an ethereal purple glow to silhouette itself around her fingers.
The energy hummed as the same colour trapped the slime beast and caused a timer with one minute ticking to appear.
She sighed and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Alright, he's all yours," Alice prompted as she began walking away. "I'll be waiting outside."
'She can just leave?!'
"As much as I would've loved to kill you myself, it'd be way more fun for that thing to finish the job, especially since your immunity ran out about a minute ago," chuckled Gary as he sheathed his sword.
"What are you talking about?"
"Time works differently in various dungeons. You should've been paying more attention to the time on your system screen instead of playing Lara Croft," teased Vanessa as she puckered her lips.
"By our calculations, you joined our party about 20 minutes ago the last 24 hours in the real world, even though it's only been more than an hour in this dungeon."
"You had potential, I won't lie. To be honest, if Alice hadn't reminded me on why we kill rats like you, I would've recruited you.
"But seeing as how you're too much of a punk who wants to play hero, you'd be a thorn to my side," said Raymond.
Nico sighed softly before smiling involuntarily. "You really shouldn't do the whole villain speech, dude. There's no guarantee that I won't survive this."
"Maybe, but you're not like Jasper and she's not surviving that deep cut. Your luck's the lowest amongst all of us. You won't live."
Nico clicked his tongue. Suddenly, the slime beast began moving again, the timer shattering before finally releasing the monster.
It screeched, causing the ceiling to drop debris and dust while Raymond and the others escaped without even running.
The beast was firmly locked onto Nico, its boss bar charging up while his health bar sat on orange once again.
"See you in hell, Nico!"
The exit shut itself when the boss bar was finally filled to the brim, glowing red, indicating that it was levels above Nico in terms of strength.
'This is far from ideal... Maybe I jumped the gun a little by exposing myself too soon. That was stupid...'
[Zodran, the Slime Lord
HP: 5,000 / 5,000]
Zodran scrapped the sand terrain twice before charging towards Nico at rampant speed. He managed to dodge to the left and tried to slide further away, only for the sand to trap him for a brief moment.
He backed up and ran away, trying to draw the beast's attention away from the unconscious Jasper.
After the charge, Zodran stood in the same position and spit out 3 slime balls that targeted Nico like a missile.
He deflected the first one, dodged the second but was hit by the third.
Instead of turning his body into ash, the slime began chewing his onto skin, reminding him of the rodent that nibbled on him the first time he got to New Olympus.
'Piece of shit!'
He stabbed the slime aimlessly until it released him. Then he backed away and drew his longsword from his inventory.
Zodran scraped his claws against the sand twice once again before charging towards Nico. He evaded and in that moment, he remembered...
'This is a video game...! I can't believe it! Why didn't I think about this sooner?!'
After dodging, he waited for Zodran to spit those 3 slime balls again. This time, he only dodged and backed up against a wall, waiting...
Zodran, once again, scraped his claws against the ground and charged. Nico waited patiently, his heart pounding as the beast drew closer and closer before he ran towards it and slipped beneath it.
Using his longsword, he slashed Zodran's underbelly swiftly and stabbed it three times in the same spot.
Before it could even screech, it hit its head against the sandstone wall, causing literal stars to float above its head when that happened.
Nico smirked and chuckled. "It worked! I thought that attack pattern was familiar!"
[HP: 4,900 / 5,000]
In the past, while Nico was scrolling through Paradox of the Olympian Gods Forum, he found out that some of the bosses had the same models, attack patterns and stun gimmicks, but only a few of them were genuinely unique.
Lots of triple A games did this to save time and to associate a certain monster with its certain species. Hence why this quadrupedal monster was easy for Nico to recognise.
'Zodran is coded the same way the Manticore Queen, Lea, is coded! Simply use a wall or an earth spell to stun them and they're free eats for at least 5+ seconds!
'It took me 15 tries to beat that ugly thing! And to be honest, you're nothing in comparison!'
Nico speed blitzed towards the stunned monster and began slashing it in one area, over and over until the stars floating above its heads disappeared.
[HP: 4,100 / 5,000]
He chuckled and ran in the opposite direction, knowing full well that Zodran would charge towards him. And he did.
Over and over, Nico repeated this pattern, waiting for the beast to enter its second phase.
[HP: 2,500 / 5,000]
Zodran roared, causing multiple superior stalagmite salamanders to spawn around Nico. He simply twirled his blade and tucked his knife away. "Has to be the third and final wave."
Then, he dashed past the superiors, dodging their attacks and swings until he finally reached Zodran.
He dashed left, then right, then right again before stepping forward and slashing in a wide arc, causing a massive tear to run down from Zodran's front leg all the way to the small hole Nico opened when he slid beneath it.
[MASSIVE CRITICAL HIT LANDED!]
[HP: 2,200 / 5,000]
Nico laughed as he took deep breaths, constantly running away from the superiors that tried lunging at him while Zodran screeched at the top of its lungs.
Nico tapped the LED implanted on the side his head, prompting a systematic voice to greet him.
[Greetings. Welcome to the Pyrros Guild Centre Store, where items are cheaper than living. How may we help?]
'Spend æ5,000 coins sparingly on speed boost, strength boost, a one use foresight spell and a one use property enhancer spell!'
[Understood]
[-æ5,000]
[Strength boosted by 20%]
[Speed boosted by 31%]
[Eye of Prophesy has been granted for one use]
[Sacrificial Enhancer has been granted for one use]
Nico grinned and finally stopped running. He gathered all his mana and began channelling aura onto his longsword, waiting for Zodran to execute its last charge.
'In the game, players could channel mana onto a weapon as long as they were non-humans. Seeing as how I'm a phoenix, this was easy to do in game.
'But my hands feel numb from all the grappling and slashing, and my knees are starting to give out. I need to end this! Now!'
Nico used his Eye of Prophesy and predicted how each superior stalagmite salamander would attack while providing Nico with ideas on how to attack each of them with one strike.
The eye also showed him how Zodran would execute its final attack, making him smile softly while his eyes glowed.
"You're mine!"
Nico executed the suggested attack pattern, used his speed and enhanced strength to blur through the congress of summoned stalagmite salamanders before facing Zodran once more.
Zodran screeched so hard it managed to summon more superior stalagmite salamanders along with regular stalagmite salamanders.
But Nico wasn't deterred. The eye had shown him everything he needed to see.
He blitzed through the salamanders, casually cleaving through the monsters. Whether they still stood mattered little to Nico.
His main target was Zodran's crystallized head.
He disappeared from sight right when Zodran smacked the ground, sending a bunch of sand flying.
Then, like a poltergeist, he appeared before the beast, his blade hissing with an ethereal white glow smoking the sword.
Zodran froze, Nico smirked and screamed triumphantly as he slashed Zodran's face in half, utilising the Sacrificial Enhancer to boost even more of his strength.
Wind howled around the area as Nico fell to his knees from the impact. Zodran's crystal face fell in two separate directions, both uneven, but cut, which mattered more to Nico than precision.
Then, the slime dissolved into the sand, leaving behind a single purple crystal with sharp edges behind.
Nico sighed. "Fuck yeah!"