Wolf

I frown slightly at the menu that had appeared in between me and the boss before glancing between my level and the boss’s level and sighing.

_-| Arc – Champion of the Desert – Level 637 |-_

In the end, my eternal ice will still work on it, and I even cleared a little bit of our level gap. Not to mention that any gain in levels is good regardless.

Although, that warning takes Cocytus out of play entirely, considering that it would probably kill everything in the audience…

Wait a second… that would have been pretty nice for EXP if I had started out with it…

I shake my head at the thought before sprinting straight towards the boss again.

EXP aside, if I can just get the thing stuck in place, then the fight shouldn’t be as difficult for me as it would be otherwise.

As I’m charging, I point one of my hands forwards and use ice flow, sending a large pulse of icy water at the monster that it quickly attempts to dodge, only for it to move directly into the way of my ice claws skill that I had used with my other arm. Surprisingly though, the arcs of ice only manage to leave deep scratches on its armor, knocking it back a little before the arcs fall down to the ground without leaving any lasting damage.

I grimace at the sight of this as the boss takes a second to recover before trying to rush towards me again with one of its arms pulled back in preparation to launch a punch at me.

“Damn it,” I mutter while rolling to the side to dodge it as it throws a punch despite the several meter gap in between us. Before I even land back on the ground again, I feel a large concussive wave pass straight through where I was just standing. Meanwhile, when I do land, I turn to look at it and find a pulse of black sand passing through the spot as well.

Okay, now that would have really hurt. Indestructible ice armor or no.

I quickly turn back to face the monster again before my eyes widen and I attempt to roll out of the way, only to get winged in the shoulder by another concussive force. Fortunately, however, since I was already moving out of the way of the attack, the force manages to launch me the rest of the way so that the pulse of black sand misses me completely as I roll a few meters away with a groan.

Without giving the boss any time to attack again, I climb back to my feet – ignoring the pain I feel from my shoulder – before raising my hand and using ice flow again while also letting out all of my built up ice element. The boss once again tries to dodge my attack, but while it’s doing so, the familiar icy mist finally begins to build up around me.

I sigh in relief that the blizzard I had used earlier was enough, combined with the screen I created overhead, to lower the temperature enough for me to efficiently use my ability again.

The boss lets out an angry roar as it fails to fully dodge my ice flow – to my surprise – before launching another attack my way.

Unfortunately, due to my focus on creating my ice element, I fail to fully dodge out of the way of its attack again and end up being knocked away as the force strikes my other shoulder this time, causing a loud cracking sound to echo from within my ice-shielded shoulder.

“Shit,” I grunt, coughing out a mouthful of blood before controlling the large amounts of ice element finally building around us to create an indestructible wall in front of me. After the wall is finished, I ignore the boss as it attempts to attack the wall to instead begin healing my wounds.

As I’m doing this, I also take out a Tier 5 stamina potion from my inventory before chugging it down.

When I look up again several seconds later, I find the boss attempting to move in an arc enough so that it can strike me from around the wall’s protection. However, now that I’m healed enough to move again without too much trouble, I climb back up to my feet and begin creating a massive amount of ice element. I then send said ice element outside of my body and towards the boss in one massive wave.

Surprisingly, I notice the flames making up the boss’s eyes grow wider, as if surprised, before it raises its head and breathes in deeply.

Wait, how can a skeleton-

My thoughts are interrupted as the champion of the desert lowers its head again in my direction while exhaling a large wave of miasma directly towards my wave of icy mist. The two elements then collide in mid-air, with the boss’s winning out a little in sheer force, but with mine being able to stand strong due to its eternal aspect. Soon enough, both elements are sent flying away from each other, with my ice element flying straight into me and its miasma striking directly at it.

I completely ignore the ice element as I watch the boss’s armor begin to chip away bit by bit from its own miasma’s attack.

It’s not immune to its own element? Well, that’s interesting.

Then again, I guess harbingers are just unique in that aspect.

But how does that work? The miasma was obviously touching its body before… or maybe it does have a resistance to it, but just no immunity? Enough resistance that the miasma simply touching it won’t do any harm?

Either way, I watch as the monster’s own miasma continues to eat away at its armor until the boss is left standing without any clothing or armor at all, revealing the blackish-red bones of its enormous body. Soon enough, however, the miasma begins to dissipate without doing all that much damage to its actual body.

I guess I was right then. It does have resistance to it.

Now that the miasma is dissipated, I force all of the ice element that had come back to me straight at the monster again.

This time, the ice element reaches the creature and quickly begins to freeze its entire body in one massive block of ice, with the only place that won’t freeze being near its eyes.

“Huh…” I mutter at the sight of the black flames in its eye sockets melting the ice around them.

That’s interesting. Although it doesn’t really matter much in the end.

It is still frozen solid after all.

As if contradicting my thoughts, the black flames in the boss’s eyes begin to grow both bigger and brighter at the same time.

I narrow my eyes before clenching my fist in front of me, forcing the ice around the monster’s neck to constrict, shattering its neck bone and sending its head rolling off of its body.

Surprisingly, even after the head rolls off the body, the flames in its eyes continue to grow larger despite it not looking in my direction before two large beams shoot out at the wall surrounding us, causing an enormous explosion that sends me flying towards the other side of the arena.

By the time I land, I can feel several bones in my body that I’m willing to bet are broken, along with burns coating a large majority of my skin. Skin that is now revealed through my partially burnt coat, and partially shattered armaments.

“Shiiiiit!!” I groan while focusing on healing myself as quickly as possible.

Fortunately for me, I soon hear the chime in my head marking the boss’s death, followed by the lowering of the massive black walls that were enclosing the arena.

Not long after that, I hear something heavy hitting the ground along with an explosion of fireworks. But I ignore it all to continue healing my wounds.

Why didn’t the forums mention anything about a self-destructive attack like that…