151. Ifrit (2)
Ifrit had fully woken up from its slumber.
Perhaps reacting to my killing intent, it immediately readied itself for battle.
All of the countless eyes on its body all disappeared without a trace.
Instead of the eyes, spikes started to grow out from where the eyes once were, becoming something akin to a chestnut.
Perhaps it was due to fighting countless monsters before?
Its method of attack began to reveal itself to me.
Will the spikes fly towards me?
Or will it charge at me instead?
Either way, I"ll need a shield.
Mana Shield, a shield that absorbs most attacks.
No matter how long its been living, a monster is just a monster.
Since it isn"t anything like a demon king, there"s no way it would be able to pierce my Transcended Mana Shield.
Seeing its form and wondering about how to attack Ifrit, I remembered what Belkoseu ranted about before to me.
He had told me that it wouldn"t be an easy battle.
Even said that a single mistake would decide between victory and defeat.
It was true that I didn"t have any information regarding Ifrit.
“He should"ve told me how it attacks or at least how to defeat it. Making me all nervous for nothing…..”
Even though I said that, I guess I"m human after all.
Quickly reconsidering my plans, I had casted Reflect Shield and Frozen Shield.
My preparation to defend myself against its attacks was complete.
Now it was time to prepare the attacks that I would launch against Ifrit.
There really wasn"t a need to think that part through though.
All it would take was to pull out my main skill, the one that boasted an insane amount of damage.
Without a single moment of hesitation, I casted Meteor Call and smashed it into Ifrit.
“Oho…. Does this mean that Ifrit will just face tank my attacks?”
6 meteors had struck Ifrit directly.
The sound and shockwave from all 6 meteors exploding at once was enough to overshadow most battlefields.
Due to all the meteors landing on the same target, the explosive radius wasn"t as large as usual, but the damage would be insane.
However, after the flames cleared, Ifrit showed itself once more in front of me.
One could think that the attack was pointless, but there definitely was a huge benefit for me.
After all, in that short amount of time, I was able to clearly see its movement.
This included its form and the core that resided in the center.
If the smoke that made up its for was akin to bones and flesh, then the core at its center was its heart.
That"s why it had curled itself up into a protective stance, defending itself against my attack.
Even so, to think that it had enough of a defensive capabilities to block my Meteor.
That was enough to surprise me for sure.
Ifrit"s core kept burning, letting out dense smoke to recover its form with.
With how things turned out, I knew that a straightforward attack wouldn"t work against it.
I needed to come up with something special.
I could cast two different spells at the same time.
This of course, was excluding the 3rd slot I needed to keep casting Mana Shield.
Since I knew that it probably wouldn"t just sit there and receive my attacks forever, I could not give up that 3rd slot to keep casting Mana Shield.
In the battlefield that was covered in golden light, a sphere pitch black as night floated once more.
Not letting the Meteor fall down right away, I let it hover in the air for a bit.
It was to check for its reaction.
“I"m using the same pattern of attack. It now knows that it"ll fall at incredible speeds though? But it"s still not moving?”
“I had considered the possibility, but…… The very moment that the meteors fall… It thinks of defending itself and moves instantly?”
Its movements were enough to make me question what I was seeing.
Meteor really struck in the blink of an eye.
At my will and command, it struck as quick as lightning.
However, despite seeing the meteors floating in the air, it didn"t prepare itself to defend at all.
This meant that it changed its body to block the attack in the split second that the Meteors flew in.
Was it because it was a monster? No. It was a reaction speed that was worthy of the t.i.tle, G.o.d of Monsters.
This meant that despite successfully landing my attacks, I wouldn"t be able to avoid a difficult battle.
“Huh?”
“………”
In a split second, it was right next to me.
However, it was just the core.
For a moment, I had thought that it was acting out of its mind, showing me such a vulnerability.
Before I could attack, countless spikes flew towards me.
These spikes were the ones that were sticking out from its body.
Thankfully, my shields held, but the spikes only had stopped after going through my Mana Shield and heavily damaging my other shields.
This meant that its attacks had the same effect as a skill beyond ranking that an Awakened could use.
It was then.
“Keeeeheck!”
Is this what they call being lucky?
Towards Ifrit"s core that was recovering its body at incredible speeds, the attack that came at me was returned back at it.
It was due to the counterattack ability on the Reflect Shield.
The level of the shield was 300 after Transcending it.
It had a 70% chance to reflect and the reflected damage dealt 80% of the original damage received.
If my Reflect Shield held up, Ifrit could have perished on the spot.
Unfortunately, the Reflect Shield was destroyed before the Frozen Shield, so it could not fully reflect all the damage I had received.
However, since the amount of spikes were countless, the amount of damage it received was severe.
The core still had the color of burning flame, but it seemed very cold now.
Perhaps due to the attacks that found its way through the gaps, it looked like the blackspots of the sun exploding.
I couldn"t let such an opportunity go.
Following this momentum, I put additional pressure with my attacks.
Just like the time I fought with the Kelvecore in the demonic realm, instead of opting for an attack pattern, I just poured down as many attacks as possible indiscriminately.
It didn"t matter if the type of attack was fire, ice, lightning, holy, or even physical, for I used every attack I had, filling the battlefield to the brim.
To the observer, the attacks were spectacular and beautiful like fireworks, but to the receiver, the attacks displayed enough force to send them to the gates of h.e.l.l.
After all, I had Awakened, Transcended, and increased the strength of my skills to their maximum.
One thing that was amusing was that unlike the average monster that carried some form of resistance against certain attacks, this monster G.o.d carried none.
It received damage from all types of attacks, and I could sense all my spells landing direct hits.
Just like that, my barrage of skills came to a stop.
To confirm the form of Ifrit that could not be detected even through the Eye of Insight, I made some distance between us and waited for a bit.
The sound of its screams when its attacks were reflected back at it had stopped quite some time ago.
The area was reduced to ashes, becoming silent.
“I guess that at least hurt you somewhat?”
“…….”
I could see that its fiery red core had shrunk somewhat in size.
The glow of that fire probably signified its life force.
Also, its body that was over 10m in size had noticeably shrunk as well.
Waiting for the cooldown of the Reflect Shield that allowed me to launch an attack beyond my expectations, I casted Holy Block and Iron Skin.
Both these skills also had special effects attached to them.
For Holy Block, there was a low chance to deal a high amount of holy damage as retaliation, with the amount of damage being difficult to defend against.
Let"s a.s.sume that for Ifrit, who has an insane reaction speed, it would be able to defend against this much.
However, what about the special effect on the Iron Skin?
Iron Skin puts the enemy in a groggy state.
It was a status effect that could not be defended against.
So even though the activation chance was low, it could put the enemy in a defenseless state for a brief moment.
Not only would it be unable to attack, but I could dish out my attacks without it being able to resist.
Since it blocked my attacks perfectly, my plan was to receive its attacks and allow the effects of the shield to a.s.sist me.
Despite its size being reduced, its anger seemed to have grown larger.
Because I was in a situation where I had to receive its attacks, I casted single fire spells to enrage it further.
Just like that, Explosion and Holy Missile flew towards its form.
The damage dealt by these spells were weak compared to my main spell, but since I could cast them from both my hands individually without delay, it probably was annoying to say the least.
And with Explosion, the intense flames wouldn"t subside until the target"s body was reduced to ashes.
Its body was now covered in red flames all over.
However, since I needed to give it a chance to attack me, I made sure to keep a decent tempo and not to overdo it.
While that was happening, Ifrit, blocked all my attacks with its body.
I waited for it to attack for a bit.
However, its form changed into a st.u.r.dy sphere.
“What the….. From its shape, it seems like it"s only going to defend itself?”
“……”
Like the sh.e.l.l of an egg protecting its yolk, it completed covered its core.
Perhaps due to the continued attack, it had lost its resolve to retaliate?
I concluded it so and began to increase my attacks in order to break its defenses.
It was then.
“Huh!”
In a split second, my mind went blank.
I was so dumbstruck that I couldn"t attack at all, standing there with a blank look on my face.
It had become a perfect sphere.
Suddenly, its body exploded.
Confirming what was happening with my eyes, I did my best to make distance between myself and the explosion.
However…
This was an explosion I have never seen before.
It was as if all the air around the area was being compressed into a small s.p.a.ce and then suddenly exploded.
Due to the shockwave from the explosion, it undid all of my shields.
It was almost as if I had been hit by an EMP shockwave.
All my shields were dispelled and on top of that, it put me under a panic status effect.
Also since it was a singular attack, the Iron Skin"s groggy status effect that had a low chance to trigger didn"t go off.
Afterwards.
“Huhuck!”
Turning back into its spiky form, it charged into me.
With the most recent item I received, Minotaur"s Hoof, I received a total of 70% damage reduction with this gauntlet.
This meant that I received roughly a quarter of the actual damage.
However, it was still difficult to receive Ifrit"s attack with my body.
With my entire body stabbed and pierced all over, I was barely breathing.
If I didn"t have this much of a damage reduction, I was sure that I wouldn"t be even breathing right now.
Thanks to receiving all of its spike attacks, I was able to finally escape the panic status effect that it had put on me from its previous attack.
I had received too much damage.
I wasn"t able to lift a finger while being torn apart into a rag.
I thought that I"d be in incredible pain, but that wasn"t the case.
Perhaps it was because before death, a ma.s.sive amount of hormones was released?
I felt weirdly peaceful and drowsy, but my mind was on overdrive.
It was enough to allow me to make decisions several times more clear and level headed than usual.
There wasn"t much to do in this situation.
Rather, my choices were rather limited?
Grabbing onto what little life that seemed about to extinguish at any given moment, I let out a whisper.
“S… Status…. Denial…..”