"Huh?" Arthur whispered, breath catching in his throat. "What are... who are... you...?" His eyes widened in disbelief.
The mages weren’t faring any better, their eyes fluttering as they struggled to process the sudden shift in events.
"You talk?" Aurelian muttered, his gaze locking onto the beast, brows rising. Did all beasts above E-rank possess some rudimentary sentience that allowed them to project their thoughts? Or was this one an anomaly?
He didn’t know. The memories of the previous host offered no answers.
Boom! A shockwave rippled out as the beast lunged, its golden eyes burning into him, its figure blurring with speed.
"Huh? Not feeling talkative anymore?" Aurelian breathed, disappointment flickering across his face before a grin spread wide. "How about we change that?" Folding his fingers into fists, he let the black intrinsic armor flow over him, sealing his body before charging headlong into the attack.
He launched upward, channeling every ounce of physical strength, and smashed his fists against the golden-tusked boar’s head.
The impact cracked the air, freezing the battlefield for a split second before both were hurled back, staggering several paces from the force.
"A stalemate?" Aurelian hissed, shaking his sore hands, grimacing. The beast was stronger than expected, but brute strength alone wouldn’t be enough.
Drawing in a sharp breath, he glanced at the blades hovering behind him. With a mental command, the swirling formation broke apart, the white blades spiraling together in a brilliant display until one massive sword hovered above him. A nod—and a golden beam of energy speared downward, flooding into his core.
A notification shimmered before his eyes.
[You have been blessed with the Light of the Blade of Light! +10% to all physical attributes while in combat!]
"Now that’s more like it." Aurelian grinned as raw strength surged through him.
The golden boar responded in kind. Its tusks flared, light spilling over its body until it was engulfed in a roaring inferno. The air distorted under the heat, the dungeon itself hissing as if recoiling.
"More." Aurelian growled, pulling mana into his infinite pathways, devouring it greedily. His armor flared with a blue sheen, layering over him like a second skin, his strength and defense amplifying as his body throbbed with power.
He couldn’t hold back anymore. His figure blurred, no different from teleportation, as he rocketed forward. His fists collided with the beast again, but this time, the boar was ready.
Its tusks blazed, hurling waves of condensed fire straight into his fists. Beams of molten energy slammed into him, filling the battlefield with violent light.
"DIE!" the beast’s guttural roar shook the dungeon. The fire shifted, amber fringes warping into a searing violet as its assault grew savage.
"So you really can talk," Aurelian groaned, teeth clenched, his feet grinding trenches into the earth as he fought the inferno pressing against him. The heat gnawed at his armor, but his eyes only burned brighter.
Gradually, the tension in his face eased. He was studying the beast now....its movements, its repetitive bursts of speech, the broken cadence of its words.
"Not true sentience," he muttered. "Just a glitched monster." His interest waned, replaced with cold finality.
"Time to end this." His eyes lit up, crimson and abyssal, swirling into a vortex that seemed to swallow the air itself.
"Forget I am here," he whispered, weaving the illusion deep into the beast’s mind.
The beast’s charge halted abruptly, a conflicted expression flickering across its face as the illusion overpowered its rationality for a split second, and that was all he needed. In that pause, he flicked his fingers, drawing his abominable black blade into his hand and sending it forth. A smile curving his lips. [Mist of Doom]
He growled the words, the description echoing at the back of his mind.
[Envelop a 100-meter radius with a cursed mist that significantly slows opponents while corroding them. The dead killed within feed the mist.]
The blade soared above the Golden-Tusked Boar, releasing a tide of eternal darkness that swallowed the beast whole.
Not allowing a moment of reprieve, he surged forward, his metaphysical vision flaring. His glowing eyes blazed brighter, unveiling golden threads streaking across the boar’s body. Yet instead of the usual fist-sized orb those threads merged into, two shone there, burning deeper and brighter than he had ever seen.
The sight startled him, but he shook it off. His fingers stretched toward a hidden point in the beast’s torso, obscured by the darkness pouring from his black sword. When his touch connected, a surge raced through him. He pressed against the orb, watching in awe as its strings withered and the sphere degenerated.
The boar froze mid-motion, a blank look hollowing its eyes. Weakened, it gave him the perfect opening to attempt another illusion.
His gaze fixed, he issued the command again.
"Erase my presence."
His words struck like hammers, will slamming into its skull.
The result was... different. The blankness in its gaze deepened.
But instead of freezing as other dungeon beasts did under his command, its body shifted, retreating to the very spot it had been lying when he first arrived.
Its movements stiff, almost mechanical.
"What’s it doing?" Aurelian muttered, trailing after it, curiosity reignited.
The beast halted near its lair, its blank stare fixed on the ground. With sudden force, it slammed its hoof down, cracks spiderwebbing across the surface. It repeated the strike again and again. Each blow only sharpened Aurelian’s intrigue until the ground finally gave way, revealing what hid beneath.
"Red crystals?" he hummed, watching as the beast greedily munched on them. They have to be worth something, right? he thought, clenching his fists as he invoked his appraisal skill. His eyes widening at the result.
[Embers of Red Origin: A shard of corrupted flame. Can be forged into potions or elixirs to permanently boost stats. Warning, its fire burns with dangerous side effects.]
"The fuck?" Aurelian blinked, staring between the crystals and the boar devouring them, his thoughts spiraling.