Chapter 96 Abyss Black

I took my stance and waited for this mana fiend to show itself.

Fortunately, my wait didn't last long as something huge came out of the cave.

Its large body was barely fitting into the cave and I could tell from this that it was around 4 meters tall and 3 meters wide.

It didn't have any limbs as it was slithering on the hot ground, smearing a black, ink-like substance around it. The black liquid was slowly flowing out from under its black, abyss like scales, letting out a sharp, disgusting scent.

It had 3 slitted red eyes, 2 of which were on the side of its head while the last one was in the middle.

And all of its eyes were focused on me, without even acknowledging Aria or Amelia. Probably it knew that I was more dangerous than them.

As it slithered out of the cave, I caught sight of only ten meters of the creature's long, sinuous body, while the rest remained hidden within the shadowy depths of the cavern.

This creature was a snake-like [B] rank mana beast, who was about to become a mana monster.

It was evident to me that this creature was not a mana monster, as its eyes did not possess the usual sadistic glare and its level of intelligence did not appear to match that of the mana monsters.

But it was still strong. Although I was sure that I could kill this thing with some difficulty, I wasn't sure about this black liquid. I didn't know if it was a poison, acid, or something entirely different. All I knew was that it would be best to not touch this substance.

"Attack with me while its attention on me." I said to Aria and ran to the three eyed snake with stable steps.

The snake lunged at me with a fast and unpredictable move but I sidestepped and swung my blood dagger into its scaly body.

My attack only scratched its scales instead of opening out its flesh.

"Strengthen your weapon with mana!" I yelled toward Aria as I forgot to do this and jumped back, avoiding from the black substance that was splashing to me.

'It would be easier if it didn't have scales.' I thought while sending mana to my arm and the blood dagger. Strengthening them further.

My weak muscles filled with strength because of the mana, making me stronger than before.

Though this was temporary and I wasn't going to use too much mana because I was keeping my strength for the stronger threat that will come.

The snake's whole body finally got out of the cave showing me its 20 to 30 meter body.

'I should attack to its head instead of its body as I don't have too much time to deal with this cannon fodder while the other threat that Amelia said can come here any minute.' I thought and ran towards its head.

But before I could get close enough to attack, I crashed into a tree by the tail strike of the snake.

I spit out the blood that came to my mouth and shook my head to clear my blurry mind.

After I recovered myself, I got up from the ground and saw Aria, who managed to slash one of the eyes of the snake, making it 'tiss!' with agony and hatred.

The mana beast thrashed around with its huge body, making it hard to avoid.

But it wasn't strong enough to break down the huge trees of 50 meters high, so I hid behind one of them and waited for it to become calmer. It was troublesome to kill a mana beast this big.

While the mana beast was trashing around, I looked around to find Aria as she was in very close proximity to the beast while it was starting to rampage.

Well, I found her, she too was hiding behind a tree. But her condition wasn't that good as half of her face looked like melted and her clothes were no more. She was barely holding the daggers I gave her.

'So, the black liquid is acidic.' I thought and looked back at the mana beast.

Giving a healing potion to Aria might be a waste as we were still going to fight with this snake, so I decided to give her later.

The mana beast finally stopped its trashing and I charged at it while yelling at Aria without waiting.

"Strike with me!"

The snake whipped its tail to me again but this time I was ready. I dodged it with a clean movement and slashed its body with my strengthened blood dagger.

The bloody dagger cut through the scales of the snake and made its blackish red blood splash to the ground.

It was a small injury but this was what I needed. I cast [Blood Spikes] with a rushed chant and more mana than needed, making the fallen blood of the beast into dark red spikes.

The bloody spikes impaled the beast from the wound I caused, making the beast halt its movement for the time being while letting out sharp 'Tisss!'.

This was the chance to kill this beast while it got stuck in one place. I knew that the blood spikes wouldn't hold this beast too long even if I spent more mana than usual.

Hence, I sent mana into my legs, improving my agility to the next level, and charged to the head of the snake.

When I arrived at the head of the snake, I jumped toward its eyes as it was quite easy to jump 4 meters with my strengthened legs.

My blood dagger pierced through its middle eyes, splashing its black, acidic blood on me but I didn't stop even after my flesh melted as it was too little for me to stop and pushed the dagger further, eventually reaching into its brain and killing it in process.

Though my right arm was in its eye hole as it was hard to reach the brain of this massive mana beast.