"{Who do you think is going to win?}" Flavia telepathically asked as they all watched Allan and Mae facing each other as mana rolled out of their bodies in waves. They seemed to be testing the waters before engaging.
Rakna mused on her question, not surprised by her mental transmission. "{I only have three out of the four necessary clues to draw a conclusion.}"
"{What are they?}"
"{Status and fighting style, right?}" Nyx joined in. "{You know how Allan fights as well as what he's roughly capable of. As for the lamia, you saw her status, but you have no idea how she battles. You don't know how well she can make use of her powers.}"
Rakna nodded. "{Correct. But she has twenty years of experience as a Boss. It's not going to be an easy fight for Allan but I believe he can win. If not, I can always intervene. That woman knows I won't break my word and team up against her but she fully is aware that I wouldn't let him die.}"
"{…say,}" Evelyn spoke up. "{Do you think there is a way to help her after this?}"
Rakna glanced at her with an unreadable look and the others faintly smiled. "{Who knows…}" He answered coolly. "{For now, let's watch. They're soon going to start,}" he responded, and as if on cue to his thoughts, Allan kicked the ground as black flames danced around his legs.
He rushed toward Mae while riding the shockwaves of his Hell Fire and jumped before throwing a kick aimed at the lamia's neck.
Mae calmly eyed the attack approaching and Allan felt something was wrong. His instincts were definitely not on Rakna's level, but they weren't shabby. Before he hit, he used one of his newest applications of his Void Magic and erased the momentum of his kick. He propelled himself back with Hell Fire and scowled at the lamia who was smiling at him.
"Good call," she said mysteriously and it was her turn to charge. She was a lot faster than him and entered close combat distance in less than a second.
Allan stepped back in fright as her palm grazed his cheek. Immediately after, a very small line of his skin turned into stone and he forced himself to not panic as he dodged her next attacks. She seemed to be an expert at palm techniques.
His expression sharpened and he focused on defense the best he could. She was significantly faster than him, even more so with the necklace he had equipped earlier. After several bouts of him doing his best to evade her strikes, a few parts of his clothes had turned into brittle stone.
At some point, Allan grunted and grasped an occasion to push her back with Hell Fire. Her ability of petrification predictably didn't affect the flames and they separated temporarily.
"…good technique and footwork," the lamia praised. "I'm faster but I wasn't able to do anything more than scratch your clothes. How did you do it?"
Allan snorted. "The old master taught me a lot of different styles. Palm arts included. I'm not that proficient in them, but your skill pales in comparison to him. It's easy to dodge them as long as I have the experience," he uttered. "What about you? How do you turn me into stone whilst ignoring my Aura?"
Mae smiled. "It's a physical trait of mine. I noticed you're trying to not look at me in the eyes ever since we started but it's not the only way for me to petrify. My body itself can do the same. If I get into contact with other living beings, they turn into stone."
The blond's mouth twitched. "…that's cheating."
She stuck her tongue out and once again charged at him without a word. He groaned and decided to stop caring about his mana expenditure. As he evaded her assaults, his eyes grew darker until they were black and an invisible field appeared around his body.
Mae squinted as she noticed that and used a bit more speed to deal out a palm strike to his chest before he could do something. But, to her surprise, he blocked her with a punch. She thought that he had done so in alarm but when their hands collided, her eyes widened in shock when neither his gloves nor skin turned into stone. She even sensed her arm getting a bit weaker.
Allan grinned and hit her arm away with his elbow and counter-attacked with a kick. Though still a bit shook, Mae didn't lose her bearings and threw a kick of her own to block it. The power they both had put into this clash produced a gust of wind followed by a stronger wave of their internal energies.
Rakna squinted his eyes as the wind rustled his clothes and hair.
"{They seem to be evenly matched in close combat. How surprising for a lamia,}" Higure remarked in interest. "{Then again, her petrifying trait is a very good fit. But I'm curious how he nullified it.}"
'His Elemental Reinforcement got stronger since last time I saw him,' Rakna simply commented as both an answer and a theory.
"{I see… Nothing gets past you, as always,}" she chuckled.
Meanwhile, the two combatants jumped away from each other again and this time, Allan fearlessly looked at the lamia in the eyes with a small smile. The part of his cheek that had been turned into stone had also returned to normal.
Mae squinted as her eyes glowed. "How?"
"I learned a lot about Void Magic these last few days," Allan replied. "Gray told us its main use was to replicate magic elements but at the core, there is something else. My magic is a void that 'traps' everything that it encounters. I can suppress magic abilities to some extent but that's not the only thing. Physical force can be absorbed too. But there is more than just that… I can abolish concepts themselves."
The lamia seemed to have caught onto something and frowned. "You mean…"
"Yes, I'm using Void Reinforcement to nullify the concept of petrification. For as long as my 'shell' can take it, I won't be turned into stone since the very idea of it is voided before it happens to my body," Allan explained with a grin.
Mae snorted. "I see. What an interesting element. But do not think that this will be enough to defeat me," she added and her aura flared. Her hair turned dark green and several strands fused to form thin and barely noticeable snakes. At the same time, many other snakes came out of nowhere and slithered on the floor of the castle.
"So, that's what it was…" Rakna muttered out loud as Pronos excitingly watched the many of his kin suddenly appearing.
"{What do you mean?}" Evelyn asked back and he glanced at her.
"{She has two magic elements. One of them is wind. The second is… snake.}"
"{What? Snake Magic? Is that possible?}" Flavia was surprised.
"{That's what you'd call an Irregular Element,}" Higure clarified for her. "{Sometimes, an element can awaken in an irregular form conform to the concerned person. To my knowledge, a few of the most popular ones in the System would be Pill Magic, Processor Magic, Armor Magic, Science Magic, and Gun Magic.}"
Rakna grunted. "{It really sounds like everything can be a magic.}"
"{You have no idea.}"
"…that's kinda freaky, not gonna lie," Allan unhesitatingly told as he watched the snakes emerge from around Mae and even from under her sleeves. The hissing noises gradually filled the castle and he couldn't help the goosebumps that crawled all over his body.
"Is it too much to handle for you?" The lamia kidded and he scoffed.
"As if. Bring it on."
She didn't need to be told twice. With a thought from her, hundreds of snakes abruptly lunged at him in the split of a second. Their speed was surprisingly high and Allan furrowed his eyebrows.
He used his footwork to move around, dodging the snakes and squeezing the life out of them with a single hand each. They weren't that strong compared to him but they all had a strength between level 2 and 7 with a speed rivaling level 15 monsters.
He could easily deal with them for hours if he wanted to but the fact that she had summoned them so easily was daunting. What if she could summon much stronger ones?
As he was contemplating that, he spotted a barrage of wind arrows from the corner of his eye and hastily used Hell Fire to clear his surroundings and get away. The arrows he was unable to dodge were absorbed into his void shell.
"How annoying…" He grumbled and after a few more minutes of struggling with the snakes, his void shell was dangerously getting close to full. He had been using it as a force field to oppose the snakes' fangs since he really did not want to test if they were venomous or not but he would soon reach his limit.
He still hadn't learned how to liberate the stocked-up energy at will and the only thing he could to return it to its initial state was dispel it and wait for a certain amount of time. He clicked his tongue and eventually stopped fleeing.
"What's wrong? Running out of time already?" Mae taunted.
"Perhaps," Allan cackled as the snakes dangerously began to slither up his legs. "But I'm not the one running out of time. You are."
The lamia raised an eyebrow and silently waved her hand. Hundreds of snakes that had remained in standby promptly began to merge to form a bigger serpent; a creature even more imposing than Tyran at full size. Then, it opened its mouth and gathered a compressed sphere of wind within its maw.
Rakna was somewhat impressed by that. 'So, her snakes can become even stronger than her and use her wind magic even better. It's completely different from my shadow wolves…'
Allan watched the spell being charged with a relaxed smile and Mae was getting a bit suspicious of his intentions but there was nothing she could do other than launching her spell.
"[Wind Hoarder – Serpent of Tempest,]" she intoned and the giant snake conjured a powerful concentrated cyclone. It cracked the walls and floor of the castle as it approached its target.
The brawler grinned and extended his arm covered in snakes forward. "[Wormhole,]" he chanted and a black vortex befitting of its name formed in front of him. The cyclone was swallowed by it without leaving a trace and Mae was struck speechless.
"My wormhole is a tad different compared to a real one," Allan casually said. "It turns anything it swallows into void. Everything except myself. The stronger it is, the more mana it takes. But it's not too bad."
Mae glowered at him and poured more mana into the giant snake, preparing for an even stronger spell but before she could even start it, Allan acted again.
"My turn," he said and cast a new spell. "[Void Kaḷam,]" he intoned and in the blink of an eye, his surroundings were drowned in darkness as if light itself stopped existing.
From the corner of the Dungeon, Rakna and the others were surprised to see a dome of obscurity materialize in front of them.
"This is even darker than my shadows," Nyx stated with a mildly impressed tone.
"Void of light, probably," Rakna commented.
"Why though?" Evelyn tilted her head.
"Most likely to take advantage of his necklace's perks," Flavia said. "If no one can see him inside that dome, then he will have a 20% increase to his swiftness and agility. And for all we know, there also might not be any sound inside there or something."
"{And here I thought Rakna was the most suited to be an assassin. I never expected a brawler to be better at it,}" Higure commented in amusement, and right after, the dome was lifted.
What they saw once it disappeared were the disintegrating snakes and Allan holding Mae to the ground with a knee pressed against her stomach and a hand around her neck.
"Haha, that was well done," she said cheerily. "But I won't fall for the same trick next time. Let me see how you handle me in higher difficulties," she uttered with a faint sultry voice.
Allan huffed and used the wind magic he stole from her earlier to painlessly finish her. When her eyes lost their luster and closed, he stood up with a bitter feeling plaguing his mind. It was not pleasant to kill her but he knew there was no other way to complete the Dungeon. Right after he did so, the System notification for the completion rang out.