The monster sensed them and reacted, it quickly retracted its legs closer to each other and shrunk its head. In the next movement, it turned into a round fleshy ball of flesh covered in thorns.
As soon as it finished preparing, the monster bounced once on the muddy ground then rolled, dashing at the incoming Ajin.
Swoosh… Swoosh… x 6
Ajin sensed something, and jumped to the side, he swung his legs once to help swirl his body like doing a black flip and landed to the side. Several thin spikes passed by his side and struck the ground he was previously stepping on. Ajin started moving just after he landed as the monster had no intention to give me a breather.
It turned its direction of advancing again when Ajin dodged, the Boss had intelligence, it naturally recognized the strongest and decided to finish Ajin first.
Elza raised her sword and dashed at the monster from behind, but she had just taken a few steps when she quickly raised her sword and swung diagonally.
Clank… x 4
The needles thrown at her were cut into half and scattered on the ground. Elza continued her advance as soon as she finished defending, to counter it, on her way she shouted to Ajin "Did Master Ajin knew about this too?"
She had to change her course after she finished speaking due to the number of spikes shot at her. Zalie stepped forward taking her place and waved her hand, the thin beautiful ribbons wrapped around her gauntlets unwrapped themselves and fluttered around her, she then grabbed on them and swung them like soft blades.
The invisible Psychonic Energy showed its charm, the thin soft ribbons slapped the spikes and generated sparks. Zalie didn't manage to destroy the spikes but successfully deflected them to other sides.
Ajin heard Elza's words but remained silent at first, he did understand the meaning behind her words, he also knew if it was not for his strength the words wouldn't have been so polite.
Normally, the Boss monster of a floor is always similar to ruling monsters on that floor, meaning the Boss monster on the fourth floor should be from alligator species but it isn't, although rare, there are exceptions like this one.
But the thing was, earlier, Ajin said that he had information about the weakness of the Boss monster on lower floors, there is all kind of mysterious things in this world, that's why Kale and Elza were able to somewhat believe his words a little, they followed because of lack of choices.
As they talked, the battle kept going, Elza and Fynn's team attacked in turns, Ryenne provided support from a distance while Ajin was locked into close combat the whole time.
Right now, Elza was showing her doubt towards him in her words.
Ajin didn't give them any solid proof behind his words, they couldn't even ask about the monster inside before entering Boss Room because they had no way to prove that they won't run away after getting the information nor could Ajin prove the authenticity of the information before they get in the Boss Room together.
Ajin took a right turn as he bent and slashed his daggers at the monster, the edges of his daggers smoothly sliced off several spikes on the monster's body but as soon as he cut them, new ones came out in their place and covered the shaved part again. Ajin again put some distance between them and dodged skillfully as he peeked at Tanya in the process.
Ajin then said in a calm tone "Yes, I do, don't worry, it's not as dangerous as you think, I know it's weakness, follow my lead. I'm just confirming the information myself first,"
Tanya looked around and took one step back from Kale, who was casting ‹Mud Wall› again and again, which was doing almost nothing, Tanya then locked her eyes onto the Boss monster.
'Gift: The Eyes of the World'
Suddenly, her pupils stretched horizontally, they stretched until they got divided into two and expanded again to normal size, becoming two pupils in each eye.
There was no change in energy or presence around Tanya, but to her, the whole world view was different now.
Starting from the dust on the pebbles on the side to the beating heart of the Boss monster, everything appeared in from of her vision, alas, even when all these things were in her field of vision, Tanya couldn't focus even on two of them at the same time, she could only focus on one target the whole time which she had already decided on, it was the rule.
Every Gift was the power belonging to the world itself, that's why it followed the rules made by nature too, the other shortcoming of this Gift was it couldn't be used more than once a day and its effectiveness depended on her.
Tanya focused on the Boss monster which was like an open book in front of her right now, its skin, flesh, nerves, bones, the food it had eaten, she could see everything, even the body parts that didn't look healthy.
Tanya then noticed the area between its shoulder and her eyes shined, she had just relaxed when she noticed another thing and her Gift also automatically deactivated, she then saw the Boss monster stopping and extending its head, she shouted "Down,"
Ajin's ear twitched, he was rushing at the monster because the monster had finally extended its head out giving an opening, but as soon as he heard her words, he bent down his body to the limit and crossed the daggers in front of his head.
At the same time, the Boss slightly opened its long mouth, with a "Swoosh" sound, a tongue as thin as the baby finger was shot out from its mouth at lightning speed and clashed with the intercrossed dagger, Ajin was pushed down but the tongue was deflected successfully.
"It can't turn its head!" Ajin shouted while moving.
The Boss monster panicked, it tried to retreat its tongue but where was Ajin going to give up on such an opportunity, he moved his intercrossed daggers like scissors, blood spurted out and the cut whip-like tongue flew in the air, then fell to the ground while still twitching.
Krrriiicchhkkkk…..
The Boss monster screamed in fury, all the spikes on its body tightened, it was ready to shrink into a ball again but this time, everyone was ready. Ryenne raised her staff and three magic circles appeared in front of it in an inverted triangular formation.
'Killer Move: Bone Crushing Tide'
Several new inscriptions appeared connecting the magic circles, as soon as the spell was cast, a gigantic wave of water rose from the ground in front of her and rushed towards the monster and Ajin.
Ajin was already ready, his Tier 4 silver Astral Mana gushed out of his body, a spell activated in his Origin Chasm, in the next second, he sunk into the ground completely and disappeared.
The Boss was thrashed by the incoming water tide and got thrown several meters away without any resistance, due to its bigger size, the damage it received was way higher, numerous hard spikes on its body got destroyed due to the impact. When it finished rolling it was lying between, Fynn and Elza's team.
Without any surprise, both the teams dashed at it, not giving it any time to recover, several ribbons grabbed onto its left leg and pulled it, a small punch caring surprising destructive power hit it in the guts, a long sword then sliced of its left leg bound in the ribbons that seemed strong as steel.
"Scccrrrrcchhhhhh," The monster screeched at top of its lungs, it then tried to move its head down but realized a pair of unmovable hands had grabbed its neck. The Boss monster finally felt death threat, it raised its claw to push Fynn but then a metallic octane club covered in spikes intercepted it, the monster could even hear the sound of its fingers breaking as the club made contact with its claw.
By now, the monster knew its death was imminent, driven by anger and craziness, it decided to take down its enemies with it, the monster forced its body backwards disregarding the fact that Fynn was holding its neck.
When the monster moved backwards, Fynn's hard fingers ripped apart the flesh on his neck, giving it a lethal wound, Fynn was still surprised by its action when it noticed that its body was inflating and all the spikes were now getting perpendicular to the surface of its skin.
Fynn understood what it was doing and his pupils shrunk.
Just when the monster summoned all its energy and was about to self destruct, the ground just in front of it softened, a silver phantom wolf jumped out of the ground. The wolf opened its giant mouth and bit on the already injured neck of the monster, chopping away a large chunk of flesh.
Once it did that much, the wolf disappeared, but just as it disappeared, the monster saw Ajin following just behind it with his daggers covered in silver Astral Mana.
'Blood Moon of the Silver Wolf: Mid Night Slaughter'
Two beautiful crescent arcs flashed in a perfect curve intercrossing each other, when the arcs disappeared, Ajin was slowly walking past the Boss monster.
Thump!
The head of the monster fell to the ground, its eyes were still looking in front like it didn't realize what happened.
The energy fluctuations around the body of the monster disappeared, and it too fell to the ground without any support.
Everyone looked at the dead beast then at Ajin who had no expression on his face.
Ajin shook his dagger to clear the blood on them as he glanced at Elza then at Fynn, both of them had an amazed look on their faces.
Once he made sure that none of the two Tier 3 of the opposite party comprehended anything about his technique, he was satisfied.
But he didn't realize that a different pair of eyes was staring at him.
Kale had a look of slight surprise in his eyes as he looked at Ajin 'Not bad, a technique that is made using the principles of three different types of technique encompassing movement type, fist type and dagger type, using the first two as supplementary for the latter one. The principle is somewhat similar to the ‹After Image Fist Art› practised by ‹Thousand Illusion Immortal Palace›.
First, confuse enemy from the bodily movements, then deceive them using hand actions and finally, boom, assassination in front of their eyes, a technique made for a frontal assassination. It's a good technique unless the enemy already knows the logic behind it.
He has also achieved good mastery of it, that move already carried a hint of Dagger Intent, he should be able to comprehend its novice level in a few years, but rather than for killing monsters, this technique is made for killing humans, it cannot be mastered to this extent by just killing monsters, as I guessed, this guy… Is a real assassin,'
"Rest for a few minutes then we will start collecting the loot," Ajin said.
Everything in the Boss Room starting from the crystals on the wall to the soil on the ground had a high price in the market, but there was a caught, once the Boss is defeated, the door of the Boss Room can be opened from inside to outside but only for the next 24 hours, after that, it can be opened from both inside and outside.
The Boss Room is like a treasure trove for all the monsters on the floor, once it is opened to all, it would attract all monsters outside, and a mass slaughter will take place, even the adventurers around may take their chance to snatch the rewards of the party that cleared the raid, that's why it is better to silently leave the place in 24 hours with whatever that has been obtained.
Elza was somewhat dissatisfied, she felt that Ajin's information cannot be that trusted but seeing that Kale gave no order, she kept quiet.
Kale nodded and sat down, he didn't do much work, but he wasn't polite or kind-hearted enough to offer to do labour before others, he sat on the ground and glanced at Tanya 'Earlier, I was sure that man had underestimated the Boss and taken the bait, even if he had dodged using instincts, that surprise attack would have injured his left arm, if not shoulder.
At that time, he would have no choice but to reveal his real card, everything was going well, but… How did this little lass realize the Boss's move? I don't believe there are such coincidences, neither can be instincts nor have I heard of such a Mutant trait. This girl, she has some deep secrets it seems, it's worth probing but not now…'
Kale thought that much then stood up and started walking towards the dead Boss.
As soon as he took a step, he noticed Tanya also following behind him, she saw him looking at her and smiled.
Kale 'naturally' blushed and hurried in his steps, once he came near the Boss, he started observing its body.
Kale was about to get on his knees for a clear look, he suddenly noticed something that made him slow down, an illusory shadow similar to the Boss was coming out from the dead body.
'A soul? That fast, why? Is it because of me? Or my Battle Spirit-,' Kale was thinking when the soul shattered into small fragments before it even properly came out of its body, it shattered into tiny fragments and turned into energy, then unknown specks of light like energy came out of the Boss's body and merged with it, the specks then moved towards Kale.
Kale was confused, just when he thought they were coming to him, all the specks passed by his side. Kale was frozen in his spot, he didn't even need to turn to see what was happening, the vision from the corner of his eyes and his perceptions combined built up the whole image for him.
All the specks were absorbed into Tanya's body as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a refreshed look appeared on her face followed by a faint smile.
Kale rolled his eyes looking at other people that seemed to see nothing, a storm was taking place in his head 'What the heck?'