While the hydra and octopus were duking it out Marcus was formulating plans on how to beat whichever one came out as the victor.
'Hm, I would give the hydra a thirty percent chance of winning and the octopus a seventy chance. The octopus is a level higher at twenty-eight and seems to be able to alter the structure of its body. Whenever the hydra tries to bite it the octopus' body hardens and whenever it tries to use blunt attacks the octopus becomes springy and malleable. However, the hydra's regenerating heads is making it difficult for the octopus to deliver a decisive blow.'
After thoroughly analyzing the two creatures abilities, Marcus came up with some counter measures for both of them.
For the hydra, its weakness was obvious, cut off the heads and burn the stumps to prevent regeneration. The only problem with that was that Marcus felt he did not currently have enough fire power and would have to upgrade his fire magic skill should the hydra win.
The octopus on the other hand was going to be much trickier since it could seemingly endlessly adapt to its situation. Luckily, Marcus had found a vulnerability in this in since it could only adapt to one thing at a time, so it would not be able to defend against two or more differing attacks.
'Okay now that I have a plan ready for either of them, I guess all that is left is to sit back and enjoy the show.'
Marcus watched as the hydra and the octopus let off one ferocious blow after another. The hydra would slam its heads into the body of the octopus knocking it around. And the octopus would jam its tentacles that had formed into spears into the hydra's heads.
The hydra then tried to bite into the octopus' tentacles only to find that they were harder than steel and its teeth had broken. In response the octopus would wrap multiple tentacles around the hydra's heads and squeeze until they popped.
This exchange went on for quite a while giving Marcus ample time to recover until one of them finally reined the victor.
The hydra even with its regeneration eventually ran out of stamina and succumbed as the octopus ate it alive.
'Well, that was brutal but now it is time for me to get back into action.'
Giving the octopus no time to rest after its hard-won victory, Marcus charged forward, activating speed burst, and slashing toward the octopus. Except when his scythe connected its skin had turned solid and even Marcus' mana infused powerful slash could only leave a shallow cut.
Nevertheless, this was not unexpected as from behind him his freshly summoned iron golem that was now level twenty-one and had much higher stats unleashed a powerful punch. Impacting the solidified body of the octopus the large ten-foot-tall golem smashed through its exterior, causing major damage.
Feeling pain for the first time in its life the octopus went into a frenzy slamming its tentacles around like crazy. Evading the tentacles with his increased agility from his mana body and lightning strider spell Marcus swung his scythe at one of the frenzied tentacle that had changed consistency to combat the blunt attacks of his iron golem.
With the octopus no longer hardening its body Marcus' scythe slid through its soft tentacle like butter.
Enraged by the loss of one of its tentacles the octopus focused its entire attention on Marcus ignoring his golem as it sent all seven of its remaining tentacles towards him.
Except right before the octopus' spear tentacles impaled Marcus, he vanished in a blur having moved too fast for the octopus to keep up. Having activated his speed burst skill which, he could now use in tandem with lightning strider and mana body, Marcus appeared in front of the defenseless octopus' main body and unleashed a devesting series of scythe attacks.
As expected though, the octopus had hardened its body, and when it did Marcus' iron sphere which he had preemptively suspended in air came down in a corkscrew motion and slammed into the top of the octopus. At the same time his battered iron golem got back on its feet and flung itself at the octopus unleashing a devastating body slam.
Cracks began forming on the body of the octopus as it reeled from the massive amount of damage it had just taken.
However, the octopus' body began to glow blue, and Marcus watched in horror as its entire body started to regenerate.
'Fuck, did it absorb the hydra's regenerative abilities somehow, there were no records of a creature like this in the book I read so I do not know if it naturally had this ability or if it stole it from the hydra. I am just going to have to hit it as hard as I can and out damage its regeneration.'
Unfortunately for Marcus, that was easier said than done. He tried endlessly to blast it with spells, slash it with his scythe, and pummel it with his iron golem and sphere but he was unable to deal a decisive blow. Soon Marcus was running low on mana and had to retreat deactivating his solid soul in order to rest and think up a new strategy.
'Damn, this thing is tough, even when I do significant damage it quickly regenerates, even the tentacle I worked so hard to cut off has grown back. It makes my lesser regeneration look like a joke. If it could not adapt to my damage types so quickly, I could deal a decisive blow, but it always blocks my strongest attacks. I need something more powerful to finish it off in one big move.'
During his planning while Marcus thought he was safe from the octopus it had been doing its upmost to locate him and eventually its extrasensory perception found him. With its target pinpointed the octopus once again changed its body becoming ethereal like Marcus.
Lashing out one of its tentacles the octopus grabbed a hold of Marcus and began squeezing. Distressed by being successfully attacked for the first time in his spiritual form Marcus quickly assessed his situation as his HP was draining at an alarming rate. Realizing that he only had one way to escape Marcus activated his solid soul skill and prayed.
Luckily for him his physical body formed before the octopus was able to crush his soul and his now solid body slipped out of the ethereal tentacle's grip.
Landing back on the ground Marcus jumped back multiple times to create as much distance as he could from the massive octopus.
'Shit this is really bad, this is the first time anything has ever threatened me while I was ethereal, I mean I knew it was possible, I just did not expect it from a random octopus in a dungeon. Crap it is coming right towards me.'
The octopus giving Marcus no time to think began slamming its tentacles at him hoping to ensnare him once again. Of course, Marcus would not be caught so easily, and using his higher agility dodged each of the octopus' blows while trying to come up with a plan.
Running low on stamina and realizing that he had no surefire way to win, Marcus decided to leave it up to a Hail Mary and opened his status. He quickly found the two skills he wanted to upgrade and brought both of them to level four using most of his saved skill points.
This did however leave Marcus open as the octopus managed to finally get one of its tentacles wrapped around him again. Under the crushing force Marcus could feel his body cracking before the octopus pulled its tentacle back with extreme force towards it beak.
Realizing that he was not going to last much longer and that he would not survive being eaten by the massive octopus Marcus unleashed his last-ditch desperate attack. He first fired a fire shot at the body of the octopus and as planned it emitted a liquid from its body that nullified the flames. This is what Marcus had been waiting for as he used the two skills he had just upgraded casting his new tier four lightning spell heighten by forty percent.
"THUNDERDBIRD STRIKE"
As he screamed the name of his new spell all of his mana coalesced before turning into electricity and forming into the figure of a gargantuan bird. With its massive twenty-foot-long body and thirty-foot wingspan the thunderbird blasted forward straight into the octopus.
Unable to adapt in time, a devastating amount of electricity shot through its body destroying its cells faster than they could regenerate. Overwhelmed by the spell the octopus collapsed, its body fried and dead.
Pulling himself out from the limp tentacle of the Octopus, Marcus leaned his head back before letting off a victorious yell towards the sky.