Ben is facing the Beholder Etherious, Mreye now. Mreye has shown some troublesome abilities. It has regeneration, its tendrils are very fast & flexible, and it has a curse of petrification.
'Its defense & offense are very strong, and the attack's range is wide & long. If I attack it at close range, the tendrils will protect it and it will heal the damaged part with its regeneration.'-Ben
While Ben ponders about it, Mreye attacks him using its tendrils. It can extend its tendrils and use them like whips. Ben ducks to dodge a horizontal swipe, then he rolls to the left and avoids a vertical attack.
But then, a tendril come out from the ground and hit him on the stomach. Ben spits a mouthful of air and is sent flying up to the sky. He senses something and looks at Mreye's eye that turns purple, ready to shoot its petrification beam.
"Shit!"-Ben
Ben immediately gather his MP in his hands and clap them. A magic circle with 3 meters diameter appears under his feet.
"Sun Dragon's Sphere!"-Ben
A sphere layer of bright orange sun energy appears around Ben like a ball. The purple petrification beam hit the sphere and push it back with Ben inside. Ben falls to the ground while still inside the sphere.
'Phew, I made it in time, and luckily it can't petrify magic, or else I'll be doomed.'-Ben
Ben gets pushed rather far from his initial spot. Now his distance with Mreye is around 200 meters.
"Can that thing's attacks reach this distance?"-Ben
Ben can't see Mreye because of the trees between them. But he can feel Mreye's presence with his magic sense. He senses Mreye is coming closer to his spot now.
'It move, that means it can't attack from this distance. I'll wait here and see how far its attack range is.'-Ben
Ben wait on his spot while preparing himself to dodge & attack anytime. Ben sees Mreye is getting closer to him, then at 50 meters distance, Mreye sends its tendrils to attack Ben.
'50 meters, and it doesn't use a petrification beam. Is it on cooldown or something?'-Ben
Ben dodges the tendrils attacks while keeping his vigilance to the ground. He doesn't want to get attacked from below again.
Then it really come, a tendril attack from under the ground. Ben can't dodge because he is still in the air after the jump, so he kicks the tip of the tendril away.
He kick it without any magic covering his feet, so it surprised Mreye. Its tendrils are strong, and mages usually don't have the necessary power to hit it without magic. If they only use their body, they'll just hurt themselves.
"You are pretty fast & strong physically for a small human. And your magic power is rather high too. But it is not enough if you want to defeat me."-Mreye
"If it's not enough, then I will make it enough to win. A battle isn't mathematic or statistic, a higher number doesn't always win. No result will be decided until it really ends."-Ben
"Fufufu, indeed it is, but if the number is too far apart, nothing can change the result on paper."-Mreye
Mreye shoots a petrification beam, and Ben has prepared for that. He covers his feet with light and his hand with plasma. Then Ben dodges to the left and avoids the purple beam.
Ben didn't stop and immediately run forward at high speed toward Mreye. The Beholder Etherious swipe its beam toward Ben, but Ben jumps to dodge it again. Mreye then sends a tendril to stab Ben while he is in midair.
Ben catches the tendril and burns it with his hot plasma-covered hands. The tendril got to burn to a crisp, and Ben rip it apart. Ben looks at the purple beam that has disappeared and he looks at A.I Chip's interface.
'10 seconds, the beam lasts for 10 seconds when used. Now what about the cooldown?'-Ben
Ben looks at Mreye who regenerates the broken & burnt tendril. Ben keeps running forward and prepare magic to attack Mreye. Ben jump toward Mreye and an orange magic circle appear in front of him.
"Sun Dragon's Solar Burst!"-Ben
Ben punches the magic circle and a big bright orange energy explodes from it. The magic circle creates a solar energy explosion to one side, and it engulfs a rather wide area.
"AARRGHH, DAMN YOU HUMAN."-Mreye
Mreye screams after receiving the attack from a very close distance. After his attack finished, Ben move away from there. Mreye might suddenly attack him, so he needs to get away from there.
"Did it work?"-Ben
Ben watches the explosion site that has dust and smoke covering it. After a minute, the dust & smoke subside and Ben can see a big crater made by his attack. The ground is also charred and turns black like charcoal, with smoke still rising from it.
"It's not hot enough. From the description of this spell, Sun Dragon Escanor can even melt the ground and turn it into lava. So it must be really hot to turn the soil into the lava in an instant."-Ben
Ben looks at the crater, and he sees Mreye lay in the middle of it. He still can sense magic power from the Etherious, so it's not dead yet.
"Tch, it's not enough, huh?"-Ben
Right when Ben thinks of that, Mreye floats up again and looks at Ben. Its skin & tendrils are burnt and its eye is almost shut close completely. It looks at Ben with anger, even with its almost shut-eye.
Mreye's burnt skin starts to crumble, and even the burnt flesh also comes out. All burnt tendrils also crumble and make Mreye look like a ball. All of its damaged parts are now discarded, and then Mreye regrows all that parts.
"Hateful human, you've really caught me off guard. It seems I've underestimated you too much before, so now I will be more serious."-Mreye
Ben gets ready to fight again with Mreye who almost finishes its regeneration.
"Hmm? I forget that I have a weapon."-Ben
Ben remember that he have a weapon now. He grabs something from his right thigh, it's a knife. This knife is the one that he asked Roubaul. It's made from the female giant serpent's fang, it's very sharp and has high heat resistance.
Ben holds the knife with his right hand, then he flows his MP on it. The knife starts to turn red, then bright yellowish-orange, indicating its rising temperature.
"Let's fight with this and save my MP for now. That attack use a lot of my MP, and I can't replenish it without sunlight or fire, so I need to use my MP wisely now."-Ben
Ben gets ready to fight and just uses his magic on the magic knife. After evaluating the battle so far, he's confident he can dodge and move to attack Mreye just with his physical power.
That's why now he just needs this magic knife to fight. This magic knife has a heat of around 2000 Celcius. It's very hot, so it should be able to cut Mreye's skin & tendrils easier.
Ben runs at Mreye before it fully finishes its regeneration. Mreye sees Ben coming and sends its tendrils to attack. Ben dodges the incoming tendrils and uses his knife to attack the tendrils that he can't dodge.
Just like Ben's prediction, his super hot knife can cut the tendrils easier. But Mreye can regenerate the broken tendrils again and again. Mreye also shoots petrification beam sometimes, make it a lot harder for Ben.
"HAHAHAHA, USELESS USELESS USELESS USELESS! YOUR STRUGGLE IS USELESS."-Mreye
"Damn, I can't get closer anymore."-Ben
Ben and Mreye have 10 meters distance between them. Ben wants to come closer, so he can make a big decisive attack, but he can't get any closer now.
Suddenly, Mreye propels itself forward with its tendrils and gets very close to Ben. Ben is caught off guard and hasn't prepared anything.
"WHAT?!"-Ben widen his eyes
Mreye shoots a petrification beam toward Ben at a very close distance. Ben can't dodge, so he blocks with his knife and covers his hands with solar energy.
*BOOM*
Ben got pushed by the beam and crash into the trees in the forest. He is flung far away and the crash with trees makes blood trickle from his mouth. He got stopped by a big boulder, and then he fall on his front to the ground weakly.
"It's the end, human."-Mreye
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