From Sol's spatial ring, he retrieved a small bottle with a light blue liquid inside. It was one of the mana potions he bought outside the dungeon. It had been sitting in his spatial ring forgotten the entire time they had been in the dungeon.
The only reason Sol remembered the potions was when he was sorting the spatial rings he obtained from the other adventurers. All of them carried their own supply, which suddenly left him with a lot of consumable potions he had never even used before. At least until now.
Chugging the entire bottle, Sol felt a refreshing wave of energy coursing through his body. His mana recovered by a third, giving him the energy to truly finish this off.
Sol telepathically communicated with Amber who couldn't hear him from using her skill to block off the screeching.
Fall back and cover me. I'm gonna brute force this.
Amber gave a look of acknowledgement and went in for one final attack, sand began to swirl around her daggers as she released it towards the massive monster. Like a tidal wave, it slammed into the monster with the force simultaneously pushing Amber backward towards Sol.
'Since when could she do that? Never mind, I'll ask her later.'
This was the first time Sol saw Amber using sand in an offensive way. Most of the time, she only turned her body into sand to negate attacks.
"[Revealing Light]!"
Two bright orbs of light radiated, banishing the darkness, making it harder for the Shadow Amalgamation to conjure its shadows. Sol had wanted to use this before, but it would have also made it impossible for Amber to go invisible as it would negate her invisibility.
The Shadow Amalgamation could still create its shadow hands and did so, but they were noticeably weaker and much thinner. With its main form of attack hindered, Sol charged towards the monster while preparing his next spell.
The few shadow hands that the Shadow Amalgamation could create were sent out towards Sol, but they were intercepted by Amber. Sol charged through the opening and chanted the final part of the spell.
"[Light Flood]!"
Double casting the spell, the two wide beams of light penetrated the giant creature. Sol could see all the heads screaming but was unaffected by their wails thanks to [Muffled Movements].
'It's working!'
Health: 530/1500
The main body was somewhere inside, and with [Light Flood], it hit it regardless of where it hid. The only downside was that it left Sol vulnerable to attacks, but he didn't have to worry about that.
The Shadow Amalgamation kept creating shadow hands to stop Sol's attack, but they were all cut apart by Amber swiftly. When it realized that making the shadow hands was futile, it tried to crush Sol with its massive weight.
It swayed to slam downwards, but before it could do so, Amber once again intervened. Amber's entire body transformed into sand and became a large pillar wedged between the ground and the Shadow Amalgamation, keeping it in place.
Health: 302/1500
'Just a little more!'
As a last ditch effort the Shadow Amalgamation created a giant scythe out of shadows and slashed downwards towards Sol. The scythe was weakened by the light but it still posed a high threat to Sol. From the giant pillar of sand that was Amber a pillar of sand shot out to collide against the scythe and hold it back. It weakened the main body of the sand pillar as it had to split a good amount of its sand to block the scythe but it worked in holding it back.
Sol looked up to see a giant pillar of sand which was Amber holding back the Shadow Amalgamation and its shadow scythe. The sand pillar was shaking, it didn't seem like Amber could keep it up for much longer.
Seeing that he needed to hurry up, Sol used [Overpower], giving him a massive boost in controlling mana. Sol canceled one of the [Light Flood] beams and focused all his energy on empowering the other one. This rapidly consumed even more mana, which he compensated by drinking another mana potion.
The beam of light grew even wider than the total size of the original two beams and with much more power it blasted into the Shadow Amalgamation.
The Shadow Amalgamation screeched in pain as the light invaded its insides, unable to do anything. It tried to struggle but was held in place by the sand. Light started leaking out from its insides as its massive body was no longer able to contain the opposing force wrecking its insides.
"WREEEE!"
With a final screech, the Shadow Amalgamation burst with corpses that were once part of the outer shell being released, exposing its true insides. It was a small undead surrounded by a semi-transparent heart made up of smaller hearts that were stitched onto it. The heart was torn open with the small undead inside missing both arms and a leg.
Sol stopped casting [Light Flood] and looked at the small undead.
'So this is the real Shadow Amalgamation.'
It looked no different from normal undead except for its hair. The small undead's hair wasn't even hair but shadows flowing out of its head like fire. The undead glared back hatefully towards the duo. It had spent weeks collecting all those bodies, growing and becoming stronger, just to lose it all in a single fight. It pained it to see the bodies it had painstakingly preserved being absorbed by the dungeon.
The facial expressions of the Shadow Amalgamation didn't escape Sol's notice.
'This monster… has sentience?'
Sol knew that monsters were capable of intelligence equal to the level of humans and other privileged races, but that was only outside the dungeons. Inside the dungeon, it was common knowledge to treat them as less than animals, running on pure instincts to kill any intruders. At least animals knew when to run away when a strong enemy appeared, but dungeon monsters would attack regardless without any care for their lives.
'Is it unique or do monsters gain more sentience at higher levels?'
From what Sol understood, this undead wasn't that different from others of its kind, the only difference being that it was stronger than average. Sol was more inclined to believe it was because the enemies were getting stronger.
'I guess I'll find out later when I fight the boss. If it is because they are stronger, fights will get harder from here on out.'
"[Light Spear]."
One light spear manifested over Sol as it launched towards the undead, putting it out of its misery. Even if it had sentience, Sol couldn't just let it go, it would kill him and Amber if it had the chance and anyone else it came across.
You have slain a Lv 80 Shadow Amalgamation! Gained 702,000 Exp (260%)
Learned [Magic Resistance] Lv 4!
Learned [Life Perception] Lv 3!
Learned [Shadow Hands] Lv 7!