Chapter 587 - Plan B
Congratulations! The skill Magic Vampirism has reached level 15.
While Ryan didn't know if the monster's endurance was decreasing, at least he was confirming that he was recovering some of his mana. Since that seemed like a fight that would last long, Ryan also made sure to summon his Spiritualists Crossbow.
As if it was a very clumsy robot, the dungeon master turned around and faced Ryan once again. However, this time instead of a charge or Magma Pillars, the monster tried a more personal, but weird approach. The creature moved its right arm as if it was preparing a punch… and punched the air. This time Ryan reacted in time to dodge the massive and powerful gust of wind, but even from dozens of meters away, Ryan felt the heat caused the body and the monster's movement. As if that wasn't troublesome enough, the creature repeated the motion with both arms.
"What an annoying bastard…" Ryan said.
"That is some interesting way to conserve mana," Femradiel said visibly impressed by the enemy's skill.
It looked like the monster was also waiting for a long fight since it was already trying to conserve its mana, but that seemed weird… Ryan was at a disadvantage, so it was natural that he would play his hands carefully, but that didn't make any sense from the dungeon master perspective that had the advantage.
"Maybe to control that body, it needs a large amount of energy…" Ryan thought.
"That would make sense," Femradiel said.
Much to Ryan's, he felt the approach of something coming from the sky. He immediately used Teleport, and he managed to escape… from being hit by a meteor.
"... My bad," Femradiel said. "These Magma Demons are starting to get annoying, so my focus waved."
Before Ryan could reply, a lightning bolt fell from the sky and hit the monster's body. That took longer than expected, but the creature at least was paralyzed for a single moment. Ryan's strategy could work… if only the monster hadn't grabbed the spear and took it away from its body…
"That was your plan A, right?" Femradiel asked. "What about your plan B?"
"Try to kill all the Magma Demons as soon as you can," Ryan said. "After that, drop some Ice Meteors on that thing's head."
Femradiel couldn't see how much of that strategy that was, but she decided to follow those instructions. Before the monster could try to throw the spear at Ryan, he used Teleport and then moved to the monster's back. That would grant Ryan a few seconds, but that would be enough for the time being.
In the end, the monster really planned to do that, but once Ryan escaped its sight for the third time, it got sick of it and bent the spear until it got the shape of a boomerang.
"Ah, my ten hours of hard work…" Ryan muttered in shock.
In the end, the monster went as far as approaching a volcano and throwing the broken spear inside of it… now the weapon was truly beyond salvation. Fortunately, Ryan used all that time to decrease the monster's endurance with Vital Hunter. However, he still couldn't see much difference in the piercing power of his attacks.
"Is it just me or the heat emitted by the monster is decreasing the speed of your projectiles?" Femradiel asked.
Ryan was so focused on attacking and dodging the attacks that he overlooked that, but in the end, he confirmed it. Even at a certain distance, the high endurance of the monster could be applied due to the heat emitted. Ryan clicked his tongue in annoyance, but he soon discovered that non-physical projectiles were immune to the heat. Like Mana Arrow.
"This isn't going as well as you had planned, right?" Femradiel asked.
As much as it was annoying to admit, Ryan could only nod at Femradiel's words. Still, he had many skills, and Ryan was confident that he could solve that mess of a situation with something in his skill list. His eyes stopped at Draconic Transformation for a second, but he soon discarded the idea.
At the same speed, Ryan was losing his patience. The monster was getting annoyed. When Femradiel finally finished off all the Magma Demons in the area, the dungeon master began to kick the Magma Golems that were on the ground toward their direction. Naturally, the monsters exploded in pieces due to the massive power of the kick. However, their pieces still flew in Ryan's direction at a fearsome speed.
Ryan blocked the projectiles with his own bolts. Still, when his concentration was focused below him, the dungeon master made several meteors rain over him. The first one to reach had been Femradiel, she used her Ice Spears to block the attacks, but she was forced to use Teleport in Ryan's place despite her reaction speed.
"Shit…" Ryan muttered.
"Well, look on the bright side," Femradiel said. "This monster is also getting impatient and despite its size, the dungeon master can't use all that mana thousands of Magma Golems gave him."
Femradiel began to make Ice Meteors fall on the monster's head, just as Ryan had asked her, but even before the attacks landed, a good part of the projectiles melted. In the end, that long fight was only working to increase the level of Magic Vampirism. Still, even so, the skills weren't leveling up that fast… then Ryan understood why. It was because the dungeon master wasn't a single powerful entity. The skill was only working on the pieces of Magma Golems protecting his main body inside of that.
"… Femradiel, don't use Ice Meteor," Ryan said. "Just use Earth Creation and make regular blocks of earth fall on the monster's head."
"I don't think that will cause much damage," Femradiel said.
"It is all right, we don't need to cause damage to defeat that thing," Ryan said. "I will focus on defending and dodging the monster's attacks, you focus on attacking with magic since your intelligence is higher."