The creature was on him before he could react. Ronan had a fraction of a second to figure out what he was going to do. He used his new skill. Altered Destiny grabbed hold of reality and tore it sideways, sending a disturbing ripple through his body as his own fate was changed. Instead of the monster bursting through his torso and eviscerating it, the dark, scaled form sailed through empty air and travelled for another few hundred metres before diving back under the water’s surface.

  Ronan’s breath came short and hard. He stared down at the water. That was way too close. I was too relaxed after the big and slow arrival of the mini-bosses. The tutorial wanted to keep him on his toes. He would not forget the lesson.

  The dark wave it had arrived on seemed to be one of the new monster’s abilities. He was able to track its movement by watching the wave tear across the water. It was odd, but he was glad to have some advanced warning for the next time it threw itself at him. He didn’t have to wait long.

  The only warning he did get was the wave vanishing. Ronan tensed up and then threw himself to the side. He didn’t bother waiting to see where the creature was aiming—any movement should throw off its targeting. Unfortunately it was no simple beast. As it rocketed past the spot Ronan now occupied, a red eye darted towards him and the two locked their gazes. Then the creature closed its front claws and grabbed the empty air.

  In a physics-defying act, the monster spun on nothing and pivoted until it was facing Ronan. Then it pounced at him, using the air as leverage. He almost got hit because he was stunned by the sudden turn of events, but facing the tutorial so many times had instilled an understanding of the new world into his flesh and bones. Ronan knew he couldn’t dodge endlessly. He conjured a sword and slashed at the scaled beast.

  Unlike the mini-bosses, this new foe displayed exceptional intelligence. The moment the glowing blue blade appeared in his hands it repeated its ridiculous feat of mobility and came to a skidding halt in the air. He was beginning to wonder if it could just walk without the effects of gravity when it growled and started bouncing off invisible walls, before rocketing down into the sea once more.

  He was surprised that the mere conjuring of his blade had scared it off, but he knew that it wouldn’t work more than once. He was sure of it, in fact, because he had caught a glimpse of its floating tags while it bounced around like a rubber ball in front of him.

  [Azbab - BOSS][Mutated Kaiju Lv.500]

  The fact that it was level 500 wasn’t what scared Ronan the most. No, its cold gaze was enough to tell him this was the deadliest monster he would ever face. He wasn’t sure he should call it a monster. The intelligence behind its eyes was piercing, letting him know that Azbab was more than a mere beast that would throw itself at him until one of them died. This would be a real challenge.

  At that moment Ronan heard a soft plip sound. Then his right calf started to sting. He glanced down and saw a hole in his leg. The cut was clean. One moment he had been landing on a mana platform and the next a chunk of his flesh was gone. He heard another plip. He used Magic Money without hesitation.

  The barrier shattered and his credits dropped like a ton of… bronze. That was an expensive save. The ocean parted and the boss leapt from the water once more. This time it wasn’t making a beeline for Ronan, but towards a space behind him.

  He turned around to see what the kaiju was aiming for when he heard another plip. He didn’t even get the chance to use Magic Money the third time. His lower back buckled and he felt warm blood dripping from the hole that had appeared in his abdomen.

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  That’s not ideal. Suture Wound allowed him to seal all the holes the boss had torn in his body, but the internal damage remained. He was able to use Minor Heal with some small modicum of proficiency, but restoration was far trickier than offensive spells without the system’s guiding hand behind him. Still, it slowed the trickling loss of his health points enough that he wasn’t threatened with imminent death.

  When he turned to face the boss he found Azbab bouncing from side to side in the air. Two glowing red eyes were locked onto him. Its scaled lips peeled back to reveal two rows of razor-sharp teeth. Is the fucker mocking me? Ronan could handle being weaker than an opponent. What he couldn’t stand was some ugly monster taking the piss out of him in the middle of a battle.

  He conjured a blade again and gripped it in two hands. The monster was bouncing back and forth on the spot, not wavering in the pattern of movement. The boss might be fast, but so was Ronan. He swung, activating Ethereal Slash and Surging Strikes in concert.

  The monster’s grin didn’t leave its face. The blade of mana tore through the air towards it, and it simply bounced out of the way. Ronan didn’t falter, he simply used Mark of the Eternal Seeker on the slippery bastard. He grimaced as he felt some kind of resistance to his skill. The mark faltered, but after a bout of sustained focus it held. The blade suddenly shifted directions to follow the rapid little lizard as it bounced around. The boss screeched and suddenly stopped, bouncing directly into the path of his spell.

  Two of the boss’ six clawed arms took on a red glow and it swung them into the path of the blade. Sparks flew as the attacks clashed, but ultimately it was the boss that won out. Unfortunately for Azbab the initial slash was just the beginning of Ronan’s strike.

  His mana and stamina dropped as the successive blades created by Surging Strikes crashed against the boss’ glowing arms. The second was resisted as well, but the third shattered whatever skill it had used to protect itself. However, he was dismayed to see that it harmlessly struck the scaled skin around the arms without doing any damage. The fourth blade struck harder, Critical Tempo coming into play. Even then it only left a shallow cut, which the fifth blade barely deepened. The boss made a screeching cackle that sounded like laughter, before raising all six arms and slamming itself through the rest of his attack.

  Ronan coughed and was knocked backwards as the backlash of Surging Strikes being forcibly cancelled hit him. It wasn’t overwhelming, but it was the first time an opponent had managed to do that. He hadn’t even known such a thing was possible.

  He didn’t even get a moment to contemplate that fact before Azbab was upon him. He conjured a shield and sword, using the former to bat away the weaker strikes of its six clawed hands and the latter to strike back when he saw an opening. To his dismay most of his counter-attacks bounced harmlessly off the tough scaled hide of the boss. He would need something more explosive to get through its defences. If he survived its assault, that was.

  Ronan knew he couldn’t let himself get battered without retaliation. That would only give up ground and lead to an early defeat. He was loath to use such a self-destructive technique, but it was all he could come up with in the heat of the clash. He let both constructs dissipate and flung his arms in the general direction of the kaiju, unleashing a huge chunk of mana along with the movement.

  A wave of raw magic blasted outwards with Ronan at its centre. The boss was caught and flung away, crashing back into the ocean with a large splash. He bounced from platform to platform, catching his breath and using the brief respite to heal up his damaged hands. He was glad they hadn’t blown up outright as his arm had the first time he discovered that method of casting.

  He also started to channel a copy of his new spell. Before the boss returned he wanted to have a present ready to show the smug little bastard who was the real boss. Little is perhaps being unfair. It’s still huge, just smaller than the mini-bosses. His musings were cut short by another splash as the boss surfaced, but this time it didn’t leap into the air.

  He wasn’t complaining about the fact it was floating in the water, making itself a sitting duck. He finished constructing his spell, but didn’t launch it right away. He watched the boss for a few seconds while the kaiju did the same, its glowing red eyes locked onto Ronan and raising his hackles.

  The boss jumped. He threw his spell.