Chương 211: Interlude 27

Supreme Warlady Elena Burnstock We looked at each other, once more as I chewed the salted meat I had pulled out of my spatial pouch. The demon was tenacious, but the odds were slowly moving in my favor.

"You are tenacious. But I haven't gone all out yet," the demon said while glaring at me. It had taken to trash talking me back. That was fine. I would let it waste its time and energy hitting my Social Immunity with no effect. Also, the demon might reveal a weakness while talking to me. I had slowly changed my mind over the course of the fight about talking to monsters. Hearing its frustration, its anger, gave me a tremendous amount of joy.

"I am waiting. If you truly think you can defeat me, then do so," I declared without fear and pointed Sarah at the demon who looked at my blade wearily.

"The runes you have used. The skills. I have been watching carefully. You taught me a bit too well. I am the Demon Agares!" The demon had proven a worthy opponent. I had never given my name to a monster, but I would make an exception in this case. To let it know I wasn't afraid.

"Farmer Elena, The Reaper of Monsters," I declared, using the title I preferred. The demon gave me a small nod of respect. I didn't care for it. I would take its head and use it's skull as a drinking cup. That was all the respect the monster deserved. The demon brought up a clawed hand and runes began to form in the air. My eyes went wide. The demon was copying me. No, not copying me, but doing something completely unexpected. I didn't understand the runic structure it was using.

I rushed forward and the demon leapt away, keeping its distance from me as it continued to draw runes. I retreated, but the demon kept pace with me as more and more runes were added to whatever it was doing. It was using its superior stats to suppress me while it prepared its runic circle." Slice!" The demon dodged. It wasn't retreating, but it wasn't attacking. I began running for the passage to leave this layer, but we had moved a fair distance away. The demon was keeping pace with me.

I wouldn't make it, before it unleashed its attack. And I didn't want to retreat. If it wanted to target me, then I would target the demon in turn. If it thought it could compete me with runes, then it had another thing coming. Turning to face the demon, I began creating my own runes. The demon was already on a third runic circle. Whatever it was trying to accomplish was going to shake the very foundations of the dungeon. Looking at its runic structure, I recognized certain parts.

They were runes I had used to create traps and attacks to target the demon. It had been learning a little too well from me since we had started fighting so long ago. I adjusted the runic circle I was making while still creating runes in the air. Runes flew out of their positions into new ones. An impossible skill for anyone else to use in battle. But one I had learned just for situations where I needed to adjust without being forced to start over. The demon wasn't going to let me drag it to its death.

It was putting everything on the line in a final attack. I would do the same. I had complete and utter confidence in myself. Even while I made my runic circles, I watched what the demon was doing. It was focused on me and its runic circle. But it wasn't observing what I was doing. That was the difference in our skills, I could adapt, but the demon couldn't. Whatever was doing was esoteric. There was a resonance link that I could understand and soul components. But there were runes I had never seen.

They were demonic runes, but I didn't know their meaning. The demon knew runes that humans did not. As it reached its seventh runic circle, my eyes went wide. It was trying to replicate a Tier 7 skill in its full power. I was at my fifth runic circle, the mental pressure was immense. We were both locked into place, from the sheer focus that was required to create so many runic circles.

"I saw this skill used once before when it was used on me. Thank you for filling in the blanks. Now be thrown into despair!" A combination skill and runic circle? The fact that the demon was smiling at me and had drawn seven runic circles was very bad. Time was up, life or death, it hung in the balance. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation." Curse Of The Depths!"

"Null Aura!" All the Mana was pushed away from me. My runic circles spreading outwards from me as they consumed the Mana in the air and the dungeon itself. A general purpose counter to most craziness. My skill combined with the runic circles should push back all sources of Mana. Then the demon's skill and runic circle combination struck. My Null Aura visibly bent under the sheer pressure. I collapsed to one knee as my very soul shook under the pressure.

I couldn't allow myself to be hit with that skill, no matter what.

"AHHHH!" I roared, channeling all my strength into Null Aura. The dungeon shook. The demon's skill was a Tier 7 skill. That kind of pressure, that power, it could only be a Tier 7 skill. Despite my support skills, my Tier 5 skill was crumpling under the pressure. The dungeon itself was shaking violently as all the Mana nearby was drawn to fuel both our runic circles. Neither of us was willing to give in. My skill was going to fail. I only had one last chance to counter it. I would bet everything on my next move.

Null Aura failed, the demon's skill was approaching me." SLICE!" I put every support skill I had into this attack and two thirds of my remaining Mana. The mass of Mana that was the cursed skill struck my skill. My skill was crushed in less than a second. Then it struck me.

"NEVER!" I roared and tried to fight the curse that was sinking into my soul. I fought it with everything I had. But I was no expert on soul skills. I had Soul Immunity, but it was quickly overwhelmed. The curse skill was too strong. It was bound tightly with my soul. A Tier 7 curse skill and there was no good way to remove it. Its purpose was only a single thing. One would die if they ascended in the dungeon. One could only go deeper. A clever and diabolical curse. Rushing forward, I charged at the demon.

It was completely exhausted. It had used up all its Mana and strength. I wouldn't give it a chance to recover. I began to cut into the massive demon. It was slow.

"Let us go deeper together!" it laughed even as I dealt more damage to it. Why was it so pleased? The curse just stopped me from ascending.

"You aren't escaping. Your end is now!"

"One day perhaps. But that day is not today. Hellfire Teleport!" The demon burst into a pillar of flames. Its presence instantly disappearing. My blade cut through nothing. Landing on the ground, I let out a sigh. The demon was smart, too smart. I shouldn't have underestimated such a strong thinking monster. It had cursed me and was going to starve me to death. There were skills and techniques to consume monster meat. I wouldn't die. But it would be unpleasant and incredibly tedious to do.

Dealing with the hostile Mana and extracting it from the flesh of monsters was incredibly slow and time consuming. I had learned how to do it, just in case I was ever trapped in the dungeon. It was not something I would casually teach anyone. The risks were immense. One mistake and I would suffer greatly, my soul being damaged. Also, the difficulty increased the deeper one went in the dungeon and the Mana increased. But I could survive down in the dungeon if absolutely necessary.

The demon hadn't trapped me down here. It had ensured that I would win eventually. It had clearly seen me eating and knew that I would run out of food eventually. It was hoping to wear me down. Let me run out of food, let me starve until I had weakened enough that it could finish me off. It was a smart move for the demon. A clever move in fact. While it had escaped, I could tell which direction it had gone. Teleportation skills left a trail of Mana. If one was skilled enough, they could follow it.

I would finish off the demon first, then deal with this Tier 7 curse. It thought it was clever. But it really wasn't. Kicking off the ground, I rushed in the direction the demon had gone. I was tired, exhausted, and wanted to sleep, but that could wait until after I had won. The demon had said it had been cursed with the same skill. An annoying curse skill. The more I looked at the curse with my skills, the more obvious its inner workings were. It was haphazard. I could feel where it had latched onto my soul.

But despite being poorly formed it was powerful. If I killed the demon there might be a chance to break it. While I was no expert on curses, I knew enough about myself, that I could rip it out if needed. I would damage myself, stats, and several skills. But if I wanted to retire and escape, I could do it. There was a reason I hadn't done this with my son. Ripping something like this out of my soul, was asking for death. It was like cutting off an arm due to a broken finger. I wouldn't do it.

My entire purpose was fighting monsters. To take that away, death would be better. I would rather keep descending in the dungeon, killing as much as I could, before I finally died or got to the bottom. I reached the point where the demon had teleported to. It wasn't here. It had run off, hiding from me. An insidious method of fighting, but I had to give the monster credit. It had really thought this through. If I was most other adventurers, I would starve to death. Eating monster meat would be really annoying.

This deep, the 26 th layer, I would have to process the meat several times to force the Mana out, and it would degrade during that process. While I had eaten many things in my life, monster meat was the absolute worst. But I refused to allow myself any weaknesses. Starving to death in the dungeon was a weakness I knew how to deal with long ago, but never considered practical. The time alone would normally make it worthwhile to go back up to the surface to get supplies. But that was impossible for now.

I would kill the demon, then I would look into removing this curse skill. With the demon dead, there was a good chance of it breaking. But now it was hiding from me. I was the hunter, the demon was the prey.