—–

“ROAR!”

A furious roar wakes me up from my daze as a beast greets us from below. It felt like epic music began to play because the beast was absolutely terrifying. The creature itself is the size of a lion, and it resembles one as well. But its fur is completely black, it has bat-like wings, and its tail has… the head of a snake!

[Dark Manticore: Lv 6] [Rank: E] [State: Angered, Defending its territory, Hungry]

A Manticore! At this time and age?! In this little dungeon’s first floor, to boot?!

And its… Eh?! Isn’t that a whole Rank above us?

Oof.

The Manticore begins to release an aura of darkness around its entire body, as I can see its muscles suddenly bulge and strengthen. The power of its dark aura suddenly coats its claws, and its sharp crimson-red eyes glare at us.

The beast bares its fangs and leaps towards us at an immense speed!

FLAAASH!

Partner and I quickly evaded as the enormous claws hit the ground, causing the entire floor to tremble!

CLAAASH!

“ROAAARR!”

The beast roars once more as it glares directly at me!

However, I wasn’t just standing still as I admired your beautiful and soft black fur, buddy!

I gathered the mana I had siphoned from the beast while I also drained its Vitality through Life Drain, recovering some of the HP I lost from the Slime’s attacks. I even fire a series of Dark Spheres towards its face, four shots, to be exact!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“GRAARGH?!”

Each Dark Sphere was like a cannonball as it hit the hard skin of the creature. Despite its [Darkness Resistance: Lv2], my magic deals extra damage thanks to Supreme Magic, easily negating the damage it reduces from its resistance!

The Dark Spheres easily make a dent in the creature’s HP, as I see it drop to almost 60%! The monster roars in not only surprise but pain as it vomits a mouthful of blood and quickly prepares some magic of its own.

“Eh?!”

The bastard greets me with his own Dark Sphere, which hits me directly on my face!

CLAASH!

“Unngh…!”

It seems that the Magic Stat reduces inflicted magic damage, and because I have tons, it didn’t kill me, but still, seeing my face explode into phantasmal essence was not painful but quite traumatic. He still took a nice chunk out of my HP, bringing me to almost half.

However…

“Now, Partner!”

*Rattle!*

Partner quickly ambushes the Manticore from behind, as she uses her powerful metallic bones and the [Bone Claws] Skill, which she infused with more mana than usual. The attack is strong enough to generate a claw-shaped phantom from her bony hands!

CLAAAAASH!

“UNNGRRAAGGH!”

The Manticore takes the entire hit on its face as a horrid wound emerges, blood spurting from it intensively. Partner even managed to destroy its left eye!

“Way to go!”

I move around the battlefield as I try to evade the next hit. A sudden Black Sphere is fired against Partner. And without even looking, the beast conjured a piece of magic at the end of its tail where a snake head sat.

“Dark Gale!”

I use [Dark Gale] as Partner tanks the [Dark Sphere], slicing off the tail with ease!

“Grryyssshaaa…!”

The snake gives a last groan of agony as it dies.

The Manticore stumbles before roaring in pain once more before its body suddenly explodes with dark energy.

FLAAASH!

Suddenly, it leaped right towards me!

“F-Fuck!”

I quickly fire a [Dark Gale] desperately directly at its face, but the Manticore takes the hit so it can grasp me with its [Shadow Claw] Skill!

SLAAAASH!

CLASH!

However, before the slashing attack could reach me and rip my phantasmal body into shreds due to it being infused with magic, which can damage ghosts, Partner emerges from behind and gives the Manticore a specular uppercut to its chin, slamming it into the ceiling!

Wow! Is Partner that strong?!

CLAAASH!

“GGROOARR…!”

The Manticore vomits another mouthful of blood as its jaw hangs, almost dislocated. The massive beast falls to the ground before trying to stumble up to its feet.

Fuck, it’s still alive? It had around 30% of its HP. Well, not for much longer!

“Partner, let’s gang on it!”

I use Life Drain and Mana Siphon on the Manticore before continuously conjuring Dark Spheres towards the weakened and slow body of the Manticore while Partner kicks it and slashes it!

BOOM! CLASH! SLASH! CRAASH!

“ROOOAARRR…!”

The monstrous beast roars one last time as its jaws open wide and point themselves at me.

FLAAAASH!

A sudden blast of darkness hits me directly! But… Partner managed to get in the way, diminishing some of the damage. Nonetheless, our HP went down by a lot!

“Unngh…!”

The beast was dead already, but his little parting gift almost killed us.

Ding!

[You’ve gained 600 EXP]

[You’ve leveled up to Level 6!]

[The Levels of [Magic Damage Resistance: Lv2], [Life Drain: Lv2], and [Dark Gale: Lv1] have increased!]

[You learned the [Darkness Resistance: Lv1] and [Fear Resistance: Lv1] Skills!]

[Partner] has leveled up to Level 6!]

Our HP quickly fills back up as we see what seems to be items emerging from the Manticore. Oh, is this some nice loot after this boss-like battle? I quickly fly over and touch the corpse and items. The corpse automatically dismantles itself into materials that are added to my Inventory.

Ding!

[You’ve collected the following Items]

[Dark Manticore’s Crimson Eye Necklace (E-Grade): Lv 3] x1

[Dark Manticore Venomous Snake Tail Spear (E-Grade): Level 2] x1

[Dark Manticore’s Black Hide (E-Grade)] x10

[Dark Manticore’s Sharp Fangs (E-Grade)] x20

[Dark Manticore’s Flesh and Blood (E-Grade)] x30

[Dark Manticore’s Snake Tail Venom (E-Grade)] x5

…

Ooh! A bunch of items that I will prob not even use… But! There are two new pieces of equipment, and… a Spear? I don’t know if I can use it properly, but doesn’t this fit Partner perfectly?

“Partner! Here’s your gift! You earned it, buddy!”

*Crackle!*

I quickly gave Partner her spear, and she looked at it with her eye sockets, the red light within them flashing with happiness.

—–