Predicting the paths of the Markidus’s appendages, Adonis and Roxanne skillfully evaded each and every attack, with each failed attempt resulting in a deep gouge in the dungeon floor.

  Now face to ‘face’ with the monster’s huge and obscure body, Adonis imitated Roxanne’s sharper and more practised movements; He spun his body around to both avoid the last appendage and gather more momentum before swinging his enhanced gladius at full force at the monster’s right side.

  Before he could make contact with the monster’s tough exterior, it conjured and ejected a thick blunt appendage from it’s side, moving at speeds faster than the boy could even perceive, nailing him right in his sternum and sending him flying.

  “ARGH!” Ejecting blood from his mouth, the boy helplessly flew backwards as he made numerous failed attempts to land gracefully.

  Finally finding somesort of balance in the air, Adonis stopped his flight by digging his gladius into the ground and grounding himself successfully after carving a few meters into the stone.

  “ARGH” Although he had managed to land safely, he was still far from harm; seeing he wasn’t dead yet, the monster ejected another appendage at his head to finish him off.

  Acting before the monster had even moved, Adonis expertly moved his head to the side so that the attack narrowly missed his head.

  {...Lucky.} The Devil God whispered.

  Focused on the intense heat and pain pulsating throughout his upper chest, the boy couldn’t be bothered to address the Devil God’s concerns and merely pulled out four expensive potions from the confines of his spatial ring.

  Chugging the potions down greedily while he still had the chance, Adonis prepared to attack once more.

  {Are you sure that’s wise?}

  “It’s either kill or be killed.” He whispered, the glowing liquids rolling down his lips.

  ‘How’d he get up so quickly? I swore I heard his bones breaking?’ Unlike the boy, Roxanne hadn’t suffered any critical injuries at the hands of the Markidus yet, and gained a bit of distance between her and it so she could try and formulate a plan of action.

  Reminding her she had no time to worry about others, the Markidus sent forth a barrage of it’s appendages at the stronger of the duo; harassing Roxanne with attacks from all angles.

  “Shit.” Noticing the Markidus had upped the pressure on her, Roxanne analyzed the monster’s movements; carefully and accurately predicting the tentacle’s trajectory with little margin of error.

  As she defended herself against the attacks with were a few times the speed of sound, Roxanne was forced to enhance her body using Earthly Aura so she could keep up.

  SLASH

  WHOOSH

  SLASH

  WHOOSH

  SLASH

  ‘I thought it could only divide it’s attention, speed and strength evenly; which would give us a huge advantage. But it looks like it can divide it proportionally, it’s focusing on the faster and stronger of the two of us….’ Grunting under the strength of the latest appendage, Roxxanne gathered mana into her spatha which already simmered with a bright blue hue.

  ‘The longer this drags out the closer we are to losing… I can’t save my stamina.’ Having made all the necessary calculations, Roxanne wrapped a long current of water around her blade to increase both her attack speed and strength.

  “Water Magic: Jet cutter”

  Extending the water beyond her blade, Roxanne severed all eight of the appendages assaulting her.

  ‘How’s the kid doing? Tier 9’s shouldn’t be able to damage its skin.’ Upon saving herself from all danger, Roxanne glanced at the teenager on the other side of the giant monster.

  ‘I’m lucky it’s focusing on Roxanne…Even so, this won’t do. When I coat my attacks with Inferno Magic it doesn’t enhance the attack speed or strength in anyway like other magic affinities, instead it merely adds a property to my attacks, so I’m stuck with my base speed, strength and Earthly Aura.’ Adonis frowned as he took another hit from the Markidus’s blunt tentacle to the face.

  {When’re you going to stop complaining and kill theat thing? I’m getting bored.}

  ‘If I could use Wicked Aura, this’d be easier.’ Taking a brief swig of a health potion Adonis barely dodged a sharp tentacle aimed at his leg by leaping.

  “Hu-” Before the monster could surprise the boy with another appendage while he was still vulnerable middair, he was snatched from the air by a huge torrent of water.

  “I expect a thank you for saving your li-” Inside the large current, swimming infront of the boy was his teammate Roxxane.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “I have a plan.” Putting the health potion to his mouth, Adonis studied the monster’s form as they swam around it within the magical current.

  “A plan?” She questioned.

  “The monster’s body has multiple mouths across it’s body designed to devour it’s defeated enemies. Unlike what people usually think, its mouth is the most dangerous part of its body, as unlike most other monsters it’s mouth isn’t weaker or less reactive than the rest of the body and you can’t defeat it from the inside; even a Tier 7 magic knight wouldn’t survive a single second within one of it’s mouths.”

  ‘What’s he saying?’ While carefully listening to the boy, Roxanne carefully adjusted the magic circle at the base of the torrent to make movement easier and to dodge the impatient monster attacking them within the body of water.

  “The Markidus knows this and is comfortable with anything entering its mouth, feeling confident it can crush it with its teeth… But deeper within it, lies its week point, its digestive system. As long as an attack makes it through it’s mouth and is swallowed it can damage it within.”

  “Can’t we just poison it then?”

  “With a body that large we’d need a large concentration, a resource we don’t have.”

  “Then what should we do.”

  “All I need you to do is quench its thirst.”

  “What?”

  “Just fill every single mouth with water, I’ll do the rest.”

  “That doesn’t make any se-”

  “Do it.” Adonis said flatly, his silver eyes dimming even darker while he studied the monster’s entire body.

  ‘Bossy Brat.’ Roxanne shook her head and sped up the water current, circling the monster multiple times per second.

  With every orbit around the puff, Roxanne created a new simple magic circle which merely shot water into the giant monster’s mouth.

  “I’m done.” Having set up the last simple magic circle, the fatigued magic knight looked back at her companion.

  “Now let’s kill it. Drop us off above it.” Adonis nodded and coated his blade in the thickest layer of Earthly Aura he could manage.

  Relieved of the stressful magic spell, Roxanne dismissed the giant contorting water current; releasing the two magic knights from the bounds of the water; leaving them vulnerable to the monster’s eager tentacles.

  “Are you trying to get us killed?” Boosting her physical attributes considerably, Roxanne straightened her face and faced the monster’s tentacles.

  “The weakest point of its appendages is the the tip, use that to destroy them.” Taking his own advice, Adonis summoned three magic circles behind his back to attack in multiple directions.

  “I know. But that won’t help us actually defeat the monster, just delaying our doom.” Roxanne cut through the side of a threatening appendage.

  “Just keep the water going.” Blasting a sharp appendage using the ivory flames, Adonis finished it off by dissecting it precisely.

  ‘Why did I trust this amateur.’ Landing safely on the the top of the Puff’s head, Roxanne shook her head.

  As the Markidus continued to greedily drink the water, it’s surface began to shake slightly.

  “Hold on for a while.” Landing beside her, Adonis added a magic circle to those which were now above him.

  “Whatever…” She shook her head.

  Since the two were now on top of the monster’s skin, it was now free to attack them from all angles.

  ‘This is going to be a nightmare.’ Using the little time they had left before imminent doom, Adonis adjusted every single rune on the magic circles above, converting them into trap type circles, designing them to eject the ivory flames as soon as they detect motion.

  {Effective but inefficient, you’re really careless with your mana.} The Devil God critiqued.

  ‘Rather this then die.’ Adonis sighed, his mana quickly approaching 50% capacity.

  Sprouting on his right was the monster’s signature spike appendage, targeting his chest at three times the speed of sound.

  On detecting the movement from its inception, a magic circle ejected an ivory flame at the base of the appendage, slightly damaging it and decreasing it’s speed.

  Due to the monster being slowed down by his flames and his pathway prediction, Adonis took a step backwards and parried the tentacle away.

  Emerging from behind him the puff conjured a second appendage aimed at the boy’s back, this one moving slightly slower than the previous.

  Similar to the previous incident, a different magic circle ejected another ball of flames at the appendage’s base.

  Although unlike last time, he wasn’t able to avoid damage. As he stepped away from the attack, it managed to graze his abdomen, suffering a minor injury.

  Upping the pressure, the Markidus summoned a third appendage and reused those which already existed. All moving slower than the initial speed all aiming to decapitate him.

  ‘Supreme Devil Art…’ Enhancing both his right arm and gladius, Adonis swung his arm with all his might.

  “Stage one: Divine Divider” Accurately aiming for the tips of the appendages, Adonis severed every single one of them with one clean cut.

  Appearing on his left was a serrated tentacle, aiming to destroy his leg and permanently maim him.

  Boosting his physical speeds past the speed of sound, Adonis placed his hand on the ground; preparing to propel himself out of harms way.

  “A few more seconds.” He whispered before propelling himself out of harm’s way; landing himself beside Roxanne who had also gained some space between her and her foes.

  ‘Did he think filling it up with water would slow it down.’ Her mana now rapidly approaching 20% of it’s maximum capacity, Roxanne let out a sharp exhale.

  “Can I stop with the water?” She looked back at the injured teenage boy behind her.

  “Just a bit more.” Adonis studied each appendage around them.

  “?!” Feeling the ground tremble beneath her, Roxanne pushed the boy off the monster and followed suite by leaping off.

  Sprouting where the two used to stand, were four large tentacles; three much faster ones approaching the senior magic knight and one being allocated to Adonis.

  ‘I don’t have enough mana to defend myself, and I’ve run out of stamina to use Aura. It doesn’t help that these are the fastest and strongest ones we’ve faced.’ While she flew off the monster’s body, Roxanne relaxed her body and closed her eyes.

  ‘I can’t really blame the kid either… It wasn’t unreasonable to think that the water would slow it down. It’s my fault for putting all my trust in him and not thinking for myself. I was supposed to lead.’

  “I’m sorry dad. I’m sorry mo-” Before she could fullt resign herself to death, a familiar deep voice echoed through her ears.

  “Inferno magic…” Creating multiple magic circle’s within the monster’s body, aimed at the entries of the monster’s digestive tract.

  {Kukuku, I never took you for a gambler Oizys.}

  ‘It’s not a guess, gamble or estimation. I’m simply correct.’ Ignoring the approaching appendage, Adonis merely exhaled.

  “Hell’s Flower Bombs.”

  ‘What’s taking it so long?’ Having expected her body to be shredded already, Roxanne slowly opened her eyes and was shocked to see what was infront of her.

  “What…What happened?” Unlike what she had expected, the huge Markidus was gone; it’s monstrous body being replaced by a hundreds of chunks of flesh and a pink magic crystal in the center.

  Cancelling her magic circles, Roxanne landed with a soft thud and stared at the monster’s remains.

  ‘Did Dad and Hiram defeat their monster and come help us?’ She frowned.

  ‘No, I didn’t sense dad’s presence at all…’

  “This attack, it’s clear the monster was slain from the inside.”

  ‘Dad doesn’t have any attacks like this and there’s no ice so it couldn’t be Hiram…’ Roxanne briefly glanced at the boy who approached the magic crystal.

  ‘It couldn’t have been him. Could it?!’

  ‘The only way a Tier 9 could defeat a monster of this caliber would be some way from the inside. But since it’s mouth is even more durable than its flesh it means it could only be done even deeper than its body.’ Roxane placed her finger on her chin, straining her mind to wrap itself around the situation.

  ‘Which means he attacked the monster’s digestive tract. That’s the only explanation…’

  “That makes sense.” She whispered.

  “But…”

  ‘How did he attack it in the first place?’ She pondered.

  “Let’s go. You don’t want to be here forever do you?” Adonis picked up the magic crystal on the ground and absorbed it into one of the rings on his finger.

  “What did you do?” She whispered.

  “Pardon?” He glanced back.

  “Nothing…”