Chapter 120: Handless Fiend
Talents: [Magic Hands], [Chromatic], [Instant Reflexes]
Level: 90
HP: 1000
MP: 1150
Str: 40
Vit: 50 (+50)
Agi: 115 (+40)
Int: 100 (+70)
Wis: 115
Talent Skills:
[Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX
Passive Skills:
[Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Relay Magic] Lv MAX, [Enhanced Reflexes] Lv 8, [Mana Efficiency] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv 8, [Agility Up] Lv 8, [Augmented Intelligence] Lv 2
Active Skills:
[Chromatic Red] Lv 9, [Chromatic Orange] Lv 9, [Chromatic Yellow] Lv 9, [Chromatic Green] Lv 9, [Chromatic Blue] Lv 9, [Chromatic Indigo] Lv 9, [Chromatic Purple] Lv 9
The Handless Fiend was a tall, slim creature. Although it had arms, it lacked hands at the end of them. The most ominous feature of the fiend was its face. It wore a mask, but through the holes, one could see pulsating flesh rhythmically beating beneath it.
’The guide says this monster is considered the peak of B-Rank…’
Even with knowing the information beforehand, Sol knew this wouldn’t be an easy fight.
"Humans…"
An eerie voice full of disdain emanated from the monster.
"So, it can talk."
Sol knew this would happen eventually after seeing the Shadow Amalgamation, but seeing a dungeon monster talk for the first time was a weird experience, to say the least.
"Humans… must…"
It continued to mumble to itself and didn’t respond to Sol’s comment.
"Huh. Guess its consciousness isn’t all there yet. Let’s go, Amber."
Amber nodded and retrieved her daggers while Sol began to chant a spell.
"[Shimmer Barrier]!"
A semi transparent shield appeared, enveloping Sol, and another around Amber.
’Just in case.’
The Handless Fiend saw the light magic and became furious.
"Humans… must… DIE!"
Out of nowhere, a floating hand appeared above the Handless Fiend and shot multiple small yellow orbs in quick succession at the duo. Even with the barrier, neither planned to find out how much it could endure so they both used [Ground Shrink] and moved out of the way.
The yellow projectiles landed like a rain of arrows, peppering the small area where they used to stand.
"[Light Spear]!"
A spear of light flew towards the undead. Because it was an undead, Sol planned to mainly use light magic that was much deadlier to it than any other kind of magic.
The hand that was above the Handless Fiend moved in front of it as it glowed green and created a barrier. The spear of light smashed into the barrier but did nothing as it was fully blocked by the shield.
Amber ran towards the fiend with the intention of closing the distance. When she arrived within 10 feet of the undead, a new hand appeared with a menacingly red glow. A red beam was soon unleashed towards Amber. Too late to dodge, Amber protected herself by turning her body to sand.
The beam of intense heat broke through the light barrier and burned the sand, turning it into a dirty yellow glass. Amber didn’t stop as she smashed her now partially glass turned body into the red hand, breaking it. Amber released the now turned glass from her sand body and summoned new sand to take its place before turning back to normal.
While this was happening, Sol didn’t stand idly by, he launched spell after spell and was met with the green barrier blocking his attacks.
Tired of his light spells being countered, Sol took out his bow and began to charge up a condensed mana arrow. With his increased control over mana, the process was much quicker than before as he quickly released an arrow charged with 200 mana.
The arrow was shot directly at the green hand. The fiend, sensing the power in the arrow, turned its attention away from Amber for a moment to deal with the greater problem. Along with the green hand, two new ones appeared, one glowing indigo and the other blue.
The blue hand launched crescents of blue mana towards the arrow in an attempt to change its course, while the indigo hand curled into a fist before launching itself at the arrow.
The arrow received the blue attacks without slowing down, but when the indigo fist arrived, it directly punched the arrow, changing its trajectory slightly. The arrow destroyed the indigo fist in the process and still hit the green barrier, but only on the edge. It pierced a hole clean through the barrier and the hand that created it but flew past the Handless Fiend, leaving it completely unharmed.
Though Sol hoped for more, he could accept the outcome. ’At least the shield is broken.’
With no more shield, Sol took out his Lipon and unleashed a sword of light, powered by a cartridge he filled a day ago. Sword in hand, Sol charged in while using [Mana Slash] to send a few waves of sharp mana towards the Handless Fiend.
Sol thought this time for sure his attack would connect, but once again, a green hand appeared and created another barrier just as strong as the previous one.
’There’s no cooldown on resummoning the hands?’
Along with the green hand, a blue and purple hand appeared. The blue one launched the crescents towards Amber while the purple one directed itself towards Sol and glowed brightly but nothing came out of it.
Sol suddenly became sluggish as he felt like he was carrying a large boulder on his back. It wasn’t enough to stop him completely, but it slowed him down significantly. Amber, on the other hand, dodged to the side, evading the blue crescents, but Sol remembered what type of attack it was and warned her.
"The blue ones chase you!"
The warning came just in time as Amber turned around and witnessed the blue crescents curve behind and boomerang back towards her. Amber swung her daggers, sending a few waves of concentrated sand towards the crescents, colliding with them.
Two new hands appeared, glowing red and orange. The orange hand was huge compared to the other hands, reaching almost 5 feet tall. The orange hand joined the blue one as it curled into a fist and launched itself towards Amber.
The red hand moved towards Sol as it charged up a beam in his direction. The bright red laser blasted towards Sol, and he took out a shield he previously looted to defend against it. The shield began to melt because it was only rare, and Sol knew it wouldn’t last long. Sol had to quickly figure out how to get out of the beam’s way and the effect of the purple hand.
’The gravity of the purple hand only affects a 5 meter radius, but I can’t move while blocking the beam! [Ground Shrink] is still on cooldown, should I use [Overpower]?’
Sol knew [Overpower] would definitely be enough to break through the purple hand’s gravity field and the red hand’s beam, but it would take a chunk of the duration of the skill. Sol wasn’t sure if the remaining time would be enough to defeat the Handless Fiend, and if he didn’t, it would leave him extremely tired afterwards.
’I just need to focus on getting out of the gravity field. I can’t use [Shadow Form] because of the beam’s light…’
Sol ran through the possibility of few other skills, but none really worked in this scenario, but then he had an idea.
’It’s crazy, but it might just work!’