Unlimited Power 02 - The Ranger's Domain

Chapter 603 - After You

 After finding a breach in the monster's defenses, Ryan broke the crystal of the area with two massive fire and ice arrows. Only after that Ryan bombarded the area with his bolts that were capable of draining mana. The energy armor tried to cover the unprotected area. Still, whenever Ryan's bolts landed, the hole in the armor only increased in size… eventually, the bolts pierced so deeply that the monster began to bleed from that area as well… the mana liquid touched the energy armor, but that didn't help the creature. In fact, the energy armor destroyed the liquid that probably fueled that massive body.

"See? I didn't need Draconic Transformation," Ryan said.

"Maybe my eyes are wrong, but the dungeon master is still standing and your spear is being destroyed faster than before," Femradiel said.

 Although Femradiel was quick to complain, she revested the spear with her ice magic, and thus the destruction of the spear slowed down considerably. Suddenly, the dungeon master's body began to tremble. While that happened a while ago, Ryan knew that his bolts weren't supposed to cause such a thing. Still, considering the mana liquid that the creature was losing, he assumed that he was starting to cause critical damage after critical damage. That was only natural since the left chest of the beast was exposed and had become a destroyed mass of flesh since a while ago.

"Die, worms! Die!" The dungeon master suddenly said.

"After you," Ryan said.

 Ryan thought the dungeon master wouldn't surprise him again, but much to his annoyance, the monster still had a trick up his sleeve. Upon noticing that his last strategy wouldn't work as well, the beast decided to use his last resort. That became obvious when the monster's energy armor began to glow.

"Ryan… I think we should leave," Femradiel said.

"I want to… but as you know, we are trapped in a gravity field," Ryan said.

 Ryan and Femradiel began to sweat bullets. The monster would self-destruct, and at that distance, they wouldn't have more than a few milliseconds to escape once the explosion starts. It was hard to believe that such a dungeon master would go that far and destroy the body of such a rare species, but in the end, even a mad scientist was smart enough to understand that his life was more important than a single body.

 Femradiel began to pour several INT and SPE potions on Ryan's body since he would need them when the explosion happened. At the end, when Ryan was only twenty meters away, the last glow of the energy armor increased exponentially. At the same time, Ryan saw a glimpse of a bluestone inside the monster's left chest. That was probably what the dungeon master used to control that massive body, but before Ryan could think of any of that, the monster exploded.

 Ryan saw his life pass through his eyes while he waited for the gravity field to dissipate. That only happened when that massive amount of energy already started to eat away the flesh of his body, but in the end, despite the shocking pain, he used Teleport and escaped at the last moment.

 Ryan and Femradiel suddenly saw themselves in the first place they found of that world. Thanks to the INT potions, Ryan managed to return up to that point and even had some mana to heal his wounds. However, it looked like the situation wasn't over yet. The entire world began to tremble as if a massive meteor had hit it.

"Hey, hey…. Seriously?" Ryan muttered in shock.

 Although Ryan prepared to escape, he soon stopped because he didn't receive any notification that he had gained coins… in the end. The trembling also stopped before anything more absurd could happen. The dungeon master somehow managed to fool Ryan and Femradiel, but not for long.

 After recovering from his wounds, Ryan returned to the place where he fought the massive crystal tyrant dragon, and there, he found nothing, only a massive crater of hundreds of meters below him. Even the ocean and the clouds had been dissipated thanks to the massive attack.

"What a pity… I kind of wanted to guard that body and then study it," Ryan said. 

"It looks like the dungeon master influenced you quite a bit," Femradiel said. "You shouldn't follow his example. While he managed to create a chimera in which he could control manually, such a method to obtain strength has too many demerits."

 Ryan could only nod at that, but in the end, he didn't want to change his fighting style, only improved it by studying others. Regardless, now he had to find the dungeon master, and he didn't have a single clue as to where to go.

"Hey, Femradiel," Ryan said. "Did you notice if the mana of the monster was moving too much in a single direction or something? The dungeon master used a mana crystal in the heart of the monster to control it, I assume that he emitted his mana from some direction to control it."

"… Now that you mentioned," Femradiel said. "I felt a slight movement of mana coming from your three o'clock when the island began to tremble. I guess the dungeon master sent his mana from that direction."

 Ryan and Femradiel hurried in that direction since, most likely, the dungeon master was hidden in another island or something similar. That being said, the explosion caused so many tsunamis that they found another continent instead of finding another island after following that direction.

"There is something below us," Femradiel said.

"Yeah, another abandoned city," Ryan said.

"No… I can feel a magic presence below us," Femradiel said. "It is the dungeon master's presence… but it is a bit odder compared to before."

 First fake islands and now an underground hideout… the dungeon master sure likes to use flashy strategies. In any case, Ryan didn't have time to look for an entrance to the underground hideout, so he just dug using magic and his weapons.