"Are you freaking kidding me?" Quinn screamed in his head, his vision swimming. One attack. Just one. It had cost him -100 MC and ripped away 20 HP. No wonder the system's only instruction was to survive. At his current strength, he wasn't just outclassed; he was basically a fly buzzing around a hurricane.
Quinn coughed, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth. Every breath felt like a needle being driven into his lungs. "Damn it, my ribs are broken," he wheezed.
Soon a familiar green glow began to encompass his body. Usually, his healing was a quick flash, but this time, the damage was too deep. The system notifications ticked down relentlessly:
-10 MC
-10 MC
-10 MC
...
...
His MC was plummeting just to keep his lungs from collapsing. "Damn these wounds, they're taking too much time," he cursed. He knew the math. If he took another hit like that, he wouldn't just be wounded—he'd be dead.
Several agonizing moments passed before the healing finished. Quinn pushed himself up from the rubble of the crater he'd been slammed into. He wiped the dust from his eyes and checked his status:
MC: 147 / 390
HP: 40 / 60
"My MC is bottoming out," Quinn realized, his heart hammering against his newly mended ribs. "If I take another 100, I'll be down to 47 HP, and I won't have the mana left to fix the damage."
He looked toward the center of the cavern. Julius and Grazer were still locked in a desperate struggle with the serpent. Grazer's men were raining down a constant barrage of arrows and earth-based attacks. They were hitting it with everything they had, but the serpent's scales were like reinforced steel. Only Grazer seemed to be making any headway. His sword flashed with a sharp, lethal light, carving thin lines of red into the beast, but it was like trying to kill an elephant with a pocketknife.
"How are they even surviving this long?" Quinn wondered. Then he saw it. It was Grazer's weapon. The sword was high-tier gear, designed to bypass defense.
"I can't defeat it without a damn weapon. I should have prioritized getting one before coming here."
The creature was slowing down—As the effects of Quinns lightning wore off—but it was still fast enough to be a blur. Quinn analyzed his options. Lightning was useless; Wind was just a tickle.
"I have to rely on Earth and Hardening," Quinn decided. "The only way to hurt this thing is an internal attack. The Hammer Strike."
The problem was the distance. To land a Hammer Strike, he had to get within striking range, and then he'll be needing few seconds to prepare.
He looked at the exit. He could run, it was just a leap above from the ground he was standing. He could leave Grazer and the others to die and save himself. But then a massive chunk of debris, sheared off by one of Grazer's missed attacks, slammed into the rock right next to him. Quinn jumped, narrowly evading the fallout.
"I can't escape," he realized. "If they manage to kill it while he escapes, then they will go back on their word to let my friends go. I have to engage."
Quinn began to move, jumping from cliff to cliff. He sent waves of wind and earth downward, trying to distract the beast. The wind did nothing, bouncing off the serpent's hide, while the earth attacks only managed to scuff the scales.
He thought about his Poison Ability. It was a powerful tool, but he hadn't mastered it yet. Unlike his elemental skills, for now he could only use it by physical contact and he had no idea to do it some other way. And against a creature this size, it was a suicide mission.
"Wait, the terrain," Quinn muttered, looking at the dark water of the lake.
He saw an opening. The serpent was hyper-focused on Grazer, who was moving with surgical precision, dodging lunges that would have crushed a tank. The rest of the faction members were just a nuisance to the beast, so it ignored them.
"Grazer!" Quinn shouted, his voice echoing in the chamber. "I have an idea! Keep it busy!"
Quinn began to circle the beast, using Flash Step in quick succession to stay behind its line of sight. The drain on his stamina was taking an effect.
Right now he had MC: 110
He reached the edge of the water and thrust his palms forward. He tried to pull the lake water up, to command it like his other elements. Yet Nothing happened.
"Work, damn it!"
He had produced water from his own before, but controlling a natural body of water was different. He poured his focus into it, visualizing the molecules slowing, binding, and rising. Slowly, the water began to swirl. A few drops turned into a stream, then a surge. Huge waves began to rise around the serpent, forming a swirling vortex.
"It's draining me too fast!" Quinn gritted his teeth. The water rose two meters high, a shimmering wall of liquid, but he didn't have the mana to fully enclose the massive beast. The serpent sensed the trap and began to thrash, trying to break through the pressure of the rising tide. Grazer saw the opening and pushed forward, forcing the beast back into the center of the whirlpool.
I don't have enough MC to fully cage it inside, i have to do it this moment.
"ICE NOW!" Quinn screamed.
He burned the last of his reserves. The water began to freeze, crystallization spreading across the surface. It was slower than he wanted, but the temperature plummeted. The serpent's lower half was suddenly encased in a thick, jagged ring of ice.
"Grazer, hit it now! Deal your massive damage!"
Grazer didn't hesitate. He leaped into the air, his sword glowing with a blinding intensity. He brought the blade down with everything he had. The impact was cataclysmic. The force of the blow shattered the ice cage instantly, sending a shockwave through the cavern that threw Quinn off his feet. He slammed into the rocky side of the cliff and slumped down, gasping for air.
Quinn looked up through the dust, hoping to see a dead monster. But as the mist cleared, the serpent rose. It was bleeding, and it looked pissed, but it was far from dead.
"RETREAT!" Grazer yelled. His voice was panicked. "We can't win this! Fall back!"
Grazer and his men immediately began scrambling up the rocks toward the higher ledges that led to the exit. Quinn, exhausted and drained, struggled to his feet to follow. He was the last one in line, his legs feeling like lead as he traversed the narrow cliffside. Below them, the serpent roared, crashing its massive head into the cliffs and shaking the very foundation of the cave.
Quinn was just a few feet from a stable ledge when he felt a sudden, powerful force strike his chest.
His eyes widened in shock. He looked up and saw Grazer standing above him. The man wasn't running anymore. He had an evil, mocking smirk on his face.
"I thought you actually had what it takes to defeat that thing," Grazer sneered, his hand still extended from the push. "But you proved to be useless. At least this way, you can be our scapegoat. Buy us some time to get out of here while it eats you."
Before Quinn could even utter a curse, he felt gravity take hold. He fell backward, spiraling down toward the waiting jaws of the serpent below.