Kazuki chuckled. He couldn't believe his eyes. "F-fortitude 9.0?" His eyes wavered unlike before as he stared at the towering figure of a twenty foot long serpent, partly cloaked with lightning.
"W-what the fucking hell is this?"
This wasn't a D-rank dungeon anymore. It was a B-rank dungeon boss.
HISS!
The lightning serpent slithered towards him. Each hiss it made echoed throughout the cave with a thunder clap.
"H-How the hell am I supposed to beat this thing?" He stammered.
There was no question about it. There was nothing in his arsenal, no weapon, no abilities that could beat this thing. Then of course, he could have summoned his shadow beast — the Shadow dragon. But there were two setbacks.
The first — summoning the dragon would undoubtedly cause the cave to close in on itself. The Shadow dragon was at least 50-70 meters tall.
Far bigger in size than the serpent. Than the cave.
The second — it would deplete his entire Soul-Energy.
"No..." He discarded that idea. "The dragon entrusted me with his powers... With it's abilities. What good is that trust if I end up summoning him?"
He held the tilt of his sword tightly. He had no strategy, no plan of action to use against Stormfang. One thing was for sure, this serpent — it was never part of the novel.
So his knowledge couldn't help him here.
All he could do was face it head on. He had no choice anyways.
"Shit..."
HISS!
Stormfang hissed with the roar of thunder and lunged at Kazuki. Though the lightning cloak gave it greater speed and agility, its massive size still gave Kazuki the upper hand.
It bared it's fangs at him, but Kazuki raised his sword just in time, stepping aside and thrusting his blade into its side.
CRACK!
As Stormfang slithered past, Kazuki's sword snapped in two the instant it struck its scales. The lightning cloak repelled the blade like a surge of electricity, sparking a small explosion that hurled Kazuki against the cave wall.
"GAH!!" His hands burned as if seared by live currents. Stormfang lifted its head high, tongue flickering as it fixed it's sights on Kazuki with a predatory stare.
It lunged.
"Shit!" Kazuki pushed himself back onto his feet, his body still aching and trembling from the sting of the electricity running through him. Every movement hurt, but he forced himself to stay standing, otherwise it will be the end of him.
At the very last second, he threw himself out of the way, and Stormfang's massive head slammed into the cave wall with a deafening crash, shaking the ground and scattering bits of rock across the floor.
But it didn't stop there.
It drew it's head out of the wall immediately and chased after Kazuki.
"Shit! Shit!!" There was nothing he could do against it, absolutely nothing.
HISS!
Stormfang lunged once more, and this time Kazuki had no way to escape. Its massive head slammed into his back as he tried to run, launching him high into the air like a ragdoll.
He twisted, trying to regain control before landing, but the sheer pressure exerted on his body was unbearable. With no strength to resist, he was slammed back-first into the cave wall, the impact shaking loose dust and stone around him.
His eyes flew open, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood that splattered to the ground as his body dropped with a heavy, echoing thud.
Stormfang slithered towards him — slow and steady. There was no place left to run. No place left to hide.
It backed him into a corner, and now it was time to savor it's feast.
Kazuki slowly lifted his head, his eyes unsteady as he fought to keep himself from blacking out. He looked up at the towering serpent, its body wrapped in a cloak of lightning that lit up the cave in blinding flashes — like a radiant angel born within the abyss.
Then he realized.
"I see." He chuckled softly as he pressed his back against the walls of the cave. "So that's how it is... I should have known... I should have fucking known."
It all made sense now. Since the moment of his transmigration, that's when it all began. From his system crashing — to the Soul-Beast that appeared out of nowhere. Now this?
There was only one possible explanation he could sum up.
Fate.
From the start, every bad thing that happened to him was all aimed at one thing — his death. It was as if the novel was trying to clear the irregularities — him.
The extra who was supposed to have died days ago, chapters ago.
He was an anomaly.
And it was like an antivirus trying to destroy the virus in the system.
This dungeon was proof. There was no system errors this time around. It was as if the dungeon reconfigured itself just to get rid of him.
"Is this finally it for me?" He muttered under his breath. Memories of his past came rushing in. It was always the same, no matter the lifetime. From his father and brother's death to his bullying, they all had one thing in common, he was weak to do anything about it, and that was the fate he was dealt with.
He was just a pawn to it, and a pawn to everyone else.
Stormfang lunged for the final time, aiming to devour him in one, single bite.
"Tsk. No more." His face went cold for a second, and at the last minute, He vanished from the serpent's sight before it's fangs could crush him into pieces.
"No more! All my life, I've been a pawn in everyone's hands, they bullied me because I was weak, and they were right, but no more! It all ends here!" With a loud shout, he landed on his feet and charged ahead, his eyes filled with determination.
"Summon the dragon? Don't make me laugh! Even after being granted power by the system errors I'm still weak, but that ends here! I'll grasp this power! I'll hone this power! Till I become a force to be reckoned with!" He gathered his Soul-Energy into his legs, and launched himself high up into the air — right above the serpent's head.
"If I'm rejected by the light of this world so be it! I'll embrace the shadows. I'll embrace the shadows and become the darkness that devours that light before it has a chance to devour me!" He clutched the broken sword tightly, then infused his Soul-Energy into it.
His Soul-Energy swirled around the broken sword like a dark cloud. Trails of shadows escaped it, and with a loud battle cry — he raised it above his head.
Stormfang lunged at him in the air, now that he was airborne, it was going to devour him and end it once and for all.
"As if!" At the last moment, he twisted his body mid-air, narrowly escaping it's fangs. He planted his legs firmly on it's head, using his Soul-Energy to attempt to negate it's lightning cloak.
But it was too strong, and it seared through his flesh rapidly, but he refused to give up.
"Take this!" He channeled all his energy and strength into the sword, and he struck it into the forehead of Stormfang.
Stormfang hissed loudly as the dark energy around the sword's hilt intensified — then spread through it's head and penetrated it's scales just by an inch. But Kazuki was far from done. Even though most of his skin had peeled and burned away, exposing his raw flesh.
"I refuse to be anybody's pawn anymore! With my current self, I'll kill you! You bastard!" He built up a swirling ball of dark energy in his palm, and with one final effort — he drove the ball of energy into the sword, and it sunk deep into Stormfang's forehead.
"Raisen!"
Stormfang shrieked loudly, filling the air with a thunderous roar. Then it moments after — it went silent, and all the lightning cloaking it's scales disappeared — revealing it's red scales as it fell to the floor, dead.
Kazuki sat on it's head, weak, severely injured and out of breath. Blood trickled down his head and steam escaped his searing flesh. "I'll survive... No matter what. Even if I have to trample on my own fate, I'll do it a hundred times over... I'll survive... No matter what."
[You have made an unfathomable achievement!]
[You have defeated the Lightning Cloaked Serpent!]
[You have levelled Up!]
[You have gained the Dual Soul-Core!]
[Elementalist Soul-Core — Sub element — Electrokinesis]
[You have levelled up!]
[You have gained ×20 Soul-Essence!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[You have received three rewards!]
[You have obtained an item!]
[Twin StormFang (Level 1) -
• Shaped like daggers, these twin blades are created from the fangs of the lightning cloak serpent. It stuns your target for a minute and reduces a portion of their health]
[Raisen (Level 1 — Level 3)]