The Dreamer's POV

I'd admit, seeing two shriveled up and dead clones lying on the burning ground did get to my head, and it made me feel convinced that I could do it again, that I was unstoppable, and that couldn't have been any farther from the truth.

At my moment of elation, while I hovered over those whose lives I took, I felt a blow that shook me to the core and had me flung away for miles without end. I broke through buildings and the structures in these Emoni hidden city were incredibly tough, imagine the force at which I was thrown to have broken through multiple buildings without any signs of stopping.

I did stop eventually, my body incredibly bruised and battered. Where it any other time, I would have <Haven> up out of pure instinct, and I would be significantly protected if not wholly.

A few of my ribs broke, but I could feel my passive skill <Regeneration> already working its way through my tissues and joining the cracked bones together. The pain also began subsiding.

I laid on the ground, my back on the strangely cold ground, it was strange in the sense that its temperature was low, cool to my skin when flames were high up around the area. My vision was upside down, and I saw two of the ghostwave mutants coming at me. The two walked with a regal feel to them, they were calm and collected and they still held back. I had just killed two of them right in their faces and they still thought to hold back.

I reckoned that what had sent me flying was the outstretched palm of one of the clones. I had evaded the previous ones despite the incredible speed at which they had come. The arm stretches and then hits with a force that could break through walls.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

I slowly got up, my body still aching, I could use some rest then, my energy recovery necklace did quite the work in sustaining me, yet I still struggled with having enough energy to fight in this form.

I staggered a little as I got up, my head was still a little disoriented and uneasy from that blow. I breathed, a puff of flames leaving my nostrils.

Regeneration was close to fully healing me, and I felt that I could throw myself at them once more. I suddenly arched, and then purged a red sticky thing onto the white smooth surface. It was my blood.

My eyes widened at the sight of the red patch. I realized something there, and I felt fear. Though I have been hurt countless times now, I haven't gotten much of an opportunity to witness such an amount of blood leave from me, I would be dead before I realized that I had lost that much blood. Here, I wasn't, and it pushed an instinctual defense mechanism: fear.

Suphas had managed to instill fear into me more than once in our fights so far. The creature was incredible, a total behemoth, a powerhouse, and it had me wondering whether bosses of floors were stronger with each floor and if they followed the numerical sequence in order of strength, or if it was unevenly distributed. The Trent I defeated in the first floor was frankly underwhelming and Suphas was a step above overwhelming. The disparity between the two was large, and I reckoned that anyone but me who faced such a situation would be dead.

I sniffed, and held up my scaly arms, tightening my fists.

"Come here. Come get some." Enjoy new chapters from empire

One thrust its trident diagonally and in response, giant rock spikes shot up from in front of it and came at me. My eyes were stern, and once I saw that it was close, I struck my foot on the ground, and a ball of fire came about me and the spikes crumbled once they came in contact with it.

I jumped, the ball of fire still around me, and I ejected the ball of fire from me, and sent it hurling towards the duo.

An energy blast cancelled the attack and was close to hitting me. It travelled through the path I sent the fireball, and I had sent it just by the position to which I was.

The other struck their trident on the ground, and a wave of energy poured from the Trident. I recognized it, it was the purple wave that caused things to vibrate, and it was best I avoided it.

The wave poured at such a speed sweeping across debris, hurling them up and splitting them apart in the moment.

I immediately zoomed above, and the wave did something rather new, it rose and tried to reach for me. It was trailing me. I couldn't risk having it contact me and so I tried moving out of harm's way. I flew the opposite way and the wave followed. I then sent out a fireball from my foot, and though it crashed and reduced the wave size by a bit, I still got followed.

"Tch…" Attacks that followed one were the worst, they wouldn't give one a break, and they were usually a pain to get rid of.

I stopped in my flying, watching the wave approach intently. The flames from the surrounding began siphoning into me, and my body lit up.

"Flame Torch!" I cried, and an incredibly large and powerful jet of flames burst from my fists and zoomed at the wave.

My flames swept through the wave, undoing it upon contact, and they approached the clones.

They were quick to react. One thought it best to jump backwards and evade the attack, the other thrust forward their trident, sending an energy blast to counter mine.

Everything hung in suspense then, and I feared I had given my all just to stop a simple attack from an opponent, that was how large the disparity between our strengths was.

The one that thought to move, successfully evaded the flame attack. The other with the piercing energy attack struck mine, and a white flash of light momentarily blinded me.