Chapter 324 - An Unsatisfying Victory (1/2)

”Now how the heck did that happe—?!” Just before Argentum could finish his question while he was still in awe as to what was happening, the now Volcanic Serpent Monarch hastily slithered to where he was, changing its mode of attack from throwing stuff made out of earth…to shooting beams of energy from the pointy tip on its head.

Whoosh!

Without any hint that it was going to attack whatsoever, a beam of red and brown light that intertwined around one another was shot towards Argentum, who was currently running farther away from the snake as of this moment. Thanks to his enhanced senses, he was able to notice that the large snake was attacking in the same style as before, though it was now more effective due to it evolving to the next grade. Since the buffs he had cast on his body were all of the buffs he had in his arsenal, he went ahead and hastily redirected part of his attention towards a certain portion of his upper torso, the gap where the Tome of the Four Elements lied.

Not long after, he conjured tendrils inside this gap and used it to skim through the pages of the tome to the part where it talked about the fusion of the Wind and Fire element. Fortunately, the tome tackled the part that he crucially needed to get more leeway, hastily commanding his tendrils to absorb all of the information inside that part as he tried to make sure that he wasn't letting panic consume him.

Although it only took around 10 seconds or so for the information to be absorbed and processed in his mind, these 10 seconds felt like minutes since the snake continued to shoot the beam at Argentum. It was unlike before where there was a moment of respite between each throw of a spike. Trusting in his abilities in manipulating energy, he went ahead and moved all of the buffs on his body that were of the Wind and Fire element towards his head. Not long after, he infused more energy towards these buffs to allow them to form bridges that connected each other, letting one buff boost the other, while the same happened in reverse.

At first, the bridge he created took a second, but it did not take long for him to become more proficient at it, forming hundreds bridges that connected the buffs together within the two seconds that spanned after that. Two more seconds pass by, and there were now thousands of bridges that connected the buffs together, allowing the exchanging of energy between the buffs to happen more frequently.

Fwoosh!

Coincidentally, it was at this moment that the beam following behind Argentum was now only a few decimeters away from hitting him. Of course, seeing this had made the snake happy since it was now getting to see the downfall of the being it once considered a weakling. Unexpectedly, before that could happen, it seemed that the being it oh so wanted to kill at this moment had gained wings, increasing the gap between the beam and itself to the point where the beam now had a hard time catching up.

”[Zephyr Ignis Ouroboros Magic: Symbiotic Resonance]!”

And just like that, the problem of Argentum being lacking in the area of stats had been alleviated to a certain extent, allowing more of his logical and rational side to gain control while his panic slowly died down. Nevertheless, he knew that only his strength and speed had boosted to around the same level as the Volcanic Serpent Monarch. If he allowed one of the snake's attacks to hit him, then he would surely be out of commission.

Then again, with him being able to dodge the large snake's attacks without a problem once more, he was now able to ask the disembodied voice yet again as he asked it, ”How the heck did my opponent evolve to the next rank all of a sudden?”

”Although it seemed to be due to sheer luck, in fact, the Mountain Serpent King was already on the verge of evolving in the first place,” the disembodied voice hastily replied as Argentum continued to run from the beam from time to time. Not only that, but the Volcanic Serpent Monarch decided to shoot more beams of energy towards Argentum, making it harder for Argentum to dodge. Of course, in reality, Argentum just thought of the additional beams as a slightly bigger nuisance.

”This Mountain Serpent King had been the ruler of a territory filled with snakes in the inheritance's makeshift wilderness, which meant that it had already reached the peak of power for quite a long time. Who knew that the catalyst it needed to evolve to the next rank was your attack?” the disembodied voice continued, prompting Argentum to ask, ”Will the inheritance repay me for this blunder?”

”Of course, it will,” the disembodied voice replied as Argentum went ahead and sent out an attack imbued with the Wind and Fire element to distract the snake for a bit. ”Even if you lose against your opponent in its current form, the inheritance will still consider you to have passed the first trial.”

”Lose?” Argentum could not help but repeat the word, instantly thinking why the disembodied voice would think that way. From its perspective, it seemed like he was at his wits' end, with the large boost in speed only being due to a sudden comprehension of some sort. In reality, he felt like he just needed a bit more time to find a way to defeat the Volcanic Serpent Monarch, knowing that the Tome of the Four Elements he had would definitely have a technique or two for something like this.

But just as he was about to skim through the tome once again, his thoughts shifted towards the name of the beast he was up against.

”Volcanic Serpent Monarch…” Argentum muttered to himself, not taking long for him to find a way to defeat the snake that was seemingly revived after being beaten close to death. With a deep breath, he stopped in his tracks, allowing the Volcanic Serpent Monarch to drop its defenses as it became joyous that it would now be able to kill him once and for all.

Naturally, that meant that the beams it fired towards Argentum were now converging towards where he was, the power in a single beam enough to vaporize him out of existence. In contrast, he let out a light sigh as a cyan haze appeared on both of his hands as he said, ”Now that I think about it, this skill is definitely fraudulent. In any case, it's definitely better than losing.”

While waiting for the cyan haze around his hands to thicken, he kept his eyes on the beams that were heading towards his way, as well as the position and possible emotion of the snake he was up against. By the time the beams were only about a meter away from him, he utilized the entirety of his buffs to speed up his descent to the ground as he slammed both of his hands on the ground as he shouted, ”[Niflheim Horizon]!”

Swoosh!