บท 47: Test Subject?

I take a fighting stance while both snakes raised their upper body. Both of theirs eyes were condescending as their golden pupils glowed.

This is strange… two dungeon bosses? This has never happened before, or maybe it has happened before, but the public was unaware of it? Maybe?

I didn't have much time to continue thinking since one snake lunged towards me. Its massive jaws were coming so fast that I wasn't able to jump over it. Instead, I snapped my fingers, causing a few wisps of rainbow fire to appear around me.

Using all of my willpower, I manipulated them into a giant spear that held the jaws open as I fell into the snake's mouth. When the snake bit down, large amounts of blood started to gush out, causing it to stop in its tracks.

The snake's saliva seemed to be corrosive but [Acid Immunity] is helping suppress it significantly.

After letting breathing out, I glanced to the outside of the snake's mouth. The other snake was waiting for me to come out, and it was zoned entirely into me.

"Dumbass,"

I lifted Frostbite and stabbed it into the snake's massive tongue. Ice immediately froze it into a solid block, and instinctively, the snake snapped down its jaws. The squirting of blood and brains signaled the snake's death, but all I saw was darkness.

I created another wisp of rainbow fire and flicked it in front of me. Suddenly, the dark cave that was the snake's mouth exploded into flames. Once the fire had eroded a hole in the side of the snake's mouth, I was able to step out and watch the snake slowly burn from the inside out…

I didn't need to worry about the pupils since they wouldn't burn that quickly.

As soon as my feet hit the water, I felt pain. Indescribable pain. It hurt… a lot. It hurt too much.

I turned my head in the direction of the pain and saw that my left arm was gone.

"AHHHHH!"

I let out a yell before taking a glance around me. I saw a man standing right next to the second snake from before. He was tall and had tan skin. Ruffled black hair and glowing yellow eyes seemed to peer into my soul. Also, he had a katana in his right hand, my blood had covered it, but with one downward swing, he rid the blade of all drying blood.

My breathing was heavy as I covered my open wound. Opening my inventory, I grabbed a healing potion and immediately drank it. My arm didn't regrow, but the wound immediately closed up.

Damn, if only I had worn the Abyss Drake set…

"HUFF HUFF HUFF,"

I stared down at the tall man as he stared right back. The snake wasn't making a move on the man, so I could only assume it was his familiar…

About 10 minutes passed, but the man didn't make a move, and nor did I. I used this chance to slow my heart rate and extinguish all of my emotions.

… Wait, what? If that is his familiar, then shouldn't the dungeon be closing by now?

"Who the hell are you?"

"You don't need to know, but now that you have calmed down, I would like to give you an offer," The man says, finally speaking.

"Why should I listen to somebody who just cut my arm off?"

"Because you have no choice. I can kill you right now if I wanted, but my boss would get angry… Now tell me, would you like to become a voluntary test subject? You'll have your room, prepared food, and you can have anything you want. This offer is much better than being a forced test subject,"

"Test subject?"

"Yes, your skills are unique, and we have concluded that you are currently harnessing 2 or 3 power stones. This has never happened before, and if you come with me, we can give you anything you want… but if you don't want to, I'll have to do it myself forcefully; thus you lose your voluntary privileges,"

"How about I choose… neither," I say, spitting out a giant burst of rainbow flames.

"Well… I'll try not to injure you too badly… but I guess the boss did say I just had to bring you alive… maybe I can play with you a bit," The man says with the giant snake blocking my flames.

I saw not a single burn mark on the snake's scales, but I expected that.

"Come," I say, looking up into the sky.

Suddenly I could hear an ear-shattering screech from above. The man jolted his head up, and his jaw dropped when Fear came crashing down onto his snake. He stumbled back but quickly regained his composure.

The man ran around the snake's wriggling body, which Fear had held down, and started to tear its scales off with its beak.

I raised frostbite slightly before blocking his incoming attack. It was… fast but not so fast that I couldn't react.

As we exchanged blows and slices with our weapons, I realized something that he had that I didn't have in the slightest… skill. From what I could tell, his stats were much higher than mine, but his proficiency with the katana was insanely high. If it wasn't for that, then redirecting my massive blade would be impossible.

But, I could tell from the arrogant look in his eyes that he wasn't trying his hardest… well, neither was I…

[Bloodthirsty Rage]

[Drizzle (Acid)]

A greenish rain started to drop from the sky. Whatever it touched begun to erode at it, and that included the man's skin.

I, on the other hand, felt an insane amount of rage build up. Due to me concentrating on blocking the man's attacks, I could only half suppress the rage, and the rest spilled out.

My swings became fast, and I activated [Royal Ice Crown] to try and create a footing on top of the murky water.

The rage didn't allow me to control the ice to where I could only freeze the water, so I tried to expel it as much as possible. The ice created a thin layer of ice over the man, but he quickly broke out of it and narrowed his eyes.

He swung up with his katana, causing my sword to redirect upwards. He then pulled the katana back and lunged his sword forward. I was barely able to dodge the blade, with me receiving a small cut on the torso.

But the next swing caused a large laceration across my stomach, which I had to recover with a healing potion immediately.

"Oh… spatial storage? How interesting…" The man says, charging in again.

I wave my hand downwards, causing a blast of ice to encrust the man. He broke out, but I kept piling more layers of ice onto him until he couldn't move anymore.

With one swing, I cut downwards and made a large cut across his chest. The ice encasing the man hindered my swing, but without it, I would've never even landed one.

tsk

The man's muscles flexed, and the ice shattered around him. He held his large wound and took a glance towards the snake's previous location, but what he saw was his snake getting torn apart.

It then soon dissipated into particles of light that retreated into the man.

"Damn…" The man says.

He charges towards me once again, but I call over Fear to stop him in his place. The man clicked his tongue before pulling out a flat, metal octagon with multiple runes written on it.

I thrust frostbite towards him, but before my blade reached his chest, he had crushed the metal octagon within his hand.

My vision then distorted, and before I knew it, I was back in New York.