Ronan trembled as the Vatronid abomination crashed into his spear. His planted spear strategy was suited for countering a cavalry charge, or hunting boar. This enemy was stronger than both.

The bones in his arms shook under the weight of the charge's impact. The shaft of the spear bent, but held. The low-leveled weapon was putting up a valiant fight. The tip of the spear struggled to break through the seemingly rotten flesh, glowing bright blue with the power of arcane piercing strike.

A single splinter peeled off the edge of the spear. Ronan cursed. He activated idle cultivation. If there was even a slim chance of him dying here, he didn't want to waste all the shards in his possession.

Two more splinters peeled off the shaft of the spear in the same spot. His feet slipped a few centimetres on the stone. He was failing to hold back the charge. There was only one way out. Calculation had given him a path, but even then it wasn't a guaranteed route to victory—or survival.

He used lightning strike.

A bolt of magical lightning roared from his chest, striking the Vatronid's head. For an instant, all of its muscles locked up as the nerve signals from its brain were interrupted.

Ronan shifted his hands to the top half of the shaft. He clenched the spear tightly, pushing stone grip as far as it would go. With a roar, he activated surging strikes, unleashing a five-fold thrust that was empowered with magic strike.

The first two spears failed to push the tip further into the Vatronid's flesh. The third nudged it, breaking through a thick wall of what felt like muscle. The fourth faltered again. But it was the fifth that turned the tables.

Ronan felt critical tempo activating. The spear tore through the remaining resistance, bursting out the Vatronid's back and tearing through chunks of its internals. Whether they had organs was a mystery, but nothing could have that much of its body torn open without suffering some damage.

Ronan was forced to release the spear as the creature fell backwards, the shaft splitting in two where it had splintered previously. The critical hit had bought him some time, but he saw its hands reaching for the spear before it even finished stumbling. It was far from defeated.

Ronan started forming a mana bolt. He wouldn't have enough time to use rainbow bomb. He launched it the moment it was ready, screaming towards the Vatronid's face. His second bolt was tossed with less precision. He didn't care what it hit, as long as it did some damage.

He pulled a shield and sword from his inventory. He needed to be able to block his opponent's powerful strikes. In the brief moment he'd bought himself, Ronan used suture wound to seal the worst of his cuts and scrapes. He attempted to use minor heal, but failed once more as he attempted to shift his slipped disc back into place.

Every step he took sent waves of pain running up his spine. Balance was only possible thanks to his stats, with his body protesting almost every movement.

The Vatronid tore the spear out of its torso, tossing the broken weapon to one side. The hole in its chest didn't bleed, nor could Ronan see any damage inside. That didn't seem probable, but it was the reality he was dealing with. As he watched, grey flesh stretched out to cover the hole, fixing the damage.

Not only were its physical abilities remarkable, but Ronan felt that his opponent had to have used at least four or five skills so far. The fusion of the seven clearly brought power to the merged creature in more ways than one. It was the first time he'd fought an enemy who was similar to him, in that they were able to leverage multiple skills during combat.

Once the wound was healed, the Vatronid stood up to its full height. Ronan estimated it to be at least nine feet tall, towering over him. The six arms gave it the appearance of an avatar of war, only missing an extra two heads to truly fulfil the image. Its power matched up to that legacy, too.

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Rather than charge at him once more, the Vatronid's flesh started to pulse and writhe. To Ronan it looked like a thousand worms were crawling around under its flesh. It was a gruesome watch.

He heard crunches and then watched as the towering creature's body started to shift. One pair of arms retracted inside the body, while the other four spread out and closer to its spine. The hands twisted and furled, like a closing flower bud, forming strange protrusions.

The lower hands turned into long, flat blades with a blunt end. The back of those extended beyond the Vatronid's wrist into a flat circle that was wider than the tip. Ronan wasn't sure what the purpose was, until the top arms formed themselves into large hammers.

The limbs weren't all that changed. Its body became skinnier, but the muscles started to poke through the skin. Thick, corded fibres that seemed woven from steel. The jaw shrunk a little and its legs grew larger. The muscles in those were enormous, built for explosive power.

Ronan knew what was coming next. He would have barely any time to react. He put the sword back into his inventory, opting for just the shield. He tossed out two more mana bolts and used lightning strike until he felt his mana dipping low.

The Vatronid ate every single spell, only being knocked back a few steps. Where the lightning had struck its skin there were charred spots of grey flesh, but the damaged skin and muscle peeled away and fell to the floor, replaced by pallid grey scales. When the creature leapt forward, he barely saw it.

A twitch of its legs was all that it needed to explode across the room towards him. In a fraction of a second it was looming over him. Ronan activated magic money. He wanted a bigger credit multiplier, but he could afford to burn a little of his vast fortune.

A translucent barrier appeared between the twin chisels and his chest. His breath caught in his throat as Ronan realised how close he'd come to instant death. That he could still be pushed so far when he'd reached level 100 and obtained a mythical class was absurd, but reminded him how far he still had to go to achieve his goals.

The Vatronid didn't falter at the appearance of the barrier. A brief glance at his credits told Ronan the mortifying truth. Defending himself from that attack had cost 13 bronze credits.

That was the most expensive shield ever, but it was only going to get worse from here. Without wasting a moment his enemy raised its upper set of arms as high as they would go, before whipping them down against the flat backs of the lower blades. The setup was ingenious, but he didn't have time to praise his foe's creativity.

As the hammers struck the chisels, they shattered through the magic shield, colliding with his real shield behind it. The force of the blow broke both bones in his left forearm and a couple in his wrist.

Ronan grimaced as his grip on the shield faltered. Even with stone grip activated he was struggling not to be blown away. The metal bindings on the item groaned as they were pushed to their limits.

Three lighting strikes surged out of him, one hitting his foe's head and the others its legs. However, shimmering protrusions shot out of its shoulders, redirecting the strikes towards them. It even has metallic material to work with!? Realising it had countered his best way of buying time, Ronan was at a loss.

Knowing he was losing, he decided to go all out and throw caution to the wind. With a roar of fury Ronan shoved the shield into his enemy and let his mana flow with wild abandon.

A magic wave of power erupted out of the shield-arm, tearing a dozen holes in his skin and wrecking his remaining undamaged arm. However, it tore thrice as many wounds in his enemy's flesh. The Vatronid was launched backwards, crashing into the trunk of the sector pillar.

The crack sound on impact told Ronan he'd finally done some real damage, but his enemy was already standing back up. Physical damage didn't seem to bother it much, and it had ways to counter his magic. He was left with few options.

He tossed more mana bolts at the creature as it was standing up. He began to form a rainbow bomb while pulling a hammer into his hand from his inventory. Taking the offensive, Ronan charged at his foe.

The rainbow bomb swirled in his hands, a few seconds from completion. His mana ticked upwards alongside his stamina as he ran. He reached the Vatronid as it peeled itself from the trunk and raised its arms once more.

He swung the hammer with all his might, activating surging strikes as he did. Magic strike was stacked on top, empowering every blow. The hammer smashed into the four crossed arms of his foe, knocking it against the trunk of the tree once more.

His stamina and mana bottomed out as they poured into surging strikes. He was holding nothing back, giving everything he had to deliver one final, devastating assault against the alien creature.

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