A Side Villain…

 

What was currently in front of them could only be described as an abomination and utter monstrosity and as it emerged from the pond showcasing the deformed body their minds began to shut themselves. Waves of terror ran through their bodies with Jeremy being in the worst position.

 

Derek too was shocked to see this monster but was calmer than Jeremy as he knew better than anyone as one mistake and they were as good as dead. The creature in front of them was one of the rarest you could come across under the first five floors.

 

Globtopus, a hybrid monster created by the amalgamation of thousands of goblins and an octopus mana beast. This monster had the upper body of a goblin whose features were so badly forged into one creature that it was next to impossible to identify the different parts, its height was around 15 feet.

 

The lower half was made of eight huge tentacles which wriggled in the air and created a terrorising atmosphere, the tentacles had countless white pores which acted as it’s weapon to catch a target and attack onto it. Its color was green with a tinge of purple mix in it and from the spores of tentacles a gas was secreted which had psychedelic effects on the target.

 

This was the reason Kei was acting so out of place as while staring in the pond, one of the tentacles had already attached on her left leg and the psychedelic gas was secreted from it making her lose sense, reasoning and to also drain the life energy.

 

The game developers created this to shock new players and give them something challenging as this monster was as powerful as someone from the seventh floor or above. So having this globtopus here was a dead sentence unless you were quite strong which these three were.

 

But right now with Kei caught in one of the tentacles of the monster, Jeremy’s mind and body in fear it was only upto Derek to do something to save his comrades and kill this thing. He was a proficient mage with special emphasis on wind magic and he decided to use that.

 

“Wind blade.” A large blade of condensed wind was thrown at the tentacle holding Kei.

 

The attack connected and that tentacle was cut down by wind blade like butter and Kei was falling down, Derek used another spell,

 

“Wind cushion.” 

 

Kei was stopped mid air and easily descended to the ground where he caught her and checked for any damage on her body but was the globtopus gonna give him that comfort? Monster shot a purple beam from his mouth which nearly hit him.

 

He responded by making a succession of attacks like ‘air bullets’, ‘wind blades’, ‘void breath’, ‘ice shuriken’ all of which hit the various parts of monster and made him cry in agony and pain, mind you that these attacks were made by someone who was an inch close to tier 1 so they packed a solid punch.

 

A large explosion occured due to his barrage of attacks and he was able to make some distance from the monster. On his left shoulder was a passed out Kei and on his right shoulder was still scared Jeremy, most likely he too was affected by the gas.

 

Derek was confident in defeating the globtopus on his own but right now his comrades needed urgent medical help and since they were not carrying any potions as they were overconfident in their abilities when coming to the third floor it made things difficult.

 

“Jeremy, Jeremy look at me bro.” He jolted the shitless scared boy who was shivering but there was no response from him.

 

“Refresh” He casted a spell on Jeremy hoping that this would work as it was a minor emotion control spell.

 

Green light flowed from Derek’s hand and landed into Jeremy’s body making him quiver but soon he was stable and looked at his friend who was bruised due to the battle with the monster. He was still not feeling 100% good but it was good enough for one fight.

 

“Haah, haah, thank you and sorry.” He blurted out while standing up.

 

“Yeah we will do that later, Kei is affected by the gas of the monster and knocked out so our first priority is to get out of this floor and this place.” Derek told him and he nodded.

 

"Is your watch working?" Jeremy asked.

 

"Naah, not since we came deep in this floor." Derek replied.

 

"Damn that's bad, why don't these stupid academy watches work when you need them the most?" Jeremy yelled but only in vain as the watches provided by the academy were not getting blocked by something.

 

“How much juice do you have?” Jeremy was a close combat person; his spell repository had only the basic spells so Derek wanted him to attack the monster head on and then use his heavy spell to end him for once and all or to create enough distance between them.

 

“Hehe, are you doubting me?” Jeremy replied and took out his sword from the storage ring, the sword was special as the moment it was taken out a large amount of sword intent filled the area making Derek gulped hard ‘again’ at his friends capability.

 

The monster globtopus had a healing factor too which helped it to recover from all the damage caused by Derek’s spells and now he was in ‘bloodfrenzy enraged’ state his only aim was to kill those three little humans and using his eight tentacles he made way towards them.

 

After getting the scent of his prey the monster quickly reached the trio who were still running away but with their stamina and power running low it was proving a difficult task and when they saw the monster running behind them the two boys nodded at each other and made a tacit understanding.

 

Jeremy stayed behind and Derek ran ahead with an unconscious Kei on his back, he closed his eyes, unsheathed his sword and took a stance and then muttered,

 

“Kirschblüten style, first stance.” Then he waited for the monster to come near and when it did he opened his eyes and moved with a speed far greater than anything it could follow, heck it’s speed was so great that only afterimages were left behind.

 

The monster stopped in his tracks and desperately looked around to find the incoming human but failed in its attempts and then Jeremy came near him and started his mayhem of attacks, slicing left and right, top and bottom, cutting through each of the tentacles leaving no moment for the monster to even think of doing something.

 

Only seven breaths had passed and Jeremy came back to his original position, his breathing was ragged, hairs dishevelled and body vibrating indication of the amount of energy he had spent on that attack. If he was still at his prime then killing it would have been a piece of cake but right now he needed healing so he headed out.

 

The monster was lying on the ground motionless but after a few seconds the several body parts started to move and converged into one piece, soon it was standing again making it look like nothing happened.

 

Jeremy had regrouped with Derek and now both of them were running together towards the second floor but due to the fact that they were quite deep in the third floor there was still a lot of distance to cover and surprisingly they had not found a single adventurer on their way.

 

This was an anomaly and they could tell that something was off, it was like someone wanted them dead and had done all the necessary preparation beforehand. Their thoughts changed to truth when passing through a narrow valley a masked figure came in front of them.

 

They stopped and looked at the guy, he was wearing a black robe which covered his entire body, even his head and his face was shrouded by a white mask which had red geometric designs.

 

“What do you think about death?” The masked guy asked and now it was confirmed that this was an enemy.

 

“Look dude we are the students of the Origin academy, why don’t you-” Derek couldn’t complete his sentence as a forcewave hit him making him stagger backwards and throw blood.

 

‘Cough’.. ‘Cough’ 

 

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Jeremy, now enraged, yelled at him but he too was forced back by the forcefield.

 

“Ahh shut up will you? Where was I again, yes death. Do you know how lucky are those who die?” He blabbered non-sense while laughing in a creepy way.

 

“You madman… ‘cough’ you.” Derek coughed more blood.

 

“Hahaha, today you shall be the lucky souls that achieve eternal peace.” The masked guy said and turned back not before blocking the way ahead with an explosion.

 

Derek used a minor heal on himself and Jeremy which only stopped the blood coming out of their mouth. The situation got worse from bad, first it was that monster and now they had this crazy guy blocking their way and as if it couldn’t get any worse the monster made his way from behind.

 

Death was looming, it seemed inevitable. The boys had depleted their mana cores, stamina and physical strength, Kei was unconscious and unaware of the danger and now they had no other option available.

 

“Please help someone, please save us.” Jeremy screamed again and again at the top of his lungs but unfortunately there was no response.

 

Derek too screamed but since it was as if someone had meticulously planned the events no one came forward.

 

Globtopus looked at his prey and smirked thinking that finally it could devour them and go back to its resting place. These humans had made him work too much and he needed to sleep so he moved forwards and sent its tentacles to lift the three humans and bring them into his mouth.

 

At the same time Akira reached the top of the valley and was watching all this happen, he didn’t want to come here but hearing their wailing cries of help it couldn't be helped.

 

From their dress they were members of the third year and this made him sigh thinking ‘just one surprise hybrid and you are in this situation’. Of Course he didn’t know the exact things that went off to make them this weak and even he though he knew the monster's weak point he was not sure about whether he could defeat it or not.

 

But he had to try and help them without exposing his identity so a ranged attack was needed and that was his weakness he didn’t have one. All his attacks were for close combat and short ranged, but now he desperately needed one.

 

“Ughh.. I don’t know but let’s try this.”

He closed his eyes and began thinking about the blue fire spell and then he began moulding the fire into a bow and arrow, he could have used his bow and arrow by using elemental charge but then the normal bow wouldn’t handle the mana output.

 

Soon thanks to his rich imagination and in depth knowledge of mana a small bow was created out of blue fire and it manifested in his right hand. Then with the surge of mana that bow became bigger and bigger but it was getting problematic.

 

The mana flow was erratic and he knew that there was only one shot so pulled the string of bow and an arrow formed out of thin air. He also made a scope as his aim was not that good and soon after getting the monster in his sight the arrow flew.

 

With absolute precision the arrow hit the hidden core of the monster which was situated in the left shoulder and it was the key to defeat it. The duo too were shocked at this development and marvelled at this attack.

 

The monster was instantly shattered and crumbled into dust, the duo on ground looked at each other and hugged themselves thinking that someone had saved them but when they looked up to find the one, there was no one to find.

 

The first two parts were given to Jeremy and Derek respectively while the last chunk to Akira, actually this status screen was formed separately in front of them telling their contribution and exp gained but the other data was not shown.

 

“We are saved.” Jeremy exclaimed and stood up followed by Derek.

 

“I still can’t believe it.” Derek’s hands were still shivering from all the things that were going on but he calmed himself and bowed in Akira’s direction,

 

“We don’t know who you are but thank you for saving us. If it weren’t for you we might have died.” Jeremey too bowed down but still no response came.

 

“Let’s move, they don’t want to show themselves.” Derek said and again lifted Kei on his back.

 

The duo has memorized the mana flow of that attack so if in future they come across it, they could identify the person. They had also memorized the masked guy’s mana flow and now he is going to pay.

 

Akira on the other hand was in deep pain, his right arm had turned blue and swelled up, most probably from the aftereffect of that attack.

 

“Ouch.” He yelled when checking his hand, this is going to be a problem, he thought.

 

He moved away from the place and used a healing potion on his hand to soothe the pain but even with the help of the potion the pain was not going anywhere. The swelling had stopped and natural color was coming back but the pain remained.

 

The system not only helps those above tier 1 to teleport inside of the dungeon but also to teleport out of it making it a perfect getaway tool. The only downside in teleporting out was that the user can’t be in the middle of combat, he can’t take anyone else besides him and the final location of teleport would be anywhere in the 10 Km radius of the dungeon.

 

Everything was acceptable except the last one, random teleportation was a hit and miss thing and to be honest he didn’t want to use that but since he came inside like that without reporting he had no choice.

 

“Dungeon profile.”

 

 

“Yes.”

 

 

 Again a black hole was formed in front of me and pulled everything inside it, the scenery changed and now Akira was in an open forest somewhere in the Bretton woods and had to make way back to the city.

 

“Come on, not in the middle of a jungle.”