I kept the flames tight to my body to prevent any accidents as I blasted towards the variant violently. Clearly my speed startled it as it panicked by sending a volley of seeds at me but they burnt to a crisp before even touching my armor. Seeing it couldn't escape the beast roared and punched out fiercely at me. My flames vanished as I crashed into it's fist and there was a sickening "CRUNCH!" as my ribcage caved in from the force. The beast had a momentary look of satisfaction at this before my left hand gripped it's arm firmly.
"Gotcha bitch!" I said with a grin as I swung my weapons sharp side at it's neck.
My weapon went through a shape of vegetation as the beast reacted by shedding it's top layer forcibly to free itself and dodge. I clicked my tongue at this as RCT surged through me fixing my chest in an instant. I had hoped to catch it off guard with the self destructive move of feigning lethal injury but it still escaped and was now unlikely to fall for the trick a second time.-
That said it wasn't totally pointless as the thing was weeping this amber colored sap from all over it's body since it had effectively ripped off the top layer of it's skin to escape. See normally when a moss huge leaves a shed behind it's like when a snake does it so the skin underneath was undamaged. This time however it had already used up it's trick to set the trap so it had to actually lose it's skin to pull it off. In a manner of speaking this was like an animal chewing off a limb caught in a snare to escape death.-
It was better than death sure but by no means could it be considered a win as this was little different than crippling oneself even if you survived afterwards. The beast roared at me in pain and anger as it sent volley after volley of seeds at me while retreating ever backwards. I didn't bother blocking them as I chased it and the seeds sank into my chest and limbs only to be rendered useless by my technique. As I said before I countered this fucking thing HARD. I had to admit though that for pretty much any other adventurer this variant would be a nightmare to fight as it was clever and it's seeds made things very hard if they took root.-
It's physical abilities weren't something to scoff at either as even with my acceleration adding to things that punch it threw was the source of most of the damage done. One had to remember that my body was nearly as tough as a new level fives so the sheer force needed to cave in my chest was not small. My speed was also nearly comparable so this thing wasn't slow at all even while retreating. Obviously it wasn't exactly fast either being maybe mid level four but considering it's build that could be forgiven.-
After about ten minutes of this game of chase however I lost all patience with this thing and blasted myself forward with my flames again to close the distance before switching to RCT and sending as beam of erasure slicing through it's leg. It screamed as the left leg came off at the knee and it crashed to the ground. Fear was clear in it's red eyes as it took up a defensive posture in hopes of fending me off. -
"End of the road. You had a good run of it but then you had the misfortune to meet me." I said before a beam of erasure went through it's arms and head from my finger killing it instantly.
I broke off some of the crystal on the walls and used my technique on it and the corpse to flow that amber sap out and into a newly formed container while refining it. I then refined the eyes and some of the body before taking out the stone in it's chest causing the rest to explode into a flood of black smoke.-
As I expected the thing was at least level five as the smoke I got was nearly three times as great at what the Goliaths gave. I collected my loot in my sack before heading back to the area the thing had set up that trap to grab the chick still there. My ice had kept her safe from the monsters that had showed up now that the variant was gone but she was still in a rough way when I got back. The seeds died with the variant so they weren't sapping her strength anymore but it was not much improvement as she was heavily wounded and flat out unconscious from blood loss.-
I killed the monsters and took the stones before strapping her to my back and starting the hike back to Rivira. There was a few brief interruptions because of monsters trying their luck but I made it back fairly quickly. Got a funny look from the inn keeper after bringing back another seriously injured adventurer in as many days but he didn't say anything even after I dropped the chick off and split town. Oddly my gut told me that I was close to being able to level up after hunting the variant which I found strange as I was barely challenged by it.-
After considering it while I headed back down to the water palace floors I hazarded a guess why this was the case. It wasn't enough to level up because I didn't consider it a challenge but normally it would have been enough since I as a level three killed a level five monster head on. In other words the falna was conflicted and that was the only reason I got the gut feeling I was close.-
I chuckled at the thought that the only thing holding me back was actually my stupidly high standards. This was a level of irony that even I found funny despite it technically being bad for me. In the end I decided that it was fine as there was always my possible fight with Amphisbaena to push me that last little way to being able to get to level four. I also had a gut feeling that level four was going to be a critical point in my ascension, a defining period that will decide my future.