Chapter 260: Nice Try
’A variant, huh?’
Hal took a deep breath before activating [Tailwind] and deciding to flee.
He didn’t want to fight this specific Secteed near the eerie underground cave, as he was almost sure that place was the lair of the Midnight Pixie.
Otherwise, why was he about to enter earlier?
Hal huffed and puffed, marsh water splashing everywhere as the Secteed behind him gave chase, sprinting like a human while lunging like a mantis from time to time.
Hal was slightly horrified to find that even with [Tailwind], he wasn’t leaving the monster behind.
The gap was widening slowly, sure, but his wind-elemental spell was also about to run out.
’Tch, whatever. I’ve gained quite a bit of distance from that den-cave, anyway...’
Muddy water splashed as Hal stopped running and turned to face the Secteed, locking eyes with it before snapping his fingers.
The variant humanoid-mantis trembled for a moment.
It was unfortunate that he wasn’t able to change the gesture slot in which he placed the [Winter’s Grasp], as this Secteed was one such creature he wanted to flip off, if only to let out his frustrations of suddenly finding himself in a dangerous situation.
Still, the [Epic]-tier spell was a success.
But the Secteed wasn’t fazed in the slightest. It simply lunged at Hal after recovering, its scythe-arms swinging down on him.
Hal crossed the index and middle fingers on both his hands, summoning a [Reinforced Earthen Wall] and a [Reinforced Ice Wall], with the former layered in front of the latter.
To his horror, while his defensive spells weren’t destroyed, the Secteed phased through them like a ghost.
Had Hal been a regular wizard, he would’ve already been killed.
There wouldn’t be much time to cast [Blink] for other wizards.
Hal, on the other hand, was able to reposition by making a simple gesture, barely escaping death.
His [Blink] usage was rather clumsy and forced, so he still had to turn to face the variant Secteed.
Hal’s eyes widened. He couldn’t see his opponent.
And so by reflex, he raised his altitude using [Mana Flight], but all the hairs on his body stood on end the moment he attempted.
The Secteed emerged from nothingness, shooting up at him like a reverse meteor.
’T-This bastard!’
It was extremely fast, borderline exceeding the limits of human reflexes. If only he had Aethersight...
Unfortunately, he didn’t, and he would have to defeat the monster in front of him if he wanted to secure an attempt at crafting an artifact that would grant him the basic version.
Hal wasn’t sure if [Winter’s Grasp] was already off-cooldown, so he decided to play it safe, shooting a [Glacial Shard] and a [Fireball] at the variant Secteed instead.
To his surprise, it simply decided to receive the damage head-on.
The [Glacial Shard] proved quite lethal, managing to pierce its carapace and sink fairly deep into the left part of its carapaced muscular chest.
On the other hand, the [Fireball] exploded viciously.
The Secteed suffered a considerable amount of damage from his [Common]-tier spells.
However, would it matter if Hal were about to die?
The variant monster was upon him, arm-scythes threatening to cut his head clean off.
"You wish!"
He palm struck back at the Secteed. While his attack’s speed was inferior, Hal had an advantage: his palm didn’t need to touch the monster; he just needed to perform the motion.
The attribute he selected for [Knockback] was "Ranged".
And so, caught off-guard, the Secteed plummeted back to the ground, this time like a proper meteor.
"My turn!"
Hal naturally wouldn’t waste this opportunity he created for himself.
He quickly placed a [Geyser] charge at the location where the monster was about to land, but he missed the timing, and the scorching water struck nothing, but Hal didn’t overreact too much.
The Secteed simply plummeted faster than he could get his spell to erupt.
Plus, he had already placed another spell near the variant humanoid mantis, though he had to delay the creature from moving for at least half a second if he wanted it to land.
Hal had just the spell for it and snapped with his left hand.
The Secteed trembled for a moment, bleeding from its orifices as dark hands latched onto it, holding it down.
"Die!"
Hal waved both arms upward.
A moment later, a fairly huge silvery-blue magic circle emerged in the skies above the variant monster, along with a vermillion one on the ground near it.
The special Secteed struggled fiercely, screeching in defiance.
But [Dark Grip] held it down firmly.
A rain of icy shards and a flaming tornado then emerged in the next moment, bringing devastation upon the Secteed.
Hal strangely left a charge of [Chrono Trap] some distance away from him, though, his senses remaining on high alert.
In the next moment, he used [Spatial Swap] to change places with the trap, as though he had lost his mind, and of course, he didn’t.
The moment he got a sense of his new position, he immediately noticed the time-frozen monster in front of him.
Hal sneered: "Nice try, but unfortunately for you, I have a way to determine whether you already died or not."
Then, a huge, dark maw appeared on his right fist, chomping down on the variant Secteed.
A notification appeared in the next moment, confirming the kill:
[Congratulations! You’ve obtained 500 Chaos Points!]
Hal took a deep breath, spitting out the upper body of the monster he just killed.
He couldn’t allow it to dissolve under the corrosive effects of the [Dreadmaw].
After all, the kill gave him 500 Chaos Points.
What he defeated couldn’t just be a B-ranked monster, could it?
Hal proceeded to harvest the Secteed’s much-needed pair of antennas.
He then did the same to the core, which, to his surprise, was only B-ranked based on its color.
’W-Well...damn...’
This gave him quite the wakeup call, allowing him to realize how overinflated his confidence had been in the past few days, perhaps due to his consecutive success.
He noted to himself to be a bit more careful in the future.
That he wasn’t invincible.