Chapter 524 - Underhanded Tricks

Since Ryan's weapons have been improving, he managed to charge a powerful attack like no other for twenty minutes. He could have done that for a long time. Still, since he was also putting a lot of elemental energy in his projectile, the bow began to lose some of its durability a lot sooner.

In the end, just to make sure the dumbass creature wouldn't do anything troublesome, Ryan activated Deadly Aim and Perfect Aim. After firing, Ryan felt a massive force pushing him backward. As expected, all those bonuses of the attack were finally there to ask for a price. Since Ryan already expected that, he managed to stop spinning pretty soon, only to notice the fingers of both of his hands had been broken by the attack. Even though the projectile never caused any real damage to him, the electric aura also paralyzed his fingers.

As if all that wasn't enough, the entire area began to tremble due to the impact of Ryan's attacks. However, he didn't receive any notification. The boss was still alive, and Ryan confirmed that the beast not only managed to block the attack but still was managing no to be pushed backward and hit the walls of the dungeon. Even though the monster was being electrocuted by the elemental energy Ryan had put in his arrow.

"It looked like you were right," Ryan thought and then equipped his crossbows. "I would have been done for if I had tried to face this thing fair and square."

"That possibility still exists, you know," Femradiel said, and Ryan noticed that the monster barely lost thirty percent of its max health.

That had been Ryan's strongest attack so far. It didn't matter if the environment decreased his status and the efficiency of his skills. That attack probably could have killed ten dragons if they were put one behind the other.

"Just make sure to read his mind as much as possible," Ryan said and then proceeded to attack the monster.

"I won't be able to read anything if he doesn't think about anything else aside from killing you," Femradiel said.

It was too late to think about anything else. Then, Ryan began to fire while using the Immobilizing Crossbow and the Pestilence Crossbow. There was no time or reason to use the others when the monster endured the previous attack. Decreasing the monster speed and causing some extra damage over time would definitely help Ryan.

However, before the bolts could hit the monster, the boss did something that made the projectiles lose a lot of speed before hitting them. Even though the creature just looked at them… It wasn't Telekinesis. It was Hydromancy. Even though the boss still was busy holding back Ryan's arrow and the creature certainly wasn't a mage-type, it still could do something like that…

"No wonder this asshole was so confident and accepted my preemptive strike head-on," Ryan thought while furrowing his eyebrows.

Ryan increased his firing speed, but before that could be really effective, the boss finally stopped his first attack completely. While spinning its trident, the creature repelled all of Ryan's bolts, and using its freehand, it made Ryan move toward it.

"Hydromancy again…" Ryan thought while he was trying to counter the skill with Telekinesis.

Ryan has to change this tactic again and quickly. In the end, he just created several copies of his Electric crossbows. He hoped that the elemental damage would be enough to make the dungeon boss suffer damage. In the end, the attacks indeed caused some damage, but recovery of the creature alone was enough to counter it.

"Damn, to think this fucking boss would be this…" Ryan thought, but then his thoughts vanished when the creature finally swam toward him.

Ryan somehow managed to react on time and move toward the other side of the dungeon. Still, he confirmed his fears when he saw the beast hitting the dungeon's wall and then making the entire place tremble. He changed his mind. A critical attack wouldn't be enough to kill him. Any attack at that level would.

Ryan's plans to weaken the enemy weren't effective against that type of opponent, so he had to return to the basics. If Ryan couldn't weaken the enemy and charged attacks weren't that useful, Ryan just had to improve his main attributes.

After getting and using several DEX potions from his storage dimension, Ryan began to fire again. This time, when the boss tried to charge, its speed decreased considerably, and Ryan saw some blood coming from the creature's hands.

"Yeah, just like this…" Ryan thought.

Ryan's increase in power surprised the monster, but not enough to completely change the tide of the battle. Suddenly, the dungeon boss threw its spear at Ryan. Without thinking, Ryan teleported to the side. Still, in the very moment, he reappeared, and the trident hit the wall. The dungeon boss hit him with an elbow attack. The air escaped completely from Ryan's lungs, but he managed to use full-heal before his health could drop to zero. However, he was forced to clench his teeth and use the skill again when his back was hit against the dungeon's wall.

Even while his eyes were closed, Ryan knew that the monster would attack again. Hence, he used Teleport to appear behind the purple crystal. That was the only place he could think of in such a short time. Ryan didn't have many options to change the tide of the battle, so he decided to risk everything with a semi-suicidal attack. Before the monster could find him or recover its weapon, Ryan fired several Poison Bombs at the creature. When the creature saw that small and relatively small object moving towards itself, it punched without thinking about it and destroyed it. The water around the boss turned green, and that blinded the beast a little bit.

"I am going to pollute your habitat a little bit," Ryan thought. "Don't hate me for it."

"As expected of Ryan," Femradiel said. "You refuse to use power ups like Draconic Transformation, but you still can use underhanded and dirty tactics like this."