The two Supreme Knights stood watch with Paul at a two kilometer distance as Priam walked across the open field of red grass, towards the slowly moving field boss monster.
"I will never understand that man," Kili said.
Paul cleared his throat. "Be ready to step in at any second."
Elisa cursed as she looked at Priam's back. His red cape flapped.
It was a purple and white monstrosity with four pairs of bent legs. Each was white, thicker than a large boulder, ending in massive curved claws.
Its body, which was more than one hundred meters long, was low to the ground. Its height was about twenty meters.
The purple part of the monster constantly moved around as if it was alive. It swirled, flowed and changed size constantly. The white parts of its body were a carapace.
Its head was massive, with a circular open mouth. Two pairs of eyes were on the sides, while one was facing front. It noticed Priam approaching. A single yellow antenna rose from its head.
Many yellow aura rings enveloped its body. Their purpose unknown.
They were in a valley of red grass and many dark rocks. There were no trees and no other life forms.
White aura poured off Priam in waves, so intense the air warped and shimmered around him like a heat haze. He raised both his arms to the side and sent out two blindingly bright, large beams of sunfire at the monstrosity. Rings of pure energy pulsed outwardly from the powerful beams.
The pulsars dented its white carapace as the monster reeled back from the attack. It then snapped and twisted in bizarre ways, then performed a rapid lunging slither, aiming to catch the player with its gigantic maw.
The ground cracked and sank in as Priam dashed sideways dozens of meters, sending a large gleaming aura slash as he did.
The monster rose up and then flailed around the field, aiming to crush Priam with its massive body. The speed of it, for its size, was terrifying.
White light trailed Priam as he dashed directly below a segment of its body that was still mid-air. The ground shook and cratered as the monster fell on it.
It swiped at Priam with one of its massive, clawed extremities. Priam rolled under. Immediately, he felt displaced air and burst back before the follow-up slam cratered the ground.
The red grass flattened in Priam's path.
The monster jerked its whole body. It swung its head and long body at the player who leapt thirty meters above the swinging body, hung there for a fraction of a second, and then collapsed into a blinding blade of white aura. He drove himself into the monster's back like a gigantic stake.
It flailed and flipped upside down, aiming to crush Priam, who was already out of danger.
It extended its arms and swiped twice. Priam read the angle and dashed directly into its body, inside the reach of both attacks. The claws found nothing.
He struck his blade into its body. Sunfire and star metal caused it to shriek in agony. Blue blood flowed out.
It suddenly burst with purple aura. All of its body radiated energy. Priam was repelled back.
The boss monster's body now glowed with purple aura.
It wrapped around itself and then whipped its massive tail at the player. A shockwave flattened the grass all around as Priam burst into the air, evading the tail strike.
He sent out three gleaming aura slashes at its head. They hit, but then the monster leapt and caught him clean.
Two hundred meters of open air before he hit the ground, sliding through the red grass. He rose immediately. Being airborne had robbed the blow of half its force — his body had moved with it rather than against it. Still, his body screamed in agony. He clenched his teeth.
The massive monster was already onto him. White rings around Priam's legs vibrated as he jumped twenty meters to the side, rolling as he got up. The abomination twisted to face him.
It swiped at Priam with glowing claws and thick limbs, who dashed in, avoiding three whipping blows. He slashed into it, blazing with white fire. The miniature sun burst his aura into the glowing abomination with monstrous slashes of the blade.
The monster shrieked and then its purple glow intensified. Priam sensed a surge, a pressure change and an unusual pull. He retreated.
The ground, the air, everything exploded around the monster in a radius of a hundred meters. It was a detonation of aura. The ground rose up as energy burst through it. The landscape changed and Priam was caught up in the massive purple explosion. His armor cracked under the blast. He felt it in his ribs.
He straightened. His ribs protested. His raw stats and armor had saved him.
"I can't easily beat it without *it*," he said quietly. "Let's unleash *it*."
But before he could, the sky and his surroundings disappeared in a millisecond. He was suddenly in a towering purple tunnel, facing the monster several hundred meters away from him.
Shocked, he tried to blow through the wall, but to no avail. Behind him was a swirling white fog. His aura sense and sixth sense, amplified from his passive abilities, screamed at him not to enter that fog.
He faced the monster, the yellow rings were no longer visible. They disappeared after the tunnel was manifested.
Priam couldn't get out. It was a trap. He was going to have to face an unavoidable attack. His eyes widened.
"Oh..."
There was no space to unleash his new orbital technique. He was in a tunnel that was barely wider than the monster itself.
Priam exhaled, he clenched his sword. "Okay..."
***
"No! What is that?!" Paul yelled as a 500-meter long purple barrier enveloped the player and the boss.
"What is he doing, why didn't he use the ability yet?!" Elisa yelled.
"We're going in," Kili said.
"No," Paul responded.
Kili looked at him beneath his white helmet.
"We can't do anything now." Paul shook his head. "We don't even know what that is. Let's at least wait until the situation is clear."
***
In the tunnel, the massive monster bolted at the player, crossing three hundred meters in a quarter of a second.
Its body collided with a barrier that Priam himself had manifested. The collision produced an alien, high pitched sound which reverberated throughout the tunnel. The purple tunnel shattered like glass around them. The boss' unstoppable rush was stopped where Priam stood.
A dark-purple stellar barrier now stood between them. Cracks branched across its surface like fractured galaxies, stars burning brightly between them. It was one of Priam's strongest active abilities — the Cosmic Shield.
The king was on one knee, chest heaving. The Cosmic Shield had taken its toll — aura and health alike, significantly drained.
When he looked up, the tunnel was gone. He was back in the open field of red grass.
The stellar barrier held firm, freezing the monstrosity in place, right in front of him.
*If it wasn't for this ability…*
He could no longer feel the unsettling fog. He looked behind him. It disappeared.
Priam got up, ran to the side, out of the way of the monster's path.
The barrier cracked more and suddenly exploded in a shockwave. The monster resumed its attack, as if it was never stopped. Its glowing body slid across the field, away from where Priam now stood.
Priam breathed rapidly. His heart was pumping blood and fire alike all throughout his body and he could feel it. He could feel the rush, the heat, the thrill. He wasn't done. He was weakened with the use of that ability. His health and aura reserve were below half, but the fight wasn't over.
A metal compartment in his white armor opened and many needles floated out — the crystal blades, compressed small enough to carry. They moved fast and within seconds formed positions around Priam, with varying distances from the player.
They glowed bright, then expanded. First they became normal-sized blades. However, Priam utilized his Volume Change ability to its full potential, and expanded the blades further. They became massive. Each was ten meters long.
The radius of the orbit was ninety meters. Forty giant crystal blades bursting with sunfire moved around the player — some were closer, some were farther away. The orbiting speed became faster exponentially until the blades could not be perceived by most players.
***
"There it is," Paul said. He grinned.
"Fucking finally, what took him so long?" Kili exhaled sharply.
Paul looked at Elisa with a smile. Both hadn't equipped their helmets yet. She was silent. Her gaze was fixed on the fight.
"I think he'll be fine now," Paul said with clenched fists. "But let's get a bit closer, just in case."
***
The glowing abomination was rushing towards the player like an unstoppable tide.
Priam smiled at death itself rushing to him. He bolted sideways, white light trailing behind him. He wasn't sure if the technique could stop the rush of such a monster.
The boss shrieked in pain as the outermost orbiting blades razed through its carapace.
It reeled back.
Now Priam rushed towards it. The blades around Priam were an unstoppable torrent which cut into the abomination. The player didn't even get too close. He used his regeneration ability while his crystal blades did the work.
The boss shrieked. It tried to twist and run, but its tail and body went deeper into the orbital paths. Blue blood sprayed everywhere.
It released a repelling pulse of purple aura which sent Priam back reeling.
It slithered away at astonishing speeds.
"I don't think so."
Priam released a shockwave as he bolted at the retreating boss, his stats and abilities propelling him forward.
He caught up in a burst of white light and leapt onto the monster's massive back. All around him, his forty giant crystal blades continued their deadly work, ripping and slicing deep into the abomination's flesh.
With a focused thought, Priam adjusted the orbital inclinations. The blades smoothly tilted their paths — shifting from wide circles around him into vicious angled passes that swept underneath Priam, through the boss's body below him.
Priam and his sword glowed with white sunfire. He dug into its spine with his blade, twice its normal size, on top of white aura increasing its range further.
The abomination convulsed violently. Its massive body shuddered and jerked as dozens upon dozens of deep gashes opened across its length. Blue blood erupted in geysers, spraying across the red grass.
There was no escape.
The crystal blades dismantled the Transcendent field boss from every angle. Legs gave out. Segments of carapace shattered and flew off like broken porcelain.
The monstrosity stopped moving and could no longer even shriek as it was mercilessly torn apart by a bigger monster.
Priam's face was emotionless and cold beneath his helmet as he razed the monstrosity into the ground.
He was still breathing hard when notifications rang in his mind.
[You have defeated a Transcendent field boss monster: Ninth Hue of the Fraxarzor!]
[You have received a title: The One!]
[You have received a title: The Biggest Fish!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled...]
[You have inherited an Active Ability: Tunnel of Death!]
"All of this with one technique."
He stood atop the slain monstrosity. The swirling purple parts which felt alive were now dark. A lake of blue blood formed around the corpse. Its organs were mush. They spilled out of it, onto what used to be red grass.
How many new possibilities have I opened with this ability? Priam thought as he stood there, processing what happened. What *might* happen in the future.
Killing a Transcendent field boss on his own.
He felt it in his bones. What he did. The pain of the fight and the glory of victory blended together.
The blades extinguished and gradually turned into needles. They retreated into his metal compartment.
Priam clenched his sword's handle and his empty left fist. "The main boss is next."
He noticed Paul, Kili and Elisa running towards him. He smiled beneath his helmet.