Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Chapter 725

From the moment I'm struck, my body shuts down to allow my mind to deal with the mental attack rather than focus on the overwhelming sharp pain assaulting every one of my cells.

However, the day's worth of training, turning my ether healing into an automatic intuitive habit, still treats this brutal barrage the same as any other attack.

On top of that, from my past training, every time an ether-imbued strike pushed my being past its limits, the reaction afterward only made me stronger...

As the Cyclops Guardian begins to lift its spiked ball from being lodged deep into the rocky ground, the worst of the mental attack has passed, and I can finally think clearly again after a momentary white-out.

Although its compressed mental pressure is far more vicious, refined, and focused, my experience is so vast from the simulated years of training within the tower that it manages to absorb the brunt of the blow before it fully collides with my pure mind.

In addition, an odd phenomenon occurs that I've never felt before in any of my other battles. The thousands of years of memories from sandworms and demonic guards on this mountain meld together to add to this base.

While it isn't nearly as much as the experience I already had, the countless training sessions, using ether commands, and being exposed to the aura of mental attacks every few decades when the Guardian atop the tower would face a strong opponent, all add up.

They've somehow added to my base of experience in both physical and mental ether aptitudes.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

–

Once the spiked ball is lifted off of me, I know exactly what I must do next...

My mind is active, but my body is still at the whims of my intuition.

I feel saint pathways in my nerves and ligaments healing, and muscle fibers twitching, ready to be used the moment the soul weapon stops making contact with my barrier.

No time is wasted, and I activate my Greater Form and Astral Form to pull the maximum power possible in order to counter when this beast least expects it.

Instantly, my rate of healing rapidly increases, and so does my control and perception of my surroundings.

It's like my mind is connected to the fabric of reality, moving along the tightly packed green threads in the clouds surrounding us.

In an instant, I can feel everything.

Over 10,000 kilometers in every direction, the exile zones and all of their inhabitants become crystal clear in my mind.

Power rushes into me, growing my energy form just as fast as the Cyclops's spiked ball is pulled upward.

More pathways in my body flow with energy and life again.

My green divine energy form's outline grows from the crater, jumping upward while wielding a red soul sword growing in size at the same rate.

The tingling in my muscles and sharp pains in my bones wash away, and the fluidity of ether being summoned feels as though I'm using multiple times more ether for the same amount of effort. My efficiency, after bouncing back from this deadly blow, has increased yet again, awakening the forgotten knowledge locked behind my mental training in the tower's simulated abyss.

With ether flooding through my being, my mana and divine energy form begins to adapt, allowing it to flow through its pathways too, lighting up my Astral Form with shimmers of hot white light beneath it.

In fractions of a second, I grow past 10 meters, then 25 meters, and reach 100 meters in height, zipping past the ball and chain that appears to be moving in slow motion now relative to my perception before I was hit.

The divine threads in the air bend to my will, allowing me to grow faster and faster, reaching a staggering 300 meters in height by the time I close the gap and collide sword-to-chestplate with the Guardian Cyclops.

Its eye looks straight at mine, as a thick white mana- and ether-imbued aura forms beneath its red berserker radiation.

I know this feeling too...

It's a Divine Body Hardening Skill... but combined with automatic Premium Avatar commands, demonic energy, and a strange Soul Armor.

My eyes widen as my flaming sword collides with the armor and sends out a twang and a shockwave as though it's slamming against a solid metal wall.

I see the spiked ball I passed moving on its own, coming to hit me in the back at a speed even faster than before. Venomous rage burns in the Cyclops's single eye as it starts to mutate, shifting to a slight purple shade, and becoming darker and darker on its way to black, activating some strange demonic form.

As I grow in strength, pulling energy from all around the central peak, my all-seeing eye senses the Cyclops already trying to do the same, just fractions of a second after I've failed my surprise attack.

All of the images in my foresight skill show this hot spiked ball colliding with me, disrupting my full Astral Form awakening no matter what I do while standing face-to-face with the Cyclops.

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So, I activate Shadow Step and move to its back, growing up to nearly 1 kilometer in height, attempting to plunge my sword down into the beast before it uses whatever this new move might be.

As I thrust my growing blade forward, I can feel it vibrating with lust for blood as it finally feels a worthy opponent.

The sharp tip of my Astral Soul Sword collides with the Cyclops's back, and I shiver at the feeling of stabbing a solid wall once again...

My concept of overwhelming power still has not reached the heights it must to even pierce this creature's armor in its base form.

This momentarily enters my mind while I watch the ball and chain continue to rise upward, as if it has a mind of its own, attempting to attack me before the Cyclops even turns around.

Though, my sword's hunger for battle only increases at this predicament; and I feel it glowing hotter and hotter in my hand.

On the base of its handle, I finally witness what it's gained after reaching Level 2 of its Evolution.

A blood-red eye rises to the surface of my sword, opening wide to illuminate its entire being with a bright crimson aura.

I feel it burning my hands just trying to hold on, but I don't stop thrusting it forward at all. It feels like my entire Astral Form is invigorated by this awakening, and red tendrils of its energy seep through my massive green energy form.

The immovable black wall of defense cracks, and I thrust my blade through the Cyclops's armor.

I let out a yell as I feel the tip of my blade pierce the Guardian's skin as well, and the Cyclops lets out a roar of rage. The darkness that enveloped its eye surrounds its entire being.

The red light from its berserker form intertwines with this darkness, and the spiked ball that was coming my way plunges downward to hit the ground...

The hundreds of chain links that seemingly have minds of their own twist, pull, and move away from me. I'm astonished to watch the soul weapon become enveloped in the same darkness and yank the Cyclops forward, pulling it away from my sword just before I can reach its cores.

I lunge forward again, attempting a second swing, but the Cyclops closes its dark eye, and a familiar aura of energy and hundreds of thousands of foresight images showing my death halt me from moving forward any further...

Despite doubling in size again, reaching a similar 2 kilometers in height where my Astral Form peaked in my last battle, while holding a flaming red sword larger than most skyscrapers, I jump back when the data from my inspect and appraisal skills—now that I've pierced its skin—confirm exactly what my senses are telling me.

A [Lv. 51,827] is the first number that burns into my mind's eye, followed by [Berserker], [Body Hardening], and [Perfect Strike] in its skill slots, all with [Divine Grade] glowing next to them.

There are two buffs on its status as well: [Divine Guardian's Area of Domination] and a [Noble Bloodline Transformation].

It turns around to face me and opens its single eye again, and a power unlike anything I ever believed imaginable erupts from its being.

I watch its muscles bulge, and its armor grows with it.

A beam of black, white, and red light glows from its being as its body grows in size, matching my height in fractions of a second, while a dark purple-red dome forms around the entire top of the central peak.

Its ball on a chain grows in size to match its new stature, and from the foresight readings I get now, no matter where in the peak this Cyclops moves, its soul weapon can move with a mind of its own to collide with a target anywhere, no matter what.

These visions come true as the spiked ball comes flying my way without the Demonic Guardian even moving its hand.

I Shadow Step to the opposite side of the peak, but the ball follows with ease, predicting my next Shadow Step seemingly before I even make it.

I use Heavy Hand, attempting to push the spiked weapon down to the ground before it hits me, but it doesn't even react and stays moving on a steady path.

Even blocking with my sword is impossible. Wherever I swing, the hundreds of chains with minds of their own turn the ball's flight path around my sword; and when I'm hit in the side of my Astral Form, I feel why its skill is called [Perfect Strike].

This is the first time I've ever been hit without my barrier up since arriving in the Upper Realm, and it is far more painful than just being attacked with ether.

However, I expected this result, as millions of calculations of foresight have moved by in my mind, and this is the least lethal option I've come to.

While sharp pains invade my body and I brace for impact against the mental attacks again, I can't help but smile while I swing my blade down, seemingly through thin air.

In reality, I'm aiming for the chain connecting this spiked ball to its wielder.

As my Astral Form receives a demonic purple stain on its side and a spiked ball lodges into it, my crimson sword breaks through a link of the chain guiding it, separating the soul weapon from its wielder.

I disappear again using Shadow Step, leaving the disconnected spiked ball to fall to the ground where it hits me.

Then, I summon vast amounts of supreme-grade earth magic around the Cyclops's legs, attempting to hold it in place for a finishing move now that it cannot defend or attack.

To confuse it even further, assuring my victory with everything I have, I activate my divine-grade Body Double skill, creating two identical Astral Forms on both of my sides. It would be more, but the other three are still busy on the human world.

Confusion, intimidation, and every bit of stunning aura I have to throw at this monster, I do, and thrust my Soul Sword straight toward its chest while my doubles aim for its neck and back. Wherever the Cyclops dodges to, I am ready to instantly swap places with one of my forms and perform the perfect kill.

–

Avalanches form all over the mountain beneath the Access Doors that are now over halfway closed...

Ava thrives in the chaos, flying through the air, making laps around the mountain's midsection and slaughtering demonic guards that come her way.

All of their soul weapons fall into her system storage the moment they're killed, and her level rises higher and higher, nearing 30,000, which is the average of these 2nd Grade Demonic Guards.

–

Below the mountain's peak, the Wyvern's gaze still does not bother to look upward.

It peacefully watches Ava continue to tear through the demonic guards, it is amused to think of what the Citadel Lord's reaction will be after hearing its wasted this many resources on a single goblin.

Even the Noble Bloodline Transformation doesn't even make it flinch.

It's felt transformations like this many times before, and the result is always the same. In the Upper Realm Nobles are gods, nothing comes close to their unfathomable power.

The Wyvern's peripherals watch the broken chain of the Guardian's soul weapon discard its single lost link and reform back together with ease to become the same weapon it was before.

A massive red flaming soul sword collides with the chestplate of the Cyclops as well. Though, it is stopped like it is hitting a solid immovable wall, not even showing signs of a scratch. Two copies of the human's Astral Form are shattered to pieces by a spiked ball, and the human's true Astral Form is hit again, pinning it to the center of the peak with the spiked Soul Weapon on its chest.

The dark demonic stain grows to infect more of the bright green Astral Form, while white Physical and Mental Ether attacks pulse brightly at the core of this Guardian's ruthless strike.

The Cyclops walks forward in its fully awakened Noble Form and prepares to finish its job squashing this overgrown bug, then go back to overseeing the mountain for millennia to come.