Cosmic Peak

*Shuaaaaaa....*

The two chakrams damaged the first head of the monster while Aren dodged the incoming demonic fireballs and demonic whips.

His concentration and focus were at their peak as his eyes captured everything.

[-100 ]

[Heal Reduction I]

'Here it comes,' Aren thought as invisible flames burned him after five seconds into the battle.

[11,400/30,000]

However, his chakrams were continuously dealing damage to the first head. He was not sparring spirit energy and constantly used <Wind Slash> from chakrams for more damage as well.

[-2540] Oberon

[-2370] Novas

[-1140] Wind slash from Oberon

[-990] Wind slash from Novas

*Booom...*

[4390/30,000] (First head)

Aren attacked with veins popping up overhead due to intense focus and concentration on dodging the various fast attacks of the demon with four hands and ten heads in front of him.

[-100 ]

[Heal Reduction II]

The invisible flames burned him every five seconds.

Aren-Body Health-[2450/2650]

He could prevent this damage by using Aegis Scales body buff, but he needed Nimbus Force buff to dodge the demon's attacks. If he had teammates, they could support him and share the burden of attacks.

However, since he is fighting alone, he has to fight in a way that can let him win alone.

Aren destroyed the first head and was not moving to attack the second head.

[Demonic Wisps]

[Demonic Fireballs]

[Demonic Whips]

[Blood Burn Slashes]

[Evil Eye]

Among those attacks, [Evil eyes] was hardest to dodge since it releases a super fast dark brown laser from one the head. Aren's left leg was hit by first [Evil Eye], which caused it to get petrified.

However, Aren had entered an entirely focused mode that he didn't even know of. As he was observing all details, he saw one of the head's eyes changing and immediately dodged the next [ Evil Eye] attack.

Aren's eyes were turning red, and his brain was in hyperdrive mode as he attacked with ultimate accuracy and dodged attacks with utmost precision without wasting excess movements.

Under tremendous pressure, he attained peak battle senses and used every bit of this thought power to attack.

Each second, four <Wind Slashes> would release, two from his hands and two from chakrams while the chakrams themselves attacked physically as well for more damage.

Only one thing was running deep in Aren's head, and that was to win this battle.

Aren didn't know that this intense fight was observed by a small hazy eye in the sky.

'Hahaha, great! Human, you are indeed worthy of receiving this Yakum's legacy. However, you must survive and win before that. Let's see if you can defeat my mirage first, or you die first.'

The battle was moving very quickly! Aren was destroying one head every ten seconds while dodging every skill released by the mirage of Yakum.

However, the trouble increased after Aren destroyed its 7th head.

Currently, Aren's health was [1250/2650], and he hadn't drunk any health potions since only three heads were left, and at most, he would suffer 600 more damage.

The only good thing about this invisible flame damage was that he only felt burnt and didn't receive actual physical disabilities that hindered his fight. He could also endure this level of burning pain after going through even higher hellish pain of his eyes and directly to his soul four times in total. He had also felt this burning pain in previous challenges, which made him more adept at enduring it.

However, after he destroyed the 7th head, the Mirage of Yakum, which only had three heads left, was enveloped in a purple and dark orange flame vortex.

Aren attacked, but the vortex deflected his chakrams. Seeing that, he didn't hesitate and changed to his Aurora Flare buff and took out a bunch of health potions and opened them together before emptying them on his body. He also drank some.

While doing all that, his bloodshot eyes were still focusing on the vortex to observe every minute detail.

He didn't know how many potions he used, but his health was recovered to full after three seconds. Due to Heal Reduction, his healing from potions was small, but the Aurora flare buff ignored the heal reduction and healed him, so most healing came from it.

The petrified left leg was half cured in three seconds, so Aren continued to use Aurora flare buff while observing the vortex.

However, after two seconds, He saw the vortex expanding before it...exploded.

He hurriedly changed his body buff to Aegis Scales since there was no way to dodge this area attack.

[-560]

His body felt intense burning, but Aegis scales buff minimized the incoming damage.

'Change!'

After suffering that attack, Aren instantly changed the body buff to Nimbus Force since he knew that the intense battle would resume...with more intensity.

The mirage of Yakum appeared different after that vortex enveloped him. He now had three heads in total and in the middle. His hands had changed into deadly burning claws, and his wings were also pulsing with power more than before.

The mirage of Yakum roared as he waved his four hands simultaneously in clawing motions.

[Demonic Fest Claws]

Aren's blue mystic eyes, which were still bloodshot, were in full focus as he dodged incoming claw projection attacks while his chakrams in Vibrant echo buff went towards the head and started attacking.

It was good that with his Armalist Cloak, the manipulation speed of his Armalist gear increased, which allowed him to attack the mirage of Yakum constantly.

As Aren dodged the claws and other attacks, the burning wings of the mirage of Yakum suddenly flapped as it created a large flame vortex that shot towards Aren.

However, along with that vortex, the mirage of Yakum also released

[Demonic Fest Claws].

In the first place, there is no way to dodge this incoming vortex that Aren was highly sure would explode before it reached him and released an area attack without a gap to dodge.

On top of that, those Demonic Fest Claws were also coming for him.

However, his eyes turned desperate with a hint of despair when he saw the mirage of Yakum flapping his wings one more time and releasing another vortex.

However, giving up was not an option like in video games.

He changed his buff to Aegis Scales, which decreased his senses, so he was sure to get hit by a claw or two.

But he had no choice. With still in full focus and concentration, he prepared for the explosion and dodging of the claws.

*BOOOOOOOOOOM...*

The vortex indeed exploded before it released a wide wave of purple and dark orange flames towards Aren with no hope of dodging it as it arrived at breakneck speed like a tsunami with high and wide waves.

The claws were fast at first, but the waves overtook the claws and hit Aren first.

[-680]

"Urghhh...," Aren grunted, but he still remained in focus to dodge incoming claws.

*Shuaaa...shuaaa...shuaaaaa...*

"Siiiii...Arghhhhhh..."

[-310]

[-350]

Even though he tried his best, two claws still hit him. One directly created a slash in his stomach as his guts spilled out, and another took his left leg away, whose foot was still petrified.

[750/2650]

If he didn't use Aegis Scales buff, the damage from the vortex blast would injure him more, even if he managed to dodge the claw attacks.

Aren had no time to care for pain as he saw another vortex coming. However, despite the incoming attacks, he didn't stop his chakrams from attacking the demon's head and destroyed one of three heads.

'Amber core of Eturnia.'

He poured 100 soul energy into the Amber core of Eturnia as his body released intense heat as bright orange, red and such patterns appeared.

'I have no choice...,' Aren thought as his eyes burned with determination and he used his...ability <Painful Glory> along with <Hyper Charge> on both of his chakrams.

<Painful Glory>

-Rank: Special, Cursed Ability.

-Cost: 10% HP and 2% HP per second to maintain the state of this ability.

-Effect: all your attacks deal 30% more damage & 10% life steal.

-Cursed trait: When attacking enemies using <Painful Glory>, The pain felt by your opponent will also be felt by you, but in your case, the pain will magnify by ten times.

<Hyper Charge> was a skill that increased the effect of attuned nature in his gears. This also means that the vibrant echo buff and the traits of chakrams would also increase their effectiveness.

Before the vortex could explode and the next batch of Demonic Fest Claws that the mirage of Yakum just released arrived near him, his chakrams ruthlessly attacked the 2nd head of the mirage Yakum.

[-7120]

[-6980]

[-1610] Wind slash from Oberon.

[-1384] Wind slash from Novas.

Those high damages were due to <Hyper Charge>, and on top of that, the <Painful Glory> ability's effect of 30% increased damage.

Aren's body instantly healed to full health. His cut of leg instantly materialized and recovered, and all wounds on his body were gone.

However, intense beads of sweat were releasing from his body as he waited for the ten times pain rebound from his <Painful Glory> ability.

The vortex also blasted at this time, and the claws were coming to, so he focused on the incoming attacks with Aegis scales buff on and dodging the claws.

After getting burnt from the blast of the vortex, Aren stunningly managed to dodge most of the attacks of the claws as only one claw hit him, and that too on his shoulder.

'Why isn't the pain coming?' Aren thought with doubt, but he didn't stop attacking. His <Painful Glory> ability was still on, and his chakrams were still attacking the mirage of Yakum, so he healed himself once again.

He destroyed the 2nd head and moved to the last head of the mirage of Yakum as another vortex and more demonic claws arrived.

Aren didn't waste his brainpower thinking of why he didn't suffer from the intense pain while using <Painful Glory> and focused on attacking the last head.

Although he had already somewhat guessed the reason for not feeling any pain rebound from <Painful Glory> ability.

After 5 seconds, he destroyed the last head as well with a somewhat crude attack using the magic energy of Amber core of Eturnia.

[Mirage of Yakum destroyed. 20,000 exp gained.]

[Quest: Demon Temple, completed.]

After that, he got notification of getting the various rewards, but Aren's eyes looked at the hazy image of a handsome man with demonic horns and purple and orange hair. He also had bat-like wings of the same color behind his back.

"Hahaha. Congrats, human. It seems that you used some kind of ability at the end. But why didn't you use it from the start? Even though it was consuming your health, you were recovering it constantly as you continuously attacked the mirage."

Aren had a speechless expression, and he took a sigh before asking, "By any chance, that mirage or whatever it was, does it feel any pain?"

The handsome demonic man was taken aback for a moment before answering, "Of course, it doesn't. It's a lifeless mirage created by an object, and it has no emotions, no feelings, no pain."

"No wonder...," Aren muttered as he shook his head, "Sigh...can I say something?"

"Sure."

"FUCK THIS SHIT!"