The Dreamer's POV

I maneuvered my way over the energy blasts, turning and twirling, straining myself to outpace them and react on time. The energy attacks hummed past me with every turn, I had even gotten my clothes and hair singed a little.

But that was only a prelude of what was to come. With my improved flight and agility, I managed to lure the energy attacks at Suphas, having them crash on its head and then teleporting out of harm's way.

An explosion of the attacks created a smoke cloud over its head and deformed face, keeping them out of sight for a short time, and I was grateful for that, a shorter look at the creature would certainly extend my life.

It threw its free right arm my way, swinging it to get a hold of me, and though it was fast–its gigantic hand moving like a blur, I escaped, using teleportation to get myself away from its reach.

I hovered atop it, looking down at it, the smoke cloud was thick and seemed bent on not leaving its face. Nevertheless, it was my time and I would use it well.

Lightning surged on my summoned blades, I ramped them up, my blades vibrating in my hands from the energy, and with fervor, I thrust down the blades, sending two bolts of lightning right at the face of the creature.

ZZZZT! ZZZZT!

The lightning attacks struck strongly, surely catching it by surprise, and causing it to backstep.

I didn't stop there, sending barrages of lightning at it, throwing my arms forward as if I was flailing them. Bolts after bolts, striking intermittently on its face, slowly causing it to stagger.

Suddenly, it seemed that the clouds of smoke were suctioned, as I watched them shrink in between the ugly face of Suphas. I saw its pouted lips once it was done sucking on the smoke. There was a pause, and then it opened its massive mouth agape, and from it, a red ball of energy burst forward, coming at me at an unbelievable speed.

Again, with teleportation, I was able to get out of harm's way. I stood meters away watching the blast project upwards diagonally. It was massive, and I found it incredible that a creature could bring that from its mouth and just release it.

"Incredible." I muttered, watching the light trail in the sky.

Suphas didn't let me catch my breath, thrusting its trident at me. There, I sidestepped a little, avoiding the strike, the edge of the last blade clipped my haven easily as I barely avoided the strike. I gritted my teeth, and zoomed down at it, I had absolute strength, I may as well use it.

It realized my sudden pivot to its body, and suddenly, spikes of earth began swiftly jutting from below, intent on impaling me.

'It has earth powers too?'

I teleported, turned and twirled, avoiding the attacks. I had a close call however, a spike had jutted, and I had managed to tilt and barely avoided it, but then something happened. From the side of the earth spike stuck out multiple smaller spikes instantaneously. My brows furrowed with surprise once I noticed and before I could teleport away, I suffered a stake through my gut.

I did end up teleporting away, but not without a gaping wound at the center of my abdomen. Blood drenched my shirt, and my vision was momentarily dizzy as I lost a ton of blood at that moment, but it was nothing to worry about. My passive regeneration skill sprung into action, and from burning a ton of energy, my flesh grew back in place.

Two earth spikes came at me again, each coming at my sides diagonally. I set my eyes on them, about to teleport when I noticed a surge of red, and then I raised my eyes at my opponent, seeing red threads of energy circling towards me.

I utilized Haven, and true to my belief of my energy shield standing strong, it stood, taking the brunt of the spikes without chipping nor cracking.

Then the energy whips came, and then lashed at me. I boosted the strength of my haven by channeling more energy to it, causing it to thicken, increasing its density.

It was crazy, I had not thought to try this before, the need had not arrived, but now, with my usual haven not withstanding attacks, and cracking from simple attacks from bosses, I thought to boost it, to improve it, and I did right there and then.

I focused a ton of my energy on my energy projection increasing its toughness, toughening the little layers. The red energy whips struck, making snapping sounds, but the best they did now was to cause a little ripple at the spot of contact, they couldn't break through it, they couldn't do anything.

And then, I got a system notification. It was unexpected, and it was off-putting at the time it surfaced. A ding rang in my head, and the message appeared,

[System Notification]

[You have improved Haven, increasing its strength tenfolds.]

[Would you like for this to be the default?]

[Yes/No]

"Yes!" I cried from the heat of the moment, and I withdrew my focused energy on my energy shield at that moment, and true to the system words, haven remained just as tough without me actively channeling energy.

'So I improved a move, and built upon it.' With this, in theory I should be able to create new moves. I should be able to stack different skills and make something entirely new with them.

I zoomed, my arms stretched forward. Suphas maintained composure, and for some reason, it chose not to attack. I deduced that it did so out of curiosity, in the sense that what could an ant such as myself do against it, what could I do?

I propelled myself, coating my body with lightning, activating <Absolute Strength>, and I threw forward all I had.

I strongly rammed my body against its abdomen, <Haven> active. It was like my energy shield met with an unstoppable force, and yet I persevered.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om