Chapter 69: Colosseum III
'I wonder how long will it take for the Dungeon to repair th-' *Blergh*
Nox suddenly coughed out blood, it running down from underneath his helmeted mask.
He shiveringly looked down to see a clawed hand covered in his blood running straight through chest.
"Fugh-" He tried to curse but the word didn't come out fully as more blood spilled.
The Wings of Death struck backwards at whatever had stabbed him and Nox stumbled as the creature retreated pulling out its clawed hand from his chest.
Holding his body together with Invictus Lux which held his body together and started recovery, Nox spinned around with great speed and unleashed a huge and powerful blast of spirit light from Invictus amplified by his Sceptre of Maledictum.
He could only freeze of shock as the magic was completely deflected, causing no damage at all and revealing his attacker.
A thin but armored monster, with four limbs and weird spider like movements coupled with a ram like skull for a head and frog like blood red eyes.
"Juggernaut!" Nox spat out.
The Juggernaut was a special monster, spawned as a part of the Dungeon's defense mechanism every time excessive damage is done to the Dungeon itself. It has tremendous strength and speed with razor-sharp claws and armor that can reflect magic.
This however, is compensated by its poor defenses to physical attacks. Its potential varied depending on which floor it emerged, with deeper floors producing stronger versions of it.
It made sense. Nox had wrecked the Dungeon big time, it was only natural for a Juggernaut to spawn . . .
'But there's no way it should be on this level of strength.' Nox thought as the monster charged again.
"Archangel's Sanctuary!" He activated his staffs build in defense system by exhausting one of its twelve Mind storages. A holy spherical barrier that was nearly impenetrable surrounded Nox was a ten meter radius.
'It should have automatically activated before I was hit but that thing was too fast for the staffs detection which would have been impossible for a Juggernaut of the 37th floor. Hell even my own enhanced senses should have picked up on the attack even if my body wasn't fast enough to dodge!'
'My armor is made of Orichalcum and drastically strengthened by my smithing skills too. But that thing, granted it was a perfect sneak attack with perfect positioning and the best possible angle, not only pierced the backplate and my tough body with the characteristics of a monster but even my chestplate as well!'
'There's no way in hell that's 37th floor standard Juggernaut!'
As these thoughts went through Nox's head, the Juggernaut crashed into the barrier and it unceremoniously shattered.
"Shit!" Nox shouted, flying into the air and barely escaping the attack as the monster dug its claws into the ground to stop its intense momentum, giving the boy some reprieve.
'It's anti magic armor also allows that thing to just burst through magical barriers without effort!? What kind of fucking cheating is this!?' He complained in his mind, trying to figure out a way to get out of this pinch.
'The damn Dungeon is messing with me again! It spawned a Juggernaut far more powerful than it should be. But since it waited for me to actually destroy the walls and floors to do so, it means there are restrictions it can't break.' Nox deduced.
'As long as I can somehow deal with this thing, there will be nothing else coming next since the floor is too damaged for monsters to spawn normally!' He realized.
By now, the Juggernaut had managed to stop and leaped at Nox with blinding speed, barely leaving his time to put up an extra thick Black sheel in front of him for defence.
The path forward was clear though, defeat the Juggernaut at all costs, it was the Dungeon's trump card and last move, nothing would come next, it was fine if Nox dropped down unconscious on the ground after beating the foe right in front of him.
Crashing into the half meter thick black shell, the Juggernaut burst through it but got stuck halfway in waving its forelimbs around trying to get Nox.
Seeing this he grinned savagely under his mask with blood still covering his mouth, it would be a horrifying scene if it could be seen.
'The only effective attacks on this thing are physical ones so no need for my staff.' He made the call, put away his staff and took out Prometheus. Even though its abilities were utterly useless, it still had an edge to slash thing with.
Nox activated his armor's self repair functions and focused his Invictus Lux inwards onto his body and equipment using the entirety of its energy for enhancement since protection and attacks were useless if the basis was magical.
And the, he swung down his sword at the Juggernaut with the entirety of his enhanced power.
Noticing the attack, the monster swung its claws to intercept the sword and the result left Nox cursing again.
Prometheus shatters under the ferocious Juggernaut's claws and the beast finally struggled from its prison, cutting it apart and falling to the ground but this was another chance, the were high up in the sky and the Monster had no way to maneuver.
Nox took the change to swiftly open his Item box and took out not a weapon, but a massive square pillar of Orichalcum that was meant to be a part of a gate frame and poured his Invictus' energy into it, filling it and strengthening it to the brim.
Then before the Juggernaut could reach the ground and gain a foothold to make use of its extremespeed and strength that far surpassed Nox's, he flew at the monster at his highest speed and swung the pillar like a baseball bat.
The Juggernaut's armor cracked where it met the pillar's edge creating a gash were factures spread from and even the monster's head was partially damaged as it was sent flying at blinding speed, crashing into the already crumbling wall of the Dungeon and making a Juggernaut sized hole.
Nox didn't relax however, he sensed the monsters was still alive and confirmed it with his eyes as it crawled out of the hole it was in.
Nox put up another Black Shell in preparation for an attack but it didn't come. Bouncing around at max speed using the walls ceiling a floor, the Juggernaut avoided the shell and no longer directly struc at Nox passing him by and just slashing at him with its claws
It did so to avoid having its momentum stopped, thus opening itself to a counterattack, clearly, the monster did not lack in intelligence.
Immediately after meeting a set back, it changed its strategy. Rather than a decisive strike the might leave it open, it went for a death by a thousand cuts while maintaining itself out of Nox's reach.
After enhancing his armor with Invictus and moving his body in response to the blows of the Juggernaut, the most the beast did with its current strategy were shallow cuts that were healed the moment they were inflicted.
But this was a monster backed by the Dungeon and it did not seem to be getting tired while Nox's energy reserves were not endless.
He encased himself in a sphere made by Black Shell constantly repairing it as the Juggernaut damaged it and taking out energy recovery items to keep up with his expenditure.
Nox kept thinking hard but found no solution to the problem, his teleporter could not be deployed inside the black Shell due to a lack of space but to make it bigger, he needed to make it thinned too and thus vulnerable to the Juggernaut so he was utterly trapped.
Even the Tear of Salvation which created a barrier and teleported him would not work since the damn marrier, while spacial in nature was still magic and thus unable to stop the Juggernaut.
There was still a chance though, a way that though far from certain, certainly held the possibility to rescue Nox from the extremely dangerous situation he found himself in.
He knew what he had to do as well. In fact, he had even though of it earlier and his mind kept flashing back to that very idea but he always refused it as it went against his fundamental principles that he lived by.
Nox always obsessed over preparations and plans, he had a need of control, to keep things going the way he wanted, to make backups upon backups in case anything went wrong. That's how he lived and fought.
His only remaining option however, would mean relinquishing that control, the control he so desperately wanted to keep that he went through the trouble of spending months just developing equipment to account for any situation.
But these backups and preparations were based on his specialty, magic, the only thing that didn't work at all on the Juggernaut.
Even then, he was confident to deal with such a foe, so long as it was within the standard of the floor he was in but the Dungeon interfered and created an opponent beyond what his backups could handle.
So now . . . there was only one option left . . . Sanguinare Vampiris: The Bloodcurse of Vampirism.
It was time for the raging Beast to show itself once more . . .
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