The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 19: Monster Vs Witch

Chapter 19: Monster Vs Witch

“Argh fuck,” I said when I observed the situation.

The Malcroaza was damaged but not by much. Hard to see black lightning marks layered across its body, but it still looked fine. It was still even releasing an immense amount of heat which caused nearby water–which flooded out thanks to the broken floor pipes–to boil. 

The Malcroaza screamed “Reyarghhaaa!” Its body twisted and bent in unnatural directions.

Snap!

The Malcroaza’s neck snapped and a loud crack echoed through the building. Its neck stretched up and its mouth unhinged, “Brbrabragh!” An immense amount of heat was concentrated in its month in an instant.

Boom!

A deadly beam of fire ripped the sky in two, heat permeating the area–increasing the temperature.

It can destroy the whole city with ease…

My brain began to run on overdrive. I wasn’t some battle-junky–fighting could be fun–but the thrill wasn’t the reason why I ever fought–exercise, revenge and survival were the reasons. Could I win maybe… but it might not be certain at this moment.

Name: Ceella Stella (Celestira Luxpoir) | Race: [Human]

Level 299 | Awakened

Mana: 37% Starlight: 63%

I was beginning to run out of juice. It took twenty-four and six hours for me to recover my mana and way longer for starlight.

Can I get out of here… with Mella?

Mella was too close. It would only take a flick from this menace for her to be killed, and if I tried to pick her up and escape it would only be directing the creature to her.

After all, the Malcroaza’s eyes remained locked on me.

“[Scorched Imprisonment], [Solar Imprisonment], [Flame Jail], [Star Wall].” These skills were hard to manipulate after the fact, so I needed to create the perfect arena size now.

The four skills overlapped, creating a crimson flaming wall with a starlight barrier hidden within the flames. The solid sphere of fire walled off the entire concert area, and the flames dug underground to ensure no direction of escape.

I wasn’t able to truly combine them into a combination skill–which would make the power many times better. But this was the best I had.

The two fire and one sun skill would be able to hold back the Malcroaza for a bit, but obviously not for long–it's an extreme fire monster. But the fire-sun trio had another purpose, to prevent its large-scale fire attacks from damaging the city. While it may be able to break through with its physical body, any fire attack will be dispersed over the wall.

I had poured 20% of my starlight into the [Star Wall] skill, this was my main hope to keep it physically trapped.

The creature snapped its neck back down and angrily watched me for a second–knowing who exactly made this cage. Its hands glowed a bright red as it prepared to attack. 

The deadly sphere created an oven that’s temperature was amplified in strength thanks to the creature’s own heat–if there was anyone alive left in the arena, they would’ve been killed by the Malcroaza's presence.

[Solar Orb]. I created five more solar orbs which floated behind me. My sun and fire skills probably wouldn’t be as effective against the Malcroaza. Still, enough power could do wonders and it was providing me plenty of fuel to charge up multiple orbs simultaneously.

I would’ve already started melting alive but [Unleashed Awakening] increased the natural durability of my body greatly.

[Star Falldown]. A symbol of a star appeared above the opening in the concert arena inside the dome of fire. The skill was basically a starlight version of [Sun Falldown], but much weaker which was why I didn’t use it much.

“[Star Lance],” I created a lance with a large amount of starlight increasing its strength to the maximum. I was going to keep this by my side at all times.

With my three seconds of prep work complete. Time to kill.

I started running.

The Malcroaza made it rain wisps deadly fire which could track me slightly. They were easy enough to dodge, but they were going to be an annoying constant.

First test. To experiment I tried jumping in close.

“Rreeee!” It wailed and a dome of fire similar to [Scorched Nova] nearly caught me, but I [Burst] before that happened. 

No close range then.

Before landing, I blasted away a large chunk of wisps and readied my next attack.

It stayed in the centre floating, laughing maniacally, “RreRreRReee!”.

Sliding then jumping off some rubble, I launched a [Star Arrow]. Second test.

The projectile flew straight and… pierced through the Malcroaza's body. 

Seriously? Dammit!

I was surprised at the creature’s extreme arrogance and upset that I didn’t recognise it earlier.

Instantly afterwards, walls of flames started circling around the Malcroaza and its pained expression growled. The arrow of starlight stayed within his body, with each end poking out.

Strong monsters usually had some level of arrogance, but from my experiences, they were also fantastic judges of attacks–knowing exactly what would hurt them.

The creature blinked? The inky substances covered the sockets for a second. Then a blood-red dragon made of flames appeared above its head.

I quickly fired two [Star Arrows] at the Malcroaza as the dragon rushed towards me. The arrows were blocked by the moving fire walls.

I tore off a large metal support platform that was connected to the wall, and chucked it to see if the skill required ‘sight’. The platform melted as it neared, but blocked its direct vision for two seconds.

Nothing had changed and I didn’t have any better plans to block sight. So I kept moving, staying near the edge of prisons, hoping for the wall to absorb some of the heat. However, the dragon stayed far enough that it wasn’t weakening. 

After twenty seconds of running the Malcroaza started firing large beams of fire on top of everything else.

I launched a few more starlight arrows, firing most at the monster, but aimed a few at some of the beams I predicted could hit me.

It hasn’t disappeared after thirty seconds. Doubt it's going to go away anytime soon.

My plan of waiting out the dragon didn’t work so–[Extinguish]. A pale flame jumped out of my hands and engulfed the still-chasing dragon. 

Then, [Star Arrow]. I created an arrow within my hand and threw it with full force. 

The reason why I sometimes threw my constructs was that it added additional velocity to the weapon. However, it wasn’t usually by too much, but with my current large increase in physical strength, the added speed makes a nice surprise when used occasionally. 

Unable to block in time, a second arrow was now lodged in this chest.

In a rage, it sped up its continuous unending assault. More wisps, beams and now throwing large curved blades of fire.

How much mana does this bastard have? Thankfully my wall was stopping the attacks I dodged from damaging anywhere else.

Then after another thirty seconds and a chunk of mana, [Extinguish] did its job.

Copying me, the Malcroaza launched a new attack. Creating a large ball above its head, I thought I was prepared for it, but it launched at extreme speeds.

Causing the scorching cannonball of fire to nearly collide with me.

Quickly, I lifted my lance to counter. Screech!

The two attacks grind against each other, but with enough force, I pushed it away enough to avoid the deadly collision. Yet, the moments of time spent deflecting left me open to other attacks. The small wisps of fire pelted down upon me like rain in a storm.

My [Flame Lord Armour] was able to block some but not all. Holes scattered randomly over my clothes. I groaned and kept moving, jumping off the concert stage and moving closer to the monster.

Third test. I created an arrow of pure mana. Anyone over level 100 could easily create constructs out of just mana without the need for skills.

However, this wasn’t usually done as pure mana constructs were naturally weaker than ones made out of energy–even if they were cheaper. Reaching the point where pure mana weapons were average required a great deal of mana control and training. So they weren’t used often, but sometimes pure mana constructs were effective against certain monsters.

The arrow smashed against the monster's chest and did absolutely nothing. I guess it's not of those times, dammit. With my mana waning I hoped there was an easy shortcut to this fight.

New plan time! 

Jumping around hard-to-reach areas of the prison, I placed three stationary arrows of starlight. Just before and after I did, I launched a massive amount of [Fire Arrows] and [Fire Waves] blocking the view. 

After that, I moved in closer. I smirked, “[Scorched Nova].” I created a large blast of fire erasing all the incoming attacks.

I yelled, “[Shooting Star Fall]–[Star Lance]!” Making myself really obvious, reusing the [Star Lance] I created to save starlight.

I aimed and threw the lance as hard as I could.

Shing! 

The starlight lance flew upwards towards the Malcroaza. Its body language conveyed panic–feeling the power contained within the lance–its body instinctively tried to dodge.

And, the Malcroaza was able to move just enough out of the way for the lance to miss, its eyes looking at it.

Fly! I commanded and the hidden arrows launched. Each coming from a different direction, the monster only paying attention to the lance had a nice surprise.

Thud. Thud. Thud. All of them logged themselves in its chest. It cried in pain and looked towards me in fury. Its body shifted, looking like it was finally going to move… but it was too late.

Thud. Thud. Thud. All of them logged themselves in its chest. It cried in pain and looked towards me in fury. Its body shifted, looking like it was finally going to move… but it was too late.

The lance in the sky broke and split just before reaching the top of the prison. Creating ten small lances, all falling down on the target.

Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang!

Music to my ears! The force of the impacts brought it straight down. On top of that I activated [Star Falldown] early. Sending a blast of starlight straight into it from above.

t had collapsed onto the ground, screaming “Reahheee!” The multiple arrows and lances were all still embedded firmly in its body. But quickly it wobbled to its feet and suddenly its black inky body glowed a bright haunting orange.

(“ It’s going nuclear ”)

It’s charging up!

My thoughts and Espr declaration overlapped. Weren’t you going to rest?!

The monster began laughing a sickly laugh. Stupid amounts of heat had channelled within the monster, causing the surrounding area to skyrocket in temperature–even though it was already bloody hot.

(“ You know I don’t need to ”)

I could feel Espr cruelly smiling.

(“ But what are you going to do about this situation? ”)

The creature was charging up. Well, it was already extremely charged. A stupid amount of volatile fire energy was already within its body. All of it was ready to go boom. I wasn’t sure if the creature had a way to survive or if it was just blowing itself after understanding it couldn’t win.

“I just have to kill it.”

(“ Is that really going to work? ”)

Like the lightning man before him, the Malcroaza’s death was likely to lead to a massive explosion. The immense amount of energy stored within, actively primed to explode could take out this sector of the city, and further beyond either way.

I ran towards the Malcroaza, “I just have to make it work!” Shutting up Espr in the process. 

The heat was unbearable. The burning of my skin and parts of my hair caught ablaze.

Reaching the insect bastard. I grabbed it by the back of the neck with my right hand.

Its body felt like solid liquid fire–I knew how stupid that sounds–but it was the only way I could describe this foreign feeling. My hand which was under multiple layers of protection began melting. 

The pain wasn’t enough for me to let go as I used my strength, spun and threw the monster into the air.

“Imprison!” I felt a strain tearing apart my body as I forced my four walling skills to change shape. In an instant shrinking them all around the pest and caging the pest.

“ReyaA?!”

“Shut up already!” All four magics looked like they were about to collapse at any moment. The only good thing was that they weren’t weakening in strength before that happened.

Now it was time to finish this! I didn’t plan to be loud today… But if I had to be, best make it a statement.

“[Starlight–”

A miniature purple star–its centre filled with dark ominous light–appeared a metre from my left hand. In direction of the demonic pest. I had all my [Solar Orbs] fly into the star–creating no external change.

I poured everything I could into the skill. My remaining starlight and most of my remaining mana.

“Reyarghh!”

“–Annihilation]!!!”

A deadly explosion of purple and dark red light released as the star collapsed. Blazing upwards the beam devoured everything in sight.

The beast's screams quickly were extinguished as the skill’s fury continued to soar into the sky.