Chapter 248: The Scylla

Dasha rose to his feet. The monstrous maiden known as Scylla was ferocious with dark green hair that went down her back, red eyes lacking a human’s pupils, and a slimy green complexion. Hovering around her were the six hydra heads. Then, dipping in and out of the waters were her tentacles, so fast that he could barely keep track of them.

His Qi Sense reached out. The tentacles did not react and he leapt back to create further distance. The distance between himself and Scylla was over forty feet now.

’Those dragon heads and tentacles…I’ll have to look out for both.’ Dasha raised a hand. ’Black Cards.’

Appearing between his fingers were the cards of darkness. Scylla let out a roar and lashed her tentacles at him. Dasha remained still.

’Seven, eight, twelve, fifteen…’

Snap! They reached their end. ’Fifteen feet long,’ he calculated. Several of the tentacles were fifteen feet. ’Some are twenty feet.’

Scylla began to move. As if he would let that happen.

Dasha burst forward, the black cards between his fingers thickening, black gauntlets growing blacker, and activated Qi Sense. At full speed, he was considerably slower than the tentacles. The water splashed behind at every intense step.

What were twelve green limbs became a hundred as they flew at him. Dasha leapt in tiny increments to cleanly twist his body and propel through. No wasted momentum. Another ten tentacles arrived in blurs. He dodged them too. If he got caught, then Scylla would bite his head off with the hydra heads. Game over.

As if that would happen. The tentacles were long and fast. Without Qi Sense, he would have been forced to rely on instincts. An impossible tactic given the heavy cards he was holding. With this, he could think and react and dodge.

Splash!

He jumped high in the air and faced the six hydra heads directly, eye-to-eye. Scylla barked and the heads flew at him. He raised his arms in an X-mark, ready to throw the cards. Four heads came from above while the remaining two came from under. He was trapped. Shadows were forming. His boots touched the hydra’s teeth—and he sank inside.

Ultra Magic Barrier, Ultra Elemental Manipulation, Darkened Pulse, and The Shadows: the four Class Skill of the Dark Sorcerer Class. Darkened Pulse increased all darkness-related spells by 66% in exchange for over a thousand MP per minute. The presence of Darkened Pulse alone made Dark Sorcerer an overall risky class that drained an absurd amount of mana during battle. But in exchange, a player gained access to the great spells the class beheld as well as The Shadows Class Skill. This was the skill that granted the ability to swim in the shadows of the realm.

The realm of shadows felt murky like water and was a dark empty reflection of the real world. He swam through the neck of the hydra, down Scylla’s back, trapped in the realm and seeking for an opening. Peering out, it was as though he was inside a dark-tinted crystal container.

Splash!

He knew where he wanted to go. The hydra heads above had created shadows on the water beneath. Dasha jumped out of one of those shadows and threw the Black Cards, striking the confused hydras’ necks.

To the monster, his disappearance lasted less than a second. It didn’t make sense.

Scylla cried out and gave Dasha the chance to jump and strike Scylla’s maiden head directly. Her green leg tentacles attempted to protect her. Dasha turned invisible, causing three of the tentacles to miss and using the fourth as leverage to jump again.

’Blazing Fury Combo!’

Dasha was the same size as her head. His fists were, in terms of size, like flecks. Size could be deceiving, however, and the moment the skill was activated, his invisibility came down and Scylla was able to witness the human for herself.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

His fists alight, he hit her with three punches and three kicks that left tiny burn marks. The maiden screamed as she was forced back. The tentacles went down into the water and attempted to help her balance herself.

Dasha landed on the blood lake. For some reason, unlike her, he could stand on this. ’The magic is very thin in this blood lake. The buoyancy must be absurdly high then. I wonder what it is…’

Scylla recovered fast and the tentacles lashed out on him again. He dodged and weaved, silently counting how many there were. Something was off. His Qi Sense was struggling.

’They merged for greater speed, strength, and mobility.’ Dodge, dodge, dodge. Before, Dasha got the feeling he could pop up behind her. Not anymore. ’Once twelve, now she’s using six tentacles to fight and four to stay afloat and increase mobility. On top of that—’

Scylla was excellent at switching between their functions. Almost at random, one tentacle would go down and be replaced with another. The angles of the attacking tentacle would then be slightly different and faster, forcing Dasha to focus harder.

’But it’s not random. This creature, regardless of whether it’s human or not, must have habits. I have to see through it.’

Then there was the fact that she was further away. He was surrounded and he needed to bridge the gap to deal damage again. The tentacles went faster. Black Cards weren’t an option. He needed to understand her attack pattern.

Being able to activate invisibility, Qi Sense, and fight at full speeds—the results of his training were showing. He was understanding. He was getting there. Twenty seconds, thirty seconds…

Looking left and right while dodging and sensing, he almost forgot about the dogs attached to her waist. Turning in the air, avoiding another tentacle, he noticed the dogs had their mouths wide open. At that moment, he remembered that the hydra heads above hadn’t attacked.

Why hadn’t they attacked in conjunction with the tentacles?

Simple; the dogs were charging up a six-elemental blast. Lightning, fire, water, earth, wind, light, and darkness. The build-up was slow but the execution was fast.

’Ultra Magic Barrier—!’

He raised his arms and summoned the spherical barrier the moment the six brown dog heads roared and sent out their attack. Dasha saw black, white, yellow, and red all at the same time. The sphere cracked. He could feel himself flying through the air, the semi-transparent barrier cracking. His world spun and he ended up like another pebble skidding across the lake.

The six-element blast kept going and going and Dasha knew it was only time before the sphere broke. He deactivated the barrier and kicked himself down, fire licking his feet.

Falling, facing the blast whizzing past him, Dasha went into full analysis-mode. His back hit the lake and he followed the blast till it was gone from view.

’Scylla…the creature that faced Odysseus. It lives up to its myth.’

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