I gently pushed forward on the door, sending a loud creaking noise echoing throughout the fortress. As the door revealed more of the room, I managed to see it. The one who was supposed to be the king of this castle. He looked… human. Something felt off though. His arms seemed just a little too long and so did his legs. His shining yellow eyes felt like they had stabbed me in the chest as he glared at me. He wore a white suit with a light blue rose sticking out of his breast pocket. Next to him, a hammer was leaning against his throne.
The monster grinned, "impressive. I've never encountered humans who've managed to find my hidden fortress." The monster stood from his throne and grabbed onto his hammer, swinging it in circles as he took a few steps towards us.
"Akari's counting on us so we gotta take you down quickly!" I shouted, preparing myself to cast a spell at a moment's notice.
The monster laughed, "I take it she's fighting the slime knight my master gave me. He's a tough one for sure, strong enough to make some of my men think he might be stronger than me… that, of course, just isn't possible." The monster slammed his foot into the ground, causing ice shards to shoot out towards us.
"Ice Wall!" The ground beneath us shot up, blocking the ice shards completely.
"You also happen to use ice magic?" The monster's voice came from right beside me, making me jump away just in time to avoid his hammer.
"Just what are you? You look almost too human and it gives me the creeps!" I looked at the monster as he raised his hammer from the broken flooring.
The monster seemed to think for a moment, as if he himself was unsure how to give a good answer. "Well… I'm a monster. My master just happened to design me more like a human while creating me compared to my brothers who take more of a wolf-like appearance." The monster shrugged, resting his hammer on his shoulder as he looked over at me and Nizhoni.
"Brothers?" Nizhoni asked cautiously.
The monster smiled, "did you think I was the only strong monster on these islands? The southern island has three masters of a weapon along with their leader, Godrick the Grey while the mainland is just full of them. Though I do recall hearing how Godrick was defeated by a young human carrying a katana…"
That sounded a lot like John. Hearing that he was able to beat one of these so-called strong monsters brought a smile to my face. If he could do something like that, I saw no reason that I also wouldn't be able to.
The monster noticed my smile, "I take it you know the boy? He, alongside a group of others, managed to liberate that entire island from monster control. He's not the only one either. Groups of these humans have popped up all around the islands and are becoming a giant headache for my master's plan." He dragged his hand over his face, clearly tired of all the problems everyone has been causing.
"That's just how we do things. Now it's our turn to cause a headache here." I said, once again preparing a spell.
"No no no. I won't allow such a thing to occur here. I think it's time to end our little conversation and begin the real show."
The monster suddenly rushed towards me, swinging his hammer just inches away from my face. Thinking quickly, I ended up casting a short barrage of ice shards into the monster's side. I jumped away from the monster before sending another short barrage in his direction.
With a single swing, the monster had managed to smash away every single shard thrown at him. The first attack didn't even leave a scratch on him. That was to be expected though as it wasn't meant to be an incredibly powerful attack.
"If you think you can get away with conserving mana during this fight," The monster's face darkened, "Then you're sorely mistaken." The monster once again appeared in front of me, slamming his hammer into my stomach and sending me into a wall.
"Gah!" I violently coughed out as I fell to the floor.
The monster suddenly appeared in front of me again, this time using his foot to kick the bottom of my chin. As I was launched upward, the monster slammed his hammer into me again and sent me crashing into his throne.
It's fine. It's fine. I don't have to use it. I can rely on what I currently have to beat him.
Instead of appearing before me like the monster usually did, he decided to slowly walk towards me. Each step echoed throughout the throneroom while NIzhoni stood back in shock. This was most likely her first time fighting something so strong so I couldn't really blame her for freezing up.
I weakly raised my hand, "Icicle Blast: Form Three!" A large icicle shot towards the monster but he smacked it away with his hammer as he continued to approach me.
"You're… weak." The monster raised his chin to look down on me.
"Nah… you're just too dumb to see you've been played." I stuck my tongue out.
The monster took one more step, entering a small ice mine I had placed when he launched me into his throne. It wasn't just one though. I had set multiple mines to go off when one would.
Multiple icicles shot from the ground and slammed into the monster, hitting him from all angles. Nizhoni seemed to finally snap out of her daze and aimed her crossbow at the monster, firing arrow after arrow into him.
"I'm sorry, Alice. I just… I saw you get sent flying and I just…" Nizhoni gave me an apologetic look.
I waved my hand, "no no you're fine. Let's just focus on this monster for now!"
Nizhoni nodded her head and aimed her crossbow once more at the monster. Right as she was about to pull the trigger, the icicles keeping the monster in place shot off and were sent launching past us.
The monster began pulling out each of the arrows Nizhoni had shot into him, "those arrows of yours really sting!"
Nizhini grinned, "they were designed to kill you monsters after all!"
The monster attempted to dash towards Nizhoni but I ran in to intercept him, using a broken icicle as a sword to try and slash him. Although I missed, I did create some distance between us.
The monster turned his focus on Nizhoni, "as of now you're the most dangerous person here. Not because you're the strongest but because of that little device of yours." The monster dashed towards me, slamming me aside and sprinting towards Nizhoni.
Within an instant, he slammed his hammer into Nizhoni's crossbow, sending it crashing into the ceiling. With his hammer now raised and Nizhoni defenseless, he began to bring it down.