Author's note:Here's the latest chapter and second half of the Fish Dragon fight. Whew, this chapter may be the longest one I've written so far.

Please inform me if there are any mistakes that I may have made. Also, like always, I''m welcome to all forms of criticism, advice, suggestions, etc.

*******

A Fish out of Water Part 2

The sensation of heated liquid engulfed me as I drifted deeper and deeper into the depths of the underground reservoir. This sudden change of pace was calming in a sense. No violence, no flying rocks, no angry dragon, not to mention, no annoying, self-regenerating tail. It was just me and the water.

Being submerged brought on a surprisingly familiar sensation. The heated water felt like hot springs and it reminded me of all the times I've spent in the bath. To me, taking long hot baths were one of my favorite past times which I’d use to enjoy back when I lived a comfortable life in my small, yet comfortable room. Back then, soaking in tub filled with hot water,sometimes occasionally with bubbles, was one of the only times when I could truly unwind and relax. I’d use to stay in the bathroom for long periods of time, long enough to the point where I would pass out from all the accumulated heat, and as embarrassing as it is to admit, I’d pass out often.

Like what I’d often due during my favored baths, my thoughts wandered for a moment, forgetting the dangerous and deadly monster above who, more than likely, knew how to swim.

I wondered how exactly I got into this mess.

How did I end up fighting something that resembled over sized tilapia? Why the heck was it so strong? And lastly, why does a fish looking creature puke out fire? It just doesn't make sense anymore!

Well, then again, none of the previous monsters I ended up fighting could exactly be classified as, cookie cutter archetypes of what a proper “monster” should be. All of them were weird, er… different in a sense.

Rather, asking for something so ordinary as a regular, straight-out-of-a-fantasy-novel dragon might be an impossibility in itself, simply because reality doesn't work that way.

Although in this reality, dragons did exist.

*sigh*

Without any forethought, I tried to sigh, which in retrospect was a stupid move, considering I was underwater right now. I had forgotten this fact due to the results of my reminiscing. The moment I opened my mouth, a rush of warm water to came and filled my nostrils.

*cough cough*

I quickly covered my nose and mouth with my hands in an attempt to stop anymore oxygen from leaking out and anymore water from entering.

“Damn it! I lost track of time again! How long have I been here?”

I silently thought to myself.

I looked around my surroundings. I took note of the glowing crystals I had seen when I first entered the cavern. I was correct in thinking that the crystals also expanded into the lake. The scenery created by the multi-colored glowing gems was magnificent, gloriously beautiful to say the least. One wouldn’t think such a scene could be found under such a decrepit forest.

The faint light illuminated a small portion of the lake. Looking up, I could see the border between the air and water, where what little light that came from the cave and what little light came from within the lake collided, and created a refraction which lit up the surface of the water. As the air bubbles drifted upwards and reached the peak of the water’s surface, they reflected even more light, creating tiny lenses that saw past the water’s translucency and looked on into the cavern above.

Maybe it was the lack of oxygen circulating through my brain, but for some reason, such a simple view seemed strangely mesmerizing to me.

Finishing my observations, I looked down into the depths below.

Surprisingly, the lake was pretty deep and deceptively wide. Well in retrospect, it might not be such a surprise. Since I doubt something as big as that Dragon Fish above could fit through the small entrance I came through, the only passageway it could have used was this lake. If this lake was used regularly by him, then I expect it to be able to accumulate something of his size.

Thinking about this, I was reminded that he cavern above wasn’t all that big and looked devoid of life. For Snapper head, the cave might have been something like a resting spot. Maybe it was in hibernation or something and I just came at a bad time. Although I don’t exactly know what type of creature hibernates at the end of summer…

Looking down deeper, I noticed that the water was flowing towards the bottom of the lake.

Most likely the bottom led to an underwater tunnel that led out into a wider open space or something similar. Maybe the sea.

That was probably where Snapper head came from. The ocean’s the only logical place where something that big could hide out without being noticed. Maybe Snapper head was really a deep sea underwater monster species that lived on the ocean floor, which no one’s discovered yet. It would only make sense. Despite all the magic innovation, humanity’s progress on interstellar as well as deep sea exploration remained stagnant ever since the 21st century. And in a sense, I could see why this was so. I mean, why put in the necessary effort to explore something so far out, when new things keep popping up around you? Ever since magic’s sudden inclusion to our world, strange and even stranger things have kept society’s attention preoccupied.

Things like labyrinths and dungeons, places where monsters seem to be gathered with no logical basis. There are also other “wonders” that suddenly popped up ever since, for example, the floating islands along the British isles and Australian coastlines has kept adventurers and researchers alike occupied. These islands suddenly appeared almost overnight. All attempts to enter these islands, through magic or conventional air crafts has resulted in failure, since the instant anything comes as close as 150 meters from the islands, a strong gust would suddenly appear and knock the person back.

There’s also the so called Devil’s pit, a giant sink hole that lies dead center in the South American country of Brazil and covers about half of country’s total surface area. When it first appeared it devastated the country, both economically and geographically. Such a wide sinkhole claimed many lives as well as permanently destroyed much of the farms and cities in Brazil. Of course the situation turned around the moment magical ore with abnormally large abundance of mana was discovered inside and along the borders of the massive hole. It was also discovered that ever since the sinkhole appeared, The area’s magic output has been abnormally high. Brazil now claims a monopoly on the mana ore industry, propelling the country into superpower status.

The hole has also allowed for some cool innovations to occur. For instance, using the mana within the atmosphere as well as many of the ores, Brazil was able to make a crude imitation of the floating islands by using a constant gravity spell that consumed large amounts of mana. Such a replica could only be found in Brazil, since the Devil’s pit is the only place with sufficient amount of mana to keep such a large area spell going. Now the floating island, located within the center of the hole and stands a good 200 meters above the Amazon, has been named the new capital. New Brasilia is now one of the most magically advanced cities in the world.

Yet despite all the ore and floating cities, no one has ventured further than 20 meters deep into the chasm. The oppressing feeling of pure fear that would suddenly overwhelm a person has been too much to handle. And even with this unanswerable phenomena, it doesn’t really help that locals have circulated the rumor that a screeching wail resonates from the hole at night.

But if I had to pick what I’d call the most amazing wonder, that would simply be the 8th continent. A mass of land that rose from the pacific ocean (seriously, it came from the water, there are even YouTube videos of when it happened) on the 10th day since magic appeared. A piece of land whose size lies between Africa’s and Australia’s, they ironically named it the continent Mu, after the concept of the lost continent penned by traveler Pangeon in the 19th-century. Although most people label it as the Adventurer’s continent, since explorers are scrambling to discover its secrets and countries are struggling to claim and colonize territory.

And even with all the efforts, not even a 4th of the continent has been successfully explored and mapped out. This can probably be attributed to the fact that its filled with crazy strong monsters and magical beings. Rumor has it that the lowest leveled monsters in Mu are all AA rank.

Such wonders and numerous more has occupied society’s fancy, so it’s no surprise if Deep Sea is ignored for the time being and monsters like Snapper head can roam free and stay undiscovered.

Plus, just from looking at Snapper head’s physiology, you can clearly tell it resembles a deep sea creature.

From what I could observe, that monster had some bad eyes. I think it may have used something other than visual light to “see”. It would explain why it could see through that dense fog it created. Plus, I think something as strong and odd looking like that would cause some attention if it were known, yet I haven’t heard a single thing about any sort of monster even remotely resembling a fish dragon.

That scenario also adds another question….why exactly was it here?

“...”

I thought it over and decided to ignore the whole thing. I wasn’t some scientist, and the only real thing I cared about was beating the damn thing, and not where it came from.

Shrugging, I shifted my attention back to the bottom of the lake, where the water seemed to flow out.

“It’d be bad if I got swept up in that current. I don’t think I’d have enough air to last me long enough to make it to the other side.”

With this last thought and the slight anxiety of drowning mixed with the primal fear of the darkness below, I began swimming upwards, somewhat eager to resume my fight with the monster above.

*****

Timmy the North Tusk Boar.

He was a monster that climbed the ranks from his original rank of D to AAA. An amazing feat which started from the moment the young boar ran off with a bag of feed that a careless amateur tamer had foolishly left in front of him. Unbeknownst to the tamer, the food he had procured was in actuality a collection of proteins which temporarily enhances a monsters strength and overall senses. Usually such an item was used as an illegal supplement to enhance a monster tamer’s monster before contests or competition.

The boy who bought such a thing for a discount at a shady looking animal/monster pet shop had no idea of its implications.

Although a temporary increase in power may not have mattered for a rank D in the long run, for Timmy, it was all he needed. With the increase, he quickly put it into good use by challenging and eventually triumphing over normally stronger monsters. When, the protein’s effects finally wore off, Timmy had grown stronger, reaching level B as well as having developed a sense for battle.

His growth did not stop there. As he grew stronger, the boar in question grew bigger and bigger. Now as a rank AAA monster, the beast was the size of a small car, far different from his original size which resembled a big dog. Another thing the boar had cultivated was its war like shift in personality. Now as a boisterous and easily excitable monster, Timmy enjoyed battle and had a personality which valued and appreciated challenge.

This love for a challenge and the stubbornness he naturally had was exactly why this outclassed monster had always fought with Snapper Head, a being whose real strength was comparable to an SS ranked monster’s.

Although Timmy’s current situation wasn’t due to such things. In actuality, not even Timmy knew why he had knowingly condemned himself into a battle which would have spelled defeat, and more than likely, his death.

Yet nevertheless, Timmy was here.

Seeing a blurred shape resembling a man fly past the cavern was the signal Timmy needed for his own assault. With a roar that would have rocked the heavens had they fought above ground, Timmy stampeded towards the opponent. He capitalized on Snapper Head’s moment of distraction and struck with a headbutt that ended with a tusk lodged into the Dragon Fish’s scaly left arm.

Normally, with Timmy’s speed and strength, which were both lower than the man who recently took a nose dive into the lake in the cavern, the beast normally wouldn’t have been capable of puncturing the scaled hide, which had been forged with the overwhelming water pressure from the world’s deepest oceans. Yet a tusk was clearly embedded into Snapper Head’s appendage. This was due to the sharpness of the said tusk, one forged through battle and a routine which consisted of sharpening the said tusk against hard stone and occasionally, against the bones of his enemies.

The Boar attempted to drive the tusk deeper into the Dragon, but with a simple grunt and a flail of its arm, the Dragon dislodged the mass of brown fur, breaking off the tusk in the process. It then quickly swiped down at the Boar with a collection of its 8 tails, which promptly sent Timmy a great distance from his original position.

Snapper head recognized the nuisance who had interrupted his battle. It was the annoying irritation which always bothered him whenever he attempted to sleep. To think such a lowly thing had the nerve to interfere.

Snapper head roared with a noise resembling a blend between a shriek of a dying cat and the scratching of a black board.

Snapper head intended to warn the plebeian to leave his presence. Although he was irritated, he held no desire to kill the lowly thing, after all, he was no bully. Squashing the weak out of irritation was an action unbecoming of this prideful Deep sea monster. Despite Snapper head’s apparently kind actions though, such a display only enlightened the flame within Timmy’s heart.

The Boar had already decided to take on this challenge head on, and it responded with a roar of its own, one not as earth shaking but one that wouldn’t lose in terms of spirit. Timmy began his assault once more, rushing at the dragon with an even greater speed than last. Although this was only met with the same strike from Snapper head’s collection of tails.

Despite being repelled, Timmy again attempted another assault. This pattern continued on and Timmy’s rush would always be intercepted with the use of Snapper Head’s tails. The fish dragon extended its tail. It was now irritated to an even greater degree and had now decided to punish the stubborn nuisance. It separated its tails from each other and increased the speed of their slashes.

Although the tails held no scaled armor like Snapper Head’s original tail, its speed and sheer amount more than made up for this weakness. With the increase in speed, Snapper head turned its tails into impromptu whips, which whirred at frightening speeds and dug into the boar’s flesh and opened up numerous old wounds which had yet to heal.

Yet, despite its injuries, despite its weaknesses, Timmy continued attacking.

The boar wasn’t smart. It wasn’t fast on its feet and neither was it clever.It could not think of any ways to beat this monster. It couldn’t think of a sufficient tactic to fight against. And being a boar, Timmy did not possess the ability to sidestep, meaning it could not dodge the tails which were clearly out of its league.

Timmy only had his perseverance and will power.

It did what it could only do and continued its straight forward rush, despite his injuries.

He was only getting progressively worse, his health nearing death’s door. The only thing Timmy could do….

...was hope for a miracle.

******

I broke through the water’s surface, the heated air I had previously grown familiar to hit me again once more as I took in the pressure. After I caught my breath, I surveyed the scene before me.

I saw a mass of fur and blood across the cavern, along with Snapper head’s tails smacking along the limestone floor.

At first I was confused as to what the brown creature was, but upon closer inspection, it came to resemble a pig.

“A pig...no more like a boar, could it be…?”

This overgrown animal was clearly injured, most probably from fighting Snapper head. Although looking at the state of things, I wouldn’t necessarily call what transpired a fight. It was more like a massacre.

I shifted my gaze to Snapper head. His expression showed one more of irritation rather than blood lust (the one he showed to me). What was more surprising was that Snapper head was injured. It had a tusk imbedded in its left arm. Knowing Snapper head’s strength first hand, I knew how much power this thing had, and exactly how tough its exterior was. To penetrate that scaly armor must have taken an equally tremendous force.

Looking over at the boar, who resembled a lower ranked monster, I found it necessary to fix my first impression.

“hmm...like I thought, this thing really is that, the AAA ranked monster of the forest...”

I looked over the scene once more, looked down and smiled.

Whether the boar knew it or not, it did me an extremely good favor.

This favor wasn’t the fact that he had managed to wound Snapper head, honestly speaking, I doubt an injury to its arm would have impended the fish too much. What I was grateful for was the boar’s efforts. Truth be told, this monster saved my life.

Had he not kept the fish dragon occupied, I would have been most likely dead. Going by the dragon’s appearance, had Snapper head followed me into the lake, it would have spelled my doom. He would have had an incredible advantage over me.

After all, a fish in water is more dangerous than a fish out of water.

The fact that Snapper head hadn’t entered the lake showed exactly how hard this bruised and battered boar fought.

I strode over the length of the cave and approached the boar. I ignored Snapper head, who had realized I had resurfaced. I blocked out his roars and furious tail snapping as I quickly approached the boar.

I rubbed its fur like one would a puppy. I didn’t have an ability that could heal him, but the least I could do was show my appreciation.

“...Thanks for the hard work.”

I leaned down and scrubbed of some of the blood that was flowing near the boar’s eye. In response the creature grunted in what I could only assume was approval.

“Leave things to me now. This thing might be tough, but I’ll make sure to return the favor.”

The boar shook and made a snorting noise from its snout. It seemed dissatisfied with me taking things into my own hands.

“Hmm, for a half dead pig, you're pretty uppity, you know that.”

I looked at the boar’s head and through a mess of blood clotted fur, I met its eyes. The boar had a defiant glare, one you wouldn’t find in a defeated animal.

We stared at each other for a minute.

After a while, I shrugged.

“Fine then. But at least take a rest and catch your breath for a sec here.”

I patted its back in reassurance. I looked at him again and smiled.

“Meanwhile, I’ll take a little bit of weight of your shoulders and keep the big guy over there occupied while you catch some r and r.”

I observed the boar’s heavy breathing shallow. I smiled in satisfaction, stood up, and glared at Snapper head.

I walked over to the fish dragon, who had satisfied himself in waiting patiently.

*Smirk*

“I appreciate you waiting there. Really, how nice of you...now”

I cracked my knuckles again.

“It’s time for round two!...er, or does it make this round three now..?”

Before I could finish my banter. One of Snapper head’s tail struck at me. Barely avoiding the blow, I rolled to my left and grimaced.

If I’m not mistaken…

“...it’s faster.”

“GR OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Snapper head roared back.

“tch!”

This is seriously a problem. I could barely dodge the original tail. I don’t think I can dodge 8 times that going at a much faster speed unless I do something extra special.

Snapper head’s tails reared back, and one by one struck down towards me. Quickly, the tail’s momentum and speed picked up pace, until the only thing I could discriminate were rainbow colored flashes.

It was a perfect defense. The speed alone caused tremendous damage, and despite not aiming the blows precisely, they were enough to overwhelm me. I stepped back outside the tail’s range. Luckily this time, it seems that the tail’s couldn’t extend like before. Snapper head probably had a specific amount of reusable flesh and he used it all up recreating his tails.

“hmm...This is quite a predicament. I don’t really have any long range attacks, well unless you can count compress punch, but…”

From a distance, I tried using a compress punch at snapper head, but passing through his tails, the punch quickly fizzled out before it could do any damage towards the thing’s main body. The only thing that reached him was a mild breeze.

“Hah~ Like I expected, Compress punch is useless from this distance, especially with those tails flailing about.”

The tails' speed was enough to create a torrent of air that acted as a defense towards my compress punch. The punch itself lacked enough power to get past such a tremendous gale.

“Now..what to do?”

I sighed and squatted down, going into a quick thinking position I used to do quite often when I fought monsters.

“Would dropping stalagmites on his head work? No no no, I don’t know whether his tail is fast enough to react to it, but I’m sure that armor hide of his could easily withstand something like that... Oh! What about carrying around a rock as a shield to block the tails...but then again, seeing as how those thing cut through limestone like butter, I don’t think that would be a very good idea..”

I muttered to myself as I brainstormed various ideas. In the end it seemed like nothing I could think of was enough to beat this thing.

“Hah~ I guess I’ve got no choice but to bring that out…”

I steeled myself. I was planning on using another one of my abilities from my assortment of usurped monster abilities.

Although I generally disliked doing this. Aside from compress punch, which my body has already adjusted to use, and maybe [physical enhance], which only brought on side effects if I overused it, the rest of my abilities brought too much strain to my body and I’d end up facing various side effects whenever I used them without care. Basically, out of the 8 abilities I had managed to acquire, I could only use 2 effectively. Really, that’s not very good. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Another set back to this was that currently I could only use one power at a time. The last time I used two at the same time, I managed to end up in a month long coma. I had thought about training my powers, but if I ended up in a cycle of comas, I’d miss the majority of my teenage years, which was something I couldn’t stand.

I mean, you know how many episodes I’d miss doing that? That’s not even to mention all the figurine sales I wouldn’t be able to participate in…

What made this ability worse, especially in this situation was that this particular ability left me physically vulnerable, so even so much as a scratch could kill me.

“But I gotta do what’s gotta be done.”

I took a step forward and another and another until I was about a 10 centimeters away from the tails’ attack range.

I took a deep breathe and activated my next ability.

“[Monochrome]!”

I took a step forward. The surroundings slowed and my vision turned black and white. In this new grayscale world that only I could see, everything was moving at a much slower speed.

Monochrome was an ability that enhanced reflexes, senses and pretty much all forms of perception and sensation. If used effectively, monochrome could enhance all 5 aspects of my senses (i.e. vision, hearing, touch) to varying degrees of improvement and even had the bonus of activating an extrasensory perception (or in short a sixth sense). Although I could only enhance one aspect at a time right now.

I named monochrome after what it did to my color perception while the ability was active. In exchange for propelling my reaction time beyond godly measures, the extent where the once imperceptible whip like tails now seemed fixed in mid air, my vision could now only see in various tones of one color, or to be more specific, I could only see in black and white.

In this grayscale world, nothing was beyond me.

A drawback to this ability was that it left me physically vulnerable, seeing as how monochrome only affected my perception and left the physical aspect of my body alone. Right now, my reaction time and mental processing powers were beyond human measures, but my body remained in its base form. Being attacked would result in the same grievous wounds, although now the question was whether my body could keep up with my reflexes.

Since this ability didn’t enhance my physical speed, I moved through the sea of tails slowly (or at least slow in my eyes). I took careful, well-placed steps with as little movement as possible. I strived to make my actions as efficient as possible, getting rid of all unnecessary movement, and capitalizing on my new ability. The tails which were mere centimeters from my body were easily avoided and I made my way closer and closer to Snapper heads main body.

As I leisurely observed my surroundings while moving my body, my gaze fell upon the tails. I now had the perfect opportunity to observe these dastardly appendages.

The tails counted eight, and lacked any scaly armor. They were all flesh like, and resembled squid tentacles or something similar, of course with the lack of suction cups. the tails all met together at the base where the main body of the tail was armored.

‘Oh...what’s this…?’

Looking closer, I saw that where the tails opened up, a hole was present along the base of the tail. The hole was gaped wide open, and looking at the insides of it, I could clearly see a row of sharp teeth that covered the inside walls of the hole.

In short, it resembled a mouth of a squid or octopus.

‘Heh, the tail really did look like an octopus, or more like the monster itself was like a chimera or something similar. Not only a fish, but this dragon also had octopus like aspects.'

Like a chimera, who had a tail with the head of a snake, Snapper head had a tail with the head of an octopus. The original tail before may have been an armor like substance that protected this part of its body.

‘And if it needs protection that means it’s vulnerable!’

I changed targets and began approaching the base of the tail. The flying appendages were easy to dodge, and after what seemed like 15 minutes (although in reality it was more like 4 seconds), I was face to face with the canined hole.

‘Now comes the hard part.’

I cocked my fist back like how I usually did when ever I used compress punch.

I was planning to use compress punch to send a blast of air towards the inside of the tail, but the only problem was that I couldn’t be in monochrome mode while I was doing it.

This part relied on how fast I could activate compress punch after monochrome ended. If I was even a moment late, I’d end up taking tremendous damage from the 8 tentacle-like tails. The good thing was, at least there was no delay when it came to interchanging between abilities.

My mouth slowly widened into a smirk. I could feel my heart pounding at an incredibly slow pace.

‘Being in the face of extreme danger is quite exhilarating.’

Oops, my hedonistic side is showing.

I regained my composure, and looked at the opening. The mouth was filled with teeth that were covered, or more accurately drowned in saliva.

To ensure maximum efficiency, something that packed a more extreme punch than compress punch was needed.

After waiting for the right time, I took a deep breathe and deactivated [Monochrome].

Instantly, the once slow tails returned to their normal intensity and speed as the color in my eyes rushed forward.

Without wasting even a moment, I quickly threw a straight punch towards the direction of the mouth before the tails could react fast enough to rip my human body to shreds.

‘[Compress punch! Variant; Gale!]’

Variant gale.

Being one of my most used abilities, Compress punch’s possibilities opened up to me. After familiarizing myself with the ability, I could change the types of wind I sent out. Currently I had three variations of Compress Punch. The normal punch I use didn’t pack a heavy blow, but it had a good enough range and quick deployment. Gale variation sent out a much stronger punch but had an extremely short range.

Gale was best suited for close range combat. Combat like the one that I was having right now.

With the thrust of my fist, a wall of air expanded outwards. Gale variation’s air was covered in razor sharp winds that cut through the vulnerable insides of the tail. As the insides continued to sustain damages from the sharp winds, it slowly expanded while even more and more air filled the tail.

Quickly pulling my right fist back, I followed up with a second serving, throwing my left fist in unison with the retreating right hand. Another wave of pressure rushed through the creature's tail.

In an instant, the trunk of the tail exploded from all the accumulated pressure. It’s eight appendages flew outwards and the cavern walls were splattered in blue blood, scales and tail meat.

As the last chunks of tail slapped down on the floor, the room entered a quiet silence. Snapper head hadn’t uttered a single screech from the moment its tail exploded.

It looked like Snapper head was in shock. What a very human like reaction, I noted.

Even before Snapper head could do anything, I immediately retreated. The side effects of Monochrome hadn’t set in yet, but they would soon.

After I got out of Snapper head’s attack zone, and reached to where the boar was resting, I waited. The side effects weren't that dangerous, but in the middle of battle, they were life threatening. As a drawback for using monochrome, my reaction time would be delayed by 1.5 seconds. Basically anything that my eyes take in were things that happened 1.5 seconds earlier. Of course I could always just close my eyes and fight blind, but I’m no ninja samurai who's been trained to fight bears blindfolded.

As I waited for the side effects to set in from a safe distance, A thundering shriek resonated from the cave and filled my ears. 1.5 seconds later, I saw Snapper head open its mouth and silently screamed at my direction.

“Ah, the lag’s finally set in.”

I sighed. I couldn’t possibly wait for the side effects to wear out since it took a whole day for that to happen. But the human body is surprisingly resilient. I was now merely waiting for my mind to adjust and adapt. For now, close combat was a no no.

Although Snapper head didn’t seem to agree to this notion. He began to stagger in my direction. He swayed clumsily, probably not used to the missing tail, which consisted of about half its body weight. But slowly and surely he was closing the gap. The out of sync stomping sounds mixed with the delayed sight of this tremendous monster lumbering closer sent chills down my spine.

“H-how do I get out of this now….”

Throwing several compress punches was useless, as Snapper head shrugged it off and continued its pace.

When all hope was seemingly lost, a once forgotten mass of brown fur began to shake. The boar steadily got on its feet. It looked at me once, and with a gallop, he rushed forward to the Sea monster.

Snapper head was apparently surprised (or maybe it was still in shock?) by the sudden appearance of this past challenger as he was too slow to avoid the boar. The beast’s one good tusk impaled itself into Snapper head’s other arm.

The Sea dragon’s assault halted as the beast preoccupied him. Now without the threat of the tail, the boar was fighting a much more fair battle, although it was still severely outclassed.

“Hmmm….With the help of the boar, I can probably do that now, and attack in where this stupid lag wouldn’t matter.”

I smiled. I couldn’t waste the Boar’s efforts, I had to put in my share too.

While the Boar diverted Snapper head’s attention, I ran as quickly as I could manage to the farthest wall of the cavern, increasing the distance between Snapper head and me as much as possible. My next attack, which fortunately, happened to be the last variation of compress punch (that meant no more pesky side effects), worked best the further away I was from my target.

Once I was as far away as possible, I prepared myself. The reason why I hadn’t used this attack before during this fight was that it had an extremely long charge time. Much longer than Snapper head’s own fire ball.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

This time, instead of going into a fighting stance, I separated my feet until they were shoulder width apart and extended my left arm towards snapper head. I formed a gun shape with my left hand with the thumb pointing towards the ceiling and held that hand with my right hand. I aimed carefully at Snapper head’s chest, where I presumed the heart was and whispered,

“[Compress punch], Variation; Sniper”

I felt tendrils of air gather around the edge of my finger tips.

This attack was useless in close range, since the majority of its power originated from the surroundings. The further it needs to travel to reach its target, the stronger the resulting attack would be, that type of thing. That’s why it was the perfect chance to use this move while the Boar was distracting the dragon.

I gathered air before my fingertips, and began moving it in a circular motion in front of my fingers. Eventually, after a good amount of air had a gathered and a strong wind was now present, I enveloped my two extended fingers in the wind tunnel I had produced.

Now the only thing left to do was to accumulate enough wind.

While I was doing this, I turned my gaze back at Snapper head. I saw the irritated expression he produced, and his constant shift in attention as his eyes darted between the Boar and towards me. Eventually, Snapper head seemed to reach a decision, as he stopped moving altogether and ignored anymore of the Boar’s attacks. He sucked in the surrounding air (or maybe oxygen) and expanded his stomach once more.

I looked uneasily as its stomach continued to expand. My own attack still needed time, and although his did too, it was undoubtedly much faster than mine.

After a while, of seeing the stomach’s continued expansion, I felt the searing sensation of heat approach me.

As I saw the delayed launch of the fireball 1.5 seconds later, I pushed my left thumb down, and whispered,

“Bang.”

1.5 seconds later, I saw the air tunnel which dissected the approaching tunnel. Another 1.5 seconds pass before a medium sized hole appeared on the left side of the Sea Dragon’s chest.

“...”

I heard a crashing sound that shook the cavern like a mini earthquake.

“.....”

1.5 seconds later, Snapper head slouched onto the limestone floor.

Chapter 6

Chapter 8