(Oct 21)

A wave of magic washed over the entire cemetery as The Grinch and I charged at each at a supersonic speed.

The Grinch raised both of its giant claws and swung them at me in the shape of an X, but I slanted my dragon’s jet downwards causing me to be slightly boosted upwards and dodging The Grinch’s attack completely.

With my dragon jet boost, I flew right over The Grinch and landed behind it.

Using the acceleration from the dragon jet, I spun around repeatedly like a spinning top, grabbed my sword from the floating dragon claw and swung it horizontally right at The Grinch.

My sword swing was so powerful, it released a magical wind razorblade that shot out, cutting everything in its path.

However, despite me being behind The Grinch outside of its vision, it still managed to duck in time and narrowly dodged my attack.

My attack missed and my razor wind attack went flying off into the distance, slicing a random tree in half.

The Grinch spun around and swung its claws upwards at me which I avoided by leaning backwards.

I quickly jolted my body downwards and stepped forwards, thrusting my left fist at its rib, hoping to land a hit while it was swinging its claws.

The Grinch noticed this and clenched its other claws into a massive fist and blocked my punch by smashing its fist into mine.

Our fists clashed as we both used all our strength to push back each other.

We were nearly the same strength, but unfortunately The Grinch was just a smidge bit stronger than I was and blasted my entire arm backwards causing me to fly back and dislocate my shoulder.

My arm went limp as the bones in my shoulder were completely out of place from the impact.

My entire body was already in agonizing pain, so dislocating a shoulder was barely even noticeable though.

I clenched my moveable hand, and punched myself, snapping the bones back into position.

Man, The Grinch is strong. Not only is it fucking fast, it’s also super strong. Even after taking 3 pills, I was still slightly weaker.

Honestly, if I had to say, The Grinch is probably as physically strong as Briggs is.

The Grinch and Briggs are very similar in their way of fighting. Briggs loses his mind when he goes berserk, and he’s wild beast like The Grinch.

Makes me wonder… if The Grinch and Briggs were to fight one on one… who’d win?

They have about the same physical strength… but The Grinch is much faster than Briggs is.

I’d say that The Grinch would have an advantage and has a higher chance of winning against Briggs.

‘So how should I deal with someone like this…’

Welp, no time to think as The Grinch was charging at me again.

The Grinch swung at me several times as I stepped back and avoiding the attacks.

The attacks were very fast and contained a lot of power, but its movements are simple and beastlike.

Strength? Very Strong.

Speed? Godly.

Attack pattern? Predictable.

The Grinch’s movements were simply sloppy, amateurish even.

I may not have been a master fighter, but I am a soldier with over a decade of experience. I’ve fought several monsters and learning patterns is a skill I picked up.

My eyes squinted as I carefully watched all of its movements.

Its right shoulder rises, left foot steps back, head bends down, left claw slashes up.

I dodged.

The Grinch continued to attack, and I continued to learn its moves.

Both me and The Grinch were moving at a super sonic speed which normally would be unperceivable to any normal person, however I was able to dodge all its attacks.

The issue here is, I can only dodge. Its attacks were simple enough, but I was cautious and didn’t want to get close to it.

If I attack, the more vulnerable I’ll become and it didn’t leave any openings for me.

I raised my sword once more and slashed at The Grinch several times.

The Grinch blocked with its claws resulting in massive sparks to fly out with a loud “CLANG!”

Since we were both moving so fast, every time we made contact, it would create a mini shockwave.

My sword swings looked like blurs of white and red lights as sparks shot out in all directions.

We were basically living in a different realm of time. From our perspective, we moved normally but every single swing or attack we made, was quick enough to outpace a bullet.

And I feel bad saying this, but… it felt… amazing. I was moving unlike I’ve ever moved before. The feeling of the wind on my face, the feeling of the air resisting against me as I zipped around…

Avoiding attacks and fighting… it felt great. Despite being at the very edge of death, it was satisfying. It reminded me of when I was young, when I was still in my junior days and fought a monster for the first time…

I continued dodging all The Grinch’s attacks while swinging my sword when suddenly, a giant yellow bird made of thunder shot past me.

The Grinch immediately noticed this and jumped out of the way as the thunder bird exploded into the ground where The Grinch used to be.

Alisha was providing long ranged support.

Nice.

She was never meant to be a front-line fighter, and she truly shines when she fights as a supporter. Same goes for William and the A ranked necromancer as well.

So instead of fighting The Grinch using purely long ranged attacks like before, I was the main fighter, and they’ll support me.

I continued to exchange blows with The Grinch, neither of us being able to hit each other and occasionally an ice spear or thunder arrow would fly in.

I swung my sword down onto The Grinch as fast as possible. Just as The Grinch blocked my attack, I released my sword, ducked under its arms and punched upwards at its face.

It quickly moved its head sideways and my fist grazed its face.

Shit, I couldn’t hit it even after all that.

But I still had many tricks up my sleeves.

The Grinch was strong, it was fast, and it had high defence. It excelled in every single stat.

However, I have a wide variety of skills and abilities.

As my fist grazed its fur, I attached some of my web essence onto it.

Once I confirmed that it was stuck onto The Grinch, I dodged all its attacks and jumped back.

Heh.

I produced as much web essence as I could and wrapped my entire hand in it.

When I pulled on the web essence, it caused The Grinch to stumble towards me.

The Grinch growled as it noticed the web essence that was stuck to its face and tried to slice apart my web essence…

THE FOOL!!! IT FELL RIGHT INTO MY TRAP!!!!!

Web essence has the properties of both rubber and gum!

At The Grinch’s futile attempts to tear off my web essence, it got stuck to The Grinch’s claws. The more The Grinch struggled, the more the web essence got wrapped up into its fur.

Its like trying to get gum out of your hair or removing honey off your hand! The more you struggle, the more it sticks!

Its entire body was covered with my sticky web essence.

The Grinch let out a low growl before it suddenly stopped moving.

It just stood there, not moving at all like a statue, as the magic in its body started to gather toward its chest…

Honestly, I’m ashamed of how long it took for me to realize what it was doing…

I was so caught up in the moment that I wasn’t thinking straight, maybe it’s a side effect of the pills, but I didn’t even realize until it happened.

The Grinch was preparing for another roar.

The same roar that it had unleashed before that dispelled all magic in its vicinity.

It couldn’t get the web essence off it physically, so The Grinch figured that it would just dispel it with a massive roar.

That was a very smart move, not only would a roar have dispelled my web essence, but it would’ve also dispelled William’s supportive buff on me and cause me to burn up again.

And it would’ve worked… that is, if I wasn’t there.

As The Grinch unleashed a massive roar, the soundwaves rippled through the air creating a shockwave to spread.

Since I was moving faster than the speed of sound, I was able to see the actual shockwaves and soundwaves travelling outwards and gave me time to react.

The most logical thing to do was to charge at The Grinch and attack it to disrupt the roar, but my instincts told me otherwise.

A warm bubbly feeling arose in my chest.

Even though I had never done it before, I somehow knew exactly what it was.

I inhaled, leaning backwards and my lungs expanded while my upper body compressed.

“Phew…”

My head shot forward as a wave of magic burst out of my gaping mouth.

““ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!””

I had unleashed my own dragon’s roar which shook the very earth itself and countered The Grinch’s roar.