Dungeons Online - Chapter 172

Tom rushed forward.

He didn’t cast any of his supportive skills, unwilling to reveal his hand so early in the fight. Instead, he simply relied on his already fearsome physical capabilities.

‘Let’s see how good this Ex skill is!’ he thought, rushing towards the faun ahead.

“You are too hasty,” Fanuaris smiled, angling the hold over his sword.

Before Tom could even reach close to the monster, another sword appeared in its other hand, turning him from a single-wielder to a dual wielder.

‘Is that your trick?’ Tom thought, jogging at a fraction of his speed forward.

He saw no point in actually closing the distance and entering the close combat quarters. Just from the look at Faunaris face, Tom could tell that clashing weapons with him would be no different than a death sentence.

But there was one skill of his that required him to get just a little closer.

‘Recall,’ Tom thought, burying his feet into the ground. But instead of calling just a single spear of his…

He called all of them.

His hands instantly turned encumbered, unable to hold more than three or maybe four spears at once. As such, Tom had no other choice but to drop his main weapon, allowing all his magical spears to keep appearing in his palm only to instantly fall down.

“A trick?” Faunaris muttered, its eyes opening a little. It quickly took two steps to the back, escaping from the range of Tom’s domain.

‘Was it a fluke?’ Tom thought, steeling his face to not let his opponent see how disappointed he was. Given the massive level gap between him and the monster, he hoped that the latter would disregard Tom’s actions, allowing him to make full use of his domain.

In the end, it was the strongest skill he had!

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Tom thought, sliding forward as more and more weapons continued to pour out of his palm.

And then, there was a resonance, as if Tom’s call for his weapon struck a wall, only to rebound and clog the magic pathways his mana had to take to call forth his weapons.

‘Spearmage domain,’ Tom thought, in an instant, wrestling all of his weapons up and forward.

Due to his constant motion forward, every last spear of his was currently behind his back. Yet, under the influence of his spearmage domain, two things started to continuously happen.

First, the spear would jerk forward as if there was a rocket engine attached to its front by some kind of invisible string. Once the spear would pass by Tom’s body, it would suddenly start burning in hot flames and fire, and wind attribute coated the entire thing.

‘It would be best to make them explode on impact,’ Tom thought, gritting his teeth.

Because the monster retreated the two steps it did, he could no longer exert such precise control over his spears at the distance where the explosion would be effective.

“A spear domain?” Faunaris muttered, a hint of respect flashing through his eyes. “You really are that fucker’s son,’ it added, instantly throwing Tom’s concentration off.

“What?!” he asked in shock, losing control over his spears. The plan that he crafted for the fight fell apart in an instant, making four of Tom’s spears shoot forward, only to be deflected by a quick movement of Faunaris swords.

“Ah, sorry for that,” Faunaris apologized, shaking its head up and down. “That was unseemly of me. Do you need a moment to reorganize your thoughts?” it asked with an arrogant smile.

“I will…” Tom muttered silently, gathering his focus back.

‘I can’t make the explosion reach so far,’ he thought. By attaching the attribute to his spears and dissolving the spear just as it would near the faun’s body, he could make the freed energy of the magical spear fuel the explosion of the two attributes mixing over the collapse of their medium.

But now that the faun stepped outside of the range of Tom’s domain, he could no longer do it. In the end, this kind of attack was something that he came up with on the spot when his hopes for some powerful skill were broken.

‘Wait, if I can’t make the explosion reach him, does it actually matter?’ Tom thought, an idea appearing in his eyes.

“I WILL MAKE YOU ANSWER MY QUESTION!” Tom’s disposition changed. He kneeled down, grabbing one of his spears directly with his hand before throwing it towards the faun himself.

“Seriously, if you need to calm down…” Faunaris raised its head with a shocked expression on its face. It was clear that this monster didn’t expect this kind of outburst from its opponent.

Tom’s spear flew towards the faun… But just as it was about to escape from the range of Tom’s domain, it exploded.

For a mere second, neither Tom nor Faunaris could see each other as an orange flower of magical outburst shielded them from their view.

The explosion itself could, at most, warm the air around the faun. But blocking its view was enough.

Tom jerked all of his spears forward, sending them ahead in two batches.

The flower of the first explosion quickly diminished, allowing Faunaris to notice the attack.

“Can’t you see it didn’t work?!” it shouted as if in agony over Tom’s refusal to accept the reality.

‘Disperse,’ Tom thought, breaking apart the first wave of his spears.

For a single instance, a huge number of the explosion shook the entire room.

Sure, on its own, a single explosion could at most scare the mobs of the upper level. For people on Tom’s level, not to speak about Fanaris himself, it was nothing more than a gust of warm air.

But the same couldn’t be said about half of Tom’s entire stock turning into flames all at once!

“Tch,” Faunaris clicked its tongue, taking another step back. Even for him, the temperature quickly turned unbearable.

And then, the second wave of Tom’s spear emerged from the orange balls of flames.

Each of those spears carried no attribute whatsoever.

‘On its level, it’s likely able to sense this kind of magic,’ Tom thought a moment earlier, removing the attributes from the second wave of the spears. What’s more, he made sure to grab his main weapon by hand.

As soon as the first explosion was unveiled, Tom sent the second wave of his spears ahead, only to throw his main weapon forward half of a second later.

‘It knows what the domain is, so maybe in this way I can at least surprise it?’ Tom thought.

All of his magic spears… were ultimately nothing more but constructs of condensed magic. Tom dared not to assume that just throwing them at the faun without attaching any attribute would allow him to cheat the senses of the monster.

Just like he could feel the movements of the mob monsters in the dungeon before actually seeing them with his eyes, Tom believed Faunaris could treat his actions just in the same way.

As nothing more but a struggle of an ant, unaware of just how big the difference was between it and the human foot about to stomp on it.

But that didn’t mean an ant couldn’t at least try to fight back! As futile as it was, this was the right that every living being had.

“Clever,” Faunaris commented when the second wave of spears emerged from the explosion, all rushing at different parts of its body while others cut his possible routes of escape out. In a sense, this was the true form of a wall of blades, covering a huge area with equal distribution of threat between the blades.

“BUT ITS FUTILE!” Faunaris laughed the attack off. “DOMAIN!” it shouted, instantly dwarfing Tom’s attempts.

‘He can use it to,’ Tom dully noticed, rushing forward. He had no time to waste if his spearmage domain failed to work. Right now, as desperate as it was, only a close-quarter’s combat could still give him some chance.

“Ah?” Faunaris uttered in shock at the same moment when Tom finally emerged from the cloud of smoke leftover by the attack. He held a newly conjured magic spear in his hand, ready to attack the monster at the first moment’s notice.

But instead of attacking, Tom buried his feet into the stone of the floor, stunned by sight before his eyes.

His last-ditch attack, desperate attempt at overcoming the limitations of the monster’s senses… actually worked.

Faunaris held the handle of Tom’s main weapon. But rather than pointing it towards the young man, it instead simply stopped the weapon from piercing right through him.

Nonetheless, the tip of Tom’s spear was definitely embedded into the monster’s insides!”

“You actually managed to land a hit on me,” Faunaris muttered, raising its eyes in shock and awe.

“I did?” Tom instantly sensed the opportunity, dropping the spear in his hand and slowly walking towards the monster with an empty expression in his eyes. “I know it is too much…. but can I get my spear back?” he pleaded, his voice trembling, his eyes fixated on the point where the blade of his spear connected to the blood of the monster.