Scorching Ascension - [Progression Litrpg Apocalypse]

Blood spurted from between the two plate-sized scales, and a splatter of smoking flesh and blood hit Ethan in the face as the lord roared and as its maw lunged at him. Ethan let go of the lance, ducking under the twisting neck before he sliced with the [Draconic Claws], tearing deep grooves into the magically summoned scales. With a curse, he realized his own claws weren't cutting deep enough, not like the lance had managed.

The lord bit down, but Ethan had already slipped to the other side and considered his options.

Making the claws larger would have helped here, but the outer summoned scales are really tough. Next time, I'm using the Prime manifestation, he thought as he leaped up and tried to land on the monster's back, only for one of the blue orbs to zip away from atop the lord's head and slam into him.

The world turned and whirled as Ethan was sent skidding and rolling along the stony shore, sending chunks of stone flying whenever he made contact with the ground, and after close to three seconds, he came to a stop.

Fuck that hurts, Ethan thought as he rolled to the side. But it's nowhere near enough to do any serious damage.

"Toughness for the win," he groaned as he rolled to his side. The lord roared, and the air rippled around it as Ethan got back to his feet, shoulder and chest pulsing with pain from the impact of the water orb. But before he could move on the offense once more, the first regular-sized monitor jumped out of the water like a heat-seeking missile. With a quick, motion, Ethan re-summoned the lance and let the rocketing lizard impale itself, only for two more to jump out of the water and within a couple of seconds, all of the monitors were coming out, not afraid anymore now that their boss ordered them forward, and as Ethan watched them come at him, something twinged in his stomach.

Wasn't he forgetting something?

Ethan threw himself back barely a second before a ray of blue punched through the stone he'd been standing on like it had been made of wet cardboard.

Right. The big one first, he thought as he came out of roll and unfurled his wings.

Ethan flew away from the oncoming monitors and headed once more to the lord in a wide circle, eyes peeled for another jet of pressurized water. Thankfully, he quickly realized that the lord needed a moment to resummon the orbs, and that bought him enough time to just book it toward to the monster in a straight line and now, he just needed a way to deal as much damage as possible without getting washed away again.

Ethan started channeling another fireball as he closed in, dropping lower when the lord opened its jaw and tried to tag him with a simple—but still scary—column-wide jet of water. Ethan waited, still pushing mana into the fireball, and when the lord ran out of water to send at him, he let the fireball go and flew upward, waiting for it to be busy with the flames before he dropped back on it.

The lord watched the fireball come toward it and instead of dodging or intercepting with a well aimed shot of water, it took a step to the side and its tail came up and whipped out, hitting the fireball before it could reach its body.

The fireball detonated, engulfing most of the tail in the deflagration ,and when the fire dispersed, the magically summoned scales were gone, while the tail itself was mostly fine. Still, there were some burn marks here and there. Some discoloured or blackened spots in the natural scales, but that was the extent of the damage.

Damn. It's not dumb. Then again, all of the lords have been kinda smart, Ethan thought as watched it turn its head back and forth, trying to locate him. Unfortunately for it, it didn't look up, and it didn't seem to be able to sense him, which was why he was dropping out of the sky. Ethan didn't channel any spells, just in case it detected him.

Let's see how well you handle this one, he tought, barely a second before he made contact.

Ethan's feet caught the lizard right atop of its head and slammed it into the ground. He hadn't flown too high, so there were no craters, and no bones were broken. But it was still enough to daze the giant monitor and as it tried to get itself back on its feet, hissing as blood escaped from its mouth, Ethan, still on its head, shoved both of his clawed hands into the real scales of the lizard's neck. The summoned scales were still struggling to reform, having been dissipated from the drop, so the talons didn't have too much to stop them aside from the incredibly tough hide.

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The lord roared, enraged, but Ethan didn't care. With his position secured, he began channeling a fireball through his wing and with his claws, he let his flames cook the scales around them. He would have channeled much more fire, but right this second, 90% of his mana was going into the fireball.

Securing his grip on it's neck by driving his claws deeper, Ethan braced as he gently lobbed the fireball a bit to the left and down, giving the spell ample room to home back and hit the creature under its jaw.

He couldn't tell if he succeeded and if the spell had effectively hit the monitor's flesh, but it head definitely snapped up as fire flew up and around, scalding Ethan's wings even through his fire-resistance. His right hand detached, tearing out a good chunk of the lord's flesh and sinew, and even before the flames parted, the lord whipped his head about and the remaining arm ended up detaching as well, sending Ethan back down to the ground. With a snap of his wings, he stopped mid-air and flew back at the lord, only to see it turn tail and head back to the water.

"Oh no you fucking don't," Ethan said, landing right on the tail with the lance pointed down.

The lord hissed, head smoking and blackened by the flames, but it didn't stop, even though it's tail was impaled by the lance, and to Ethan's dismay, he knew it needed only a few more steps and it'd be gone. It'd be safe in the water, and it would have the upper hand.

Ethan couldn't afford that.

Gripping with his talons and setting his feet apart, Ethan activated both of the Zenith state and Scorching Ascendancy, gritting his teeth as his scaled feet dragged against the rock of the shore. A burning stream surged out of his chest and down his limbs, and Ethan's legs stopped dragging.

The lord pulled, head only a few yards away from the water, but no matter how hard it thrashed its tail, no matter how much stone its claws carved through, it couldn't gain away from him. Not even an inch.

Ethan held on, heart and blood hammering in his ears. He felt the pull, but in a way, it was as if the lord's strength was being pitted against both of Ethan's Might and will, and while he couldn't say much about the former, he knew that he'd rather break his arms and back than let it slink away.

He'd wasted enough time, and it was dying. Now.

With a roar of his own, Ethan yanked the lord back and shockingly, he felt the weight give much more easily then he expected it. So, with another step, he adapted the pull into a throw.

The lord's stubby feet lifted off the ground, and to be fair, it never went higher than a few feet off the ground, but it was plenty for Ethan because once more, he stood between the water and the monster. And it wasn't getting away.

Ethan rushed forward as the lord rolled around to get back to its feet. His lance, still embedded into the stone, burned just the same as his horns, and he knew he had a couple of seconds left in his Prime Manifestation.

He had to make the most of them.

Ethan took a leaping jump and gave himself some more height with the wings before falling back down toward the creature's head. A jet of water caught him, but with the Zenith state still impossibly preventing anything from stopping his charge, it didn't throw him back, and a moment later, he came out of the water, right above the opened, fanged mouth of the lord.

Ethan aimed at the scales between its eyes and shoved his hand forward right as the state was burning its last fumes. The summoned scales gave in without any resistance. The skin tore, and the bone cracked as if he'd just shoved his claws through a dry wall.

The Prime manifestation guttered out as the lord screeched in pain, but as Ethan held on with both of his arms, one of which was still gripping to the literal bone of the monster, he remembered the first monster he'd killed and grinned before he let a storm of scorching flames right under the lord's bone.

The fight should now be close to being done. Especially considering he still had a few more seconds in Scorching Ascendency.

Ethan let the flames roar, bathing the lagoon in red and yellow violent lights, and in the smell of charred flesh.