Furious the sphinx tried to open its mouth to roar and ripped the roots around its mouth slightly but Randidly’s Intelligence was high enough now that the roots were incredibly resilient They ripped at the edges and frayed but held
Which was the perfect opportunity for an empowered Sweep to rip a large gash in the Sphinx’s exposed throat
The blood spurting out of its throat likely incensed it further and it bucked wildly ripping the the roots out of its stomach and slashing wildly at the roots binding its mouth ripping it to pieces During this time Randidly brought a mana potion to his mouth and drank it quickly By the time he had downed the thing the Sphinx had ripped away from most of the roots
Calling another Spearing Roots to shoot up into its flank Randidly surged closer
The sphinx had slightly recovered from its shock this time and twisted out of the way Even though its body was huge it managed to dodge and deflect most of the roots However though some missed Randidly just activated Root manipulation and brought them wrapping around the sphinx’s body
All the while he continued to stab and slash ripping large gashes in the skin of the sphinx
At that moment the sphinx threw itself backwards ripping all the roots to bits It then stood still for a split second and then its eyes widened
Grinning Randidly activated the pestilence he had hiding on the sphinx’s body sending it viciously biting into the open wounds of the creature For the teleport spell to work no foreign materials could touch the body Luckily for Randidly those hungry insects counted
The split second bought by the shock of the teleportation failure allowed Randidly to drink a stamina potion and rush forward Haste and Empower turning Footwork of the Spear Phantom into an impossibly fast and smooth movement technique
Furious the sphinx opened its mouth and shot a fireball at Randidly but he simply sidestepped and kept coming stabbing over and over as fast as he could
Still the sphinx was simply too big There was no way for Randidly to inflict a deadly amount of damage in a short amount of time But the point
The point would be making the sphinx convinced that he could
At that moment Randidly saw his chance As the sphinx stumbled backwards swiping halfheartedly at him to keep him back while shaking its head to rid itself of the pestilence insects Randidly jumped forward and thrust with the spear
Inwardly Randidly grimaced He had drawn a deep gash in the sphinx’s head right above the left eye he had been trying to blind it but it had jerked to the side at the last second
Still this was apparently the last straw With movement borne of panic the sphinx spun around and leapt towards the cave where Randidly assumed he had additional bodies waiting to eat just in case
Randidly’s grin crept higher
Gotcha
As the creature rushed towards the mouth of the cave Randidly strolled after it removing a mana potion from his bag and drinking it
Then just as the creature reached the mouth of the cave Randidly spent all 500 or so of his mana on Spearing Roots
Normally Spearing Roots was an incredibly powerful penetrative attack that had a significant drawback although it wasn’t truly a flaw Spearing Roots could only be produced from the ground Still most everything remained on or near the ground so this wasn’t an issue it just limited the avenues of attack Randidly possessed and on a monster with a huge body like the sphinx limited the areas he could damage easily
Where normally he could only produce the roots from the ground which limited their effectiveness a cave meant the ground was all around you And the Sphinx ran right into the large mouth of its cave only a meter or so of space between its head and sides and earth
An onlooker watching could perhaps believe that the cave had been a mouth this whole time and the viciously sharp roots were the teeth chomping down at the creature that foolishly entered into it
The roots caught it in its upper torso probably only its head making it safely through to the cave proper while wave after wave of root stabbed downward burrowing long holes into the flesh of the Sphinx all around its body Although Randidly hadn’t been able to bring it to bear earlier due to the sphinx’s ability to teleport there was no doubt that his Intelligence was of a level to inflict serious damage on an enemy even if they were Lvl 30
The roots were sharp the force they contained was vicious the wriggling movements of them due to careful use of Root Manipulation insidiously ripped the wounds open even wider
That said Randidly suspected that the Sphinx was still alive Using another mana potion Randidly used the roots to grind around for a bit before throwing the sphinx back out to the ground in front of him Then the roots twisted and settled hardening to block the cave
If the sphinx was still alive it wouldn’t be stopped very long by the roots but it was more than enough to slow it down while Randidly ripped into its back
Mewing in agony the thing staggered to its feet huge holes in its back and shoulders Even though that one portion of its body was a mess of gore that was only about a ? of its body Its head lower back and both sets of legs were fine
The wings however had been turned into broken useless limbs
As Randidly approached a notification popped up
Congratulations Your soul seed has been completely nurtured Upon being inserted into fertile soil the seed shall grow
One less thing he had to worry about then Now was time to finish this
You you you The sphinx said turning towards Randidly
Me me me Randidly said stalking closer This seemed to incense the creature because it opened its mouth again mana flowing rapidly to fill it But instead of a fireball the energy spread and covered a 10 meter area around the sphinx including Randidly
Within a second the air began to vibrate Then it began to twist and rip Jarring jagged vibrations strange movements in the air made it unbearable to be near that strange magic in the Sphinx’s mouth Randidly stumbled to a stop struggling to collect himself
Although he had been through alot this was the most painful experience Randidly had ever encountered It made his bones ache and twist his marrow roiling
After what felt like an eternity it stopped and Randidly collapsed coughing up blood It hadn’t done much actual damage but the pain combined with the strangeness
Randidly looked up just in time to see the sphinx leaping at him mouth wide and teeth bared
Chapter 55
Rolling to the side Randidly managed to get out of the way and then Empowered his hands and pushed off the ground throwing himself almost instantly up to his feet
The paw smashed to the ground leaving a huge crack in the earth and unfortunately Randidly was still too dizzy to recover completely after leaping upwards and could only fall back as the shockwave sent him staggering
Gritting his teeth Randidly forced his trembling hands to still just as another paw swipe came ripping passed This time he wasn’t quick enough and the huge claws ripped through his shirt leaving the flesh of his left shoulder in tatters
A notification came up that his health had dipped below 20% but Randidly couldn’t even focus on it his eyes narrowing to view his current enemy Although the sphinx had taken the initiative now that he really looked Randidly could tell that it too was slightly off from using that spell
It hissed at his close viewing spitting a fireball directly at his face Randidly rolled again his sharp eyes picking up the small form that slipped out of his pocket in the roll Reflexively he reached out and grabbed it his quick fingers wrapped around the small completely nurtured soul seed
Fertile soil huh
Recovering his spear Randidly had a crazy idea As the sphinx opened its mouth again to shoot another fireball Randidly threw the small seed towards its mouth The passage of even the small seed was enough to throw off the flow of mana for the spell and once more the fire energy dispersed