The Dungeon Tree

Without a second thought, Felix and I activated our aura. There was no way we were going to be able to fight this monster without it. Even without aura, the monster's power exuded great pressure.

"Should we run away?" Felix asked, keeping his eyes locked on the monster.

"Are you kidding? We both saw how fast he moved. There's no way we can outrun him." Tightening my grip on Genki.

"I get that but what else can we do? We're both spent on magic and I've only got so many stamina herbs. Got any better ideas?" Felix briefly glanced at me.

"Do you have any big spells that might be able to hurt him?"

"I might have something like that." Felix said with a worried look.

I raised my brow, "What's the catch?"

"You'll have to hold him off by yourself."

"Oh that's not too ba-"

"For ten minutes."

Oh.

I let out a sad groan before nodding my head, "I'll see what I can do."

As Felix began charging up his mana, I rushed towards the monster. As I charged forward, I pulled Genki back into a position so I could thrust him forward.

"You sure this is a good idea, John?" Genki asked.

"Not even remotely."

Despite my rapid approach, the monster's expression remained unchanged. Instead, the monster moved its weapon into a defensive position. I didn't let his actions break my focus, I kept charging towards the monster at full speed.

Right as the monster entered my range, I thrusted Genki forward. Despite how heavy that greatsword looked, the monster managed to move it quickly over and put a full stop to my attack and kill any momentum I had. I went to pull Genki back but the monster was faster, raising its sword up so fast it caused Genki to fly out of my hands.

It was almost as if time had slowed down. As Genki continued to fly away, the monster tightened its grip on the greatsword and began pushing it downward so it could land a direct hit on me. Despite such a short window of time, I gave the monster a smile before snapping my finger.

An explosion appeared right in front of Genki, sending him flying into the monster's greatsword, redirecting the sword so it would miss me. The sudden shift in movement was enough to make the monster take his eyes off of me. Not wasting any time, I lunged forward and slammed my knee into the monster's snout.

The monster recoiled backwards, allowing me to safely catch Genki before he hit the ground. Holding onto his snout with one hand and onto his greatsword with the other, the monster gave me an amused look.

"Not bad reflexes… I can see how you beat Takamori." The monster said, moving his hand away from his snout and over to the handle of his greatsword.

"How many minutes has it been so far!" I shouted.

"It's only been like one and a half!" Felix responded.

That's… great.

The monster smirked at my disappointed expression before raising his greatsword. The monster suddenly dashed right at me, causing me to quickly go into a defensive stance. Right as the monster was about to enter my range, he took a sharp turn towards Felix.

"Hey, wait! Where do you think you're going?!" I shouted, quickly turning to run after the monster.

The monster stopped before Felix, his sword positioned so he could slash downward on Felix. With how much distance there was between us, there was no way I'd be able to get there in time. Not even using one of Genki's beams would be enough.

"Oh crap!" Felix shouted, looking up at the greatsword with fear.

"It was fun while it lasted, human." The monster tightened his grip on his greatsword and began moving it downward.