There was no fanfare; the battle just started by both of them moving at the same time.

The monster in front of Sam opened its mouth, and from it emerged blood-red vines toward him. As each inch traveled, the entire mass of writhing vines grew bigger and thicker, at the front a screaming face forming, reminiscent of the noble he had been talking with. Sam had a moment to see the original body wither up behind the attack before he had to dodge.

Meanwhile, the moonlight that illuminated the circular room slowly turned into blood red, creating a ghastly visage.

With one powerful jump, Sam was away from the towering mouth of the wriggling vine creature that Zephyr van Luyt became, just as it chomped down at the place he had stood. The vine monster flew forward and took an abrupt turn toward Sam, its eyes looking rather hungry.

Sam just raised his left hand and aimed it at the throne that was left empty, and let loose a simple explosive wind ball.

BAMM

A giant red shield made out of triangles appeared and absorbed the attack.

"Damn…"

Zephyr just laughed, his voice sounding even more haunting after his transformation. "As if a paltry attack like that could do anything… Thy should try something better!" came the cackling answer from the monster as it rushed at him. However, this time, several creeping vines, sharp enough that the air whistled as they cut through it, emerged from the giant mass of still wriggling blood-red amalgamation of hatred and greed. And they all headed directly at Sam…

The main body, thick as some trees Sam saw in nature documentaries, rushed toward him with open mouth, intent on devouring him, while the separated vines, sharp and deadly, tried to skewer him from every other direction.

He just turned tail and began rushing around the room, occasionally firing off an attack at the shining shield protecting the throne, severing the vines striking at him with his sword, and trying to figure out the scenario.

Zephyr, still maintaining his noble diction, but sounding like an auctioneer who went hoarse months ago but still kept talking, began to curse him for not falling on the floor and bowing before his 'greatness'.

Sam simply tuned him out as he went over what he knew, sensed, suspected, and – ultimately – hoped.

The throne was ultimately important, but it was such an obvious anchor that Sam only shot magic at it, so that the monster would think he had fallen for the rouse.

'Though it could also be a double buff. Make me think it's not important, yet it is…' he mused as he expertly dodged several thrusts of plant matter, and some kind of scream attack was scattered by his shields.

The floor was made out of black vine, and under it, his senses told him that after maybe a few yards, there was only stone and even more stone. The throne was made out of some kind of weird plant matter that seemed somewhat alive. Sadly, he couldn't get a clearer picture of it while dodging attacks aiming to deprive him of his life-giving blood.

The monster itself was a non-entity. The plant matter chasing him was more than likely another puppet controlled by the real core of the monster. At least, that was what his finely honed gamer senses told him…

'Would the developers go that far?' He thought about it for a moment, then nodded. 'Yeah… they're bastards.'

Firing off a beam of void, it struck the blood-red plant monster, searing a gaping empty area into its side as it tried to veer in a different direction, yet its speed was not great enough to fully avoid the attack.

"Thy futile efforts annoy me, mongrel! Stop thy foolish resistance and become one of mine!" came the guttural scream of the monster, then a moment later, the pain seemingly fading away in a matter of seconds.

Sam skidded to stop, glancing around at the red cavern, the walls are creepily moving, as if everything was alive, and grinned.

"Mongrel, huh?"

Then took his void magic, directed it through his sword, enveloping the blade in a light that had a white core, yet was blacker than the blackest depths of the abyss. With an expert slash, honed through hundreds of hours of gameplay, he slashed toward the monster just as it finished his latest rant.

Once. Twice. Thrice.

Three thick bands of supremely sharp void energy raced toward the monster, who only had time to blink in surprise, wondering why the previously fleeing victim stopped, before it was cut into three places.

PLOP

The entire mass of vines, cut into someone's amateur attempt at spaghetti, splashed down on the ground lifeless.

However, this did not mean that the monster was dead.

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The sound of laughter, guttural and sinister, echoed around Sam in response to his action as the lifeless vines were absorbed into the ground. As he kept an eye on his surroundings, waiting for the retaliation, he was dismayed to note that the walls began to bleed.

'It is never a good sign if the walls bleed…' he mused as he kept his head on a swivel.

"Thy struggle is admirable, young mortal! Thus, allow me to showcase my FULL POWER!" came the roar of the monster form everywhere and nowhere.

Sam let out a sigh and blasted the ground under him with enough void energy to vaporize a small, innocent town in the countryside.

Here, instead, it erased a small patch of writhing black vines and revealed the surprised face of Zephyr, in the form of a vine snake, while also launching himself away.

He landed on the ground, on the other side of the wall – making sure not to touch the icky wall – crouched low, with his sword ready to parry and eyes trained on the spot he left.

However, instead of a furious monster emerging, he watched the vine snake slither upwards, as if some mystical magician were playing their flute, until its head was staring at Sam with cold fury.

"Clearly, I have a need for a different method…" Zephyr stated, and the snake's body lunged forward, and within a blink, it went through another transformation, vines and other plant matter bursting out of the body, slowly twisting around each other, until Sam was once again staring at the noble bearing of Zephyr van Luyt, wearing a dashing three-piece black suit, with a burgundy undercoat and ruby handkerchief.

The 'man' flexed his coat once, flaring the coattails, with furrowed brows, clawed hands seemingly trying to grab something before the monster got control of himself and let his hang dangle next to his torso, though Sam could see the artificial muscles flex and tense under the 'clothing'.

Zephyr looked back at Sam and dipped his head in his direction a little.

"It seems my august self had underestimated your talent, my little friend…" he stated in an oddly wistful tone. "None of my previous guests lasted more than a few turns with my exquisite body! Oh, the thrills we had before our deal was struck…" To Sam's discomfort, the last sentence came out rather… sexual, causing a shiver of disgust to run down his spine. Then the monster's head snapped at Sam and snarled. "And now… let us see, who can dance the dance of blood the most radiant way!" With that said, he reached behind his back and retrieved a rather sinister-looking dagger, dripping with a suspicious red liquid.

Then, without further ado, he launched himself at Sam.

The speed was almost impossible to see, much faster than the vine monster. Sam had to use all his power to keep up with, but in the end, he managed to meet the dagger with his own sword.

CLANG

This close to the monster, he didn't even need his mana sense to smell the disgusting smell of miasma and who knows how much blood.

Then his health began to dip as some kind of damage completely ignored his shield.

The monster's snarl transformed into a vicious grin, and Sam pushed him away with his own sword, the damage immediately slowing down as he managed to acquire some distance between them.

Unfortunately, his respite was barely a moment, as the monster was back with wild swings, all of them aiming at non-vital areas, clearly not caring if they hit.

Sam, using all his talent and skills, which after seconds were clear, was barely adequate in front of this monster, all the while focusing on his health, which kept decreasing.

They danced around the cavern, the monster pressing him continuously, him parrying and defending, letting his shield catch the few strikes he couldn't while trying to cut through the general miasmic mana in the air.

For a few seconds, that was all that could be heard in the cavern.

The clash of the old dagger with the pristine sword echoing in the room, while the small space around the throne began to fill with slowly trickling blood.

Sam's armor was full of cuts and holes, while the monster's was pristine, as he didn't even have time or opportunity to strike back.

Meanwhile, Zephyr just kept alternating between growling with lustful satisfaction or laughing with a deranged look that promised much pain. But it was a raid boss, and it showed. Sam could hold his own and survive, but defeating it alone would be almost impossible.

The operative word was almost.

Keeping his face neutral or fearful, he inwardly smirked. Finally, Sam managed to cut through the mana filling the air and focus on the guise of the monster in noble skin.

Immediately, instead of long hair and sharp contours, he was met with a gaping hole in reality, oozing at the edges, while in the middle, a primordial soup of almost congealed blood was bubbling away, and every time a bubble of this ooze popped, the particulates flew toward Sam, cutting through his shield and merging with his body.

'I hate debuffs and dots…' he grumbled to himself as he began preparing one of his favorite spells.

Naturally, his enemy noticed.

"Trying something? How…quaint…" Zephyr drawled, then his leg kicked out, which Sam barely managed to block with his sword, sending him sliding backward, while spreading his hands far apart. "Come, and do your best, mongrel!"

Meanwhile, the bubbles multiplied, almost encasing the monster in a cloud of 'mana poison' as the red moonlight cast its ruby light on him.

Sam shook his hand, trying to get the shakes after the kick out of it, then nodded. "Fine.."

He raised his hand holding the sword over his shoulder, and began to run neutral mana through it, pretending to be charging a basic slash – based on the smirk on Zephyr's face, it was working, too – and then with heavy movement, slashed forward, infusing the entire batch of mana with enough cleaning energy to overload a maid with orgasmic bliss.

Zephyr van Luyt had a moment of glorious gloating, seemingly ignoring the great amount of mana heading toward him at high speeds, before he realized what type of mana it was…

"What…how…Nooooooo…" he wailed as the spell hit him in the blink of an eye, seemingly washing over him before he could dodge more than half of it.

Physically, nothing really happened, but with his Mana Sense, Sam could see the giant gash on the gaping hole in reality, as if somebody had used the eraser tool in a photo editing software.

Not deadly damage, but it hurt it.

Sam smiled, using the same cleaning energy over his own body, very satisfied as the small loss of health stopped and his regeneration began to kick in.

The monster shook itself and snarled. "So that was thy secret weapon… How…original…" he spoke, much slower than before and somehow making every word sound like an insult.

His noble features twisted, taking on a much more monstrous appearance, lines of red veins appearing from under his skin, ridges forming on his forehead, and the ruby light of the moon seemed to darken to burgundy, while the walls turned into small waterfalls gushing out blood.

"Let's see if thy abilities are able to do that a second time…" the monster whispered, eyes hooded in the shadow of the moon, then it raised the dagger in its hand and launched itself at Sam once again.

Sam had only one thought in his head.

'Oh, shit!'

Then he had to defend his life for all that is worth.

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