Before the aerudine left, she took Senna's moonbloom concoction and placed it into the furnace. With one last surge of her power, she imbued the poison into the furnace's blast. Blue light radiated through the open chutes and a deafening crash sounded from below. Logan rushed to the edge of the chute.

The aerudine smiled with satisfaction. "It will be hampered with that blow."

"Does it have mana poisoning?"

"Yes. It still has its physical might, but while the toxin lasts, it will not be capable of using any skills reliant on mana."

Hope surged in Logan's chest. "So it can't use that consuming ability to drain us of our skills?"

She nodded, but turned serious. "But I must take Mishki to safety now and find the dragon you spoke of. Keep it occupied until I return. Each Void rift it opens compromises the stability between Systems. I can do nothing about those."

Logan gave a quick nod, then turned toward the stairwell, still littered with stunned gobles. "Uh, actually, do you know the way out of here?"

She raised a brow, flitted her eyes toward the chute, and gave her wings a small flap.

"Ah, right. Mind lending me a hand? Or, um—"

Without a word, she ushered him to the dropoff. Logan wrapped his arms around her neck as she secured Mishki between her knees. They leaped together, diving deeper into the abyss with the waterfall cascading between them and the Devouring Coil for whatever concealment they could gain. As they soared above the creature's writhing form, Logan let go and landed hard on its scaly back as the aerudine followed the subterranean mountainside's slope up into the starlit sky, and then out of sight.

Logan balanced on the shelled exterior of the Devouring Coil. Beneath him, the surface resembled hardened lava, ridged and grooved, with occasional gaps where pustules pulsed through. Neon-purple boils throbbed beneath thin membranes, vitriolic fluids sloshing just under the surface. Despite its plated look, the creature's exterior flexed and coiled easily, though clearly at the expense of agility.

Logan clenched his jaw. If the aerudine was right, the mana poisoning would stop the Coil from using its Consume ability for now.

In the distance, the creature's head was thrashing through flocks of warpincer raptors. Logan squinted and spotted Cassandra and the others coordinating a desperate distraction. Radiant illusions and alchemical lures pushed the birds toward the beast's maw, while Alden and Bromlin stood guard, breaking apart anything that threatened the illusion.

They looked exhausted. Logan hoped he could take some of the pressure off.

The Coil shifted underfoot, forcing Logan to spread his arms to stay upright like a surfer riding a rolling wave. As the creature gorged itself, Logan zeroed in on a bulging pustule protruding through the Coil's armored exterior.

CryoPyre!

CryoPyre!

The first blast of ice froze the membrane. The second punctured it, sending a ripple across the surface.

Null Pulse!

Logan launched himself away before the sack could burst. It bulged slightly, but only a thread of orange slime oozed out. Its head twitched, but the damage was small enough that it didn't seem to notice.

He landed on a new ridge along the Coil's lengthy body. Another boil, another shot.

He balled his fist, memories flashing. TaeKwonDo as a kid. His father's voice, always praising the other students. Never him.

Screw you.

He punched.

The pustule burst.

Sticky fluid splattered across his gauntlet. For a moment, he felt the sting of power being siphoned, but his Gauntlet Mastery held. Relief flushed through him and he flung the ooze away with a sharp shake.

A hiss echoed.

The Coil's head whipped toward him. Bulging eyes, layered with green gel and flecks of shimmering void, locked onto his position.

It lunged.

Null Pulse!

Logan launched backward just as the creature's jaws slammed shut where he once stood. The collision cracked the Coil's own hardened exterior, chunks of armor peeling away and exposing more of the pulsing membrane beneath. A hiss of spoiled breath whooshed out from between its fangs.

He reached another bend further up on the Coil's broad serpentine body, boots scraping against slick tissue. His gauntlets found a grip on a spine-like protrusion, and he held.

Two more CryoPyre blasts followed up with a forceful punch earned the Coil's ire as it lunged again.

Null Pulse!

Logan flung himself backward as the jaws slammed shut. The impact cracked more of its own outer shell. Chunks peeled away, revealing pulsing flesh beneath.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He skidded along a spine-like ridge and blasted twin CryoPyres, then leaped again, this time close enough to slash at another pustule near its mouth.

Aerial Combat is level 18!

Orange ichor splashed across his arm, but no debuff followed. The moonbloom spores were doing their job.

Unsure if he was dealing damage, he stayed focused on keeping it occupied.

He glanced up, searching for the aerudine, but a thunderous crash answered instead.

A loop of the Coil smashed into the subterranean cliffside, and a wide Void fissure tore horizontally through the mountain, severing the only route the aerudine could have returned through.

"Shit!" Not even the aerudine could pass through that sheet of essence, let alone Razor. The grave realization that he was coming to the end hit him.

His father's voice: you never go for the final blows.

Radiant mana flickered in Logan's periphery. He turned to see Cassandra's wards were failing as a section of the Coil slammed toward her.

Shame filled his chest the moment he considered giving up, since no hope remained. What was he thinking? He might die today, but he still had a team. He would spend his last moments with them.

Null Pulse!

He soared toward the team, but a blast from the Coil disrupted his path. For a moment, the sudden appearance of radiant mana disoriented Logan. He had just seen it near Cassandra, faltering, but it suddenly sprang solid—not near her, but directly in front of his own face.

He hadn't gone cross-eyed, though. The ward he slammed into wasn't Cassandra's doing, but the Coil's. The toxin had worn off, far sooner than he had hoped. He bounced off Cassandra's skill, stolen by the Coil, and fell. Fifty feet lower, he landed hard. The pain would have rendered him unconscious if he hadn't raised his resistance, and miraculously no bones were broken.

Still, he couldn't reach them.

Wrapped around itself, the Coil's body created walls, labyrinthine loops that blocked every path forward.

Each time Logan prepared to leap, radiant mana lit up where he aimed to land. The Coil was watching and mocking him with Cassandra's power. It was a cat playing with its dinner, and Logan was the appetizer.

Logan grit his teeth.

Aetherlens helped him spot a shadowed patch beneath a tight knot in the Coil's body, and the radiant mana was lesser in that region. That might mean less interference.

Null Pulse!

He tucked and rolled mid-air, narrowly avoiding being crushed between two segments of the Coil. The armor cracked under the force with which the Coil had clapped its body together, and hardened shell fragments chased after Logan, embedding into his thigh and calves. Hairline fractures spread behind Logan, outpacing him like a growing earthquake fault.

As he passed, he stretched his arm and raked a filmy pustule with a growl. His damage might be minimal, but right now, he just wanted to annoy the monstrosity.

Ooze burst out and pain flared through his arm.

Aerial Combat has dropped to level 17. Aerial Combat has dropped to level 16.

The moment he realized what was happening, he flung the goop free, but the damage was done. His skill dropped by another three full levels and he was still nowhere near his team.

Worse, the Coil's shell was nearly gone. The flexible ooze underneath dominated the surface now, and every touch drained him.

With the mana toxin faded, his landing zones were disappearing, one by one.

Each time his boots touched the Devouring Coil's sloughing surface, the ground beneath him warped and rippled like a living sludge. The remnants of hardened shell were few and far between now. Most had crumbled away from the forceful thrashes, revealing the quivering, translucent underlayer that shimmered with faint veins of amethyst and sickly green.

Null Pulse!

He launched again, the familiar jolt of the skill surging through him. But the instant his foot connected with the next ridge, a violent thrash rolled through the Coil's body. The entire platform he landed on shattered beneath his weight like brittle glass, the fractured pustules spraying upward in globs of acidic mucus.

Null Pulse has dropped to level 23.

"No, no, no—" Logan kicked off the surface again, barely catching the edge of a jagged dorsal node. He scrambled onto it, breath heaving, but the Coil twisted and slammed him sideways into a second node. His elbow skidded along the exposed surface.

Another pulse.

Climbing has dropped to level 30. … Climbing has dropped to level 24.

The pain was real now. Not just from the impact, but from the gut-wrenching sensation of his abilities being stolen. He could feel the echo of his skills being peeled from his soul like layers of sunburnt skin.

"Stop moving," he hissed, and it wasn't even clear if he meant himself or the Coil.

He landed, slipped, then threw himself forward again in a last-ditch burst.

Running has dropped to level 26. … Running has dropped to level 23.

His boots didn't grip the way they should have. His gait was slower. Sloppier. Each motion cost more effort now, more raw strength.

And the Coil was watching.

A section of its body reared like a cobra about to strike, then slammed down just behind him. The impact sent a shockwave forward that caught Logan mid-run and flipped him over like a coin.

He hit the ground hard.

No, not ground. Flesh.

Every use of a skill made the beast more agitated. Every leap, every cast, every trick he used was turned against him. The Coil was learning.

He pulled his hand back from the slick surface, fingertips tingling. The vile serpent drew no blood, left no cuts. But Logan still felt violated.

This wasn't just a boss fight. This was an infection. Every point of contact was a virus eating through him.

The ancient entity thrashed again, and the remaining ledges—ridges of hardened scale, small clawholds of stable footing—began falling away in chunks, tumbling into the abyss like shattered teeth.

He barely vaulted to the next rise, no longer with Null Pulse. Just a desperate, raw jump.

Running has dropped to level 22. … Running has dropped to level 14.

His feet didn't catch like they should have. His knees buckled. He skidded forward, almost careening off the side. One hand caught the edge.

His breath came in broken wheezes as he collapsed into a crouch within the coiled ridges of the creature's back. It formed a small crevice where the undulating flesh couldn't squeeze him tighter, at least not immediately.

His skills were falling like dominoes. Each touch, each scrape, let the Coil take something else. Logan couldn't afford to cast. He couldn't afford to fall. Even running wasn't safe anymore.

So, he crouched, hands tight to his sides and muscles trembling.

The Coil rippled beneath him like a breathing lung, searching for him again.

And Logan waited. Breath shallow. Gritting his teeth as Janie's voice echoed: "You always say you'll finish something, but you never do."

He curled his fingers into fists, and glared out at the shifting battlefield before him.

"I'm sorry Razor, Mariv." He shook his head and glanced at his Interdimensional Storage Ripple holding the egg. "I'm sorry to you, too. I guess our luck has finally run dry, little buddy."

A pulse of gold flickered from the ripple and a fog lifted from Logan's mind as he gasped.

The aerudine said they needed a dragon to defeat the Coil? Well, Logan had a dragon!

Sure, it wasn't hatched. It wouldn't hatch without the heat of a thousand firestorms and the chill of a thousand blizzards, and his CryoPyre had nowhere near enough strength to mimic that.

But maybe he didn't have to rely on his strength. His eyes flicked back toward the furnace room.

In a crouch, he scanned for any remnant of armored shell to use as a platform back to the furnace.

Null Pulse!

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