The impact against the lord happened faster and more powerfully that Ethan had expected. He’d been so focused on hitting the mark that he didn’t really consider the impact itself much but at least, he’d gotten a good landing.

  Ethan dropped on the lord of the swamp right between the shoulder-blades. He couldn’t even feel the moss that layered the monster’s scales. He just felt things give under his feet. Not the scales themselves, nor the skin. No, those had resisted the blunt impact, surprisingly. But whatever bone structure had taken the impact—which he hoped was the spine—was utterly crushed and reduced to gravel. And it didn’t stop there.

  His feet continued downward, violently pushing the lord into the wet and muddy soil of the swamp and from his vantage, it very much looked like the back scales actually went flat against the lord’s stomach, pushing the organs away and most likely rupturing a few. Ethan couldn’t be a hundred percent sure of that, but the blood that spurted out of the lord’s mouth definitely made it so some internal damage was likely.

  The creature tried to screech, but the only sound that came was a crackly, gurgly wheeze-like hiss that sent more blood out.

  The attack was a great success. But Ethan kinda regretted it as he tried and failed to wrench his feet out of the folded and distended skin, and what made matters worse was the pain. The drop had felt as if he’d just jumped from up high and landed on a mattress that was a bit too thin. He didn’t break anything, he believed, but he had trouble feeling anything aside from pain that was somehow both muted and sharp. A constant whine that seemed to ring within his bones, traveling up all the way to his lower back, and though he tried to feel his toes, he couldn’t. In fact, he couldn't feel much aside from the loud and tingly pain from his lower half.

  That was a bit dumb. Effective. But dumb. How long is it going to take until I get my legs back?

  With a flex of will, Ethan summoned his wing and pulled himself in the air as he wrapped his body in fire. With a couple more beats of the black, scaly wings, he lifted himself higher while the comforting heat sank into his back and legs, slowly pushing the pain back while he took in the scene. The smaller lizards were already in a frenzy, snapping their jaws and shooting balls of lurid green liquid at him, but he was already out of range, and as he hovered above the cleared space in the center of the swamp, he met the lord’s eyes.

  It was severely injured. A trail of blood was still flowing out of its mouth, coloring its sharp teeth red while it tried—and failed—to get its body to move. It was still wheezing, struggling to breath and while both its frontal arms and neck could move, it seemed that nothing below the still visible indentation in its back could even twitch. The legs were splayed, and the tail was listless. Unmoving.

  Paralyzed.

  The lord of the swamp glared up at him and roared, sending bloody spittle in the air, and the call was picked up by every other monitor in the whole swampy territory, both present and otherwise.

  I would have done more damage if I had been heavier… I wonder if I need some sort of [Draconic Muscles] spellform. I remember that minotaur spell working on both bones and muscles. Maybe because this is a higher-tiered version it’s more specialized? That could have probably helped me tank the landing a bit better, too.

  Ethan looked down at all the monitors trying to reach him, then to his right, toward the beach and lagoon where Ember would meet him in a few hours. He summoned his Prime wand and with a flick, he shot the first [Small Fireball] toward the lord and swooped down.

  I guess I’m going to get dirty anyway, might as well get a workout out of this and start prepping for the next spell upgrades, he thought as he flew above the fallen, dried husk of a tree and tore out the throat of a moss monitor that had clambered over it. The talons sank through the slimy and still wet scales effortlessly, cutting deep into its neck and only stopping when he felt his claws sink and scrape against bones.

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  Letting his momentum carry him past the bleeding monitor, he flew past the tree and rose in the air again, circling the still immobilized lord. The head swiveled to follow him, mouth glowing ominously, but as it opened its mouth and aimed, it twitched with pain and ended up shooting its acid shot way off, making the once dangerous attack easy to dodge.

  Ethan glanced down at the still glistening black talons as he considered his spells.

  Draining primagem could mesh well with the claws. I could give it some sort of life-stealing in combination with the Lifeforce primagem I got from Savannah.

  He shot down toward the lord with his claws held back. It snapped up at him as he passed its face and sent another fireball right in its mouth before he dropped on its neck and started slicing, fully focusing on the motion and on the feeling of his talons tearing through flesh.

  [Sapping Scales], [Draconic Claws], [Scorching Enhancement], and [Small Fireball], he counted as he jumped up and sent yet another horn-empowered fireball on the side of the mini-boss’s face and for good measure, he sprayed it for good second with fire to make sure his new trait would triggered before he flew away, luring the swarm away from the lord once more.

  Those were the spells that were closest to tier-3. He was familiar with them to varying degrees, but just like the last set of upgrades, it was a gut feeling. A familiarity he had with the spell and right now, he could comfortably say he was pretty close to upgrading all four.

  There’s also my own traits. Something like Child of Flames should certainly be close to an upgrade. If I could figure out how to do that.

  Ethan landed a small distance away on a piece of dry land and waited for the moss monitors to come at him as he hopped in place to shake off the still lingering soreness from the fall. Seeing their shapes slither toward him, agitating the murky waters made him think of starving crocodiles, and as the first few came up to him, he quickly dispatched them.

  Now that he passed the level 60 cap, most of the smaller monitors could not exchange more than one or two attacks with him before he managed to land a fatal strike. Stealing a glance past them, he was pretty sure the lord was not doing great. It was growing lethargic and it seemed it was even struggling to lift its head. But its eyes never left him and as their gaze met, the lord bared its teeth once more, and he almost thought it was smiling as it put its head down and closed its eyes.

  Then it hissed, and Ethan felt a shiver steal over him.

  You have defeated [Lord of the Swamp (II) - Level 70]

  You have reached Level 61. 1 stat point awarded.

  You have reached Level 62. 1 stat point awarded.

  Ethan dismissed the notifications and stared. Past the swarming creatures and at the curious phenomenon taking place.

  Out of the mouth and nostrils of the lord, a trail of green smoke was coming out, and within a couple of seconds, a cloud of glowing green had formed and began to spread out in the swamp, like roiling smoke. And instead of dispersing into the air, strands of the green magic turned into thin, rope-like tendrils that snaked and seeked the bodies of the moss monitors.

  That’s new?

  Ethan watched the first strand enter the first monitor through its nostrils, and he proceeded to blast it right away with a fireball right before he flew at the cloud, intended on burning it away. Whatever the lord had in mind, he wasn’t keen on letting it get away with it. Unfortunately, the magic seemed a bit faster than him and even when the fireball detonated, most of the smoke had already found a host, and the first empowered monitor stopped thrashing and twitching, and its glowing green eyes stared at him

  [Possessed Moss Monitor (I) - Level 66]

  Ethan stared at the dozen or so glowing eyes, at the swarm of “normal” monitors that were still inching closer to him, and he started blasting.

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