332 – Adam

As the naked, headless man sprints directly towards me, I am caught in hesitation over whether I should flee right away.
This monster clearly isn’t a proper living creature.

But I’m an A rank monster.
I should calm down.
There haven’t been any A rank monsters beside myself.
There’s no way one would appear so soon in this strange place.
It’s probably just a speed specialist.

Taking a step back, I check the headless human’s status.

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Species: Adam
Condition: Normal
Lv: 73/100
HP: 833/833
MP: 452/452
Attack: 652
Defence: 561
Magic: 592

Speed: 691
Rank: A-

Characteristic Skills:
[Automatic HP Recovery: Lv6] [Presence Perception: Lv7] [Soft Steps: Lv7]

Resistance Skills:
[Physical Resistance: Lv4] [Starvation Resistance: Lv7] [Poison Resistance: Lv4] [Paralysis Resistance: Lv4] [Illusion Resistance: Lv3] [Instant Death Resistance: Lv2] [Curse Resistance: Lv3] [Confusion Resistance: Lv5]

Normal Skills:
[Clay: Lv4] [Plague Breath: Lv5] [Curse: Lv5] [Death: Lv6] [Gardener: Lv5] [Gravidon: LvMAX] [Power Hand: Lv5] [Meteor Kick: Lv4] [High Jump: Lv6]

Title Skills:
[Final Evolution: Lv-] [Dweller of the Farthest Ends: Lv-] [Gravity Shooter: Lv-] [Curse Technique User: Lv6] [Gardener of the Farthest Ends: Lv-] [Obsession: Lv9]
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No matter how you look at it, it’s dangerous.
Its status blows the strongest enemy I’ve fought so far, the mother, far out of the water.
Were I to take a direct hit from it, there’s no guarantee that I’d be safe.
For that matter, what’s with the name adam? It’s not like it’s a primordial human.
Also where’d it lose it’s head?

【[Adam]: A- rank monster.】
【A monster with a wondrous body that lives in the lands of the farthest ends.】
【Possessing a war-like disposition, it has been known to kick to death the Hero’s party of a bygone era that happened to pass by without allowing any resistance.】
【Aside from its overwhelming physical abilities, if there is an enemy if feels it cannot match, it will curse them to death, using underhanded tactics to prevail.】
【It is primary culprit for the rumours that a bizarre monster lives on the other side of the sea.】
【It attacks animals with ugly obsession, but on the contrary, it also has a nature-cherishing side.】

I landed with casual feelings, and now something like a hidden boss has suddenly come crawling out.
Wait a sec, this is bad.
Even if it loves nature, it’s not like there’s any gap moe!

With a “Guoh,” I hurriedly call out to Aro on my head then raise my body high and grip the treant.
The petit nightmare spits out thread to stick to my partner’s head.
As expected fast decision making on its part.

I kick off the ground to spring up, then flap my wings.

After moving directly below me, its expression still unchanging, the adam stares up at me and stomps on the ground with an enormous bang.
This thing is seriously scary.
The scariest thing about it is that, even though the movements of its body are expressing such extreme emotions, its face doesn’t show the slightest change.
I never would have thought there’d be a time when I’d falter before an enemy smaller than myself.

A cloud of dust rises with its stomp, concealing it from view.

I turn my head to look out of the island.
This is a fresh start.
If I’m to live here, I first have to get rid of that adam thing.
I have some distance.
Should I barrage it with long distance attacks…? Or should I fall back for now and try to find a way to catch it by surprise…?

Though saying that, my body is huge and I don’t have any skills to hide myself.
If I were to make a mistake in human form, I’d be kicked to death in an instant.
But I also don’t think it’s an enemy that Aro, the petit nightmare or the treant could help with fighting.

『…Hey, it’s doing something.』

“Guuoh?”

Hearing my partner’s warning, I return my gaze down.
A vortex forming in its cloud of dust, the dust swirling toward the centre.
The cloud clears as it is sucked inwards, revealing the adam standing with a ball of black light in front of it.
Seemingly unsatisfied with just sucking up the cloud of dust, the black sphere appears to rip earth from the nearby ground.

It’s gravity magic, [Gravidon].
The [Gravidon] I saw before was from a monster with a powerful status, but the adam’s magic stat is incomparable to anything I’ve fought so far.
I have no idea how powerful it will be.

With a sudden flare, the black sphere is released from the adam’s mouth.
It’s approach is far faster than I expected, making dodging difficult.
I promptly guard with my wings.
The black sphere crashes into my wings, releasing shock waves as it disintegrates.
Sharp pain runs through me as I feel the bones in my wing snapping.
Feathers from my wings scatter through the air as my balance falls apart.

It had ridiculous speed and power.
I can’t take too many of these… As I think that, I see black light gathering in front of its mouth again.
Hey hey, that’s not allowed.
After shooting that stupidly powerful attack, you’re not going to give me a chance to respond? So this is max level [Gravidon].

As I plummet with my balance shattered, I move my wings as much as I can to shoot [Wind Slashes].
The adam nimbly dodges my storm of wind blades by jumping to the left and right.
The blades crack the ground, violently throwing up a cloud of dust.

It shoots the second [Gravidon].
I turn my wings to the front again, but the damage I receive is greater than before.
As the black sphere sinks into me, it sends violent shakes throughout my entire body.
I feel my wings breaking entirely, and my altitude suddenly drops.
I guess taking my distance out of fear at the start was a mistake.

I knew it had [Gravidon], but I didn’t think it would be this precise or this high-power.
At a distance, I’m totally on the losing side.
To make matters worse, I’m carrying the treant in my arms, and Aro is riding on my head, so I can’t make too sudden movements.
Should I close the distance and bring the fight to it? I was overly cautious of close combat since I heard the anecdote about the Hero losing, whose attack stat should have been really high.

The adam looks up at my fall with a dispassionate expression.
Only its legs are restless, stomping loudly on the ground.

Falling, I start repairing my wings with [Autoregeneration].
Rather than easing the pain, it grows much sharper, but I’m just about able to realign my crushed wings and return to their proper shape.

『Hey, this thing’s bad! What do we do?!』

I also thought we’d have a bit more leeway, thanks to our level and rank advantage.
But the ouroboros is fundamentally an endurance type.
So when fighting an enemy of the same rank, aspects other than endurance become a problem.
I can recover from its attacks, and have my way of fighting as an endurance type, but with Aro, the petit nightmare, and the treant with me, I can’t casually receive attacks.
Fortunately my attack stat is better, but… Its speed is slightly higher.
More importantly, there’s a high chance that Aro or the others could get hit in close combat, so it’s not a option I want to take if I can help it.

The adam repeatedly bends its knees and straightens them.
I think there was [High Jump] in its skills.
Its tactic must be to seal my movements with successive [Gravidons], then use [High Jump] to close the distance and kill me.
Even if I were to try and escape with my recovered wings, I’d only end up getting shot in the back by [Gravidon].

It’s an outrageous opponent.
I never would have thought there would be a monster with enough firepower to sink an ouroboros by itself.
But… It’s perfect for raising my level.
I don’t have much leeway to choose how I fight.
I guess I’ll hit it in the only way I can.

The adam’s leg bends deep, then stretches out powerfully.
Here it comes! As its legs leave the ground, I swing my arm up.

I throw the treant high into the sky.