Chapter 604

Ajax felt an icy shiver rise up his spine as he heard the howl. Out of all the things it could be a werewolf was one of the worst possibilities. Not so much because of the individual power of the floor boss, though that was also an issue, it was its behaviour that troubled Ajax the most. Werewolves didn’t wander the floor randomly, they actively hunted their prey. The howl he heard was the wolf getting his scent. It was now only a short matter of time until the floor boss caught up with him. 

Just because the floor boss had caught his scent however didn’t mean that the rest of the ants stopped flooding towards him, by now Ajax was sure he killed more than a thousand ants and he was starting to really question just how the prince and Aranor could clear floors of levels one hundred and fifties within only a week or two, he knew the time dilatation got higher faster the deeper one delved in the dungeon but it was a clear testament to their experience that they could clear floors that quickly. 

Now that the floor boss was on his trail Ajax pushed his sensory Skills as far as they could go. Before he didn’t care all that much considering the way ants were pouring towards him but he couldn’t afford to let the floor boss get the jump on him. 

Five minutes and another fifty or so ants killed Ajax was able to work out which direction the boss was coming from. Floor bosses didn’t always mesh well with the monsters on the floor and it was clear the werewolf was cleaving his way through any ants he met in his path as he headed towards Ajax. That let Ajax work out which way the boss was coming for him from and he used two hundred Mana to raise as strong of an earth wall as he could to block that passage. 

With the passage blocked off Ajax hoped he bought himself quite a bit of time since while the werewolf was a great tracker he wouldn’t be a great mazerunner as he wouldn’t know the layout of the dungeon floor. 

While the floor boss hopefully wouldn’t be a problem for a while Ajax’s fight against the ants got a lot harder. He limited his [Mana Syphon] to just what he could get from the ambient Mana, not only that but he also pulled back on the number of spells he was throwing around. 

Ajax knew it was only a matter of time until the floor boss caught up with him, not only that but while the number of ants he was dealing with at one time had lowered they were still coming at him in a consistent stream, doubtless Ajax had already killed most of the ones in the immediate vicinity of the queen but the message that the queen had attacked was slowly being passed throughout the nest and all the ants were running for Ajax as soon as they caught the scent of the pheromones. 

Pulling back on his physical abilities and use of spells Ajax found it a lot harder to deal with the ants. Thankfully because of all his delving his physical stats were high enough that he could reliably fight them as a warrior with only a small cast here and there when too many of them crowded him and he needed to kill them quickly. 

Ajax found himself getting hit a lot more. While the ants had almost no magical abilities and the little Earth Mana they did wield meant nothing to Ajax this meant they were fully invested in their physical stats. Every time one of them got their mandibles on him Ajax was thrown around like a rag doll. His leather armor was tough enough to not be shredded but Ajax still suffered a lot of crushing damage, even with the small pulses of Life and Light Mana he was running through his body Ajax was sure he was covered in bruises by now. 

Another hour and a half of moving through the tunnels and Ajax was sure he had killed about three quarters of the floor by now, he had long lost track of how many ants he killed but he was sure the number was above fifteen hundred. 

A low growl was the only warning Ajax got before a black blur dashed towards him from one of the tunnels. Thankfully Ajax was quick enough to react in time as he swapped his sword over to a shield and used one hundred Mana to knock the floor boss back with a Vibration Mana infused shockwave. 

“AAAAWWOOOO” The werewolf bounced off the walls of the tunnel once before it flipped midair to land on his clawed feet. 

A quick look at his Status told Ajax that he was down to about 60% health, his stamina had further fallen from 25% down to 20%, on the bright side he had managed to regenerate some of his Mana during the last hour and a half of fighting the ants and he had 40% of his Mana available. Certainly not what he wanted when facing a floor boss but hopeful it would be enough considering it was only a level eighty eight floor boss.

The werewolf didn’t wait for Ajax to attack and it didn’t seem intimidated by the shockwave Ajax used to knock him back. It charged for Ajax yet again a low growl rumbling in the back of its throat. 

The werewolf was fast, even with [Mana Syphon] turned all the way up Ajax was having a hard time keeping up with it. While Ajax was actually faster than the floor boss he didn’t have the same erratic movement. The floor boss didn’t seem to be slowing down for a single moment, it was running laps around Ajax jumping from the walls and the ceiling of the tunnel as his clawed feet left deep gashes in the rock. 

Ajax had to be careful, he didn’t know exactly how potent werewolf venom was when they were found below level one hundred but he was sure it wouldn’t be weak and he didn’t want to find out. 

Ajax held nothing back as he used everything he knew to try and put down the floor boss as quickly as possible. Despite its impressive speed Ajax was glad to find out the werewolf’s claws didn’t pack all that much of a punch, its slash managed to make it past his [Mana Skin] as well as the defensive enchantments on his armor but it didn’t manage to break through the leather. 

Taking advantage of the overextension Ajax managed to slam a [Mana Augmentation] powered hammer blow infused with enough Vibration Mana that he was sure the bones in the werewolf’s arm didn’t just break but the shattered. 

“Hhhyymm” A high pitched yelp came from the floor boss and Ajax was surprised to feel some Life Mana start to make its way through the boss to begin healing him. Ajax wasn’t sure how it was doing this but he also noticed the boss’s speed slowed down considerably and he wasn’t about to let the chance pass him. Returning his hammer to his spacial ring Ajax quickly performed the correct movement to launch a lightning bolt that further paralysed the boss as he brought his axe down in a downward Magma augmented cleve. 

Unfortunately for Ajax he was slightly too focused on the floor boss, he hadn’t paid enough attention to the rest of his surroundings as an ant rammed into him from behind its mandibles locking around his waist and pushing Ajax closer to the werewolf than he’d have liked. Even with the unexpected attack Ajax managed to keep his swing aimed towards the head of the floor boss.

Even with the lightning running through its body the werewolf had maintained enough control to move its head out of the way but it wasn’t enough to dodge the attack. Ajax’s axe bit into the boss’s shoulder and cut straight through its clavicle as it buried itself ten inches into the body of the werewolf Ajax feeling sure he had also hit and at least broke one rib with the power of his swing while the Magma was burning the floor boss from the inside out. 

What Ajax didn’t expect was that instead of pulling away the werewolf instead pushed into the axe, Ajax feeling his weapon push an inch deeper already a third of the way in cutting the boss in two from shoulder to hip. At the same time Ajax felt the werewolf’s jaws clamp onto the hand wielding the axe, the sharp fangs broke through his [Mana Skin] and they tore through the enchantments, the leather armor and Ajax felt them pierce his skin. 

The ant continued trying to crush Ajax’s midsection with its mandibles but Ajax couldn’t care about that right now as he pulled his dagger out of his spacial ring and into his free hand, with a precise stab Ajax used a small amount of Void Mana, just enough to get the dagger past the skull of the werewolf and directly into the brain. 

Ajax could feel the life Mana surge once more but he didn’t hesitate, as the ant was starting to pierce the armor around his midsection he continued stabbing using Void Mana to repeatedly bypass the boss’s skull. The werewolf’s jaws tightened, moving to tear the flesh off even as the Ajax’s bones started to crack. It took ten stabs before the boss finally died

Ajax felt the boss’s jaw loosen as the life left its body following the stabs to the brain, but it was too little too late, he could already feel the venom burn its way through his arm. A follow up swing with the knife similarly infused with Void killed the ant that was doing its best to gnaw on him. But Ajax now had something more important to deal with than the ten ants that were even now rushing from both ends of the tunnel towards him.