In the split seconds before the Hydra’s corrosive breath reached him, Alister, with a calm, almost playful smile, raised his left clawed hand. He extended one golden-scaled finger and slashed it vertically, slowly through the air before him.
“Void Rend,” he said, his voice cold yet composed.
From his claw, a golden mana beam erupted, blazing forward with immense speed. The sheer intensity of the attack split the poison torrent cleanly in half, dispersing the deadly cloud into harmless mist. The beam continued its path, striking the Hydra’s head and slicing it down the middle from crown to neck.
The remaining heads reared back, momentarily stunned by the sudden and brutal destruction of one of their heads. Their glowing eyes flickered with what almost seemed like fear, and then they focused, as in an attempt to petrify him.
But it didn’t work.
Alister turned his gaze toward them, his golden eyes narrowing. “Let’s avoid any more surprises, shall we?”
He raised his arm again, his claws crackling with golden mana as he swung in a wide arc. “Void Rend.”
This time, a much larger slash of mana tore through the air, its radiant energy roaring as it surged forward.
The beam cleaved cleanly through all the Hydra’s remaining heads, severing them in one sweeping motion. The colossal creature’s necks fell limp, crashing onto the poisoned earth with loud thuds.
Anzo, who had been watching from the sidelines, stood frozen. His eyes widened in shock as The struggled to process what he had just witnessed.
The sheer precision and devastating power of Alister’s attack left him utterly speechless. Meanwhile, Alister remained unfazed by Anzo’s reaction. With an indifferent expression, He lowered himself slightly crouching on the Hydra’s massive underbelly, his claws feet digging into its flesh. His claws shimmering as he plunged them deep into the creature’s abdomen. Blood and guts sprayed outward as Alister tore through layers of muscle and bone with ease, his claws carving a path through the Hydra’s enormous body. Within moments, he reached the prize he sought… a glowing green core pulsing with mana.
Behind him, Anzo finally found his voice, though it was barely more than a whisper.
“What… what kind of power is that?”
“I don’t understand… Do you have more then one talent?”
Alister didn’t bother to turn or acknowledge the question. His focus remained solely on the Hydra’s core.
He gripped the glowing green core tightly, and with a grunt, he pulled the core free from the Hydra’s mangled body.
As he stood to his full height, a yellow system window materialized before him, as the system’s voice echoed in this mind.
[Congratulations! You have successfully defeated the Hydra!]
[Dungeon cleared! Raid complete!]
[Daily quest: Out on a hunt. Complete!]
System Rewards:
-Skill Obtained: Petrifying gaze (S Rank – (Unique).)
– Prestige Points Obtained: 9,876
Current Prestige Points Total: 156,000
[Looting will now begin!]
Alister looked the details with a slight smirk, a look of satisfaction on his face, He turned the
core over in his claws, inspecting its patterns of mana swirling within.
Besides that what interested him most was the size of his prestige points, ‘Alredy over a hundred thousand, and with only ten days left, I’m far ahead of my previous estimate, at this rate after the nest couple daily missions I can be sure to have the total.’
‘And then I can finally cure her.’ he smiled, this time it was a little more gentle.
His gaze returned to the system window.
“So, this is my reward for dealing with this. Monster.” He glanced at the dead body of the Hydra.
‘Petrifying gaze, huh? It must have a long activation time or focus needed, bacuse trough out the battle neither I or Anzo were affected at all.’
‘What’s with this’ Unique’ label on it?’
‘System open the skill description.’
Skill Description: Petrifying Gaze (S Rank)
Category: Active
Mana Cost: 500 Mana/second
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Description:
Unleash the overwhelming power of your gaze, channeling it to petrify your foes or to turn living beings into lifelike stone statues at will. This dual-function skill grants both destructive and creative possibilities, embodying the might of domination and control.
Modes:
1. Combat Mode:
– Targets caught in your direct line of sight experience an intense surge of fear and paralysis. Those with weaker wills or significantly lower resistance are instantly turned to stone.
– Primary Effect: Instantly petrifies weaker targets within a 30-meter radius.
– Secondary Effect: Stronger targets experience:
– Paralysis (Duration: 5 seconds)
– Fear debuff (-30% movement speed, -20% accuracy, -15% attack speed for 10 seconds).
– Resistance Penetration: Ignores 40% of targets’ status resistance.
– Stone Shatter Bonus: Petrified targets can be shattered, dealing AoE damage equal to 50% of their max HP to nearby enemies (Radius: 10 meters).
2. Creative Mode:
– Allows the user to selectively petrify living beings into fully intact stone statues. The process is painless and preserves the target’s state at the moment of petrification.
– Primary Effect: Turns a single target (one at a time) into a stone statue.
– Duration: Permanent unless dispelled or reversed by the caster or a powerful magic user.
– Special Property: Statues maintain their structural integrity and can resist most physical and
magical damage.
– Target Limitation: Cannot affect beings significantly stronger than the caster.
Limitations:
– Requires direct eye contact to activate in either mode.
– Living beings with immunity to status effects are unaffected.
– Combat Mode’s petrification cannot be undone by the caster.
– Creative Mode’s effect can be reversed only by the user.
Special function || saying the following statment will ensure targets gaze at the player’s eyes
against their will:
“To gaze into my eyes is to choose eternity… whether in stone or submission.”
‘It has multiple purposes?’
‘That’s new. Some sort is special function as well, interesting.’
‘I’m curious to try it out.’
Anzo, still recovering from the shock of the battle, finally landed, hestumbled forward
slightly, his eyes wide with a touch of awe and fear. “What was all that… like that… and the heads flew off and… Alister, your strength-it’s beyond anything I’ve seen. How are you even
-?”