#106 – Cool wings! Where can I get some too?

#106 – Cool wings! Where can I get some too? A large open room with a round table, several chairs surrounding it, and a throne-esque seat at the head of the table. My best guess was that this was some kind of royal meeting room, where the demon queen gathered her generals and advisors and planned on how to wage war. Chat seemed to agree with me for the most part, although some suggested that it might just have been used as a typical CEO meeting room to discuss things like taxes and how to siphon as much money from the citizens as possible. Well, either way, it was the room where evil was conducted. I could feel the importance of the room, and could tell that someone important would be here to fight me. GeorgeDoshington: inb4 lawyer bossfight I snorted. “Oh no! Anyone but a lawyer!” I exclaimed in mock horror as I walked through the door into the room with my goggles on Ether mode, while looking around for any possible ambush spots. Although it might not be necessary this time, considering there was another door on the right side of the wall. So far, the enemies always appeared out of whatever other entrances the places had if they could. Sure enough, the door behind me slammed closed and I tensed as the other door opened. Out came another demon-looking guy, except this guy’s skin was all white instead of black and he had... a pair bright golden wings...? Odd. He also wore fancy red armor – similar to the other guy – and wore black and white gauntlets on his hands. Probably a melee combatant then. I didn’t wait for him to make the first move and instantly aimed my gun self at him before firing off a rocket filled with crystal shards. Before it could land, though, he ‘spotted’ me and took up a stance before pointing an armored finger at me, presumably in anger. I was about to say something witty to him when my world suddenly flipped. My left was my right, my right was my up, my down was my middle, and my back was my sky. What the f– Something slammed into me just as the weird sensation abated and I found myself flying across the room. Luckily, that was something I’d gotten used to already, so I somehow managed to roll with it, flip in the air, and land smoothly on the wall, sticking to it with my feet. My legs hurt a bit, since there had been a bit too much force, but nothing I couldn’t deal with. I looked up – from my perspective – at my opponent and saw that his skin had changed to black and his wings to red. He was also completely unharmed, having moved out of the way of the explosion and... probably had done something to avoid the shards as well. Well, crap. Guess he wasn’t only a melee fighter. Regardless, I did not want another repeat of the earlier mindfuck, so, albeit reluctantly, I turned on Intra-vision in addition to Ether vision, pushing away my discomfort of seeing the green cobwebs everywhere. Still if I could dodge whatever mental attack he would launch at me, I could deal with him. Unfortunately, instead of doing that, he thrust his armored finger toward me and I could see both the bright orange matter concentrate in it before shooting out, and the black lightning shooting out with my normal vision. I launched myself off the wall to the side and rolled on the floor, perfectly ending up in a crouching position, just as the black lightning struck the wall I’d been standing on. And that was just about enough for me. Time for a counter-attack. I stood up from my crouch and pulled out my gun self again. Just as the demon fired off another lightning out of his fingers, I pressed the trigger and fired a volley of crystal shards before side-stepping the lightning. The attack nicked me and I winced but otherwise was fine. Unfortunately, my opponent also managed to avoid taking any damage, by conjuring black fire and destroying my crystal barrage. That was probably what he had done against my first attack as well. Well, so far, he kind of used the similar moves as the final boss from the crater dungeon. Should I expect fire breath as well? Regardless, I was at a bit of a disadvantage. My superfast tentacle was great for blocking physical attacks, but if I were to use it to block the lightning, it probably wouldn’t withstand it and then I would have to wait for it to regenerate. ...If it could regenerate. I didn’t really want to risk it. So despite my opponent using a very obvious melee weapon, for the first time in a while, I needed to get closer rather than keeping my distance and shooting. The winged demon shot another bolt of lightning at me and at this point, I’d gotten used to the pattern, so I dodged it without much of an issue. Before he could do anything else, I sprinted forward, hoping to close the distance. But before I could, his wings suddenly spread out, and then flapped once in my direction. That was all the warning I got before a massive surge of wind and Ether crashed into me and sent me flying across the room once more. I landed on the wall again and immediately began running to the side. That proved to be the right decision as another bolt of lightning struck the wall where I’d landed a moment later. I ran to the side and jumped before sticking myself to the ceiling while dodging more lightning strikes. Then I faced him and pulled out my axe self. I filled it with Ether, tossed it in his direction, then immediately pulled out my gun self, fired a rocket filled with plasma in the spot he was already dodging into, and then leapt forward. The axe landed and exploded into crystals and a moment later, the rocket hit the demon head on as he moved to guard his face with his arms and wings. The missile exploded in his face and tossed him back as he shedded feathers and a wholeass arm. I landed back on the ground, resummoned my axe self, and didn’t hesitate in closing the distance with my foe. Then, all of the sudden, the green cobwebs in front of me warped and before I could react, I was confused again. My axe self felt like putty grasped in my nose and eyelashes like that, my elbows standing on the walls felt unbalanced– Something slammed into me again, but I somehow managed to stand my ground this time, despite the confusion. I glared at my enemy – who has once again become fully white with golden wings – and shot Rend at him, just to prove that he wasn’t the only one capable of screwing with minds. Unlike his mental attack, Rend manifested as a more of a bundle of the cobwebs flung in his direction. It hit him square on and he staggered, falling back into the pool of plasma. I didn’t hesitate to continue my advance. Moments before I reached him, I saw the cobwebs shift again and quickly spun to the side. I thought I had dodged it, but it had to have nicked me, because for a brief instant, I couldn’t feel my celery and my left palm tree ached. By the time I spun all the way around though, the weirdness was gone, and I kicked the ground once more to charge my foe. Right before my eyes, his color once again shifted to black with red wings moments before I reached him, and he met my axe swing with a punch of his own. Somehow, rather than me cleaving his remaining armored hand in two, he overpowered me and I lost my grip on my axe self as it was sent flying. But I didn’t need my axe self to attack. His punch brought him in the perfect position for me to slip into his guard, straighten my hand, and use Demon Queen Flames through it rather than my axe self – because yes, I could do that now. I cut into his shoulder with my empowered hand chop, creating a deep wound, but unfortunately, not enough to sever his remaining arm. He staggered back and tried to recover, but I didn’t let him this time. I lunged after him, curled my hand into a fist, activated Crystal Dragon Stomp on it, and then punched him straight into his armored chest. It exploded into crystals, temporarily blinding me and getting me stuck, but when I finally wrenched myself free, eager to continue the fight, I noticed that... He was gone. Only another boss chest left behind. I stopped and blinked as I gradually got my breathing back under control. “...Wait, really? That was it? That was... a lot easier than I expected. Huh.” GeorgeDoshington: damn u totally rekt him Jeofffff: just in tiiiime Jeofffff: hell yeah that was epic SunOfABeach: that was well done SunOfABeach: last move was a bit risky though “Haha, yeah! Err, yeah, I guess it was. That was the reason why I didn’t use the crystals with the keysword, wasn’t it? Eh, it’s fine though. Won’t try to do that again.” As I reflected on that – surprisingly easy – fight, I summoned my axe self back to me and put it into my Soul Pocket. Then I walked up to the chest and stopped an arm’s length away from it. “Hmm...” I tilted my head to the left... then to the right... then I slowly walked around the chest, my eyes scanning every detail of it. Jeofffff: oh this shit again After a full minute of this staring contest, I tensed up, took a step forward and summoned my ultrasonic tentacle. “Hya!” I yelled while doing a smacking motion with my entire body while bitch slapping the chest with the tentacle. I remained in my ‘I just gave you a huge slap in the face’ position for a few seconds, watching the chest from the corner of my eye. The chest did not react in any way. “...Hmm. Looks like this isn’t a mimic, chat.” Jeoff didn’t even comment. Damn, was he already getting used to this? I ought to up my game. Regardless, I finally walked up to the chest and opened it to grab my loot. Said loot appeared to be a set of the same black and white gauntlets the winged demon had been wearing. “Oooh, cool!” I immediately put them on and felt them with my Ether for any hidden functions. What I found was an odd combination of what I recognized as an Ether pathway and an Intra core. They were oddly intertwined and no matter how much I poked and prodded at them, they just didn’t make any sense to me. “Hmm... I wish I had Appraisal right now... Ah, well. Guess I can investigate these later.” I tossed the gauntlets into my backpack for the time being, since I could already fight unarmed just fine and having the extra bulk and weight would just be annoying. Not to mention, I was already wearing gloves and rings. It was pretty stuffy just putting them on. “Another floor cleared! We’re nearing the end, chat! I can feel it!” I exclaimed as I pulled out my super pillow and looked around for a good place to rest. I decided to rest on the large central table. To assert dominance and all that. Once recovered, I packed up, walked to the door from which the winged demon had come, and opened it.