Only I Am A Reader



Aside from the ones that it was using to keep itself standing, the rest of the Horror's tendrils stretched at Leo without holding anything back!

Having learned from the first time, the monstrosity was no longer stupid enough to target one spot, it spread its tendrils to cover as much as it could of Leo's surroundings.

'As I thought, it's not going to be that easy.'

As much as this seemed to be a very generic boss fight, just evading patterned attacks and dealing damage wasn't something that can be duplicated in reality.

Of course, considering Leo's vast array of abilities, he didn't have to use the regular pattern either.

Swish!

Instead of just exhausting his Enigma to use Shadow Movement infinitely, Leo recreated the Sword Breaker before he started slashing away at any tendril that came close to him.

Although cutting through the monstrosity's flesh wasn't nearly as easy as dealing with the gargoyles, Leo just had to increase the sword's weight to the maximum of what he could handle and go berserk!

Just over 2 points of Physique left Leo barely managing. Thankfully, the surging Enigma inside his body kept his stamina from reaching a critical point.

Grunch!

Meanwhile, Leo's overgrowing shadows had already emerged from the ground, now looking more like proper dragons, the Shadow Nightmares deeply sank their fangs into the monstrosity before taking a big bite each!

"Sorry, they are a bit too hungry."

Even in the tough spot that he was in, Leo still tried to draw the monstrosity's ire. However, he received no response as it was simply too focused on its target.

'I doubt it will be running away in this state.'

Most of the tendrils that he slashed off grew back within seconds, but Leo did notice that they slowed down the more he cut them.

Fortunately, the Horror didn't have infinite vitality, so Leo wasn't going to be stuck fighting forever. A result was bound to come out sooner or later!

Grunch! Grunch! Grunch!

Once the Shadow Nightmares' attacks grew too heavy on it, the Horror retracted some of its tendrils to try and hold them back.

Rather than an act stemming from self-preservation, the Horror only hoped to sustain its life long enough until it forced Leo to change his opinion. Sadly…

Grunch!

The flesh tendrils were no more than chewing toys for the Shadow Nightmares!

Unlike Leo who was still limited by his physical abilities, the Shadow Nightmares' statistics were unreal, they could be weaker or stronger at any given moment, and they were currently at their peak!

Roarrrrrrr!

Perhaps bored from just shredding their target using their teeth, the Shadow Dragons cried in unison as their bodies started changing shape once more.

Ghastly purple flames consumed their bodies before a new pair of limbs appeared. Looking no less terrifying than their fangs, their fresh set of claws didn't wait before they sank deep into the Horror's flesh!

The longer they stayed outside, the stronger and crazier the Shadow Nightmares became. Even the Horror itself realized that point and gave up on wasting its limited attack methods on it.

It couldn't evade them either due to its lack of movement ability.

At this rate, Leo himself wouldn't have to do anything before the Shadow Nightmares took Horror down, only…

'It's crazy.'

The Shadow Nightmares' evolution looked like it was a good thing, but his Enigma was currently lit on fire.

Just as they were Leo's most unstable yet terrifying method of attack, their Enigma Consumption spiked as every second passed by!

Leo had no way of limiting that consumption, especially now that he let them grow to such large sizes from the very start.

The Horror wouldn't last long like this, but Leo would last even less. In the end…

'Come back.'

After letting the Shadow Nightmares try out their new claws, Leo pulled them back to his shadow. The Dragons seemed reluctant to do so at the start, but in the end, they could do nothing but comply.

Even then, Leo's Enigma was already nearing zero, so he still had to lean onto his backup plan.

'Let's go big.'

Using a combination of Shadow Pocket and Shadow Domination to quickly process the rest of the gargoyles' corpses, Leo reduced Sword Breaker's weight as he took back one hand and put it over his mouth.

At first glance, it looked like he was suppressing a yawn, but he was consuming every single Enigma Stone that they had. They weren't enough to recharge his whole battery, but…

'This should do.'

Naturally, even this wouldn't have been able to sustain the Shadow Dragons' existence for much further. As such, Leo still had to be the one to deal the finishing blow.

Using just one of his derivative abilities wouldn't be enough, Shadow Domination was still the main player!

Rather than let the Shadow Nightmares do what they wanted, Leo wrapped his shadow around his body, creating an enlarged layer over himself.

In simple words, Leo was scaling up his body using Shadow Domination to properly confront the monstrosity!

At the same time, the Sword Breaker grew even bigger than his own body size. This one wasn't for throwing, he was going to do this melee fight in upscaled mode!

"An up-close fight is still the best!"

Leo's Martial Arts soared as he decimated the tendrils that were swarming him. At this point, they were slowly wriggling out to recovery, far too slow for Leo to be wary of them.

Taking a few large steps toward the Horror, Leo mowed down the flesh tendrils even further. With the scale of his planned attacks, distractions were inexcusable.

Swish!

The sword's speed wasn't too slow as Leo only added as much weight as the new shadowy layer could support. That being said, handling something of that size wasn't easy.

If Leo wasn't already close to the peak of Advanced Swordsmanship, something like this wouldn't have been possible.

The process of Sword Breaker falling down still felt so slow to Leo as if he was doing some kind of surgical procedure…

[Must.]

Of course. In reality, the Horror's attempt to raise whatever was left of its tendrils to block the sword was far too slow in comparison!

Gucha!

The Gigant Sword Breaker's journey through the Horror's body wasn't as smooth as cutting off its tendrils. However, it was still able to reach the large hole that the already dispersed lance had created.

This enabled Leo to twist the sword and drive it back out of the monstrosity's body, splitting its body horizontally in half!

[Achieve.]

The Horror's upper half collapsed backward, but both its voice and tendrils were unfazed. They still tried to hinder Leo's final attack, though that didn't help much.

Creating a few dozen shadow daggers, Leo manipulated them through the air, launching them to restrain the longer tendrils. Finally, he raised the Gigant Sword Breaker and stabbed it down to pin the Horror to the ground!

[My purpose.]

Despite the tight spot that it had ended in, the Horror was still struggling to do what its mind told it to. However, Leo had already jumped atop it.

"Sit still, I will make it quick."

Bending down a bit, Leo put his palm on what looked the closest to the monstrosity's head before the shadow surrounding his arm started seeping into it…

[ Plot Change confirmed. Epic Event occurrence has been detected. ]