Desperation

*Ais POV*

Me and Riveria were currently making our was down the dungeon and were headed towards the Throne room of the 37th floor for me to try and solo Udaeus, the Monster Rex of that floor. As warm-up, I let Riveria just hang back for a bit while I killed all the monsters that came our way. After a while of silence, Riveria spoke out.

"Ais, are you sure about this? If you fail, even with me by your side, you could really die."

Riveria spoke in a concerned and worried toned which warmed my heart. After a moment of thinking, I decided to assure her that I could do it while giving her a small smile.

"... I will do my best, Riveria. If I even feel like I can't win against Udaeus, I promise you that I'll back off and retreat immediately."

"If you say so, then I can rest assured then."

As she she spoke, Riveria gave a warm and comforted smile which I don't usually see. At the sight of her smile, I steeled my resolve in facing Udaeus as I didn't want for Riveria to worry or be let down by me.

'Also, I wonder where Reza already is? He already went ahead into the dungeon a few hours ago...'

It was then that I was awoken from my thoughts as the floor of the dungeon faintly trembled as the roars of a ferocious-sounding monster sounded out from the depths of the dungeon. After the tremors and roaring faded out, Riveria spoke out once more.

"Wasn't that the roars of a Goliath? Strange, it hasn't even been 2 weeks since the last Goliath has been killed..."

As we were currently still in the 8th floor, we were still quite far away from the 17th floor which is where the Monster Rex, Goliath, usually spawns.

'Whomever's facing the Goliath must have surely been surprised and caught off-guard by it suddenly spawning... I hope they are safe...'

I thought to myself as I continued to clear the path from the monsters that intruded on me and Riveria.

______________________________________________

"Umph!"

I grunted as the Goliath landed a hit on me and pushed me quite far away while also breaking the arm I defended it's fist against. The fight has already gone on for a few minutes and I was getting pressured not only by the amazing regeneration and strength shown by the Goliath, but also at the thought of other adventurers possibly coming towards the 17th floor to inspect the scene.

'SHIT!!! I NEED TO END THIS BATTLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!'

I thought to myself urgently as I flew quickly towards the Goliath once more and attacked.

[Slash]

[Slash]

[Slash]

In response to me slashing towards its neck in quick succession, it raised it arms to get into a defensive stance to protect against my slashes. As to not give it any time to properly respond and get hits in, I broke his defense and aimed to blind his right eye.

[Shoulder Bash]

[Pierce]

With my sword in the Goliath's right eye, it began to roar in pain as it swatted one of it's ahands towards his face. As I was about to try and dodge, I failed to realize that my sword was currently stuck in his eye and was caught in his palms. It then went for the wings on my back and pulled them off forcefully.

"AAARGHHHHHH!!!"

I roared in pain as I quickly slashed off all of his fingers to get free from his palms. Before I could completely get out of its palm, it decided to throw me onto the ground forcefully which caused me to skip across the dungeon floor as if I was thrown like a flat rock on water. After overusing the muscles in my legs which caused some of my muscles and bones to break and rupture, I got my footing back on the ground. Suddenly, a large, ominous shadow loomed over where I was. I looked up only to see the Titan-like figure begin to charge up his laser beam to attack me once more. I tried to move my legs to dodge but realized that other than somehow allowing me to stand, I could barely move them around anymore.

"Ha... Is this how I go? I haven't even completed that much in this world yet..."

I thought to myself as despair as I couldn't dodge nor move to attack the Goliath, standing there helplessly as impending doom was slowly but surely crawling towards me as I looked down at my feet, losing hope to overturn this current situation. It was then that my current life in this world flashed before my eyes. As those memories and experiences in this world displayed themselves for me, I began to slowly accept my fate to die.

'It's not like the war with the Gods was my own mission to begin with. Ha... I bet even those guys at the Loki Familia would forget me quickly after I die. After all, we haven't gotten the chance to truly bond deeply. At the end of the day, I have nothing to live for, so why am I struggling so desperately?'

Just as I was about to completely give up hope and accept my death, a beautiful and triumphant voice rang throughout my ears.

"I win this time, Reza!"

To which I responded helplessly yet confidently.

"You really do improve at a fast pace, Ais. I have nothing to say about this loss other than I won't let my guard down next time!"

As I recalled what I said, my mind was once more filled with the desire to live. At the same time, my eyes started to tear up as well.

"I... I DON'T WANT TO PART WITH HER YET!!!"

I shouted as I swung my head back to glare at the Goliath in a last-ditch attempt to try and see if there was truly no way to overturn the situation. It was then that I looked beyond the Goliath and saw the large bedrock formation which was on the roof of the dungeon directly above it. It was then that I saw my last hope of winning. Encouraged by the fact that I could still somehow make a comeback, I get into an upper guard stance with Ambrosia and waited for the perfect moment.

"HRAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The Goliath roared as it launched it's laser beam attack down onto me. As I was probably in my most focused state that I've ever been in, time seemingly slowed down as the laser beam slowly approached me. Finally, my time to counter-attack came as my eyes glistened.

[Parry]

I did my best to try and redirect the laser beam towards the bedrock formation hovering above the Goliath. A earth-shattering sound came from it as the laser beam hit it. However, I had no time to rejoice nor even witness it about to fall down on the Goliath as it was currently taking my all to even keep the [Parry] on going as majority of the muscles on my upper body also started to rupture which caused my stance to weaken and almost let the Goliath's attack go through and end me. Finally, the large bedrock formation detached from the roof of the dungeon and came tumbling down onto the Goliath which caused it to cancel it's attack on me as it was pinned down by the rubble. It was seemingly pierced by the sharp parts of the bedrock as it was pinned down and as it prevented it from regenerating, it slowly stopped struggling as it began to die. I then dragged myself towards it's head with my arm which also held Ambrosia.

"Ha...Ha..."

I loudly panted as I finally arrived in front of the Goliath's head.

"Die... You piece of shit..."

I said to the titan-like figure which has driven me to the brink of death. Then, I dealt the final blow and devoured it's soul.

[Pierce]

[Devour]

"Ah... I feel much better now."

I speak aloud as the power of the Goliath's soul coursed throughout my body, slowly recovering the injuries that I recovered from the battle. Although my body was slowly recovering, I noticed something wasn't recovering as much as my body did.

"My... My wings..."

I spoke painfully as I tried to feel the roots of where my wings were originally. Although my [Blood of the Primordial] was also trying to heal my wings along with my body, It didn't do much for it at all. It was then that I realized that it wasn't my [Blood of the Primordial] that was lacking, but the energy I had to heal my wounds was what was lacking.

"I need... More energy..."

I then looked around the room subconsciously to look for anything that could possibly give me some more energy to help heal my wounds. As I looked around, a large, crystal-like gem appeared appeared in front of my eyes.

'This is the monster core of the Golliath...'

I thought to myself as I touched the surface of the monster core, feeling immense energy that was contained within. When I felt the energy, my body subconsciously trembled in response.

[Devour]

Unknowingly, I used [Devour] on the monster core of the Goliath. It was then that my weakened body suddenly overflowed with seemingly boundless energy.