Impossible Fight

Zero swiftly turned around and started running as fast as he could.

What the fuck do you mean '26.000'??

Zero couldn't understand why, with only a three-level difference, Coals's combat strength soared through the roof. It was obvious that the system didn't acknowledge Zero's scythe into his combat strength; his actual combat strength was around 2.000. 

But that was just an estimate. Since the system didn't account for his scythe, he couldn't know for sure how big the difference was. But 26.000 seemed like too big of a number to face head-on, he would need some plan at least.

The reason Coal's combat strength soared to the sky was his perk, Giantification. When the system reset their levels, the perks bonuses that were accumulated before didn't go anywhere. It was just that it was enhancing Coal's level 1 strength, but now that he leveled up... his level quadrupled, and the perks enhancement grew exponentially because of the additional level-ups. 

In fact, Coal would be able to slap the hell octopus to death with 2 strikes. This was an abnormal increase in power that could only happen because of the level reset. In the original game, you could reset your level through certain actions, but that would reset everything. Including perks.

But since only the level was reset, the perk bugged. And the perk that was most dependent on levels became one of the strongest perks in the world.

Zero ran toward the first checkpoint. If Coal's movement were restricted, he wouldn't be able to utilize that 26.000 combat strength to its fullest. Zero activated disintegration and went straight for the 1st checkpoint. Coal was having a hard time navigating through the lush cave because of his sheer size.

Zero arrived at the checkpoint with Coal. Coal was indeed too big to move around freely in the checkpoint. So Zeros plan worked. He activated [Torch] and [Disintegration], this was all he could hope for. If he can't win with these favorable conditions it's all for nothing.

[Time left: 2 minutes]

The entire checkpoint went up in flames. The flames even burst through the hole Zero dug while coming here. Since [Torch] leveled up from E to A rank, the flame was way hotter and more intense. Even Coal with his superior resistance to all damage received a bunch of damage from the flames.

Zero lunged toward Coal with disintegration, it consumed a bunch of divine energy to use, but Zero assumed it was the only skill that could inflict sufficient damage. In theory, disintegration was a skill that couldn't be countered. No matter how much resistance or health you have, it would disintegrate a spherical shape into nothing. But that was not true. 

If disintegration worked that way, it would destroy air, all particles, matter, even space, and time itself inside that sphere. That would lead to a chain reaction, and the world collapsing on that spot.

And a mere incomplete EX-ranked skill couldn't do that.

[Warning! The level difference is too high. The efficiency of [Disintegration [EX!]] will be lowered.]

This message surprised Zero, that was the first time a skill efficiency was lowered because of the difference in strength. This never happened in the game no matter the level the monster was of. Is it another change from the game?

The skill hit Coal, but only left a slight cut on him. It seemed like disintegration was infused into the blade instead of being a sphere. This was still better than nothing since he could damage Coal through his hard skin and fur.

Coal roared, his health was ticking away because of the fire, and now he even got wounded by the scythe itself. 

Zero jumped around Coal like a fly, wounding him with the scythe, Coal was engulfed in fire and his health was ticking away at an incredible speed. However, Coal's health pool was giant. At this pace, it would take Zero at least 2 days to deplete Coal's health.

Coal was furious, he barely could do anything in this tight space. He mustered all his strength and stood up to his full size, the entire checkpoint shattered and crumbled. Coal lunged at Zero and got in a hit, it was merely a scrape but Zero already lost 50% of his health.

If not for his ring of protection, he would already be dead three times over.

This hit threw him out of the checkpoint into the portal to the lush cave. The entire lush cave was burning in green flames, this was Zero's [Torch].

Coal forced his way through the portal, although he was too big to fit, with his combat strength he managed to bend it and force his way through.

Zero was focusing on dodging all of Coals strikes. If Coal would hit him even once more he would die. This wasn't even a fight right now. Since Zero lost his advantage of the tight space, Coal could go all out to attack. This was a Cat and Mouse game, Zero being the mouse, and Coal being the cat.

Zero was brainstorming what he could do to win the fight... he didn't have any idea. He never encountered such a strong enemy this early in the run. And even if he did he died instantly and started a new run. Sometimes such things happen in the game, shitty runs that cannot be played properly.

Getting ambushed by a strong monster right at the entrance of the 1st layer wasn't something that never happened, in fact, it happened quite often. That's why most people didn't play the game much, and even abandoned it completely after a couple of hours.

[Time left: 1 minute]

Zero gritted his teeth and tried his best to inflict damage while dodging Coal's dashes. This fight would probably be the end of him. He really couldn't see an option how to win this fight. The power difference was too high and now he was also wounded.

He would be really glad to see that goddess get down here and slap that dog back into submission.