Chapter 131: Bounty Zone Boss
Arriving at the bounty zone was no quick task. It took Midas until nightfall.
’I don’t want to sacrifice sleep too much... I’ll have to finish this before it’s midnight.’ He thought to himself as he peered down at the bounty zone below.
’The map definitely said it was here... but there doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.’ He mused, looking down at a flat piece of land below.
In the center of the forest, there existed a few patches of stone that covered the floor.
These plots of gray stone were football yard-sized, and there were about five of them.
Midas swooped down atop Bzzrt and hopped off the mosquito’s back, taking a closer look in person.
’A bounty zone is no joke. I need to make sure I am on high alert at all times.’ Midas’s eyebrows were scrunched with a serious demeanor. His blades were held to his side, ready to attack at any moment.
He walked around, feeling an ominous presence in the air.
However, in his vision, he could detect nothing of importance.
In the distance, Toshy and Urus gazed at him with cunning expressions. They patiently waited for their opportunity to strike.
Midas still lingered, also anticipating an attack at any moment.
Then, he noticed a hot sensation near his feet. The heat quickly rose in temperature, burning the soles of his feet out of nowhere.
He looked down, noticing the stone beneath his shoes was melting into magma!
He ran forward and spun on his heel, sliding back as he observed the area he had stopped on top of.
"Magma? What type of ability is that?" He stood still, noticing the lava slowly cool down back into stone.
But then, he felt the same burning sensation near his feet again.
’What!?’ He said inwardly with confusion, rushing away again before turning.
Again, the magma cooled back into stone.
’This... is not good. Powerful enemies are one thing, but an unknown ability is another.’ He thought, his concern growing by the second.
"Hey..." A voice sounded from out of the ground.
Midas furrowed his brows, ’Huh? Where is it?’ He slowly moved around, looking for the enemy to appear.
"How are you so calm? You are making this boring. Shouldn’t you be panicking by now?" The voice said again. It was deep, like the speaker was swallowing a thick liquid while trying to talk.
"Get the hell out here and fight me!" Midas shouted.
"Hmph!" The voice replied.
Out of nowhere, the floor beneath Midas began melting at an even faster rate.
"Huh!?" He dashed away, but the more he ran, the quicker the floor beneath him seemed to melt.
"Hahaha! Run like a pig! You can no longer escape once you have entered one of my stone domains!" The voice taunted.
’Damn it... what is going on!?’ At this point, the bottom of his shoes was melted, and the soles of his feet were becoming slightly charred.
’Thankfully, I have an insane pain tolerance due to the first breath. Without it, I would have probably already succumbed to fear. But... I can not afford to succumb right now. I must figure this out, and come out on top.’ Midas thought, dashing continuously as the stone under his feet continued to turn into lava.
He attempted to leave the stone platformed area.
’Tsk! You want me to fight in your home!? Screw that!’ He thought, attempting to run out of the stone floor.
As he reached the exterior, however, a massive wall of magma rose up and hardened into hard stone.
The wall was very high, reaching above even some of the tallest trees!
"Tsk!" Midas sucked his teeth in irritation, punching the stone wall with force.
The wall was obliterated, a massive hole opening in the center of it. However, it quickly closed back up before Midas could even take a breath.
"Damn! So it looks like I’ll have to just figure it out." Midas said, annoyed even more now.
"Hahaha! Are you finally realizing your fate now, huh? Why have hope? You are going to lose without doubt!" The voice mocked him once again.
"What makes you so damn confident!? If you weren’t such a coward, hiding your true ability, I would have already defeated you by now!" Midas shouted back in spite.
"What did you say? Don’t think of me so lowly... human. I’ll tell you how my ability works... since it won’t make a difference anyway. Once one has stepped into my trap, they are as good as dead." The voice replied.
"Oh yeah? We’ll see about that." Midas replied sternly.
The floor a few dozen feet in front of Midas melted into a small pool of lava.
From within, a human-like figure arose. The monster had the figure of a tall and lanky human, but its face resembled an orc, and its entire body was made of stone and lava from head to toe.
It was some sort of lava spirit, or fire golem.
"Fear! That is the main component of my power. Whenever one is inside my stone platform, the pace of their heartbeat directly controls the melting of the stone beneath them. The more they fear, the faster the stone melts. The more they run, the quicker they are melted to death. Do you understand it now? Even though you are trying to run to avoid the damage, you will eventually have such a fast heartbeat that the entire floor beneath you will melt and swallow you whole!" The lava spirit roared with pride, as though it had already achieved victory.
Midas faced the ground, his expression shadowed. One couldn’t see what type of emotion was going through his head.
"Silent now, are we?" The magma monster teased again, "Good! That’s exactly what I expected! Fear me even more, and realize that your hope has shattered like glass!" The beast laughed manically.
From afar, Urus and Toshy looked terrified.
"What a powerful monster. It seems this is the end of the road for Midas." Urus said, sighing with disappointment.
"Our perfect plan..." Toshy said, saddened.
Out of nowhere, a low chuckle could be heard from where Midas stood.
"Huh?" The lava monster raised a brow with confusion, ’Surely he isn’t... laughing, is he? Did he lose his mind?’ He thought, confused.
Midas’s laugh became louder and louder until it turned into a full-blown peal of laughter.
He revealed a row of flashing white teeth, "So that’s it, huh!? If so, then I have already won this battle." He said, facing the beast straight on with a piercing gaze of confidence.
"What?" The monster said, at a loss.
"Did you hear what Midas just said?" Toshy exclaimed, his maw slightly agape with surprise.
Urus was speechless. He didn’t know what to make of those words.