With the enemy army obliterated came the hard part of the entire battle: killing the boss.

  The boss was still fighting Drax while slicing away at his cardinals. However, with the last of the green skins dead, the rest of Dan’s monsters could finally target the monstrosity. The only bad part was that many of his centipedes had been brought down.

  There were only two centibulkers, eight centiblades, and around twelve of the centimentalists left. Dan hoped that it would be enough to deal with the boss, but something told him that the damn thing was still hiding even more powers.

  Either way, with the addition of the bats who got to the monstrosity first, it was starting to finally feel cornered. Not only was the aberration dealing with Drax and the birds, but it was also now having to swing at his bats, which weren’t doing much other than being annoying.

  The bats were mostly out of mana, but Dan couldn’t afford to bring them out of the fight. Even if they weren’t anything but target practice for the monster, it was still time the boss spent on them, allowing Drax and the birds to attack without too many issues. Sadly, Drax’s flames weren’t as effective as they were before. Even so, they were still doing some damage to the monster, causing it to use mana for its regeneration and other abilities, and Dan knew that when its mana ran out, it would face its end.

  Things got even worse for the monstrosity when his centimentalists finally joined the fight. Though all of his centipedes were still low on mana, now that they didn’t have to worry about defense as much, they could throw everything into attack. And his elemental centipedes bombarded the aberration with even more flame attacks, these attacks were weak, but they still added up.

  The boss's frost defenses were slowly brought down, and Drax empowered his flames once again to deal even more damage. The monster was cornered even further as the remaining centibulkers and centiblades finally joined the scuffle. And since the monster had to worry about even more targets there were more chances for Drax to do his thing. It also helped that the thing didn’t have armor, letting the centiblades tear into its flesh, and countless gashes began appearing on it. The only problem that his forces ran into was that too many of them were in too little space, and they found themselves having to dart in and out.

  Of course, Dan was very happy with the current fight, and seeing as things were going well for him, he knew something was coming up.

  He was proven right as the aberration unleashed a blast of ice stronger than anything it had done before, causing all his monsters to back off. Getting some space, the aberration went through a quick transformation. First, its green skin gained a hue of pink, and so did its blue eye gems. This color was then transferred to the aura it had gained at the beginning of the battle.

  The now pinkish-green monstrosity grew slightly more, standing even taller on the battlefield. However, those changes weren’t even the worst ones. Its face quickly shifted to have the hobgoblin face stare at his backside in order to command the pink-green tentacles that sprouted from its back. Even worse than that was the fact the weapons it was holding began glowing with a pink hue, clearly showing they were ready to dish out telekinetic force blasts.

  With its transformation complete in a matter of seconds, it wasn’t long before his monsters dashed back into the fight. The only one that didn’t rush in was Drax. Dan guessed that the dragonkin was not convinced that was the last of the boss's changes and wanted to see if it had any other surprises.

  In a way, that was something that humanoids were better at, even among intelligent monsters. Outside of a few of his bosses, most of his monsters didn’t really think ahead in a fight like Drax had just done. And sadly, not being able to command his monsters, Dan couldn’t stop them from rushing in.

  Sure enough, his monsters were met with blasts of force as the ice staff unleashed its new telekinetic power. His two centibulkers were cut in half as the three swords were now empowered with telekinetic force and easily cut through their defenses. His birds and bats started falling out of the sky as the tentacles extended outwards and started slamming into them. Thankfully, Drax quickly joined in, which slightly put the aberration on the defensive as the dragonkin further enhanced his body.

  Dan was also happy to report that the monster’s regeneration ability had stopped. Sadly, the cardinals couldn’t get any closer due to the tentacles, but now that the monstrosity was no longer regenerating, the dragonkin no longer needed to spend mana on his flame technique, which would allow him to stay in the fight longer.

  The battle continued as the monstrosity kept unleashing kinetic blasts, and its tentacles kept smacking his birds out of the sky. Thankfully, they still outnumbered it, and when one monster was blasted back, another was able to step in. The best part was that all of his monsters, including Drax, were starting to get into a rhythm. Dan knew it wouldn’t last long because his battled-hardened monsters were running too low on mana, but they still had a little more to go.

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  The dragonkin was holding the entire battle together as he could get the boss’s attention at key moments when too many centipedes were pushed back. Still, the aberration was strong, and if it decided to focus on something, there wasn’t much that could stop it. This meant that its decision to target the centipede casters because they were the main threat was terrible news.

  The monstrosity kept Drax busy with its swords as the dragon knight weaved out of or blocked its kinetic-enabled slashes. However, Drax could only keep up because the centiblades took the other blade’s attention, being able to use their agility to dodge since taking a blade meant they were out of the fight for good.

  The birds and bats were a good distraction, keeping the tentacles occupied, and the cardinals were able to damage them thanks to their flames. It wasn’t much, but the damage was adding up, and the aberration’s body was starting to look rough. It bled from many places and had even more burn marks.

  However, the monstrosity's attention wasn’t really focused on the melee combatants or the birds. Instead, it was completely focused on the elemental centipedes. So, as the battle danced around the forest, causing even more destruction, its staff flashed with power as blasts of force targeted each centipede, each blast capable of taking one out.

  Sometimes, they were able to dodge out of the way when the monstrosity got distracted by the melee battle going on around it, and the blast would hit nothing, but more often than not, it would strike one of them, flying too fast for the centimentalists to react.

  The battle raged on as the aberration kept taking out the elemental centipedes. With every loss of a centipede, the melee combatants managed to strike at the monstrosity. Slowly but surely, the wounds started piling up, and it bled even more, with the cardinals having burned the tentacles almost completely off, though at a significant cost to their numbers. Additionally, Drax was starting to show signs of flagging behind and was no longer interested in the offense. Instead, he tried to dodge and conserve as much energy as possible.

  Dan knew the battle was coming to an end, and he put into motion a plan that would hopefully stop the monster. Meanwhile, the death of the last centimentalists marked another turning point in the battle. With a flash, one sword disappeared and was replaced by a staff, which, as far as Dan was concerned, couldn’t be good. There were only five centiblades, a quarter of the original cardinals, and even fewer bats, with the last addition of a dragon knight showing signs of weakening. And Dan hoped they would last for a bit longer.

  With the appearance of the new staff came new magical powers. Now not only could the damn thing throw around more blasts of force, but it could summon pink barriers to block incoming attacks. It was no surprise that with this new addition to the battle, things turned for the worse.

  Having decided it had-had enough with the birds, it blocked the attacks of the centiblades and Drax with some barriers before blasting them back. Then it turned its attention to the birds and bats before condensing energy in its new staff and releasing a vast and intense wave of force upwards, causing his flying monsters to pop in a rain of blood that turned its pinkish skin into crimson red. Having terminated one more annoyance, it once again set its gaze back at the centipedes and dragonkin.

  Dan knew that the monstrosity was about to dismantle his melee fighters, and he just needed them to hold on for a little bit longer.

  Drax saw the monstrosity rip apart the birds, and he knew his time was coming. Instead of rushing in, he let the centipedes charge in ahead. Drax had seen them. Squirrels and spiders slowly making their way up the nearby trees. He was glad the fight had moved from the burning area, which would allow this plan to work. Now, all that Drax needed to do was buy some more time and make sure the aberration stayed in one spot. So, he waited for it to rip apart the centipedes.

  Once the boss finished and was watching Drax, the knight threw his sword and shield to the ground and balled up his fists. The monster, clearly understanding Drax’s intent, dismissed his swords and staff and dashed towards him. In response, Drax reached deep within his mana pool and pulled all that was left before unleashing it in his final technique.

  “Scales of a Dragon!” He roared, feeling the mana rush into his body, empowering his scales and the rest of him. Then, with a smile on his face, Drax took the aberrations punch and was once again embedded in the ground.

  The monstrosity focused on beating the absolute crap out of Drax, and filled with rage as it was, it didn’t notice the summoning of many acorns all around the forest. The other less likely thing to be noticed was the green infusion of power from half of the spiders, which were also hanging all around the forest. As such, it was no surprise that it was caught off guard by dozens of flying Web Blasts that quickly restricted its movement. This was then followed by even more needles infused with poison that quickly seeped into its already damaged body. Thankfully, it was paying attention by that point, so it couldn’t miss the explosive acorns flying through the air straight at its ugly head.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  The explosions shook the forest, and Dan had no doubt that the monster had been reduced to atoms. Even more importantly, the crystal was destroyed within his territory, which had been returned upon the death of the aberration. This also meant he instantly absorbed the energy and was overwhelmed with information.