Ashton pushed through as much as he could. He killed the numerous lizardmen that kept running at him from all directions, now that the crocodilian had alerted everyone in here that there was an actual intruder.

  The remaining elite monsters were the most annoying ones. They weren't at the level of the crocodilian, obviously, but they were stronger than the rest of the lizardmen. And when a whole crowd of dozens of monsters came at him, mixed in with those stronger individuals, even Ashton couldn't defeat them 'perfectly'. At least, not the way he was right now.

  Instead, he decided to make some sacrifices. A little poison entering him wasn't the worst thing in the world. Injuries covered his body, festering almost immediately. Ashton felt the world go blurry like he was drunk, and his brains felt like they would melt out of his nose at any moment. But such was a battle against a tribe that made use of poisons.

  Whenever he could, Ashton doused himself with antidote potions, and he was smoking basically the entire time. At least, whenever his face wasn't paralysed. During those times, it was hard to keep a cigarette between his lips. But even so, Ashton wasn't the only one that was suffering.

  The lizardmen, too, were growing weaker the more time went on. By now, it felt like this store was containing a blizzard. Ashton was using the undine to make snow and hail rain down onto them, and the wisp that had combined with the sylph's air magic was not just knocking them around, but at this point, the gusts of sub-zero air were causing the moisture on the lizardman bodies to actually freeze.

  More than once, Ashton came by a weaker lizardman that was just cowering in a spot in the corner, unable to bring itself to move and fight off the cold. Of course, there were lizardmen coming in from outside that weren't quite as affected, and others were fleeing outside regularly so that they could warm up. But even then, the shock of the temperatures changing so rapidly didn't exactly help the lizardmen, either.

  Both sides were growing weaker, but Ashton felt like he had the upper hand. Why? Because this wasn't the first time he was in a situation like this. Ashton had been poisoned, scorched, frozen, ripped apart, crushed, ground to dust, and numerous other things, over and over again. He had spent a long time in hell, after all.

  But these lizardmen? They were beings from another world that fell victim to the council. However, at this stage of the invasion, the monsters were versions of themselves that didn't have access to the system yet. While the later ones might, these were essentially snapshots of these beings from when the invasion began in their world. At least, that was Ashton's understanding from everything he had learned while dragged around by the Summoner.

  Simply put, a tribe like this didn't have to face an opponent like Ashton before. They saw a bloodied man, covered in pus and frost and wounds, and thought that it would be an easy fight. They would take him down, and then this would all be over. But that was also the last thought that would cross their minds right before his staff did.

  This was a war of attrition, and Ashton was confident that he would hold out the longest. All the way until he reached the far end of the store, surrounded by tall walls and warriors so that he hadn't been able to check this out earlier. But he knew what was back there.

  The boss monster was right behind that wall and the corpses of the lizardmen that were supposed to protect it.

  Ashton stepped inside, through the sheets that were hung up like curtains in front of the entrance.

  The force of the powerful mana well was almost blinding. This was the first time that Ashton saw a mana well since he got the 'veil mastery' skill. Instead of just being able to sense the flood of mana, Ashton was able to see a 'hole'.

  There was a point in the middle of space, infinitely small, but also so large that Ashton felt like he was gazing at the moon. A sensation of vertigo overcame Ashton, and he had to brace himself to not fall in. Of course, physically, the mana well didn't have any sort of pull, and there was no threat to fall in. But to Ashton, for just a brief moment, there may as well have been.

  As he stared at the hole, slowly, his view expanded, and he saw the ritualistic setup right underneath it.

  Deep grooves were carved into the concrete floor, and at the centre, there was a blood-stained table. Clementine did tell Ashton that they had come and picked off a few people already, so this is what must have happened to them.

  The grooves in the ground came together, leading to the base of what could only be called a 'throne'. It wasn't just some random chair, but a whole bunch of things from the store that had been piled up into something grander than that.

  On top of that throne sat a monster. It didn't look particularly grand. Ashton had expected a crocodilian, something particularly powerful. But it just looked like a regular lizardman.

  Except... it had golden scales. Literally shimmering, golden scales. This part of the shop was dark, and his instinctual focus on that hole made him not realise it at first glance. But even so, the scales were definitely, inexplicably gold.

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  And the monster that the scales belonged to was just sitting there, its head leaning onto its head as if it were bored.

  "Ah, fuck..." Ashton let out as he watched the monster slowly get up from its seat, sighing like it was a bother. The two horns on its head were twisting and spiralling around themselves. "Why the fuck is there a draconid here?"

  The monster, noticing how taken aback Ashton was, began to cackle. It sounded like a growl more than anything. With each step, it began to walk faster than before, until it was fully running at Ashton.

  He raised his staff and swung it at the draconid. The monster dodged under the staff, bending backward like some kind of acrobat. Having passed by Ashton's attack, it swung a claw at him.

  It was moving too fast, Ashton couldn't dodge that. At least, not with his current physical abilities. Instead, he directed the wisp between himself and the draconid and activated the force spell. Ashton was pushed back and used the momentum to swing his staff down. He hit the monster's snout, but it barely even flinched.

  Instead, it just swung its claws at Ashton again. Since he had already kickstarted his momentum, Ashton was able to continue dodging while hitting the draconid. Though, he was essentially using each attack to push himself further away. Despite being barely larger than Ashton, this thing was extremely heavy. It felt like he was hitting a statue poured out of steel.

  The wisp's wind-powered force blasts were barely affecting it either, but he needed some kind of help. With how weakened he was by now, even if he took the time to heal up a tiny bit before coming in here, Ashton would struggle without the help from a summon. He glanced at the wisp, and shifted its current state again. Its form became solid again, like how it was usually when Ashton placed air magic into it.

  Ashton shrunk it down and made the wisp shoot at the draconid over and over again. Even if it didn't do a lot of damage like this, it didn't have to. All it had to do was annoy the monster, or draw its attention away. Plus, it was a good way for him to figure out if there was any spot on the draconid's body that was more vulnerable than the rest.

  While the latter seemed hopeless the more time passed, the former was actually pretty successful. It kept glancing behind itself, trying to see if it could spot where those attacks came from, to no avail. Each of those glances gave Ashton enough time to not just attack again, but build more distance between himself and the monster and figure out a tactic to beat this guy.

  Without techniques and with just a mundane staff, physical attacks wouldn't do the job. A draconid would also be too strong to use the magic stone destruction technique on, at least with the mana that Ashton could squeeze out for this method. Sure, if Ashton had the stamina to battle this guy for an hour or two, maybe he could slowly gain the upper hand, but he simply didn't.

  Especially considering the nature of the ritual in this space. From what Ashton could tell, the ritual circle was one to commune with Shimia, asking for something that would boost an individual. But this particular one required a conduit; a being that would act as an intermediary. Simply put, a priest or cleric.

  And clearly, that's what this draconid was. Clerics to gods like this would have special powers or abilities. Draconids in particular had tons of mana and could often use magic in some way, shape or form. But right now, this was nothing but a physical brawl, and Ashton was running low on hidden cards. Rather, almost all his cards were laid bare.

  There was really just one thing that popped into Ashton's mind at this point, a single idea that could turn the tide of this fight. Immediately, Ashton started to use the undine to slowly fill the space with a thin mist, and then began moving around the space more tactically. Specifically, he moved in a circle surrounding that hole at the centre of the mana well. Whenever he could, he let out particular pulses of mana from his staff, creating trails in the air. It was hard to do with this opponent, barely having the time to even think clearly, but if Ashton didn't do this, he would die.

  Bit by bit, a magic circle was being constructed. It was clear that the draconid could tell Ashton was pulling something, but it seemed confident enough that this human that could do nothing but run away wouldn't be able to do anything to it. That was probably the only good part about draconids. They were so prideful that they got cocky and na?ve.

  In the end, the moment he could and had managed to lure the draconid to the right spot near the hole, Ashton activated the spell.

  It was like the air stopped moving for a moment as the mist that was created became thicker. Frost started building up on Ashton's arms and cheeks. Luckily, there were some similarities between enchanting circles and spell circles at times, so Ashton knew both.

  Draconids, while not directly counted as lizardmen, were cold-blooded just the same. This place had been protected from the cold by the tall walls before, so the draconid hadn't been affected, but this time it was different.

  Ashton could see the monster's movements stutter as it slowed to a crawl. Ice crystals began to grow on and under its scales, and even climbed up its horns. The monster slowed, and, to Ashton's joy, seemed absolutely pissed off. Immediately, Ashton ran in. He was in pain from the frost, too, but he'd be fine. Maybe he should've grabbed some of that yeti's hug chocolate, too. Ashton hit the draconid, and this time, it was the one that was being pushed back. Barely able to react to Ashton's attacks, it tried to dodge out of the way, but was unsuccessful.

  The flexibility it had shown thus far had also been cut down on considerably. The spell, enhanced through the magic of the mana well, was extremely powerful and did its job exactly as Ashton wanted it to.

  He hit the monster again and again, actually starting to injure it. Until, finally, the monster seemed to have enough. Instead of focusing on counterattacking, it grabbed its long tail, and with a quick motion, ripped it off in its entirety.

  Almost immediately, the flesh and scales that covered it melted off into a toxic sludge, leaving behind nothing but the bones at its centre. Most of these bones were quite thin and had sharp spikes, but the ones at the base were round enough to be held.

  The draconid had turned its own tail into a sword. And as its muscles seemed to bulk up, breaking away the plates of frost covering it until now, Ashton knew what was happening.

  "Entering your second phase, now?"