Black Monster Hunter II

'Hmm . . . I better not show this one to Hephaestus and Tsubaki . . .' Nox pondered as he looked at his newest creation.

After all, it was a bona fide curse weapon with all kinds of nasty and sadistic abilities, it would surely harm his reputation.

That however, did not mean he would not want to test it. In fact, he already had a nice target in mind for his tests., He was going to try it out of a Black Variant Green Dragon.

There was no such thing as too many treasure magic stones and jewels so finding Treasure Trees was always a good use for his time. Not to mention the drops from the Green Dragons protecting them.

As Nox's status, namely he Magic parameter increased, so did the range and effectiveness of his Spirit Pulse spell, one of those spells that always maintained its spot in Nox's magic slots.

This meant Nox's recon abilities were always on the rise and so, finding one or two Treasure Trees posed no problem and he soon found two of them.

'Alright, let's do this.' Thinking this, Nox tossed a glass bottle with a small amount of Black Monster Bait near the Treasure Tree, drawing its guardian's attention.

'Since Black Variants are born, what will happen in this case?' Nox wondered.

'Will the Green Dragon turn black, will another Black Variant of it pop out, or will another monster simply appear?' He theorized.

Unfortunately, Nox was wrong on all accounts and the result left him utterly speechless.

Nothing happened to the dragon at the star instead, it was the Treasure Tree that started to turn black and its Jewel Fruits became like extremely polished, pitch black obsidian with a deep dark multicolor sheen to it.

But that was not all. The tree also started to grow as it bore further changes. More "fruits" started to be born along with deep purple flowers that triggered Nox's instincts towards danger. It also grew countless black, metal like leaves with seemingly razor sharp edges.

Its roots started to come alive and, at blinding speed, killed the Green Dragon, draining it of blood and energy until it became dust.

'Well . . . That was unexpected . . .' Nox absentmindedly thought while still in hiding, staring with his mouth agape at the monstrous tree his actions had created.

'Ok then, I was thinking of taming a dragon but that's clearly not going to happen.'

'I could try to uh . . . "tame" the tree I guess . . .' Nox considered.

'Nah. Let's try and kill this one to check out its power and abilities and then, if the results are good, I'll try and tame the other one.' He decided.

Since he was dealing with a plant, Nox brought out his trusted flamberge bastard sword, Prometheus.

"Nothing beats fire when it comes to dealing with annoying plants." Nox said to himself before starting his assault.

'Prominence' He immediately unleashed one of Prometheus' magical abilities, sending a big wave of burning flame towards the Black Tree with a sweeping slash.

What came next however, was far from what he was expecting.

A bid earthen wall rose from the ground to block the fire and to Nox's magical senses, the reason was clear.

'Earth Magic! This tree can use innate magic like Marie but at a much larger scale!' He realized with some surprise.

Following this, boosted by his Invictus Salamander, Nox immediately flashed to the side as rocky spike rose from the ground beneath his feet.

'This thing is much trickier than I expected.'

With this though, he switched his Invictus Salamander for Invictus Gnome. This cause an earthen magical aura to envelop him and spread across the ground beneath him, preventing the tree from using its magic to manipulated the ground in Nox's immediate vicinity.

This meant that while in could still use walls to defend itself against his ranged attacks, it could not longer cause spikes to appear directly underneath Nox.

Unfortunately, Invictus Gnome lacked the burst damage and compatibility with Prometheus that enhanced its power but that was a trade Nox was willing to make.

'Prominence'

Nox activated his weapon's ability again but this time rather that unleashing the flames in a wide wave, he focused them into a concentrated stream by doing an overhead swing rather than a sweeping attack like last time.

Once again, the tree raised a wall of earth to stop the fire but this time, the concentrated gout broke through the barrier and hit the tree despite losing the majority of its power.

But just as Nox was feeling that the tree wasn't was good as he thought, a film of light instantly covered the whole tree, stopping his already weakened attack.

'Fuck this tree!' He internally complained.

'At least it seems to be lacking in attack power despite having such a nice multi layered defence.' Nox deduced as he strategizes, planning a way to take down his opponent.

Today however, the world seemed to be conspiring to make all of his theories and assumptions wrong and the flowers on the tree glowed with deep purplish black glow.

In an instant, beams of purplish magic erupted from the center of each flower, curving through the air and heading for Nox at blinding speeds leaving no room for escape.

Invictus Gnome might not be good for speed and burst damage, but it was phenomenal for defence as Nox poured in his Mind into it, creating an extra thing earthen energy armor around his whole body before the beams impacted.

Nox could feel the power of Dark attributed magic corroding his defences but as he continuously fed them with Mind, they held on beautifully.

Taking this opportunity, Nox charged ahead with full power, not letting his defences down which slowed him further but granted him increased mass and strength from the power of earth.

The tree raised its beloved earth wall again but Nox just plowed through, his Spirit Earth magic making it offer little to no resistance to his passing.

Just as Nox began to thing the tree had ran out of tricks, a fierce wind emanated from the tree, countless of its metal blade like leaves were picked up by this brewing storm as is mercilessly charged at Nox.

'SHIT! I've already committed, I must hold on!'' He immediately decided.

Activating his vampiric abilities and using his Blood Buff Blood Art to increase his abilities and Blood Magic to fuel his Invictus Gnome with more power, Nox unhesitantly put his all into his charge.

Still, it was not enough. Even as his defences held against the fierce cutting winds, the leaves carved right through.

His defences were pierced, his armor was shredded and numerous deep gashes were ripped open cross his body as the fierce wind immediately scattered his spilled blood.

'Blood Healing'

Activating another of his Blood Arts, Nox's Blood pool started to drain in order to heal his wounds even faster than they appeared, burning through his reserves increasingly fast.

Charging through the literal storm of blades, Nox reached the vicinity of the tree and immediate activated Ardent Blade, condensing a huge blade of solid fired over Prometheus and then used Prominence just for good measure and stabbed his swords into the damned plant.

The Black Tree however, was far from resigned to its fate and its roots struck at Nox, faster than he could respond, fiercely impaling him and draining his power and blood.

But, that was a huge mistake for the poor plant.

Under the massive blood loss as Nox's Blood Healing attempted to recover his injuries, for the first time, he was driven into a starved state thus triggering the downside of his powerful Sanguinare Vampiris: The Bloodcurse of Vampirism.

The bloodlusting madness of a blood starved vampire.

Uncaring for his injuries, with an inhuman screech, Nox thrust his blade into the tree, ending its existence in a burst of glorious flame.

He knew his sanity was slipping as he hurriedly took out a bottle of blood essence he refined and drank it but it was far too late.

His predatory instincts had been triggered and they were causing some kind of transformation, one that couldn't be stopped by last minute blood drinking.

Resigning himself to whatever came next, Nox used the last shred of his consciousness to store his spoils before his sight became fully tinted in red as his body began to undergo a monstrous transformation.

It was time for a monster never before seen by Orario to make its first dreaded appearance to the world and implant fear into the hearts of adventures to create the start of an unparalleled myth of utter horror . . .

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