The Thorn Flower Demon was different from anything Aiden had faced before.
It was a Level 3 Elite monster, two full levels above him, and unlike the Mutated Dog, it possessed actual abilities. He wasn’t going to underestimate it, but neither was he going to back down.
He glanced at the kitchen knife in his hand. The Slightly Sharp trait from the Mantis was being transferred into the blade.
It wasn’t particularly powerful on its own, but combined with his current physical strength, it was enough to turn the ordinary kitchen knife into a considerably more dangerous weapon.
His grip tightened as Adhesive Dominion activated, the friction between his palm and the handle increasing instantly until the knife became almost impossible to dislodge.
Aiden smiled faintly. ’Let’s see how much I’ve improved.’
He shot out from behind the bamboo grove like an arrow released from a drawn bow, the speed was insane.
The Agility he had gained earlier displayed its value immediately, his body felt lighter, faster, more responsive, every step carrying considerably more force than before.
The Thorn Flower Demon sensed the intruder at once, its enormous crimson flower twisting toward him as its dancing vines lashed forward like a nest of enraged serpents, tearing through the air with piercing whistles.
Aiden pushed his movement technique to its limit, weaving through the dense barrage.
One moment he ducked beneath a sweeping vine, the next he slid sideways before abruptly changing direction, narrowly avoiding one deadly strike after another.
The venom-coated thorns grazed his clothes, ripping away strips of fabric as they passed, yet he continued closing the distance.
His eyes narrowed as Thermal Perception activated, adding another layer to the battlefield.
The Thorn Flower Demon didn’t possess a normal mammalian body, but the ability still detected the heat produced by its biological processes.
The flower itself was warmer than its surroundings, as were the thick trunk and the countless vines, but something else caught his attention.
His gaze shifted deeper, beneath the thick trunk near the base of the flower, where a concentrated region of heat pulsed faintly.
The concentrated heat wasn’t random. Something inside the trunk was generating significantly more warmth than the surrounding tissue. Aiden couldn’t tell whether it was an organ, a mana core, or something else entirely, but if the monster had a weakness, that was the best place to look.
A vine suddenly swept toward his head. Aiden ducked. Another came from the side. He twisted around it.
A third descended from above and in response, his foot slammed against the ground as Adhesive Dominion activated beneath his sole, his body stopping abruptly as the vine crashed into the asphalt exactly where he had been standing a moment earlier.
He used the sudden halt to change direction. The adhesion was even more useful when combined with his increased Agility.
The moment he entered the throwing range, his arm snapped forward.
A bottle of liquor smashed against the Thorn Flower Demon’s thick trunk, the glass shattering and drenching it in high-proof alcohol as the pungent smell instantly filled the air. The strange liquid seemed to enrage the monster, its vines becoming even more violent, but Aiden didn’t hesitate.
While evading another flurry of attacks, he hurled two more bottles in quick succession, one onto the writhing vines and another onto the ground surrounding its roots.
Seeing an opening, he slipped past a coordinated strike from three vines.
At the same time, his thumb flicked the lighter’s wheel, a tiny flame springing to life as he sent the burning lighter spinning through the air. It landed precisely on the alcohol-soaked section of the trunk.
BOOM!
Fire erupted instantly. The liquor became fuel, and flames raced across the trunk and vines in the blink of an eye.
The Thorn Flower Demon released a shrill scream that sounded like rusted metal scraping against steel, its enormous crimson flower trembling violently.
The monster clearly feared fire. Its vines abandoned their coordinated attacks, instead frantically whipping at the flames in a desperate attempt to extinguish them, throwing its entire rhythm into chaos.
’It’s working.’ A cold glint flashed across Aiden’s eyes.
He knew this advantage would only last a few seconds, so he had to finish this while the opportunity remained.
His feet exploded with force as Titan Strength surged through his lower body, his acceleration increasing dramatically as he lunged forward like a hunting leopard, aiming directly for the slender stem supporting the giant flower. That was its weakest point.
But an elite monster was still an elite monster. The instant Aiden entered its kill zone, several vines suddenly snapped toward him from his blind side.
His Thermal Perception caught them, he saw their movements before they arrived.
His body twisted as one passed beneath his arm, another grazed his shoulder, and the third, Aiden’s left hand shot out, Adhesive Dominion spreading across his palm as he caught the vine.
The sudden force nearly dragged him off balance, but his feet slammed against the ground as Adhesive Dominion surged through his soles, anchoring him in place. Titan Strength erupted through his arm as his fingers tightened.
"You’re not getting away." He pulled. The enormous plant creature actually lurched toward him. The combination was even better than he had thought.
The Thorn Flower Demon shrieked as several other vines immediately converged on him, but Aiden released the captured vine and jumped backward, landing on another vine as Adhesive Dominion activated.
His feet clung to its surface as the vine violently whipped through the air, attempting to throw him off. The world spun around him, but Aiden remained attached.
’Not bad.’
The vine slammed toward a nearby tree. At the last moment, Aiden released his adhesion, flipping through the air before landing on the side of the tree, his feet adhering to the bark.
For a brief moment, he stood vertically against the trunk, the sight almost absurd. Aiden glanced down at himself. ’I’m basically becoming Spider-Man.’
Then his expression turned serious. Thermal Perception revealed another pulse of concentrated heat beneath the crimson flower. He pushed off the tree, his body shooting toward the monster with insane speed.
But the instant Aiden entered striking distance, the writhing purple tentacles inside the flower suddenly expanded.
Aiden’s eyes widened upon seeing this...