I stared down the massive white furred monster from across the chamber. Its stats were enough of a threat on their own to take seriously, let alone the Skills it had access to. Still, it wasn't as bad as I feared, even if it was worse than I had hoped. A five level gap wasn't anything new for me, and I had been preparing for a six or seven level gap between myself and the boss. That wasn't any reason at all to relax. The damn thing was still plenty threatening. My senses screamed danger at me just from being in the same room as the yeti monster.

  The beast pounded its fists against the floor, letting out a roar that seemed to shake the chamber, fangs bared, half frozen spittle flying out.

  Then it was on.

  The yeti charged across the ice in its ape-like loping-hopping gait, and I sprinted towards it on a course for a head-on collision. It's massive, arms, flicked up, fist and claw coming around with enough force to leave me in ribbons or a smear on the ice. All the while we drew closer, my gaze never left the beast. [Gaze of Bane] would do more work for me here that I was certain of. I could feel the monster's massive pool of Endurance resisting my gaze.

  It would take time, but like Novocaine, it would work in the end.

  I slipped down to my knees, passing underneath the monster's massive arms, lashing out with my dagger as I passed underneath its legs. I felt my blade bite into its leg, blue blood spilled out over its white fur. The beast let out another roar as it whirled around, beady eyes full of hate and loathing as it stared back at me.

  I grimaced as I shifted back to my feet.

  Not enough bite. Not deep enough.

  It had been a decent enough strike, but it didn't have the bite it should, even with my [Dagger Mastery] assisting. This was not going to be quick work with the dagger. The yeti charged again, acting the part of an enraged beast. My frown deepened, dissonance, I couldn't feel the rage in its aura that it seemed to be acting out. I went towards its charge but with caution. Like the naga, this monster had the capacity to be just as intelligent as I, even if it was in a different way. That meant it could act, lie and bluff. As I drew closer, my suspicion was proven to be correct.

  I slipped down to my knees as if I was going to pass under the monster again. Its beady eyes lit up in savage delight as a massive icicle shot up from the ground, the end of which was clenched in its meaty fist. In the next moment, there was a massive chunk of ice swinging towards my head with nearly a hundred points of yeti Strength propelling it at ungodly speeds. My feet slipped against the ice of the chamber floor as I twisted around. Web lines shot forward from my gloves to grab at the nearest ice pillar. The moment they latched on, I yanked myself out of the path of the icicle. I was sent skidding and spinning across the slick floor of the chamber. A split second after I vacated the space, the icicle crashed into the ground and shattered into pieces with a massive crash.

  I bounced off the ice pillar, hit the deck, and rolled—tucking in my limbs and trusting that speed would save me where armour might not. Adrenaline roared through my body. The yeti wasn't content to let me gain distance; it was on me again before I'd skidded to a stop, bringing down a double hammerfist with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball. I managed to throw myself sideways, scoring a line across its arm with my dagger, but I was still half-sprawled on the ice. The blow made the ground shudder, ice fracturing out from the impact like a spiderweb.

  In the momentary lull, I sprang to my feet and put distance between us, forcing the monster to give chase if it wanted another shot. It did not oblige. Instead, another icicle formed from the floor, reaching upwards until the yeti held a spear of ice half as tall as it was. It drew back its arm and hurled the icicle the way I might a javelin. The icicle hissed through the air with a howling sound, and I barely dodged, feeling the chill wind of it as it split the air beside my ear. The icicle impaled itself in the chamber wall, inches between it and where my head had been.

  This was the problem. I could bob and weave, keep pace, even frustrate the beast. I'd wounded it again, but it wasn't enough. Even now, I could see that the two wounds I'd inflicted on it had dribbled to a stop. Its pool of Endurance was effective in resisting my dagger's and Vipera's venoms and the stacks of [Bane] I was inflicting on it with every passing moment. I didn't imagine the addition of my own venom would change much. Right now, Endurance was preventing me from whittling it down in the ways I normally would.

  As if to add specifically to my frustration, the yeti hunched low and let loose a [Howl of Winter]. The sound was actual agony, not just on the eardrums, but the soul, like being on the wrong end of a jet engine if the jet engine hated your guts and wanted to see you. I could feel the [Fear] effect the Skill was trying to inflict. It wasn't anywhere near strong enough to break through my Charisma and [Aura Manipulation]. Unfortunately, the [Fear] effect wasn't the point of the Skill, more just a happy bonus. Clouds of snow and mist filled the chamber, obscuring my vision. I growled in frustration. Even as I did, the yeti disappeared from my view, hidden by the fog and snow.

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  That didn’t mean I was unaware of where it was and what it was doing. Even in the mana wash, the boss shone brightly in the vision of [All-Seeing Eye]. It had no Skills to help it hide from me.

  Another icicle came flying out of the mist from my left. I was already moving by the time it reached me, or rather, where I was. It passed harmlessly by crashing against the wall of the chamber. My gaze remained fixed on the yeti as it shuffled about the chamber, another icicle forming in its grip. No matter how much it played the part of the enraged ape, it couldn't hide the calculating mind that plotted and planned now that it had switched from brute melee to ranged attacks from visual cover.

  I grit my teeth, shifting behind an ice pillar as another icicle flew out of the mist. The pillar trembled against my back under the weight of the impact. My current strategy wasn't working. I was going to have to switch things up. I noted the slight thinning of the snow and mist that filled the chamber; there was time before it settled. Perhaps it was time for a little surprise while the yeti couldn't see clearly. I suspected it was targeting me with those icicles via its sense of smell rather than visually. I could see it through the mist and snow courtesy of [All-Seeing Eye]. I hadn't seen anything similar in its Stat page.

  Grinning, I shifted to my spider form, slipping up the pillar to the ceiling of the chamber. I skittered along the ceiling, keeping myself as flat as possible, each movement sure and swift to not give away my location. I kept moving until I was directly above the boss. For all its intelligence and animal cunning, it seemed fixated on the idea that I would be forced to move through the mist, that I'd be hunting for a clean angle to strike or a path to close the distance. The same fatal flaw that got so many people in trouble or dead: It believed what it wanted to believe, and only saw what it wanted to see.

  Releasing my grip on the ceiling, I fell directly onto the boss. My legs thrust out, and several of them caught the boss with all of my weight behind them. My weight slammed the yeti face down into the ground as I struck its back, my spider limbs punching into it in several places. Shoulder, hip, abdomen, leg. Blue blood splattered on the ice as the yeti roared, arms flailing, straining with all its might to knock me from my perch on its back. One of those heavy arms caught me around the face, and I saw stars for a moment. I lost my grip as the yeti thrashed beneath me and tumbled free of the yeti rolling on the ground. I righted myself, gaze flicking back to the yet as it dragged itself to its feet. I could see the pain in it now, every one of my limbs had carried with it the power of [Venomous Strikes], a double dose of my own venom and Vipera's for each limb I'd stabbed into it. A dose large enough that it looked like it was actually having an effect.

  The yeti was already up, blue blood sluicing down its chest and abdomen, but the bleeding was already slowing, a symptom of that monstrous Endurance at work.

  It learned. That much, I could see. And so could I.

  I juked sideways as its fist crashed against the ice below it, and a cascade of icicles rushed out from the impact in the span of a heartbeat. Only barely did I avoid being skewered by the rush of sharp ice. I twisted my spider-body lengthwise, almost skating on the ice floor of the chamber with my sharp limbs. My forelegs scything in a curve that would have, on a less stupidly sturdy monster, filleted it clean. Instead, my sharpest legs barely punched through to the bone before I was forced back at the tip of another icicle spear. I hissed my discontent, and the yeti responded in kind with another chamber-shaking roar. In this life-or-death struggle between monsters, we two were evenly matched, or at least close to it.

  I lunged forward, closing with the yeti, forelegs lancing outward. It was a clash of titans. My forelegs slammed into its guts, spraying blue blood through the air. Its fists crashed down on my back, slamming me to the ice. I felt my carapace crack under the weight of the strike. I was forced to withdraw as another blow came crashing down. This was turning into a slugging match, one I would eventually lose if things continued the way they were.

  I decided to risk an [Edge Glare] from my good eyes. My rightmost eye was still iffy at best after the battle with the naga. I could see normally from them, but I could feel that it wouldn't take much to injure them again.

  The [Edge Glare] ripped through the mist and the snow, splitting it like a parted sea on its way to its intended recipient. The Spell slammed home into the yeti's torso, spraying its blue blood into the air. The damage was significant enough, that much I could see, but it wasn't enough to be fatal. My Spell had carved a deep laceration from the yeti's hip to its shoulder that was gushing, spilling blue blood to the floor of the chamber by the bucketful. The yeti staggered in place, hands reaching up to the wound rent in its chest as if it could pull the edges closed and be whole again. For a moment, it looked like it would make the attempt with shaking shaking bloodied hands.

  Then the air in the chamber underwent a fundamental shift, and the yeti focused its glare on me instead of the chamber floor slick with its own blood. All at once, the bleeding from its various wounds ceased, while its muscles shifted and bulged with raw power. Its aura intensified; it felt wild, uncontrolled. As if it had been driven mad with rage and pain. The threat I could feel from the monster surged in time with its aura as it stared at me from across the chamber, the feeling crawled up my mental spine and set up shop in the back of my mind.

  I cursed as I recalled the boss' status page and the very last Skill that had been on its list.

  This monster had a rage mode, and it was time for round two.