As the damage numbers continued to appear, John's HP began to slowly decrease.
Although the decline in HP was gradual, if this persisted, it wouldn't be long before he perished.
And this was only the second level of the trial, with nine more levels to go.
If he lost a significant amount of HP or stamina here, the challenges ahead would likely be even more difficult to face. He needed to end the battle quickly!
Moreover, besides the damage, John's visibility had also been completely obscured by the sand.
Looking around, he saw nothing but a haze, with visibility so poor it was terrifying; he couldn't even see what was in front of him.
John didn't panic.
He closed his eyes, gradually slowed his breathing, calmed his mind, and sank into his inner tranquility, all the while blocking out the surrounding noise.
While John seemed to have given up struggling, his powerful mind power had already covered a ten-meter radius around him, constantly alert to the surroundings.
This was a new way of using mind power that John had discovered under his own danger premonition.
It was his first time utilizing his mind power in this manner, primarily because the preparation time was too lengthy; in that time, he could have used his skills to kill monsters a dozen times over.
Within the reach of John's mind power, this area seemed to have become his own domain.
He could feel the fury of the wind, sense his body gradually being buried by the yellow sand, and see a two-meter-long scarlet scorpion rapidly approaching from five meters behind him underground!
The scorpion was blood-red all over, with two massive pincers on its forebody that could easily dig through the sand, and a sharp stinger on its tail that seemed to be burning with flames, never extinguished even underground.
The scarlet scorpion reached John's back in just the blink of an eye.
Its tail lifted, and the crimson, glowing stinger broke through the sand, venomously and swiftly aiming for his skull!
The scarlet scorpion's eyes gleamed with brutality and excitement, seemingly already picturing the scene of this reckless individual's skull being shattered by its attack.
However, just as the scorpion's stinger was about to make contact with John, his figure suddenly lowered, narrowly dodging the tail strike.
At the same time, a cold, icy blue light shone from his staff, and an ice spear, chilling to the bone, rapidly formed in the storm before fiercely thrusting at the scarlet scorpion's head!
The scarlet scorpion, caught off guard by John's early detection and prepared counterattack, was struck directly in its small eye by the spear.
"Pop!"
First, a sound akin to a water balloon bursting rang out, followed by a shrill, terrifying scream that swept across the entire Burning Sands!
"Squeal—!"
The scarlet scorpion's eye was directly pierced by John's spear, and upon the ice spear's explosion, a layer of frost instantly covered its head, with a huge amount of damage and thick white mist rising from its crown in an instant.
"-33185!"
It seemed that due to elemental advantage, the damage caused by the ice spear was much higher than John had anticipated.
However, the good news was that the sandstorm ceased following the severe injury to the scarlet scorpion's eye.
John slowly opened his eyes, his gaze coldly fixed on the writhing, wailing scarlet scorpion before him.
A stat panel appeared in front of John.
[Name: Sand Scorpion King (trial)]
[Level: lv15]
[HP: 86815/120000]
[Spirit: 1541]
[Strength: 1305]
[Defense: 899]
[Speed: 221]
[Skills: Sandstorm, Blazing Sting, Quicksand Swamp, Spirit of the Sands, Fiery Meteor…]
...
The Sand Scorpion King's HP and defense were significantly lower than those of the One-Eyed Lich King, but it was clearly more attack-oriented, with both its spirit and strength being exceptionally high.
Had John not preemptively injured one of its eyes and severely wounded it, the Sand Scorpion King would have been much more difficult to handle.
John's previous attack had driven the Sand Scorpion King into a frenzied state, its remaining crimson eye fixed on John with a mix of venomous hate and rage.
"Squeal!!!"
The Sand Scorpion King let out a sharp, piercing roar, its body suddenly glowing with a yellow light.
The desert, which had just calmed down, was once again disturbed as the smooth sand began to bulge, forming mounds.
Five creatures made of flowing sand appeared in front of the Sand Scorpion King.
"Spirit of the Sands!"
These creatures had no legs or facial features, only three hollows where their faces should be.
Their arms, when lifted, continuously shed sand, appearing fragile as if they would crumble upon touch.
However, John furrowed his brows, for these were actually five elite-tier monsters!
[Name: Spirit of the Sands (elite)]
[Level: lv15]
[HP: 50,000]
[Spirit: 1210]
[Strength: 221]
[Defense: 89]
[Speed: 73]
[Skills: Sands Reshaping, Sand Spikes, Sand Rain, Sand Wall…]
As John observed the stat panel of the Spirit of the Sands before him, his frown deepened. Even though these creatures only had a little over 50,000 HP, something felt off to him...
After summoning the Spirit of the Sands, the Sand Scorpion King's body lit up with a dense, crimson glow, releasing slowly.
Sensing danger, John wasn't about to let it complete its spell without interference.
A red light emanated from his staff.
A mass of crimson flames coalesced before him, quickly forming into a flaming serpent, its body, over a dozen meters long, an intimidating sight.
"Pyrokinesis!"
With a thought from John, the flaming serpent roared as it charged towards the Sand Scorpion King.
However, the Sand Scorpion King showed no intention of dodging, continuing to cast its skill.
Its eyes even held a mocking light, as if laughing at John's ignorance.
As the flaming serpent approached the Sand Scorpion King, the five Spirit of the Sands simultaneously lit up with an earthen hue.
Their bodies disintegrated into sand, reappearing in front of the Sand Scorpion King!
"Sand Walk!"
Then, the five Spirit of the Sands instantly transformed into five sand walls, blocking the flaming serpent's path.
The serpent roared as it collided with them, resulting in a thunderous impact!
"Boom, boom, boom!!!"
The massive explosion echoed throughout the entire Burning Sands, with the blast wave flinging sand dozens of meters into the air.
However, those seemingly fragile sand walls astonishingly withstood the attack of the flaming serpent!
John's flaming serpent managed to penetrate only three of the sand walls before extinguishing midway.
John remained calm, not surprised by this outcome.
If they were just ordinary sand walls, even ten more wouldn't have stopped his skill.
But these sands and monsters clearly possessed high resistance to fire-based attacks.
Therefore, both John's fire-based and ice-based attacks inflicted minimal damage on them.
What surprised John was that the three disintegrated Spirit of the Sands reformed in the blink of an eye, without losing any HP at all!
"Sands Reshaping!"
John exhaled deeply, no wonder these creatures, despite being elite-tier monsters, seemed so weak—they possessed a "rebirth" ability!
John quickly formulated a solution in his mind.
His gaze shifted to the still-casting Sand Scorpion King, the sense of impending crisis growing stronger.
However, his immediate priority was to interrupt the creature's casting; otherwise, who knows what it might unleash.
John wasn't keen on experiencing the ultimate move of one of the Crimson Demon's twelve Apostles.
With a thought, a black light shone from John's Necrostaff, and a sinister, evil-emitting black rune transformed into a streak of dark light, shooting towards the Sand Scorpion King's head.
"Silent Curse!"
The Sand Scorpion King, in the midst of casting, was hit by the black rune, the red light around it instantly vanishing as its casting was abruptly interrupted!
The remaining eye of the Sand Scorpion King revealed a startled expression as it looked at John's staff, then seemed to realize something, letting out a sharp roar and angrily charging directly towards John.
John arched an eyebrow, noting that this creature seemed to recognize the Necrostaff.
After all, the Undead Magus is also one of the Crimson Demon's twelve Apostles; recognition was expected, perhaps the Undead Magus and the Sand Scorpion King even had a good relationship.
However, this was of little concern to John. For him, the most important task at hand was finding the Crimson Demon's treasure, and currently, that meant dealing with this creature daring to stand in his way!
The black light shone again on John's staff, and two decaying black magic arrays appeared before him.
Two skeleton warriors made their entrance once more! They raised their bone swords, directly intercepting the charging Sand Scorpion King and the Spirit of the Sands.
Simultaneously, a water-blue gleam flashed in John's eyes, and a droplet of water rapidly condensed above his head.
"Aquakinesis!"
In just the blink of an eye, a water sphere several dozen meters in size appeared mid-air. However, John was not satisfied with the size of the water sphere.
The water-blue light in his eyes intensified, and the water sphere suddenly doubled in size!
John did not cease his efforts.
As he continued to cast, the water sphere in the sky grew larger and larger.
Until finally, a water sphere hundreds of meters in size appeared above him!