As the headless naked man runs towards us with inhuman speed, I'm still hesitating whether to fly away or stay put.
That monster is obviously not an ordinary creature.

But, I'm a rank A monster.
Let's calm down first. I haven't met another rank A monster like me yet.
There's no way it would just show up here all of a sudden.
It's probably just a speed type monster.

Taking a step back, I check the status of the headless man.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Species: Adam
Status: Normal
Lv: 73/100
HP: 833/833
MP: 452/452
Attack: 652
Defense: 561
Magic: 592
Speed: 691
Rank: Ａ-

Characteristic Skills:
〖Automatic HP Recovery: Lv6〗〖Presence Sense: Lv7〗〖Stealth: Lv7〗

Resistances:
〖Physical Resistance: Lv4〗〖Hunger Resistance: Lv7〗〖Poison Resistance: Lv4〗
〖Paralysis Resistance: Lv4〗〖Illusion Resistance: Lv3〗〖Instant Death Resistance: Lv2〗
〖Curse Resistance: Lv3〗〖Confusion Resistance: Lv5〗

Normal Skills:
〖Clay: Lv4〗〖Disease Breath: Lv5〗〖Curse: Lv5〗
〖Death: Lv6〗〖Gardener: Lv5〗〖Gravidon: LvMAX〗
〖Power Hand: Lv5〗〖Meteor Kick: Lv4〗〖High Jump: Lv6〗

Titles:
〖Final Evolutionist: Lv—〗〖Resident of the Edge: Lv—〗〖Gravity Shooter: Lv—〗
〖Shaman: Lv6〗〖Gardener of the Edge: Lv—〗〖Tenacious: Lv9〗
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

I take it back, it's more dangerous than I thought!
Its broken status far surpasses the Mother I fought in the Abyss nest.
If I get hit with one of its attacks, I definitely won't come out of it unscathed.
And what's with that "Adam" name? It can't be one of the original humans. It doesn't even have a head!

【〖Adam〗: Rank Ａ- monster】
【A monster with a peculiar appearance said to live at the farthest point of the world.】
【Because of its warlike personality, it would sometimes kick and slaughter many lineage of heroes that rises in an era.】
【In addition to its already strong physical body, it can even use sinister curses to kill devious opponents.】
【Many rural people who live near the sea fear this monster for they are often spotted at the other side of the ocean.】
【Although it violently assaults animals and will keep beating them up until it becomes unrecognizable, it surprisingly has a nature-loving side as well.】

What the-... this is some hacked boss-level monster, I swear.
Wait, this makes no sense.
It says it's a nature-lover, but I can't see how something with that face would love beautiful flowers and lush greenery!

I give Alo, who's still on top of my head, a short "Gruo" warning and quickly pick Treant up.
At the same time, Petite Nightmare shoots out a line of web to Partner's head and pulls herself up.
Seems like Nightmare completely understands our situation.

I kick the ground and jump up, followed by a great flap of my wings.

Adam runs after me from below and is looking at me with its unchanged stoic expression while stomping at the ground with explosive steps.
I'm scared! That fixed stare, clearly directed at me, and unchanging face frightens me!
I didn't think a time would come where I would be terrified of a monster that's smaller than me.

The impact of Adam's stomping created a dust cloud, hiding him from plain sight.

I turn around and face the outskirts of the island.
This is just a temporary retreat.
If I want to live here, I'll have to get rid of that Adam.
This should be far enough. Now to attack it from a distance…… or, should I try to fool it by pretending to leave and go for a surprise attack instead…?

It’s a nice idea and all, but I don’t have any skills that I can use to hide myself with.
And if I try to humanize, it will definitely kill me with a single kick.
I don’t even think my humanized stats can take it down, even if I ask Alo, Nightmare, and Treant for help.

【“…… Look out, it’s tryin’ to do somethin”】

“Gru~uo?”

Hearing Partner’s warning, I shift my gaze back at the hidden Adam.
The dust cloud covering Adam is getting sucked inside a sphere of condensed gravity.
After it absorbed the dust cloud, Adam is seen holding a black energy sphere.
The black sphere continues to swallow up the rocks and dirt around it and is gauging out the surface of earth.

It must be that gravity magic,〖Gravidon〗.
I’ve seen that〖Gravidon〗skill in other monsters before, but their stats weren’t as high as this Adam here.
I don’t know how powerful that skill is gonna be with those ridiculous stats of his.

It then shoots the black sphere towards us.
The speed of the shot was too fast for me to dodge in time.
I guarded with my wings on reflex.
The black sphere hits my wings and the impact felt like I was about to be crushed from just being in contact with it.
The pain was unbearable and I could hear my wing bones cracking.
I lost balance and fell from the air.

That attack was crazy fast and way too powerful.
I can’t let myself get hit by that again…...but, just when I was thinking of that, Adam was gathering another sphere of black light around its mouth area again.
Hey, that’s cheating! You can’t just keep shooting those things indefinitely, at least give me a handicap!
Is it because its 〖Gravidon〗 skill is at max level?

As I was falling in mid-air, I tried to move my wings as much as I could and retaliated with 〖Wind Slash〗.
Adam responds by expertly jumping to the left and right without even breaking its concentration on accumulating energy for its gravity sphere.
The wind blades hit the ground instead and is creating another dust cloud for Adam to hide itself.

Then, Adam releases its second 〖Gravidon〗.
I managed to rotate my body so I could guard with my wings again, but the damage was a lot greater than I anticipated.
The severe pain coursed through my whole body.
It broke my wings bones again, and the crack was even louder than the last time.
Was it a mistake to turn my back from him and fight at a distance?

I knew it had that 〖Gravidon〗skill, but I didn’t think its power and accuracy would be that high. I can’t beat it in a long-distance battle.
And since I’m holding Treant with both hands, plus alo is holding for dear life on top of my head, I can’t make any big aerial maneuvers without risking any of them to fall.
Should I attempt to get in closer and finish it at close range?
Because of its description that says it kicks and slaughters heroes from days old, also that scary high attack stat oh his, I was cautious of going a CQC against it.

Adam continues to look at me with an uninterested face, not like its expression ever changes.
However, its explosive stomping remains restless and it’s still running towards me as I fall back to earth.

While I was falling, I activate 〖Self-Regeneration〗to heal up my broken wings.
It hurt a lot when my wings suddenly twisted and bent during the repair, but the dislocated parts were slowly reverting back to its original structure and I could move my wings again.

【“It’s gettin’ closer! Wat now?!”】

I’m still wondering if I can pull this off despite the not-so high gap in both our stats and rank.
Ouroboros is originally an endurance type.
Though, it seems that it takes more than being an endurance type when it comes to battling others with the same rank.
Any attacks it’ll damage me with, I can just recover them with self-healing skills, but I can’t afford to get hit with any of its attacks right now ‘cause there’s a chance that Alo, Petite Nightmare, and Treant will get hurt in the process.
In terms of attack power, ours is clearly higher……speedwise, it’s only slightly faster than us.
Besides, if I go for close combat, it might attack Alo, so let’s avoid that for now.

Adam then bends its knees, leans forward, and bulks up its leg muscles.
It must be redying to use 〖High Jump〗 .
So, after knocking a flying opponent down with 〖Gravidon〗, it closes in with {High Jump} and forces them into close combat.
Which means that even if I heal my wings and fly away again, it’s gonna use another 〖Gravidon〗 to knock me down, bringing me back to square one.

That 〖Tenacious〗 title isn’t just for show then. I didn’t think I’d meet a monster who can single-handedly deal massive amounts of damage to an Ouroboros like me.
But…...This is perfect to level me up.
I don’t have time to think up any safe measures now.
Guess I’ll just with everything I got.

Adam bends its knees some more and leans its body a little forward.
Here it comes!
At the same time its left the ground, I greatly swing my arms up.

Treant, who I was holding with both arms, got flung sky high.