By Zephyria Rainer’s firmly hardened left arm was easily torn off as if a branch had broken. From the crushed cross-section, as if carved out of stone, the blood from the blood vessels burst out in all directions with a rough pulsation.
The red biceps, exposed as the skin peeled off, stretched like tough jelly before being torn apart miserably along the grain. Tendons and broken bones dangled, separated from the flesh, between the red liquid spurting like a fountain.
He had never imagined that he would see the traces he had seen on the severed Dermokas’s leg on his own arm.
“Aaaaaaack!”
“Rainer―!”
Staring at the lump of meat being chewed and swallowed by the Queen’s second maw, Rainer let out a scream that seemed to cut off his breath. The metallic, cracked voice and the blood stench that spread in an instant changed the flow of the air to a terrifying degree.
In the blood mist mixed with dust, he could no longer fly and fell straight down. Then Isabella, who had been erecting a barrier in the sky, abandoned her role and jumped down. Meterion was too flustered to grab her.
“Wait, the barrier―!”
At the same time as his empty cry scattered, the transparent barrier that had filled the wall was instantly released. The Illaptors that had been clinging to the narrow cave crawled in eagerly, as if they had found a hole in the flesh.
Meanwhile, Hugo, who barely caught Rainer’s falling body, immediately froze his upper arm and shoulder where it had been cut off. It was to prevent necrosis of the exposed cut area in the boiling heat.
After quickly moving him inside the railing and leaning him against it, he looked at his face, where blood spots were rising, and shouted urgently.
“Liner Molton, focus on your breathing, snap out of it!”
“Ugh, ugh, uheok―.”
However, Hugo’s voice was not heard by Rainer, whose face was pale and who was struggling to even breathe. He was on the verge of mental collapse not because his hardened arm had been torn off, but because of the face of his subordinate he had encountered in an unexpected place.
The complexion of the monster’s corpse filled his head, triggering all the trauma he had been harboring at once. His bloodshot eyes lost focus and trembled.
Leonardo, who witnessed the scene vividly in the air, froze for a moment at the memories that rushed in with a bitter smell. However, when he saw the monster’s neck approaching Hugo, he immediately regained his senses and gathered Magic Power in his hand again.
And then, Isabella, who was descending rapidly from above, reached out her arm towards the creature that had swallowed Rainer’s arm. Three spheres were fired in an instant from her fingertips, where a deep purple Magic Circle had been created.
The monster, which had quickly chewed and swallowed an arm as big as its body, sensed the incoming Magic Power and lowered its head, returning to the shape of a protrusion. Above it, the split skull closed as if it were being sealed, protecting the protrusion from the attack.
The sphere that went straight exploded with a pop as soon as it touched the Queen, scattering a mysterious liquid. Subsequently, a faint haze rose from the core that had been covered in it, but it only obscured the vision once again and did not seem to inflict any damage.
However, about 2 seconds later, Isabella appeared silently in the floating debris. She was already holding a huge scythe in her hand.
“This monster bastard.”
Her eyes were filled with nothing but hatred and murderous intent towards the monster. She sliced off one of the devilish claws with the blue scythe she was holding, then approached right above the Queen’s neck and raised both arms upwards.
But at that moment, the wriggling tail of the monster was unusual. The blunt flesh split like a blossoming bud, opening its mouth, and a long, sticky, mucus-covered stinger appeared from within.
In the blink of an eye, Leonardo’s mind was filled with the image of the Deformed species he had seen in the crater of the 4th Peak as it crossed the air.
That demon beast hidden in the lake also had such a stinger at the end of its particularly thick leg. And what was on the end of it was definitely poison.
“Oh, shi―.”
Leonardo fired a flash of lightning at the stinger in just 1 second and rushed at Isabella. The Council Battalion Commanders were losing their minds and pouring out attacks indiscriminately, so he thought that if he left them alone, they would be attacked by the monster, not to mention that the plan would be ruined.
As he expected, Isabella, who was in a tense situation, grabbed the scythe she had swung down and stopped in the air with disbelieving eyes.
Her scythe, imbued with potent poison, was a powerful weapon that could corrode even hard Boulder with poison and dig deep into it. But the hide in front of her had only slightly flowed down where the blade had touched, and the surface seemed to be hardened like a diamond, causing no damage at all.
Isabella, who was covered in helplessness and confusion in an instant, felt that she had no strength in her hands. She knew it even better because they had been together for a long time.
That the Hardening Art that had blocked her attack was none other than Rainer’s ability.
It seemed that what the monster had swallowed was not just his arm.
“What are you doing, standing there like an idiot!”
A commanding voice shook her consciousness violently. As she reflexively turned her eyes, a huge thorn that seemed to pierce her body easily was approaching within inches.
Isabella, who was about to leap into the air with the scythe in her hand, strangely did not think of pulling out the thorn, which was only slightly embedded at the end. In the end, she let go of her hand and stepped on the monster’s body, jumping upwards in an instant.
Just as she was about to gather the undulating purple Magic Power, imbued with poison, in both hands and throw it at the thorn, a dark shadow and a rotten stench approached her from under her feet. In that instant, the maw that seemed to swallow the entire wide space was surging towards her at full speed in the place she looked down on in a flash.
It was a speed that was hard to believe for the movement of a large body, and the thought that it was already too late flashed through her mind as she quickly stretched one arm downwards.
However, as if not allowing it, a shadow that suddenly appeared wrapped around her abdomen and pulled her rather roughly. As Isabella was dragged away by the force that made her utter a sound of “Eok―”, the thorny monster’s lower jaw narrowly missed her.
Thanks to this, she avoided the tragedy of having her body torn apart, but then collided with the wall, causing a great impact.
Kwaaaang―!
Isabella instinctively deployed an Aura behind her back. Then, when she heard the sound of Boulder collapsing, she raised her guard over her head, prepared to be covered in fragments.
But the falling debris only grazed her skin slightly and passed by, and the impact was much less than she had expected. The mysterious pain spreading in her forearm was also bearable.
Even as she felt puzzled, she opened her eyes, which she had unknowingly closed, and raised her head.
However, her gaze stopped at one place without even going halfway up, and her eyelids widened to the fullest. This was because the long thorn she had just seen was brutally embedded in the wall, crossing next to her head.
The sticky mucus covering the surface of the thorn dripped down, soaking someone’s shoulder that could be seen beyond it. The bright shadow there muttered in a trembling voice, breathing roughly.
“Shibal… I almost died.”
Leonardo, frowning, glared at the huge stinger that had penetrated next to his half-bent neck. It was a moment when he could have been pierced through the head and killed instantly if the Ice Pillar that had risen diagonally from the wall had not slowed down its speed.
In the meantime, he felt an unpleasant sensation as if his shoulder had become wet under the weapon that had broken through the ice and penetrated the wall. At first, he thought it was because it was soaked in venom, but when he glanced down, that was not all.
The neck and shoulder area of his magic robe were stained red with blood, as if he had been grazed by something without him knowing, even though he thought he had dodged it well. It was also his left shoulder.
‘Of all places to graze….’
Leonardo’s eyelids twitched as he clenched his teeth. When he moved the muscle joints, he felt the pain vividly even though his senses were dulled.
While he was scanning the state of his arm with his eyes lowered, Isabella, who was half-hidden beyond the stinger, opened her mouth with a dazed face.
“You’re….”
Leonardo, who heard the short voice and turned around, questioned her with cold eyes.
“Hey, are you crazy?”
“…….”
“If your comrade is in that state, you should act more calmly. What do you think you’re going to do if you rush in without understanding the situation like that?”
Isabella, who heard the sharp rebuke, only moved her lips for a moment and did not answer.
Just as she was staring at him with confused eyes, unable to speak, there was a cracking sound from the rock wall behind her.
The stinger that had been embedded between the two people shook from side to side, stirring up the wall, and then slowly pulled out. Instinctively distancing themselves, they barely stepped on the hollowed-out rock and quickly got up.
As they immediately watched the receding tip, they saw the cracks in the ice that had been revealed as the long thorn was pulled out. And through that gap.
The Queen’s murderous pupils, looking inside, were reflected.