BMD 187

Kwaaaang―!

Black sparks collided strongly with the core’s breath that flew head-on. Because of this, the end of the intense Magic Power narrowly missed the creature’s nape.

The high-voltage current that had left the caster’s hand instead pierced through the core’s left foot, which was trying to block the attack. It seemed as if it would regenerate soon as it wriggled, but perhaps because the flesh had been completely burned, the recovery time seemed to take longer than when it had simply been torn.

Avoiding the manifesting poison needles that flew towards him in succession, Leonardo moved to the underside of the core in an instant. Then, holding the fierce sparks that seemed to swallow even his own body in his hand, he charged at full speed towards the regrown tail.

Perhaps because it remembered being cut off once, the creature’s tail area was covered with a transparent membrane. Seeing this, Leonardo immediately Teleported to the rear of the core. With a resolute gaze in his eyes that flashed like lightning, he used the momentum of his charge to plunge the end into its nape.

Pajijijijik―

But the critical strike missed the vitals once again. This was because he had encountered the poison needles that had sprung up hastily in the gap of the fiercely flying sparks. Leonardo, who hurriedly swung his arm and cut the sharp thorns in half, gained only a meager result and fired lightning bolts again to create distance.

Leaving behind the ferociously roaring creature, he hid his body in the scattering ashes and smoke. Then, he quietly circled around the core at a rapid pace, silently waiting for the opportunity for the next attack.

As the suddenly appearing shadow flickered and disappeared repeatedly, the creature, which had become extremely sensitive, raised its protrusions and increased its flight speed. It seemed that the creature was also looking for an opportunity to counterattack while trying not to give him a chance to aim.

If he continued to hide and pour out ranged attacks in this state, he could immediately inflict damage on some parts of its body, but the creature was now using all sorts of parts to block only the vitals. If he continued to launch attacks with poor accuracy in this situation, the creature’s vigilance would increase and the opportunity would gradually disappear, and it was more likely that he would get tired first.

Leonardo, who knew this well, watched the Queen’s movements with bated breath in order to be cautious. He aimed to draw out the maximum Magic Power with the minimum number of attempts, but that resolution did not last long. Unfortunately, at that moment, the area under his left eye began to twitch.

Instinctively frowning, he immediately created a little more distance from the core. Then, after completely extinguishing the sparks that were flying in his hand, he pressed down on the eye that felt an unpleasant twitch with his palm.

‘Damn it… Is it already getting paralyzed?’

He tried to maintain his composure, but in reality, anxiety rushed in. He had been feeling uneasy for some reason, and the symptoms of poisoning were slowly appearing.

Leonardo bit his lip tightly and immediately roughly stroked his left shoulder and neck area with his right hand. Then, he clearly felt the sensation that had become undeniably dull. Even the circulation of blood had slowed down, and the actual reaction speed was about 0.5 seconds slower than what he perceived in his head.

He had expected it, but the Dregalianif that Agrizendro had was far too small to neutralize the poison that had been poured on his shoulder. Because of this, even though he had added crushed herbs to the wound, it had only slightly slowed down the rate at which the poison was spreading and had not had a significant effect on detoxification.

As evidence of this, the tinnitus that was ringing extremely severely in his left ear and the tingling sensation that felt as if bugs were crawling inside his skin had been constantly lingering near the affected area since earlier. In addition, the fact that even the area under his eye was twitching meant that even the blood supplied to his brain might have already been contaminated with poison.

Before coming outside, he had hurriedly searched near the collapsing fortress, but he had not been able to find even a single clump of herbs similar to Dregalianif, perhaps because they had already been buried under the poured-out pile of stones. In the midst of this, it was ironically fortunate that the paralysis was gradually reducing the pain in his ribs.

“……Damn it, what’s fortunate about it.”

Leonardo, who had been quietly watching the sky, burst into a neurotic laugh at his own appearance, trying to find something to hope for in the worst situation.

If he was in this state, he might be chewed into that maw before he could even catch the creature. It seemed that the paralysis had penetrated his head and something had gone wrong.

Tududuk, Tuduk―

At that moment, small droplets suddenly fell from the sky and brushed past his eyes and the bridge of his nose. When he reflexively looked up, what had been falling one or two drops at a time soon poured down as a drizzle.

At first, he thought that Agrizendro had artificially created rain to put out the fire, but that was not the case. As the heat on the ground rose and the water vapor in the air condensed at high altitudes, rain clouds had naturally formed.

Kwang― Kwaang―!

At the same time, a violent shockwave spread from not far away, accompanied by the roar of the core. The energy mixed within it wasn’t solely the Magic Power of the Council’s battalion commanders. It seemed that quite a few members were hiding amidst the acrid smoke, launching attacks to disrupt it.

Thanks to that, Leonardo Blaine, who had been able to pause in mid-air for a moment to gather his thoughts, took a fresh look around at the surroundings, now a sea of fire. Just a day ago, this place had been quite peaceful, but now it was no different from a battlefield.

He blinked slowly, then raised his head again to stare blankly at the rain soaking his entire body.

‘Rain… if I use the rain.’

At that moment, a series of powerful shockwaves erupted from within the thick, black smoke. His brightly shining eyes reflexively turned in that direction.

After staring at the spot for a moment, black sparks, violently surging once more, flickered in his hand.

Leonardo, regaining his stance, immediately flew towards the battlefield.

It seemed a decent plan to resolve this situation had come to mind.

Hugo, in conjunction with the battalion commanders, attacked the core, trying to grasp as much as possible about the abilities it was hiding.

Inside the fortress, it had consistently crawled upwards to induce attacks from the opponent, and it had kept the fact that it could fire its breath for a final escape hidden all along. With its high intelligence, there was a good chance it had more abilities it hadn’t revealed yet.

And as Hugo had expected, when the core’s bodily regeneration couldn’t keep up with the rate of damage from the relentless human attacks, it immediately changed direction, descended, and began to mercilessly devour its offspring scattered on the ground.

It didn’t seem to distinguish between the dead and the living. It simply swept them into its maw indiscriminately, swallowing them whole without chewing. Then, as if using what it had eaten as nourishment for its body, it restored the damaged areas with a regeneration speed several times faster.

Because of that, the Council’s battalion commanders had also realized that long-range attacks that didn’t hit vital spots were meaningless. Therefore, they were currently focusing on close combat, but the core’s speed was still beyond imagination, and even if they managed to approach using Teleport, its reaction speed in blocking attacks was remarkably perfect.

Eventually, Hugo, struggling, decided to target areas other than the vital spots first.

Drip, drip―

Just then, his blue eyes turned upwards at the water droplets flowing down his face. Clouds had filled the sky before he knew it, and they looked to be holding a lot of moisture.

The increasingly thick raindrops gradually subdued the hellish landscape of the burning earth, and coldly soaked the heads and faces of countless people.

And at that moment, Hugo instinctively shifted his gaze to the core, which was confronting the commanders.

Flames were constantly rising from the gaps in its hide, continuously evaporating the rain falling from above. But the moisture didn’t disappear as soon as it touched. Clearly, small droplets were gathering one by one, slowly wetting the surface of its hide, and as time passed and the rain grew heavier, the area being soaked grew wider.

As Hugo quietly watched the core, a plan suddenly came to mind.

‘If the core’s entire body gets wet…’

Calmly developing his thoughts, he soon transformed the Greatsword in his hand into a thin, long ice spear. Then, he deployed a Magic Circle far above, causing rain to fall doubly within a certain radius.

The raindrops from the clouds met the water droplets generated from the Magic Circle and merged in the air, soon becoming thicker and heavier downpours that quickly soaked the ground.

Perhaps sensing something strange as the heavy rain suddenly poured down, the core also looked up at the sky. Soon, as the blue Magic Circle that briefly appeared between the clouds shimmered faintly, the core, sensing danger, flapped its wings greatly, trying to escape the radius of the Magic Circle.

At that moment, Isabella, having received Hugo’s signal, charged in the direction the core’s head was facing. When she created a dark, murky poison with her hands clasped together, the core paused, then quickly changed direction.

Battalion commanders with swords in hand stepped forward in turn, threatening the core’s vital spots and blocking its retreat head-on. From below, members fired re-prepared cannonballs, preventing the core from descending to the ground.

As a result, the Queen, forced to hover in the air, flapped its wings incessantly, getting soaked by the heavy raindrops without any gaps. Gas and flames were constantly spewing from the gaps in its hide, but perhaps due to the power of the downpour, its momentum wasn’t as strong as before.

Hugo, who had been deliberately hiding his presence and observing the situation, noticed that the steam rising around the core had subsided. He immediately fired a flare containing Magic Power above his head, made eye contact with the battalion commanders, and then vanished from the spot in an instant.

As the blue light suddenly flashed in the gloomy sky, the core’s eyeballs reflexively turned towards it. Then, after discovering the flare and sensing that something was coming, the core bristled its protrusions to the point of splitting its skull this time.

Three small, snake-like monsters wriggled out from the gap, craning their necks as if trying to sense a presence. And at that moment, the monsters, sensing a sharply honed chill, rolled their eyeballs upwards in an instant.

A figure clutching an ice spear was approaching at high speed from not far away. The wriggling monsters surged savagely, ready to bite off his limbs.

But Hugo, who had been aiming for that, didn’t avoid the tentacles with their long, extended necks. Rather, he waited for them to come right up to his eyes before barely managing to cast a spell.

“Freeze.”

The hide of the core, whose entire body was soaked in rainwater, hardened as if time had stopped for an instant. The eyes of the instantly frozen core couldn’t roll left or right, and only stared straight ahead. In that fleeting moment, Meterion and Isabella, who had been silently following alongside Hugo, revealed themselves.

The three humans fearlessly raised their spears, swords, and scythes. Then, just before the core was freed from the freezing, they sliced off the core’s raised protrusions in one fell swoop.

The three small monsters that had gaped their mouths open were also pierced straight through by the flying ice spear. Spitting out strange bodily fluids, they were bisected vertically and died instantly.

Kyahhhhhhh!

In that brief moment, the core, having had all its protrusions, which were like its eyes and ears, cut off, let out a scream of pain and spewed heat from its entire body. Because of that, all the ice that had frozen on the surface melted away, and the core, its movements now free, began to wildly swing its tail and claws like a madman.

The approaching battalion commanders hurriedly moved away, barely dodging the unleashed attacks. Hugo also detonated an air sphere in front of him, using the recoil to quickly distance himself.

And then, in an instant, a heat wave washed over his back. The searing energy of the flames brushed past Hugo’s side before he could even turn around.

“Everyone, get out of the way!”

The moment Leonardo’s voice pierced his ears, a flash of lightning struck from above.

The golden lightning that came down riding the rain struck the core’s head directly.