By Zephyria About ten minutes after chasing the mysterious member, an ominous vibration came from afar.
Not only the ground was shaking, but the entire air was trembling, and a heavy weight climbed up her legs.
The member and Squad Leader 8, who were walking ahead, instinctively stopped running. Then, a sharp sound that stimulated their eardrums swept towards them at high speed.
Kieeeeek—
“Illaptor! Prepare for battle!”
As soon as she heard the cry, the squad leader drew her sword and shouted loudly, looking back at those who were following. Starting with her voice, a swarm of Illaptors poured out of the darkness like a flood.
As they filled the passage with their grotesque cries, the squad leader blew compressed air at one of them that was rushing towards her, blowing its head off.
After that, there was no time to assess the situation. Everyone was covered in a wave of demon beasts, and they had to swing their arms, holding only their swords.
In a situation where her head, shoulders, and entire body were being crushed, Squad Leader 8 relentlessly slashed at the demon beasts, regardless of whether her arms and legs were scratched.
But that frantic fight lasted only about ten seconds. They soon couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.
The demon beasts, which had been rushing in with terrifying momentum, simply passed them by and ran away into the path behind them.
“……?”
The squad leader, whose hair was messed up for a moment, looked back at the passage she had come through with a bewildered expression. The reactions of the other three squad members were not much different. The terrified cries quickly faded into the distance, making their intense tension seem pointless.
The four of them stood there blankly, soaked in bewilderment, when one of the squad members barely managed to speak.
“Why… why are they just leaving?”
“…Well, I don’t know either…”
Squad Leader 8, who was at a loss for words because it was the first time she had experienced such a situation, blinked her eyes and slowly lowered the hand holding her sword.
It seemed that they had been rushing towards them simply to pass through the path, and even though she had slashed at their legs, they showed no intention of counterattacking, let alone attacking.
As she pondered the strange phenomenon, she suddenly became concerned about the condition of the member who was at the very front and quickly turned her head.
But she couldn’t help but doubt her eyes once again. The member, who didn’t possess a single weapon, was standing there looking even better than they were.
Moreover, she didn’t know how he had managed to kill them in such a short time, but there were about six Illaptors lying around him, excluding the one whose head she had blown off.
Her eyes widened in surprise, and she immediately ran forward to check on the member, but he was staring at the direction from which the monsters had come, without the slightest hint of agitation.
As the squad leader looked him up and down, about to ask if he was okay, several sets of footsteps were heard from inside the cave.
Tak tak tak—
This time, it wasn’t the sound of demon beasts, but human footsteps. Naturally, the squad leader also turned to look in that direction.
‘…Did they sense the presence?’
The Illaptor horde had disturbed the air inside, so she hadn’t sensed their presence until she heard the sound. But this member had been staring in one direction as if he had known from the beginning. It was a very coincidental situation.
Just as she was marveling, an unexpected person appeared from the other side along with a Light Ball.
The familiar face revealed under the light was a superior officer who was not very welcome to Squad Leader 8.
“…Battalion Commander Kleinder?”
Meterion Kleinder and members of the 3rd Battalion stopped in place, catching their breath. Since the 3rd Battalion Commander, who rarely showed a disheveled appearance, was breathing heavily, it evoked a strange feeling.
Meterion, scanning the number of people standing there blankly, let out a low sigh. Then, he gestured with his hand and pointed his chin towards the back.
“It’s good to see you here. Follow me.”
^
The walls, which had been densely filled with magnificent pillars and statues, had collapsed so miserably that their original form could not be recognized.
In the midst of the desolate and destructive scene, Hugo greeted the descending light and continued to catch his breath. His cold gaze and the dozens of Ice Pillars floating around him were aimed solely at the monster in front of him. The core had its claws embedded in the wall and was hanging upside down, staring intently at Hugo.
Perhaps conscious of the ice sparkling in the light, the monster’s movements had stopped. However, three or four crimson eyes rolled around as if trying to find an opening. Hugo couldn’t let his guard down because the monster was crouching as if it was about to jump out at any moment.
Beyond the railing blocked by ice in the back, Rainer was still complaining of breathing difficulties, and there was no way of knowing what condition the two people who hadn’t come out from between the Ice Pillars were in.
Engulfed in a sense of duty to protect them, Hugo barely held onto his fading vision and mind. He only had one body, but there were two places to protect, and he felt like his stamina was steadily draining away even though he was just standing there facing off.
To make matters worse, the monster seemed to be aware of this fact and was acting as if it was dragging out the situation.
The movements of the core that he had seen so far were so swift that even a battalion commander running at full speed would almost be caught. But since he had faced off against it, its movements had slowed down drastically, and it often just stuck to the wall like that, as if openly telling him to attack.
If he aimed an attack at the right timing, it would quickly evade it and crawl upwards, so in the end, he was just wasting Magic Power without making any progress. As time passed, Hugo became increasingly uneasy.
‘What’s its intention?’
It didn’t seem like it was holding back because of the shock of the ice embedded in its leg, and he didn’t feel any fear from the monster in front of him at all. Rather, the way it slowly wriggled its body and heightened the tension made it seem like it was probing him and looking for an opportunity.
Whatever its purpose, Hugo had no reason to play along with its intentions. After taking a deep breath, he once again solidified the surface of the Ice Pillars surrounding him by cooling them.
At that moment, the mass of flesh dangling at the end of the core’s tail clumped together and turned into a heavy iron mace. Then, as the tail swung wildly as if trying to gain momentum, Hugo poured all of the Ice Pillars he had floated onto it at once.
Kwakwakwakwang!
The core dodged to the side in an instant, making the plunging attack seem pointless. Then, it scraped the wall with the end of its tail, spewing out a yellow gas from its cracked skin.
Knowing that it was trying to collapse the Boulder and obscure his vision, Hugo countered by creating a strong wind.
But even before the mixed dirt and dust had completely cleared away, a shadow became clear in the thick fog. A gaping maw and sharp claws lunged towards Leonardo and Isabella.
‘Damn it.’
Kieeeing—
In the blink of an eye, blue energy was fired at the monster’s neck, and then the tail that flew in blocked the front as if trying to deflect the attack.
Kwaaaang!
Kaaaaaak!
The tail, which was hit head-on by the ray mixed with ice fragments, had its hide torn off and acidic liquid burst out like celebratory gunfire. Hugo erected an Aura to block the spray, but he didn’t take his eyes off the monster.
‘Is its neck its weak point?’
It was only for a moment, but the monster’s neck, which had almost been hit by the attack, seemed to have hardened in a similar way to when Battalion Commander Roslin had struck it down. The fact that it had been so relaxed and had even used its tail to block it in a double layer added credibility to the hypothesis that that area might be its weak point.
In addition, the monster seemed unable to harden one part of its body without hardening another. In other words, if they could disrupt its nerves with a joint attack, they might be able to cut off one of its tails or legs.
The core, letting out a painful screech, twisted its body and tried to crawl upwards again. The huge shadow, with its dangling flesh, disappeared leisurely into the dust. Just as Hugo was about to quickly chase after the monster, he felt an intense aura of Magic Power from between the roughly rising Ice Pillars.
His blue eyes, which had been cast down, immediately stared at that place. The two figures, who had been holding their breath, burst out with fierce momentum.
“Now—!”