By Zephyria Was his stamina finally giving out? Or was his body temperature dropping from the rain?
Or perhaps the poison had spread uncontrollably?
Leonardo barely managed to hold onto his wavering vision, any of those reasons being plausible.
Flying aimlessly through the pouring rain, his breathing became ragged and his concentration scattered. As a result, the presence of the monster relentlessly chasing him was gradually fading.
Kwang— Kwaaang—!
Ever since uttering those incomprehensible sounds, the Queen had been targeting only him. Even as the Council commanders pursued it, unleashing a full-scale attack, it was the same. Whether its hide was torn or its flesh was ripped away, it seemed its sole purpose was to strangle his life.
“…Tenacious bastard.”
Leonardo, glancing at the chaotic situation behind him, dodged the monster’s roar that pierced the back of his head, darting between the towering mountain ranges. At the same time, he gradually increased his flight speed, clenching an intensely growing spark of energy in his grasp.
More than a third of the Barrier Stones that the Council had installed in the southern region of the peninsula had long lost their function due to displacement or damage. Members were urgently deployed to work on restarting them, but the enormous number of demon beasts summoned by the core would not leave them alone.
Meanwhile, the high-ranking commanders with exceptional combat abilities were all struggling to capture the core, so the operations that had been established through long meetings had to be considered a failure. With their lives immediately threatened, humans had no room left to control the operations.
In the end, excluding any possible future events, the only way to minimize damage right now was to kill the core. But now, even that simple and straightforward task seemed impossible.
‘Wasn’t the nape of its neck its weak point? But if that were the case, it wouldn’t have tried to protect it in the first place…’
‘Could it be that it doesn’t die even if its weak point is pierced? Then how can we kill a monster with regenerative abilities?’
With his mind filled with endless thoughts, Leonardo passed through the burnt and collapsed bushes, crossing the rocky crevices where rainwater formed streams. Nimbly passing through the obstacles in front of him, he quietly waited for his chance, and the moment the dead end approached, he turned his body backward in one swift motion.
The ancient demon, which had silently approached, followed closely like an incarnation of hell, piercing through the flames spewed from its maw.
Leonardo aimed at the monster’s gaping maw and instantly fired the lightning he had clenched into the gap. Then, he immediately changed direction and ascended vertically, quickly moving out of the core’s charging trajectory.
Kyaaaaaa—
Kwaaaang—!
The attack seemed to have worked, as the monster’s roar echoed with the sound of its massive body colliding with the rock face after swallowing the lightning. The resulting landslide caused large and small Boulders to collapse, and even in the rain, dust billowed up.
Leonardo, who had risen to a high altitude, watched the area intently, then immediately raised his right arm and grasped a lightning spear crackling with deadly current. Then, to deliver the final blow, he fearlessly threw the clenched lightning at a fairly large cloud.
A moment later, fierce streaks of lightning spread through the condensed water vapor, and the atmosphere ruptured with a sound like gunfire.
As golden sparks illuminated the darkened sky, flaunting their presence in the clouds, Leonardo lowered his outstretched arm and aimed his palm at the location where the core was likely to be lying. Then, with his teeth clenched, hoping to finally see the end, he chanted the spell.
“Thunder Stroke.”
At that moment, the dazzling light that leaked through the gaps in the clouds briefly dyed the sky bright yellow. Subsequently, thick lightning struck precisely into the gap in the mountain range, and gray smoke and crimson flames spectacularly erupted nearby.
The flames, which did not subside even in the rain, devoured the damp branches and gradually expanded their power. However, not satisfied with that, Leonardo strained his neck and continued to spam the spell.
“Thunder Stroke, Thunder Stroke, Thunder Stroke!!”
Each time he shouted, the unceasing lightning struck, tearing apart the rocks and the earth, devastating the area. As a result, the vicinity of the medium-sized peak where the core had collided was shattered beyond recognition, and the heat of the sizzling ground rapidly cooled due to the pouring rain, scattering hazy steam in all directions.
Due to the continuous use of large-scale Magic Power, Leonardo’s breathing was heavily disrupted. But even in the midst of that, his cold, rain-soaked gaze was fixed on the lower part where the ashes were scattering. He was ready to repeatedly fire lightning to annihilate anything that crawled out of that gap.
‘If regeneration is the problem, then I just need to not give it a chance to regenerate.’
However, contrary to his ambition, the core always defied human expectations.
Piiiiing—
A sharp sound, as if something was being fired, momentarily lingered in his ears. Suddenly feeling a hot heat behind him, Leonardo stopped breathing and reflexively turned his head.
“Blaine!”
But before his gaze could even turn halfway, a dark shadow appeared and urgently pushed his body hard.
At the same time, a hot beam of light, extending at a terrifying speed, narrowly grazed past the heads of the two. It was not a trivial temperature, but an ultra-high-temperature energy that could threaten a fire Mage.
Kwaaaang—!
About a second later, a shockwave similar to a huge lightning strike shook the surroundings. The extended Destruction Beam flew to the peak rising on the opposite side and passed straight through the rock face.
In that chaotic situation, Leonardo, who had barely regained his balance after being pushed, immediately identified the identity of the figure who had pushed him with his own eyes. The voice sounded familiar; it was the 12th Battalion Commander of the Southern Branch.
“You are—.”
At that moment, her words about not being a burden came to mind, but before he could feel grateful, another threatening beam of light flew towards him.
Leonardo’s eyelids widened greatly as he instinctively turned towards it.
Beyond the approaching dazzling beam of light, the core, which should have been riddled with lightning, was staring at him with its red fascia exposed.
Startled by the sight of the monster, Leonardo quickly deployed an Aura in front of the 12th Battalion Commander attached to him, pushed her away with all his might, and shouted.
“Get away from me!”
Then, he twisted his body and barely dodged the beam of light that was aiming directly at his head.
But the problem was what came next. His vision was momentarily filled with white due to the light emitted by the Destruction Beam. When his belatedly reacting retina re-formed the image, the core’s claws, sharpened and aiming for an opening, were already close at hand.
「Die.」
As the chilling voice, as eerie as the curses directed at him, reached his ears, Leonardo quickly pulled his body back and tried to create a Flame Sword to block the incoming claws.
But then, another burst of dazzling light poured down in front of him. This time, it was completely different from the light emitted by the previous beam.
Thick, smooth ice sheets that had suddenly appeared in the sky began to quickly surround the core, as if creating a barrier. Thanks to the ice sheets, Leonardo was able to escape the monster’s range, and while quickly distancing himself in the air, he watched what was unfolding in front of him with a bewildered expression.
The triangular ice sheets instantly constricted the core’s body, forming an icosahedron and trapping the monster inside.
Having lost its target in an instant and being covered by an opaque ice barrier, the core frantically scratched at the ice, trying to escape from within. The chilling sound of claws and ice rubbing together stimulated his ears, but even more captivating to Leonardo were the sight of ice spears and battalion commanders flying in unison towards the monster.
And just in time, Hugo’s command echoed from the sky.
“It can move the location of its weak point! Stab it as deeply as possible, anywhere!”
Leonardo, who had raised his head to look at the sky, hesitated at the sound.
‘It can move the location of its weak point?’
Logically, it didn’t make sense. If that were possible, wouldn’t it be questionable to even call it a weak point?
However, Leonardo soon recalled the reason why the monster had not died all along.
The monster’s absurd regenerative ability, which had not only perfectly restored its severed tail in an instant but also created wings out of nowhere. If the monster could create blood, flesh, bones, and muscles and attach them to any part of its body, then moving the location of its weak point, like a heart, was not entirely impossible.
He didn’t know how Agrizendro knew that, but if the hypothesis that the core could freely move the location of its weak point was true, then in his opinion, there were only two ways to eliminate the monster.
Either blow up its entire body into dust, or pierce all the areas where the weak point could move with sharp weapons.
‘Then…’
Having made his decision, Leonardo immediately clenched sharp lightning spears in both hands. Then, along with the battalion commanders, he rushed towards the monster trapped and struggling inside the ice barrier.
Right now, it seemed like he had a chance to execute the latter.