As the monsters rushed around the giant mutant tree in the center of the crater, I couldn’t help but shed a sweat watching them from the spot that me and Avid was. With a quick use of my ‘Enlightened’ skill, I was able to see that each and every monster in this hole was at the very least a C-Rank, with some being B-Rank and even occasional A-Rank monsters thrown in the large crowd.
It was an intimidating view.
A view that would send shivers down anyone's spine — well, at least I think so. Who knows, perhaps individuals that were far, far more powerful than I and Avid were, wouldn’t even get to yawn before obliterating everything in this hole.
“It makes sense now… The monsters didn’t disappear randomly. The monster heart drew them here — that’s why there has been decreased activity lately.” Avid commented, before exhaling and leaning back behind the cover we were hiding behind. I turned to look at the mercenary. “What do we do now? Do we go back to Ordial to report this?”
“No, it will take too long. It’s safe to assume that the monster heart has been here for at least a week – which is enough time that there is a high chance for a potential invasion of monsters. We have to destroy the monster's heart now and then flee back to Ordial as fast as possible, so that it may prepare its defences.”
“I don’t understand quite well…” I exhaled. “What good will staying and destroying it now do? It’s not as if the monsters will die out.”
Avid turned towards me, before throwing his gaze over his right shoulder and looking at the monsters down below. “The monster heart empowers the monsters, granting them strength. At first, this strength is temporary and only takes effect when in its vicinity, however if it remains undisturbed, the boosts of the monster heart are at a risk of becoming permanent, which would make the monsters a much, much higher threat.” I shed a sweat. “Then, isn’t it too late by now? You said yourself that the thing has more than likely been here at least a week by now.”
“It has. However, that would only have affected the monsters that are the most close to the monster heart itself. The ones on the edge and furthest away have most definitely either just now received the monster hearts boost or hasn’t had it for nearly long enough for it to be too grand or permanent.”
I was nervous.
What I was getting from what Avid was explaining to me, is that if we leave now and ignore the heart, there was a potential for this entire army of monsters to just storm Ordial — and considering the several A-Rank ones amongst these things, it most likely was safe to assume that the invasion wouldn’t last nearly long enough for the town to reach out to somewhere else and request backup and would be simply decimated by the monsters.
I took in a deep breath, placing my right hand onto my chest, feeling my heart beat nervously. “This is the first time since my battle against the Chimera that I’ve felt a dread over my heart… Like I am so unsure about doing this… and yet-” I threw my gaze at Avid, who gazed at the rampant monsters with a fierce gaze from under his mask. “He doesn’t seem at all hesitant. Like he is ready to throw his life into this terrifying, life threatening situation, as long as it means that no one in Ordial will have to suffer…”
I thought about it for a bit — really going back and forth on whether or not I should help Avid or just run away on my own, like a coward. After a bit, I exhaled and turned to look at the infestation in front of us, taking in a deep breath. Avid turned his gaze over to me.
“...Well? Ready?”
I hesitated for a moment, before shaking his head and looking at him with determined eyes. “..Yes. Let’s do this.” Avid nodded, before standing up. “Then listen well — here’s the plan. You’re not strong enough to destroy the heart, so I will take on that task. I want you to use your strength and that shadow familiar of yours to clear me a path and keep the monsters in this place off of my back. Think you can manage that?” He asked, crossing his arms and looking at me with a serious, fierce gaze.
I nodded, standing up as well. “Of course. Leave it to me.”
Avid nodded once more. “Good. Then…” He lowered his body, before leaping up into the air above the infestation, throwing but a look back at me. “Let’s move!”
“Right! Arvalor, come out!” I shouted, before leaping after Avid. Just as my foot left my shadow on the ground, the large shadow chimera leapt out of the shadow and after me, forming into its large, imposing form — its eyes glimmering white before it let out a loud, ear-piercing roar at the monsters below.
Me and Arvalor landed onto the ground inside the infestation zone, before dashing towards the large rampaging monster colony. “Arvalor, go!”
Arvalor ran beside me, before leaping forward, stopping and roaring towards the monsters again.
Arvalor has used the skill [Intimidation].
Instantly, a massive chunk of the rushing monsters froze, unable to move forward, while the ones unaffected or outside the range of Arvalors roar, slowed themselves down before looking towards us and roaring, shrieking and cawking, before rushing towards us — strong aggression on display.
I shed a sweat for a moment, before smirking and leaning down. “It’ll be rather difficult to fight in this form, however I think I’ll manage.”
As the monsters approached, I leapt into the air above them, before flipping around, forming many, many small orbs of venom in the air around me. “Time to try out my new ‘Venom Mastery’ skill.” I commented in my mind, before sending a barrage of small venom projectiles at the monsters below. The projectiles rained down onto the monsters like bullets — as if I was in a helicopter, raining down machine gun fire at them.
The monsters stopped, some falling to the ground as they were killed in almost an instant, while others simply shrieked and roared in pain, however they did not fall to the ground. I shed a sweat, as I watched them look up at me.
“As one would have expected… The higher ranked monsters are not going to go down so easily. Very well then — I suppose I will have to switch up my strategy a bit.” As I fell back to the ground, I looked for the nearest shadows, spotting some decently large spots under the bodies of the already deceased monsters. Then, I grinned gently, extending my hands towards the shadows. “Let’s go!”
I announced, before pulling my hands back.
In an instant, the shadows erupted, with large appendages appearing out from them and quickly binding the monsters that had withstood my initial attack. Then, I dashed towards them — which at first might have seemed like a stupid idea, however there was something I wanted to experiment with.
‘Venom Mastery’ allowed me to shape and form venom into whatever I wanted — and the obvious use case scenario are projectiles like the ones I fired before, there was another use case scenario in my mind, that I wanted to test, whether or not it would be possible.
As I approached the bound monsters, I widened my eyes, before forming two orbs of venom in my hands, squishing them and smashing them together. I focused as hard as I could, picturing in my mind what I wanted the venom to shape into. I felt the venom move in my hands, like a squishy jelly, before eventually I lifted my arms into the air. From the sides in between my hands, long poles of venom shot out, which I quickly spun around and gazed at the monsters, before forming another venom orb mid air and smashing the edge of the pole through it, forming that orb into a blade at the tip. Then, I spun it around. “As a teenager, I often practiced with a bo-staff, and thus was experienced with long, polearm type weapons. So of course, the ideal weapon for me, in my mind…” I pointed the spear made of venom at the monsters, before leaping up into the air above one of them.
Venom Spear – [ C-Rank Weapon ].
In the following moment, I crashed down onto the monster, easily slicing it in half, before spinning the spear and standing up straight. “Would be a spear.” The bound monsters let out a collective roar, which dragged the attention of the other monsters that were still rampaging around the monster heart. They stopped, before turning their attention towards me and rushing over to me.
At first, I felt a cold sweat, watching so many of them rush towards me once more, however after a quick exhale, I took a battle ready stance. “While a spear is most definitely different from a bo-staff, they’re still similar in many ways. So, I guess it’s time to use my old skills with a long, pole weapon once more.”
“Arvalor, after me!” I called out to the chimera, who roared once more, before rushing after me as I charged at the monsters, leaping into the air above them, with my venom spear pointed at them.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Avid dashed past all the monsters, using his concealment spell to easily evade detection. As he got closer and closer to the monster heart itself, the density of magical energy in the air around him began to take effect, slightly weighing on him, like there was a strong gravitational force being applied onto him. “The magical energy density in the air is strong… Far stronger than normal. Good thing we decided to tackle this problem here and now, otherwise, who knows what may have happened if we had left it here and returned to Ordial.”
As Avid approached the heart, a sudden roar came from the right side, followed by heavy footsteps. Looking to the side, he quickly ceased his movement and leapt into the air, dodging the charge attack of a large lizard-like monster, with a pair of massive horns on its head, that it had used to attempt and bulldoze over Avid.
The mercenary scoffed, before flipping around and dashing down onto the monster and with one swift movement of his daggers, slicing off its head — flipping into the air, before throwing the daggers at another monster that was beginning a charge towards him — the daggers latching themselves straight into the monsters head and skull, killing it in pretty much an instant.
Dashing up to the dead monster, he grabbed his daggers, before propelling himself off of its head and towards the Monster Heart. “Just have to kill the guardian and then destroy the heart.”
He thought, easily tearing through the other monsters that came in his way. Each and every monster he cut down with ease and with swift, gentle movements — looking more like he was dancing than fighting. Eventually, he broke through all the monsters and reached the monster heart at the center, landing gracefully just in front of it. Immediately he looked around.
However, no guardian was in sight. “Strange — where is the monster that’s supposed to be guarding the heart?” He shook his head. “No time to ask questions. I have to destroy the heart – now.” He moved closer to the heart, looking at it. The monster heart itself beat gently inside the twisted, corrupt bark that surrounded it. It was a truly grotesque sight — tendrils drooping from a very much exposed, real heart, which connected into the ground itself and sapped at the nutritions in the area, feeding off of the very essence in this place.
“I’ll finish it swiftly.” He sheathed his daggers, before placing his hands together. Magical energy from the area around him began to gather around him, spinning around him with a dark tint to it, creating a sort of barrier around him. He was deep in focus — standing perfectly still.
However, the mass amount of magical energy he was beginning to gather in the single spot he was in, caught the attention of the monsters that remained, causing them to roar and dash towards him. And right as they were about to get to him, Faofa landed in front of the monsters, forming large orbs of venom in front of him and firing off spikes from them that pierced through and viciously decimated the monsters.
Arvalor ripped through the monsters that had lived the initial barrage, before dashing over to me and joining my side once more. I threw a look at Avid. “How long do you need?”
“Just a few seconds. The technique I am about to do requires deep focus. Just keep the monsters away from me.” Avid responded quickly, returning to his deep focus, while I exhaled and smiled, gripping the venom spear tightly in both of my hands. “Alright, I can do that.”
As more and more monsters turned their focus onto Avid, rushing over towards him to attack, me and Arvalor fended them off — killing off the monsters with swift, precise movements. However, due to the sheer amount of them, slowly, we were beginning to struggle. The monsters, though not too difficult to kill with my skills, were simply too large in numbers. And since I was forced to use this human form of mine, I couldn’t battle at my maximum efficiency. I suppose I had gotten far too used to fighting as a small, slippery and slithery snake.
As I cut down another trio of monsters, I breathed heavily, looking at Avid. “How much longer!?”
Avid didn’t respond, while I dodged another monster's attack and quickly beheaded it with my spear, spinning onto its back as it fell to the ground dead, my spear wedged into its back while I took in deep breaths.
Arvalor was also beginning to struggle.
Due to him not possessing the strength he had when he was still alive as a shadow, he was significantly weaker than he should be, which caused him to fall into the same hole as me – where we were beginning to struggle. The monsters just didn’t stop coming.
The amount of them that would charge at us, really put on display just how many monsters were in this infestation. I cut down another large chunk of monsters, before collapsing to my right knee. “Avid!” I called out to the mercenary, who opened his eyes under his mask — his eyes shining black.
The magical energy that had been gathering around him suddenly erupted into black, crackling lightning before shaping into a large, humanoid figure around Avid. “Arts of Imminent Death, seventh technique – Demise Golem.” Avid stated calmly, before pulling back his right hand, the figure around him doing the same before he threw a punch at the Monster Heart, the large ‘golems’ attack easily tearing through the bark protecting the Monster Heart, before smashing the heart into the ground, causing a large eruption of magical energy, that sent Avid, me and Arvalor flying back, as well as incinerated the monsters closest to the heart.
After a moment, the magical energy that had once been in the heart, shot out into the sky as a large pillar of light, which twisted the clouds in the sky above around it. I looked with a shocked expression, before looking around for Avid. Spotting him not too far from me, I gestured to Arvalor to follow me before dashing over to the mercenary, dropping down to help him, while Arvalor came in front of us, growling.
“You okay?”
“Yeah… that eruption caught me off guard.” Avid responded. I shed a sweat, looking at the pillar of light. “Speaking of that, is this normal after a heart is destroyed…?”
Avid shook his head, unable to believe what he himself was witnessing in front of his very eyes. “No… Not even close. Usually, the Monster Heart would simply wither away and the magical energy it had gathered inside it would dissipate over time… but this…” He watched the pillar of light, as the clouds slowly twisted around it and down towards the ground.
Then, the monsters that still remained in the crater suddenly let out a collective howl, before their bodies violently shook as strange, misty auras left their bodies and flew into the pillar of light. “What is happening…?” Avids eyes widened.
“No… There’s no way—” A loud roar rang from the sky above, the pillar ceased. Then, through the tunnel of clouds that had formed around it, a pair of red eyes appeared, followed by a huge pitch black silhouette dashed down to the ground, landing where the Monster Heart had stood just mere moments prior.
A massive dust storm kicked up, and the magical energy density that was in the area suddenly spiked up to eleven. I felt as if the very gravity below me had suddenly increased by ten fold — as an enormous amount of weight piled on top of me. “What the hell…?” I struggled to look up at the creature that had just landed. As the dust cloud dissipated, the figure of the creature became visible.
A large, dragon-like abomination, that appeared to have crystals growing out of its body, alongside with bones sticking through its scales, with a pair of bright red eyes in otherwise pitch black eye sockets and a pair of large, large crooked and twisted wings. My eyes widened, before I narrowed them onto the creature, activating ‘Enlightened’.
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Name; [Unknown]
Species; [Unknown]
Level; [Unknown]
A monster revered as the Southern Edge Beast.
[Recommended actions: RUN.]
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….Fear.
Fear set in my mind. “...A-Avid… we can’t beat that… can we..?” Avid shook his head, coughing lightly before shedding a cold, cold sweat under his mask, gazing at the monster that stood in front of them. “...No. Not even close.”
The monster glared at them three with its red eyes, an intense aura exerting from its body. It seemed as though Faofa had gotten a little too in over his head this time.
