Chapter 44: Last leg
"Just what... is this thing?" Ethan shouted.
He limped forward and swung his hammer again.
An explosive force rippled forward, slamming into the monster that was flying towards him.
And again, the monster was sent flying back, but just as before, he'd done no damage to it.
When the 'rag' monster had appeared earlier, Ethan had gone out to face it in what he was sure would be a quick fight, but he could never have been more wrong.
The monster lacked raw strength, but it was fast and unkillable. No matter how hard they hit it, the rag monster would just stand the next instant.
Meanwhile, it was dealing damage to them every time they clashed.
"Increase the gravity around it again!" Derrick shouted. His clothes were torn, and his chest was dripping blood from a nasty claw slash.
"Celia, try to burn it to the ground again."
They'd tried something similar, but it didn't work. The rags around the monster seemed resistant to fire, and no matter how many explosions she caused, the rag monster would just come at her with claws slashing anyway. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Julius adjusted his glasses with trembling hands. "We have to be quick, or else the artifact is going to get destroyed."
It was one of the rewards for defeating a mini boss.
A Sixth Grade Artifact called Look into the Mirror. The artifact was in the form of a disc. Its use was to create a large rune formation with the effect of lowering an opponent's power to that of the user.
Since Julius was an A-ranked Awakened, the monster's power had been forced to that level.
But the problem was that if the opponent was stages stronger, then the artifact would be destroyed in due time.
It could only buy them minutes.
If they didn't kill the monster before then, if it returned to its original strength, then they were sure of their own death.
Ethan gritted his teeth and increased the weight of the force on the monster, controlling the gravity around it.
Bam! Crack!
The monster was slammed into the ground again. The ground beneath it cracked and dented. It groaned and made some wet clicking sound.
Beneath the many rags that covered its head, red eyes shone at them.
Danger flashed in their heads.
The monster was about to use its skill again.
With a scream, the monster could shatter the air, as if it were bursting an invisible large balloon. And that wet clicking sound it was making was the first sign.
"Fuck," Ethan muttered. The first time the monster had done an attack like that, they were totally caught unaware, and he was the only one caught within. His armour had shattered, pieces of metal driven into his body and shredding skin.
It was damn painful.
But they didn't have to worry that much.
In fact, Derrick suddenly came to his front and blocked his view of the monster. The large student carried a metal shield the same size as him and slammed it to the ground in front of him.
Celia followed, her two hands glowing reddish, and sweat poured down her face, evaporating with the intense heat she'd created around herself.
The shield Derrick was using was an artifact.
They needed to get close to the monster so that Celia could blast it, but this time she would be using almost all the power left in her.
They were all putting their last into the attack.
Derrick braced his shoulder against the shield, his body covered in red light that spilled over to the shield, and a projection of the shield, several times its size, rose up around them.
"Nowww!" Derrick roared. His muscles tensed and flexed, and then he began to push the shield, pushing it forward with raw strength as he raced towards the monster.
Once the shield was activated, it was supposed to be used stationary.
But Derrick was pushing it forward with raw strength.
Celia ran behind, her face pensive with concentration.
And Ethan was breathing hard, his hammer wavering, his strength almost gone.
Julius was gritting his teeth, his left hand permanently holding his glasses while his right held the artifact. All the Etherion in his body was getting pushed into the artifact that was splintering, ready to self-explode in seconds.
They'd given everything.
Just one single attack left in them.
Bam! Boom!
The monster continued to explode the space in front of it.
Each explosion caused Derrick to jerk, his hands numb and his muscles worn. It seemed as if his shoulder would tear.
But he gritted his teeth and pushed forward.
The shield was breaking apart, one sharp piece slicing his cheek.
But still he continued, reached the monster, and then he stopped moving and tried to shout, but his voice came out in a breathless scream. "Ethaaaaaaaaan!"
Ethan understood.
He changed the flow of gravity around the monster, concentrated it on one spot. The effect was brutal.
Crack!
The monster's neck bent at an unnatural angle, twisted and bent down by the force, and yet it was still moving, trying to shake itself free from the force holding it.
But they'd got their objective. The attack from the monster had stopped.
And in that split second, Celia ran out from behind the shield, hands blazing. She planted her feet solidly in front of the monster and unleashed all the power she was holding.
Kaboom! Woosh!
A flash of reddish light followed by an intense wave of heat. The attack met the monster directly, and it exploded together with the ground, sending bits of stone flying.
Celia and Derrick were both thrown away, the shield finally shattering. At the same time, the Look into the Mirror artifact also went dead, breaking down into splinters.
But—
None of the monster's body was left, as it was completely burned away. The place it had been standing on was now scorched ground.
They'd done it.
"Fuck!" Ethan trembled and went down on his knees. He'd fought brutal fights in the Class before. He thought he knew what it meant to put one's life on the line, but he couldn't have been more wrong.
Julius's glasses were cracked, his lips pressed into thin lines. "Damn you, Severin. Your prediction just had to be wrong for the first time in the very worst way."
Derrick groaned as he pushed himself to his feet before he flopped back down to the ground. His bones seemed to be made of jelly, and he was sure he had internal injuries. "I'm not getting paid at all for this."
Celia was simply too drained to say anything.
It was then that it happened.
They heard a soft sound at first, like the ruffling of wrappers, and then the sharp cracking sound that they were so used to. What followed was an intense bloodlust pressure.
"No... impossib—!!"
An ear-shattering roar swallowed everything. The space above them, around them, seemed to explode as one.