BXBX NOVEL Chapter 57: An Overwhelming Foe
please do something about this," She requested of him, surely she was powerful, she was the head of the Mages, but she was not the most powerful mage, she knew where her current levels resided and knew from that attack Ikaris saved her from that she was outclassed by the shadow in the forest, so she reached out for the strongest person she knew.
"Arla," Sol took her hand and pulled her to her feet, keeping his gaze on the creature as Ikaris and the others inched closer to first contact. "I have said it many times, and I will keep saying it; this is not my fight, this has nothing to do with me, not yet." He released her and folded his arms. "There's no help here, figure it out, find the strength or die trying."
"But..." She wanted to argue his point, but he wouldn't even look at her, he was not going to help.
Further ahead while the majority of the advance army retreated after seeing the signal, the heroes pressed forward, Dina being the first to attack as she thought to burn the entire forest down and reveal what hid behind the foliage.
[Activating 5th tier magic: Cerberus Flames]
Dina held her hands before her as she gained height above everyone else and with a wave of her hands the atmosphere heated and caught ablaze before her shrinking into a ball barely the size of a tennis ball as she forced it to compact and squeeze upon itself.
"Burn away," Dina whispered as the ball flew pass everyone else into the deep of the forest disappearing within the darkness that was settling as the sun was on its last legs.
A moment after the ball had disappeared, a great pillar of flames rushed skyward and opened up like a three-petaled flower, falling back to the land and burning with a bright pink hue, the ground began shaking again, and roars started echoing from inside of the trees.
"Hold on!" Han held out his hand, and Ikaris as well as all the others came to a halt, before them was General Grim, standing with his spear bedded into the ground to support him, but he was obviously dead, from the fact that his entire right torso was missing to his head having only half a face.
"Fuck!" Bruce ground his teeth holding conflicted emotions ranging from fear to rage as he looked at the general standing proudly.
Nobody had seen what killed him, and everyone who was close to him was already dead or had fled the scene in terror.
"What do we do here?" Han asked, this was beyond his experience, this was beyond what he had been taught in just three months, he was still coming to grasps with becoming a hero in a fantasy world, there was already too much death here, dozens had died in an instant, and under a week prior he had seen more than over a hundred corpses.
"Lyra?" He looked to the next in command behind Arla who had not even shown up yet.
"I-I don't know!" She shook her arms while small orbs of light floated around her. "I've never seen anything like this before, even if general Grim had a lower level than I did he was far stronger, we should retreat-"
"If everyone retreats now, these bastard creatures will follow behind us and advance deeper into Argom territory, you can forget about a barrier, you won't even be able to protect the walls of your precious city, it's here and now or certain death later on." Ikaris warned them, closing her wings and folding them neatly on her back where they disappeared into her armour.
"This is your first of many defining moments, warriors, even if you leave, I will remain here, I have already become fond of that little city in the last corner of this broken world; the castle is the home where master rests his head and where I have been allowed to sleep in his embrace, my first taste of happiness is on the cusp of being taken away!" Ikaris's sword duplicated and appeared on her other hand.
"I'll never allow it!"
[Activating cleave]
[Activating slash]
[Activating mana sword]
[Magic combination:]
"Arcane blade." Ikaris took her first step hesitantly, knowing well that with her divine power's incapability of harming these creatures they were capable of hurting her physically.
Even if she could heal herself it would be her fist time ever recieving pain, but still something more important was at stake here, she couldn't back down upon the first threat of pain, if she truly wanted to keep Argom, she was going to have to work for it, otherwise her declarations from earlier would all fall null.
Ikaris continued to stack magic theories from her own world using the mana from this world
[Activating Haste(quick steps)]
[Activating Arcane Release(mana overhaul)]
[Magic combination: Overdrive]
"I do not know what you all fight for, but I fight for Master's peace of mind, I fight so he doesn't have to suffer any more, and if it is for him-" Ikaris saw the first hint of movement as she reached the same distance from the forest that the general had been when he was attacked, seemingly out of nowhere a black vine-like appendage reached into the air and then made an abnormally angular turn directly toward her.
While it speedily applroached, several of the roots at the edge of the forest seemed to come alive making a broad horizontal swing. "-theres no length too great!" Ikaris spun around both of the attacks and swung her swords causing large white arcs of sharpened magical energy to rapidly reach out and slice both the appendages off the main body.
"She hit it!" Bruce's eyes were wide in shock as the ground shook once more.
"Thunderbird!" Han grabbed his sword and swung it diagonally sending a large bird made of yellow lightning into the air where it crashed and incinerated another tendril that was falling from the sky toward Ikaris.
"Origin explosions!" Dina cast her newest skill hoping to hasten the destruction of the forest and reveal the hidden creature, but she was shocked when several dozen more tendrils shot out of the forest and intercepted her attacks before they could fall.
"What?" The mage hero went even higher into the air, trying to get a glimpse of what was happening below her, but as she ascended she saw a flash of purple and dodged downward just fast enough that a bolt of violet flames whisked pass her, coming with so much speed and force that the winds it generated caused her to crash out of the sky into Usami's ready arms.
The ground shook again and then they all heard a roar from behind the trees, a terrifying beast was approaching.
[True Goddess Ikaris is using a divine skill: All seeing eye]
[Overdrive]
[Arcane blade]
[Magic combination:]
Ikaris made an X with her swords as she charged her mana like a berserker, and just as a pair of azure eyes appeared before her she unleashed her deadliest attack yet, leaping backwards and avoiding a swipe that came with enough speed and force to easily remove her leg.
"Cross impact!!" She unleashed the attack of pure mana and the blades in her hands shattered into powder as the attack tore into the forest growing larger and destroying everything in its path for several hundred metres before she clasped her fist and raised it. "Stop hiding!"
The forest's vines and tendrils became alive as pink flames burned it and a giant white cross tore across it, and then the cross exploded revealing a form in the midst of the pure white flames.
"Incredible..." Arla stared at the destruction Ikaris had caused with a single attack as the white flames continued to reach for the skies, revealing a dark figure in the midst of it.
"A boss battle awaits!" Sol grinned with his hands akimbo, staring at the creature as it was covered in white flames while it fell back to the ground, its back was full of hundreds of tall appendages with mouths full of blade-like teeth on the ends, and it had wings made of vines and bone that created gusts as it tried to douce the flames around it, and the creature was massive.
Even though the attack earlier had dwarfed it, it was when it landed and stood on all fours above the forest that they realised how big it truly was. "I can't believe something like this would show up right off the bat." He frowned, recognizing the existence before him.
[A high level demonkin has appeared]
The heroes and captains and some of the soldiers who remained while everyone else retreated saw the window pop up and felt apprehension wash across them like a flood.
[Corrupted Eldritch dragon LV 600]
"Wait a fucking minute, what's with that absurd level!?" Han felt his chest tighten as he looked at his [lv 118] in comparison.
[Dina Levina: Level 100 (+20)]
[Bruce Chaolong: Level 105]
[Usami Takae: Level 97]
"Holy shit, an actual dragon!" Eris came running toward them.
[Eris Schneider: Level 110]
"Don't waver, don't even think about running away, we have to kill it before anything else shows up!" Ikaris grimaced, summoning a longsword while her armour opened up around her body and took a more robust and protective form, covering her from head to toe.
Sol stared fascinated at her conviction, but he felt nervous for her as well, from his memory, the eldritch came from the demon gates in two forms; there was the regular eldritch creatures which were powerful and destructive all on their own, and then there were the corrupted variants like this one that were even stronger and more violent.
"With my current strength, this creature would be an easy dispatch," He mumbled after Arla had taken off in a sprint toward the heroes and her fellow captains.
"My fellow heroes..." Ikaris's head slightly swayed as her eyes began glowing brightly within her new helmet as she prepared to attack the [Corrupted Eldritch Dragon] before them. "...Lend me your strength!" She called to them as they all converged.
[Ikaris: Level 199]
[Heroes' synergy has been achieved in the face of an overwhelming foe, special buffs are in place, all attacks and defences have risen by 35%, mana consumption has decreased by 10%, cooldowns have been lifted]
"Let's kill ourselves a dragon!"