Chapter 112
The black lizard army came pouring down the cliff. It was terrifying enough being swarmed from both sides, but to make matters worse, the roar that had made them tremble in fear echoed through.
Hearing it up close, the pressure was tremendous enough to make one want to give up everything. It was so powerful that their eardrums painfully stung.
Bertrand fell into panic.
Though he didn't want to show fear in front of the girls, he couldn't help his legs trembling like aspen leaves.
"We... we're all going to die."
He regretted entering the dangerous zone to the bone, wondering what luxury he'd hoped to gain.
Cecil, her nerves on edge, spat out harsh words, "If you're going to die, die alone."
The black lizards instantly formed a circle around them and began tightening their encirclement.
Only Luna and the masked man maintained their composure in this situation.
He drew his wooden sword and stepped out alone to create distance. It seemed he was trying to disperse the enemies.
Bertrand was shocked to see his attitude completely fearless even in this desperate situation.
Luna began chanting spirit language. Perhaps from drawing up spirit power, her eyes took on a blue magical glow.
While everyone stood back-to-back watching the encirclement, a wind as gentle as breath wrapped around them. It was raised by spirits.
Soon after, five wolf spirits manifested before them.
That wasn't all Luna had summoned. Next, mist and stream water concentrated in one spot like a whirlpool and transformed into horse shapes.
About a dozen blue horses took position in the rear, blowing steam-like breath.
Martha also summoned low-level plant spirits and Bertrand prepared restraining potions. However, that would only grow vines to block the enemy's movement. Having aimed for non-killing in practice, they had nothing to deliver fatal blows, and that part hurt deeply now.
With Luna's spirits standing guard around the group members, the lizards first approached Candy as a relatively easier target.
He faced enemies rushing from all directions while isolated alone.
The indiscriminate hunt began.
Candy drove the lizards back while taking back steps, moving further from the group members. They attempted to attack with sharp teeth and claws but all missed.
He dodged smoothly not just from the front but left and right, even from behind.
Though he swung his sword, he couldn't cut through in one strike due to their hard outer skin. He immediately changed tactics to target their weak points—their eyes and bellies.
When a lizard jumped in, he would slash its white underbelly, and while moving by stepping on other lizards' heads, he pierced their eyes with his sword.
The strange thing was that despite the precarious situation, his movements remained relaxed and light. It didn't even feel like he was using his full strength.
Even to Bertrand, an amateur in swordsmanship, these were clearly extraordinary movements.
The lizards seemed provoked and rushed to chase him in a group. They climbed over each other's bodies, jumped, and flew in, attacking recklessly. After circling around several times like this, the lizards had piled up in layers.
He threw a frost wind bomb as if he'd been waiting for this.
Bang!
Like that, dozens turned into well-carved ice sculptures. Seeing such composed handling, Bertrand was momentarily speechless.
Luna's performance was no less impressive.
Thanks to the blue horses circling like cavalry sweeping past the lizards, their formation was in chaos. Those trying to squeeze through gaps to pounce were torn apart by wolves. It was quite a stable defense.
Bertrand gulped seeing those two fight with monstrous skill. Then he moved beside Trisha. No matter how solid the defensive wall, there was always a chance one or two might slip through.
And as he predicted, one lizard broke through past the wolves and charged.
Trisha shouted, "Here! One broke through!"
Seizing the opportunity, Bertrand shouted, "I'll handle it!"
Then, he aimed and threw restraining potions held in both hands at the lizard.
With a splash, the contents sprayed in the air, and vines immediately grew to bind the lizard. It was what they used to restrain Planteras.
But thanks to its flat body, the lizard escaped the restraints without much trouble.
"...!"
Just as he was about to take out another potion, something cut through the air before his eyes.
It was the wooden sword Candy had been holding.
It pierced through the head of the lizard about to pounce on Trisha.
"Ah, no..."
Bertrand turned his gaze to where the sword had flown from. Even while handling dozens of lizards, Candy had grasped Trisha's situation. It was unbelievable combat sense as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
While continuously dodging lizard snouts, he shouted, "Throw it back!"
"Okay!"
Trisha quickly moved to pull out the embedded sword with effort and threw it to him.
Candy snatched the sword from the air and immediately dropped a bomb in front. Then, he pierced through the belly of a lizard flying in from behind and used its body as a shield against the cold explosion.
Bang!
Once again, dozens became entangled in ice.
He truly used the bombs more efficiently than anyone, just as Cecil had thought.
Luna stepped up her attacks as if trying to completely break the enemy's momentum.
Following her gesture, wind blew and soon created a small tornado carrying stream water.
It created chaos amongst the enemies' ranks, making a tremendous roaring wind sound.
It was an amazing power that left mouths gaping.
The tide turned instantly and the lizard group retreated, unable to approach easily.
About fifty remained. Though they had overwhelmed hundreds in number, it was still too early to feel safe.
Because their leader hadn't shown itself yet.
The remaining lizards regrouped and suddenly stood on their hind legs.
Then they puffed up their throats and began making sounds all at once.
Gurk! Gurgle! Gurk!
That bizarre crying echoed through the valley.
Candy turned his gaze to the end of the valley as if sensing something, leaving the remaining forces.
Soon after, large vibrations began ringing through the ground.
Something gigantic was walking from deep in the valley, with each step causing vibrations that could be felt underfoot. At tremendous speed.
The real crisis was about to begin.
Something pitch black crawled out along the cliff from the shaded valley.
House-sized body. Long neck and mouth large enough to swallow a carriage in one bite. Blood-red eyes like a burning fire. Scales like obsidian armor. Rocks crumbled like cookies wherever it stepped on the cliff.
It was similar to black dragons from picture books. If it had wings, its terrifying appearance would have been believable as a real dragon.
It was undoubtedly the “wingless dragon” reigning as the dangerous zone's apex predator.
Candy silently gestured for his companions to step back.
Then, he stepped forward.
To Bertrand, this was a fight that couldn't possibly be won.
He couldn't see what could be done with a wooden sword. Against that beast's steel-like outer skin, it was no different from a toothpick.
The beast looked over the battlefield once then roared again loudly.
Bertrand gritted his teeth while stepping backward and said, "Damn, damn, damn! How about we run away now?"
No one answered.
They just slowly backed away as Candy had gestured.
The remaining lizards all moved at once toward where their leader was.
The beast crushed rocks with its hands and threw them toward where Candy stood.
Large rocks rolled in rapidly like an avalanche.
He looked at the stones coming with fearsome momentum, moved five steps to the side, and stopped in place.
Trisha saw this and shouted urgently, "Candy, dodge!"
Amazingly, the dozen or so rocks passed by leaving exactly where he stood untouched.
His attitude remained consistently calm and composed.
The beast began throwing rocks continuously. Despite the tremendous stone barrage, he didn't allow a single stone to touch his body.
Since the beast didn't come down from clinging to the cliff, neither could land meaningful hits on the other.
Bertrand rubbed his eyes and looked back and forth between the two.
It seemed strange that despite its huge body, it wouldn't come down to fight and only threw stones.
The composition was as if the beast had become the prey being cornered.
While dodging rocks falling like rain, Candy shouted to Luna, "Can you knock that down?"
Luna stepped forward and loudly shouted, "Yes!"
She immediately began chanting.
Soon rocks began gathering from the cliff where the beast was clinging. They formed into a golem shape and immediately threw themselves at the beast.
The attack landed properly.
The golem and beast fell entangled to the bottom of the cliff.
Luna panted heavily, seeming to have consumed a tremendous amount of energy even from that brief summoning.
The rest was his part.
Though it fell noisily, terrifyingly the beast took no damage. Rather, as if only its anger was provoked, it let out one roar then regained its balance and charged out with fearsome momentum.
It ran at Candy and brought down its front leg.
He easily avoided the ground-crushing strike by throwing his body. Then, using his relatively small body size, he clung to the beast's body and threw himself into a blind spot where its gaze couldn't reach.
As if following a pre-planned strategy, Luna's wolf spirits quickly joined in to divide its attention.
The beast swung its arms wildly.
He quickly began planting bombs between its scales.
Due to the extremely hard outer skin, neither the golem's attacks, wooden sword, nor wolves' teeth could penetrate.
If even the bombs didn't work, then it would become truly dangerous.
Just when it seemed he was handling it well, the beast proved not to be an easy opponent. It spun its body once, sweeping everything on the ground with its tail.
Crash!
Where the tail swept past, the uneven ground became flat.
Spirits hit directly had their summons dispelled into smoke and nearby rocks were shattered to pieces.
It was the most powerful attack so far including friendly forces.
And Candy, too, was directly hit, crashing into a far-off waterfall.
"No!"
When Trisha tried to run toward the waterfall losing her reason, Cecil grabbed and stopped her.
A few seconds later, the bombs planted in its body began exploding one after another.
The beast's body shook back and forth with repeated booming sounds.
If this attack didn't work, it would be over.
Everyone watched the scene holding their breath.
Parts of the beast's body were covered and hardened in pure white frost. It stayed still before suddenly shaking its body.
Shhhhhh—
Soon after, as if adapting to the cold, its scales made sounds as they trembled. The black color slowly began turning pale blue.
After its whole body turned pale blue, it began moving, breaking through the ice.
Bertrand spoke as if in despair, "...Ah, we're done for."
Soon after, it targeted the remaining people and began charging like a tank.
Luna drew out power again and cast a summon.
Stones and rocks piled up in the beast's path, once again forming a huge golem shape.
The house-sized golem and beast collided in a contest of strength.
It was a whale's fight that humans couldn't interfere with. But the golem couldn't hold out long.
The beast randomly crushed the golem's arms with its thick hands then tore off its head with its mouth.
"Ah... ah..."
As even the final hope was torn away, Bertrand fell into panic.
After clearing away the obstacle, it charged at Luna with tank-like speed.
That was when it happened. Intense light flooded from the waterfall direction and struck the beast.
Bang!
With an impact that deafened ears, it rolled far to the side and crashed into the cliff.
The world became silent as if its very ears had been covered.
They couldn't understand what had happened. Some unknown force had broken the beast's momentum and cleared it away somewhere. Now they could see the beast's scale fragments scattered everywhere.
Everyone's gaze turned to the waterfall.
A human silhouette slowly walked out from the thick water mist.
Something made of pure white light was held in his hand.
When he swung his arm once, intense light flashed and flew toward the beast on the opposite wall.
Again, explosions rang out along with pain-filled roars.
Wind blew through the valley, and the water mist slowly cleared away, revealing his form.
He stood firmly holding a mysterious sword of unknown origin.
The beast raised its body with about half its scales fallen off and began fleeing up the wall.
He swung his sword one final time, and that wave of light caused another explosion, nailing the beast's head like a hammer strike.