Chapter 181
A miraculous idea: if an attack couldn’t be blocked by any means, one simply didn’t have to block it.
Realizing such a nonsensical theory was all thanks to Franz’s magic.
With Spatial Movement that could transport them to designated coordinates, they could evade the guy’s attacks.
Of course, even so, they couldn’t let their guard down just yet.
'There’s no guarantee that’s all there is to its attacks.'
Wasn’t behemoth a calamity of the Mythical Era? It wouldn’t be strange if it had other means of attack.
No, rather, it would be stranger if it only had one.
It was then.
“Franz, it’s coming-!”
Having finished recharging, behemoth once again fired spikes from its tail.
Like gathering dark clouds, the vicious spikes blotted out the sun and filled the sky. And soon, they began to pour down toward the ground like rain.
BOOM-!
The massive spikes pierced into the ground, kicking up dirt and dust with a deafening roar.
However, Franz wasn’t one to fall for the same trick twice.
Snap-.
With the crisp sound of a snapping finger, a massive magic circle was drawn beneath their feet.
The spikes pouring down from the sky quickly covered the area, but everyone had already disappeared.
Soon, Franz appeared near behemoth’s tail.
“So it was structured like this.”
Franz analyzed behemoth’s tail.
Unlike its hard body, the tail felt rather soft. If he had to describe it, it was like the bare flesh of a hedgehog. It meant that without the spikes, it was nothing special.
To think that what leviathan said was actually true…
Well, they say even a broken clock is right twice a day. It had to be helpful sometimes to make keeping it alive worthwhile.
“Yuna, Hera, attack…”
It was the moment Franz was about to order the attack.
THUD-!
Behemoth suddenly stomped its foot. Due to its immense weight and power, the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.
It was then that Franz noticed the anomaly.
Snap-.
Franz immediately snapped his fingers and escaped from the vicinity of the tail.
Right after, rocks as sharp as awls shot up from the ground, swiftly passing through the spot where Franz had just been.
Just as expected, behemoth’s means of attack weren’t limited to just one.
“Wh-what is that now?”
Yuna, who had been watching the sight, asked in bewilderment.
“Magic from the Mythical Era.”
He had already seen magic from the Mythical Era from leviathan once, so it wasn’t particularly surprising.
Unlike the spikes coming from its tail, it didn’t destroy magic, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to deal with.
It just became a bit annoying because he had to pay more attention.
“I’ll handle its attacks somehow, so you guys just focus on destroying the tail.”
“Then that makes it easy for me.”
“That’s not a difficult task.”
Hearing their answers, Franz immediately snapped his fingers.
The crisp sound rang out, and soon after, they arrived in front of behemoth’s tail.
On the soft tail, hard and massive spikes had already grown back about halfway.
“Here I go!”
Yuna dashed toward the tail, and Franz created footholds in sync with her movements.
As Yuna stepped on the footholds in midair and leaped once more, a brilliantly colorful aura swirled around her body.
Soon, as she swung her sword, the power of the Master of the holy sword and the Hero who would save the world manifested into reality.
A single strike filled with earnest resolve.
SLAAASH-!
A deep scar was carved into the guy’s tail, where the spikes had yet to fully grow.
The depth of the wound alone was easily several meters, yet its tail was still going strong.
It was then.
THUD-! THUD-! THUD-!
As if in pain, behemoth stomped its feet in succession.
At that, dozens of magic circles appeared on the ground.
Soon after, rocks as sharp as awls shot out from each magic circle, rushing toward Franz and his party at high speed.
Yuna was returning at a rapid pace, and Hera was drawing her bowstring.
“Hera, trust me.”
At Franz’s quietly uttered words, Hera let out a soft chuckle.
“One who does not trust one’s Master is disqualified as a slave.”
Saying so, Hera released her bowstring.
The arrow made of light left a sparkling trail as it headed for behemoth’s tail.
THWACK-! KABOOM-!
The arrow lodged in the tail emitted a pure white light before causing a massive explosion.
It was the essence of archery displayed by a daughter of the World Tree and an Elf loved by spirits.
Meanwhile, Franz was dealing with the rocks flying in from his surroundings.
Magic emerging from the dozens of magic circles drawn in the air accurately intercepted the rocks, turning them into stone dust.
[I didn’t realize it when fighting you directly, but seeing it like this, it’s almost disgusting. Are you all truly human?]
Leviathan, who had been spinning around Franz while watching the battle, spoke as if appalled.
“Well, we might not be human, you know?”
[Then what in the world are you…? Truly apostles of a god, perhaps…]
“One of us is an Elf.”
[…It was my mistake for asking.]
Saying so, leviathan smacked Franz’s head with its tail.
It seemed to be taking revenge for the knock on the head it had received earlier.
However, unfortunately, it didn’t even serve as a distraction for Franz.
During that time, the spikes on behemoth’s tail had fully grown back.
“Franz, it’s about time they came.”
“I know.”
Franz immediately snapped his fingers to widen the distance.
Right then, spikes were fired from the guy’s tail.
In addition, rocks were also shooting up from the ground, meaning attacks were literally pouring in from above and below.
Of course, Franz wasn’t one to fall for such a futile attack.
Snap-.
Spatial Movement Magic was activated with the crisp sound.
The flying spikes and rocks collided with each other, creating a chaotic mess.
Watching the sight out of the corner of his eye, Franz shifted his gaze to the defenseless tail.
“I have to get revenge for what happened earlier.”
As he snapped his fingers, a massive magic circle was drawn in the air.
What soon popped out of the magic circle was a giant spike made of magic power.
Swish-.
As Franz brought his hand down from above, the giant spike shot toward the guy’s tail.
There were plenty of stronger magics, but he wanted to pay it back in the exact same way.
SQUELCH-!
The giant spike wedged into the wound Yuna had created, digging deep inside.
─── ! ── !
The guy let out a cry and thrashed about.
However, doing so didn’t make its massive body go anywhere, so it couldn’t escape being a target.
Stepping on the footholds and advancing, Yuna swung her sword, and Hera fired an arrow.
Both of their attacks accurately hit the guy’s tail once again.
With this attack, the tail was about halfway severed, so they would only need to repeat the same action about two more times.
After that, it was a repetition of the same actions.
They dodged the spikes the guy fired from its tail and smashed the rocks rising from the ground.
Then, utilizing the brief opening given to them, they delivered a strike each time.
After exactly two more cycles like that…
SLAAASH-!
Yuna’s sword completely severed the guy’s dangling tail.
The guy’s tail fell to the ground with a tremendous roar, kicking up dirt and dust.
If anyone had been underneath it, they would have been flattened beyond recognition.
Of course, if anyone had actually been there, they would have died long ago.
“Anyway, what happens now…?”
They had focused their attacks on the tail, which leviathan claimed was its weak point, and finally succeeded in completely severing it.
The guy, who had been thrashing about until just a moment ago, had stopped moving and was staying still.
Of course, it was hard to think they had finished it off with this. There probably wasn’t a creature that would die just from having its tail removed.
Didn’t lizards even discard their tails as bait and run away?
On top of that, he was a guy with the spell of immortality cast on him no less than three times, so he would likely brush this off easily…
Still, he hoped it had taken at least a little damage if possible.
It would be a bit upsetting if it had been completely fine after they hit it so hard.
“Huh? Franz, it’s acting a bit strange.”
“Yeah…?”
Just as Yuna said, behemoth’s condition was a bit strange.
Its eyes, which should have been emitting a vicious red glow, had lost their light.
Could it really be dying just like this?
But to say that all they did was cut off its tail?
It was when Franz was feeling such confusion.
Thud-, rumble-.
Its outer shell cracked and soon began to crumble to the ground, like parched earth in a drought.
Even so, the reason they couldn’t relax was that it was still standing strong in its place.
Normally, a creature would collapse under its own weight when it died, but it looked far too fine.
It wasn’t long after that.
The guy’s motionless body seemed to twitch slightly, and then the light returned to its eyes, having changed from a vicious red light to an ominous black light.
─── !
The cracked outer shell crumbled away from its body, and at the same time, an immense amount of magic power began to be felt between its two massive horns.
The dark red sphere that formed between its horns gradually grew in size as time passed…
Soon, it was fired as a beam of light toward Franz and his party.
Staring blankly at the rapidly approaching beam, Franz let out a soft chuckle.
“It seems to be confident in its magic…”
But the same goes for me.