An hour passed since last time...

Protect the City

Monsters have started to attack the gates of the city in hopes of trying to get in and destroy it. Protect the gates at all costs.

Enemies remaining: Approximately 1700

Enemies Slain in total: Approximately 2300

Enemies Slain by party: 145

Contribution to Quest: 182

Note that more powerful monsters will give more contribution to the quest

And this was the results for the efforts that the group and the other players put in in this hour.

“At this rate, we might finish this off in another hour or so” muttered Sain seeing these numbers. Since the hour; Shadow, Lyndis and Raven rejoined the rest of the group since more stronger monsters were coming out more quickly now,

Now there were less wolves and more bears and lizardmen out there which made the death rate rocket up instantly before all of the players that couldn't fight ran away back into the city. It couldn't be helped since the majority level of those kinds of players did not exceed more than 5 after all.

Another thing to note that the average level of the rest of the players was about 50 putting the group in a position where they were one of the higher levelled players in this bunch of players with the highest levelled players was of 150~ and of a warrior.

“More lizardmen are coming our way” said Shadow once again coming back from scouting ahead of the group.

“How many?” asked Sain.

“Around 5 or 6 and armed with some armour and weapons. Most of them have armour that barely protects them and are partly broken though. Not much of a threat.”

“Right.”

Sain checked the buffs on the group. They currently had 'Melody of Speed' on as always since more agility helped everyone in the group overall and 'Heartbeat Healing' was also on as well giving everyone a steady supply of health.

Another thing that Sain had to consider was the amount of points that they would get in the end. Wolves and Boars, the weaker monster only gave 1 point per kill with some exceptions like the Alpha Wolf that would net you 5 points in one go. Bears gives you 3 points on average, goblins are the same and lizardmen, the ones with the highest average level of the enemies give 4 points on average.

It is needless to say that for at least the first half of the quest, there had only been mostly wolves and boars running around and now it is when bears, goblins and lizardmen are swarming the place.

“Kill the humans!”

“Rip apart their land!”

“Slaughter them!”

Three lizardmen appeared in front of them doing a frontal charge. Raven, Lyndis and Luna moved in to block them while Shadow attacked from behind and a combination of Sain and Miriel fired from afar with Serena supporting everyone.

'There are only three...Shadow said there were 5 or 6. Where the other ones...? Probably trying to flank us or running somewhere else...though the former is more likely.'

Just as the group was taking care of three of the lizardmen that charged in straight at them, another three appeared to the side where Sain was not so taking him for surprise.

'A wide spread spell should stop them a bit'

“Mana Bolts!”

Sain fired his mana bolts at the three lizardmen that appeared hitting them a couple of times, making them flinch for a split second as well as causing their vision of the group to wane with the large number of lights flashing at them.

“Serena, bind one to my side!”

“Right! Root Bind!”

One of three lizardmen was completely pinned down to the ground with roots climbing up it's legs and pulling it down as it tried slashing it's way out of it using it's sword.

“Magic Arrows!” “Ice Bolts!”

Both Sain and Miriel focused fire on one of the two remaining lizardmen that were heading their way and managed to critically injure it enough that it lagged behind the other one. The last remaining lizardman on route to them was one that only used a rather large sword that was curved at the end.

“Haaaa!”

The lizardman struck down at Sain to which he blocked using his spear.

Clang!

The clash of metal could be heard as Sain was kicked by the lizardman causing him to fall back. The lizardman immediately went to strike down at Sain but Miriel moved in taking out her whip and attacked the lizardman rapidly until it died.

Enemy Slain counter increased to 147

Snap~!

Miriel then finished off the other lizardman which was critically injured with a single strike with her whip when it got close.

Enemy Slain counter increased to 148

Sain got up as the others finished off the remaining lizardmen.

Enemy Slain counter increased to 151

Seeing this number he let out a sigh.

'Not only we are not getting enough kills on our end...I find myself more useless than ever now with enemies coming on all sides most of the time. My stats and more to the point skills aren't good enough for close combat....it feels like I'm a sand bag on line whenever I fight against something which has better combat skills than me.'

“A bear is approaching us” warned Shadow as Sain was in his thoughts.

He quickly discarded the thoughts of himself being so useless and immediately prepared for the fight checking everything again.

“Me, Miriel and Lyndis will attack with our range attacks first, then Shadow and Raven will finish it off quickly hitting the legs first then the head” said Sain quickly making up a solid strategy against a large bear.

Not wanting to wait for the bear to come to them, Sain told everyone that they were going offensive against the bear and practically marched up to it which most likely saw the group as prey.

“Magic Arrows!” “Ice Bolts!” “Flame Strike!”

All three of them fired their attacks at the bear which was 3 metres tall standing up on two legs.

Bang Bang Bang...!

Bits of the large bear had solid wounds on it, while other parts were either frozen a bit or burnt. The bear was turned from looking as a fearsome creature to one that looked like it had a bad night.

'That amount of damage....I suppose we took 60% of it's health out with that' thought Sain evaluating the amount of damage the three of them caused.

“Backstab!”

Shadow flew in a air and jumped directly behind the bear digging his short sword into the back of it's head as much as possible. Raven moved in the front and stabbed the bear a couple of times here and there generally at the leg area.

Within moments, the bear dropped dead and turned into grey light ending the battle.

Enemy Slain counter increased to 152

“Ahh....I starting to get a bit tired of these kinds of battles repeating itself over and over again” said Lyndis, “They're too easy and finish within seconds!”

“Well that generally happens when you fight weaker mobs” replied Miriel as if it was not her problem, “We can go back to the eternal dungeon when Eden wakes up.”

“I kinda wish that he doesn't wake up though...considering all the crap that we were put through thanks to him” said Shadow cutting in.

The a video played in front of the group and all other players part of the quest.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Elsewhere....

“ROAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!”

A large creature covered in golden light appeared breaking down and through trees rapidly went straight to the east gate. All monsters and players were being killed by it as it saw them.

BANG!

The creature swung it's large arm and flattened a lizardman which was not paying enough attention onto the side of the tree with ease. It then moved and kicked another one which blew away the centre of it's body like something large was shot through it.

“What the hell is this thing?!” shouted one player noticing that this creature was not at all friendly.

“Damnit ATTACK! ATTACK THAT THING!!!”

Two parties of 6, numbering 12 in total fired their spells, arrows and swung their swords and axes at the creature.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang....!

However the creature ignored the attacks and smashed the first player nearest to it with it's fist that was as big as a person's body.

Standing at over 4 metres tall, this creature was pale in colour with skin that looked sort of like a human though stretched out and had muscles bulging out from it. It had no hair on it's body and looked like one of those human models you would see in science labs.

However the most disturbing feature of this creature was that on it's face, it had no eyes. To add to this, while it had a normal nose, it's mouth was extra large and extended from one side to the other on it's face and looked large enough to fit someone in to eat. This appearance caused instinctive fear in the players as some ran while other tried to log out.

BANG BANG BANG!

A minute later, the two player parties were wiped out completely with no survivors.

The corpses of both players and monsters were shattered around this creature as it consumed their flesh and grew slightly bigger and stronger each time.

Yes, this creature was slowly getting stronger as it feasted on the flesh of it's prey and it set it's sight on the city filled with so much 'food'.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“What the hell is this thing?!” muttered Shadow not able to describe in words what he was feeling at the moment. The others felt the same way and could not feel the appearance of such a creature was a good thing.

“I think we need to kill this thing to complete the quest” said Sain considering that this creature just happened to appear when the quest was about to end peacefully.

“....”

“What? Does my words sound so unbelievable?”

“No...it's just that I have a good feeling that you will force us to fight it....” said Miriel after choosing her words carefully.

“Huh? Isn't it natural that we would want to fight it?” said Sain confused on why the others did not share the same feeling as him.

'Damnit! Now we really have to fight it...' the others cursed in their hearts.

“I'll put it bluntly for you Sain...that thing looks disgusting and would he horrible to fight” said Miriel.

“Second, that thing just slaughtered two parties that were fairly strong ignoring their attacks and was completely unharmed!” said Lyndis.

“The mouth...” muttered Raven as well.

“Yes the mouth....I have a good...no bad feeling that I will end up in there if we fought against it” said Shadow as well.

“Umm..that thing.....umm.....” muttered Serena trying to say another point though everyone else exhausted the reasons not to already.

“So....we don't fight it?” asked Sain.

“Yep.” “Yes.” “Sure.” “....” “Yes!”

“....”

“....”

“...But at this rate, the quest really will fail and we will be forced to fight at the end” said Sain telling the others of his prediction of what will happen in the end, “It's better to group up all of the players and attack it together in one last battle against it.”

“Didn't it kill two parties like nothing?” asked Lyndis reminding Sain of what the video showed.

“Plus magic and physical attacks did not affect it at all” said Miriel as well.

“That may not be the case you know. It might be that it has a skill to temporary negate attacks on it” replied Sain.

Sain thought back on the video and then said, “But then again, it does have a massive amount of strength...perhaps on the same level as that Minotaur. Maybe it's best to let the guards take care of it....”

“Actually, we....no I better speak to that Captain Guard about this.”

With those words Sain walked back with the group following him to the gates where there were 10 guards standing by just in case monsters may come and slip into the city. Included in these numbers was the Captain Guard standing by with his clearly superior armour and red sword.

Noticing Sain, the Captain Guard cried out, “Ah!....um super average one!”

“....I do have a name you know” muttered Sain cursing the Captain Guard slightly.

“But I don't even know your name or..the other ones over there as well.”

“You never asked.”

“You never gave it as well. The fault lies on both sides. Anyway what do you want? Are the monsters becoming too much for even you lot?”

“Aside from not wanting to know our names, you ask if we're scared? That's kinda impolite isn't it?”

“I don't want to know your names.....getting close to your guild is a bad idea and I know from experience. Beside I'm your senior considering that Eden trained me a bit as well....”

“Right didn't need to know that but you know of how two parties were wiped out due to a new monster right?” asked Sain wanting to know if the NPCs knew of this part of the quest.

“That thing? It may be troublesome enough that I have to step in but it shouldn't be too bad. Hmm...I believe some freemen are gathering up against that thing as well. With you joining in, they would hit 30 in total. I might tag along if you join the battle. I want to see what kind of results the training Eden put you all through had.”

“....”

Behind Sain, he could feel that there were several people cursing him for in the end making them fight against that creature. However this was not the time to consider their feelings since for one, Sain was curious of the strength the Captain Guard had.

“Okay then, you lead since I don't know where that creature” replied Sain trying not to feel the piercing glared behind him once again.

“Right then” the Captain Guard looked at the other 19 guards with him and said, “I'm depending on you lot to make sure that no monster gets through this gate. Protect it with your life.”

“““Yes Sir!!!”””

The other guards saluted the Captain Guard as he walked away followed by Sain and the others.

'I'm sorry okay?! I knew you guys didn't want to fight it but at this rate the quest will...!' Sain silently cried inside with the piercing glare hitting his back as they walked.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Several minutes later, they arrived to the gathering of the large group of players. They numbered around 25~ but with the group added in, they numbered now 30~

“Split into parties!”

“Form separate lines to fight from!”

“Priests buff the warriors and others!”

All of them were running around doing something to prepare for the next battle against the creature that they saw clearly destroying 2 parties with ease. With these numbers, there were including the group 5 or at most 6. It was also a group of players that were much stronger than those who were killed in the video individually as well.

“Quite disorganised but I am wondering whether they will be victorious or not” muttered the Captain Guard seeing all these people trying to work together.

“The chances are you will not which is why I wanted you here” said Sain to him while watching the other players.

Some minutes passed and the tension increased.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRR!!!”

That single roar made things worse. They knew that the battle was near but their shaking did not stop at all.

Yes, the creature that looked like an oversized human with no eyes and a giant mouth appeared with drool pouring down it's mouth at them. It had already considered them as nothing more than prey.

But even so...

“Charrrrrrrrrge!”

“Let the flames of destruction burn and consume! Flame Torrent!”

“Blessing of the light of God, protect the innocent from evil! Holy Blessing!”

The players started their attack on the creature which activated that golden light from it's body immediately.

Sain and the other could feel a tingling feeling coming from their right hands but it was slight and disappeared immediately after a split second.

“My strength is unrivalled, Double Strike!”

A barbarian wielding two axes in both hands, ran up and slashed twice at the creature with large iron axes that usually could be wielded in two hands with one each.

Bang Bang!

However like striking metal, the axes were deflected back causing slight cracks to appear on the axes while

BANG!

The barbarian in question, with his attack failing against the creature was counter attacked by it smashing a fist at him causing him to be sent flying back and hitting a tree before he died and turned into grey light.

“Don't falter, continue attacking!” shouted another player.

“The immunity cannot last forever!” shouted a mage as well firing a fireball at the creature.

The creature however looked as if it was laughing and ran faster than anyone could relax and bit off the top half of someone in one go.

“....”

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

There was scream coming form the inside of the mouth as the creature started to chew and eventually that player was turned into grey light as well dying.

Next what came was utter chaos.

Players not wanting to die in such a way stepped back from their forward approach while others considered running away. Needless to say, the creature happily went around attacking and killing the players with ease.

“This is...worse than I thought” said Miriel covering her mouth as if she was about to vomit.

“A massacre” said Raven seeing all of this as well.

Sain looked at the Captain Guard and asked, “So what are you going to do now? Leave them to death or fight?”

The Captain Guard sighed and said to Sain, “You planned this didn't you? Making me come here to force me to fight.”

“We can't defeat that thing as well.”

“And what do you think I can? I have lived a long time and seen many things but never once have I seen such a creature. You can feel it right? The more it consumes, the stronger it gets. It's already at a level where knights will be difficulty fighting it let alone mere guards. Plus I really have a bad feeling from that golden light that it's giving out.”

“Reminds you of Eden right?”'

“Nah....Eden's true aura is a lot different than you think. It is cold, cruel and has no mercy at all like everyone and everything are insects before it. That thing's one reminds me of something else.”

“Something else..?”

“Yeah...if my gut feeling is right then I can't beat it as well.”

The Captain Guard drew his sword and sped at the creature blocking it's last attack that would've hit a player and killed him. The player thanking the Captain Guard ran away in almost tears though it was understandable.

“This level of strength...normal knights can't compare to you already. For the sake of the Kingdom and more importantly the city and it's residents....die.”

Slash!

With flaming red aura, the right arm of the creature was cleanly cut off instantly even though the other players even with their weapons and spells could not.

'Is this the power of someone who has a high level?' wondered Sain if this was the case or there was something else that he didn't factor in as well.

“GOOOOOOOOARRRR!!!”

Seeing that it's arm was cut off, the creature let out a scream and punched at the Captain Guard using it's left arm.

“Too slow!”

The Captain Guard moved in quickly and cut off the other arm with his sword as well.

“Hmm?”

Sensing something was wrong, the Captain Guard leaped back just in time as a giant long and thick tongue shot out from the creature's mouth trying to grab him. The tongue moved strangely and eventually shot and pierced through the cut off arms and dragged it inside it's mouth.

Like bubbles being blown, it's two arms regenerated like that.

“Eww....gross” muttered Lyndis seeing this.

Sain was thankful that the creature did not even recognise that they existed currently as it was only focused on the Captain Guard.

The battle continued more for a whole minute with the Captain Guard slicing off bits of the creature while it continuously regenerated and continued to fight him. Eventually the Captain Guard sighed and stopped fighting the creature and simply backed off when he dealt a large blow onto the creature which would take a while to regenerate back.

“You guys fight it.”

“Huh?”

The group was utterly shocked. It looked like things were going fine for the Captain Guard against the creature.

“Hurry up, it's about to finish regenerating. A tip is that it doesn't move when it regenerates.”

“....”

Sain looked at the creature which was glaring at them as well now. It seems that they can't get past fighting it in the end. Sain apologised to the others in his heart as he took out his spear.

“No choice, we have to fight it” said Sain sighing.

“Damn...this always happen somehow...” complained Shadow cursing under his breath.

“L-Let's do our best!” said Serena shivering from the sight of the creature and the thought of being eaten alive.

“Miriel buff our agility, we'll need it since it can one shot any of us...except maybe Raven” ordered Sain.

“Right!”

Miriel started her chanting of her spell just when the creature finished regenerating.

“Root Bind!” chanted Serena quickly creating roots from the ground that covered the creature's legs dragging it onto the ground.

“Gorr!” The creature dragged it's feet forward ripping the roots that bound it and with it the ground with it as it charged forward.

“Aim for the legs!” shouted Sain preparing his spells.

“Right, Power Strike!” Lyndis ran up to the right of the creature and used her sword and slash a heavy hit onto the leg. There a large cut was made but the leg was not cut off completely.

Unknown Creature's leg damage, agility decreased

'Compared to other monsters....it's flesh is quite weak. It's only that golden light that makes it seem invincible...plus it explains how it's so fast as well....fast and power but has low defence and density.'

“Magic Arrows!” Sain fired his magic arrows at the same leg that Lyndis cut making slight holes in them.

Unknown Creature's leg damage, agility decreased

“Bust Speed. Double Strike!” Shadow ran from behind and slashed twice at that same leg as he ran pass.

Unknown Creature's leg damage, agility decreased

The creature's leg was almost literally hanging on right now with Serena's roots holding down the other leg down as well, the creature on two hands, clawed it's way forward to the group.

“Double Strike!”

Raven moved up and stabbed the creature's eyes since it was low enough to hit and it would blind it for a while.

Critical Hit!

Unknown Creature's eyes damaged, blindness will be in effect

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!”

The creature screamed in pain as he ripped off it's own legs and ran forward using it's arms as it swung randomly in the vague direction where the group was.

“Melody of Speed!”

Agility increased for 34% for 10 minutes

Just in time, Miriel activated 'Melody of Speed' and increased everyone's agility enough that they were able to dodge the attacks of the arms that seemed to stretch out further than they really were due to their length.

'Need to use all methods to decrease damage on us....'

“Weaken!” Sain chanted aiming at the creature.

Enemy strength decreased by 50%

The vitality of the creature seemed to decrease with it's sudden lose of strength. Sain's 'Weaken' spell was at Beginner Level 8 now but since the last level, the strength of the spell didn't increase over 50%. In exchange however, it seems that the probability of the spell working increased slightly.

The main reason why Sain didn't depend on this spell much was that stronger monsters, above level 50 have a really low chance of being affected by this kind of spell and it decreases even more the higher their level.

“Aim for the head!” shouted Sain seeing that they had it more or less trapped now.

“Flame Strike!” “Ice Bolt!”

Both fire and ice hit the creature's head head on causing cracks to appear all over the place at that location. The creature didn't move after that attack.

“....”

“Did we win...?”

BANG!

The tongue shot out again from the creature's mouth and grabbed onto Serena.

“Kyaaaaaaa?!”

“Shit! Attack the tongue!”

Sain moved in with his spear and stabbed the long and large tongue that was holding onto Serena.

“Precision Stance....Power Strike!”

Lyndis made a chop almost leaping into the air cutting a bit of the tongue off.

“Double Strike! Double Strike!” Raven was frantically spamming his skills over and over again attacking the tongue as well.

“Ice Burst!”

Miriel sprayed ice bullets all over the tongue freezing parts of it.

“This isn't working...Serena, use blood burst on the tongue! Everyone else, attack the core quickly! Miriel, set up a 'cracked barrier' on Serena just in case!”

Sain was hoping that by attacking the main body, the creature would be distracted from Serena casting her spell for a while. The entire group minus Serena and Miriel focused their attack on the other parts of the creature's body.

“Cracked Barrier!”

Then Miriel casted her damage negating barrier onto Serena.

“Blood Burst! Ge-t out of the w-ayyyyy!” screamed Serena letting loose her spell while being swung around the place by the creature's tongue.

A blood red ball appeared in front of Serena and fired off rebounding off trees and hitting various parts of the creature's tongue.

'Huh? It can rebound as well?' wondered Sain in shock seeing the red ball bouncing over places.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!

Several places burst into pieces.

First was the tongue that looked like it was ripped onto pieces.

Second was the other parts of the creature's body where it looked like there were giant holes in them that could fit a hand in.

Last was in fact the trees that the red ball rebounded off. For some reason they also burst into pieces were they were hit even though the skill was called 'Blood Burst'.

“Don't tell me...it affects all liquid and not just blood...?” wondered Sain aloud.

To inquire more about this, Sain walked over to Serena who was lying on the ground trying to get the blood and gore off of her body and asked seriously, “Did anything change with the skill when it levelled up?!”

Sain had his hands on her shoulder and was shaking her back and forth.

“Sain now is not the time for that! That creature is regenerating quickly again!” shouted Miriel holding back her urge to slap Sain right there and then.

“What?!”

Sain looked over and saw that the creature had bubble like things popping out as it's legs reattached back and it's tongue was restored back to normal. However the worse but was that there was a slight golden light surrounding it now.

“This is bad....invincibility....Serena....try to hold it down as much as possible.”

“R-right....Root Bind!”

Serena casted her spell once again at the creature making roots cover the creature's body. Sain thought about it a bit and then decided that her 'Root Bind' spell also increased in strength as it levelled up as well extending from the legs to whole body.

“Mana Bolts.”

Sain aimed and fired his mana bolts at the creature hitting it a bit less than twenty times. However the golden light perfectly negated the attack.

“Miriel do you have a spell that can freeze parts of it's body?” asked Sain.

“Not at all...though I don't expect the spell to have any effect on it either way...” replied Miriel looking horrified that she had to fight that thing again.

Shadow looked over at the creature and said, “Is it me or does it seem a bit stronger than before..”

“....”

“Shadow I really hope you are wrong...” muttered Lyndis standing guard with her sword.

“That reminds me what do you think Ca-huh? Where did he go?” Sain looked around and did not find the Captain Guard at all.

Looking back, Sain noticed that the moment that the Captain Guard pushed the job of fighting the creature, he didn't appear again.

'Damnit! Did he just leave us here against that THING?!' screamed Sain in his thoughts.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Hey why the hell is it struggling against enemies of that level? That Guard before was pretty strong so it was understandable but these brats aren't even more level 100 yet.”

“No idea, there may be some glitch or that it was still recovering from that guard. You saw how many times it was forced to regenerate before he left.”

“Still....to force it in a corner when it is around 30% complete....this at full strength would be on the level of a Divine Beast right?”

“It should be though our estimate seems to be off a bit.”

“Then this experiment is a failure...sorry that you had to suffer....”

“Stop that, it doesn't feel pain nor has any emotion. At best it's a golem of some sort.”

“But it has a soul! A living soul inside of it!”

“Not our problem. We have our orders and plus this helps with our research as well doesn't it considering that soul magic is fundamentally banned from the start.”

“....”

“I just hope that it can give us some more data before it dies...it's almost at it's limits. Just a few more regeneration until it dies...or.”

“Or?”

“Something interesting may happen outside our prediction. Later...I want to investigate those brats...they seem a lot stronger than they look. Too much stronger that it couldn't be a coincidence that they were gathered like that. 'That' may have something to do with it.”

“And...what if they are?”

“Then they die as well.”

“....”

“....”

'I hope that one day his anger may disappear....oh Eden if only you didn't exist in the first place....or did 'that' on that day.....how much more blood are you willing to spill for nothing?'

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“We can either fight it until we die or run away until it catches us and kills us in the end....I'm leaning on the first choice having the highest chance of survival” said Sain reading his spear just in case another tongue flies out to capture someone.

“Argggh, it finished regenerating already....” complained Miriel applying, 'Cracked Barriers' on everyone which at Beginner Level 5 reduces all damage by 50% for the next two hits.

Judging by the numbers and the fact that the spell isn't an overpowered one, Sain guessed that the increase in power of the spell ended at that point and now the spell would steadily increase in the number of hits it can take.

'From what I know...it uses that tongue attack as a last resort when all other options are exhausted, which means that it will primary be attacking via punching or kicking. But with it's size and speed, that alone is lethal enough. Raven may be able to take a few hits at best but he needs Miriel to continue casting 'Cracked Barrier' on him.'

“Miriel focus on casting 'Cracked Barrier' on Raven. Raven you will try to tank the creature on your own for a while.”

“Right.” “....”

Raven seeing that the golden light that made the creature seemingly invincible charged at the creature.

“Footwork!”

BANG!

Raven twisted his charge in another direction as the creature tried to punch him and instead hit the ground causing large cracks to appear.

“Footwork!”

BANG!

“Footwork!”

BANG!

Two more times did Raven had to dodge before he got close enough to the creature.

“Lyndis, supporting fire from afar. Serena, bind the creature and starting using healing spells.”

“Right, Flame Strike!”

Lyndis let out a blazing flame attack that hit the body of the creature but did little damage to it at all.

“Minor Health Regeneration! Root Bind!”

Serena casted her spell onto Raven and the creature respectively as well. Raising his hand at the creature, Sain chanted, “Magic Arrows!” firing several of them at once at the creature's mouth with only one hitting on location while the other ones missed.

'Can it sense magic attacks as well?'

The battle continued with Raven mostly dodging attacks from the creature, occasionally feeling brave enough to parry a few of them while Miriel and Serena made sure that he didn't get one hit killed. Sain and Lyndis on the other hand focused on ranged attacks as their mana slowly depleted with time and Shadow was occasionally appearing either backstabbing or helping deter attacks to Raven.

This cycle continued for another two more times with a total of 4 times the group managed to take down the creature.

Their current status were as followed.

Sain: Health(95%) Mana(32%)

Raven: Health(34%) Mana(78%)

Shadow: Health(80%) Mana(52%)

Miriel: Health(100%) Mana(27%)

Serena: Health(100%) Mana(15%)

Lyndis: Health(45%) Mana(8%)

'How much more this thing going to regenerate? Our mana levels are getting smaller each time and at this rate, we can't avoid someone dying' bitterly thought Sain as he saw the numbers and the fact that this never-ending cycle of fighting and killing the creature repeats itself.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Oi oi oi, why is it having so much trouble? A 'died' a couple of times already as well!”

“I really have no idea? It seems like that group is learning how to deal with it though they are running our of time with fatigue taking them.”

“Tch, at least the data will be useful later on.”

“True enough we can collect the corpse later as long as the core does not disappear. What are the chances that some brats will be able to completely destroy it?”

“Beyond low to the point near zero. It's impossible with their level of power.”

(Massive amount of pressure in area)

“What the hell was that?!”

“I don't know! We have to get out of here!”

“What of the data?”

“Screw that! The data is lost now. Whatever that was, is too dangerous. RUN!”

[p=center]xXx[/p]

BANG BANG BANG!

Party Member: Raven is in Critical Health

“Shit Raven! Minor Heal!”

Sain restored barely enough health for Raven to get out of critical health as the creature charged at him.

'Damnit, what do I do? There is no victory here...not even a chance.'

“Burning Touch!”

Lyndis swept under the creature and touched a part of it's body causing it to burst into flames there. Rolling out of the way, even Lyndis was caught between life and death with one hit. Just then, it seemed that Lyndis ran out of mana.

'Including me....there are four people out of mana and Raven and Shadow the last two barely have enough to hold on...or run away.'

Sain was extremely worried of what to do next. He had no plan and frankly things were going as bad as it could.

'At least everyone is still alive.'

“GOOOOOOOOARRR!!!”

“Damn, it's using that tongue attack again! Run!” shouted Sain sort of recognising it's attack patterns now that he had to deal with them so much.

'This this the end...?'

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“There is no need” said a voice.

“Huh?”

“Dark Arrows.”

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!

Several arrows that were pitch black flew from behind the creature and pierced it creating massive hole in it which Sain, Miriel and the others were unable to easily. A dozen holes just appeared in th enemy that they were fighting all of a sudden.

“What the hell?!” screamed Lyndis shocked on the sight. It was as if the creature could get even more unsightly.

“Damn...it's still regenerating after all of that?” said Miriel astonished that the creature was that persistent.

“Hmm....what to do...?” wondered the voice loud enough that the group could hear it.

Tap Tap.

“Evil begone from the world. Eternity bleeds to the end of the world. Hell Curse of Mortality.”

From the ground came black flames that moved and formed into a magic circle with a pentagon in the centre. The ones that you see in dark magic and such. From the magic circle came a dark light in which drained the golden light that was coming out of the creature.

“The skies and heavens fall to death. Hell Gravity!”

Another tap was heard and from the area where the creature was lying at, the space around there was crushed down to the ground. A hole that was several metres deep was created due to the spell.

“What......was....that....?” asked Lyndis eyes opened. She did not expect that magic was THAT powerful to easily take care of a foe that many including them could not.

“Extremely powerful dark magic...” muttered Miriel answering her answer.

“Is it....gone....?” asked Serena which was the most important question yet. If it revive even with that, then that creature was truly immortal to the end.

“More or less. I stopped that light that was causing it to regenerate constantly. Without it, it's an average monster that is only slightly faster than normal.”

The person behind the voice appeared before the group. That person was wrapped under the cloak which hid most of the equipment on the person. This person was a bit taller than Serena who was quite short but from what the group saw, the hat and staff alone were rare magical equipment of the highest quality...something that normal people won't have. On the person's head was a large witch hat that resembled the night sky in the game.

And under that large witch hat was....a young girl....?

“Nice to meet you all. I am Viv, a male by the way” he said.

“....”

'Lots of guys that look like girls these days....' thought someone in their mind.

“Anyway who are you?”

“....”

“Umm....I'm Sain, the leader of this group” answered Sain seeing that the others clearly did not want to interact with other people.

“I see, so you are those new people Eden dragged in. Also what happened to the city?” asked Viv looking at the ruined city behind the group.

“...Umm.....”

“I suspected this would happen since I was unable to use a teleport station to get here. Plus Eden didn't respond to the messages I was giving him since a few days ago. Was he knocked out? Or Did Al....force him to drink several 'Stamina Increasing' potions again?”

'This Viv is surprisingly good at knowing what happened....Hmm? Why is Miriel shivering at the sight of this Viv?'

“Hey Miriel, are you alright?” asked Sain concern that something was wrong with her.

“H-he's.....”

“Huh?”

“He's the other guildmaster.....along with Eden and Alexandra....the only one they feared.....” she muttered as if she saw her worst trauma recently.

“Wait what?! He looks as old as Serena!” retorted Lyndis as if this was unbelievable.

“Well Eden and Alexandra are both old players and yet they retained that young look. It's not surprising if the third guildmaster was the same as well if not younger. Other than that, why are you so scared Miriel? It's not like he's worst then Eden” commented Shadow on the matter.

“....”

Everyone including Viv was silent on the matter which made it super awkward to continue the conversation.

Clap!

Viv gave the group a gentle smile and then said in a kind voice, “Let's not go there....and let's go see Eden. I have a lot to talk about with him and with Al as well.”

“....”

The group silently followed Viv feeling that this course of action will not lead to something bad.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

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Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 6800~

- Double Release! Yayyyyyyyyyy....!

- Finally on a short break which means I can focus on writing...or playing SAO:HF all week.....hmm....