Chapter 134: The Eclipse Hunters
Chapter 134: Chapter 134: The Eclipse Hunters
Chapter 134: The Eclipse Hunters
The entire Miasma Gorge trembled.
Standing at the edge of the blood-soaked valley was an absolute nightmare of biological evolution. The Level 180 Miasma Dragon-Ape was a walking natural disaster. It possessed four colossal, heavily muscled arms.
Thick, impenetrable black dragon scales covered its entire massive body. Despite its towering size, it moved with the terrifying, explosive agility of an apex predator.
ROOOOOAR!
The monster opened its massive jaws. A blinding wave of molten plasma erupted from its throat. The sheer heat instantly vaporized the solid bedrock beneath its feet, turning the ground into a pool of glowing slag.
The squad realized immediately that brute force would not be enough.
"Scatter!" Aegon roared.
Aegon charged forward through the blinding heat. His Blood Fire Spear burned with maximum intensity. He channeled every ounce of his raw physical strength into a devastating thrust aimed directly at the beast’s chest.
CLANG!
The heavy spear sparked violently against the black dragon scales. The weapon only sank a few inches into the thick armor. The kinetic feedback traveled up the shaft, completely numbing Aegon’s arms. It was entirely insufficient.
Lucien darted from the shadows. The lightning swordsman moved as a blur of blue and gold electricity. He delivered hundreds of high-speed thrusts across the monster’s thick legs and lower torso.
BZZZT!
The Thunder Rapier sliced through the exposed, softer skin between the scales. But before Lucien could even pull his blade back to a defensive stance, the draconic regeneration kicked in. The deep wounds knit themselves closed almost instantly, leaving no trace of the attack.
SMASH!
The Dragon-Ape swung one of its lower arms. The backhand caught Lucien in the chest, sending the swordsman skipping violently across the rocky ground like a thrown stone.
Draven Mordis stood at the rear of the formation. He did not draw his blade. He simply watched the beast. His cold, calculating eyes studied the kinetic flow of the battlefield.
Nyx realized the immense gap in their power. She stepped forward. Her eyes glowed pure, brilliant white in the dim gorge.
She did not try to overpower the colossal monster. She weaponized restraint.
Thousands of erratic, dementor-like shadows erupted from the dark lake beneath her boots. These were not mere magical chains. They were living, starving entities. The nightmare creatures swarmed the Level 180 beast like a plague of locusts.
SWISH!
Hundreds of shadows grabbed the top right arm. Hundreds more wrapped tightly around the lower left. The Dragon-Ape roared in absolute fury. It flexed its massive muscles, tearing through the first wave of shadows with ease. The dark entities shattered like glass.
But thousands more instantly replaced them.
The living darkness crawled entirely over its massive body. The shadows bound its thick legs to the ground and forced its heavy draconic wings firmly shut. The beast screamed in absolute rage, thrashing wildly.
Nyx gritted her teeth. Black blood dripped heavily from her nose. Her vision began to blur from the sheer mana exhaustion. She was not defeating the monster. She was buying exactly five precious seconds.
"Now!" Nyx shouted.
The squad unleashed everything they had simultaneously.
Lucien abandoned all defense. He pushed past his physical limits and turned himself into living lightning.
CRACKLE!
He unleashed a flurry of hundreds of lightning-infused thrusts directly into the beast’s exposed spine. Every single stab injected raw, unadulterated voltage deep into the Dragon-Ape’s nervous system. The monster’s muscles began violently locking up, paralyzing its movements for a fraction of a second.
Aegon used the opening perfectly. He ignited his Blood Fire to its absolute maximum limit. He leaped high into the toxic air, using the beast’s knee as a stepping stone. He drove his spear directly into the monster’s left eye.
SQUELCH!
The blade pierced the soft optical tissue. The Blood Fire exploded violently inside the skull. Instead of simply burning flesh, the unique crimson flames aggressively burned away the Dragon-Ape’s life force.
Astraxion had been hovering high in the air. The tiny void dragon had been charging his breath for the entire duration of the fight. Everyone else thought he was just a mascot, but the baby dragon was a weapon of mass destruction.
Astraxion opened his tiny jaws. He did not unleash a massive, wide wave of fire. He fired a hyper-condensed, pencil-thin beam of Annihilation Breath directly into the wound Aegon had just created.
KABOOM!
The incredibly dense void energy punched straight through the ruined eye socket. The beam struck the brain directly. The Dragon-Ape let out a gargling, agonizing shriek. It was critically injured, but because of its terrifying Level 180 vitality, it was still alive.
The beast violently broke free.
SNAP!
Nyx’s living shadows shattered completely into black mist. She collapsed to her knees, gasping for air. The sheer force of the monster’s rage threw Aegon backward. Astraxion fluttered down to the ground, completely exhausted of mana.
The squad was drained. They had nothing left.
The bleeding beast raised its four colossal arms, preparing to crush the entire squad into a bloody paste.
Then, Draven finally moved.
He did not shout. He did not release a dramatic burst of glowing aura. He simply raised two fingers in the air. His glowing Magical Arrow floated silently beside his hand.
The bleeding Dragon-Ape roared and charged directly at the Captain. The ground cracked under its heavy footsteps.
Draven activated his SS-Rank Vector Manipulation. He did not apply the skill to the arrow. He applied it to every single force currently acting on the entire battlefield.
He gripped the ambient gravity of the gorge. He seized the massive forward momentum of the Dragon-Ape’s desperate charge. He grabbed the lingering kinetic energy from Aegon’s spear strike.
He harvested the thousands of microscopic impact vectors left behind by Lucien’s lightning thrusts. He even captured the dispersing kinetic recoil of Astraxion’s void breath echoing inside the monster’s skull.
Draven compressed every single one of those scattered vectors into a singular, infinitely dense point. He transferred all of that accumulated momentum directly into his Magical Arrow.
The arrow did not fly across the valley. It simply appeared.
One instant, the arrow was floating beside Draven. The very next instant, it was perfectly lodged deep inside the exact center of the Dragon-Ape’s brain. There was no fiery explosion. There was no flashy beam of light.
Draven casually snapped his fingers.
SNAP.
The millions of compressed vectors inside the beast’s skull instantly accelerated in violently opposite directions. The Dragon-Ape’s brain physically tore itself apart from within at the atomic level.
The colossal beast froze mid-charge. Absolute silence fell over the canyon.
THUD!
The gigantic body collapsed. The impact was hard enough to shake the entire underground dungeon, kicking up a massive cloud of toxic dust.
[System Alert: You have slain a Level 180 Miasma Dragon-Ape.]
[System Alert: Massive Experience Gained. Level Up!]
Draven walked up to the massive corpse. The squad watched in sheer awe as their Captain effortlessly executed a monster that had nearly killed all of them combined. Draven calmly extracted a glowing, pulsing golden monster core from its chest. He stored the invaluable item in his spatial ring.
’The fight took longer than expected,’ Draven thought, looking at the dead beast.
’I need to check in with the home front.’
Draven closed his eyes. He reached into the depths of his consciousness, activating the absolute soul-bond he shared with his enslaved informant in Bastion Seven.
’Neville,’ Draven called out telepathically.
’Report.’
There was a brief moment of static. Then, Neville’s voice echoed directly inside Draven’s mind. The Golden Boy sounded incredibly frantic, out of breath, and completely overwhelmed with relief.
’Master!’ Neville shouted through the telepathic link.
’Thank God, you are safe! I cannot believe you did not contact me for the last month!’
Draven froze completely.
For the very first time in his second life, his meticulous preparations and absolute calculations had been utterly compromised. A cold chill ran down Draven’s spine.
’Repeat that,’ Draven commanded, his internal voice turning sharp and dangerous.
’What do you mean by a whole month?’
’A month, Master!’ Neville replied, his panic evident through the soul-bond.
’It has been exactly thirty-two days since the Iron Leviathan train fell into the gorge! The entire world thinks you are dead!’
Draven opened his eyes. He looked at the glowing purple crystals illuminating the entrance of the Phantom-Weaver tomb. He finally understood. The tomb did not just possess spatial magic. It existed in a completely separate, isolated dimension. The time dilation was extraordinarily severe.
’We were only in there for a few hours,’ Draven calculated rapidly.
’Time flowed differently.’
’Master, you have no idea what has happened!’ Neville continued frantically.
’Lord Commander Helion utilized your death immediately. The Civil War has escalated beyond control. Bastions Six, Seven, Nine, Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen have officially united under Bastion Seven. The High Council has deployed the Vanguard Knights. We are on the brink of total global annihilation!’
Draven stared blankly at his exhausted squad.
"What?!" Draven whispered aloud, his mask of absolute control finally cracking.