Chapter 104 - 100: Boss Fight: Raid
Chapter 104: Chapter 100: Boss Fight: Raid
Ola grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, like a bear finally freed from its chains.
White mist plumed from his heavy breaths. The eyes that once held the insecurity of his mixed heritage now burned with the pure fervor of a Warrior.
"For the Rock Breakers!"
He roared, his voice echoing through the valley.
The enchanted warhammer felt as light as a feather in Ola’s hands.
The Knights behind him tried to form up, but they couldn’t possibly keep up with his frenzied pace.
A Gray Swamp Giant Crocodile had just raised its head from the mud when Ola’s warhammer was already upon it.
The warhammer came down like a pile driver. With a tremendous THUD, the creature’s entire head, along with half its neck, was smashed into the ground. Red and white viscera splattered over a nearby Knight.
Another crocodile, stunned for a moment by Ola’s sheer ferocity, hesitated. The Knights seized the opportunity, sending several handaxes flying into the soft flesh of its flank.
But in its death throes, the crocodile thrashed, its massive tail sweeping out. A Knight, unable to dodge in time, was struck in the thigh. He was sent flying like a broken sack, and the sound of his leg bone snapping was horribly clear amidst the chaos.
"Damn it!" Ola’s eyes went bloodshot. The sight only drove him deeper into his frenzy.
Sarah and Ryo arrived just in time to witness the chaotic, bloody scene.
Ryo’s face paled. This was nothing like the calm, strategic battles he had imagined, directed from the safety of a command tent.
Velin glanced at the injured Knight without so much as a frown. He simply commanded Sarah, who had just rushed over, to get the injured man to a safe place.
Then, he took a pinch of shimmering silver powder and a few dried leaves from a pouch at his waist.
He crushed them in his palm, murmuring a few short syllables.
A visible white ripple spread from his hand, washing over everyone in the party.
Ola felt a lightness in his step. His heavy, enchanted plate armor suddenly felt as if it had lost most of its weight. Each stride became longer, faster.
[Fleetfoot Stride]
Instead of charging the behemoth in the valley’s depths, the party followed Velin’s lead. Taking advantage of the enemy’s confusion, they circled the central basin where the leader resided.
The few scattered crocodiles along their path were quickly dispatched.
Velin himself brought up the rear. He continuously pulled dark blue glass bottles from another pouch, tossing them carelessly over his shoulder onto the path behind them without a backward glance.
When the bottles hit the ground, a white, frosty vapor seeped out—whether they had shattered or not—and spread rapidly across the ground.
[Touch of Frost]
The mud and filthy water it touched congealed within seconds, creating a slick, frosty zone.
They had drawn a final, impassable line around the crocodile leader’s nest.
Once the encirclement was complete and they came to a halt, everyone felt a pressure as immense as a mountain.
The Gray Swamp Giant Crocodile chieftain, along with its five remaining, visibly more powerful guards, was finally and completely isolated.
The chieftain ignored the Bader Dung Beetles. It didn’t even glance at the surrounding Knights who were watching it menacingly.
Its massive, golden, slit-pupiled eyes looked past everyone, locking onto Velin.
It remembered that scent.
It didn’t let out an angry roar, just a low rumble from deep within its throat.
HMMMM—
A murky, earth-yellow halo emerged from the chieftain’s body. Beneath the glow, rock-like patterns on its hide slowly began to light up, as if a layer of the very earth’s crust was covering it and its guards.
[Earth Barrier]
Seeing this barrier didn’t frighten Ola; on the contrary, it only stoked his savage nature.
His muscles bulged, straining against his enchanted plate armor until it groaned. The light from the Runes on his warhammer flared, coalescing into an orb of light.
"Shatter!"
With Ola’s roar, the warhammer tore through the air, crashing down violently onto the great beast’s head.
BOOM—!!!
There was no crisp clang of metal, only a deep, muffled boom, like a giant striking a war drum.
The earthy-yellow halo dented deeply, like a ripple in water, but solidified abruptly at its limit before snapping back with even more terrifying force!
Ola’s warhammer was thrown back by an unimaginable force. He gripped the handle for dear life, terrified of losing his weapon. The impact tore open the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers, and blood streamed from the gaps in his gauntlets.
The force dragged him backward, and he landed hard on his ass.
On the crocodile chieftain’s Scale Armor, only a faint white scratch remained.
Ola had been prepared for this. The attack may not have done any real damage, but this wasn’t a one-on-one duel.
Just as Ola was scrambling to his feet to fight with all his might, the crocodile chieftain finally moved.
With no preparation, no winding up, it slowly raised its head and opened its mouth.
"ROAR—!!!"
[Dragon’s Dreadful Roar]
This wasn’t a sound!
It was an assault directly on the soul!
The very air seemed to freeze.
The link between Sarah and her Bader Dung Beetles was shattered by the violent force. Hundreds of the giant beetles descended into chaos. Some spun about aimlessly, while those on the periphery of the roar’s effect even began to attack their own kind.
Ola and his Knights took the full brunt of the attack.
The Half-Dwarf felt as if his brain had been struck by a sledgehammer. His vision went black, all the strength drained from his body, and his thoughts sank into a quagmire of chaos.
He tried to lift his warhammer, but his arm felt impossibly heavy.
The Knights behind him were frozen in place, their movements sluggish, like figures in a slow-motion film.
In the face of that one roar, the assault formation crumbled in an instant.
The five elite crocodile guards moved.
Unaffected, they lunged toward the immobilized Knights, their monstrous jaws already open.
’It’s over!’
In the nick of time, Ryo’s ring flashed.
The mental assault had affected him as well, but the ring Valerius had given him did its work. He was stunned for only a moment before a cool stream of Magic Power surged up his arm and into his brain.
The instant his mind cleared, he acted on pure instinct, pulling the metal tuning fork from his breast pocket with a trembling hand.
[Annihilation Tuning Fork]
TING—!
Ryo tapped the tuning fork lightly with his knuckle, and a sound wave, inaudible to the human ear, spread out.
The invisible sound wave collided head-on with the lunging crocodiles.
The five elite crocodiles froze mid-lunge as if they’d hit an invisible wall, then collapsed, writhing in agony on the ground.
The chieftain let out a pained shriek. Its massive body trembled violently as it slammed its own head into the ground. Two trickles of blood seeped from its ear canals, and for the first time, panic showed in its golden eyes.
Ola and his men snapped out of it, their backs drenched in cold sweat.
Sarah re-established her connection with most of the swarm, and the chaos was quickly brought under control.
Ryo’s face, however, was paler than a corpse. With blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, he hurried to Velin’s side and said with a bitter smile, "My lord, I can only use that one more time. Their ears are already damaged, so the effect will be drastically reduced next time—it might not even work at all."
Velin nodded, his gaze still locked on the chieftain as it struggled back to its feet.
"That’s enough."