Chapter 358 - 315: Boldness from High Skill (Part 2)

Chapter 358: Chapter 315: Boldness from High Skill (Part 2)

In a head-on battle against a large Demon, an Assassin’s role is very limited. They usually get only one fleeting opportunity.

But Hill seized it.

She shot forward, her initial burst of speed terrifyingly fast!

A ghostly shadow weaved across the battlefield. As the Thorny Giant Beast reared up, Hill dashed straight for its soft, unarmored underbelly.

This was the most vulnerable spot on any reptilian Demon!

"Is she crazy?!"

Gray’s eyes widened. "How does she dare to charge in like that?!"

Hill darted under the Thorny Giant Beast, sliding past it in a flash!

In the split second she passed by the beast’s belly, the two Short Swords in her hands stabbed viciously upward like venomous fangs!

"BOOM!"

Shadow Fighting Qi erupted from the Short Swords!

The terrifying destructive force blasted the Thorny Giant Beast’s abdomen open. A foul, thick, grayish-white fluid and unidentifiable chunks of flesh splattered out!

"ROOOAR!!!"

The intense pain shot through the Thorny Giant Beast’s nerves.

It hadn’t even noticed the timing of Hill’s attack and could only act on instinct, slamming its body down onto the ground with a crash.

It wanted to crush that damned human flat!

But the Thorny Giant Beast crushed nothing but empty air. Hill had already used her incredible speed to slide to safety.

A perfect ambush, a true display of skill and daring!

"ROAR!!!"

The Thorny Giant Beast let out a deep, furious roar, its entire being consumed by rage.

The vines on its body spread toward its abdomen, barely managing to plug the wound from Hill’s blast and stop the grayish-white fluid from dripping.

Its head and abdomen had both sustained severe damage.

The Thorny Giant Beast’s thick foreclaws began to frantically pound the ground.

"THUD THUD THUD!"

But this wasn’t just to vent its anger.

Zelir frowned and looked at the ground.

The vibrations grew with each strike, as if something even more dangerous was about to burst forth from deep underground.

"Dodge!"

Zelir roared.

The moment the words left his mouth, giant thorns burst from the earth!

"SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!"

The thorns were densely packed, each three to four meters tall and incredibly thick. They kept popping up from the ground like goosebumps!

A series of sharp whooshes rang out as they sliced through the air.

Valles had already sensed the danger and pulled back to a safe distance, so he wasn’t hit by the thorns.

Zelir was also on his guard.

He activated his Ring of Resistance and applied a Swift Blessing gain to himself, staying ready to dodge at a moment’s notice.

But the one in the most danger wasn’t Marcus, but Gray!

He had been about to charge forward to attack and ran right into the path of the Thorny Giant Beast’s offensive.

Facing the sudden attack of thorns, Gray remained calm.

He timed the instant the ground began to bulge and leaped!

Empowered by Swift Blessing, Gray’s movements were swift and agile. He precisely landed the tips of his toes on the thorns as they shot out of the ground.

He narrowly avoided the thorns’ deadly strikes.

He even used them to launch himself into another leap, landing right on the Thorny Giant Beast’s right forelimb.

He swung his sword!

’When fighting this kind of giant beast, the logic is the same as before: either destroy its head or do as much as possible to cripple its movement.’

Gray’s goal was to sever the joint in the Thorny Giant Beast’s right forelimb.

Wind Fighting Qi enveloped his blade as countless tiny Wind Blades spun and sliced, cutting through the vines.

But when the blade bit into the Thorny Giant Beast’s flesh, its tough hide stopped the sword from going any deeper.

To the Thorny Giant Beast, a slash like that was just a minor flesh wound, hardly a real injury at all.

’Damn it...’

A vicious glint flashed in Gray’s eyes.

’If I can’t cut through it, I’ll just stab my way in!’

Gray made his decision in an instant. He pulled his Longsword back and, with all his might, plunged it down into the wound!

A Thrust was clearly a more effective way of breaking through its defenses than a slash.

"SQUELCH!"

With that explosive piercing force, the entire blade sank into the joint of the Thorny Giant Beast’s right forelimb!

Gray even gave the hilt a kick for good measure.

He didn’t pull it out. Instead, he left the Longsword in its body, leaped off the Thorny Giant Beast, and began to retreat.

The Longsword was lodged at an awkward angle, like a steel nail hammered securely into the space between its bones.

Any movement the Thorny Giant Beast tried to make with its right forelimb was now restricted by the Longsword.

If it tried to forcibly straighten the limb, the Longsword lodged inside would completely destroy the joint.

"Catch!"

Zelir drew the Longsword from his hip and threw it hard toward Gray.

The Fine Steel Longsword spun a few times in the air before landing solidly in the ground, hilt-up.

Gray pulled it out and retreated to a safe position.

After giving the sword a casual flourish, Gray smiled in satisfaction.

’Good thing Zelir sprang for the good, Five-Gold-Coin version. It handles pretty well.’

The Thorny Giant Beast’s right forelimb was now completely immobilized, fixed at an unchangeable angle. It could only strike with its left forelimb.

Meanwhile, Zelir’s Fractal Fire and Valles’s Thunder Arrow continued to relentlessly bombard the Thorny Giant Beast!

The explosions where lightning and fire met destroyed the Thorny Giant Beast’s Vine Armor, gradually exposing its vulnerable flesh.

Now at a disadvantage, the Thorny Giant Beast descended into absolute madness.

It roared at the sky and forcibly made the flower bud on its head, which had remained closed until now, bloom.

The flower bud burst open!

But this was no beautiful blossom.

The petals, bright red in color, looked like strips of torn flesh as they unfurled.

A scarlet, poisonous mist spewed from deep within the flower’s pistil.

This blood-red rose blooming atop the Thorny Giant Beast’s head had a twisted sense of profane, unnatural beauty.

Forcing the bud to bloom before it had fully matured was clearly taking a heavy toll on the Thorny Giant Beast.

Its thick limbs began to tremble.

Following this, vast plumes of a bizarre, thick mist shot into the sky, coalescing above the Temple Ruins.

It was a layer of blood-red rain clouds.

"Take cover!"

Without a second thought, Zelir immediately cast the Stone Wall Skill!

The ground cracked and the earth churned as several walls of stone and dirt shot up from the ground in scattered locations.

The stone and dirt walls Zelir created were angled slightly inward, providing an overhang for people to shelter beneath.

The rain cloud burst!

The blood-red mist above the Temple Ruins poured down like a torrential storm, raining death onto the ground below.

Everyone scattered to hide beneath the stone walls, not daring to show their heads for even a second.

Thick white smoke billowed from the stone and dirt walls as they were pierced by the blood-red water arrows, their surfaces quickly becoming pockmarked.

The surrounding shrubs withered and melted in an instant if so much as a drop grazed them, turning into black sludge.

Anyone pierced by those blood-red water arrows would likely have their flesh and bone dissolve—an instant death!

The tables had turned in an instant.

The downpour of blood-red arrows allowed the Thorny Giant Beast to regain the initiative. No one dared to stick their head out.

The Thorny Giant Beast’s mangled head suddenly whipped toward Zelir.

Though it had no eyes, Zelir could still feel its savage killing intent.

The Thorny Giant Beast had a weakness, but so did this Adventurer Squad!

In the Thorny Giant Beast’s perception, it was this Mage who had provided the whole team with those hateful gains, and he was the one constantly casting massive Fireballs.

’If I can just kill this Mage...’

’...their whole formation will collapse!’

The rain of blood-red arrows had only just ceased when the Thorny Giant Beast raised its still-intact left claw.

It viciously swiped at Marcus, who was hiding behind one of the stone and dirt walls.

The stone wall shattered!

Marcus and his shield were sent flying, caught in a spray of countless rock fragments.

He was swatted away like a rubber ball, rolling several times across the ground before coming to a stop.

That opening was all the Thorny Giant Beast needed to break through the front line.

Its massive body charged toward Zelir, and no one was left to block its path.

It wasn’t swiping with its claw, but going for a much more lethal bite!

To be bitten by the Thorny Giant Beast was to have no chance of survival.

As it opened its massive maw, a foul wind gusted out. Each of its fangs was as sharp as a sword!

Zelir showed no fear, pointing the tip of his staff at the Thorny Giant Beast.

He activated the Ring of Resistance!

"BOOM!!!"

Driven by his Magic Power, a massive repulsive force erupted outward with Zelir at its center!

An invisible wall of air coalesced in front of Zelir, pushing back against the Thorny Giant Beast’s bite!

It opened its jaws wide, stretching them to the base of its cheeks as its muscles bulged with effort.

But because of the Ring of Resistance, it simply couldn’t bite down!

After a stalemate of several seconds, the Thorny Giant Beast’s strength began to wane. Just then, the repulsive force of the Ring of Resistance flared a second time!

"BANG!"

A wave of force swept out, flinging the Thorny Giant Beast’s head upward and shattering several of its teeth.