SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will - Chapter 182: A small price to pay

Chapter 182: A small price to pay

It was an absolutely gruesome sight that made even Moon’s hardened expression falter briefly, his stomach churning with instinctive disgust at the carnage he’d created. He certainly didn’t enjoy viewing such horrific results, and the brutality troubled him on some level.

But it absolutely had to be done. This represented the most efficient method of dealing with so many enemies, eliminating them at once.

In a world filled with violence, hatred, and existential competition for survival, showing mercy to enemies was treason to oneself. If you refused to destroy your enemies, they would inevitably destroy you instead when circumstances reversed.

The Black Raven screeched with fury, clearly understanding that most of the people he’d been entrusted to protect for so long had died, a horrible death.

Moon turned his cold gaze toward the flying guardian beast.

“Don’t be so upset about their deaths,” Moon said quietly. “It’s your turn next. You’ll join them very soon.”

SCREECH! ROOOAR!

The Black Raven was absolutely furious at the sheer audacity displayed by the tiny creature standing defiantly before it. While the guardian beast couldn’t understand the specific words emerging from Moon’s mouth, it certainly comprehended the raw hostility, contempt, and complete indifference oozing from his body and tone.

Moon no longer held anything back. Initially, he’d been deliberately saving his lightning element as his primary trump card—planning to take the Black Raven by surprise once it finally grew brave enough to close distance for close to mid-range engagement.

But the intelligent creature stubbornly refused to leave its comfortable long-range position, never falling for any bait or provocation that Moon presented to lure it closer.

This stalemate had left Moon with no viable alternative except exposing his trump card prematurely at the cost of killing as many ground forces as possible in a single coordinated dual-strike. He’d successfully accomplished that objective—eliminating nearly the entire Heretic military force in one coordinated attack, approximately fifty warriors dead as the end product.

Only a scattered handful of completely shattered, traumatized survivors remained. They were warriors too psychologically shocked and physically stunned to represent any meaningful threat to himself.

SCREEEEEECH!

The Black Raven screeched once again with fury, sending powerful sonic attacks toward Moon at higher frequencies. The massive bird was clearly no longer holding back its full power either, committing maximum mana expenditure to destroy Moon.

The few stunned Heretic survivors positioned relatively close to the Black Raven’s flight path all collapsed immediately from the spillover sonic attacks. They’d already been in extremely weakened mental states and the powerful sound attacks represented the final breaking point that sent them crumpling unconscious to the blood-soaked ground.

The primary target of the relentless assault—Moon himself—wasn’t in significantly better condition. Fresh blood kept trickling steadily down from his damaged ears, flowing down his neck and staining his collar crimson. The attacks were immensely, devastatingly powerful, targeting a vulnerability that Moon didn’t possess adequate defense against.

Had these been elemental attacks employing any of the five basic elements that had thoroughly tempered his body through Advanced Elemental Body, the combat result would have been different. Moon’s doubled elemental resistance would have mitigated good chunks of incoming damage.

But sound wasn’t one of those elements. It represented a mid-tier element that Moon had never been exposed to, ever. A mid-tier element that specifically countered his fighting style.

The sonic attacks were being deployed effectively from long range, directly challenging Moon’s specialty in mid-range combat dominance. This mismatch made Moon curse internally with frustration, suddenly recognizing a horrible weakness in his overall combat capabilities.

’When this is finally over, I will absolutely make sure to copy and learn a proper long-range specialized class,’ Moon resolved grimly while enduring another devastating screech. ’I need to acquire powerful long-range attack skills specifically for scenarios exactly like this one.’

Despite the accumulating damage and agonizing pain, Moon kept stubbornly moving forward toward the flying beast, desperately chugging healing potions he’d stored in his spatial ring to temporarily lessen the debilitating effects on his deteriorating body.

Yet the more distance Moon closed toward the guardian beast, the more the Black Raven simply flew backward to maintain optimal distance, constantly releasing devastating sonic attacks without pause or mercy.

Moon’s legs began trembling violently as he pushed forward through sheer willpower, raw perseverance representing the only quality he could legitimately be commended for—since absolutely none of his offensive attacks were successfully reaching the evasive flying target.

Lightning techniques wouldn’t connect with the beast due to its extreme distance and constant evasive movement, let alone his slower elemental skills.

A terrible, crushing headache suddenly began emerging and intensifying rapidly. The pain was so unexpectedly powerful that it surprised Moon despite his high pain tolerance.

This wasn’t normal physical discomfort. Moon began recognizing with cold dread that if he didn’t find some method to deal with this beast very soon, he was going to die from accumulated catastrophic damage to his brain and body.

His senses began wakening as his entire nervous system became progressively overloaded through excessive inputs. His neurons were effectively being fried by information overload as the sonic attacks continued their relentless assault.

Realizing with terrible clarity that he was doomed if he maintained this failing strategy, Moon was forced to desperately search for alternative approaches.

He stopped his futile advance toward the constantly repositioning beast. His eyes frantically searched the battlefield surroundings for anything, any environmental feature or opportunity that could potentially change his dire predicament.

Selene and Mirage were still not visible anywhere within the his line of sight. They hadn’t returned yet.

Moon’s gaze finally landed on a specific location within the settlement, and an absolutely horrible, morally repugnant thought emerged unbidden in his mind.

He refused to die to this beast regardless of consequences, because after the first death came the second, then the inevitable third. The death penalty debuffs would stack and compound until he became completely helpless.

His own life was certainly more precious and important than other lives. Moon found himself forced by dire circumstances to contemplate something his normal morality absolutely didn’t agree with.

Using the remaining non-combatant Heretics still sheltering inside the settlement as bait to force the Black Raven into taking his attack in order to save them.

Moon had observed carefully throughout the extended battle that the Black Raven deeply cared about protecting the Heretic population under its guardianship even if it hurt them a little because of its attacks. That emotional response explained why the beast had deliberately limited the raw power output of its sonic attacks for so long despite possessing greater ones—it was trying to avoid excessive collateral damage to its own people.

That protective instinct represented an exploitable weakness that Moon was going to take advantage of.

Moon stored his combat staff temporarily in his storage ring, then slowly lifted both hands until his palms hovered directly above his ears.

BAM!

He violently smacked both palms against his ears simultaneously, completely rupturing both eardrums internally in an act of self-mutilation. His eardrums were already weakened from the constant attacks, which made it easier to rupture.

At this point, Moon was certain that the beast knew exactly how to avoid rupturing his ears with its attacks to inflict the most damage possible to him.