Chapter 641 Victory
The Crombo's rage was palpable, its entire body thrashing and twisting as it attempted to dislodge Erik from its back.
However, he held on, his muscles straining, his focus sharp. He could feel the creature's raw power, its desperation to free itself from this unexpected and relentless adversary.
It was a furious dance, the Crombo's wild movements countered by Erik's agility and strength.
With a sudden surge of energy, the Crombo lunged forward, its enormous, scale-covered body propelling towards a towering tree. Its intent was clear - to crush Erik against the tree's massive trunk, ending the threat he posed.
Erik's survival instincts kicked into high gear. With a swift, agile leap, he disengaged from the beast's back, his body arcing through the air to land nimbly on a branch of an adjacent tree. His heart pounded in his chest as he watched the imminent impact.
The impact of the Crombo crashing into the tree was devastating. A deafening crash echoed through the forest, a testament to the creature's raw power.
Such was the intensity of the assault that the tree groaned audibly and its bark splintered.
Once a towering giant in the forest, the tree couldn't withstand the brutal assault of the Crombo.
It buckled under the force, its trunk giving an almost human-sounding groan of surrender.
The bark, once a protective layer, splintered into countless fragments, each one sharp and lethal as it was propelled outward.
These fragments, akin to deadly shrapnel, whizzed through the air with an alarming speed, their trajectory unpredictable.
They left behind a trail of destruction, gouging out chunks from other trees, and embedding themselves into the soft forest floor.
The snapping sound of the tree echoed throughout the forest.
A cloud of dust and leaves was kicked up by the force, swirling into a gritty maelstrom that filled the air, obscuring vision and adding to the chaos of the moment.
Erik found himself perched on the branch, hidden within the leafy canopy, shielded from the pandemonium unfolding below.
The surrounding air was thick with dust and the scent of fresh wood. He could hear the beast's roars reverberating through the forest, each furious bellow shaking the leaves around him and sending a shiver down his spine.
The Crombo's frustration was palpable, each roar laced with a primal rage that echoed in the eerie silence that followed.
"Clever move," Erik said to himself, his voice audible over the cacophony of the forest.
His fingers gripped the rough bark of the branch beneath him, feeling the life of the tree pulsing under his touch.
"But you'll have to do better than that," he said, a determined glint in his eyes as he prepared for the next onslaught.
The dust settled, but the Crombo's location was still hidden. Erik's heart pounded in anticipation, his senses heightened, ready for the beast's next move.
He knew the Crombo was far from defeated. It was a creature of power and cunning, and the battle was far from over.
Five tense seconds passed before the Crombo charged again, aiming for the tree where Erik was standing.
Its massive body collided with the trunk, a force that sent the tree crashing to the ground.
Erik was already in motion, leaping high to avoid the falling timber, his eyes fixed on the Crombo's form.
"Persistent, aren't you?" Erik taunted, his voice laced with a biting contempt that echoed through the forest.
With fluid grace, he descended from his leafy perch, his body cutting through the air like a falcon diving for its prey.
He landed on the creature's back. The impact was partially absorbed by the thick scales beneath him.
With swift agility born of countless battles, he traversed the expanse of the creature's back, his boots finding purchase in the rough texture of its scales. His destination was clear - the creature's head.
Upon reaching it, Erik launched into a barrage of punches. His fists flew with a blinding speed, each one landing with a resounding thud against the hard scales while the beast tried to get him off.
His knuckles ached with the impact, but he ignored the pain, focusing on his target. Every punch was a challenge, a defiance against the beast's reign of terror.
Each blow landed with a satisfying thud, the power of Erik's strikes clear in how the Crombo's head reeled with each hit. The creature's roars were a constant soundtrack to their battle, a symphony of rage and pain that only fueled Erik's determination.
He could feel the Crombo weakening, its movements becoming less coordinated as it took too many hits to the head, its roars less forceful.
"This fight is mine," Erik said.
The Crombo's desperation grew, its movements wilder, its attacks more frenzied.
With each passing moment, the battle reached new heights of intensity, amplifying the dance between predator and prey.
Faced with desperation, the Crombo resorted to channeling mana through its neural links, unleashing its trademark hardening slime.
As the beast released the viscous substance from its body, a strange hissing sound filled the air, and this substance rapidly solidified upon contact, encasing everything in its path.
Erik's reflexes were honed to perfection, and he leaped away just in time to avoid the substance, his eyes widening at the surreal spectacle unfolding before him.
Trees, rocks, and the ground itself became encased in a strange, cement-like substance, frozen in time by the Crombo's unique power.
"Tricky move," Erik said, his gaze never leaving the creature as he darted from tree to tree, his movements a blur.
The Crombo was struggling now, its breathing labored, its movements sluggish. But it kept Erik in its peripheral vision, its reptilian eyes filled with a mixture of fear and defiance.
Then, something changed. A shift in the beast's demeanor, a sudden realization that the fight was lost. It turned to flee, a desperate attempt to escape its likely killer. But Erik was having none of it.
"Not so fast," he called out, his voice filled with determination as he raced after the Crombo.
The beast had already covered an impressive 200 meters, its massive body moving with surprising speed but hindered by the lack of space nearby.
But Erik was faster, his mana-fueled speed allowing him to close the gap with ease.
He reached the Crombo's back, his body a coiled spring as he leaped into the air.
The world seemed to slow down as he rose higher and higher, his leg raised, his body poised to strike.
He looked down at the fleeing Crombo, its scales glistening in the dappled sunlight. Its eyes were wide with terror.
"This is the end," Erik said, his voice filled with a grim finality as he descended like a god of death.
The power in his leg was immense, the force of his strike a testament to his strength and skill.
He brought his leg down on the Crombo's head and channeled mana, increasing the output of his soon-to-be-made attack with force-mana.
With a sickening crunch, the sound echoing through the forest like a death knell, his leg met Erik's target.
The Crombo's body buckled under the impact, its legs giving way as it crashed to the ground. Blood oozed from its ears and eyes, its body writhing in its death throes.
Erik landed on the ground, his eyes fixed on the dying beast, a mixture of respect and satisfaction in his gaze.
"I think I was too worried about this," he said, his voice soft as he looked down at the Crombo. "Rest in peace, bro."
Erik watched, his breaths ragged and heavy, as the spark of life began to flicker and dim in the beast's reptilian eyes.
The once vibrant orbs dulled, the fierce predator's spirit fading into a vacant stare. Its colossal body, once brimming with raw power and lethal agility, grew still beneath him, each breath growing shallower until they ceased altogether.
The once-mighty predator, the terror of the forest, was reduced to nothing more than a lifeless husk. Its scales, once a formidable armor, now lay lifeless under the canopy of the forest.
Monstrous roars, which had once echoed through the trees, were now replaced by an eerie silence that seemed to hold the entire forest in its grip.
The fight was done, and the hunt, a deadly dance of predator and prey, had reached its inevitable conclusion.
Erik stood victorious, the adrenaline of the fight ebbing away, replaced by a profound sense of triumph.
[CROMBO KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]
[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]
[3...2...1...0]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 812 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]
Erik took a moment to survey the battlefield, his eyes taking in the destruction wrought by their battle.
The surrounding landscape was a grotesque tapestry, marred by the Crombo's slime-cemented traps.
The ground was littered with hardened patches of the beast's unique weapon, each one a chilling reminder of the predator's power.
They glistened under the dappled sunlight, their unnatural sheen a stark contrast to the natural beauty of the forest.
The trees bore scars of the battle, their bark gouged and splintered, some even bent under the weight of the hardened slime.
The air held a lingering scent of the beast and its peculiar slime, a pungent aroma that spoke of danger and the raw, untamed power of nature.
Everywhere he looked, Erik saw the aftermath of the Crombo's reign, each detail a stark reminder of the unpredictable and often brutal reality of the wild.
Now Erik only had to call Thorne and tell him to come pick up the corpse. After that, he had to bring it to the guild and then give them the body.
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