Chapter 852 Pissed-Off Dragon
The timer on the event was ticking down fast, and Astaroth was now sure this transfer rate wasn't enough. He would either die before the fruit ripened or, by some miracle, survive and still fail the quest.
But there was nothing more he could think of.
What little brain capacity he had left that wasn't dedicated to concentrating on the Aether flow, he dedicated to healing himself when his skill came off cooldown.
And it was already a lucky break that changing into Geminae gave him one at all, inside New Eden. He was pretty sure that his healing capacity outside New Eden was just brute-forcing the target's usual regenerative capacity through Aether.
There was only a slim chance this would translate to a healing spell in New Eden, and it had after his second notification had rung.
Astaroth focused on the fruit, hoping for a Hail Mary, but only a minute remained, and he wasn't anywhere close to his target.
*Fruit Ripeness: 498,324/500,000*
*Fruit Ripeness: 498,334/500,000*
*Fruit Ripeness: 498,344/500,000*
*Fruit expires in 00:57*
'Shit! Fuck! Shit!' Astaroth cursed in his mind.
***
On the surface, Leon had already taken out two of the seven zone bosses that had shown up, and the last five were in awful shape. But he wasn't without wounds.
He quickly found out during this fight that the zone bosses, individually, weren't much of a threat. But they were smart enough to realize this and were working together.
They had come to a tacit understanding that, with this enemy present, none of them could take the fruit and evolve. With this established, they had agreed non-verbally to work together to take him down and fight for the fruit later, when the coast was clear.
This had led to many situations where Leon was outnumbered and couldn't defend from all attacks. And, although his body was highly resilient, he wasn't invulnerable.
Both sides were now locked in a stare-down. The first one to move might lose this battle, and neither side wanted to die.
"Come on, you dumb beasts! Come at me, already! You think you got what it takes to kill me, huh?! Come on!" Leon shouted at them.
But not a single enemy twitched at the taunting.
They all circled him in hopes of finding an opening. But Leon had experienced multiple-foe fighting before and more often than he cared to count. He was on high alert, and his head was on a swivel.
Nothing got past his heightened senses.
Not the twitch of an eye or the jumping of a muscle.
And his body reacted automatically, making any enemy about to attack reconsider and stand down. But this stalemate wasn't advantageous for either side, either.
The monster horde pushing into the tunnels was getting out of hand.
If Leon didn't get into that cave, there was no telling how long Selena would last. He had no idea there was already someone that was helping her.
Genie was blocking as many enemies as she could, but her stamina was quickly running out, and her root and stone armour was in shambles. The situation was dire for her, just as much as for Leon.
A group of Elite monsters had her surrounded, ready to pounce on her at a moment's notice, similar to Leon's current problem.
'If something doesn't change quickly, this becomes our grave,' Leon thought.
But a sudden subsonic pulse echoed through the forest, stunning almost every creature around and making them dizzy.
Even the zone bosses were affected, if only slightly. But Leon would never waste such an opening.
Before the enemies could react, Leon had already barrelled forward, and two of them had their throats slashed.
There was no more stalemate to hold, so the others dived in, but Leon had a grin on his face.
A mana wave washed out of the cave, followed by a blast of green liquid and a roar.
"This show is finally getting back on track, hahaha!" Leon shouted, laughing maniacally.
***
Inside the tunnels, about three-quarters of the way up the slope, moments before the blast of green, Selena was fighting with renewed vigour. Her impromptu ally had promised her a way to take away the load from their shoulders.
If she could hold them off for ten seconds, she would wipe the tunnel clear of all enemies in their path and make them a path toward the cave entrance.
She had been unsure, at first, until she saw black scales suddenly form on the woman's neck and face.
"Don't make me repeat myself," Shegror had threatened, her green eyes turning reptilian.
Selena wasn't about to piss off a dragon, as even she knew that it was suicide, and she complied.
Fighting with all her might, she held back the onslaught of enemies on her own for the longest ten seconds of her life. And when the ten seconds were over, she heard from over her shoulder, "Get behind me! Now!"
She didn't need to be told twice, as she jumped on the wall to her left, kicked off of it, and bounced behind the woman. Her throat was glowing green, and her eyes shone with power.
Opening her mouth, a gout of green liquid erupted from it, filling the entire tunnel from floor to ceiling and washing forward and up, until it exploded outward into the forest. The visceral roar of a pissed-off dragon followed it, shaking the monsters to their core.
This, combined with the sudden psychic attacks of a large black bat, released the pressure on Genie outside, who finally could fight back on her assailants.
The tunnel was washed away of every enemy it had been filled with, only sizzling corpses melting away remaining. The sight alone was nauseating, but the smell?
Selena and her acute sense of smell almost hurled on the spot.
Shegror wasn't done, though.
She bolted out of the cave, jumping into the sky with a mighty leap, where she transformed into her true form, casting a shadow on all the monsters present.
She roared a second time, for good measure, sending a message to all the monsters beneath her.
This was now her turf.
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