I Built a Divine Zoo in Another World

Chapter 134: Against the Rat King (2)

This time, it did not attack with that enormous mouth. The cavity in its chest slowly began to close, the eyes retreating back into the darkness. The creature seemed to be recharging, preparing a different attack.

Its entire body began releasing black smoke. The mist emerged from every pore, every gap between its plates, every eye that closed. The smoke was thick and oily, with a faint glow that seemed to consume the light around it.

Corrupted mana spread through the forest like a poisonous fog. The mist advanced slowly, yet relentlessly, enveloping everything in its path. Wherever it passed...

The leaves rotted. Their vibrant green turned brown, then black, before crumbling into dust. The grass darkened, withered, and died within seconds. Insects dropped dead, their tiny bodies twitching briefly before becoming completely still.

Lukas felt a chill run down his spine. Even from that distance, it was obvious that the mist was deadly. It was not merely poisonous, it was an active attack, a weapon that corrupted everything it touched.

But...

Clavor and Hark did not slow down.

Golden mana erupted around the Count, an aura so brilliant that it resembled a sun rising in the darkness. The light spread outward in concentric waves, forcing the mist away from his body.

Silver mana enveloped Clavor, a colder, sharper radiance that acted like an invisible blade against the corrupted energy. The silver light danced around his sword, creating a protective field that the mist could not penetrate.

The two auras expelled the poisonous energy before it could even touch their bodies. The smoke simply dissolved around them, like water meeting a rock in the middle of a river.

"Keep going!"

Hark shouted, his voice echoing through the mist.

"This fog can’t get through our mana!"

The King seemed to realize that. The creature watched the two warriors advance through the mist as though nothing were happening, and something in its posture changed. The smoke began to dissipate, retreating back toward the monster’s body.

The enormous mouth remained closed. Corrupted mana still circulated within it, pulsing with a black light visible even through the flesh. But it did not fire again.

It seemed incapable of immediately repeating that devastating attack.

Then...

All of its countless tails moved.

Hundreds of them lashed out at once. The movement was so sudden that the air itself seemed to crack from the force of their acceleration. The tails resembled a forest of gigantic serpents, each moving with a will of its own.

The first were as thin as whips, so fast they could barely be seen. They sliced through the air with a sharp whistling sound.

Others were as thick as ancient tree trunks, carrying enough force to crush a man into the ground. Every impact carved craters into the earth, sending clouds of dust and debris into the air.

Some were covered in spikes. Rows of bony protrusions ran along their entire length, ready to tear through flesh and armor.

Others ended in enormous stingers, each the size of a sword, dripping a venom so corrosive that it melted the ground wherever it fell.

Several were completely violet, the color of the most potent poison Lukas had ever seen, burning through grass and stone with a hissing sound.

The entire forest vanished behind that wall of tails. There was no room to retreat. There was no room to dodge. The only options were to advance or die.

"Come!"

Hark roared.

His spear traced a massive arc, slicing through the air with a piercing whistle. The strike was so powerful that two dozen tails exploded into pieces, their fragments flying in every direction like shrapnel.

Clavor cut through another wave of attacks. His sword became a silver blur, moving so quickly that its blade seemed to exist in several places at once. One. Five. Ten. Twenty. Tails flew in every direction, each strike severing another piece of the monster’s arsenal.

But others immediately took their place. The Rat King felt neither pain nor fatigue. Every severed tail was replaced by two more, every advance made by the warriors was met by another wall of flesh and bone.

The thickest tails crushed entire trees. Trunks that had taken decades to grow were snapped in half like twigs, splinters scattering through the air.

The smaller ones searched for blind spots, seeking gaps in armor and weaknesses in their defense. They moved with surgical precision, as though each possessed its own intelligence.

The venomous ones lashed through the air without pause, their violet tips leaving trails of poison behind. The liquid splattered onto the ground, forming puddles that steamed and corroded the earth.

For several seconds...

The two warriors seemed to be fighting a living forest. Every step required dozens of strikes. Every advance cost dozens of severed tails. Their progress was slow, painful, and hard-earned.

Even so... They continued advancing.

As he cut through another barrage of attacks, Clavor began channeling mana into his sword. A silver light spread across the entire blade, growing brighter with every strike he delivered. The energy gathered at the tip of the sword, ready to be unleashed.

Beside him...

Hark’s spear shone more brilliantly with every passing second. Golden mana coiled around the shaft like a serpent of light, spiraling upward toward the weapon’s tip. The glow became so intense that it was difficult to look at directly.

The two of them were preparing something.

Lukas realized it immediately. Through his Eagle Vision, he could see mana gathering within the weapons of both warriors, concentrating at specific points, preparing to be released in a single devastating strike.

’That will be the decisive blow...’

Behind them...

The soldiers finally reached the front line. They were not close enough to engage the monster in melee combat, but they were close enough to support their commanders.

The mage remained protected at the center of the formation, his eyes closed in deep concentration. His spell continued to grow, the sphere of ice and wind expanding with every passing second.

Now, a gigantic sphere composed of wind and countless ice spears revolved above him. The sound was deafening, the roar of the wind, the cracking of the ice, the vibration of mana. The air itself roared, and the trees swayed violently beneath the force of the storm taking shape.