Chapter 187: Showing Off A Little
The elf girl was next to deal with the Anomalies and she also handled them pretty easily.
I thought she would need to keep scattering seeds or something to deal with the Anomalies but apparently she could let the plants grow on her and just extend the plants out from her body if she needed to.
I have a feeling she had various plants growing on her body underneath that cloak of hers.
Maybe that’s part of the reason why she’s wearing that cloak since she doesn’t want others to see the plants she had around her body?
That was the thought going through my mind as I watched her shoot out two vines from her arms to use them as whips to lash at an Anomaly.
The vines coiled around the Anomaly and pulled it towards the wall to smash into it, throwing pieces of stone and dirt everywhere.
The Anomaly let out a soft wail before the vines tightened around it and crushed the Anomaly to death.
Honestly, it was a rather brutal sight.
Olivia nodded, "That’s enough. We can move on to the group fights now."
Dan raised an eyebrow, "Didn’t we already do this earlier?"
"That was not enough. I want to see you all working and coordinating together more."
Once again, I noticed Olivia directing her gaze towards the pale skinned woman who intentionally ignored her.
I went over to the others to join with them, forming up our group to prepare for our group combat as Olivia had instructed.
Already I was thinking about group strategy with how our party was formed, since I now had a better understanding of each of their abilities after seeing the pale woman and the elf fight.
I turned to them, "I suppose we should first introduce ourselves to better coordinate ourselves. You can call me Qing."
The other two remained silent and Dan was quick to back me up, "And I’m Dan. Nice to meet all of you! Before any of you fall for me, I have to inform you that I am happily married with two kids so don’t fall for me!"
A giggle came from the elf while the pale woman showed no reaction.
The elf peeked at me for a moment before she gestured to herself, "You... Umm... You can call me Liliac."
Seeing that she was the only one who had not introduced themselves, the pale woman finally let out a sigh.
"Valletta Incotassia," She answered bluntly.
I nodded at them, "Let’s go then. Dan and I will take the front, we’ll leave the rear to the both of you."
Valletta snapped at me, "Why should we listen to you? You’re the weakest one here."
I shrugged, "It’s fine if you think that way but we’re supposed to be working together here. At least work with me for now."
She scoffed again but said nothing more.
Olivia nodded at me and gestured towards another tunnel, prompting me to take the lead and guide my group through it.
Dan followed me just a step to my side while the other two followed behind me with Olivia several steps behind them.
The tunnel led to a cavern that was infested with Anomalies.
There were several of them inside the cavern and all of them turned to face us.
"Dan!! I’m leaving defense to you! Liliac! Please disrupt them with your plants! Break them up to stop them from charging at us all at once! Valletta! Thin out their numbers with your projectiles!"
Either because we were facing real enemies this time, Valletta did not argue and did as I asked.
Dan rushed ahead of me and slammed his shield on the ground, making himself a prime target for all the Anomalies to concentrate on.
There were a few quadrupedal ones that tried to rush past Dan towards the back line, their speed making it hard for Valletta and Liliac to stop completely so I jumped in and grabbed the first one to use as a club to smash the others into the ground, leaving none of them alive.
The normal sized ones reached Dan and he focused on defending himself as he braced behind the shield, standing his ground even as the horde converged upon him.
He wasn’t able to fight back without getting hit himself and the two behind me were not able to target the Anomalies without hitting Dan as well.
That’s where I came in as I jumped over Dan to smash my heel down on the Anomalies below, the shockwave from my heel sending the rest flying.
I wasn’t worried about Dan since he was already bracing himself so he barely moved at all from the shockwave.
With the Anomalies now blasted away from Dan, the two backliners managed to finish them off, effectively wiping out all the Anomalies.
Before we could even relax, however, a loud stomping sound came from one of the tunnels and all of us turned to see a crystal Anomaly the size of a three storey building emerging from within.
It straightened itself into its full height and bared down on us, the place where its head was turning as though to regard us with disdain.
Valletta reacted immediately by shooting all of her metal balls at the Anomaly, only for them to bounce off its surface and leaving only the barest of scratches.
Liliac also tried to restrain it with her plants as she threw seeds in its area, prompting large, thick vines to spring out from the ground to wrap around the creature.
It did not even manage to fully wrap around it before the creature moved and all the vines snapped off like they were made of cardboard.
Dan turned to me with a look of worry on his face.
Don’t worry bro, I’m not going to ask you to do the impossible and try and tank that thing.
I rolled up my sleeves and gave him a nod, "I’m going to fight a little seriously... Protect those three in case anything comes flying over..."
He grinned, "Leave your back to me bro. I’ll make sure to run away as soon as possible."
I smirked and jumped at the crystal Anomaly right as it lifted its fist to try and punch down towards us.
I pulled back my fist as well and I wasn’t sure how strong this one was so I didn’t hold back, opting to use my full strength as I threw my fist forward.
Our fists connected and I barely even felt any resistance as my fist completely obliterated the crystal arm, smashing through it until the entire arm was sent flying away and the Anomaly was now missing its entire right arm.
The arm that I sent flying crashed into the wall and exploded into fragments of diamond dust and leaving a large imprint on the wall as well.
The Anomaly stumbled back from the force of its arm being sent flying away and took a few steps before it managed to regain its footing.
I wasn’t going to let it recover, of course, as I jumped right back up towards it again, kicking my foot towards the Anomaly’s chest.
It managed to lift its other arm to block me, however, and caught my foot with its upper arm.
My kick completely shattered its arm and the force of the impact continued to its chest, caving it in and blowing the Anomaly back towards the tunnel where it crashed against the side to cause a part of the cavern to loosen and several rocks fell on top of it.
If the Anomaly had both its arms, the rocks would not have affected it. But with one arm mangled and the other completely gone, its centre of mass was shifted and the Anomaly ended up falling onto the ground with a loud crash.
I stood in front of the Anomaly in my stance, pulling my fist back and focusing my strength for a moment before punching down at where its head was.
There was an earth shattering boom as its head exploded into crystal fragments and the upper part of its torso also disintegrated into small crystals before the rest of the body also blew apart from the force of my punch.
Hmmm... Even though I said I was going to be a little serious... The first punch already told me that I did not need to use my full strength so I was already limiting myself to around half my strength here and I see it was still too much for this Anomaly to handle.
And to think that not too long ago... I was basically going toe to toe with this type of Anomaly. I definitely have grown stronger.
I turned back to check if everyone else was ok and what I did not expect was Valletta suddenly appearing in front of me with what could only be a hungry look on her face.
"Yes!! That’s it!! Finally!!! That’s your real strength!! Ahh!! It’s so beautiful!! Way more beautiful than when you held back!! Ahhh!! Do it again!!"
What the heck?
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