Chapter 353 Volume V - Chapter 71: One-Eyed Creature
I still had my spear in my hand, I was frozen in place... I had not expected such an attack. Where had it come from in the first place? How had it managed to be so... silent and escape all my senses?
But I couldn't keep thinking. I put everything I had into turning around quickly... and as I did so, something unexpected happened.
The whole cave turned orange, and I felt my skin, which had no protection, suddenly become tremendously hot.
The first thing I felt was fear. The thought that Lucia and Sue would be engulfed by the flames filled my mind. But then... something else crossed my mind.
These... were Lucia's flames, not the creature's!
I gripped my spear tightly, activated Guardian Radiance as fast as I could, and dived into the flames.
I didn't care about my vision, I didn't care that the Guardian Radiance wasn't fully activated, my senses were dulled by the heat and the flames themselves, but I immersed myself completely in the mana.
When I saw a tiny, minuscule condensation in front of me... I quickly swung my spear toward it.
But as soon as I did so, the owner of the condensed mana stepped back, dodged the spear in a way that I couldn't see exactly how it did it, and leaped into the air as it flew away.
The best option would have been to follow it, not wasting a second, and launch a surprise attack through the flames, but I didn't even attempt it. As soon as I was sure the creature had moved away from us, I pushed on, emerging from the sea of flames that covered quite a large area.
Sue was a few steps back from where she had just been standing, staring at the flames and Lucia with widened eyes. Lucia... with beads of sweat running down her forehead and discolored skin, her right arm raised, was supporting the flames. But then she saw me, stopped the mana she was pouring into the flames, and stepped back, just like Sue.
As the wall of flames slowly dissipated in front of us, she came up to me and raised her sword so that Sue was behind us. She recovered a little late because everything had happened so suddenly, but she looked fine.
So, the flames dissipated completely, and the cave was back to the way it was before. Only this time... it was not as empty as before. About six meters away from us, something humanoid was standing.
It had brown-colored, hairy legs that resembled the hoofed legs of goats. It was naked from the waist up, with skin that looked gray, slender but well-built. Each hand had four fingers with sharp claws on the end, and they looked more dangerous than most weapons I have ever seen. It also had a single shimmering, dark green eye and hair like a lion's mane.
I frowned as I looked at the creature, because... I knew what it was.
It was not a creature I had ever seen before. I hadn't encountered it myself, of course... But it was a creature known to humanity, encountered before in different dungeons, and I had seen a few things about it.
The name... I can't remember it. But it's not supposed to have any magical powers. However, physically, it's more than strong enough. If I remember correctly, their general level ranges from B- to B+.
I narrowed my eyes, focusing all my attention on the creature, and instead of standing next to Lucia, I took a step forward and took her behind me, just in case.
This is... not good. This creature is... dangerous.
*******
The creature continued to stare at us with its only eye, its sharp claws waiting to pounce on us at the slightest movement.
But it did not stay still for long. Only a moment after our eyes met, its image seemed to flicker for a moment, and then... it was gone.
I couldn't help my eyes widening and instinctively swung my spear at a wide angle to our left while pressing my foot firmly into the ground.
A tremendous force suddenly met my spear, and my hands and fingers trembled so much that it started to hurt. But I stood my ground, clenching my teeth as hard as I could, trying not only to block the creature... but also to push it back. With the support of my mana, I quickly transferred all the force I could get from my feet to my hands and then to my spear.
The force on the spear seemed to ease for a moment, then disappeared completely. The creature had retreated again, this time even farther than before... but I had no intention of waiting for it.
"Lucia, protect Sue."
This creature... is B- grade at worst, which means it's much stronger than Sue and Lucia. Can I protect them...? I'm not sure, the longer they stay away from us the better.
But... I also need to finish this fast. The creatures that went out could come back at any moment, we could be dealing with one at a time and end up in a swarm.
So, I narrowed my eyes again, took a deep breath in and out... and focused on my skills in turn.
The first was Guardian Radiance. I hadn't actually turned it off even after activating it in the flames, but I poured even more mana into it. The second one... as much as I didn't want to use it, was Mana Ascension. I was really determined to finish this fast, so I didn't hold back.
As usual, my tremendous perceptual ability returned, each time making me realize how little of the mana around me I could actually perceive. My hair fell over my shoulders as each of my muscles, one by one, filled with awakened mana. I took a deep breath in and out as my body was covered in a golden glow.
The creature, of course, did not stay still. It took me two seconds to activate my ascension skill if I really wanted to be fast. And the creature lunged at me, trying to use as much of those two seconds as it could.
But the Guardian Radiance and my ascension skill were not the only things at my disposal. I had two other things, two things I had no hesitation in using.
I called out to ordea, poured my desires into it. My desire to defeat this creature, my desire to protect my friends hiding just behind me... And I was answered. I smiled as a faint blue was added to the golden glow that covered my body, and finally... I concentrated on the first and second movements of the Qilsak Style.
My spear, meeting not only my own mana but all the mana around me, trembled as if the weight of it had multiplied. In contrast, my body suddenly became as light as it could be.
The silhouette of the creature suddenly appeared before my eyes. Its pupils were on me, its right arm was outstretched as if preparing to pierce my chest. In a few seconds, it would be in front of me.
It was fast, it really was... But not so fast that I couldn't react, at least not with the strength I had now.
I twisted my body to the left as I started twirling my spear in my hand, and the next second... the creature's claw was right where my chest had just been.
I focused on the mana around me, each and every one of them. One by one, I ordered each of them to collapse to the spot where I was, and they did. The creature's movements slowed, as if the air had cooled, as if gravity had momentarily strengthened. Ordea, enveloping my whole body in this moment, added to my strength.
I slowed down my already spinning spear for a moment, holding my breath as I bent the tip in the creature's direction. Then... I let everything go.
Weighed down by the Qilsak Style, the tip of the spear descended toward the creature's shoulder... aiming to slice it in half through the chest.
When I saw the creature's frozen body, its eye unable to follow the spear, I felt a sense of relief. This creature... was not as big a threat as I had thought. Sure, I had used almost everything at my disposal... but I was at least able to finish it off quickly.
The spear finally made contact with the creature, but when it did, it went on its way without any difficulty... as if it were slicing through a piece of paper. Soon after, it met the ground. The whole cave shuddered, the floor simply cracked and a light cloud of dust rose into the air.
Ordea and mana slowly left my body. As my ascension skill deactivated, I realized I was gasping for breath, my fingers holding my spear trembling.
"Huh..."
How long...? I used everything I had for three seconds, four seconds at most. And that alone was enough to push my body this hard?
Was this creature... was it stronger than I thought and I didn't know it?
My eyes then shifted to my spear stuck in the ground, and I squinted as the dust cloud slowly dissipated. Then...
"H- huh...?"
The body of the creature that should have been under the spear... was not there. There were traces of fresh blood over a large area, the spear had certainly inflicted a heavy wound on the creature. But...
"Ah..."
It was reflex, I was just spreading my mana around slightly, just to be sure... but I saw something I didn't want to see. My expression froze. I threw everything aside, including my spear, and quickly turned around.
The creature... was in front of me with its back turned. Its left arm was hanging out of its control and there was a wide gash from its shoulder to the center of its chest, but... it was alive. And that was the important thing.
I wouldn't have cared if it had run somewhere else... But it ran from where we had come, toward the entrance of the cave.
And Lucia and Sue were in that exact spot, looking toward the creature that was coming toward them.
"No!"
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