Chapter 998 998 The Guardian
'Would you like to challenge the guardian of the Tower of Heaven? Yes / No.'
As Marcus read the familiar prompt in front of him, he pressed the yes button that was floating in the air in front of him.
The moment that he did, a terrifyingly powerful presence that had been hidden made itself known.
Marcus' gaze was drawn upwards at the Tower that was now rumbling, and he saw that the large etching that wound around the tower was beginning to bulge.
What had once appeared to be a harmless piece of artwork on the outside of the Tower of Heaven, had soon taken on its true form.
It did not take but a half dozen seconds before the creature that had been sealed away and acted as the special dungeon's guardian had returned to life.
'I think we may be in over our heads' Marcus thought as he stared up at the gargantuan creature that was wrapped around the Tower of Heaven.
With just one look her could feel the immense power of the giant serpent that was coiled around the Tower of Heaven.
Moving his eyes up its body, Marcus could see that it was covered in resplendent scales of many colors.
At the top of its body, the powerful beast did not have one, but seven heads.
Each one was a different type of snake that Marcus recognized as some of the most venomous species on Earth.
Sitting in the middle was a regal golden scaled king cobra that was clearly the leader of the heads due to its placement, size, and majesty.
Beside the center head on the right side was a dark scaled snake that Marcus identified as being close to a black mamba.
To the left side of the main head was a snake with a white and black pattern that closely resembled a sea snake.
The other two snake heads on the left side were those of dessert horned viper with orange scales which was right next to the sea snake, and a coral snake that was at the very end.
On the right side the one sitting next to the black mamba was a boomslang that had green and black scales that formed a checkered pattern.
Finally, the last head at the end of the right side of the gigantic beast was a pure white albino spitting cobra.
Time seemed to slow as Marcus took in the sight of the terrifying and majestic beast that had appeared as the guardian of the Tower of Heaven.
He felt like he would have continued to stare up at the imposing creature for several minutes if not for the fact that his danger senses skill was suddenly blaring in his head.
Before he could even register what sort of attack was coming his way, Marcus activated his Light Speed Movement unique skill and turned into particles of light.
An instant later, a thunderous sound resounded through the area as the tail of the guardian smashed into the ground where Marcus had been standing just a moment before.
When he reformed right next to Mrazivy , Marcus could feel the ground beneath him shaking and saw the giant dust cloud that had been kicked up by the giant snake's opening attack.
'That defiantly would have hurt.' Marcus thought as he looked at the scar left in the ground by the guardian's tail strike.
It had been one of the most basic attacks that the enormous beast could use, yet it still packed the same power of a serious attack from the top members of the expedition squad.
"So, what are we dealing with?" Marcus asked.
He could see that Mrazivy's eyes had turned golden, and her pupils had turned into vertical slits. The telltale signs that she was using her Dragon Eyes race ability to appraise the guardian of the Tower of Heaven.
This reading took far longer than normal, as Mrazivy had to go over far more skills and abilities than most creatures possessed.
Luckily, the Tower's guardian did not seem intent on attacking them from their position around a kilometer away. Its job was simply to guard the tower and act as a challenge, it had no need to pursue those that would flee from it.
"Well, I can tell you that beating that thing is not going to be easy. It's a mythic grade beast at level eighty-seven called The Celestial Seven-Headed Serpent. It does not possess many skills, but I have never seen a creature with so many race abilities. Each one of its heads has several unique powers that make it a nightmare to deal with. Especially the central head, I'm not even sure if we could put a scratch on it before were all defeated." Mrazivy said, giving her assessment of the enormous beast.
She then went into more details about the specific powers that each head possessed. Causing everyone who was listening to frown.
As she went down the list, it became more and more clear that this mythic grade beast was not something that could be taken lightly. Even if they worked together their chances of winning would not be high, and casualties would be nearly impossible to prevent.
Still, while most were thinking of retreating and coming back better prepared next time, one person was unwilling to turn tail and run before at least seeing what The Celestial Seven-Headed Serpent was capable of.
"Descriptions of abilities and stat numbers only go so far to tell you how strong something is. We won't know until we have fought it whether we can win or not." Cassius said, looking stoically towards the Tower's guardian.
However, several members of the expedition squad could not help but look at him with their mouths agape. This was brazenness on another level that they had not expected from even Cassius. When he first met Marcus, he had ridiculed Marcus for being a lower level and solely judged him by a number.
Once he had seen what Marcus was capable of, Cassius had changed his tune, but no one believed that he was completely reformed and had changed his way of thinking. It was obvious that he just wanted to beat The Celestial Seven-head Serpent in order to secure himself a spot in the special dungeon.
After making his declaration, Cassius did not wait for a response and led his party to battle.
This left the other leaders of the expedition squad with a hard choice. Would they join Cassius, or leave him and his party to get crushed by the Tower of Heaven's guardian?
Letting out a long sigh, Evette passed down her verdict.
"Everyone prepare to fight. But if things take a turn for the worse, we are retreating even if we must drag Cassius and his party members away screaming and kicking. We're not going to lose anyone here after coming this far."
Now that the decision had been made, the members of Evette's part and Mrazivy's party fanned out and took up their preassigned position.
From nearly two kilometers away, Fianna gave her response over telepathy and the members of her party raised their weapons and prepared to provide ranged support. They would not fight on the front lines, but they had already resolved to do what they could from afar.
Thus, the battle against The Celestial Seven-Headed Serpent the expedition squad sent by the adventurers guild began.
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