Sierra’s eyes widened as she saw Stark narrowly avoiding her arrows that were being scattered in all possible directions in the tunnel, hoping for just one of them to hit his shoulders or any part of his body at all.
She clenched her fists and whispered, “Not today, human…”
~FWISH, FWISH~
‘I just need one…’
~FWISH~
‘Just one arrow is enough to end this…’
~FWISH~
‘PLEASE!’
Much like Judicator, Sierra was a ‘Godless Demon’ apostle, but also a boss, meaning that she wasn’t supposed to be scared, instead supposed to be boasting of confidence and power, this was why she showed herself early in the rift to challenge all humans and kill them.
But she had been forced to run away from Stark as deep inside of her mind, his aura at that time was truly overwhelming, and her face still hurts a bit from the punch he had sent.
At that time, even she, for a quick second, thought: ‘what if he wins?’, which was why she didn’t take the risk to continue the fight and instead went back to her boss area.
‘…’ Stark had the blankest of expressions on his face, no trace of anger or any emotions at all as he kept rushing through the tunnel, avoiding all the arrows, and even having the guts to catch some of them to store inside his [Spatial Inventory]
‘FUCK YOU!’ Sierra’s body began to be surrounded by her aura, and it was growing more and more, ‘Let’s see how you like this!”
And then… she snapped her fingers, sending a blue shockwave throughout the entire tunnel.
“…” Stark’s eyes narrowed as the shockwave hit him, but it barely fazed him, he felt no pain and he was still able to move with the same agility.
The reason he hadn’t avoided it was because [Focus] didn’t alert him of any danger, meaning that it wasn’t an attack meant for damage.
He wondered what Sierra was planning now, knowing she was up to something.
After all… she wasn’t shooting any arrows anymore….
And suddenly, just as he thought of that…
~BIIIIIM, FWISH~
Every white crystal scattered throughout the walls of the cave tunnel began to glow with a white aura that almost blinded Stark because of the sheer amount of it.
~FWISH~
“INVINCIBLE DODGE!” Stark heard the sound of an arrow coming, and focus alerted him of danger, but he couldn’t see anything, so he was forced to use invincible dodge to guarantee he wouldn’t be hit.
And it looks like it was the right decision…
‘Huh…? The arrows passed right through him…?’ Sierra was making sure that whatever she saw was right, ‘I didn’t shoot all this time to charge up fifteen arrows but he just avoided them all like this while being blinded…?’
Deep inside, Sierra knew that the human before her was weird.
But this explosion wasn’t everything that the ‘The Crystal Cave’ reserved.
And suddenly… right as the light faded and Stark was able to see…
He noticed that coming out of each crystal was a figure, one he had already seen before.
They were [Victims of Sierra], and there were hundreds of them scattered throughout the walls and ceiling of the tunnel.
Their pitch-black lifeless eyes stared at him, and their black wings were idle.
From all directions now, he had this sense of discomfort he couldn’t really describe.
‘Great… now he’s going to get blocked by them…’ Sierra smiled as she began pointing her bow at Stark again.
The [Victims of Sierra] were all the people Sierra previously infected with her arrows ignoring the 7 classifiers as they became another type of monster, and they were in a constant state of agony, forced to followed everything their ‘queen’ ordered them to do.
This was why the ‘Crystal Archer’ was so confident, their sheer number all over that cave would distract Stark and hopefully she would hit him.
But… something strange happened this time.
When Sierra ordered something, every [Victim of Sierra] was forced to follow it as if they didn’t, they would just suffer more, she wouldn’t give them death, it would be a reward.
All they wanted was for her to die.
‘STOP HIM, MY MINIONS,’ she internally laughed as she ordered them all to make as much movement and noise as possible.
[Victims of Sierra] cannot be killed with attacks, but they also can’t harm, so the best thing they could do was obstruct Stark’s vision.
And yet… they didn’t move.
Instead, they just kept staring at Stark, before all pointing at the end of the tunnel, where Sierra was located.
‘I SAID STOP HIM, YOU FUCKING-‘ the archer shouted again, inflicting pain on all of them.
But they didn’t budge.
The reason such a phenomenon was happening is because even the [Victims of Sierra], with their puppet minds, could see Stark’s aura, and it was the most powerful one they had seen yet.
Him being an enemy of Sierra almost meant that he was their allies.
Their sole goal was for the apostle to die, so that they can also vanish and go rest, which was why they didn’t budge.
They saw potential in Stark, and so they believed in him.
“Go… human…” through the entire tunnel, Stark heard such a whisper, and it sent a chill down his spine.
Sierra, finally realizing the gravity of the situation, knew she had to make her move: the [Victims of Sierra] didn’t budge no matter how much pain she inflicted on them, she had never seen them so determined.
And the worst thing of all… was that the human was still running toward her, his crimson aura burning brighter than before.
Sierra’s eyes narrowed as she tried to understand the situation.
She had never been so utterly ignored by her minions, and it made her uneasy. But she could not afford to be distracted; she had to end this so-called “human” once and for all.
“ARROW BARRAGE!” she only needed one arrow…
‘JUST ONE ARROW DAMN IT!’ and so she kept shooting them like a machine-gun, not even a fraction of a second between each reload.
~FWISH, FWISH~
But Stark would avoid them all, his speed potion massively helping him.
And the [Victims of Sierra] were still looking down at him, pointing their hollow arms toward the boss area.
“You… are… close…” they whispered after two minutes.
And so just like that… the final clash was about to happen as Stark looked up and noticed that he could see the silver fog from his current distance: meaning that the boss area was right in front of him.
‘I GOT YOU, SIERRA!’ he shouted as he increased his pace.
