“AGH!!” Arthur as he was blasted a dozen meters back, landing on the ground. The impact was very strong, but he didn’t wait a moment to regain his composure as he immediately rolled mid-air and landed on his feet before he dashed to the side, barely avoiding the fire blast that almost hit him.
Meanwhile, Isla tried to close the distance between her and Lykean from behind. Slashing horizontally at his blind spot, she aimed for a lethal attack, only for the monster to suddenly lift his hand and grab her sword, freezing it in a moment.
Isla clenched her teeth as she sent a flying kick to the monster’s side. At the same time, Emmy launched several projectiles toward the monster.
The monster didn’t even bother to look as he lifted his hand and blasted several fireballs, easily hitting every projectile before it could reach him.
“You bastard! AAGH!!” Herculia charged toward Lykean with a loud roar. His body was fortified with a layer of defense he cast upon himself.
*BANG*
Smashing into his target, he surprisingly was able to pick it up as he moved with it toward the edge.
“You’re going for a trip to hell!!” He grinned wildly as he ran even faster. However, what he didn’t realize upon grabbing the monster was that it suddenly lifted its hand up and then punched him in the stomach hard.
Herculia’s eyes widened as all the breath was knocked out of his lungs. A massive chunk of ice covered his entire body in a moment before he blasted back.
“Herculia!!” Danny saw that and his face grew darker as he continued rushing toward the enemy before suddenly vanishing, appearing behind the monster. Activating his skill, he slashed the target over 20 times in a split second. However, the moment he appeared again, he was on the ground.
His sword was frozen and so was his right arm.
‘This is bad… Really bad…’ Arthur clenched his teeth in frustration. The battle had been going on for over 5 minutes now and he could only describe it with one single word… ‘Devastating’.
The monster had singlehandedly beaten all of them with ease. It didn’t even seem like it was trying at that point. Using its fire, it was able to either freeze them or blast them back, dealing heavy damage.
Even Arthur struggled to fight it for long. His body was thrown again and again. Looking all around him, Arthur saw sheets of ice riddling the entire battlefield. Massive chunks of the deck were blown out.
Arthur didn’t even know how Adula hadn’t fallen yet from all the severe damage dealt to it. However, he didn’t want to question it anymore.
‘This can’t go for long… We have somehow cut 30% of its health. But, that is nowhere near enough.’ Wiping his face, he stared at the monster fighting the others with his sharp eyes. ‘By far, the biggest threat is that blue fire. It’s the reason we can’t get close from the monster and it’s also dealing a lot of damage. If I want to deal a heavy blow to it, I need to somehow get rid of that fire. But… How?’
No matter how he looked at it, the fire was completely wrapped around the monster. There were no loopholes he could use and there was definitely no way of somehow nullifying that fire… Or was there?
Arthur frown grew deeper as he looked around him for a moment. “Goddamit, do I have to really try this? This is going to hurt like hell.”
Running his hand through his head, he cursed under his breath and then started moving again. He knew that he didn’t have time to actually think or weigh the options. After all, the battle was still ongoing.
***
Isla, Danny, Herculia, and Emmy relentlessly attacked the horrifying creature from all angles. They used all their weapons, abilities, and techniques that they had learned.
The blasts of fire devastated them, almost killing them on several occasions. Isla was the least affected as she was noticeably stronger than everyone else. But, at the same time, since she was the strongest, she had to carry all the weight of the monster’s aggro most of the time.
Not only because she was the most aggressive, but also because Lykean seemed to identify her as the strongest out of the four so she must eliminated.
*BOOOM*
A massive fire flew toward the girl at horrifying speed she barely dodged it in the nick of time. Rolling on the ground, she threw a gravity ball at Lykean, only for it to end up freezing and exploding before reaching him.
Then, the monster rushed toward her and sent a flying kick toward her face. The girl deflected it with her sword swiftly, making the kick slide off before she tried to hit the monster with another gravity ball right to the face.
Lykean grabbed her arm at the last moment. The biting cold of the fire made the girl leak a small groan before she retracted her frozen arm and jumped back.
“Hah… Hah…” Heaving up and down, Isla’s body was shuddering visibly. After getting hit several times, her body temperature dropped sharply and that was naturally heavily affecting her. Her eyes were starting to turn hazy and she lost feeling in her limbs.
Her skin was now an unhealthy blue color. However, she ignored all of that as she cracked the ice with a simple flick of her wrist and then lifted her sword up, ready for the next assault of the monster.
Not even for a second did she think about running away or trying to take a moment to rest. She didn’t know where Arthur was or if he even was still alive. She only focused on her task of killing the monster… If that task was even possible.
‘I have to find a way to kill it…’ Breathing out small clouds of steam, she deflected and attacked her enemy continuously. The battle was fast-paced requiring her to take numerous micro-decisions in a split second.
However, because of the ice, her body was growing slower and she couldn’t have the same reflexes as before.
She was losing the battle and all she could see in the background was her team, completely powerless against this terrifying monster.
‘Was really impossible after all?’ Isla asked herself. ‘This monster is too strong… It’s way higher than our current levels… We aren’t supposed to defeat it.’
Logically speaking, this was indeed a battle they weren’t supposed to win. Isla could easily see that Lykean was at least 15-20 levels ahead of all of them. If they all died then that was the most logical outcome.
‘When logic is against you… There is nothing saving you. We were never meant to win.’ She thought to herself. The world was completely silent around her except for the sound of the battle she was in.
‘Why even bother now? Losing will definitely cost me. But, it’s better to follow logic then to hope for nonsense.’ She thought to herself.
Isla was a realistic person who never followed anything by logic. That was how she was able to pave her way up. If she saw that something was impossible, she wasn’t foolish enough to try and do it in hopes of it working. She simply took the other route that was realistic.
She never understood those people who believed in miracles. For her, miracles were but a fool’s dream of getting something they knew deep down they would never get.
This battle was such a case. She had no reason to continue a losing battle. As she was contemplating what to do at that moment, slowly losing the will to swing the sword from all the exhaustion, she suddenly heard a loud yell.
“Isla!! Duck down, now!!”
The voice snapped her out of all her thoughts. Her eyes widened and for a split second, she didn’t understand what was happening. However, her body reacted instantly to the yell. Quickly, she moved down.
At that moment, a silhouette appeared above her head. Looking up, she saw Arthur leaping in the air.
Even Lykean was taken by surprise for a moment. He didn’t notice when Arthur snuck close to them as he was about to finish the girl in front of him. However, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t react. Lifting his arm up, he was about to summon another fireball and blast Arthur at point-blank range.
However, the latter grinned as he suddenly lifted his sword up.
“Have some of your own medicine, bastard.” He said as he stabbed forward.
*BOOOOM*
The sword stabbed into the monster’s hand ruthlessly, ignoring the cold aura of the fire. Then, for the first time since the battle started, Lykean screeched loudly.
Arthur’s grin widened as he looked at his sword. A red fire covered the sanguine blade as smoke rose in the air as the Azure Flame and the red flame raged a way against each other.
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, sir. I’m not dying today~”
