"I’ll kill them all."
If there were any thoughts within the Evil monster’s mind, this would be one of them.
Pain gnawed at the front of its jaw while blood flowed into its mouth and tons of ice weighed down its body.
No matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t open its mouth because of the steel lodged through its jaws, which had unfolded like a hook and locked both ends of its mouth tightly together.
Its rage intensified while muscles twisted beneath its gray skin as it began pushing itself off the ground, casting aside the tons of ice resting upon it.
Its eyes opened, and once again it saw the creatures responsible for all of this.
The first to move was Caius.
He charged at full speed as he emerged from the tunnel.
But he wasn’t the first to arrive.
Kyle’s arrows were.
Having climbed above before the monster emerged, Kyle released an essence-coated arrow from the edge of the cliff, and it reached the monster in an instant.
More specifically, its eye.
But before the arrow could pierce it, the monster blinked, causing the arrow to become embedded only in its eyelid.
That was fine, however, because more arrows were already flying toward it and sinking into different parts of its body.
Its head.
Its arm.
Its back.
Each carried at least one arrow.
They were far too small and insignificant.
All they could do was draw a few drops of blood.
Perhaps Kyle’s attacks were weak against this kind of creature, but everyone had their own methods.
Because every arrowhead was loaded with poison he had gathered from various creatures along the way.
Before the monster could fully rise and free itself, Caius had already reached it.
Essence exploded beneath his feet as he leaped several meters into the air, leaving cracks across the ice.
Seeing his own reflection in the monster’s eye, Caius landed atop its jaw where the steel needle restrained it.
Without stopping, he launched himself forward and closed in on its eye.
The monster violently shook its head while the sound of its heavy breathing echoed throughout the area.
But before Caius could be thrown off, he thrust his essence-coated sword into the creature’s forehead.
The blade sank in until solid bone stopped it.
He tightened his grip on the sword to keep himself from falling while remaining so close to the eye that he could see every detail of the monster’s face.
Then, while its body was still trapped beneath the ice, he raised his second sword and poured as much essence as possible into its blade.
Without hesitation, he drove it into the smooth surface of the eye.
The monster tried to close it.
And it succeeded.
But the sword pierced through the eyelid and went deeper.
"Pathetic."
He muttered.
Then Caius poured essence into the eye, destroying it from within.
Behind him came a muffled scream while the steel emitted a shrill screech as though it were about to break and end everything.
Huge chunks of ice fell from the monster’s back as its body finally became free, along with its arms.
Seeing that, Caius pulled both swords from the monster’s flesh.
At the same moment, the creature raised one enormous arm and swung its claws toward Caius’ face.
But while the arm was still in the air, a massive beam of light slammed into it and forced it backward.
Using that opening, Caius turned and jumped from the monster’s head to the ledge where the others stood.
Without giving the monster any time to recover, everyone launched their attacks.
Flames poured from Izel’s hands, striking its skin and burning it.
Dozens of sharp blades flew toward it at high speed, piercing its flesh and targeting vulnerable points.
Kyle continued firing poison-coated arrows one after another without pause.
Meanwhile, Leona gathered essence in her hand before launching it in the form of bullets.
Elliot twisted his body as his sword shone brilliantly.
Then, with all the strength he could muster, he slashed through the air, leaving behind an arc of light that flew toward the monster.
The luminous arc struck its other arm, leaving burns and a dark mark upon its gray skin.
Only a few seconds had passed since the battle began, and the monster was still in a disadvantageous position.
Then Leona’s shout echoed through the battlefield.
"Everyone move away!"
Without hesitation or questions, everyone retreated from where they stood, leaving an empty space between them.
At that moment, driven by pure madness, the Evil monster surged forward, breaking free of all the ice restraining it.
Its long forelimb extended as it crashed into the place where they had been standing, sending a shockwave across the ice.
Then, with impossible agility for something of its size, it slid upward and climbed out through the debris while its enormous body endured attacks from every direction.
Its right eye remained shut, blood pouring down from it.
Its remaining eye was open and fixed on Caius.
The poisons spread through its veins, trying to bring down its powerful body.
Without success.
Still unable to open its mouth, the muscles beneath its skin twisted as it swept its tail toward both Caius and Elliot, covering a huge area and leaving no route of escape.
Staring at the strike capable of shattering his bones and killing him outright, Caius felt no tension.
Instead, he felt a hand land on his shoulder before he vanished alongside Elliot.
The tail swept through the place they had occupied, and the resulting shockwave tore through the air and shook the ground.
At the same time, the monster’s long limb swept toward Ellen and Izel.
The two girls gritted their teeth while trying to escape its range.
They barely succeeded.
The monster’s claws smashed into the ground between them, shattering the thick ice.
The shockwave alone was enough to force them backward and make them lose their footing for a moment.
With its eye fixed on them, the monster reached for the steel needle restraining its jaws.
Its massive hand closed around it.
The steel wings screeched and twisted beneath its grip.
Everyone’s hearts sank at the sight.
But at that moment, Caius and Elliot appeared beneath it, standing before the towering wall of flesh that was its body.
Elliot removed his hand from Caius’ shoulder and spoke a few words.
"Show us the strongest thing you can do."
Hearing that, Caius smiled as essence surged into his swords.
His muscles tightened to their limit while the ice beneath his feet cracked.
Then, with everything he had, he unleashed a horizontal slash with both swords.
The metal bit into the creature’s tough flesh, carving through it with overwhelming force.
The wound extended deeper than the reach of his blades.
At the same time, essence exploded inside the monster’s body, tearing apart its flesh and causing blood to pour onto the ice, staining it a dark crimson.
At the same moment, Elliot gathered his strength and slashed upward.
A three-meter arc of light formed and struck the upper part of the monster’s chest, leaving a charred wound upon its skin.
Those two attacks caused the monster to lose its balance and stagger from pain.
Its hand released the needle embedded through its jaws, managing only to bend the metal slightly.
But not enough to open its mouth.
Without hesitation, it lowered its head toward the two of them as though it intended to swallow them whole.
But its mouth remained sealed.
And both of them had already retreated.
A large arrow struck its neck and buried itself deep inside.
Then, in the next moment, it exploded within its flesh, creating a bloody hole in the monster’s throat.
Leona arrived from behind, leaping onto its tail and climbing along its spine.
Before it could react, she drove her sword with all her strength between its vertebrae.
She gritted her teeth as essence surged through the blade.
The creature twisted from the pain pulsing throughout its body while its remaining eye turned blood-red.
Swords carved through its flesh.
Blades pierced it from every direction.
Flames burned it.
Poisons spread through its body, carrying agony with them.
The muscles of its jaw strained desperately to open its mouth while the steel screamed under the pressure.
’If we keep this up, we can bring it down.’
That thought crossed everyone’s mind.
But suddenly, the monster changed tactics.
Instead of trying to attack all of them at once, it focused on a single target.
Flames struck the right side of its face, burning the blood smeared across its pale skin.
At that moment, Izel sensed the shift in its behavior.
Its attention had locked onto her.
She immediately tried to retreat.
But in the next instant, her heart sank as she saw the creature’s entire colossal body rushing toward her.
Leona’s scream reached her ears.
"Izel, to the right!"
Without hesitation, she followed Leona’s warning and dashed right.
In the next moment, the monster’s hand crashed into the place where she had been standing, reducing the ice to dust.
But its other hand was already moving toward her as well.
Ahead of her, Elliot tried to help by launching an attack.
But he failed.
Izel gritted her teeth as the world seemed to slow.
The hand descended toward her, ready to turn her into a mangled corpse.
Then, in the next moment, a beam of essence slammed into it with enough force to alter its trajectory slightly.
As a result, the hand landed a hair’s breadth behind Izel.
She felt the shockwave strike her back.
Pain spread through her body.
The ice beneath her feet shattered.
’ It hurts... I’m falling.’
She thought as her body flipped through the air.
Izel fell into one of the tunnels below alongside dozens of massive chunks of ice.
All she could see was the monster’s hand pulling away.
And the sky above, now partially painted blue.
And of course...
The ice.
There wasn’t enough time to understand everything before her back slammed into the ground with tremendous force, sending a shockwave through her bones.
The ice crashed around her, nearly crushing her.
"Aghhh..."
A painful groan escaped her lips as she tried to rise.
Only to realize she couldn’t feel her leg.
She looked down.
A massive shard of ice rested atop what appeared to be her leg.
Then the pain finally arrived.
It flooded her consciousness as blood flowed from her body and stained the ground beneath her red.