Caius’s POV
As expected, a single hit had been enough to break my bones and leave me unable to move.
Or at least, it should have been.
The moment I crashed into the ice after failing to cut through its neck, my body had already rebuilt itself, consuming a large amount of Essence.
My muscles tightened as I launched myself toward that son of a bitch once more.
In the distance, I caught sight of Leona taking a hit from its tail... It hadn’t struck her completely, but it still sent her flying backward, while Kyle was trying to fight with his daggers after exhausting all his arrows.
And there, the monster reached toward its upper jaw, tearing away the steel restraining it and opening its mouth, letting blood spill onto the frozen ground.
At the same time, Elliot seemed to unleash the strongest attack he could muster in one final attempt.
I saw his sword carve a massive arc of light and lightning, forming a strange combination as it rushed toward the monster that had already opened its mouth, ready to use its ability.
Seeing this, there was no time to think, and without the slightest hesitation, I gambled on what we had discussed before.
I raised my hands to my head and drove my fingers deep into both ears, enough to destroy them and rupture my eardrums.
And become deaf as well.
Pain stabbed through my head as blood stained my fingers when I pulled them out, and in that instant, every sound around me vanished.
It was strange... similar to when we were in the entrance test and Leona sealed my hearing.
But unlike that time, I could still see.
And there before me, I saw the monster’s mouth hanging wide open while everyone froze in place.
Whether it was Kyle trying to retreat, Leona getting back to her feet in the distance, Ellen behind me, or Izel emerging from the tunnels.
All of them had stopped moving...
Even Elliot.
But I hadn’t.
And Elliot’s attack hadn’t stopped either.
The arc of light and lightning slammed into the monster’s head with tremendous force, strands of lightning surging through its body.
If I still had my hearing, I probably would’ve heard a deafening sound.
But now, the sight of this creature’s jaw being destroyed was enough.
Its tongue burned and tore apart, along with the inside of its jaw, while the monster staggered backward, blackened, sickly blood spilling onto the ground.
Its wound-covered body crashed into the ice, shattering it, while its head fell and its neck lowered to the ground.
I felt the ice tremble as I detonated Essence beneath my feet, accelerating toward it while everyone else remained frozen and completely defenseless.
The world slowed before me as I drew closer with every moment.
It had just fallen...
And it was the first time this thing had fallen since we restrained it.
And I was certain it would rise again.
Rise and tear all of us apart this time.
That was, if I didn’t tear it apart first.
In an instant, I reached beneath its head and ruined jaw, standing before the lower part of its neck.
I clenched my jaw as Essence surged through my body to its absolute limit until I felt my muscles on the verge of tearing apart.
I raised my swords, pouring everything into them.
Essence flowed across their surface like light itself, gathering at their tips and extending the blades.
The monster was already moving its limbs, trying to raise its exhausted body once more.
But before it could, I cut downward...
I cut in silence.
No wind.
No screams from the monster.
Only the feeling of my swords slicing through its throat and the smell of its flowing blood.
Its head moved rapidly across the ice as it tried to pull away from me while the world shook...
Perhaps from its scream.
But I pushed forward and clung to it until I was nearly buried within the severed flesh.
My swords slowed within its tough flesh, but I pushed harder until the tendons in my arms tore and both shoulders dislocated.
I reached halfway through its neck and tore apart part of its throat before my swords stopped because of its toughness, and because my shoulders and tendons needed a few moments to heal.
But I didn’t have a few moments.
The evil monster moved, forcing itself away from me as its body rose once more, but I refused to let it go.
I kept my sword there while clinging to the side of its neck as a waterfall of blood poured over me, its vile taste filling my mouth.
The monster thrashed violently, trying to throw me off while I felt one of its hands rushing toward me.
I released one of my swords and shoved my arm deep into the massive wound, enough to fit myself inside.
Then, without hesitation, I detonated every last drop of Essence remaining in my body in a single explosion.
The world lit up before me, and I felt my arm tear apart along with what remained of its neck.
Then, in the next instant, its hand struck me from the side.
I might have been deaf, but I heard my bones shatter before my body was sent flying away, drowned in pain.
The pain was good.
Good because it meant I was still alive...
Perhaps because that strike no longer carried the strength it once had.
Through the pain and my blurred vision, I saw the horrific wound I had left on its neck.
It was enormous, consuming half of it, while its throat had completely exploded into a bloody mess.
My back slammed into the ground, and I felt my spine shake as if it wanted to leap out of place.
But through the flying debris, I stared at that son of a bitch as it raised a hand to clutch the wound in its neck and slow the waterfall of blood.
There before it, Elliot was still frozen in place without moving.
As for the others, I no longer knew, because my ability had stopped working.
But what I did know was that this monster had to die now.
Every part of it had been destroyed.
Its shattered jaw, now nothing more than a mass of hanging flesh.
The poison that had turned its red blood into foul black sludge.
And the wound on its neck that threatened to separate its head from the rest of its body.
Slowly, the monster moved toward Elliot, with an eye that had lost all the clarity and sharpness it once held.
I could almost swear I heard its painful groan.
In the end, just before it could reach the defenseless Elliot, the last light faded from its eye, and its body crashed to the ground, spreading cracks everywhere.
There, it trembled one final time as it turned its head to look toward a certain direction...
Where the nest was.
With my shattered body drained of all Essence, I felt something strange enter my body, and with it, the last traces of life vanished from the evil monster.
And just as it died, I could no longer maintain my consciousness.
So slowly, darkness consumed my vision as the world around me faded away.