Chapter 813: "Monster"
Translator: TransN Editor: Meh
Suddenly, Nightingale's view was no longer obscured.
Seeing this shocking event unfold, the demonic beasts slowed down and instead of crazily trying to surround her, they refused to move forward as if they were scared of her.
These demonic hybrids were scared.
The monster hanging on top of the cave waved its tentacles and roared furiously, but it didn't achieve the desired effect. The only ones who still followed its orders were three sickle monsters. They were now powerless and could no longer threaten Nightingale. The tight line of defense had now been broken.
No enemy could now stop her.
Nightingale gathered what was left of her magic power and rushed towards the dome center.
As she was closing in, she finally understood what Fran meant by abnormal.
The opponent was not so much a creature as it was a pile of exposed organs. It had neither epidermis nor muscular tissue while vascular intestines, tentacles, and organs that couldn't even be named were all stacked up, looking both unstable and horrible.
Obviously, throwing explosives into the monster's mouth was not possible. Nightingale turned her gaze to a pack of vibrating "meatballs". Although she was not certain whether it was a vital organ of the monster or not, it was at least placed much deeper and had flowing magic light inside. She guessed that the explosion of the explosives would inevitably cause more damage there.
It was a risky plan, but she only had one chance.
This fight required one fatal blow.
The more she was closing in, the more she could feel its size. Those complex intestines were as thick as a house while the rest of the stacked up organs looked like a castle.
The only difference was that this castle was alive.
Seeing that the sickle monsters could not stop her, the monster started moving.
It shot several slender tentacles from within its body, trying to stop Nightingale. Some of the tentacles were like steel whips, which could easily break the rocks in the mountain, but were not very difficult to deal with. As long as she observed the silhouette of these tentacles in advance, she could use the empty spaces between them to avoid them. It was similar to penetrating a wall.
A few tentacles that contained magic power and could use different abilities were a different problem all together. Those colorful magical beams were particularly striking in the black and white world and Nightingale definitely did not want to experience what was like to get hit by them, so she used flash to avoid them. This, in turn, would greatly increase the consumption of her magic power.
Thankfully, the distance between the monster and her was not huge.
Only a few moments had passed before she stepped on the monster's huge body, who roared furiously, but in fear of hurting itself, stopped attacking recklessly with its tentacles. Nightingale instantly felt very relieved. She didn't hesitate to open her backpack, took out a pack of explosives, and rushed straight towards the meatballs.
She pulled off her next moves instantaneously. She pulled the fuse, stuffed the green smoked explosive and the backpack into the meatballs, and then returned to the misty world, hanging upside down. Then, she pushed with both of her feet and lunged towards the underground lake like an arrow.
The monster also noticed her movements but it did not seem to understand why the enemy would try so hard to get near just to leave a moment later without doing anything. As for the bag, in the monster's eyes, there was no threat at all. For a moment, it even forgot to move its tentacles to chase after the witch who was quickly falling.
The most dangerous place in the misty world was in midair. She would break into pieces if she hit some airflow silhouettes when she was falling and so she stopped exerting her ability and waved goodbye to the monster.
Curiously, at that moment, she thought of Roland.
Whenever they were testing gunpowder, he would always turn his back to the testing ground and say that real warriors never looked at an explosion. Even though both Agatha and her would roll their eyes at him, he didn't mind as if he had just completed a ritual that only he knew about.
Thinking about that, Nightingale coudn't help but smile.
But right now, she didn't want to imitate him.
It was not about being a real warrior or not.
She simply wanted to watch the monster explode into pieces.
Just as soon as the sound between the lake and the underground river meeting eachother could be heard, a red light suddenly lit up the ceiling of the dark cave.
In a place where there was never daylight, a ray of light seemed as bright as the dawn. The darkness quickly faded, leaving behind the long shadows and for the first time, bright waves appeared on the lake's surface.
What followed was a thunderous roar—
Suddenly, the whole cave shook!
Nightingale clearly saw, among the dazzleing fireworks, the body of the monster convolsuing fiercely, as if it was suffering greatly. Half of the "Bloody Moon" covering the dome suddenly disappeared and some of the organs were shot out like volcanic eruptions. As for the area close to the explosion, it was instantly set on fire, generating a thick , dark smoke.
Splash!
She crashed into the water.
The world momentarily became quiet, leaving only the sound of her beating heart.
The fast spinning of the water formed a bottomless black hole under her body and it seemed like it wanted to drag her into the abyss. In the face of such force, any struggle would be meaningless.
But, thankfully, Nightingale was prepared.
She released what little of her magic power that was left to summon the Mist and used the spiraling white lines to climb to the surface as if climbing the stairs.
At this point, the magic power in her body had been completely depleted and the after effects of overuse began to appear. Her brain was attacked by intense pain and dizziness, her limbs could not stop trembling, and she could hardly control her body anymore.
As she struggled to get to the lakeshore, Nightingale knew she was running out of strength. Before losing consciousness, she saw a worm breaking through the wall and a golden figure flying towards her in a hurry.
...
"Nightingale... Is she ok?" Fran asked anxiously.
"It's nothing serious, she just exhausted her magic power," Agatha briefly examined Nightingale and then handed her to the God's Punishment Witch, "You carry her. We must leave this place at once."
When Nightingale left, everyone decided that no matter what, they would go to meet her after the explosion and decided to let Fran eat all their remaining food. Even though it was not certain she could find a way out, she could still crawl with them to the camp site.
But they did not expect the explosion to be so effective. It not only stopped the worm carrier inside the walls, but it also made the rest of the demonic beasts flee the area.
"Leave her to me," Elena personally took Nightingale. After witnessing the battle, the Taquila survivors became more respectful toward the blond witch.
"Don't we need to finish it off?" Lightning looked at the struggling monster, as if not satisfied, "It doesn't seem to be dead."
"Dying beasts are the most dangerous and you can only bring one pack of explosives at most, so it's better not take this risk," Agatha said with a deep voice, "by the time the First Army has been assembled, it'll be dead sooner or later.
"Uhm... fine," the little girl hesitated before nodding.
Just when everyone was ready to leave, the monster suddenly issued a cry. Following the dull and muddy sound, the lake suddenly changed.
Under the sparkling flames, a huge skeleton came out of the water and opened a row of rib claws towards the top of the cave. Even in such a fast current of water, it remained steady.
The monster loosened its tentacles that were clining to the top of the cave and fell into the skeleton. The sinking skeleton suddenly stirred up layers of waves, making the lake water push toward the shore. Even the surging underground river flowed backwards for a time. The ribs began to close, as if wrapping up the monster into a package and then slowly sunk back into the lake. The instant it came into contact with the water, the burning flames on the monster turned into white smoke and emitted a pungent odor.
Right before the monster vanished, everyone saw its densely packed eyes. Although half of them were gone, the rest of the eyes expressed a strong sense of hatred toward them.
Moments later, the swirling lake engulfed the monster as if it had never appeared.