Chapter 187

Kwaaang-!

The black sparks collided strongly with the mother body's breath that flew head-on. Because of this, the tip of the intense mana narrowly missed the creature's nape.

The high-voltage current that had left the caster's hand instead pierced through the mother body's left foot as it tried to block the attack. Although it seemed like it would regenerate soon, twitching, the flesh had been so thoroughly burned that it appeared to take quite a long time to recover compared to when it had merely been torn.

Leonardo instantly moved to the underside of the mother body, avoiding the blooming poison needles flying towards his eyes. Then, grasping fierce sparks in his hand that seemed like they might devour even his own body, he charged at full speed towards the regrown tail.

Perhaps because it had been cut off once before, the area around the creature's tail was covered with a transparent membrane. Seeing this, Leonardo immediately teleported to the rear of the mother body. With eyes flashing like lightning, grasping his resolve, he used the momentum of his charge to plunge the tip into the nape.

Pajijijik-

However, the decisive blow once again missed the vital point. This was due to suddenly encountering poison needles that had hurriedly shot up amidst the violently scattering sparks. Leonardo, who had hastily swung his arm to cut the sharp thorns in two as a stopgap measure, gained only a small achievement and once again fired lightning to create distance.

Leaving the ferocious roar behind, he concealed himself in the scattering ashes and smoke. Then, rapidly circling around the mother body, he quietly waited for the next opportunity to attack.

As the shadow suddenly appeared, shimmering and disappearing repeatedly, the highly sensitized monster raised its protrusions and increased its flight speed. While trying not to give any time to aim, it also seemed to be looking for an opportunity to counterattack.

If he continued to hide and pour ranged attacks like this, he could immediately deal damage to some parts of the body, but the creature was now using all sorts of parts to protect only its vital points. In this situation, if he continued to launch attacks with decreased accuracy, the creature's vigilance would only increase and opportunities would gradually disappear, with a high possibility that he would tire first instead.

Well aware of this, Leonardo watched the queen's movements while holding his breath, aiming for caution. Although he had set a goal of drawing out maximum mana with minimal attempts, that resolve didn't last very long. Unfortunately, at that moment, the area under his left eye began to tremble.

Reflexively frowning hard, he immediately widened the distance from the mother body a bit more. Then, after completely extinguishing the sparks jumping in his hand, he firmly pressed his palm against his eye where he felt an unpleasant trembling.

'Damn... Is the paralysis coming already?'

Though he tried to maintain composure, in reality, anxiety was creeping in. It had been somewhat unstable, and now the symptoms of poisoning were gradually appearing.

Leonardo bit his lip hard and immediately rubbed his left shoulder and neck area somewhat roughly with his right hand. Then he clearly felt the sensation that had undeniably become dull. Moreover, even blood circulation seemed to have slowed, as the actual response speed was about 0.5 seconds slower than what his head perceived.

As expected, the Degalianif that Agrizendro had possessed was ridiculously small in quantity to neutralize the poison poured into his shoulder. Because of this, even though he had applied the crushed herb to the wound area, it only slightly slowed the spread of the poison, without much effect on detoxification.

As evidence of this, the particularly severe ringing in his left ear and the tingling sensation as if insects were crawling inside his skin had been lingering around the affected area since earlier. The fact that even the area under his eye was trembling meant that even the blood supplied to his brain might have already been invaded by the poison.

Before coming out, he had hurriedly searched around the collapsing fortress, but whether it had been buried under the fallen pile of stones, he couldn't find even a single tuft of grass similar to Degalianif. Ironically, the only fortunate thing, if it could be called fortunate, was that the paralysis symptoms were gradually reducing the pain in his ribs.

"...Shit, what's fortunate about this."

Leonardo, who had been quietly staring into space, let out a nervous laugh at his own attempt to find hope even in the worst situation.

In this state, he might be chewed up by that maw before he could catch the creature. The paralysis symptoms seemed to have penetrated his head, messing it up somehow.

Tok, todok-

At that moment, small water droplets suddenly fell from the sky, brushing past his eyes and the bridge of his nose. Reflexively looking up, he saw that the sky was now full of clouds, which at a glance seemed to be holding a lot of moisture.

The gradually thickening raindrops slowly subdued the inferno on the burning earth and coldly soaked the heads and faces of numerous people.

And at that moment, Leonardo instinctively shifted his gaze to the mother body confronting the commanders.

Flames were continuously rising from the gaps in the creature's hide, constantly evaporating the falling rain. However, the moisture didn't disappear immediately upon contact. Clearly, small water droplets were gathering one by one, slowly soaking the surface of the hide, and as time passed and the rain intensified, the area getting wet actually became wider.

As Hugo quietly observed the creature, a plan suddenly occurred to him.

'If the mother body's entire body gets soaked in the rain...'

As he calmly developed his thoughts, he soon transformed the greatsword in his hand into a thin, long ice spear. Then he deployed a magic circle high in the sky to make it rain doubly only within a certain radius.

The raindrops coming down from the clouds met with the water droplets generated from the magic circle and merged in mid-air, soon becoming thicker and more intense downpour that quickly soaked the ground.

Feeling something strange as the sudden heavy rain poured down, the mother body also looked up at the sky. Eventually, as the blue magic circle that had briefly appeared between the clouds shimmered faintly, the creature, sensing danger, immediately flapped its wings widely to try to escape the radius of the magic circle.

At that moment, Isabella, receiving Hugo's signal, charged towards the direction the mother body's head was facing. As she clenched her hands and created a dark, murky poison liquid, the mother body hesitated for a moment before quickly changing direction.

The battalion commanders with swords stepped forward in turn, threatening the creature's vital points and blocking its retreat head-on. From below, members fired reorganized shells to prevent the mother body from descending to the ground.

Because of this, the queen, forced to keep circling in mid-air, flapped its wings continuously and became thoroughly soaked by the fierce raindrops. Gas and flames were constantly spewing from the gaps in its hide, but perhaps due to the power of the downpour, their intensity was not as strong as before.

Hugo, who had been deliberately hiding his presence and observing the situation, noticed that the water vapor rising around the creature had subsided. He immediately fired a mana-infused flare above his head, then made eye contact with the battalion commanders before disappearing instantly from that spot.

As the blue light suddenly flashed in the gloomy sky, the mother body's eyeballs also reflexively turned towards it. Then, as if sensing that something was about to happen upon discovering the flare, the creature not only raised its protrusions sharply but this time even split its skull.

Three small snake-like monsters crawled out of that gap, raising their heads stiffly as if trying to detect presences. And at that moment, the monsters, sensing a sharply honed chill, instantly rolled their eyeballs upwards.

A figure grasping an ice spear was approaching rapidly from not too far away. The writhing monsters sprang up fiercely as if about to bite off his limbs right then and there.

However, Hugo, who had anticipated this, didn't avoid the tentacles with elongating necks. Rather, he waited for them to come right up to his face before uttering a spell at the last possible moment.

"Freeze."

The mother body's hide, soaked all over with rainwater, suddenly hardened as if time had stopped. The creature's eyeballs, frozen in an instant, couldn't roll left or right and could only stare straight ahead. In that moment, Meterion and Isabella, who had been following silently on either side of Hugo, revealed themselves.

The three humans raised their spear, sword, and sickle without hesitation. Then, just before the mother body was released from the freezing, they sliced off the creature's protruding protrusions in one go.

The three small monsters that had opened their maws wide were also pierced in a straight line by the flying ice spear. Spewing bizarre bodily fluids, they were cut in half vertically and died instantly.

Kyaaaak-!

In that brief moment, as all its protrusions, which were like eyes and ears, were carved out, the mother body let out a pain-filled monstrous cry and emitted heat from its entire body. Because of this, all the ice that had frozen on its surface melted, and the creature, now free to move, began to swing its tail and claws frantically, almost in a frenzy.

The battalion commanders who had approached hurriedly retreated, barely avoiding the unleashed attacks. Hugo also quickly widened the distance by bursting an air sphere in front of him and using its recoil.

And at that moment, a sudden heat enveloped his back. The energy of scorching flames passed by Hugo's side before he could turn around.

"Everyone, get out of the way!"

The moment Leonardo's voice pierced his ears, a flashing diagonal line struck down from the sky.

Golden lightning that had descended along the raindrops directly hit the mother body's head.