Chapter 190

The ice spears that flew in swiftly made a "kwajik-" sound as they firmly embedded themselves in the ice wall. Each time the tips of the intersecting weapons penetrated the angular sphere, the opaque ice interior was dyed red, and the roar of the struggling mother body leaked through the cracks of the split fissures.

Meterion's sword and Isabella's sickle dug deep into that gap and stirred. Charlotte, who flew in next, struck down with all her might using the tip of her sword, but her blade, unable to pierce the solid wall, slid off to the side.

"Aim properly!"

At that moment, Liner's only hand approached and grasped the handle of Charlotte's sword together with her. The sword tip, now standing vertically straight, was sharpened even more by hardening, and with the combined strength of the two people, it instantly pierced through the thick ice and tough hide.

Like a hedgehog with its spines raised, the surface of the ice wall was being filled with sharp weapons without any gaps. Leonardo, who was rushing in quickly aiming for one of the few remaining empty spots in the middle, increased his charging speed while lengthening the spear in his impatience.

'Please stay still. Let me end this in one go.'

Unable to use teleportation due to the rain-obscured vision, the time it took to reach the creature felt as long as an eon. As the battalion commanders who had planted their weapons were enduring the creature's violent struggles while looking only at him, Leonardo aimed at a single point with the momentum to pierce through to the other side and put his body weight into both arms.

But at that moment, the mother body's blurry eyeballs watching him through the cracked ice wall came into view. Instinctively feeling threatened by that image, Leonardo twisted his shoulders in mid-air and changed the direction of his charge to the side. Then, before the creature could show any other movement, he hastily thrust the lightning in his hand.

Due to the twisted center of gravity and slowed acceleration, the tip of the lightning grazed the ice wall and embedded itself diagonally. At the same time, a giant claw that instantly burst through the shattered wall came up to Leonardo's chin, barely grazing his skin as it passed.

'...!'

A stinging pain ran down his chin as blood mixed with rainwater flowed down. However, Leonardo was in no position to pay attention to such things now. The creature's front paw that had just swept past was now approaching head-on. Not only that, but the beam of destructive light he had seen just before was now spewing out in all directions from between the cracks in the ice.

'Self-destruction?'

Leonardo, who had barely avoided the creature's grasp from within that glowing beam of light, hurriedly spread a barrier and raised his guard while quickly moving away from the vicinity of the ice wall.

However, the ominous noise suggesting an explosion quickly caught up with him as he retreated, and along with it, a scorching heat that felt like it could melt bones instantly poured over his entire body.

By the time he realized the world had turned white for an instant, he had already been swallowed up by the violent gust.

Kwaaang-!

The high-temperature wind pressure, which even momentarily blew away the heavy rain, carried shattered ice fragments that scraped against skin. Leonardo, spinning through the air with a dizzy consciousness caught up in the explosion's impact, heard chilling shouts and screams echoing amidst the chaos.

That sound, which made him sense that something was going wrong, jolted his fading consciousness awake.

As soon as he opened his eyes wide, what unfolded in his hazy vision was the mother body's front leg with its hideously stretched hide clinging to it. And, hanging from its long claws raised high, was a human figure with its abdomen pierced through.

The golden pupils shook violently in disbelief.

"Liner Molten-!"

"Liner!"

As it looked like a situation that had occurred while trying to block his way, Leonardo's thoughts momentarily stopped.

Shrill voices from unknown sources filled the surroundings. However, the mother body, as if finding what was caught on its claws merely annoying, shook its front leg outwards and easily threw away the pierced human to another place.

At the sight of blood droplets scattering in the air and the limp figure, Charlotte called out to her superior with a strained voice and headed towards him.

Meanwhile, Isabella, who now seemed to have truly lost her senses, charged at the mother body with a red-hot face, shouting at the top of her lungs.

However, she too had been caught in the explosion at close range and her reflexes were significantly dulled. Unable to avoid the creature's tail flying towards her, she was struck by the blunt mace-like appendage and instantly bounced off in the opposite direction.

A "wajak-" sound, as if bones were being crushed somewhere, briefly echoed through the air. In the blink of an eye, a strong impact sound of colliding with a rock wall spread from an unseen place behind the figure pushed away through the steam mixed with rain.

Kuung-

Meterion, who had been trying to control the dust and steam in the midst of this miserable scene, was struggling due to the pouring rain. Soon after, the queen, having noticed his suspicious movements, lightly threatened him by firing a few giant breaths in his direction, then immediately changed course and charged towards Leonardo once again.

As the Council's battalion commander-level figures were miserably knocked down by the creature in an instant, a cold anger began to boil up on Leonardo's pale face. With his reason snapping like a broken string, he began to pour all sorts of attacks towards the monster approaching before his eyes.

"...Why won't you die, why!"

Out of frustration, tremendous heat and destructive power boiled in his two hands raised above his head. Around him, the raging vortex and the thunder and lightning striking from the sky combined in perfect timing to exert a savage momentum.

When the creature spewed out its breath, he counterattacked with equally dark red fireballs, and indiscriminately launched anything he could cast within seconds, be it lightning spears or thunderbolts.

Although it didn't consume much mana, casting spells in rapid succession in his poor condition not only made him dizzy but also drained his strength rapidly.

However, what made him even more anxious than that was the horrific sight of the creature thrusting out its head, quickly regenerated even after its flesh had been blackened by a direct hit from a fireball, its eyeballs bursting from the pressure of being struck by lightning, or emerging from within the blazing flames.

Leonardo gritted his teeth at the persistent shadow that seemed like it would appear even in his dreams. Because of this, the speed at which blood seeped from his cut chin was unusual, but with the mountain-like massive body approaching within arm's reach, there was nowhere left to retreat.

As the red pupils targeting him charged with their maw wide open, Leonardo covered his entire right arm with white sparks flowing with ultra-high temperature current. Then, prepared for his whole body to become a beehive, he quickly thrust his arm towards the creature's throat as it charged at him.

As if it had been waiting for this, the creature's tentacles extended, constricting its prey's neck and instantly pulling him into its mouth.

At that moment, a large hand suddenly appeared from the side, instantly crossing in front of his face and unhesitatingly grasping Leonardo's arm flowing with electric current. Then, with a force that seemed like it would rip his arm off, it pulled him backwards, not just cutting through the undulating monster's tentacles but mercilessly plunging a greatsword into its throat.

Afterwards, Hugo, who had spread a barrier in front of himself and Leonardo, instantly detonated the greatsword blocking the mother body's maw.

Kwaaang-!

Kyaaaak-

As the shattered fragments dug into the tender flesh, finely slicing it, the queen twisted its body and momentarily hesitated, widening the distance. Leonardo, whose arm was still held by Hugo and who hadn't fully grasped the situation yet, reflexively pushed away and hurriedly retreated backwards when he saw Hugo's hand, clearly burned and red-hot.

"Are you crazy? What are you-"

"What were you trying to do just now?"

Although he blurted out in a questioning tone due to his bewilderment, Hugo asked first in a cold voice. Though his face would be equally pale from being soaked in the rain, his chilling gaze and rapid breathing seemed as if he had been shocked by Leonardo's reckless action, causing Leonardo to close his mouth without continuing his response.

"..."

It seemed like silence would continue for a while, but soon they had to widen their distance again due to a destructive beam fired at the opportunity.

Hugo, who quickly pushed the other away, threw his body to block the creature in close combat to interfere with the mother body's path, which was focusing solely on its target.

As he tried to fully withstand the weight of the massive body, the internal injuries he had suffered earlier ached sharply at the momentary heavy impact transmitted. Moreover, having consumed a lot of stamina from the prolonged battle, it was difficult to gauge how much longer he could endure.

Enduring the pain and buying as much time as possible, he tried to deploy a grand magic circle once again in the distant sky obscured by clouds. At the same time, Leonardo, who had been pushed away by Hugo, concealed his presence and increased his speed, circling around the mother body.

The mother body, instinctively rolling its eyeballs, seemed to sense that the one hiding its presence would ambush from behind, so it pushed away the annoying human trying to block its front and hurled its massive body backwards. At this action, Hugo, thinking the creature would target Leonardo again, instantly moved to directly block the direction the creature was trying to advance.

However, contrary to his expectation, the mother body's target was not Leonardo. The creature's tail, bristling with spines, flew at a mad speed towards the side of Hugo, who was grasping a thick shield.

'Oh no.'

By the time he discovered the heavy mass of flesh approaching right before his eyes, his body, covered in shattered ice, was already plummeting to the ground.

"Hugo!"

Leonardo, his eyelids wide open, immediately rushed in to try to catch him as he fell. However, the queen was not one to just watch this quietly.

As the target that had been disrupting its nerves revealed itself again, the mother body charged towards Leonardo's expected position and thrust out its sharply protruding claws.

Leonardo, who had been focused solely on catching Hugo, belatedly changed direction when he discovered the claws trying to pierce him. However, his left upper body, paralyzed by the poison and slow to respond, couldn't completely escape the creature's grasp.

The demon's razor-sharp claws cruelly scraped the skin that couldn't even feel pain due to the dulled sensation. At that moment, the red blood splattering savagely and torn pieces of clothing flickered before his eyes.

As the overly vivid smell of blood instantly invaded his mind, Leonardo felt his body's orbit twisting uncontrollably from that point on. Though he clearly had no sensation, strangely, his body wouldn't listen to him.

"Leo-!"

Hugo barely reduced his falling speed by exploding an air sphere and immediately changed direction upwards. He tried to approach Leonardo, who had lost his balance in mid-air, but the distance between the mother body with its open maw and Leonardo was overwhelmingly closer than the distance between himself and Leonardo.

He hurriedly grasped magic in both hands and fired towards the creature, but whether his aim was off or the creature was skilled at evasion, he couldn't hit it at all. In the end, Hugo deployed a magic circle around Leonardo instead of dissolving the one in the sky. Then, after tightly wrapping his body with water streams, he himself rushed towards the mother body targeting Leonardo, wielding his greatsword.

Just as the blade of the greatsword barely wedged between the creature and Leonardo.

The 'chilling energy of fire' felt from not far away brushed past Hugo's spine for a moment.

Kiing- Kwaaang-!

A massive flame that flew in at a speed his eyes couldn't follow struck the mother body's head directly. The mother body, on high alert due to the sudden appearance of another figure, widened the distance and rolled its eyeballs.

Hugo too instinctively turned his head as he felt strong mana approaching, strong enough that it wouldn't be strange if another battalion commander had come to provide support.

That contradictory energy of fire he had sensed just a few days ago, no, a few hours ago. The trace of the powerful fire mage that had erased its footprints and deliberately collapsed the ceiling at the collapse site.

The black shadow possessing that energy snatched Leonardo, who was floating in mid-air, in one swift motion.