Reincarnated as the favorite of an obsessive goddess: gave me a system-Chapter 53: The fight.
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
Enemy detected.
Type: Monster.
Approximate Threat Level: A.
Distance: 50 meters.
The roar that emerged from the depths of the cove was not a sound that could be compared to anything known on the surface of the earth. It was not the bellow of a wild animal, but a low frequency sonic vibration that seemed to tear the very fabric of the air, making the lungs of those present vibrate with a painful pressure that threatened to collapse their chests.
The water exploded in a fifteen meter column of bioluminescent foam as the creature broke the surface. Kai, his boots sunk into the salt rock and his body leaning slightly to absorb the impact of the wind generated by the displacement of such mass, did not retreat a single millimeter. His daggers gleamed intensely, their steel reflecting the monstrosity rising before them, a colossal mass of chitinous flesh, tentacles bristling with hooked barbs dripping corrosive mucus, and a crown of twelve yellowish eyes with horizontal pupils that rotated independently, fixing a gaze full of ancestral hatred and malignant intelligence on the small intruders who dared to challenge its absolute dominion.
"NOW!" Kai roared, and his voice was the starting pistol for a massive fight against the oversized monster.
Thorne was the first to leap into the void. With a cry that echoed through the cliffs, he jumped from a rocky ledge, falling onto one of the main tentacles trying to encircle Roshia’s position below the waterline. The impact of the axe against the beast’s armored skin produced a deafening metallic sound, followed by a stream of viscous, blackish ichor that hissed upon touching the salt rocks, burning them like pure acid.
"It’s like hitting a damn mountain of iron!" Thorne bellowed, spinning in the air with surprising agility for his size, managing to dodge a tail swipe that pulverized the stone platform where he had been standing a second before. The force of the blow was such that the air whistled in its wake, launching salt shards toward the rest of the group like shrapnel.
Mira, positioned on the highest and most stable crest of the cliff, did not waste a single second observing the spectacle. Her compound bow creaked under the extreme tension of her arms. Her fingers released the string with a mechanical precision that bordered on the supernatural. She fired three arrows in such rapid succession that they appeared as a single continuous line of light.
The arrows whistled and found the neurological joints between the chitin plates of the monster’s head. The tips sank deep into the soft flesh behind the armor, causing the creature to let out a sharp, ultrasonic shriek that made blood sprout from the ears of those present and forced them to their knees from the vibratory pain racing through their skulls.
From the left flank, Allice moved with a great agility that once again demonstrated why she had been one of Lyla’s subordinates for so long.
"Roshia, the ice right now! If that thing manages to submerge, it will attack us from blind spots and we’ll lose it in the darkness!" Kai ordered, as he slid across the ground, passing under a descending tentacle that weighed as much as a battle tank and left a deep crack in the stone floor.
She extended her hands and recited a spell, turning the entire surface into a sheet of solid crystal over a meter thick, trapping the lower part of the creature’s body and drastically limiting its maneuverability. However, the beast was not an easy prey to contain. With a violent movement of its torso covered in barnacles and scars, it began to crack the ice with a thunderous sound like cannon shots in a naval battle, demonstrating physical strength that far surpassed any other monster.
Then, with a massive strike, it kicked up a huge cloud of sand.
To an outside observer, Kai would have simply disappeared. The beast, however, possessed senses that transcended common vision, its twelve eyes detected the perturbations in the flow of mana Kai left in his wake like heat trails. A forest of smaller tentacles, each the thickness of a century old oak trunk, sprouted from the respiratory slits on its back, attempting to intercept the intruder.
Kai danced between them with mortal elegance, his daggers tracing silver arcs of light that sliced through the leathery flesh as easily as a surgeon cuts soft tissue. Each slash Kai delivered was not a product of desperation, but of cold analysis; he was following the internal heat trail that Mira’s arrows had exposed by breaking the first layer of defense.
The battle intensified until it reached a point of no return. Kai, with great skill, managed to land a solid blow. The strike impacted directly on the central eye, the largest and most sensitive of all. There was no immediate blood, but rather an explosion of blinding light that illuminated the entire cove as if it were a second sun.
The creature let out a howl of agony so powerful it was likely heard at the docks of the capital of Terminus, miles away. The beast shook with terrifying violence, suicidally slamming its own body against the cliffs, causing the entire sea to churn in response to its guardian’s pain.
But the monster was not willing to die alone. In an act of extreme desperation, its skin began to bubble and peel off in large shreds of putrid flesh that, upon touching the ice, took on a life of their own. They transformed into small, deformed offspring, miniature versions of the mother but with a diabolical agility and an insatiable bloodlust.
"It’s multiplying!" Mira exclaimed, trying to fire at the small creatures.
Roshia and Thorne took charge of forming the last line of defense. They created a circle around Lyla so she could continue attacking with strong gusts of wind. Thorne was an unstoppable reaper, every circular movement of his axe severed five or six of the offspring, while Roshia raised walls of ice thorns that impaled them by the dozens before they could get close.
The air smelled of burnt ichor, ozone, and desperation.
Kai, meanwhile, was in the most dangerous position on the battlefield. He was on top of the creature, plunging his daggers into the joints of the chitinous armor to avoid being thrown into the abyss by the monster’s thrashing. With an effort that made his muscles feel as though they were about to tear again, just like when he used Return, Kai plunged his entire right arm into one of the open wounds Mira had marked.
He ignored the pain of the beast’s acidic flesh burning his forearm and searched for a central organ. After a few seconds that felt like hours of struggling against muscle fibers trying to trap him, his fingers closed around something solid, an organic, throbbing gem the size of an ox’s heart, embedded in the central nervous tissue.
Then Kai squeezed the gem with all his might. The explosion was massive, a release of energy. A shockwave threw all team members toward the surrounding rocks. Kai was the last to be projected, rolling along the shore as the creature literally disintegrated before his eyes, turning into a mass of fine ash and crystals that the ocean wind began to disperse toward the horizon.
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
All enemies have been defeated.
LEVEL UP!
You have 2 points to distribute among your statistics.
Level: 32 (435/800)
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
You still have another 2 unused points.
Total points: 4.
Silence returned to the cove, but this time it wasn’t the artificial, forced, and oppressive silence of Syon. It was the silence of a real vacuum, that of a finished battle, a victory achieved, and a threat eradicated.
Kai stood up slowly, his body covered in deep cuts dripping blood, frostbite on his hands, and bruises covering his torso, but with eyes shining with a satisfaction bordering on the divine. They had won. They had killed the strongest creature of all.
In the distance, intense screams of pain began to be heard; then everyone realized they hadn’t just killed the strongest creature there was, she was connected to the others. They had directly ended the threat to the seas of Terminus.
On the other hand, the sky began to change erratically and violently. The violet clouds churned in spirals, as if the realm itself were suffering an internal convulsion or an identity crisis. Kai knew exactly what it meant, Syon, from his throne wherever it may be, had just felt the amputation of a piece of his power.
The God of Silence knew now, with a certainty that would chill his blood if he had any, that someone in his own domain had the strength, the cunning, and the unbreakable will to challenge his established order.
"He has felt it now. He knows there is something or someone in his territory with enough power to defy him."
And so it would be, he would be the next target.
Lyla, not truly hearing what Kai said, hugged him with desperate strength, burying her face in his chest while trembling from exhaustion. Kai looked at his entire team, seeing in their eyes the same flame that burned in his own. They were physically wrecked, but the determination was evident in them, the determination to end a regime that had lasted thousands upon thousands of years, a regime of gods who only think of themselves, who think of nothing else.
