The Extra is a Hero?-Chapter 294: THE RAID BOSS
Chapter 290: The Raid Boss
The silence in the Heart-Root Chamber shattered like glass.
The Root Golem, which we had assumed was a corpse, didn’t just stand up. It reconstructed itself with a violence that defied biology. The black ichor on the floor hissed, flowing backward into the shattered timber of its legs, knitting the wood together with sickening, wet squelch sounds.
Ren, who had been gloating over his prize, realized the shift in atmospheric pressure a fraction of a second too late.
"THIEVES..." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
The voice wasn’t just sound; it was a physical shockwave. The face of Elandra on the Golem’s chest unhinged its jaw, revealing a swirling vortex of purple Abyssal energy where a throat should have been.
A massive arm, now elongated and spiked with jagged obsidian crystals, swept across the chamber floor.
"Ren, dodge!" I shouted.
Ren abandoned his composure. He threw himself backward in a desperate, ungraceful roll. The wind pressure from the Golem’s fist slammed him against the cavern wall, cracking the stone.
The crystal vial of [Life Dew] slipped from his fingers.
Clink.
It tumbled through the air, turning end over end, catching the golden light of the room.
It landed in a thick patch of moss near the edge of the pool. It didn’t break.
Ren looked at the vial, then at the towering monstrosity that was now glowing with a furious purple aura, and then at the exit. The assassin made a calculation.
"You’re on your own, Captain," Ren spat, blood dripping from his lip.
He engaged [Shadow Cloak] and vanished into the darkness of the periphery, abandoning the loot and the team.
"Coward!" Leon roared.
The Golem turned its eyeless gaze toward the sound.
"CONSUME."
[System Alert: Boss Phase 2 Initiated.]
[Enemy: Corrupted Guardian Elandra]
[Rank: King Beast (Corrupted)]
[State: Frenzy]
"Leon, Tank Stance!" I ordered, my mind racing to adjust the strategy. "We broke the lure, not the core! The chest heart was just a battery!"
"You mean I have to hit it again?" Leon gritted his teeth, planting his feet. He slammed the [Breaker’s Hammer] onto the ground, activating the [Taunt] mechanic through sheer noise and hostility. "Come on, you overgrown piece of firewood!"
The Golem lunged.
This wasn’t the slow, ponderous attack of Phase 1. It was a blur. The Golem’s arm transformed into a massive lance of twisted root and rock.
BOOM.
It struck Leon’s tower shield with the force of a runaway train.
Leon didn’t slide this time. He was driven into the ground, buried up to his knees in the soil. The impact shockwave blew the air out of his lungs, and I heard the groan of his armor plating buckling.
"Hold it!" I screamed, sprinting to the left.
"I... can’t..." Leon wheezed. Black veins were crawling up his neck—the [Abyssal Rot] poison from the earlier spore cloud was eating his stamina. "It’s... heavy..."
The Golem raised its other arm for a follow-up crush.
"Nox!" I tapped the collar of my coat. "Wake up!"
A burst of violet smoke erupted from my shoulder. Nox, my Wyrmling, materialized. The heavy, toxic mana of the Under-Roots wasn’t poison to him; it was fuel. His eyes glowed with predatory delight.
Big wood! Nox hissed mentally. Rotten!
"Attack the joints!" I pointed to the Golem’s right elbow, where the bark was thinnest. "Melt it!"
Nox shrieked and dove like a missile. He strafed the Golem’s arm, unleashing a stream of concentrated draconic acid.
Hiss-sizzle.
The acid ate into the petrified wood, softening the joint.
"ANNOYANCE."
The Golem swatted at the air, missing the nimble dragon, but the distraction bought Leon a second to breathe. He wrenched his legs free from the earth and rolled away just as a stone foot decimated the spot where he had been standing.
"Michael!" Leon yelled, stumbling. "I can’t tank this forever! Where is the real heart?"
I activated [Quantum Analysis Mind].
My vision shifted. The world became a grid of probabilities and mana flow. The headache was instant and blinding—using a Purple-Rank mental skill in a mana-saturated environment was like staring into the sun.
I scanned the Golem. The purple energy was circulating from the floor, up the legs, and into the torso. But the control signal... the white light of the original Guardian...
There.
Every time the Golem raised its left arm to strike, a heavy plate of bark under the armpit shifted. For a microsecond, a pure white light pulsed from beneath.
"The Left Armpit!" I screamed. "It’s hiding the True Core under the shoulder!"
"You want me to tickle it?" Leon shouted, blocking another strike that sent sparks flying from his shield.
"I want you to force it to reach high!" I yelled. "Bait an overhead smash!"
"That’s suicide!"
"Do it, or we die!"
Leon roared, a sound of pure frustration and courage. He dropped his shield. He grabbed the Breaker’s Hammer with both hands and stepped toward the monster.
"Hey! Ugly! Look at me!"
Leon swung the hammer upward, smashing it against the Golem’s knee.
The Golem roared in rage. It raised both arms high above its head, the crystals on its back glowing as it charged a catastrophic [Earth-Shatter] attack.
"Now!"
I didn’t run. I used the environment.
I sprinted toward a hanging vine, grabbed it, and activated the pneumatic mechanism on my belt.
[Item: Pneumatic Grappling Hook]
[Status: Fired]
The hook shot upward, latching onto the ceiling root. The winch screamed as it hauled me into the air.
I swung in a wide arc, flying toward the Golem’s exposed left side.
Its arm was up. The armor plate had shifted.
I saw it. A sphere of white, uncorrupted wood, pulsating with the last remnants of Elandra’s will.
I drew my steel sword mid-air.
Just one strike. Pierce the core.
But the Golem was a King Beast. It didn’t just react to aggression; it anticipated it.
As I flew through the air, the face on its chest turned its eyes toward me.
"NO."
A tendril of black rot, thin and fast as a whip, shot out from the Golem’s chest.
It slammed into me mid-air.
"Gah!"
The breath left my body instantly. The tendril didn’t pierce me; it wrapped around my torso like a python, pinning my arms to my sides. The crushing pressure cracked a rib instantly.
I was yanked out of my trajectory and slammed into the mossy ground.
"STAY."
The Golem ignored Leon. It kept its arms raised, but it looked down at me, the insect like intruder who dared to aim for its heart. It began to lower a massive stone foot to crush me.
"Michael!" Leon screamed, trying to run to me, but he was too slow. The poison had ravaged his agility.
I lay there, pinned by the black tentacle, staring up at the descending foot.
My sword was five feet away. My grappling hook was empty.
My physical stats—Strength 144—were useless against a grip strength of 500.
I was going to die.
No.
I looked at the air around me. It was thick, shimmering with the gold and teal of the Ancient Mana.
My [Status Window] was flashing red.
[Warning: Mana Toxicity Critical.]
[Warning: External Mana Source detected.]
In the Zone of Silence above, I was powerless. But here? In the heart of the World Tree? I was drowning in power.
I closed my eyes.
My Class wasn’t just Swordsman. It was Magic Swordsman. And my Affinity wasn’t just Ice.
It was Space.
Space wasn’t about strength. It wasn’t about speed. It was about coordinates. It was about deciding that something should be nothing.
I forced my hand to move against the crushing pressure of the tendril. My fingers curled into a claw.
I don’t need to cut the wood. I need to cut the space the wood occupies.
I grabbed the dense, heavy mana of the room and pulled it into my palm. It burned. It felt like holding a star.
[System Alert]
[Criteria Met: High Mana Density + Life Threat + Space Affinity.]
[Skill Evolution Triggered.]
[Unlocking: Void Cut (Incomplete)]
"Leon..." I whispered, my voice calm amidst the chaos. "Duck."
I slashed my hand upward. I didn’t hold a sword. I held a tear in reality.
A distortion—a thin, black line of absolute nothingness—erupted from my hand.
SHIIIING.
The sound was like tearing wet silk.
The black tendril holding me didn’t break. It simply ceased to exist at the point of contact. The Golem’s massive stone foot, descending to crush me, met the black line.
It was sliced cleanly in half.
"GRAAAAAAAH!"
The Golem recoiled, crashing backward as its foot disintegrated into dust.
I stood up. The black aura around my hand flickered and died, leaving my fingers burnt and trembling.
I grabbed my steel sword from the ground.
"Now, Leon!" I screamed. "Finish it!"
[SYSTEM INTERFACE: STATUS UPDATE]
Name: Michael Willson
Age: 15
Class: Magic Swordsman
Base Rank: D (Verified)
Current State: OVERCLOCKED (Ancient Mana Resonance)
Effective Rank: B+
Duration: 10:00 Minutes (Counting Down)
[ ATTRIBUTES ]
STR (Strength): 175 (Base) ➔ 382 (+207 Environmental Buff)
AGI (Agility): 168 (Base) ➔ 370 (+202 Environmental Buff)
STA (Stamina): 170 (Base) ➔ 375 (Pain Suppression Active)
INT (Intelligence): 185 (Base) ➔ 420 (Mental Palace + Ancient Mana Link)
Mana Capacity: 4,500 / 4,500 ➔ ∞ (UNLIMITED - External Source Connected)
[ SKILL STATUS ]
Aura Dominion (Gold): [FORCED ACTIVATION]
Effect: Aura density increased by 300% due to external mana pressure.
Quantum Analysis Mind (Purple): ACTIVE (Processing Speed: Maximum)
Void Cut (Black): [UNLOCKED - Mastery 1%]
Description: By channeling the B+ Rank mana density of the World Tree through a Space Affinity, the user severs the spatial coordinates of the target.
Cost: 50,000 Mana per slash (Covered by External Source).
[ CONDITION REPORT ]
Mana Toxicity: Critical (Filter active for 10 minutes)
Physical Integrity: 65% (Rib fracture suppressed by Aura)
Warning: Once the 10-minute Overclock ends, the user will suffer [Mana Rebound] and [Extreme Fatigue].
(To be Continued)
