10 10 - Figh

Noah had already fired a few fireballs at the giant rat, but apparently the damage he was doing was very low. Since the fire he controlled was still only slightly warmer than normal fire, against normal rats it did a lot of damage, but against a Super Boss... It was just unrealistic to think that he could burn the thick leather that covered the monster.

However, there was something that Noah noticed: his fire didn't do much damage when it came into contact with the Rat King's fur, but if he hit a cut that the other Blessed made, the rat would scream in pain as if it had been penetrated by a large sword. That is, the damage was numerous times greater than when he hit the monster's hide.

'Perhaps this is due to the factor of purification from sins and sinners that the flame has? Like it or not, this rat is a monster. Just as I purified the other rats as sinners, purifying this Super Boss would not be impossible either... Wait... He is a Super Boss! Perhaps he is considered to be a worse monster, or something like a more terrible sinner, so the cleansing effect becomes more powerful against him?' While thinking about this possibility, Noah started to come up with a plan, a plan where he would be able to take advantage of his flame's power to increase the team's chances of victory against this Super Monster.

Even while Noah was thinking, he didn't stop moving around, as those standing still basically end up easy targets. Even if the King of the Rats was focusing his attacks on the Blessed ones who attacked him using melee, Noah would not risk standing still like a post to at some point have the Super boss attack him.

As he moved and occasionally threw a fireball with his left hand, in Noah's right hand was the combat knife he always used. Even though it wasn't a blessed weapon or even a fortress weapon, for a normal Rank F fortress it was enough. However, watching the other Blessed fight the Super Boss, he knew that normal knives and swords were not as effective as they were for normal strongholds.

While Noah was looking for a perfect opportunity, the Super Boss pretended to attack a big man holding a shield but instead turned to a teenager who was attacking him with a sword. Before the inexperienced Blessed could understand what was happening, the Super Boss had already bitten her right wrist that held the sword as if he were biting through a Croissant. Her forearm parted in the middle while the girl's hand disappeared into the mouth of the giant rat.

"AMYYYY!!!!!" Wendy screamed from the rear when she saw her friend's arm being pulled out effortlessly by the Super Boss. She was still angry at her friend for not letting her go to talk to Noah but not to the point that she didn't care what was happening to the girl at the time.

In a moment of despair, Wendy ran from the rear to try to help Amy, who was screaming in pain as what was left of her arm continued spurting blood.

This obviously did not go unnoticed by the eyes of the more experienced people, but before anyone could scream for the girl to retreat, the King of Rats, who realized that another easy prey was coming towards him, swallowed the part he pulled out of Amy and opened its mouth to bite off Wendy's head.

A few inches from the huge mouth of the Rat King, Wendy finally realized the error she had made and froze in place without knowing what to do. During the entire invasion, she felt she might die several times, but this time it was different. Instead of just being afraid of possible death, she apparently just accepted that there was no way anyone could save her and closed her eyes.

Seeing this scene practically in slow motion, all the other Blessed had gone into despair when they accepted that the only healer their group had was now going to die since no one would be able to help.

However, when Wendy could already feel the hot and extremely stinky breath of the Rat King, she momentarily opened her eyes and a thin white hand came into her field of vision extremely close to the girl's own eyes with an open palm, making a ball of fire launch towards the rat's mouth, so close that Wendy even felt her skin warm slightly due to the heat of the fire before the ball flew.

When the King of Rats saw another human quickly approach his current prey, he just thought he would get two heads with a single bite and couldn't be happier in that moment, but contrary to what he imagined, the other human pointed his hand to him and that orange flame which hurt him so much earlier appeared again.

Without reaction time, the only thing the King of Rats could do was gather a useless fraction of his strength to try to close his mouth quickly, but to no avail. When he closed his mouth, the first thing he felt was as if he had eaten the worst poison in the world and that it was destroying everything inside him, forcing the huge monster to scream in pain - a scream so loud and high that some weaker Blessed ones even trembled wondering what the rat was going through.

Burning from the mouth, past the pharynx, down the esophagus until it is extinguished in the stomach of the huge monster, the process of him burning seemed to take several minutes from the perspective of the King of Rats, but it didn't last more than two seconds in the real world.

While the King of Rats screamed in pain from the purifying effect of the flame, Noah ran his hand over Wendy's waist and belly and without any care about her opinion, he pulled her back so that she would not be attacked and die uselessly. Any self-respecting role-player knows that in any dungeon, the team's focus is always to protect the healer. As long as the healer is alive, they will keep the rest of the team alive too. Even if an adventurer were to lose a limb, the healer would not let that be their undoing, with some healers powerful enough to ensure that that missing member would grow back again.

While the King of Rats screamed and writhed in pain because of the burning purification of the flame, the other Blessed woke up from the shock that was the monster's cry and wasted no time taking advantage of this interval to cause as much damage as possible to the monster.

Archers used arrows, warriors used knives and swords, while wizards used as much magic as possible. Even Harry used his own Blessing to throw some very sharp ice cubes that cut through part of the Rat King's leather. A Rank D Blessing was truly stronger than a Rank F Blessing. After all, if he had been a Blessed Rank F that was going to his first fortress with a Blessing of Ice, the most he could do would be a few blocks of ice to bruise the monsters. But as Harry's Blessing was Rank D, in that short time since he received his own Blessing he had already learned to control the ice enough to sharpen a part to do more damage to the monsters.

The damage was so great that when the King of Rats finally recovered, instead of the usual black that made up the animal's eyes, it was now a bright red: a blood-seeking red, a red that said the monster wanted no less than to tear apart every human in that room, especially the human he was facing at that moment.

Seeing those eyes looking at him, Noah instinctively murmured, "Shit, the berserk mode..."