The monster let out a guttural roar of pain as the combined assault of Reign's lightning and the others' attacks struck home. The mandibles began to sizzle and smoke under the intense heat, and cracks appeared along their length. With a final surge of effort, Reign pushed back against the mandibles, causing them to snap off and fall to the ground.
With its mandibles destroyed, the monster let out a shriek of pain and fury before launching itself at Reign, its bladed legs slashing wildly. Reign danced around the attacks, his movements graceful and precise. He countered with his swords, aiming for the joints between the monster's carapace and its body.
Each strike sent chips of carapace flying, but the monster's tough exterior seemed almost impervious to damage.
Seeing that their attacks were having little effect, the group quickly adjusted their tactics. Tank and Greenie worked together to distract the monster, drawing its attention away from Reign with their powerful attacks and defense. Laura and Aelrinder continued to unleash blasts of energy, aiming for the monster's exposed joints.
Beast and Wolf coordinated their attacks, focusing on wearing down the monster's defenses.
Wolf's flames continued burning while the arrows of Beast seemingly never stopped coming, constantly hitting the monster with pinpoint accuracy.
Shadow, meanwhile, took advantage of the chaos to strike from the shadows, his daggers finding the gaps in the monster's armor. Mia provided support, using her ice magic to create barriers and slow the monster's movements.
She also joined the battle with her sword, doing her best to help Reign and Shadow out, striking the joints of the monster in an effort to try and incapacitate some of its bladed legs.
Despite their efforts, the monster proved to be a formidable opponent. Its bladed legs moved with lightning speed, making it difficult for the group to land any significant blows. The monster seemed to anticipate their moves, dodging and parrying with uncanny agility.
Reign, however, was not so easily deterred. He continued to press the attack, his movements precise and quick, wasting no energy between moving and attacking. He focused on exploiting the monster's weaknesses, still continuing to aim for the joints and softer spots in its armor. With their constant attacks, the group forced the monster back, slowly but surely gaining the upper hand.
Still, it was not an easy battle as the powerful defenses of the monster were quite something.
It was able to take a lot of damage, but the main problem was the fact it was fast and capable of using its legs as both offensive and defensive tools.
That was the main reason they were attacking the legs, after all, they not only posed a threat, a reliable means for the monster to defend itself, but they were also the reason why the monster was so fast.
Luckily for them, they were experienced fighters who had gone through a lot, so they were able to notice it ahead of time and dodge the attacks.
Reign was the one the monster had focused on. He was the one who had destroyed its mandibles, causing it a lot of pain, as well as the person who had severed one of its limbs.
Out of everybody present, the monster hated Reign the most, in fact, the hatred it had for Reign was above the hatred it had for everyone else combined.
Reign could use this opportunity to hit the monster with soul-based attacks, alas, Aethion had told him from the very start that it wouldn't be very useful. For some reason, the monster was very resistant to such attacks, there was a kind of thin barrier around it, one invisible to all but Reign as it was made out of soul power.
With that in place, soul-based attacks would be unable to do much to the monster, most of the power of the attacks would be blocked by the barrier, if not all of it.
Reign was a bit annoyed that he couldn't bank on such a good opportunity, after all, with how angry the monster was and with how much bloodlust was coming from it, a soul-based attack would definitely do a lot of damage.
But even without it, Reign was confident that he and the others could take the monster down. He had now taken the role of the tank, with how focused the monster was on him, he was able to keep it occupied merely by standing near it and dodging the many attacks it was launching at him.
He was forced to block with his swords a couple of times, which proved quite difficult as each attack of the monster packed quite a punch, but he was able to deal with it.
Because of that, the others had an easier time attacking the monster, they didn't have to block or dodge as many attacks as before and were free to attack it much more often.
Despite their best efforts, the monster refused to go down easily. It continued to fight with a tenacity that surprised them all, but after some time, the inevitable happened as another of its legs was gone.
The leg was not cleanly severed like the previous one, it broke after Shadow had cut and stabbed it multiple times, weakening it and causing it to no longer be capable of striking without being damaged.
With two of its legs gone, the monster was now slower and clumsier, making it easier for everybody to fight against it.
A couple of minutes later, another leg was gone, and then another.
The monster lost its balance when half of its bladed legs were destroyed, and from that moment, the team had an easy time attacking it and finally ending its life.