Chapter 437 The Perilous Errand (IV)

From the small cottage of Jun, Jaka and Jun are staring at the group doing their best to pull out the Corrupted Walking Fish, the monster that the group is looking for. He is fascinated by the girl who seems to be the leader of the group as she is the one doing the command and acting to be the brains of the operation.

"Do you think they will be able to pull that crappy fish out of the lair, Jaka?" Jun asked while still keeping his eyes on the group.

"KIK? Based on my experiences with the people who attempted to do that, I doubt they can do that kind of feat, Kik. They will be forced to wait at night in the end so perhaps I am inclined to the answer of no, Kik."

"Yeah, that is the most likely answer I have too. But for some reason, my instincts tell me they will succeed. We will just have to wait and see."

Then, they saw the ice break apart and disappear which made the two surprised. After all, they have seen plenty of attempts to destroy the ice completely so that they can proceed with the plan to lure the fish out but to see them remove it completely, the lake is now a normal lake without a hint it was frozen for a long time.

What happened next seems to give them more questions about what they are planning on doing. Now that they see what is the group capable of, their attention is now focused on the movements of the adventurers.

...

...

Sigma stood at the edge of the lake with her arms crossed while staring at the still water. She might not be doing anything but right now, she is using the chains to feel the movements of the lake and to pinpoint the location of the monster under the water. It might not be part of her body but she slowly developed the sense to use the [Chains of the Heavens] as an extension of her body. It was like she is using extra hands.

She continues to feel the underwater surface of the water using the chains and when she felt something tug and bite on one of the chains, she smiled and her eyes lit up.

"Found ya!"

Extending her left hand, the two chains started moving in an irregular pattern and soon, they started to shake violently.

"Sigma-chan, what is going on?" Dolly rushed beside Sigma.

"I found the target. Topaz-chan, Dolly-san, prepare the strongest electric element spells you two have. Sparrow-san, use the [Electro Pierce] once the monster appears in your sight."

"Got it!" Harmless Sparrow said.

"Leave it to us!" Topaz nodded in enthusiasm and started to chant her spells. Dolly also started to chant.

Nove l B(in).C OM

Sigma turned to look at Chase who is waiting for the command.

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"Chase-kun, you have a skill that cuts off the Mana consumption of the players right? Cast them to these three and prepare to go near Hagane and Iron. They will need your help in healing and in case of emergency, you can also cast the skill [Cadeuceus] too. Tell Sazan-san(Bladeheart's Father), Terra-san(Bladeheart's Mother), and Mr. Teddy to also prepare once the monster appears. You will be crucial here since you are our only healer and we have no idea how strong the monster is so be alert to everything."

"Got it! Leave it to me!"

Chase quickly cast [Mana Cut] to the three before he went to the side of Hagane and Iron to explain the order of Sigma. Now that all of the commands are carried out, Sigma returned her focus to the chains that are getting wilder as time goes by. She knows that the chains are tough enough to handle a few beating a few bites from a monster but she doesn't want to risk it.

She moved her hands and gestured to pull up which also made the chains correspond to the movement of the chains.

The chains have smooth movements when being controlled by Sigma but this time, it is having a hard time moving and it looks like it was carrying something. Sigma's eyebrows furrowed and she increased her force and the chains started to return to their former smooth movements.

"Get ready!" Sigma grit her teeth as the chains has finally resurfaced but this time, it is carrying a giant abomination. It was so big that half of the lake's size is occupied by the big monster. It was soon revealed to be the monster they are targeting to kill and obtain the gills.

[Corrupted Walking Fish]

Level 200

HP: 9,657,346/10,000,000

Trait: Dark, Water, Corrupted, Fish

"Now!" Sigma shouted.

Dolly and Topaz simultaneously aimed their palms and released the skills that they are chanting.

"[Bolt of Zeus]!"

Two arcs of electricity appeared simultaneously on their palms and went straight to the fish dangling on the [Chains of the Heavens] and electrocuted the disgusting-looking fish.

Harmless Sparrow is also done with her preparation and performed the position to release the skill before she added her attack to the fray.

"[Electro Pierce]!"

The fish struggled after receiving three attacks in a row. Sigma then throws the fish away from the water. The fish bounces into the snow but it is still alive. It is just immobile for a small period of time, it started moving again after 5 seconds. From all of those attacks, the HP of the monster fell from 9 million to 7 million. It was big damage but the amount of HP the fish retains is still big.

"Hagane! It's your job now!" Sigma shouted.

,m Hagane felt a panic attack seeing the monster before him. It was a big fish, very big that it no longer looks like a fish. It has violet and black color palette which made it look more disgusting. Its fins no longer looked like fins but they looked like frog legs now. The tail doesn't look like a tail coming from a fish but a tail that seems to be ready to evolve into a small leg that is capable of swimming due to how it has some parts of it being a fin.

Not only that, it has big eyes that don't blink and moves slowly to stare at its target. For some unknown reason, it also has thick lips and big razor-sharp teeth. It is a very uncanny monster making Hagane's fear of underwater kick in. However, he didn't want to be a burden to everyone. And he activated the [Taunt]. He can feel the cold sweat running on his neck, and back as the abomination of a fish started to walk very fast towards his location.

Hagane freaked out. His fear is not just invoked exclusively by staring at the deep blue sea or any kind of deep bodies of water. It also involves looking at anything that is living from the depths of the water like this fish. Because the fish is an abomination that also coincidentally came under the deepest depths of the Frozen lake, the fear intensified in the systems of Hagane.

Seeing the fish start running towards him, he didn't hold back and started screaming while still taunting the monster to chase him around. If it was a comical interaction, this scene would look funny but it wasn't and Hagane is genuinely afraid.

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Sigma found the plan effective and is concerned about Hagane. Her purpose in doing this is to at least make Hagane gain some resistance from his fear but she also knows that it isn't going to be an easy thing. So she also advised him that if things are not working and if he felt like it is no longer something he can handle, he should start running. It was too soon that Hagane started running but it was still within the scope of her plans the extra early run Hagane.

"Iron!"

Iron nodded and cast [Taunt] too. Since the effects of [Taunt] will be overwritten once a new [Taunt] effect is activated, the target immediately shifted towards Iron immediately, freeing Hagane from being chased by a monstrous enemy.

With the successful target shift, Dolly quickly went to Hagane and pat his back for a bit.

"You alright? Don't push yourself too much. It might just be a game but it still managed to invoke your fears. Don't push it too hard to be brave against it if you still retain the fear you are feeling," Dolly is worried about Hagane but Hagane smiled while still sweating profusely.

"Don't worry. I can still fight and you all are here to help. I can still do this."

Iron is now the one being chased by the monster but since he is not afraid of it, he didn't move and used his two shields to block the mouth of the fish. It was hard but he still managed to stop it from biting him.

"Alright! I have it in my grasp!"

Bladeheart's Mother pulls out the Poison Potion and Blinding Potion before throwing them into the open mouth of the fish. Iron and Bladeheart's mother quickly retreated before the fish chomps the two bottles.

"Good! Mr.Teddy! Sazan-san! Punch and kick at your heart's content!"

The two went to their fighting stance.

"Finally! Let's punch this fish as much as we can and make sure to make its meat as tender as possible!"