CH.247 The Battle against the Behemoth

CH.247 The Battle against the Behemoth

[3rd person POV]

“Alex. Can you Harpies start the attack?” Zay asked. Out of everyone, he had been the first to recover.

“... Zay... That... that is a behemoth, right?” Alex asked.

“Yeah. I think so.” Zay confirmed.

“Not a lesser behemoth. A behemoth.”

“Yes. Most likely.”

“An SS-rank monster?”

“Yes.”

“... and you want to fight it?”

“Do we have a choice?” Zay asked. “Either we fight and die, or try to run and still die. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather fight.”

“Well, whatever. I guess we can try.” Alex said. “Harpie Lady Sisters.” He summoned his monster, well monsters, to go along with the Harpie Lady 1 he already had summoned for scouting.

Spoiler[collapse]

A total of four winged ladies moved to attack the behemoth. Someone else with Card Summoner might call that cheating, as most people could only summon two monsters at the same time, but Alex’s card was special, as it could summon three monsters with just one card.

Sadly their claws couldn’t do anything to the massive monster. Maybe if you imagined it, you might have been able to spot a scratch on it, but nothing more than that. And the behemoth didn’t let them keep buzzing around him either, as on the third pass the bird ladies did, it let out a strong pulse of magic, which turned into hundreds of small stones which struck down the Harpies.

“Arhg.” Alex grunted, as the Harpies disappeared. He felt as if small stones were being embedded into his skin.

“Alex?” His old team leader asked worried. “Are you alright?”

“... Yeah. I just... it felt like ... those stones hit me as well.”

There was, of course, no way the attack itself would have hit them. They were still over 2 kilometers away from the behemoth. But unknown to them, the attack of the behemoth had been so powerful that it was able to overpower the regular protection of the Pack Opener cards, and cause damage to the summoner of the defeated monsters.

“How much damage did you take?” Zay asked his friend.

“... 800 HP...” Alex admitted, after taking a quick look at his status.

As the reality of that statement hit Zay, he called out: “Someone take Alex to Josh. He needs immediate healing.”

Had it been a lower level adventurer, or an adventurer with a different set of skills, just the secondary impact caused to the summoner could have killed them. That really helped Zay realize just how bad of a situation they were in. Every attack. Any stray rock flying because of an attack from that monster. They could kill.

After dealing with the flying pests, the behemoth was on the move again. And it only had one target to aim for. The town right in its sights. The massive beast likely didn’t think much of anything, just driven by its will to destroy everything and kill everyone who held mana in their body. And with how weak the initial attack of the town had been, it wasn’t scared of anything. It was the scary beast and what could scare something like it?

Looking at the humans, they were desperately trying to do something to it, but the beast didn’t care. They tried digging a large moat which he would either have to go around or fall into, but the beast used its own magic to fill it in and kept walking.

Then came a few insects, but they were nothing more than literal bugs, so the behemoth would simply shoot rocks at them, and they died.

Spoiler[collapse]

After that, came two steel golems. They were durable enough that just the stones couldn’t take them down. But the behemoth could still stomp on them and crush them beneath its massive body, so they too were nothing but speed bump.

Spoiler[collapse]

But now, the behemoth faced something he considered worth fighting. A pair of humanoid beings. One fully armored and holding a large sword, while the other was flying in the air with its 6 wings.

Spoiler[collapse]

The power emanating from those two was somewhat higher than the previous things the behemoth had faced. It was still nothing he couldn’t handle, but for the first time, he might have actually had to focus on his attacks, instead of just randomly shooting out small rocks into the general direction of the enemy.

As the behemoth gathered some of its magical power, it launched the first real spells it had used. Huge spears of earth and rock flew at the two monsters that stood in front of the behemoth.

The fairy flying in the sky dodged the spear with just a light flap of its wings, while the swordsman on the ground cut through it with ease. Seeing that, the behemoth was happy. Something it could actually play with, without breaking it on the spot.

“... they are... holding their own?” Zay was surprised that the two monsters he had summoned hadn’t died yet. Sure it might be a little grim to send summoned monsters to their death, but it was still better than having to send people there. The monsters on the cards, at least according to Brian, can come back after they die.

“No.” Mrs. Moon said coldly. “The behemoth is just playing around with them, and they are still struggling to stay alive.”

She wasn’t wrong. To this point, the behemoth hadn’t focused any real attacks, and had just been throwing some weak magic around. Well, weak to it. If you were a human, you’d have to be skilled to be able to use magic on that level.

After another few minutes of playing, the behemoth got bored and was ready to take out the two opponents. For that, it gathered power in its mouth and let out a massive roar, inflicting damage to anyone close by. This was the behemoth’s first mistake, as it allowed the humans to use a powerful card.

“A Hero Emerges!” Even with his monsters having taken massive damage from the roar based attack, Zay sensed a difference in the card he had held in his breast pocket. He took it out and activated it. And this time, it did activate.

Spoiler

Yes. Zay clearly has a third arm with which to hold the third card. Don’t question it.

[collapse]Spoiler[collapse]Spoiler

[Cannot be used in a duel] [Art by IntiArt]

Link to the art used:

And some battle music for you all:

[collapse]

Alice didn’t know why she was there. She knew where she had been, she knew where she now was, and most importantly, she knew what to do.

The overwhelming power of all of the times anyone had thought of the prophecy flowed into her body. This power, gathered over the last one hundred and fifty years, was now hers to command. And with only one objective, Alice knew what to do.

Take down the behemoth.

Her mind was clear. She didn’t need to think. She knew what to do. What skills to use, what spells to cast. And most importantly, what cards to summon.

“Pitch-Dark Dragon. Element Dragon.”

Spoiler[collapse]

Truthfully, she had only brought one card with her to her grandfather's party, but when she thought about her cards, they appeared in her hands ready to be used.

Still in her party dress, Alice jumped on the back of the Pitch-Dark Dragon and they took off to the skies. As they soared, Alice began her first chant.

“Dark, embrace us, Shade.” Covering the area in darkness, she made the battlefield more optimal to her, and less so for the behemoth.

Then, she began her assault.

The breath attacks from her dragon, as well as her own spears of darkness soon pommeled the behemoth. While powered up by the prophecy, something so weak was still only slightly hurting the behemoth.

But for the behemoth, this was something new. This small insignificant human was hurting it. The behemoth couldn’t sense any power from that girl, so he didn’t think she was a threat, but he had been proven wrong. While ever so miniscule, she was damaging him. And because of that, the behemoth knew it had to strike back.

The behemoth began to gather mana into its mouth, only to be interrupted by a roar much stronger. A card, set on Alice by Brian, had activated. Threatening Roar.

Spoiler

[collapse]

The card’s activation bought Alice a bit of time, so both her and her dragons could attack the behemoth again. But sadly, the behemoth quickly recovered.

It again gathered mana into its mouth and this time, it was able to let out its roar. But it wasn’t just a roar, it was an attack. An attack that should have hit Alice as if she had flown straight into a brick wall. But lucky for her, Brian didn’t set just one card on her, so the second one activated.

Draining Shield. It turned to roar into not much more than harmless noise, while also giving a massive amount of HP to Alice.

Spoiler

[collapse]

Confused as to why its attack, which had blown away the shade spell Alice cast at the start, hadn’t knocked the flying lizards out of the sky, the behemoth immediately attacked again. This time, shotgunning small stones into every direction at speeds greater than the speed of sound. But again, Alice was protected. This time, by a giant mirror surface which turned all of those small stones back on the behemoth.

Mirror Force had activated, and turned the behemoth's attack back. Because it had put some force into that attack, the behemoth took significant damage.

Spoiler

[collapse]

Getting even more angry, the behemoth attacked again. Again, pulling mana into its mouth, before letting out a massive roar. This time, there was nothing left to stop the attack.

Both of Alice’s dragons instantly burst into specks of light, as they couldn’t take that sort of damage, but luckily for Alice, the special power of her Pitch-Dark Dragon had kept her safe from the damage.

As Alice fell, she used her Mana Flight skill to stop her fall and began floating in midair. It wasn’t something she could do on her own yet, but that didn’t matter at this time. Her entire being was powered up by something much more powerful than skill levels.

Letting go of the two grayed out cards in her hands, she imagined the next two. As her previous two disappeared, likely returning into her magic bag, the next two appeared to take their place.

“Getsu Fuhma. Dark Blade.”

Spoiler[collapse]

Two sword wielders appeared on the ground below Alice. Alice quickly recast the Shade spell, which had been broken by the behemoth’s roar, just so her swordsman and swordswoman would have the cover they needed to approach the behemoth, so they could strike at it.

While they were doing that, Alice kept flying through the air with her skill, while attacking the behemoth with spell after spell. Spears, bullets and waves, whatever she could use, she did. After all, with the prophecy which was trying to come true actively giving her tons of mana, she didn’t have to hold back in fear of running out. All she had to do was keep damaging the behemoth as much as she could, then when she summoned her next monster, she would use the final technique and take the behemoth down.

With the sword wielders buzzing at its feet, and the annoying pest flying in the dark skies, the behemoth knew what to target first. It raised both of its front legs, getting up on its hinds. Gathering a large amount of mana into its front legs, it struck them to the ground causing an earthquake and large spikes to pierce upwards from the ground. And because the spikes were everywhere, it had been impossible for the two sword wielders to dodge them. Their cards, still in the hands of their summoner, lost their color.

But Alice knew this would likely have happened. If this beast went down that easily, the Ultimate Obedient Fiend summoned by her father could have taken it down. So Alice once again let go of the two gray cards, so she could pull out the last one. It had been in the small hidden pocket of her dress.

“Dark Magician Girl.” She called out to summon the monster.

Spoiler

[collapse]

Now, with the two blond haired magicians both flying in the sky, it was time to end this fight.