Chapter 41 – Queen Brooder (3)

The queen, however, was not resigned to die like this.

With an angry screech, it directed its gaze to D’vina and activated its second skill, ‘Intimidation’.

Light shined in its eyes, and D’vina’s body suddenly froze.

“Crap!”

Alarmed, D’vina circulated her mana aggressively to escape from the monster's skill, but the brief instant she stopped was enough for it to counter-attack. The queen used its tail to attack D’vina, trying to cut her body into two. D’vina used her greatsword to defend hurriedly, but the monster strength was greater than she expected. With a grunt of pain, she was sent flying away.

The monster tried to pursue the attack, but Caira next spell was already ready. It was a variant spell created by mixing her first spell, ‘Fireball’, with her third spell, ‘Heat Zone’.

‘Detonate’.

The ball of fire exploded on the monster’s face, forcing it to protect itself from the explosion. Before long, Cir and Wulf attacks were already before it.

The monster continued to defend awkwardly while crying in pain, but the injuries on its body were increasing little by little. It was obvious that it was going to die before long.

The four level five could not hide the expressions of excitement on their faces while the monster continued to retreat.

Meanwhile, Aleen and the others were defending against the monsters that survived Caira’s attack.

The lower leveled brooders were attacking the group furiously, trying to help their queen. Occasionally, some of them were killed by one of the level five warriors, but most of them attacked the group of level one behind the mage.

Aleen slashed with his sword while circulating the mana inside his body. His attack beheaded a level two monster, but one of the monster’s claws got to hit him before he could kill the beast.

Fortunately, Elvila’s shield protected him from the attack, so he was uninjured. Quickly, Aleen used his sword to defend against another attack and kicked away a beast trying to kill Ana; but another beast used its claws to crush one of the remaining wolfkins, killing it instantly.

The group of survivors had been halved from the moment when the fight began. To be honest, the only reason that so many were still alive was thanks to Elvila’s skill, ‘Mana Barrier’.

Different from Aleen, Elvila had perfected her first skill greatly, allowing her to create until four barriers at the same time and to change the size and shape of them according to the situation.

Though the barriers were unable to endure the attack of a level five, they were more than enough against level two and level three monsters. Even a level four would have trouble trying to break it in one attack.

Due to it, Aleen could attack the monster without worrying about being injured. Using the thrusting stance, he stabbed with his sword skillfully, killing various monster from the beginning of the fight.

And when a level four monster attacked, Caira would use a spell to kill it quickly before it could cause any damage.

To be honest, Aleen found that the battle was safer than he expected despite the number of monsters attacking. Even now, he could not feel the threat of death thanks to the protection of the barrier and Caira’s sporadic spells.

But even with these favorable conditions, the number of deaths on his side continued to increase. Every second another level one would die below a monster’s claw, showing Aleen the true terror of this place.

It was something cruel, but it showed Aleen the truth about D’vina words. In this place, you can only depend on yourself.

So, he fought.

Waving his sword, he slashed and stabbed monster after monster while using his skill and circulating the mana inside his body furiously. He made sure to control the amount of mana remaining inside him, but besides it, he only concentrated on killing more monsters.

Soon, his surroundings were filled with corpses and dead monsters.

Aleen did not notice, but Elvila, Ana, and even Caira, were looking towards him with a change in their expressions.

Aleen current state was like a bolt of lightning, cutting everything in his path without stopping before nothing.

His aspect of lightning was activated, and Aleen seemed to understand a bit more about how to use his skill after every use. His breathing became ragged, and sweat flowed down from his forehead, but his legs never stopped advancing, and his hands never ceased to attack. At some point, even the monsters seemed to fear to go near him.

Of course, a great part of the reason behind it was that no attack was able to break Elvila’s barrier; and even when her barrier was broken, another one appeared almost instantly.

While the monsters continued attacking and Aleen continued fighting, the group of level five finally cornered the monster.

The queen's body was covered with injuries and two of its claws were gone. It was already near its last breath and its strength was almost spent.

But the price the group paid to reach to this point was not small. During the fight, Wulf’s body was impacted by one claw, almost torn apart. He only survived thanks to the defense of one of his skills, ‘Steel body’, but despite it, three claw marks could be seen on his back.

D’vina and Caira, on the other hand, were almost out of mana. The one with the best condition of them was Cir, that only attacked when the queen showed an opening. But despite it, his mana was reduced by at least half.

*ROARRRRR!!!* The queen received another blow from Wulf’s claws and cried in pain. But when it tried to counterattack, Wulf jumped back. At that moment, a projectile of burning plasma attacked its side, forcing the queen to defend quickly.

The power behind the attack made the queen stagger briefly. Unfortunately for the queen, D’vina was already behind it, waiting for this opportunity.

At the instant when the queen staggered, D’vina raised her sword and activated her ‘Sword Domain’. Then, she compressed all the sword intent around in her sword and activated her fourth skill.

A silver glow illuminated the surroundings, and the sharp sword intent prickled the monster skin. With a cry of fear, the queen brooder activated its defensive skill with all its strength. It, however, did nothing to stop D’vina.

With a cry, D'vina determined the queen's judgment.

“Descend, ‘Calamity Sword’!”

And the sword descended.

In a second, the storm of sword intent swallowed the monster whole and a cloud of dust blinded the four level five’s sights.

Seeing the destruction caused by the skill, the other three showed astonished expressions.

“I didn’t expect you had something like that.” Wulf growled after witnessing the skill.

D’vina panted heavily without answering while trying to recover a bit of her mana.

After a few seconds, the dust cleared and the queen brooder appeared again.

It was still alive, but barely. Its body was filled with cuts, and only two of its claws were intact. It was lying on the ground, whimpering softly in pain.

“It was easier than I thought.” Caira said with a grin while observing the damage caused by D’vina’s attack.

Cir also came closer at that moment. Looking to the gravely injured monster, he asked.

“Who is going to kill it?”

“Is it not obvious?” Caira answered. “I’m the leader and I got the monster out of the nest, so I deserve the points.”

Cir and Wulf frowned when they heard her. It was obvious that they also were interested in the points they could get with the death of a level five.

“I disagree.” Wulf growled. “I was the only one that suffered injuries during the fight. I think that it’s better if the monster goes to me.”

“Injuries? Something like that can be healed without a problem. I think that it’s better if I kill the monster.”

The three people frowned at the same time. Killing the monster was sometimes a problem in this kind of missions, mainly when the participants were not familiar with each other. It was normal for everybody to want to get the points.

With an expression of discontent, Caira looked D’vina. “What do you say, sword lady?”

“… I don’t need it.” She said with an ice-cold expression.

The other three put surprised expressions, but D’vina dimply closed her eyes and sat in the ground to recover her spent mana while ignoring their gazes.

But at that moment, something unexpected happened.

The monster, lying on the ground, suddenly roared.

*ROAAAAAAR!!!*

It was a cry of pain, of anger and a cry of help.

A cry expecting for something to come to his rescue.

And underground, something answered.

With a deep roar, the earth shook once again.