Chapter 51 – Between Hope and Despair (3)

Aleen felt a shiver running through his back when he saw the monster.

Aleen had already fought against a level three brooder before in the surface, but back then it was gravely injured by Caira’s spell. This one, however, was completely fine, and Aleen did not have any doubt that it was stronger than him.

He, however, was confident.

Without hesitation, he retracted his sword and twisted his body slightly, parrying the attack from the level three brooder. Then, he put more mana into his sword and slashed again towards it.

But when the sword was about to hit the monster, the brooder moved another claw and blocked the attack easily. Then, it thrust another claw towards Aleen’s chest.

The attack was too sudden for Aleen to react, but fortunately, Elvila’s barrier defended him from harm.

The monster, however, did not give up after its attack was stopped. Giving a growl of fury, it swung two more of its claws towards the barrier defending Aleen. The barrier was unable to endure the wave of attacks, and broke quickly under Aleen’s stupefied look; but before the monster could cry in glee, Elvila moved her hand and created another barrier while shooting the level three monster with her gun.

When it saw a new barrier appearing, the brooder screamed in fury and increased the rate of his attacks. Aleen tried to attack it while it was attacking, but the monster was able to parry each of his attacks easily.

Meanwhile, more monsters began to close to the group taking advantage of the level three’s attacks.

Aleen could not help but bit his lips seeing it. He looked towards Ana briefly and saw her hesitating about using her skill. Aleen frowned his brows and shook his head slightly, indicating that it was not the moment.

Ana’s skill was very useful towards groups of enemies, so they could not afford to waste it against just a monster.

Aleen, however, knew that they could not allow the level three’s attacks to continue.

Making his mind at that moment, Aleen concentrated in the rune inside his mind. With a thought, he willed his skill to activate.

Lightning immediately coursed through his body furiously.

Feeling the surroundings slow down, Aleen fixed his sight in the level three before him. Without hesitation, he twisted his sword slightly and avoided the monster’s claws. Then, he stabbed towards the monster’s face.

At that moment, however, Aleen noticed something wrong.

Through the slowed time, Aleen saw the eyes of the monster following the path of the sword. Aleen made an expression of astonishment, but gritted his teeth and continued with the attack despite it.

But when the sword was about to reach to the monster, it moved its body slightly.

It was a small movement; slight enough that in normal circumstances, it would not have affected the outcome of the attack.

But in this situation, this slight movement was enough to change completely the situation.

*Clank*

A metallic noise sounded.

When the sword impacted the monster, instead of hitting its face, the attack ended impacting against the monster’s carapace, creating small sparks due to the strength of the impact.

Aleen felt his sword stopping completely when it hit the monster’s defenses, unable to advance anymore.

The monster faltered slightly due to the strength of the attack, but was otherwise uninjured. Aleen put an expression of surprise and stopped briefly due to the astonishment; but immediately recovered his composure and gritted his teeth again.

Pumping more mana towards his skill, Aleen stepped slightly to a side and recovered his stance before thrusting once more with his sword.

He made use of his slowed perception to aim the sword towards the place where the brooder’s carapace was unable to reach; but unfortunately, the monster was already prepared against Aleen’s incredible speed after the first attack; so, it extended a claw quickly towards the place where the sword was going to reach.

*Clank*

Another metallic noise sounded, and the sword was stopped once more.

Aleen felt his thoughts stopping when he saw it.

From the moment when he first acquired his skill, it was the first time he felt it was completely useless before an enemy.

Even the level three super he faced in the first game was gravely injured when Aleen used the skill against him; but now, Aleen could not hurt the monster in the slightest despite attacking twice with the skill.

Aleen felt his right hand trembling due to the impact of his sword, and he could see the mocking expression on the monster’s face. His mind ran quickly searching for a solution, and his slowed thoughts tried to find a weakness he could exploit.

Unfortunately, ‘Lightning Rush’ was a skill with a limited time of effect, and despite his perception of time being slowed, Aleen could not find an answer so quickly.

Without more option, he gritted his teeth and decided to attack the monster's face again.

His body twisted slightly, and his sword once more was thrust forward. The monster noticed the high-speed attack, and despite its much slower speed, it made use of its stronger body to forcibly move another claw before its face and stop the attack.

When Aleen saw it, he knew that his sword would be stopped again.

He tried to change the path of his sword at the last moment, but his control over his skill wasn’t good enough to make his sword bypass the monster’s defense.

Aleen’s expression could not help but turn ugly.

In this situation, the group could not afford to waste any of their skills. Moreover, if Aleen was unable to kill the level three brooder, their situation would turn worse, forcing Ana to use her skill to stun the enemy so they can kill it.

But if she uses her skill now, then they will become unable to respond effectively against the attack of another high-level monster until their skills come out of cooldown.

Without more option, Aleen put all his weight behind the attack and tried to force the sword through the monster’s claw, while giving a furious cry.

“Haaaaah!”

But at that moment, someone else acted.

Concentrating her mana into her gun-like weapon, Elvila shot a mana bullet towards the claw blocking Aleen’s sword.

Elvila knew that such an attack would not hurt the monster, but she never intended to do it.

When the bullet hit the claw, the strength behind the attack pushed it away from the path of the sword, leaving the monster undefended before Aleen’s attack.

Aleen was unable to react to the changes in the situation, but he did not need. His sword cut unimpeded towards the monster’s face with extreme speed.

An expression of fear appeared in the brooder’s face, and it tried to move its head away from the path of the sword. Unfortunately, it was already too late.

With an unpleasant noise, the sword went through the monster’s eye and cut its brain, killing it instantly.

When Aleen saw it, he put an expression of relief and exhaled softly.