Chapter 170: Overclock
"Will it show itself again?"
As if to answer Valric's question, a massive shadow loomed above them out of nowhere, its sharp clawed legs tearing through the air as they descended with overwhelming force, only a fraction of a second away from crushing them all at once. Before it could complete its strike, however, the three leaders moved almost instinctively, each leaping in a different direction to evade the sudden assault in perfect coordination.
In the next split second, one of its legs crashed violently into the ground below, shattering the surface into fragments of debris upon impact and leaving behind a jagged crater in its wake.
"Well, that was close!"
Regaining their footing nearby, the leaders wasted no time as they lunged toward the creature almost immediately. Seraphina moved from behind, Mistwalker advanced from the left, and Valric pressed in from the right, closing in on the enemy from three directions at once.
The creature raised its claws and blocked the two attacks in front of it with ease, which left its back momentarily exposed. In response, it released a barrage of needles to guard its rear, yet there was nothing but empty air to pierce through, though.
In the next moment, she reappeared just behind its neck, her blade cutting through the air with a sharp whistle, aiming to sever its head clean off. However, before the strike could land, the creature reacted with uncanny awareness, as though it had sensed her presence at the exact moment she reemerged.
'No good!'
A strange expression appeared on her face.
'But it's still as I expected.'
Just as the creature began to vanish once more, or was about to, Seraphina adjusted her movement without hesitation, twisting her wrists mid-strike and redirecting the arc of her blade downward with incredible speed.
The edge carved through its back in a wide, sweeping motion, slicing its flesh open from shoulder to waist in a deep and violent arc.
Of course, such a strike had only been possible because she had amplified her speed with lightning magic at the last possible moment, pushing her body beyond its usual limits in that brief instant.
She could have attempted the same motion toward its neck, but the thickness of it would have required more than a fleeting moment to cut through, which would have given the creature enough time to retreat and render the entire attempt meaningless.
In the next moment though, the creature disappeared into thin air as though it had never been there.
Seraphina's gaze drifted toward her blood-stained blade, lingering there briefly.
'I wonder...'
What would truly happen when blood poured from its wounds and fell toward the ground while it remained under the effect of its Camouflage ability? Would those drops reveal its position even if its body remained invisible? Or would they vanish along with it?
If it were the former, then tracking the creature would become significantly easier, as they could follow the trail of blood without alerting it to their intentions. Unfortunately, the answer had always seemed to be the latter, since no droplets had ever appeared falling through the air, at least none that she had been able to notice.
In that case, how exactly did its ability function?
She did not know.
And there was no clear way to find out.
...Just then, the creature revealed itself once more at the far end of the hall, releasing a deafening shriek that echoed through the surroundings, a sound that seemed to be born purely from agonizing pain. The glow emanating from the tentacles that covered its face intensified, forming a dim and eerie light, while its malicious dark eyes became clearly visible at the center of those stars, glinting ominously.
At the same time, the scattered fragments of debris began to shift, drawn inward toward the crater at a terrifying pace as though pulled by an invisible force.
'Fifty seconds left?'
Before the creature could launch another attack, Seraphina surged forward like a bolt of lightning, but despite her overwhelming speed, the creature deflected her strike with unsettling ease, sending her body hurtling through the air.
In the next split second, it appeared directly in front of her once more, its claw descending with brutal force toward her midair figure. This time, however, Seraphina had already regained her posture, bringing her blade up just in time to block the attack, her boots grinding harshly against the uneven floor as she was forced backward by the sheer pressure behind the strike.
'Something has changed.'
In the following exchange, Seraphina unleashed a relentless barrage of strikes within the span of a single second, each one aimed precisely at its wrists in an attempt to sever them cleanly, but every attack was deflected with unnerving accuracy, the force behind those counters pushing her back ever so slightly with each clash.
That alone was not unexpected given its abilities, but within those rapid exchanges, she could feel it clearly: the nature of its attacks was shifting as time passed.
Where it once fought with calculated precision, it had now grown far more ruthless, a form of calculated ruthlessness that suggested it had no time left to spare. Whether that change was born from the pain of its injuries or from something far more dangerous remained unknown, but within that shift lay a fleeting opening, a narrow chance that Seraphina intended to seize in order to turn the tide of the battle in her favor.
Blocking its claw head-on, she redirected it sideways in a swift motion, and before its other claw could descend, she slipped beneath its thighs like a streak of lightning and thrust her blade backward into its unwounded knee, forcing a deafening shriek out of the creature, though the damage still wasn't enough to make it stagger back.
In the next moment, the creature jerked its leg upward in a rough and awkward motion in order to free itself from the blade, the sudden force behind it compelling her to leap back at once so she wouldn't be thrown away by the sheer pressure of it.
As she landed on the ground, steadying herself within a fraction of a second...
Out of pure rage, the boss began to lash out with its clawed limbs in every direction at once, its movements wild and relentless as it tried to defend itself from the pesky human who had dared to wound it.
As time passed though, Seraphina weaved her way through that unpredictable barrage of attacks that came crashing toward her from all sides, her body moving with careful precision as she barely managed to evade them. Even with such a disadvantage weighing on her though, she still attempted to break through its defenses, but each attempt ended in failure.
Which was why she chose to change her tactics.
Instead of confronting it directly, she began circling around the creature with all the speed she could draw out, combining it with the augmentation of her lightning magic. Her figure had gradually become difficult to track with the naked eye, almost resembling a circular trail of crackling lightning surrounding the creature.
That was how it appeared in hindsight.
In truth however, her speed had not yet reached the level of actual lightning, but it had already surpassed what anyone of her caliber should have been capable of.
Although her intent had only been to deceive the creature's perception through this method, to her slight surprise, it ended up working better than she had anticipated.
The creature struggled to pinpoint her exact position as she continued circling it even though its ability should have allowed it to track her. Instead, it resorted to lashing its limbs wildly everywhere in an attempt to finish her off quickly, but each strike fell just a fraction of a second too late to catch her, making it appear as though it had grown sluggish in comparison to her overwhelming speed, which aligned perfectly with what she had intended to achieve.
'It should be just about enough.'
Before the creature could fully comprehend what was about to happen, Seraphina launched herself from that circling current of lightning and struck, then struck again, and again... delivering countless attacks across different parts of its body from various angles and positions.
Her movements were so fast that it seemed as though countless bolts of lightning shaped like blades were tearing through its body all at once. Its skin was splitting open wherever those strikes passed as dark blood began to seep out in thin streams. Although the wounds were neither as deep nor as devastating as the earlier ones, they were still enough to gradually slow it down, even if only slightly.
Of course, her decision to keep moving in a constant circle had never been meant as a mere distraction, but rather as a means to push her speed beyond its usual limits, allowing her to build enough momentum to overwhelm the creature to the point where it failed to counter her attacks, even while being aware of where they would land.
If she could push herself beyond the creature's reaction speed, then its awareness would lose its value entirely, would it not?
The creature, naturally, attempted to stop her through every method it could muster, even going as far as to fire sharp needle-like projectiles toward her, but none of it proved sufficient to halt her movements, at least not in any direct way.
...
The way the Captain's blade flashed through the air as she twisted her wrist with each motion carried a level of smoothness and precision that bordered on the inhuman, something that even a seasoned swordsman like Valric found difficult to fully comprehend.
There seemed to be a peculiar rhythm woven into every one of her attacks, as though each strike had been placed deliberately within a strange pattern.
He found himself more surprised than he had expected.
And there was little reason not to be.
Even with his experience, he struggled to follow her movements in their entirety, his gaze failing to keep up with the pace she had set, after all.
"Damn, I knew she is strong but this is..."
The words never reached completion.
He was not given the opportunity to finish them.
...
At some point, Seraphina finally came to a halt right in front of the creature, faint sparks of lightning still dancing along the surface of her armor
The creature, however, still stood before her, its massive form now covered in countless fresh wounds that bled slowly, but even in that state it remained standing, still moving, still gazing down at her as though it found the entire exchange rather amusing.
She frowned, 'How strange! Why isn't it activating its Camouflage ability yet?'
She had expected it to flee long ago after getting cornered so thoroughly, but to her surprise, the creature showed no intention of doing so, despite how futile its attacks had become and how many wounds it had suffered under her relentless assault.
Why was that?
Sadly, she could not arrive at any conclusion.
Therefore...
'I will simply have to force it out myself.'
In the next moment, her figure blurred as she vanished from where she stood, only to reappear behind its neck with a fluid precision, her blade slicing through the air at a terrifying speed as it traced a horizontal arc meant to sever its neck cleanly, but the blade cut nothing but empty air.
The creature had already disappeared.
Her eyes widened, if only slightly.
In the next moment, something immense and crushing slammed into her back with a force so overwhelming that her armor bent inward under the impact while several of her ribs were on the verge of cracking, sending her shot through the air like a projectile stripped of control.
'But how?'
Her body crashed into the ground nearby with such force that a web of cracks spread outward beneath her, fragments of debris bursting into the air and scattering in all directions. Luckily, she had managed to twist herself mid-air just in time to avoid landing in a way that would have left her completely broken.
A taste of salt spread across her mouth.
It seemed the boss was on the verge of evolving in the midst of the battle much like the Goblin King had, and that change must have elevated either its natural speed or the activation of its abilities to a level that surpassed what she had accounted for, which explained how it had slipped past her perception so cleanly. Perhaps it had even chosen not to use its Camouflage earlier, waiting with unsettling patience until she grew confident enough in her advantage to attempt a decisive strike.
'How troublesome!'
Before she could gather herself further, a massive shadow swallowed her vision as its clawed leg descended toward her at a terrifying speed, the intent behind it painfully clear as it sought to crush her beneath its weight without hesitation.
...
Valric was about to lunge forward, his body leaning into motion, when a hand rose in front of him and stopped him in place before he could take even a single step.
His gaze followed the arm until he found Mistwalker, who was shaking her head slowly with a trace of indignation.
"No need to assist her."
He raised an eyebrow, confusion flickering across his face. "Why not?"
Before she could answer though, a violent shockwave tore through the corridor as the creature's strike landed, forcing both of them to shield their eyes as dust and debris surged outward, swallowing the scene as though the human had been completely crushed beneath it.
Mistwalker turned her head slightly, or at least it seemed that way. "We would only get in her way."
Valric blinked twice. "It feels kind of ironic coming from the strongest person in the whole town, though."
As the dust gradually thinned and the air cleared, his gaze sharpened, revealing Seraphina standing her ground beneath the creature's leg, her hands braced above her chest as she held back the crushing weight, even though the sheer strength behind it was overwhelming to the point that a single mistake would undoubtedly cost her life.
Despite that, there was no hint of panic in her expression, not even a bit.
A shadow crossed Valric's face. "But I get what you mean... I really do."
It was true that he wanted nothing more than to take the creature's life with his own hands, the urge burning within him with a fierce intensity, but he also understood that his desires meant nothing compared to what was at stake, since the longer this dragged on, the worse everything would become due to the teleportation circle nearing restoration as well as the creature edging closer to evolution.
'It seemed the time is not on our side. In that case...'
Turning on his heel, he moved toward the teleportation circle which had nearly been restored, only the intricate patterns remaining incomplete as they slowly reformed on the surface.
Stopping in front of it, he raised his greatsword and drove it into the ground with force, carving out a crater that disrupted its formation, but the damaged portion began to mend almost immediately as if rejecting his interference.
Without hesitation, he struck again.
And again... and again.
'...I'll simply have to buy time instead. It's far better than standing here watching the battle anyway.'
Mistwalker gave him a strange look, or at least he thought she did, though he did not turn to confirm it.
'So odd.'
...
As the creature's leg pressed down with devastating strength, threatening to crush her ribs into dust, Seraphina gathered every ounce of her strength into her arms and forced it upward with a sudden burst of power, attempting to throw it off balance.
It was not enough to make it stagger or retreat, but it disrupted its balance for a brief moment, though in the next second it drove its leg down again with even greater force, smashing into the ground and leaving a deep crater in its wake.
By then, Seraphina had already rolled away, her body moving swiftly across the ground as she evaded the follow-up strike within that narrow window of distraction.
She came to a stop and rose smoothly, her hand reaching for the sword that had fallen nearby as her fingers closed around its hilt with practiced ease.
'Only ten seconds left.'
She tried to move, but her body felt heavier than it ever had, to the point where even the mere attempt to lift it became a burden in itself. Her muscles were utterly unwilling to answer her call, which must have been the price she had to pay after forcing them beyond their limits in such a short span of time, pushing both her speed and her natural strength to their very peak without a moment of restraint.
Embedding her sword into the ground, she leaned against it and forced herself to rise, her cloak swaying softly behind her.
'But it shall be more than enough.'
The creature lunged at her once more, its speed dulled ever so slightly compared to before, but it still remained nothing short of astonishing, its massive form tearing through the air with relentless intent as it sought to crush her where she stood.
Before it could reach her, however, her figure turned indistinct, as though she existed in two places at once, present and absent within the same fleeting instant, while countless sparks of lightning danced along the surface of her armor.
"First Form: Swift Step!"
Its claw tore through nothing but empty air in the next moment, and by the time it realized the absence of its target, Seraphina had already appeared behind its neck, her blade poised a mere inch away from severing it cleanly, only for her strike to halt midway as she twisted her body and raised her arm, intercepting a claw that came from behind her in a sudden and precise counter.
The impact sent her flying through the air, her body cutting across the distance with tremendous force, but before she could crash into the nearby wall, she twisted her torso midair and drove a devastating kick into its surface, using the recoil to propel herself back into motion, or at least that was how it appeared to the naked eye.
The creature vanished from sight once again, but the moment it attempted to close in on her, the tip of her blade pierced straight through its abdomen as if she had anticipated its exact position all along.
The force of the strike sent both of them hurtling through the air together.
In response, it lashed out at her suspended form, attempting to shake the blade free from its flesh, but before the attack could land, she used the embedded sword as an anchor, drawing her body inward as she crouched against it, then unleashed a devastating kick into its abdomen while concentrating as much lightning magic as she could muster into her legs. The surge of power bent its massive frame ever so slightly as she wrenched her blade free in the same motion.
Even so, the resilience of its muscles and bones proved extraordinary, enough to endure the impact without collapsing, although the force still sent it flying away regardless.
In retaliation, it unleashed a barrage of thin needles toward her, but Seraphina twisted her torso at shifting angles with fluid grace, evading every single one as though she could perceive their trajectories before they were even fully formed.
As she descended and landed lightly upon the ground, her posture steady despite the strain coursing through her body, a single needle had already slipped through her awareness, its sharp tip hovering a mere inch away from piercing her face. With a subtle tilt of her head at the final moment, she allowed it to pass just enough before raising her hand and catching it cleanly between her fingers.
All around her, the etched strands of fur that had scattered across the floor erupted into whirlwinds of sparks, except the one she held between her fingers, of course.
Leaning once more against her sword, she exhaled softly, her gaze settling upon the thin strand in her grasp.
'Interesting.'
The creature crashed into the ground nearby, the impact carving a deep crater beneath it.
Soon enough, it surged forward again...
And so did she.
---
As the creature's claw descended toward her, she leaned back just enough to let it pass her by a hair's breadth, the force of it grazing past her without making contact.
Before it could follow through with another strike, Seraphina imbued a precise amount of lightning into her hand and flicked the needle forward, sending it straight into the wound on its leg left behind by Mistwalker.
The needle pierced through its flesh and lodged itself within, but in the next moment, nothing really happened.
There was no explosion, no surge of energy, not even the slightest reaction from the creature itself, as if the needle was nothing more than an ordinary one.
Even though the abilities of monsters differed vastly and often appeared inexplicable compared to those of humans, they were still bound by the same fundamental origin... as both were born from mana itself.
Creatures did not possess an intangible mana core like humans did, but instead they carried a physical core within their bodies, often resembling an orb, which served the same purpose, of course, allowing mana to circulate through defined flowlines that governed the use of their innate abilities.
Dungeon creatures followed the same principle, though their cores were slightly altered in nature, which led to them being referred to as magic stones rather than traditional cores.
So, if those needles were capable of interfering with flowlines themselves, if they could disrupt the paths through which mana traveled...
Would they be able to destroy the flowlines of their own wielder as well, stripping it of its innate abilities entirely?
As the creature's another claw descended toward her with terrifying speed, she leapt backward several times, putting a considerable amount of distance between herself and the enemy.
She tilted her head ever so slightly.
'Did it work?'
There was no way to truly know without testing it herself, and so, without wasting another moment, she raised her hand and cast a jolt of lightning toward the creature. The bolt tore through the air and was about to descend upon its head, yet, in the last second, it veered past her own face at a terrifying speed instead.
Had she not shifted sideways through sheer instinct, her face would have been scorched by her own spell, an outcome she had no desire to witness.
She blinked a couple of times.
'I guess not...'
It appeared that her initial plan to restrict its ability had failed, or at the very least, had not produced the result she sought.
A quiet sigh escaped her lips.
'How disappointing!'
At that moment, the creature released a deafening shriek, the sound alone sending a violent shockwave across the hall as dust and debris trembled beneath its force.
'It's time to end this.'
Pointing her sword behind her in a deliberate motion, she leaned forward and sprinted across the floor at a terrifying speed, her silver hair flowing wildly behind her like a trailing blade.
At the same time, countless jolts of lightning descended from above, spreading across the space like a vast net that sought to devour the creature whole, leaving it with no clear path of escape no matter how it moved. Yet, as expected, the creature diverted every single one of them toward her advancing figure, though she weaved through them with unnatural precision, evading them almost easily.
The lightning struck the ground in violent arcs behind her, carving deep craters into the floor and leaving trails of blackened smoke that rose slowly into the air.
As she closed the distance and the creature lunged forward to meet her, she leapt high into the air, rising to the level of its shoulder while her feet bent slightly upward.
Sparks of lightning danced across the surface of her blade, illuminating it in fleeting flashes as she drew it behind her back, her posture tightening for a single decisive strike, before she brought it down in a wide arc that seemed as though it was tearing the air itself apart.
'Third Form:'
At the same time, a massive serpent manifested above her, its form looming like a descending scythe. Its body shimmered with condensed lightning, each scale flickering with unstable energy, its maw opening wide to reveal fangs shaped from pure voltage. Its eyes mirrored her own, within them blue flames flickering with an intensity that reflected her will.
The serpent moved in perfect synchronization with her blade, as though it were nothing more than an extension of her strike.
'Serpent's Wrath!'
This technique allowed her to cut through nearly anything that stood before her, no matter how resilient it might be, at least within the limits she had witnessed so far.
Such power, however, existed only because of the serpent that followed her motion, a construct born from countless jolts of lightning compressed together into a single entity. Maintaining it, even for a fleeting moment, demanded nearly half of her reserved mana, while the mental strain required to shape and stabilize something as inherently unstable as lightning pressed heavily against her mind.
Even so, this attack would lose all meaning if the creature managed to divert the serpent itself, since it was still a spell at its core.
She had no intention of letting that happen.
Not yet, at least.
At that very moment, she cast countless jolts of lightning around the creature, surrounding it from every direction as they tore through the air, their presence alone threatening to tear it apart where it stood.
She had not forgotten that the creature was incapable of diverting two spells at once.
That weakness was all she needed.
By forcing it into a position where it had to choose, she ensured that regardless of what it attempted to deflect, the other attack would reach its mark.
For a brief moment, everything aligned exactly as she intended.
And yet, strangely, the surrounding jolts of lightning vanished into thin air before they could touch the creature, as though they had never existed at all.
In that same instant, the creature lashed out, its claws tearing toward her mid-air form with unnatural speed, aiming to rip her apart before her strike could complete.
But it was already too late.
Her blade passed cleanly through its neck in a single, fluid motion, the resistance so minimal that it felt as though she had cut through empty space.
At the same time, the serpent descended and devoured its head entirely, its lightning form collapsing inward before dispersing into nothingness.
The severed head fell to the ground with a muted thud and rolled across the fractured surface before coming to a slow halt.
A moment later, the creature's massive body swayed where it stood, then collapsed heavily onto the floor, sending dust and debris outward in a dull wave.
Seraphina landed lightly upon the ground, her posture steady as she sheathed her sword in one smooth motion.
For a brief moment, she simply stood there.
Then, as her gaze settled upon the lifeless body before her, she blinked once, then again.
'How come?'
Just like that... it was dead?
More importantly, where had the creature diverted her spell, since she was certain she had not heard it crash anywhere within the hall, nor had she sensed its impact.
So where had it gone?
She narrowed her eyes slightly.
'Could it be there?'
She quickly looked over her shoulder, toward the entrance of the hall, into the corridor where the wounded remained.
At first, there was nothing wrong, but then countless jolts of lightning appeared at once near the ceiling, falling down at the adventurers at a terrifying speed.
Her eyes widened.
'I have made a grave mistake...'
That was because, unlike Valentina, she possessed neither the ability nor the privilege to dispel such spells on the spot, her control falling short in that critical regard.
After all, it was one of the Unus Paths.
And she had yet to learn it.
---
(Chapter Ended)
To be continued...