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Chapter 269 - One Last Card
🕑 Added 2025-01-01 11:00:10 +0000 UTCOnce again, the labyrinth began to tremble, its walls quaking violently as if the entire structure were alive and in agony. The ceiling above cracked and shifted, threatening to give way. Large chunks of ice and debris fell crashing to the floor with force. But this time, I could feel it. This was no random collapse.
From deep within the labyrinth’s depths, an immense and powerful force stirred. It was as though something was awakening. The tremors were not just the labyrinth collapsing but a reaction to this being’s struggle, its attempt to break free.
The air grew thick with energy, a palpable charge that made every hair on my body stand on end. Every instinct in me screamed to move, to run… It didn’t take for us to see what it was… it was the final guardian. The beast was supposed to be a frost wyvern. They were pretty heavy, so they weren’t supposed to be able to fly under normal circumstances, but this one looked to be able to do that since it had massive dark wings… the wings seemed to be made of shadows, and they spread from the wings to half of the face of the monster.
The beast had one blue eye and another dark one… I didn’t know how that was possible, but it looked like the frost Wraith was able to corrupt the final guardian more than a little.
Roswald and I opened our eyes wide when we saw the massive beast suddenly opening its mouth and then biting the closest ice drake. The creature did that again and again while the ice drakes tried to run away from it, but it failed.
“A cannibal labyrinth guardian?”
“I never heard of that… and it is fast too considering that it is destroying ceiling and the walls.”
The final guardian had a large body, bigger than the corridors, so it was forcing itself out by destroying everything in its path. Still, this could be my chance… while it was busy with the final ice drakes, I could attack it freely.
“I can’t hold back here.”
I turned around and then grabbed some decay arrows… activating Hunter’s Rage, Berserker, Adrenaline Surge, Hunter’s Mark, Deadeye Focus and then, finally, Power Shot. If the monster can escape that unscathed, then I couldn’t fight this thing and I would just run for my life.
“What are you doing? Are you insane?”
“Just testing if this is impossible or not.”
The monster soon took notice of me and it didn’t even try to use magic, it just opened its mouth to swallow me whole. I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity… In the final moment, when the danger for my life was its highest, I unleashed several Decay Arrows in quick succession.
The moment I released the first arrow, the sheer force of it caught me off guard. Despite my stance, the recoil blasted me backward, my boots skidding across the icy floor as if I had been struck by a hammer. The bow vibrated violently in my grip, and my shoulder flared with a sharp pain.
I barely had time to steady myself before drawing the next arrow. My shoulder screamed in pain, each movement sending fresh waves of agony through my arm, but I refused to stop. Gritting my teeth, I locked my gaze on the frost wyvern’s maw.
Pain be damned, I fired again. The second arrow tore through the air, its speed creating a sharp whistle that cut through the sounds of the labyrinth. Each arrow got inside the wyvern’s mouth like lightning bolts. The beast snarled, its corrupted blue and black eyes glaring at me with a mixture of rage and pain. It wasn’t going to go down easily… At the same time, the monster stopped running and then began to shake while hitting the walls and the ceiling violently.
“HHHHHRRUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM!”
I aimed well enough to pierce the brain of the dragon… it wouldn’t surprise me if it pierced through the skull of the monster, but it looked like even the internal defenses of the monster were off the charts.
The shadow began to spread across the monster’s body… as if it reacted based on the anger and pain of the monster. I decided to fire two more arrows and use the enchantments to decrease endurance as well. I couldn’t do more than that since I would mess up my shoulder. In the end, I made those shots count my aiming at the eyes of the beast.
“HHHHHRRUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM!”
The first arrow only pierced halfway, but the second pierced the eye of the monster completely… Still, the ice wyvern kept shaking and hitting everything around violently while blood was gushing from its eyes. My shoulder hurt like hell too.
Despite the pain, the smell of blood made those annoying feelings come at me with full power… so much blood, dragon’s blood. It should be very… no, no, no. I couldn’t follow through with those thoughts. I just turned around and ran with all my might, after a while, I reached the others and Alissandra was crying like never before.
“I am back. It is fine, Aliss. Don’t cry, be a good girl.”
“... Is it fine for you to call her Aliss when you want to find someone to look after her?”
No, it wasn’t, but I couldn’t bring myself to say that. Calling her Aliss also came naturally, and that was really troublesome. I had so few friends that I was getting attached to animals and children that only added a lot more work to my life.
“Anyway, what happened?”
“My best attacks wounded the beast, but not even under the best circumstances was enough to kill it.”
“Well, it would be off if you could solo the final guardian of a demonic tier labyrinth. Even more so when it is being powered by a wraith.”
The power of my arrows was clear, but the toll on my body was starting to become a serious problem. My muscles ached, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain this pace much longer.
For a moment, I considered increasing my parameters, boosting my strength, perhaps, or even my endurance, to attack more. But as the thought lingered, I realized that the real problem wasn’t my ability to land hits, it was how long I could keep firing.
The answer became clear: health regeneration. If I could boost that, I would have the recovery time I needed to keep firing the Decay Arrows. Each cost me some blood, but if I could recover faster, I would be able to keep making them. The wyvern was powerful, but it wasn’t invincible. My arrows were still causing damage, so eventually, it would kill them.
‘This also would open some other paths for me, but I am not sure if I would be able to endure the hunger… I am still adapting from the last time, after all. It also bothers me the fact that I am using my trait that annoyed me so much… Well, it should compensate for all the trouble it caused me.’
I could feel my eyes hurting as I tried to contain my instincts… Perhaps if I let the monster chew me a few times, the blood would kill the beast from inside, but I wasn’t sure if I could endure that much. Until now, my death would only trouble me, but now I had Glacien and Alissandra to worry about.
While I was thinking about that, we reached the first section of the labyrinth. After a while, the trembling suddenly started to become stronger once more, and it looks like the beast had recovered from my attacks… even though I hadn’t recovered from my own attacks yet.
“The break won’t be much of a problem since the guardian ate most of the monsters, but it would be wiser to keep a track of this beast. I can find some people that can help us fight this thing… can I count on you to keep an eye on this thing?”
I didn’t reply. I was still thinking about the options that we had here… it would be dangerous, but the rewards would be amazing as well. Aside from all the loot, the special classes would really come in handy.
Glacien had gotten stronger, but this power up certainly would be above all the others… considering the life that Alissandra could have ahead, a special class so early on her life would help her too. Even if it was something that she couldn’t control completely at first.
Besides, I also needed this kind of power up for the feature… the main thing was, I didn’t want to run away from any battles. I wanted to avoid troublesome situations that I can’t solve with the skill of my bow, but not when it comes to fighting.
“I have one last idea that I want to try, but you can go and look for your friends.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I would rather not explain it.”
Roswald couldn’t help but sigh… we were talking about the safety of his homeland and I was trying to keep secrets. I could understand his exasperation, but I didn’t have to make it easier for him.
“Is there anything I can do to help with your plans?”
“Not really.”
“Hey, listen here…”
Roswald began to complain, but I ignored him. While we were running, I began to work on my plans. I didn’t want to risk the safety of Glacien and Alissandra, so I had to mount the wagon quite fast, too. If something were to happen to me, Glacien could take Alissandra to somewhere else safe… perhaps Roswald could take them both to the Kingdom of Felyndor, but I wasn’t sure of that plan since I didn’t have a good read of his real intentions.
I used a Shadow Step amulet to reach the entrance of the labyrinth faster and then mounted the wagon in no time and then installed a bunch of mana cores in the slot that made the wagon get camouflaged.
“All right, girl. If you notice the link between us breaking, you should run away immediately. You are smart, so I am sure that you will find a safe place for both of you.”
“Hyuuummmm…”
“It is just a countermeasure to kill me off just yet.”
Glacien wasn’t the type to act sad like that, but maybe she could predict my doom with this.
Comments
ThoMiCroN
It is just a countermeasure so* don’t* kill me off just yet.”
