Declan immediately looked. A giant shadow was coming rapidly with trampling steps, shaking the cave their way. He tried to turn around and run towards the narrow tunnel but his weak body made him fall again. He quickly rolled to the side to avoid a giant foot stomping on him.

The next moment, Reyl dashed with his sword stabbing forward, shouting, “Udmelekhhhh!”

Declan immediately looked toward Reyl’s target. A creature with irregular shape as was illustrated on the poster back in the Hunters’ Guild. With the additions of a shell similar to a giant snail’s and giant tendrils like octopus’ tentacles as a replacement for hands.

Two giant long hands with three fingers with claws as long s sword on Udmelekh’s left side slashed ferociously. Her round bouncing, belly shook like a goat wineskin filled with water, propped up by eight crab-like legs which moved rapidly like a spider’s.

The most striking featiure of her appearance was a human’s head, or to be precise, the face of a fat lady merged into the monster’s left chest. It was a complete face with eyes, ears and mouth that didn’t seem to function for having been replaced by two eyes popping out of the monster’s head like a frog’s. Its wide, massive mouth was also like a frog's, with two rows of yellow fangs, long and sharp each. Three pairs of horns sprouted from her body and merged with its head, and could be used as a weapon when head-butting.

Casually the monster that was often called the "Fat Lady” deflected Reyl’s attacks with its tendrils, pushing his sword away. Quickly Reyl bounced his feet against the wall to launch forward like a loose arrow. Again he thrusted, this time threatening the right side of the giant monster.

Again Udmelekh easily pushed its shell-encased shoulder to the front, blocking Reyl’s thrust completely with this natural shield. At the same time its left arm streaked quickly to bury its claws on Reyl. Quickly Reyl pushed his sword on the shell and then bounced back, completely avoided the claws.

Udmelekh stood up straight, its eyes surveyed its surroundings as if studying its opponents. A monstrously loud roar echoed from its giant mouth, opening as wide as a shark’s edifice, spraying greenish mud-like slime.

Reflexively Declan and Reyl rolled sideways to avoid. The green slime scattered and landed on Declan’s armored arm, but a bit of it got to his skin, which began to itch greatly.

Declan shouted, “Look out, Reyl! Toxic slime! Don’t get hit by it!”

Reyl shouted back, “Don’t we have protective aura?”

Declan shook his head, “Not a guarantee. Just don’t let it touch you, no matter what!”

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Reyl didn’t answer back as he was busy moving around, avoiding the deadly tendrils and claws of the monster.

Declan’s power recovery could be hinted from his move. It was not as agile as usual, but enough to avoid almost all enemy attacks. Except when the Fat Lady stabbed its tendrils right into Declan’s chest which was covered by his stronger piece of armor.

The cleric took a step back. The rather light wounds didn’t prevent him to move fast, scratching the other extended tendrils with his trident. Without knowing it, both young men were fighting while keep running away from their opponent. They deflected a lot of rapid attacks from all kinds of weapons that had merged into a single body.

“Declan, have you… argh! already found its weakness? Aargh!” asked Reyl before getting hit on the shoulder and slashed on the back.

“Not yet! I still can’t read its attack patterns… ugh! It is simply attacking blindly! But, ouch! Its tendrils defense is too tight to be breached!” Two more wounds opened up on Declan’s body.

“There’s a turn to the left, watch out!”

Reyl’s warning was too late. Declan’s torn attention between the path and the enemy made him crash into the wall on the layout. The next second Udmelekh pushed its claws to make a skewer meat out of the cornered hunter.

With his strength recovered by half, Declan ducked to the ground and crawled forward. While the monster’s claws crashed and carved holes on the wall.

Before Declan could take another breath, one more claw was swinging towards him. Unable to dodge, he raised his trident with two hands and blocked the attack. Udmelekh’s fingers collided with the trident, its nail tips were just two inches from Declan’s face. Udmelekh’s arm pressured more strongly, and its nails were now just an inch away….

And then the arm stopped. Something fended it off. It's Reyl’s sword. As the result, the pressure on Declan's trident loosened, and the trident owner pushed hard before again rolling to the side.

“Look out, it’s going to spit its slime again!”

Reyl’s warning drove Declan to shift as far and as fast as possible from the enemy while swinging his trident in circles like a whirlwind.

Again the ultra-massive mouth of Udmelekh spitted out green slime, much more then before until it was scattered all over the big tunnel. As the result, Reyl and Declan’s feet were glued by it to the ground and couldn’t be moved.

Not only that, the slime also covered the part of the two men themselves. The itch became a lot more severe. A moment later, the monster's claws and tendrils rushed towards them to free them from their misery. Declan’s heart felt like exploding in the face of death, which at this time was totally impossible to avoid.

Suddenly Udmelekh was stopped in its track. It was in fact pushed back. Its big head which was merged with its shoulder looked up, there was green blood spilling out from there. Curious, Declan squinted his eyes which was covered in slime. His eyes faintly saw something was pierced on the monster’s head, right on its left eye. An arrow.

Flabbergasted, Declan turned around. He found two women. One standing up and aiming her bow, the other pushed forward while pointing her magic staff. The red-haired woman casted, “Petrasancti Tempra!”

At that instance, the Holy Water sprayed from the the tip of her staff, washing down the slimes off Reyl and Declan. The itchy sensation turned into a burning one as their skin blistered, before returning to normal.

“Maven, Sophia! Glad to see you arrive on time,” Declan exclaimed. “Thank you.”

“Save the greetings for later,” Reyl reminded before returning to fighting stance. “The Fat Lady has gone berserk, we must fight her while on the run.”