True enough, Udmelekh was indeed busy with herself at the moment. Maven’s arrow which got rid of his eyes drove her rolling around in pain.

Declan, whose speed was the lowest among them once again looked back. He saw Udmelekh lifted its chest then crouched, opening its mouth wide to roar with wrath. Its feet moved very fast. It cut its distance to its four opponents by more than a half in a blink of an eye.

One more arrow was shot and this time deflected by Udmelekh’s tendril. Reyl also tried to use his ranged technique, Crescent Firebolt and again was repelled by its snail shell.

“This is madness! Can’t we hurt her severe enough?” yelled Declan in frustration, blocking attack after attack while he kept running.

Sophia who was running at the farthest front of the group yelled in panic, “W-we can’t! Frost Arrow, my fastest spell won’t do, it’ll be blocked for sure!”

Suddenly Maven shouted, “Hey! I have an idea!”

When Maven had the her partners' attention, she pointed around as signals. The other three nodded, fathoming her clues. Reyl gave his own signal with one finger, then two, then a fist.

“An Jokul’me Infer!” Sophia shot her spell, Frost Arrow accompanying Maven’s three arrows that were shot at once. Followed by Reyl’s Crescent Firebolt and a beam of sharp white light launching from Declan's trident that was his move, Illuminating Light of Faith.

Those were six attacks on six different targets, the human head, the remaining eye, the chest, left belly, center belly and its mouth. Certainly, the Fat Lady was quick enough to swing its arms and tendrils to deflect them. From all the attacks, the ones that hit their target being Reyl’s firebolt on the chest and Declan’s beam on the left belly. The power of both attacks was enough to beat Udmelekh back.

The Fat Lady then charged back while roaring, but by then her opponents were already out of reach.

"Good, it looks like we have lost her.” Reyl smiled while he kept running. His partners followed him, passing through turns and forks of the cavern.

A moment later, fast and heavy tramplings were heard.

Reyl looked back. His smile was gone, replaced with dread, ”By Vadis! Udmelekh has caught up with us!”

Declan shouted, “Reyl, look at the map, find a road towards the center of the cave!”

Reyl looked again at his map. “Oh, right! It's not far from here. We’ll go there! I think I know where you’re going with this, Dec.”

“Really? Well, it’s simple enough, but I hope Udmelekh has lost its human intelligence and thus won’t be able to guess this plan.”

Maven kept running while pointing. “That’s a gap over there. Is that the way?”

“Yes! That must be it!” Reyl nodded and entered the gap. “We’ll hold back Udmelekh here! Sophia, prepare your strongest spell!”

“All right!” Sophia quickly took the rearest position and raised her magic staff. The icy aura was as though began to envelope her body.

Udmelekh roared again.

“Here it is… hold it back!”

The Fat Lady was of course too big for this narrow gap. Only her round belly could be seen from inside. Immediately Reyl and Declan rained upon it with full power slashes. Their sharp blades only carved narrow scratches on that thick pile of fat, like their previous try.

Followed by Maven’s yelling. “Look, guys! Its navel is contracting in a strange way! It’s like it’s about to…. shoot something!”

Declan went panicked. “Argh! We don’t have anything to clog it up here! Quick, Sophia, just shoot her first!”

“But I don’t have enough power just yet!”

“Dodge it quick!” Reyl yelled. Declan, Reyl and Maven immediately ran into behind the witch’s back.

Quickly Maven shot an arrow into the giant navel as a last try. Instead of clogging it up, the arrow only sank it deeper.

“I’ll just use this then! An Jokul’me Fyasch!”

A projectile of Blizzard flew from Sophia’s staff straight into Udmelekh’s navel. At the same time, the giant navel shot a dark beam which was able to ‘carve’ that narrow gap to become a little bigger.

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The next moment, the two powers collided, pushing into each other.

“Oh, snap! Blizzard is being pushed back by the black beam!” Declan yelled.

“I told you… this is not… my strongest spell! Eeek! I can’t go anymore! I’m sorry, my part….”

“Come on, Sophia, we will help! Hold her!” Maven asked while channeling her own energy into her partner's body by pressing Sophia's shoulder with her hand.

Declan also put his hand on Maven’s shoulder. “Yes! Together we stand!" Reyl also followed suit.

With additional energy reinforcement from her partners, Sophia’s Blizzard gradually pushed the black beam back. Slowly but surely her magic was approaching the enemy.

Reyl roared, “Udmelekh might be stronger than the four of us, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be beaten! Here’s the last push, heyaaaaah!” He boosted his inner strength and channeled it at once.

Declan and Maven followed his lead. Sophia manifested their energy by sending one wave of blizzard rolling like a whirlwind towards the enemy.

The collision of the two powers created one massive explosion that blew the four warriors into an open space….

The center of Modgard Cave, Udmelekh’s nest.

Declan sprawled on the ground, he felt his body aching all over. He rose up and sat down. He found Sophia and Reyl lying down not far from him.

Only Maven slowly got up and stood limply. The girl was reeling, putting her bow back and grabbed her twin daggers with shaking hands.

A moment later, Udmelekh's roar was heard. Declan tried to stood up again, and again he fell. He then shouted, “Run, Maven!”

Maven hesitated, “No! I won’t leave without you guys!”

Her declaration was greeted by the Fat Lady's entrance.

“Hey, Fat Lady! Catch me if you can!" Maven swiftly moved. Her feet jumped upon the wall, stalactites, slatagmites, and the cavern pillars. The giant monster swung its tendrils around as if it was chasing off bumbling and biting mosquitoes.

Until later, the fat monster swung its two left arms as hard as it could. Again it missed.

Suddenly Maven approached and immediately reigned upon the monster’s head with a chain of full power stabs that resembled drilling, the Soul-Splitting Vortex move. Again and again without rest, struggling to erode its thick head skin.

The green slime blood began to spray from Udmelekh’s head along with its painful roar. For a moment, the monster seemed resigned, unmoving from its spot. The next moment, it swung her tendrils, wrapping around Maven’s body from breasts to feet.

Maven was taken by surprise. It turned out she was too busy attacking that she neglected to defend and evade. She misjudged the remaining strength of the enemy. It costed her special technique to be broken easily. Now she was squeezed like a prey of a twister boa snake. A second later, lightning began to run through the tendrils.

Maven was paralyzed, her eyes turned white. The magical electricity came out through her gasping mouth. Without her own inner energy and protective aura, she would’ve died instantly.

“Maven!” Declan tried to stand up to help, but his body simply refused to obey his brain. Despair began to show on his facial expression.

Declan heard another roar, but it was a human’s. He turned around and looked at Reyl standing up yet slightly bent, emanating the aura of black flame all over his body. His eyes turned red, glaring furiously. There were strange wrinkles like popping veins on his forehead. Not believing what he was seeing, Declan forced himself to stand up.

Wielding his sword with both hands, Reyl charged forward. Still roaring, the young man swung his sword ferociously.

Udmelekh swung her claws towards the enemy. Suddenly its giant arm was already sent away, severed and flying like it was just cut off by a giant saber.

Not only that, the crazed Reyl already cut off the tendrils so the victim it was squeezing fell into the ground.

Udmelekh then bent its head forward to swallow Reyl whole, but greeted by the frenzied attack that shattered the monster’s mouth, tearing apart the head of the Fat Lady without mercy.

It was followed by one special technique like drilling upon the head, which was already cracked open previously by Maven. Greenish slime blood began to spray all around. Until Reyl’s blade was buried completely inside Udmelekh’s head.

The giant monster reeled briefly. It collapsed sideways on the ground, lifeless.

Reyl landed smoothly on the ground, without his sword.

The reeling Declan was flabbergasted on witnessing the dreadful act Reyl had just committed. He then approached the half-bent man, still shrouded by the demonic aura while saying, “Reyl, that was…. demonic power…. That couldn’t be your own power.”

He quickly pointed. “Ah, look! The pendant on your chest, it’s glowing! Don’t tell me…”

Declan didn’t get to finish his sentence as Reyl suddenly attacked him, barraging the stray cleric with frenzied punches. Thus Declan was forced to block him with his trident.

‘H-Hey! Reyl! Are you mad? This is me, Declan, your partner! Re… uuugh!”

One of the punches landed on Declan’s belly, followed by another on his temple. Then, the rain of fists became unstoppable until the cleric dropped his trident.

Declan grunted. “Damn you! You want to play rough, eh? Here, take this! And this!”

The two men exchanged blows without pulling back for a second. Even if both of them were covered in protective aura, it seemed that Declan’s face was the first to turn blue.

On the contrary, Reyl was still in frenzy, barraging his opponent with punches and kicks. Then he threw a single powerful punch, landing on the opponent’s belly and threw him far away towards the monster’s carcass.

The exhausted Declan only sat down in resignation. The sight of Reyl kept charging towards him only discouraged him. One single fist shrouded by dark energy could crack a skull in one go. Declan was too stunned to resist the incoming death.

Suddenly, the said death was swept aside, his attack was bent elsewhere. Declan tried to focus his blurry sight on Reyl. Strangely, what he found was the frenzied guy was kept busy by several creatures ganging up on him.

Looking up more closely, those creatures turned out to be monsters. They had also gone mad from seeing their queen's death. Their instinct drove those monsters to kill everyone still standing, as well as turning against each other. Slowly, Reyl became drowned in the sea of monsters.

Declan then turned towards the unconscious Maven. Sophia sat beside her, watching the transpiring horror with shaking hands.

A moment later, the cavern dome where the Fat Lady once nested began to spin. It was gradually darkened and darkened… along with the sound of Declan collapsing to the ground.

Everything turned black. Declan felt nothing more.