He was already pretty far away from the other retinue when the roar echoed. He was hanging on top of the crystal pillar, several feet high and keeping himself hidden to avoid getting spotted by hostiles as he surveyed his surroundings. His training, including his Kinetic Perception, helped his eyesight by droves, and due to that, he saw what made the sound. It made him pale at the sight.
It looked as close as a kaiju monster like in the monster movies, as tall as a skyscraper and just as wide. Metal adorned its entire body, but there were traces of crystalline veins running across the gray metal. There was also a hint of a scaled body inside, but it wasn’t some sort of lizard or even a dragon.
It was akin to a scaled beast with two heavy hind legs and smaller arms. If he had to guess, it was almost like a dinosaur, except pumped with crap-tons of steroids and heavily adorned in armor.
It’s like a developer wanted to show off a massive raid boss to the kids, Zeke thought honestly, looking at the intensively massive dinosaur.
He once thought that the biodome was following some sort of theme with its animals and monsters, but all he could know was that the entire location felt prehistoric, with the fortress wielding golems as though to protect, or to perhaps fight the boss from within. He already knew that crystals were the main focus, and as far as he knew, that dinosaur had plenty of colorful crystal veins running across its body like the RGB color design from most gaming computers.
Its head was also covered in heavy armor, but as it opened its jaw, there were actual crystal fangs rather than ivory. All of them were bright crimson red. He also noticed that the talons on each arm, small as they were, also had separate colors of blue and yellow. Finally, its massive feet had claws made entirely of green crystal.
He could already guess what they meant, and he hated the thing already. That creature can use different elements depending on its body part, and with the armor decorating its body, it probably had a lot of resistance against physical attacks and most elemental attacks, if not total immunity to elemental magic attacks.
It made a deep, bellowing roar, similar to a tempest forming at the distance. There was no hint of air or wind magic being used–that was just how powerful it was, its voice itself capable of sending out gusts of pure pressure from the impact of it all.
At this distance, he tried to see if he could Identify the monster. He was shocked to find out that it worked, and even more shocked at what he read.
> Nature Weaver Monarch, Level ???
“Fuck me,” Zeke cursed. “It’s Master rank.”
It was similar to when he Identified the Master of the Tower he faced, and it was similar in the question marks.
It was just unfair. They already just defeated a powerful monster that was jacked full of Mana it wasn’t supposed to have thanks to the gods’ hiccup, and now they have to face a natural disaster in order to take over the biodome. He nearly cried, figuring that his barrier wouldn’t do jack shit to the massive boss in front of him, or rather a couple hundred miles away from him.
Forget that, I need to find Mikky and the others.
Zeke peered over his surroundings, using his attunement’s ability Overreach and hoping with this vantage point he could see further ahead. He couldn’t do this before with Clara, worried that he could be distracted and not protect themselves fast enough. By himself, he could easily see the area around him, but it isn’t as good as a scout would.
He found nothing at the moment, so he prepared his barrier skates again using the same gesture. Then he jumped from the top of the crystal pillar, landing at the ground with no hint of stagger. The barrier took the kinetic force with ease as he rode on them across the field.
He needed to find them, and quickly. Even if the army could be distracted by the giant force of a beast near them, he didn’t like the odds stacked against them. He worked better when he was with a team, after all.
…..
Metal clanged to Valorie’s ears as she stabbed directly at her enemy, only finding herself landing another thud against a densely made wall of pure purple flames. The fire felt hot, but more than that, they felt heavy–like pressure was weighing on her the closer she was. It was that same density that has been blocking against her attacks so far, causing her to growl in response.
She jumped away before her vision was filled with hot purple flames, landing directly behind the nearby fortress stones, charred and darkened with hints of purplish embers wisping away.
She surveyed her area for the umpthteen time, noticing the battle so far. Her opponent, being the leader of the army, Roderick, stood upright with a poised expression, even having the audacity to push his glasses towards his eyes casually.
To her side, Zacharia held his great sword up, the several bodies of the fake Journeymen already piled up near him. Blood was streaming down the metal blade, but Zacharia’s expression remained steady as he glared daggers at Roderick.
Beyond that, her husband was currently surrounded with a magical circle he created himself. Cloud prepped his ringed staff, each metal band jangling as he swerved and tilted his staff around, summoning several flaming bands of orange and red fire that were launched straight at Roderick.
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Each band of pure flames were gleaming with a hint of gold as well, being that they were actually golden bands beneath the flames. Each of them were coated in fire, increasing their damage output and even creating a nauseating visual effect the closer they got to their target.
But the purple flames encapsulated Roderick whole, blocking the bands of fire with a resounding thump of impact. The band's flames dispersed, and each of the golden rings dissipated, consumed by the purple entity that all of them knew wasn’t really fire, but something else.
The fires were made with the hint of gravity and spatial control, giving them the ability to pour damage to an enemy while giving them the feeling of physical weight. It was annoying to deal with, especially for a physical fighter, and the fact that Cloud’s attacks didn’t do much against him, it was also effective against magical attacks.
If she were to say which one would be more effective between his defenses and Zeke’s barriers, she would gladly say that while Roderick’s defenses were more effective, she prefers the simple shield that provided safety and security. She could be heavily biased, but then again, she was planning on killing the bastard in front of her.
Her heart became suffused in rage and fury, the man in front of her responsible for not just invading her town unprovoked, all while she and the other soldiers were away, they killed the innocent people, elderly and children alike.
That wasn’t the only one, and she would ignore the shamelessness of it as the idea that her precious daughter possibly being killed by them had already been deeply rooted in her mind. It drove her instincts wild, summoning the fervent energy that she had been trying to control for so many years.
She felt ashamed for losing herself when she finally found the core she needed to tier up her synthesized attunement, being stuck at Tier 2 for the past decade or so. But now that it had tiered up to three, and the enemy in front of her was responsible for the atrocity… Needless to say, she’s been wanting to flex her fangs out for a while. But the damn purple flames kept getting in her way, leaving her poor sword wanting and hungry.
Roderick gave a short grin as he noticed Zacharia launching forward, hitting against the summoned purple flames with heavy grunts. His blows were filled with kinetic energy, and his attunement made his blows heavier each time, capable of reaching Master-class physical strength, but something about the flames caused each strike to be absorbed rather than taken completely, leaving them hollow.
“Impressive, coming from the kingdom’s lapdogs,” Roderick said, his voice sounding calm and composed, even as Zacharia was ready to slaughter him the moment the purple flames disappeared. “But still, none of you are deserving of the riches of this biodome. Honestly, it enrages me that this is so close to your home. Have you any thoughts for the rest of the citizens of my city and their woes?”
Roderick said as he snapped his meaty fingers, the flames surrounding him expanding outward and flowing all around him, creating a halo and aura combination that made the area around them uncomfortably hot.
That snide comment made her boil as she roared and jumped ahead. Her sword flashed a bright light, and she noticed at the edge of her vision that more bands of pure flames were heading towards him.
She swung her sword forward, the light glowing harshly as she used her newly gained Power Overwhelming, boosting her power further. But as soon as both attacks came at him, Roderick’s brows furrowed as both arms swung wide across, causing the entirety of the purple flames to condense around behind and in front of him.
Valorie gritted her teeth as her sword hit against the solidity of the flames once again, and the sounds of the bands hitting a wall echoed behind him. She hoped that the man couldn’t focus on more than one area at a time, but that proved to be worthless.
Having enough of this, Roderick made a shout and swung his hand down, dispersing the flames and causing them to roll out in waves all around him. Valorie jumped away in time, and Cloud managed to get away, but he grimaced after losing the effect of his magical circle.
Zacharia took the blow instead, ignoring the purple flames trying to eat his body alive as he instead swung his sword to the side, dispersing the flames and dissolving them into particles. Roderick was left by himself, but there was still that ember wisp of purple flame at his shoulder, ready to defend at any moment.
As he grinned, proving his victory and ready to strike again, a sound echoed across the entire biodome from the looks of it. The Lord of Bastion looked towards the horizon, his eyes widening through the glasses as a creature of incredible size appeared suddenly out of nowhere.
Or rather, it came from beneath the fortress’ ground. Valorie’s face paled after realizing that throughout the fight, Roderick’s goons somehow managed to awaken the boss of the biodome. They were close enough to at least see the top of the head, but it was big enough to even thwart Zeke’s barrier surrounding their entire town.
An incredibly large lizard-like monstrosity appeared, covered in head to toe in strange glowing colored armor that even beat Zacharia’s gear. It opened its red-fanged jaw and roared, the proximity causing the air to turn into tempest gales as they battered against them all. Their strong bodies were able to take it, but the feeling of dread spread all over them, including their enemy as he gaped at the sight.
“Those incompetent brats,” Roderick snarled. “They called it too soon. Well, it is unfortunate that we couldn’t settle this sooner, but business is business.”
Purple flames gathered around Roderick’s feet, the winds not affecting the flames at all as they licked the air around his ankles. In that same moment, the flames lifted Roderick into the air as he flew into the sky itself. Valorie stared in incomprehension at the sight. It wasn’t unusual for mages to be able to fly with their own power, but the sheer casualness of him leaving them behind pissed her off. But looking over at the giant boss in front of them, she could only stifle her anger.
“We need to gather up our allies and face this thing,” Zacharia shouted, the sounds of the roars and the mayhem being caused around them loud enough to shatter a normal person’s eardrums. “We can’t face that thing alone!”
“The boss’ presence should bring everyone here,” Cloud stated, turning his sight towards the western side where the boss was located, at the direction where the base was. “We need to go and find them, and here’s to the system beyond that Zeke is among them.”
“You think he might have gotten to the team and gave them their fruits?” Valorie wondered aloud. She hoped that everyone could eat and empower themselves, but she feared that it might just be too consequential to hope for such a thing.
“That’s if Zeke has Clara, if not…” Cloud shook his head. “For now, the best thing for us is to make sure that Bastion isn’t the one that takes over the biodome. It doesn’t have to be one of us–but it has to be someone from Eve Glade and nobody else.”
Valorie could only nod in approval. She gripped her sword in hand as she followed Cloud and Zacharia towards the boss. If they could, they would take out any other soldier in their vicinity to lessen their enemy’s numbers, all the while the boss currently fought against the soldiers that were probably there.
She prayed that at the very least, Clara would be safe. That, and that she can at least return back to her daughter after this is over.