"Stamina Regeneration."
"Flexebility 2."
"Powered will."
"Strenght 1"
"Haste 1"
Sophia cast numerous minor buffs in quick succession. Despite the hasteful casting of spells, Sophia manages to stay in focus. She using all possible remaining time before the Apex White Stalker makes a move.
"Our Lady of Perpetual Selfishness Vivvily. Give us your unconditional embrace..."
Sophia's wand starts to glow. She close her eyes and she aim her wand in the sky.
"Divine coating!"
A shining shock wave is released by Sophia's wand. It hits all members of Grand Ecstasy in small radius, each are now have a shiny bringht membrane surrounding their body.
Mateo unsheaths his sword. Beltrand also do the same with his mace and shield.
"You know cutting and stabbing surely don't work on that thing right?" Beltrand asked as he go in a stance.
"I know that. But I have no choice but to try something."
Shirna dips the tip of ten arrows in one of his bottle containing a powerful poison of Miasma Frog.
The Apex White Stalker sees the posture and movements of Grand Ecstasy as acts of agression, decides to make the first attack. Its face contorts into anger and pounce, aiming to slam its huge claws to the party. The party response by dodging and scattering everywhere.
But the Apex quickly goes back to its feet and instantly follows up and aiming to chomp down Mateo who is running away.
"Not in my watch!"
Beltrand comes from the sides and slams its mace to the Apex's head. The force is enough to stop the beast on its track and push it for few inches, but there's no noticable damage on its head. The Apex just brush off the attack and focus its attention to Beltrand.
The Apex rushes to Beltrand who just stay in his place and prepares its shield to block the Apex attack.
In just Milliseconds, the Apex notices something glittering from the distance and it quickly stops and jumps from the side. And then the arrow miss its target which is the Apex's eye.
Few meters behind Beltrand is Shirna which is hiding in a pile of snow.
"Tsk!" Shirna click his tongue as he's dissapointed that his arrow is dodged by the Apex.
The Apex still didn't notice Shirna and decides to continue on rushing down to Beltrand. Then Mateo leaps and lands on Apex's back. He's going to try to stab the back of the Apex's neck so he puts big portion of his mana to empower his weapon.
[Comet Strike]
A Direct hit but to Mateo's dismay. The stab didn't even penetrate a slightest into the Apex White Stalker's neck.
The Apex didn't even notice Mateo's attempt and just continue its attack on Beltrand. Mateo just casually leap on the side and chase it while thinking on how they going to defeat the beast.
A huge ball of flame suddenly hits the Apex side. It's Claustrine's fireblast. The explosion is massive but still, there's no noticable damage on the Apex.
It makes the Apex more angry and switch its target again. This time, it's aiming to tear Claustrine using its powerful jaws.
But Claustrine didn't bulge and instead she aim her staff to the Apex and starts to chant.
"God of fire and volcano, Valvafir. Please honor my burning desire to eliminate my enemies with your eternal flame."
Claustrine deep down, is scared. She close her eyes so she would not see the sight of the Apex rushing to her with its predatory eyes and deadly maw. She masters all of her remaining courage to cast the spell.
The Apex leaps and open its mouth, ready to gnaw Claustrine to pieces.
"Liquid Flame!"
The moment Claustrine summon and release the ball of burning deep red liquid like substance, Mateo jumps and grabs Claustrine away from the Apex path. As Mateo and Claustrine rolls several meters in the snow, the Apex directly chomp the burning liquid causing an explosion of fire on it's mouth.
Mateo stands up first and offer his hand to Claustrine who kindly accepts and she stands with his help. But Claustrine notices the sour expression of Mateo.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!" Mateo angrily says to Claustrine who quickly understand why her leader is upset.
"It's better to take a risk than to wait for us to die here. Just like the old times." Claustrine justifies her action.
Mateo just facepalm as its not the time for them to argue.
"Just tell us first if you going to do something wreckless. Ok? Geez, you still didn't change that hobby of yours." Mateo said then he returns to his combat pose.
"Sorry." Claustrine's short but honest apology. She also returns to her combat posture.
Meanwhile, the Apex is still running amok as the painful burning sensation still continues to linger on its mouth. The flame and smoke is still rages on as the flamable magic liquid continues to burn. The Apex' rampage hits everything on its surroundings.
"I can't get closer! Damn!" Beltrand says as she watch the rampaging Apex.
"I can't properly aim! It's too agile!" Shirna shouts while still trying to aim his bow to the Apex beast's eyes.
"Prepare to cast another spell Trinne. We're going to try to make it stay in place." Mateo commands as it is a perfect opportunity to deal more damage while the Apex is still distracted.
And Claustrine understands the importance of the moment so she prepares to channel one of her more powerful spells.
"Potent goddess of lightning and storm, Uil. With your unstoppable might..."
Arcs of lightning starts to form around Claustrine.
"and with your and powerful lightning dancing into the dark clouds. I plead to lend me your po-"
Claustrine abruptly stops her channeling and the Arcs of lightning starts to fade away. Other members of Grand Ecstasy also stops on their movement when they see what the Apex is trying to do.
Suddenly, the Apex White Stalker starts to chomp huge amount of snow and with each bite, the flame on its mouth slowly disappears. And a mix of water and blood falls from its mouth. Making the already reddish snow below the beast even more menecingly red.
And just like that, the Liquid Flame is completely extinguished. The Apex is now even more seething and it released a scratched roar to Grand Ecstasy who completely see the damage Liquid Flame did. Its mouth is a mix of charred black and spots of dark red color of blood.
"That's truly an Apex Beast. How resilient." Mateo said.
"I expected it to last a little bit longer." But to think that it can think something like that." Claustrine says.
"Still, it's good that we deal some sort of damage to that beast. Atleast, it gives some hope that we might have... a chance
" Beltrand is still chill despite everything that transpire.
The Apex White Stalker suddenly starts to shake violently and after few seconds. The pseudo-fur hardens and completely turn into spikes. Its tail also becomes even more grim as the spikes stands up.
"Now its truly angry." Beltrand said.
"Be careful guys. I can feel its animosity." Sophia warns her friends.
Out of nowhere, Shirna decides to shoot two poisoned arrows, aiming to strike the eyes. But the Apex just side-steps to dodge the arrows and then it makes a quick rotating motion. Realizing what's going to happen, Mateo instantly shouts.
"DUCK!!!"
Grand Ecstasy drops their body to the snow and they all feel something fast swings above them. It's followed by the surrounding trees starting to fall down.
It turns out that the Apex swings its blade like tail in circular motion, cutting all the trees surrounding them in half. The cracking and falling sound of trees falling engulfs the area.
Grand Ecastasy stand up as fast as possible and avoids few falling trees.
"Damn! That's scary!!" Beltrand screams as it observes the surrounding full of fallen trees.
The Apex is not willing to give more free time for the Grand Ecstasy and continues its assault by jumping and slamming its tail to the party.
Grand Ecstasy manages to dodge the tail slam but they barefly escape the follow up tail swing from Apex White Stalker when it lands. The lenght and flexibility of the tail makes it hard to predict.
The Apex leaps backwards to create space. And for Grand Ecstasy's surprise, the long tail that supposedly just an extension for the beast starts to move like its now have freedom on its own. It turns out that the Apex just clearly capable of controlling it in various ways.
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And one of them is to control its tail to continiously attack Grand Ecstasy with barrage of quick tail swings. The modified scales in its tail acts as very sharp blades capable of cutting even the sturdiest of surrounding trees.
"We can't let this continue!" Beltrand screams.
"I know that! Shirna, can you shoot your arrows?"
"No! I can't just shoot randomly, the arrows can't penetrate that beast's skin."
"Guys... we're going to lose stamina here!" Claustrine shouts while still dodging and blocks the barrage of attacks.
Of course Mateo knows that due to the nature of their class, Claustrine and Sophia lacks the stamina to continue dodging such aggressive attacks. That's why he's thinking really hard.
Then an idea struck Mateo's mind.
"Shirna! Did your bring Flash vials?!"
"Of course! But are you sure?! Using it while in this situation only spell disaster to us!" Shirna questions the use of the item and Mateo agrees on Shirna's concern.
Flash vial is a powerful tool made from compressed essence of a luminous insect monster. Combined with magic, volatile monster parts and other ingredients. The thick liquid reacts when exposed in light and within 3 seconds, the liquid explodes into a very bright light that can even overwhelm a normal brightness of daytime for 1 second.
Alchemist use the strongest materials to contain such dangerous liquid and invented numerous safe mechanism to ensure that accidental exposure is prevented. Thus making the container made of strong type of glass and the containers with the thick liquid is covered by a jet black cloth that blocks any form of light to expose the glass vial. Using the vial requires to remove the tie and flings the vial alongside the cloth that covers it. As the vial flings in the air, the container and the black cloth seperates. Exposing the liquid leading to a bright explosion.
A powerful weapon against monsters but its effects on humans is nasty. When exposed to the light even for a fraction of a second, the human becomes blind for the rest of its life. The brightness completely turns the human eye into complete white nothingness. Even just looking far away on the explosion can still cause temporary vision problems due to the brightness engulfing the surrounding. That's the reason why the distribution is strictly controlled by the Adventurers Guild and only accessible for Gold ranked adventurers and higher.
And also the reason why the Flash Vial is only used as an ambush tool where theres hiding spots for the humans rather than a counter attack.
"Yes! Give me a vial!"
Shirna runs to Mateo and carefully gives the vial.
"Hey is that!" Sophia notices the Flash vial.
Everyone is still doing their best to dodge the Apex's non-stop barrage of tail whip.
"What are you planning!? Are really you going to use that thing?!" Beltrand is concerned.
"You preach to me about recklessness and now you going to do something like that! Ironic!" Claustrinne jokingly said.
"Just trust me! When I say "GO". We going to drop down and plant our face in the snow! Do you understand?!"
"Are you joking?!" Claustrinne asked.
"No I'm not!"
"Hahahaha! I understand the concept! Ok then, I trust you!" Beltrand laughs as he realizes what Mateo is trying to imply.
"Ok I'm going to throw it. Prepare yourselves!"
Mateo runs a little closer to the Apex White Stalker while dodging the attacks. And when he feels that he reached the right distance, Mateo throws the vial with extreme force.
"GOOOOOOO!!!!"
Grand Ecstasy quickly drops down and plants their faces deep in the snow.
The vial is still flying mid-air but the clothes is starting to fall off. Mateo's throw is so strong that it reaches the Apex and the vial explodes in front of the White Stalker. The area surrounding them instantly engulfed in very bright light for a second.
The Apex White Stalker howls and panics as its vision is completely gone. It trashes around and blindly swings its tail, but it didn't know that Grand Ecstasy is already distanced themselves.
"Shirna. Can you do it?" Mateo asked.
"I will do my best." Shirna replies then starts to aim his bow.
Instead of aiming for the eyes which is a very small target, Shirna decides to aim for the mouth. In maximum focus and predicting the chaotic movement of the panicking Apex White Stalker, Shirna fires three consecutive poison-tipped arrows. All of them directly piercing the insides thus injecting the poison which is deadly but due to the nature of Jhulzihar beats, the only thing it could do is temporarily paralyzed the monster.
The Apex White Stalker feels the pain and gives a very defeaning howl. The Apex wrecks havoc on its surroundings and slams its tail everywhere in an attempt of finding the one that dares to attack him, to no avail.
"How long do you think before the poison takes effect?" Mateo asked as they watch the rampaging Apex from a distance.
"In my estimate. Probably 30 minutes." Shirna gives his observation.
"I'm not confident that your poison would kill an Apex." Beltrand said.
"I don't care about the outcome. What important is it gives us time to escape and leave. So we should go now before the Apex notice us." Mateo commands.
"Ok." Everyone agrees and they start to leave the desolated area.
"Wait a minute. Is poison works on Julzihar beasts?" Shirna asked.
"Who knows? What's important is we safely escape." Beltrand said.
"If Bristle Ape and Flying Colony uses poison agains other Jhulzihar beast, I guess your poison arrows also going to do the same." Claustrine explained.
"Good. Atleast I can justify the use of Miasma Frog poison. That thing is expensive you know."
~~~~~°~~~~~
In the Adventurers Guild. Wanderer decides to talk to the Guild master about the incidents regarding the Reverse Tower.
"Guild Master Hilgurd, I think its safe to take the Reverse Tower rumors seriously. Maybe we should stop the access to Layers 6 to 8 while we do our investigation." Graham proposal. The old man in the desk just gives a deep sigh.
Despite his old age, Guild Master Hilgurd still retains his masculine fit physique to the point that its not different from his prime form during his adventuring days. But the signs of his 70 years old age still remains like his long ashen beard, long hair and the wrinkled skin.
A very renowed Adventurer in olden days that reached Platinum rank by hunting powerful remnants of the Vielarata race. He decides to retire as he wants to give the stage for the new generation.
Hildurg prepares a Tobacco, lit it and takes a long puff. Then he release the smoke on his side. Avoiding blowing smoke directly to Graham.
"I understand your concern Graham but we all know how difficult nobles and the Merchants guild to deal with." Hilgurd replied.
"But there's already numerous report of Adventurers not returning after 2 weeks inside the Reverse Tower. As far as I know, thats a concerning thing." Graham states his opinion.
"But that's not enough as reasons to block the access to Reverse Tower. As Gold rank adventurer especially a party known for far explorations, you should know how long most of Gold rank missions are. Presenting the Adventurers as reasons would only gives us confused and mocking stares."
Hildurg takes another puff of his Tobacco and release another cloud of smoke.
"And the nobility and merchants cares more to the things inside of Reverse Tower than the Adventurers risking their lives just to get those thing for them." Hildurg continues.
Graham understands what Hildurg is trying to say. The nobility and merchants guild would more likely react more when the access to Reverse Tower is suddenly banned instead of caring for lowly adventurers like them.
But its still hard for him to just let things continue.
"How about the Academia? They should have a say about the dissappearance considering how enigmatic Reverse Tower is."
Graham believes that the Academia might view the rumors differently considering that all of the mysterious dissappearances are happened inside of a dungeon created by one of the most powerful mages in the world.
"They decides to wait for the signs to appear. They probably take action 1 month after rumors are started." Hildurg's response.
"That's bullshit." Graham's annoyance.
"I understand your anger but we can't do anything as long as the other three sectors disagree. The only thing we can do is to wait for Adventureres to not return after a month before we propose that something is wrong. Thats all that I can say." Hildurg finalizes his statement.
"I understand." Graham accepts defeat, stands up and prepares to leave.
"Anyway. Thank you for caring for the Adventurer's sake." Hildurg's gratitude.
"I'm also an Adventurer so I don't want something bad happen to my fellow adventurer. Also, there's something bothering me." Graham said.
"What is it?"
"Grand Ecstasy is currently doing a mission in Reverse Tower. Its just been a week since their departure but, I'm still concerned on their safety."
"Is that true?" Hildurg is surprised to hear the news.
Hildurg sees Grand Ecstasy as a laid-back yet hard working party of Adventurers that diligently do their job. Grand Ecstasy is a very great asset for them due to the success rate of their missions and their positive influence to the branch of Adventurers guild he manages.
"Yes. And if after a month and they still didn't return. We decided to follow them and do a rescue mission if thats what really needed." Graham said with conviction.
"I see now why you so persistent on investigating the rumors."
"I'm going to leave now. Have a nice day Guild Master." Graham politely says his farewell and leaves the room. Hildurg is just staring in the ceiling, visibly conflicted on what he should do.
"Maybe I need to call him now and prepare for the worst." Hildurg said to himself.
~~~~~°~~~~~
In Layer 7 of Reverse Tower. Grand Ecstasy continues their walk but they feel that something is off.
Since they escape the Apex fight. Grand Ecstasy didn't encountered any type of Jhulzihar beast and the silence of vast bloodied snow only worsen their anxiety.
Now they're in a middle of field of snow and pine trees but still no signs of any Jhulzihar beast.
"We should hurry. This silence is giving me creeps." Claustrine is really anxious.
"Same. It feels like something bad would happen." Sophia agrees.
"Please don't jinx it." -Beltrand
Shirna's ears twitch and he suddenly becomes alert. He signaled his friends to stop walking.
"What's wrong?" Mateo asked.
"S-something huge is approaching."
They go silent and because of that, they clearly hear the rumbling sound and the loud rustling of trees. The sounds gets louder and louder until.
"I-impossible..." Claustrine said as she was engulfed with fear and confusion.
Grand Ecstasy sees a creature 10 meters tall and dwarfing the nearby trees. Its neck and body is protected by segmented bone like plates and it have a very huge and majestic antlers that connects and creates a circular halo of antler above its head.
"W-what the hell is that thing?!" Beltrand screams.
"W-why theres two Apex existing at a same time?!" Claustrine is shocked.
"Apex?!" Everyone is confused.
"From what it looks like. That thing is might be an Apex... Decantler."
"Decantler?! The prey of this Layer?! How?!" Bertrand can't believe what Claustrine just said.
"I-I don't know! It might be the first time that it appeared!"
The Apex Decantler notices the Grand Ecstasy. Without hesistation, the Apex Decantler raise its front leg and stomps the ground, creating a trail of ice spikes that folllows the direction of Grand Ecstasy.
"WHAT?!" Everyone is surprised to see something that should be imposible. An Apex beast casting magic.
Grand Ecstasy dodges the ice spikes and just stay motionless due to the shock of what they just witnessed.
Until Mateo breakes the silence.
"RUUUUUNNNN!!!!"
Grand Ecstasy runs like theres no tomorrow but the Apex Decantler just slowly follows them.
"This doesn't make sense! What is happening!?" Claustrine screams.
"There's no time for questions! We need to survive first!" Beltrand screams back.
"B-but! That's clearly a casted magic! That should be impossible!"
"Isn't Magical Monsters exist?!"
"That's true! But... Jhulzihar Beasts are not Magical Monsters but Artificial Beasts! The only magical thing about them is their core!" Claustrine screamly explained.
The Apex Decantler is still following them while also casting magic like icicle throw that it conjured mid-air. But no one of icicles hit due to the Apex Decantler's poor aim.
"I don't really understand but if thats really big deal then its a big deal!" Beltrand's response.
"Guys we have a problem!!" Shirna screams.
"What is it?!" Mateo asked
"Something is approaching us in very high speed!"
"WHAT!?" Everyone's genuine response.
And their question is answered when suddenly, the Apex White Stalker jumps out of the trees. It jumped so high the it reach the height equal to the Apex Decantler they're trying to escape. Now its in the air and ready to slam the ground where Grand Ecstasy is standing using its sharp claws.
"Shit!" Beltrand screams.
Grand Ecstasy don't have time to dodge the ambush due to the fact that the appearance of Apex White Stalker is a complete surprise that really caught them off guard.
Casting spell is futile...
Trying to guard is futile...
Escape is futile.
And if for some miracle they manage to dodge the ambush. It's imposible for Grand Ecstasy to fight two powerful Apex at the same time.
.
.
.
.
.
But in just half a second before the Apex White Stalker reach Grand Ectasy. A very fast magic circle suddenly appears beneath the party. The White Stalker slams its powerful body creating a fog of fine snow. After few seconds, the fog dissipates revealing the completely confused Apex White Stalker as despite slightly recovering its vision, it can't see the Grand Ecstasy nor smell it.
The Grand Ecstasy, is completly dissappear with no trace left behind.
The Apex White Stalker's confusion is quickly replaced by alertness when it finally notice the pressence of a more powerful enemy. It faces the direction of Apex Decantler and release a very disturbed and pained howl while the Apex Decantler summons icycles ready to throw it to the new foe.