Chapter 184: Act 118 – The Final Battle (6) (Third Update, Completed)
When Brendel and Xi arrived, they saw Medisa pressing one hand against her shoulder. There, bl**d had soaked through her silver armor, staining her snow-white battle robe red. She frowned, confronting a giant monster before her, while Conrad had long since vanished without a trace.
At that moment, the earth deity Ekhmen also appeared unusual—its originally grayish-yellow shell and carapace were now completely cracked, revealing a dark red glow beneath, as if lava was slowly flowing. If it had looked like a massive, yellow-brown rock sculpture before, it now resembled uncooled granite.
Brendel was taken aback by Ekhmen’s current state; it was in a berserk mode. After entering this state, even a d*ath-evolved deity would regress by one stage, meaning this creature would devolve from its complete form to a larval stage after this battle. What was going on?
Logically, a deity would never enter a berserk mode voluntarily unless there was a life-threatening situation. This phenomenon was similar to many bosses that only entered their enraged state when their health dropped below 30%.
His gaze followed the arm of the monster and landed on a grievous wound on Ekhmen’s left side, deep enough to see bone. Upon seeing the wound’s shape, Brendel guessed that it had taken a hit from Medisa’s “Thousand Army Strike.” However, this did not explain his earlier question; given Ekhmen’s resilience, even a glancing hit from a Thousand Army Strike wouldn’t suffice to trigger rage mode.
That left only one possibility: it had received orders to enter berserk mode willingly.
Brendel turned and caught a glimpse of Medisa apologizing to him with her silver eyes, “I’m sorry, Lord.” The elven princess gritted her teeth and whispered, “I let Conrad escape.”
Brendel felt a wave of shame; it was indeed his oversight. He and Xi had completely failed to anticipate that the earth deity Ekhmen would feint its intentions. To him, it seemed to be a kind of insect corrupted by divine bl**d, which should naturally lack that level of intellect. He had not expected that as long as Conrad controlled the ‘sheath’, he could make decisions for it.
“That’s not your fault.” The three of them stood together, facing the enraged earth deity. Brendel then asked, “What happened just now?”
“That man tried to trap me, but I saw through it. Then he summoned this monster to cover his escape…” Medisa coughed, covering her mouth with a bl**d-stained hand, “Cough, cough, I tried to stop them with a Thousand Army Strike… but unexpectedly, the monster suddenly changed midway and broke free from my gravitational restraint…”
“Is that how you got hurt?”
Medisa nodded.
“Is it serious?” Brendel frowned. After entering berserk mode, Ekhmen’s strength increased by 20%. If Medisa had been hit directly, the injury wouldn’t be trivial.
“It’s fine, it just grazed me, cough cough…” the silver elven princess replied. “But it seems the elemental force has seeped in and hurt my lungs.”
Is that fine? Brendel was filled with anxiety, but he then remembered that Medisa was in a spiritual form. Thus, the so-called external injury was merely an external manifestation of the shock to her soul’s fire. Indeed, it wouldn’t be like a human, where a small injury would drastically reduce combat effectiveness.
“What now?” Xi asked from the side.
“We have to temporarily revise our plan,” Brendel replied, fixing his gaze on the immobile earth deity. He puzzled over why Conrad was so eager to distance himself from the three of them, even going so far as to expend precious divine bl**d to trigger the deity’s berserk state. “Xi, you and Medisa go after that man. Don’t let him disrupt our arrangement—I’ll handle things here.”
“You?” The red-haired girl turned back, a hint of doubt flashing in her fiery red eyes.
“Lord?” Medisa was also taken aback. She knew Brendel’s strength as a summoner; as a silver rank warrior, no amount of combat experience would enable him to contend with a fearsome creature that had awakened elemental powers. Even stalling for time seemed impossible.
“Have you forgotten my true ability, Miss Medisa?” Brendel responded inwardly.
“Are you referring to being a mage, Lord?” the silver elven princess replied in her thoughts.
Brendel nodded.
“I’ll go with you,” Xi suddenly declared, tightening her grip on the war spear as she focused on the massive monster before them—though it appeared as if it were dead and motionless at the moment, not exuding a shred of aura. The three present understood that as soon as they moved, it would spring to attack: “If you d*e, Medisa and I wouldn’t be able to deal with this monster. To protect the remaining members of the Gray Wolf Mercenary Group, your life is my life, Lord—”
Brendel was momentarily stunned.
“Miss Xi is right, Lord,” Medisa also chimed in, gently persuading, “As long as this monster is here, even on my own, Conrad wouldn’t be my match—I’ve faced many such foes among the Minren, the Wizard Hunters.”
“Alright,” the young man realized this wasn’t the time for debate, and with Xi’s help, he indeed felt more assured. He took out the second card from that day: “Then let’s split up.”
As he spoke, Brendel revealed the card—
Silver Steed
(Legendary Radiance V, White)
Mana: 10
[Treasure—Artifact/Artifact Creature, Level 7 Construct Creature]
The Silver Steed possesses levitation abilities.
‘Forged from Mithril—’
As soon as the fate card appeared in the air, it instantly formed a magic circle on the forest floor. The white light flickered in the circle, followed by the long whinny of a warhorse.
His action immediately provoked the earth deity Ekhmen into a counterattack—Conrad was not a fool; fearing that the mindless insect deity might be lured away by the tactics, he chose to keep it stationed, allowing Ekhmen to launch an attack if it sensed anyone trying to circumvent it.
And magic was one of the triggers for that action.
Just as Ekhmen moved, Xi and Medisa charged in from either side. The war spear and lance clashed with a ‘crack’ as they blocked the monster’s attack. Though both girls were only of low gold rank, Xi also resonated her power with the deity and the element of thunder, while Medisa, being a spectral being, had long comprehended the element of the soul—when the two types of elemental energies intertwined, they barely managed to withstand Ekhmen’s assault.
Even so, both girls groaned and staggered back three to four steps before stabilizing their stances.
At that moment, as the white light dissipated in front of Brendel, a magnificent silver warhorse, shining with metallic light and adorned with wondrous wings, stepped boldly out of the magic circle. It glanced at Brendel with its ruby-carved eyes before immediately lowering its head submissively.
The red-haired girl was momentarily stunned at the sight, but she quickly understood Brendel’s intent.
“Xi, mount!” the young man ordered. “Medisa, cover us—!”
The earth deity, eager to press on the attack, found itself forced back by a spear shot from the silver elven princess, who had received her command. Although Medisa’s skill had a long cooldown, its power was terrifying, and even Ekhmen would not be willing to endure the onslaught from this humanoid artillery.
However, as it slightly moved aside, Xi seized the opportunity to leap onto the steed. She extended her hand toward Brendel, pulling him up as well. Riding together made her feel slightly awkward, but the girl exhaled and quickly composed herself.
“Let’s circle around it from behind; this mindless thing is now stubbornly following orders. We need to draw its attention,” Brendel whispered to her back before giving Medisa the command: “Stay put, Medisa. Wait until we’re gone—then act!”
“I understand,” Medisa nodded.
At that moment, Xi had already spurred the horse forward; the silver steed soared and flew over Ekhmen’s head. Not only that, but she also unslung the crossbow from her boot and shot an arrow downward.
Her action immediately drew Ekhmen’s retaliation.
The massive insect-like boss raised its head and let out a roar, slamming its hand down, and a twenty-meter-long stone pillar shot up from the ground, chasing after Xi and Brendel.
Xi snorted coldly, urging the silver steed to rise higher. The stone pillars pursued closely behind them, with a series of thunderous roars erupting as each pillar shot up from the ground, each one higher than the last, until the final one nearly pierced the sky, creating a towering forest of serpentine stone spikes when viewed from below.
As the earth deity removed its hands from the ground, the stone pillars collapsed instantly. It looked at the increasingly distant silver steed and let out a low growl. Then it positioned its hands against the ground and sank into the earth in an instant.
That was the last scene Medisa saw.
In fact, she had seen firsthand how the creature had emerged from the earth to attack Brendel, so she understood that it was likely using the same trick again to pursue. Only then did she relax, glancing around, recalling the direction Conrad had fled in, and gently patting her unicorn companion’s neck—urging it to chase after that direction at full speed.
…
In the air, Brendel also witnessed this moment.
He immediately instructed Xi to lower their altitude; although the insect’s brain was minimal, it still retained its instincts from nature—it wouldn’t endlessly chase a target it could never catch. Thus, in past games, monster aggro was an intricate skill, and here it was no different.
He needed to give it hope.
The silver steed quickly obeyed the red-haired girl’s command and descended. However, this did not mean they let their guard down; on the contrary, Brendel was closely monitoring the terrain below.
“What do we do next?” Xi asked.
“We head back with this thing,” Brendel replied quietly, “Ideally, we should return to the spot where we fought yesterday. According to the plan, Naminez and the others should come to support us after dealing with those lizardmen.”
“Can we hold out until then?” she inquired.
“That depends on skill, and a bit of luck.”
Xi fell silent, but suddenly, she crossed her spear and fired an arrow in a certain direction. A curved bolt of lightning immediately crossed several dozen meters, striking the ground between a few black pines.
With a loud bang, the three-meter-tall boss broke the surface.
“Don’t leave the ground, move in a zigzag pattern!” Brendel immediately commanded. “Give me your crossbow—”
The red-haired girl nodded immediately.
The silver steed changed direction, just as a sharp stone flew dangerously close, grazing past the two’s backs. Brendel wiped a bead of sweat away, relieved that Xi’s reflexes were quick enough; otherwise, they might have been thrown off just now.
However, he also knew that this perilous game had only just begun.
(PS: Phew, I’m really exhausted..)(To be continued, for more chapters and to support the author, please log in and support legitimate reading!)
