Chapter 353: Act 116 – The Five-Headed Lizard (Part 2)
The battle escalated into a fever pitch.
Brendel raised the Earth Sword high and aimed it at the right front claw of the five-headed lizard, which was as thick as a marble pillar. Despite its massive size, this creature moved with surprising agility. It retracted its right claw as if it had foreseen the attack, and Brendel’s sword only struck the afterimage.
However, the might of the Earth Sword immediately shattered the ground beneath the five-headed lizard, causing the soil and stone slabs to erupt sideways. A conical chasm collapsed downward in the center, leaving the massive beast unsteady as its entire body tilted to the side.
Yet, it wasn’t easy for Brendel to take advantage of this opening— the five-headed lizard swung its five heads like whips in the air, diving down one by one to bite. The young lord continually retreated, moving nearly ten feet outside of melee range.
In fact, Kuran, Xi, and Repal, who approached from behind, seized the opportunity to attack. But as Brendel noticed their timing, he immediately shouted, “Watch out for the venom shield!”
Kuran and Xi froze in shock. As they charged forward, they suddenly saw a blob of dark green liquid materialize before them. Both experienced warriors instinctively halted, but the old swordsman was clearly more seasoned; as he stopped, he deftly drew a dagger and threw it at the magical shield.
There was a soft sizzling sound, and before the dagger could pass through the venom shield, it transformed into a plume of white smoke.
“Thank goodness for Martha!” the elder thought, relieved by Brendel’s early warning; but how were they supposed to deal with this cursed thing?
Only Repal, the Fireclaw Lizardman lord, seemed undeterred. He charged into the venom shield with an air of authority, his pale yellow eyes glinting coldly. The venom washed over him but appeared to have no effect, only cleansing the dirt from his dark red scales.
Immunity to toxins!
Brendel hadn’t anticipated this from the Fireclaw Lizardman, but since the five-headed lizard was also a type of lizard, they could be considered relatives in a broad sense—it’s plausible they would possess some interspecies resistances.
To everyone’s surprise— including the five-headed lizard itself—Repal had entered into close range of the massive creature. It was too late for the beast to turn back now. Repal wielded a larger double-headed sword as his weapon, thrusting it deep into the five-headed lizard’s right back leg, then flames erupted from the sword.
As the tendons and blood vessels of the five-headed lizard ruptured, the blood was vaporized, forming a silken red mist that burst forth.
The monstrous creature reared its head, and all five of its heads let out a piercing scream that echoed for miles, causing a flock of birds to take flight in the forest.
At the moment the five-headed lizard was wounded, the venom shield floating on its back fluctuated and then disappeared simultaneously.
Now’s the time!
Kuran and Xi immediately recognized this and rushed in, but barely took two steps before feeling the ground give way beneath them.
“What is this?” Xi exclaimed in shock as she spotted countless drip-green thorny branches extending from the collapsed ground, rising up as if they were alive and reaching for her feet.
Not just her, Kuran the old swordsman faced the same predicament.
Brendel, having just recuperated from the five-headed lizard’s frontal assault, noticed the trouble Xi and Kuran were in. That was the toxic thorns summoned by the five-headed lizard, but he didn’t have time to respond; instead, he thrust the sword into the ground to stop his own backward movement, while extending his left hand forward—
At that moment, everyone saw glowing azure spots appear behind Brendel in the air, but they weren’t merely light spots; they were small magical circles manifesting in mid-air.
The magical circles occupied most of the sky behind Brendel, spreading open like a pair of translucent azure wings.
Then, in the next instant, clusters of azure light surged out of the magical circles like cannonballs, striking the ground, leaping forward, and then soaring back up into the sky, densely gathering to form a crescent shape.
Brendel threw out another card.
Hundreds of golden holy swords targeted the five-headed lizard in a semi-encircling formation.
The young people in the distance were stunned; they had imagined the most luxurious sword techniques and the most terrifying magic, but nothing could compare to the magnificence of this power— this was the power of their lord.
Carglis looked on in wonder, saying, “Meria, I feel like an idiot.”
Meria lowered her head, blushing as she softly replied, “Yes, you always have been.”
The five-headed lizard sensed the threat as well; it raised its head, and all five of its heads’ fifteen pairs of eyes glimmered with a ghostly green light. The thorns reaching toward Xi and Kuran instantly changed direction, rapidly growing backward to weave into a thick shield of thorns several dozen meters high in front of the five-headed lizard.
“Attack!” Brendel yelled at Kuran.
The massive creature could no longer muster the ability to turn around for defense, as at that moment, the hundreds of holy swords in the air released blinding light one after another; the intersecting golden beams descended like celestial fire, turning the intertwined thorns to ash.
In an instant, the enormous thorn shield was riddled with holes, and as the light rays continued downward and made contact with the venom shield— the moment of collision sent cascades of golden light refracting off the surface, scattering golden raindrops in all directions.
The temperature on the surface of the venom shield underwent drastic changes; it first turned red, then vaporized, and soon strands of light pierced through the shield. One after another, rays of light emerged from within as the venom shield finally shattered, causing the beams to make direct contact with the five-headed lizard’s tough exterior.
The dark crystalline skin underwent similar changes, refracting light, turning red, then cracking; the blood beneath transformed into a red mist that rose up violently as the five-headed lizard rolled on the ground in agony amidst the forest.
Meanwhile, Kuran, Xi, and Repal, who had launched their own attacks from the rear, didn’t stop; they dodged the thrashing hind legs and steel-like tail of the five-headed lizard while doing their best to inflict wounds on the beast.
Though they were all at a high gold level, the five-headed lizard was noticeably less agile than the Wind Dragon, but its defensive capabilities were daunting.
Xi unleashed her full strength, creating dozens of meters long arcs of lightning that struck the creature’s scale-covered hide, but most of her power barely penetrated its surface, leaving only small scorched marks.
Kuran faced a similar scenario.
Only Repal, the Fireclaw Lizardman lord, though he didn’t attack from a distance, was able to inflict solid damage with each strike; his method quickly influenced the others, leading Kuran and Xi to abandon their ranged or elemental attacks and instead take a straightforward approach, thrusting sword and spear into the giant creature.
At least they could draw some blood.
Their strategy soon began to show results. Despite the five-headed lizard having the incredible healing abilities of the Hydra clan, that recovery capacity wasn’t infinite; after losing too much blood, it began to feel lightheaded, and the attacks from its five heads started to slow.
Brendel, who was responsible for drawing fire, instantly felt much more at ease. He dodged the lizard’s whip-like neck and biting jaws one last time, seizing the gap that the creature’s attack left behind to roll over to its right chest side.
Brendel straightened his body, took a deep breath, and then drew back with full force, aiming a strike with the White Crow Sword.
With the enhancement of Erluin’s martial arts at level 16 (+2), coupled with the terrifying boost from his burst of strength, the sword energy he unleashed shaped the still atmosphere into a whirlwind.
The white whirlwind appeared out of nowhere—
It swept horizontally toward the five-headed lizard like a dragon, stirring the air into nearly ten-meter-long white canine fangs that sunk into the already wounded chest and abdomen of the beast, immediately ejecting blood in towering arcs.
But that wasn’t the end.
The power of the Earth Sword tore apart the ground with the same force; where the whirlwind passed, the ground almost rose ten meters high in mud slabs on either side, while the earth beneath the sword energy fractured inch by inch, collapsing downward in layers. As the five-headed lizard desperately tried to dig its front limbs into the earth, it was still dragged into the fault by the overwhelming force.
When the sword energy passed, the area where Brendel, Kuran, Xi, and the Lizardman lord stood had transformed; from Brendel’s center stretched a cone-shaped area where the ground maintained the last moments of downward collapse.
It was as though a massive landslide had erupted on flat ground—
The half-buried five-headed lizard was left struggling in the dirt, only half of its body remaining above ground, battered and with no chance of survival.
Brendel looked over the scene before sheathing his sword.
The forest fell into silence—
After the battle, the young people started to clean up the battlefield. Of course, before that, Flour and Diya first used tornadoes to clear the toxic mist left on the forest path, to prevent careless individuals from wandering in.
Initially, the young warriors felt apprehensive; the creature’s power had far exceeded their comprehension. However, standing next to this gigantic beast made them feel somewhat incredulous, as though they could hardly believe anyone could defeat such a monster.
They gathered around the massive corpse, debating amongst themselves, with the bolder among them attempting to touch the solid, crystalline scales of the five-headed lizard—an experience unlike anything they had ever encountered before.
Brendel had already instructed Flour to pry off the lizard’s chest scales. While beast forms did not drop equipment, the axiom of “red-handed and soft young girls” was one that absolutely could not be violated.
The scales from the chest of the lizard were called “Blessing of the Hydra.” They were not as dark as the keratin scales on its back, appearing primarily blue-green. Brendel knew these materials had numerous uses and were important for alchemy.
Sadly, his last strike had caused considerable damage in pursuit of maximum lethality, and he could only retrieve a little over thirty scales—enough, at most, to forge a piece of magical armor.
Brendel planned to create a cuirass, but before that, he had Kuran take the young people to scatter in search of the five-headed lizard’s den; though beast forms didn’t have equipment drop lists, their nests might contain some valuable items.
…(To be continued. For more chapters and to support the author, please log in and read legally!)
