Apinsig
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Chapter 280 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2023-07-25 12:18:21 +0000 UTCPOV Luana
We all rushed into what we presumed to be the boss room, but I couldn’t detect anything there. Soon, Arabella and Rich said at the same time, "Clear?" We were all still vigilant; we just never expected a boss room to possibly have an ambush. "Everyone, keep vigilant," I heard Horus say, but my attention was pulled towards Rich, who was looking at all of us with a questioning look.
"Why do you all look like drowned cats?" This infuriating man! It was because we were drowning. My fingers still hurt from trying to hold on to the wall so I could keep my head above the water line. Who would have guessed my robes could get so heavy when soaked in water?
I was about to give him a piece of my mind, but at that moment, we started to hear stone grinding. Slowly, in the centre of the room, a figure began to form from rock that was flowing like water that started to look like a human-like monster.
I started to prepare my kinetic strike spell, the one that has been incredibly useful in dealing with other golems on this floor, but the monster kept getting bigger. While holding a spell isn't too much trouble, it's still not good for damage output. Rich, of course, attacked with his ranged attack. "Hold all attacks," I heard Horus command, but immediately after that, Rich spoke, "Why?"
My first thought was because the monster wasn’t ready yet, but I believe almost all of us came to the same conclusion. "Everyone, ranged attacks. Let's see if we can do any damage before it finishes coalescing itself," Horus commanded.
We all followed Horus's command, and I launched my spell to see it do almost negligible damage. I so hoped that it was because it was more immune to damage while coalescing, but something told me this was going to be an incredibly difficult fight.
We continued to attack, and we were able to do some damage, but the monster kept growing, now being over 10 metres tall. The taller it got, the harder it was to damage it. Two more metres and none of us was able to do any damage; we were barely leaving any scratches. "Retreat," Horus yelled, and we all started to move back towards the door, but as soon as I took a step backwards, the door slammed shut. Similarly to the last room.
Rich blurred past me, and we felt the power in his attack when he tried to break the door, but there didn’t seem to be any damage. "We ain’t getting through here," Rich announced as he ran back to the front. It seemed that the monster, now almost 20 metres tall with arms that reached the floor, was done coalescing.
Every other golem we had fought had a major weakness in their head where there was a crystal that they used to observe their surroundings, and we all waited for that crystal to appear, but it never did.
"Hey, you porous-looking rock, want to see if you crack when we cook you?" Rich taunted the monster, and once again I held my breath like I do every time, hoping that the monster would focus on him. It was hard to tell, but after so many fights and so many different monsters, I knew that Rich had once again succeeded, and I sighed internally in relief.
The monster wasn’t fast, but that was the only good thing. Its damage output was ridiculous, as my abilities indicated that if I were to be hit by it, I would turn into paste. But the most troublesome fact was that none of us could damage it. None of my spells, even when I pushed them to the limit, did anything to it, and while cooking the monster to see if it cracked might have been a good taunt, it was never going to work in real life.
We had hoped the miracle sword Rich used was able to do something, but even that was only able to leave a small scratch. The small hope that gave us was extinguished the next moment when the monster repaired itself.
It was harder to see from the corners of my eyes, and I felt that the room was closing in on me. It was the same feeling I got from the last room, but even stronger. Was this going to become my tomb? How long could Rich keep dodging, or perhaps the monster would finally start to target the rest of us?
I could hear Horus trying to say something to us, but it was like I was deep under the water, as I could barely hear his voice. There had to be a way out. I quickly started to look around, and I noticed the staircase that should lead us downwards. Yes, of course, that’s the way out. I focused on it and started to move towards it.
I stopped for a moment as I thought I heard Horus's voice, but it must have just been the wind. Why would there be wind in this room? The next moment, my vision was blocked by someone tall. Was that Rich?
"Don't give up so easily. I still have a plan," I heard his voice clearly, and the next moment I understood those words, and my vision cleared. He picked me up and threw me, and while flipping through the air, I now knew why I felt that wind. The monster was almost about to hit me. I saw Rich sent flying by the attack, and the very next moment, I hit the ground hard.
I think I blacked out for a moment, and then when my eyes opened, Adam was looking down on me while casting a spell. "Don’t worry, the same thing happened to me, but I tried to get through the door we came in from. Rich apparently has a plan, but it will take a while. He told us to get to the far corner and just in case, to be ready to defend against any wide-range attacks that might reach us.”
I nodded to that and took the hand that was offered to get me back on my feet. I was led to the corner, and I started to cast defensive and obscuring spells. It was a good distraction, as I really didn’t want to think about what had happened.
We watched as Rich got his ass kicked. I had seen him fight plenty of times, and I knew that he could have dodged every single attack that monster made, but instead, he was constantly allowing the monster to hit him. He was very careful about when the attacks hit him, only allowing the monster to come into contact with him at the beginning of a strike or the end of it, where there wasn’t too much power left. Even then, any one of those attacks would have killed me. Why was he doing that was something that we were all discussing, and it took about half an hour before Arabella figured out the reason.
Rich was somehow collecting or storing the kinetic energy from the Monster's Strike to presumably store it up for a huge attack that will hopefully damage or kill the monster. But from the looks of it, it will still take quite a while before he has stored up enough of this kinetic energy to do any real damage.
Occasionally, Adam needed to heal him, as he was still accumulating damage from all the hits he was taking. This comfortable rhythm was broken almost exactly one hour into the fight when suddenly the creature's attack accelerated, catching Rich off guard.
I winced as I heard the bone crack that echoed inside the room. How was that so loud? "Wait, Adam, this is probably going to take a lot out of you, so prepare yourself," we all heard Rich say before he once again moved and then yelled at the monster, "Why in the living shit did a limestone motherfucker like you wait so long to use an ability? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Now, I wasn’t certain if that was a taunt or if Rich was truly mad. I looked towards Adam, who was confused at Rich's warning, and I saw how he weaved the spell to be as strong as possible.
When he cast it, I heard him mumble under his breath, "Shit, that's ridiculous." And when the spell ended, he yelled towards Rich, "What are your bones made out of? It took over 10% of my total mana to fix that one break."
I was completely stunned like everyone else, but a moment later, I understood that it made sense. If Rich had weaker bones, he would never have been able to take those hits. That last hit would have broken every bone, or at least shattered his arm bones completely, not made a singular break.
"Watch out," we heard Rich yell, and we all focused back on the fight to see a shower of small rocks flying towards us. Immediately, I used one of the defensive spells I had laid down to quickly activate my shield spell, but I continued to weave the spell stronger and denser, then started pumping in as much mana as I could.
Comments
Zarik0
Hmm when door shut to you in some trap room, its good and common sense when you try to break out to also try to break the wall beside the door, often the door can be more durable or have more defensive system than the wall beside it, you can dig and bypasses the door (as Rich with his soldier and war experience, i find it a bit odd he focus on the door and only seem to see that (nothing tryed on the wall or etc only door), as he surely have experience to make you own road into wall/structure and etc when door or etc can have some obstruction)
Apinsig
tnx
merr49
I was completely stunned like everyone else, but a moment later, I understood that it made sense. If we had weaker bones, he would never have been able to take those hits. That last hit would have broken every bone, or at least shattered his arm bones completely, not made a singular break. If we had (if he had) to many he's I recommend redoing that bit
