Chương 68: (B2 Chapter 19)

A shade much larger than the ones we had been facing so far materialized in the center of the cavern. It was at least three times the size of the ones we had faced so far, and the differences didn't end there. It had two, large, grinning mouths lined with sharp teeth; one in the center of its mass and another near the top, where the other shades also had their grins.

This larger shade also had three arms sticking out of its body from seemingly random places – one from the front right below its large mouth, one from the top of its head, and the other near the bottom left side. All three arms ended in large, sharp claws that looked like they could easily rend any of us apart. Oh, and it was busy grinding up a body of what looked like a large crawler, slurping up its flesh with its mouth in the center and throwing out the bones when they were dry.

The smaller shades must weaken the ones who get here and leave the bodies for this thing… The nightmarish creature stood there, grinning with its two mouths while presumably staring at us, though that was difficult to judge as the thing had no eyes. Everyone got in position, with Lucas and Sam standing at the front, their shields held out in front. Lucas was still a bit shaky, but he was doing much better since I had started dodging the shades instead of Lucas taunting them and tanking the hits.

Omar, Madelline and I started readying our spells, cramming as much mana as we could into our spells. My spell was much smaller than Omar's, which was absolutely massive, and the large monster in the center of the cavern must have taken his spell as a threat, or an insult, as all eighteen feet of nightmarish monster suddenly sped towards us with a grating squeal of rage from its mouth at the top. Lucas and Sam both taunted the monster, and Lucas also used his ability.

Madelline and I released our spells while Omar looked like he was still building his up with even more mana. The two wind bolts I released reached first, going straight through the monster. The shade's body disappeared from the places where my spells hit it, but the smoky body soon swirled and the holes were made whole again. Madelline's spell hit it as well, and simply vanished, having no effect whatsoever.

By this time, the shade reached us and dropped two massive claws on Lucas and Sam, the impacts from the claws meeting shield ringing throughout the cavern. Sam had to step back from the impact, but Lucas swung his sword at the main body of the shade. Much like it had done with the smaller shades, the sword harmlessly passed through, making Lucas stumble with the lack of feedback. I had readied two more hastily prepared wind bolts by this time, and released them both.

One of them passed through the creature just like it had before, but the other one managed to hit it straight in its center mouth, finally having an effect. The bolt smashed through the monster's teeth, and it let out another squeal of rage. This time, since we were so close to it, the sound was much more jarring, almost like an attack. Perhaps due to my perception being the highest, I was hit the hardest by the sound.

A sharp, sudden pain assaulted my head as my vision swam and I lost all balance for a second, dropping to the ground in a heap. My head was pounding so hard it was difficult to think of anything else, before a sudden warmth washed over me, pushing back the pain and allowing my eyes to open back up again. I looked up to see Marcus's face, with his glowing hand pressed against my ear. I was down on the ground, and I could now hear the repeated sounds of impacts and grunts again.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Marcus didn't waste an opportunity to throw in a dig, "You really love getting injured for no reason at all, don't you? You sure you don't have Munchausen's?" Choosing not to respond, I just pushed him away and got back up. Marcus immediately moved on to Hannah, who also had high perception, but it looked like no one else had been as affected by the sound as we had been. The monster was swinging its claws around, which was making life tough for both Lucas and Sam.

Partly because of the weird angles with which it was swinging them, and partly because if they didn't put their shield exactly between themselves and the claws, and instead placed the shield to intercept the arm, it would just phase right through. Sam already had a small gash in his arm as a result. Taking inspiration from what I observed, I made two wind bolts and released them, trying to hit either the claw or the mouth.

It seemed like the creature had been observing me since I had hit its mouth with my spell because as soon as I released the two spells, the monster immediately shifted, resulting in both spells passing harmlessly through its body. It then paused for a second, before numerous tiny black dots shot out from within its body at high velocity. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

I tried to dodge them, but they were moving at such speed that I only managed to dodge one, while I was hit by multiple others. The dots passed straight through me, exactly like the smaller shades had done earlier. And everywhere they passed through, a small chill started spreading, and I could feel myself getting slower. I didn't need to open my status window to know that each dot had also erased a bit of my resources.

Everyone else had also been hit by the black dots, and with the way everyone winced and slowed down, I could see they all were facing the same effects I was. The large shade immediately followed its volley up with a double claw attack on Lucas and Sam. Both of them had to take a few steps back at the impacts as they were still dealing with the after-effects of the boss's projectile attack.

It felt like the monster spread its sinister grins even further, elated at not only dodging my spells but also at launching its own successful attacks. However, the monster's jubilance was short-lived, as Omar had finally finished his spell. It looked like Omar had not only been cramming his spell full of mana, but had been doing something else at the same time. The spell no longer resembled his usual mana bolts or mana orbs. Instead, this one was almost white in colour, and had a sharp point at the end.

It was also pulsing, and I could feel the immense mana radiating from it even from here. It was so intense that I could even vaguely feel arcane comprehension trying to tell me something about the spell; however, the mana interference from the crystals was perhaps too high as the passive spell couldn't activate completely. The mana had actually started radiating just now, which is why I believed that Omar had completed his spell.

The nightmarish large shade apparently agreed with me, as it paused as well before turning its body towards Omar. Without giving the monster much time to do anything else, the spell launched at such sheer speed that sand blew all over with its passing. In less than a second, the spell had reached the monster, and detonated. The cavern turned entirely white, burning my eyes and forcing them shut, and yet, I could still somehow see only whiteness.

There was no sound of the blast, just the light and intense heat, both of which went away a few seconds later. I opened my eyes, but realized I was completely blind, something that was shared by everyone else.

"Help! I can't see anything!" shouted Sam in a panic. Understandable, as he was close to the monster which could shred him to pieces easily. The others also started panicking, wildly shouting that they couldn't see anything. By the sounds of their voices, I made my way towards Marcus, who was actually laughing at the misfortune of everyone else. He had probably already healed himself, and as he was laughing, I figured there was no immediate danger.

Once I reached close to where I could hear his laughter from, I touched him, making his laughter pause.

"Heal me, or I'll haunt you from invisibility for a week while you try to sleep," I threatened in a low, playful voice. Immediately, the warmth of his healing skill washed over me, restoring my vision. I looked around, and the first thing I saw was everyone else stumbling around. Some were crawling on the ground while others were clutching their eyes with one hand and swinging their weapons blindly with the other. Okay, that is a little funny…

Not willing to admit that to Marcus, I instead asked him sternly to heal the others before someone got hurt. Especially since Sam and Lucas also had a few burns on their arms and face due to them being the closest to the blast. Marcus got up, still with a wide grin on his face, and went about healing everyone else. Soon, everyone was healed up and sitting down in a loose circle, satisfied at having beaten what was probably either a boss or a mini-boss.

These shades were completely immune to physical attacks, but extremely susceptible to magic ones. Lucky that we had Omar on our side… Speaking of Omar, now that everyone was healed, the group had ganged up on Omar. He was getting praised for his amazing spell and at the same time he was being berated harshly for not warning us about his spell. He was sheepishly defending himself, saying that he didn't know his spell would make such a bright blast, and that he was only trying to get rid of the monster.

At the same time his huge grin betrayed how he really felt. I looked around the cavern as everyone seemed busy in their discussions. My eyes swept over the area where the boss had been and I saw the sand near the epicenter had turned white, and there were a few small glass crystals formed as well. Impressed once again by the strength of Omar's spell, I turned back to the group in time to hear Omar say that he had levelled up and had also gotten a new spell recognized by the system.

The spell was called 'Light Mana Lance' and we had all seen what it was capable of. It also confirmed that Omar had been able to create a spell using light mana, and I couldn't wait to see it through the lens of arcane comprehension. A glint suddenly caught my eye. I turned back to the epicenter of the blast, thinking it was another small piece of glass. However, poking out of the sand right underneath where the large shade had been was the corner of something that was definitely not a piece of glass.

Is that a chest…?