Without further ado, the three of them made their way up the hill toward the unfinished stone castle they had seen earlier.
According to the appearance of the site, the place seemed to have been abandoned for hundreds or maybe thousands of years. It had been so long in its current condition - untouched by human beings - that a lot of wild plants had grown in all of the holes spotted between the stones. There were even trees already sprouting from the ground through the gaps.
It didn't take long for them to arrive at their destination, where afterward the three continued on their way until they arrived at the cave entrance, in which they would descend and go through it.
The moment they entered, Emery felt his vision was immediately robbed by the darkness encroaching inside. Fortunately, as preparation before stepping into the cave, Annara had cast and sent a few of her familiar bats to enlighten their way forward.
She sent two bats to head in front and another two to fly on their back. The latter was because she wanted to make sure that nothing would come up behind them and catch them off guard.
After that, Annara was the one who took the initiative to pave the path for the others. Not only because she has seen the place before using her familiar, but also because she has the best eyesight among them and even has an innate ability for being able to see in the dark.
Following and walking through the tunnel for a hundred meters, they eventually arrived in a chamber-like room made of gray stones that stood to a height of up to 8 meters.
Annara's bats had detected there were a few medium and high-rank beasts that came across in their way, but the three of them were more than capable of dispatching them all and just treated it lightly as a warm up.
Several minutes later and the outer chamber had been completely cleared, devoid of any beasts. Then, Annara told the other two that the beholder was located beyond this tunnel. Emery could also feel its presence with his spirit reading ability.
"Alright, let us do this according to plan."
Just right before they were about to enter where the beholder was, Emery could tell that even after all those preparations they had made, the two girls were clearly still apprehensive about everything.
This occurrence was understandable, afterall the plan called for a quick attack that would take less than 5 minutes to finish off the beholder. That was what they were aiming for at this moment.
Before they started to carry out the plan, all three of them used their transformation abilities.
[Fey wolf transformation]
[Kimoyn serpent transformation]
[Spectre bat transformation]
Each of them start transforming, turning to the embodiment appearance of their bloodline; the wolf silver fur, the snake white scaly skin, and the bat pale skin. Afterwards, they all readied themselves to increase their battle power before starting the fight.
Emery and Silva both took out their weapon of choice, tier 4 swords. Annara, on the other hand, kept the whip on her waist and took out a set of daggers instead.
"Let's go!"
As had been planned, it was Silva who was the one to instigate the fight.
The white-haired girl who had already turned all her skin scaly white swiftly dashed inside the tunnels, where she immediately used [Slithering Steps], a movement battle art of the snake clan that allowed her to increase her speed even further.
It did not take much time to cast in and she reached the main chamber within no time at all.
Immediately, Silva was welcomed by an atmosphere that looked extremely serene, where only a tiny amount of sunlight entered the room and was reflected by the grey stone which made the faint light slightly illuminate the entire chamber.
In an instant, the girl's attention was immediately attracted by a portal gate in the distance at the far end of the chamber, standing right behind the floating figure.
[The Beholder]
[Legendary abyss creature]
[Stage 5 - level 99]
[Battle power 255]
The creature indeed had a superior battle power. However, the fact that the creature was more well-known for its magical capabilities could not be denied as well, otherwise, it would be the reason for one's doom.
The floating ball of eyes quickly became aware of Silva's arrival, and when it detected any movement around it, the creature swiftly changed its body to turn toward her.
There were 11 eyes in total, and apart from the huge main one, the other 10 had peculiar irises with shapes that were slightly different from the main eyes.
Each of the eyes belonged to a different use as they were divided into four different groups.
Four of them were for the energy ray that the creature would unleash on its enemy, two eyes functioned as the eyes that petrified those they looked upon, two eyes were used for dispelling any magic used on its vision, and the last two were the healing ones that could restore the other wounded eyes.
With these kinds of abilities in its grasp, fighting the Beholder would be the most troublesome and trauma-inducing experience, even for a group of magus. However, with the situation the trio had got themselves in, they had to do it in one way or another if they wanted to return.
Silva took a deep breath and quickly boosted her speed as she dashed, circling around to the perimeter of the room. Being the fastest of the three, Silva was chosen to go first with the aim that her presence served as the bait for the others.
As she began to show herself in such a way that she attracted the beholder's attention, the energy rays were the first pair of eyes to notice her, and they were also the ones that were able to quickly pinpoint her.
The energy ray was fast as they rapidly traveled in the air, but Silva was a tad bit faster. After sprinting away from the entrance, she was able to make it to the portal gate on the other side of the entrance before it could strike her. Everything was being done for a single purpose.
When the beholder was enraged and finally used the main eyes, Silva's step came to a screeching halt. Contrary to expectation, instead of continuing her dash, she turned toward the big eye creature and looked it straight in the eye.
Its main attack, the huge eye, was a spirit attack strong enough to compel her knee to crumble under the pressure. It could not only immediately harm her physical body, but it could also cause her spirit soul to be crushed as well.
However, an emblem that gave off a bright blue light swiftly came out of her chest. The blue-illuminated emblem blocked the beholder's attack in a matter of seconds, proving to be quite effective.
The emblem was a life saving artifact that Emery received as a gift from the headmaster, and it was capable of holding any type of attack up to the level of peak magus strength.
The artifact was given to Silva, who had been chosen to be the bait, and as was expected, without the emblem the girl would be in serious trouble. Fortunately, they took the right initiative in this regard.
When the creature realized that its attack had been blocked, the creature became enraged and quickly deployed the energy ray to shoot her, and because of the previous spirit attack, the girl appeared to be unable to evade the incoming beam of energy.
Silva, on the other hand, only stared at the creature with a smirk on her face and she said,
"We got you! You stupid meatball!"
With the beholder turning toward Silva, it was turning its back at the entrance. It was late to realize that a figure had already [Blink] right at the creature's back and swung its tier 4 sword toward the creature's most dangerous eyes without even realizing it, causing the creature to lose its balance.
[Heroic Strike]
Spllaattt!!
One tentacle eye was cut off, and it was the petrifying ones.
When it comes to cutting the beholder's eyes, most experienced fighters would think to cut the recovering eyes first, yet this would prove to be a mistake as it was the petrifying eyes that were actually the most dangerous of them all. When the beholder combined its petrifying ability with the main paralyzing eyes, it would prove to be the most lethal combo.
All of the baiting and the sneaking attack was for one thing; to make the first move and cut the petrifying eyes first.
However, the problem was there were two of them and even though Emery made his move quickly, yet, he was unable to cut the second eye because the creature had already turned and its big eyes were ready to paralyze him before he could cut the second petrifying eye.
What makes things worse, now that he has been spotted, the dispelling eyes also made him unable to cast [blink] or any other spell whatsoever.
It was at this moment, as if had anticipated the right timing of the creature to turn, a dagger had already been thrown from afar, flew fast, and hit the beholder's big eye just before it could paralyze Emery.
Splatt!!
The dagger was certainly incapable of injuring the huge eyes, but it was powerful enough to make it blink for a split second, which was exactly what Emery needed in order to rush and quickly slash the second petrifying eyes.
[Heroic Strike]
Splatt!!