Zich distanced himself from the creature. The sudden shock shattered the pieces of ice on its surface and the tree’s roots. Eyes and lips protruded all over its face and arms, making it a truly bizarre sight. Yet, that was only the beginning.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
As its body swelled, it became a large, solid clump of meat. Arms and legs popped out everywhere. Eyes, nose, lips, and ears formed all over its body without missing any of the newly formed bits as well.
“Is that your true self? How beautiful! At least in comparison to your original form!” Zich shot a sword attack at the clump of meat. The dozens of arms sticking out of the clump simultaneously lifted their hands forward.
Wing!
A magic barrier formed in front of the clump of meat. A single barrier was incredibly strong by itself, but barriers as many as the existing arms formed on top of each other, and Zich’s attack failed to penetrate them.
Slide!
Even as dozens of arms formed a magic barrier, it still had some free hands to do other tasks.
Crack!
Waterspouts cracked through the frozen lake and gushed out. Simultaneously, the lips on the clump of meat began to murmur spells, each different from one another. It was a situation they had experienced before. Thus, they knew how dangerous and bothersome the situation would be. An immense amount of mana circulated around the clump of meat, but that was only the start.
Whoooosh! As the tree vibrated, it let out a low cry. Zich could feel the tree’s enormous mana getting sucked in by the clump of meat.
‘This is cheating,’ Zich thought as he clicked his tongue. The way this clump of meat attacked was beyond any norm and known standard, but he couldn’t stand and stupidly watch the creature prepare its next spell. He rushed towards the clump of meat, but a magic barrier blocked him. Zich sharply honed the mana around Windur.
Crash! The first attack was blocked. Yet, there seemed to have been an effect, and the magic barrier shook widely.
Bababam! It knocked against the barrier in quick succession. A crack formed in the barrier and eventually shattered it before it disappeared into thin air. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only one. Zich saw the hand that had created the barrier gesture form another one. No matter how many barriers he broke, it seemed like a new one would form without any signs of stopping. However, Zich didn’t change his method of attacking. ‘I should just push forward at times like this!’
Bababam! He swung Windur even faster. A new barrier replaced the previous one, but the speed at which Zich destroyed them was much faster.
Crash! In the end, all the barriers broke. The clump of meat appeared before Windur defenseless, but it was a second too late. Dangerous energy danced around the tips of the clump of meat’s fingers where magic had gathered. The hands targeted Zich.
All sound ceased to exist. It wasn’t that the battle had ended; the sound of the magic that poured out of the clump of meat’s hand was so tremendous that everyone had lost their hearing. All they could hear was a giant ‘Beeeep~!’ at the end.
Kuuuuuu!
Some time later, Zich got his hearing back. As the colossal spell aimed at him disappeared, Zich struck his recovered sense of hearing. The meat clump rolled its many eyes. It had cast the greatest spell it possibly could and hadn’t expected Zich to be alive; it didn’t help that it had never experienced a proper battle before, making it prone to wrong judgments. Zich burst through the disappearing spell remains. He didn’t appear fine at all; he was suffering cuts, burns, frostbite, tears, and so on and bleeding so profusely that it was a wonder as to how he was moving at all. Yet, without even batting an eyelid, Zich steadily swung Windur at the meat clump. Although the meat clump responded quickly, Zich’s attack shredded its skin.
-Kuaaaaaaaah!
Multiple lips screamed all at once, and its arms and legs flung around grotesquely.
‘Does it not have much endurance for pain?’
If it was Zich, he would have moved as he did now immediately after his body was shredded; he would have struck back, defended himself, or escaped at least. Yet, the only thing the clump of meat did was scream. The arm closest to Zich stretched out to grab him. The arms at the backs began preparing a spell again, but Zich had no intention of losing this golden opportunity to approach the meat clump.
‘It’s dangerous for me to distance myself right now!’
Compared to the amount of magic that fell from the meat clump in the laboratory, this one shot out fewer attacks; it was understandable since the laboratory had been covered with meat clumps from every corner of the room and hallways. However, the meat clump in the laboratory had poured out thoughtless magic spells that also tended to cancel or block each other out. Yet, the one in front of him right now was different. Its magic and mana were superior to the monster from the laboratory, and moreover, it fused different types of magic.
‘If I hadn’t pierced through the gaps between the magic, it would’ve been really dangerous.’
If he compared the meat clump’s recent spell to Inferno, which Walwiss Dwayne had used in the days he was the Demon Lord of Magic and was the product of merging three different types of elemental magic, it still lacked far behind. Yet, Zich was critically wounded and couldn’t cure himself since he didn’t even have the time to take out a magic potion.
He evaded the monster’s outstretched hand and turned around. The clump of meat was extremely fast. It landed a simple blow and managed to block Zich’s sword. Yet, when Zich began to move dizzyingly, its arms and legs got tangled up.
Slice! One arm fell. The meat clump screamed again. Even when it was severed from the body, the arms flopped on the ground. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like it could cast any more spells in this state. Besides the magic of the severed arm, some of the spells were cut off as the mouths began screaming. However, all the other spells were completed. The eyes glared at Zich. The magic attacks were not able to make sufficient damage against him. Since Zich was right next to them, it seemed like they couldn’t use large-scale magic attacks.
If the meat clump used large-scale magic attacks, it might accidentally injure itself in the process. Thus, the meat clump used narrow-ranged attacks, but Zich quickly evaded all of them with his keen senses. Even though the meat clump tried to form barriers, Zich was so close and fast that it was difficult to form barriers at a suitable range; Zich moved while meticulously calculating this factor.
—Ahahahahuuahahhhhh!
The meat clump screamed. It was not a scream full of pain; rather, it sounded as if it were screaming out of intense fury.
‘That’s better for me.’ As his enemy became more and more agitated, it was easier for Zich to control them according to his will. Zich continued to evade the hands that haphazardly swung at Zich. Each of the hands was surrounded by an enormous amount of mana, so if he was directly hit by any one of them, it would not end with just a few broken bones or ripped flesh. At that moment, the meat clump quickly swung a few of its arms, and a barrier appeared.
Crassssssssh! Fireballs the size of a person’s head continuously hit against the barrier. The barrier seemed to be withstanding the force, at first, but cracks soon began to appear. Anyone could see that the barrier would not last long. The meat clump began to use more arms to maintain the barrier, so its movements became more clumsy and more gaps appeared. Zich furtively glanced towards the direction where the fireballs came from—Lyla was leaning her staff towards his direction. This was an opportunity. Zich firmly pierced Windur into the meat clump.
—Ecccccccck!
The meat clump’s lower body—since the upper body had expanded to such a large size that it was mostly indistinguishable from its lower body—nevertheless, what resembled a lower body was largely ripped away. From the monster’s disgusting injury, something that looked like blood streamed out of its body.
‘Huh?’ Zich discovered something hidden inside the clumps of flesh. However, there was little time for him to stare longer at it.
‘I should look at that later.’ Zich needed to focus on defeating the meat clump for now. It would be extremely troublesome if the meat clump gained back its mental capacity. ‘I’m going to chop it up like this!’
However, the situation didn’t go according to Zich’s plan.
Swooosh! The water from the lake soared. Were whirlwinds going to appear again? However, what appeared from the lake was not a whirlwind. It was a long and widely stretched-out tentacle.
Buuuuuuuuuu! A chilling cry split the air.
‘Kraken!’ Zich furrowed his brows. He saw a large scar on the Kraken’s tentacle.
‘It must be the same Kraken that ambushed Shootuol last time.’ Zich was sure that the Kraken was the same monster that received his attack last time and had run away. Zich stared at the meat clump. ‘Did it call forth the Kraken?’
As expected, this creature must have been responsible for the recent ambush in Shootuol. Zich moved towards the meat clump. He had no time to pay attention to the Kraken.
‘I need to kill it right now!’ Zich swung Windur. He was planning to cut the meat clump in half, but Zich’s sword was unable to reach it.
Twist! Zich’s body collapsed momentarily. He had tried to push down the pain with his mental fortitude and patched up his ruined body with mana, but in the end, he had reached his limit. It was not possible for other people—no, even trained knights to fight or properly move in Zich’s current condition. The fact that Zich could still skillfully fight was evidence of how much of a monster he was. However, even though it couldn’t be helped, the gap in Zich’s defense as a result of his injury was extremely critical.
Crasssh! The Kraken’s large tentacle stuck where Zich was. Zich had no choice but to move back to evade its attack. As Zich moved further away, the meat clump began to make an enormous number of barriers between its body and Zich. It was not an amount that Zich could easily break in a short time.
‘Damn it!’ Zich quickly took out a potion and poured it down his throat. Then, he broke the potion on his body. As soon as the potion touched his body, his injuries healed at an extremely fast rate. However, even while the pain disappeared from his body, Zich was unable to erase the frustration on his face.
Buuuuuuuu! All eight of the Kraken’s tentacles emerged from the lake. They swept the island, and the teeth inside the tentacles’ suckers threateningly rattled against each other.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Zich skillfully avoided the falling tentacles and approached the meat clump again. He crushed the barriers that blocked him. However, the meat clump no longer allowed Zich to come closer.
–What a tiresome human being! As expected of a guy possessing the Clowon Emperor’s sword, you’re amazingly persistent!
“Instead of complimenting me, why don’t you remove the barriers instead!”
–What nonsense!
However, the meat clump was extremely bothered by Zich since it almost died from Zich’s attack.
–Kraken!
Buaaaaaaaaaa! The Kraken raised its tentacles high up in the air. At the same time, the meat clump raised its hand.
Burrrst! The lake covered the island with strong waves. Whirlwinds soared above the air and water droplets poured down like arrows. Zich quickly swung Windur and went on the defensive. He blocked all kinds of attacks coming towards him. At the same time, the meat clump continued to shoot magic attacks at him.
“Ugh!” Even for Zich, this was too difficult for him to endure. The Kraken also stretched its tentacles towards Zich.
Crasssssh! At that moment, two of the Kraken’s tentacles exploded and dropped off. The Kraken struggled in pain. Lyla’s attack had directly hit the Kraken.
Buoaaaaaa! The Kraken cried out and changed its target to Lyla. However, the meat clump stopped the Kraken.
—Don’t pay attention to that side! Kill the man in front of you!
The Kraken hesitated for a bit and charged at Zich.
‘I don’t want this type of popularity.’ Zich evaded the Kraken’s tentacles as it tried to strike him again.