It almost appeared as if a bright light source was shining from inside the basilisk’s head. The light swept across the surroundings.
Shaaa!
Everything the light touched stopped moving. They lost their color and turned into a gloomy gray and stiffened in place. The basilisk’s light was transforming everything it touched into stones. All the monsters convened on the spot, the monster corpses that Zich and Glen had killed, and even all the stomped, flattened grass on the ground were locked into a stone-cold grayish world.
‘The petrification light!’ Zich looked at the newly-formed stone pieces next to him and narrowed his eyes. The basilisk’s immense physical abilities, sturdy scales, and fatal poison were all traits that made it a terrifying monster; but on top of all these traits, the basilisk possessed a light that transformed everything within its touch into stone.
‘It won’t be able to change everyone into stone but…’. People like Zich and Glen who possessed strong mana could resist the petrification effect, and they wouldn’t instantly turn to stone like these monsters. Yet, it was still dangerous. The top layer of their skin could be affected upon contact and hinder their movements, making them more prone to injuries. Of course, that was only the case if the light managed to touch them.
Psshhh! The petrification light poured out again and Zich hurriedly escaped.
Shaa! Something came out of the basilisk’s mouth this time—Zich twisted his feet and threw his body to the left side. The substance that came out of the monster’s mouth fell over Zich’s previous location.
Sizzle! The spot began to melt and let out bitter-smelling smoke.
“Posion!” The basilisk’s poison was much stronger than the petrification light. Unlike the petrification light which Zich could resist with his mana, this poison would immediately melt his skin and bones while letting out a foul odor. Now that he was almost out of potions, Zich needed to evade this poison at all costs. Yet, this didn’t mean that he should only keep evading in battle.
“Kieeehh!” Zich saw Glen’s Tornium pierce the basilisk’s body. Glen’s attack had penetrated deeply this time by attacking the same spot that Zich had attacked. The basilisk floundered more severely than before, and Glen backed away speedily. It seemed to be mostly on guard against Zich until now, but from the recent attack, it seemed to consider Glen as the greater threat. While the basilisk’s attention was drawn to Glen, Zich jumped above the basilisk without hesitation. Windur vibrated with a strong mana flow, and while the basilisk emitted petrification light and spat poison at Glen, it noticed Zich approaching. It flung its tail that was strong enough to break through steel; but of course, its strong tail was only effective if its strike landed.
Bam! The basilisk’s tail meaninglessly struck the empty ground and sent a flurry of dirt flying into the air. Zich’s eyes shone at this sight, and he dashed toward the basilisk’s front. The basilisk’s eyes darted at Zich and the petrification light shone toward him. At that moment, Zich strongly kicked off the ground.
Baaam! From a flurry of mana-filled kicks, the floor surrounding Zich simultaneously settled down. Accordingly, the basilisk struck its tail hard against this area and a dust cloud rose into the air. Even more dust clouds flew into the air because Zich had struck the floor with mana like he was purposefully dispersing it. Simultaneously, the dust cloud became so thick that sunlight was blocked, and it was surrounded by darkness.
Spark! The basilisk shined its petrification light but it couldn’t penetrate the dust cloud. Although it was a fearsome light that changed everything it touched into stone, it couldn’t overcome the physics of light itself. As the petrification light disappeared, Zich jumped out of the dust cloud. He was very close to the basilisk now and took the monster by surprise. However, with the quick response speed expected of a high-level monster, it stretched its mouth wide open as if it was preparing to bite Zich down with its poison-filled teeth. Yet, this was the monster’s fatal mistake. With its mouth wide open, the smooth roof of the basilisk’s mouth came into view right in front of Zich’s Windur as it swirled with immense mana.
Baaaaam! The mana shot from Windur’s blade swing penetrated through the roof of the basilisk’s mouth. The basilisk’s mouth hardly put up a resistance and crumpled down, but Zich’s mana kept digging deeper until it reached the monster’s brain and ground it into pieces.
Kueh! The basilisk didn’t shout for long. It soon lost energy in its body and after Zich landed back down on the ground, he moved sideways slightly.
Bam! Next to him, the basilisk’s head fell powerlessly.
[Waaaaaaaaaah!]
From far away, a cheer erupted. The soldiers on top of the castle walls had burst into celebration at the basilisk’s death, and their morale clearly boosted upwards.
“You have succeeded, sir,” Glen said while approaching Zich’s side.
“It’s thanks to you.”
“No need to thank me. You did all the work, Sir Zich.”
The two complimented one another but didn’t mean a single word. If Lyla had seen the two, she would’ve shaken her head at the terrible sight. No matter what these two thought, their greatest foe for the moment had died, which meant that they would be able to defend against this monster invasion quite easily this time too.
The two returned to the city, and as they expected, the ambush ended with Pialu’s victory. However, that was not the end. Unlike how the second invasion came quite some time after the first one, the third monster invasion came only four days later. This time, there were two basilisks and a flying monster that looked to be a wyvern. Four days after that, on top of flying monsters and basilisks, there were even behemoths mixed into the army of monsters.
* * *
Crunch! Zich felt a strong resistance from Windur. Although Windur maintained its sharp blade and sliced through anything hard and stretchy like mud and was filled with mana on top of that, it failed to slice the neck that was blanketed thickly with a mane.
Kuaaaaaaah! The behemoth roared. Its appearance reminded one of a giant lion walking upright, and it glared at Zich on its nape. The behemoth’s sharp claws rushed towards Zich.
Bam! Zich blocked its attack with Windur. However, he didn’t block it straight-on; rather, Zich slightly moved his body to the side and blocked the behemoth’s attack by reducing the force.
Tilt! Zich’s body shook by the behemoth’s enormous strength. The force of the attack on Windur had caused Zich’s balance to waver. However, Zich was not surprised; he had actually been aiming for this phenomenon. Zich’s body spun, and he used the force of the behemoth’s attack against it by using that spin to attack the behemoth’s nape once more.
Bam!
Kuahhhh! The mane was cut off and blood spurted out of its neck. The behemoth hurriedly tried to reach out with its hand again. The behemoth’s hand contained explosive power, powered by its enormous muscles and mana from its body. However, Zich welcomed its attack instead. ‘It’s startled!’
The behemoth’s prideful mane that seemed as if it would never break was broken off, and it had received a huge gash on its neck. It was probably the first time that the behemoth experienced something like this, and likewise, it was completely frazzled. As a result, there was no way that any of the behemoth’s attacks would reach Zich.
Zich avoided the behemoth’s attack and attacked its neck again. The behemoth could no longer rely on its mane for protection and tried too hard to protect its neck. Zich pretended to keep aiming for only its neck and pushed the behemoth to a corner.
Thud! In the end, the behemoth collapsed under Zich’s continuous attacks. Zich scanned his surroundings after killing the behemoth. He saw Glen facing a basilisk by himself. It was not surprising since despite receiving aid from his party of heroes, Glen successfully defeated him as a Demon Lord. Glen would probably defeat the basilisk soon. Hans was facing the other basilisk by himself.
‘He’s pretty good.’ Zich had told Hans the key points of what he should watch out for while fighting a basilisk, but he had to admit that Hans’ movements were good. He had put Snoc together with Hans at first, but Snoc was now cleaning up the other monsters around them since Hans alone was enough to defeat the basilisk.
However, the situation was still dire. A huge number of monsters were stuck on Pialu’s walls. Moreover, winged monsters were flying over the city walls and continuously attacking the city. Zich killed the monsters around him and ran towards Hans. After defeating the large monsters, they needed to focus all their strength on defending Pialu.
In the end, they successfully defended Pialu again from the monster ambushes, but the damage done to the city was much greater than before.
* * *
They won. The monsters withdrew after leaving an enormous number of their comrades behind. Kobolds and goblins–monsters that ordinary adults could manage to defeat, as well as monsters like ogres that trained soldiers had a difficult time defeating were sprawled everywhere below the city walls. Even though their continuous victories and the pathetic state of their enemies should have increased their morale, the soldiers walking below the city’s walls looked melancholy.
“Ack!”
“Ugh…”
The injured soldiers continued to be transported. Some received light injuries, but there were also many people who received deep injuries and had their limbs cut off. There were even those who died while being transported.
Lyla had reduced countless monsters to ashes and proved the usefulness of mages once again. She murmured, “It’s terrible.”
“It can’t be helped in a battle.”
“Even then, the atmosphere is awful even though we won.”
“It doesn’t matter if we keep winning when we don’t know when this battle will ever end. Moreover, we don’t know how many monsters will come in the next ambush.”
The indefiniteness of the monster ambushes and the fact that the number of enemies they had to fight continuously increased gnawed on people’s hearts.
‘He really made a good plan.’ Zich was impressed by Glen. Even the higher-ups in the city would feel nervous by now. Rather than showing a fierce army of monsters at once, it was sometimes more effective to steadily suffocate people with anxiety like this.
“Sir Zich!” One soldier approached Zich; judging by how he was completely soaked in blood, he seemed to have suffered a lot in this battle. “The commander is looking for you!”
“Did you do something wrong?” Lyla sent a suspicious glance at Zich.
“Why would I do that? All I did was diligently beat the crap out of monsters. It’s probably to discuss future plans.” Zich was currently the most skilled fighter in this city and someone who held the status of a Karuwiman Honorary Knight. He was probably being called to give advice on future battles.
‘They’re probably trying to stop me from going anywhere else as well.’ Zich wasn’t under Pialu’s government; if he wanted to leave, the city couldn’t easily stop him.
“See you later.”
“Yeah, see you later. Don’t cause trouble.”
Zich laughed at Lyla’s motherly words and waved his hand. The place that the soldier led Zich to was a big building. Zich went inside the building and saw a large space with big tables and people gathered together. The first person he saw was the commander and top officials who called him, and people who looked like mercenaries sat on opposite sides. Til was among the mercenaries, and Glen Zenard was also with them.