Chapter 125 – Tough fight.

Roland looked at the monster that had gained an enraged status after it had been frozen. Some of its health had dropped but it was now quickly regenerating back up.

The monster started looking different than before. It switched to a deep red coloration; its horns and dorsal spine increased in size. The largest difference was the sword-like tail which was now burning up. It looked as if it was covered with magma which was also radiating from some cracks in the armor-like plates the monster was covered in.

While Lucille and Robert were stunned by the monster’s second form Roland raised his rod. The runes glowed in a chilling blue light before a large ball of ice formed in front of it. This ball was then shot off while spinning around.

The monster was still slow as before but this time around when this ball of ice snow collided with it, it started to quickly melt. The Xornotaurus roared out and opened up its mouth. In it, Roland could see the flame-producing sac organ which this type of creature was known for.

‘Shit…’

He quickly started running sideways, if he was a second late he would have been charred. The concentrated flamethrower-like breath collided with the spot Roland was previously in. Even the hard rocks started to melt from the high temperature.

The monster didn’t stop with its magma-like projectile attack. It followed after its prey by swinging its head sideways and trying to hit Roland as he was running. His armor was lighting up in green as he switched on his agility buffing runes to make a fast getaway.

Without his runic shield in his hands, he was not confident in blocking this attack with a regular magic shield. Even though he had that runic program in his armor it wasn’t specialized for it.

“D-don’t worry Sir Wayland!”

While feeling a burning inferno at his back he heard a woman’s voice from afar. It was Lucille shouting out, Robert was next to her with the shield raised and sword in one hand. The young ice mage started concentrating and gathering mana.

She closed her eyes and chanted as fast as she could. The blue crystal on her magical rod started pulsating with energy and slowly the spell started to take shape. It looked to be a large spire of ice, it was quite thick at the base and became thinner the further it went, culminating in quite the sharp top.

“Ice Lance!”

After completion, the girl shouted out and pointed her magical weapon at the monster in the distance. The large spear of ice flew forward, the added distance only gave it more time to gain speed. The attack headed right at the monster’s side. Lucille hoped that even the monster’s thick plates would not be able to resist such a heavy and fast-moving object.

Regretfully the monster would not allow this to be tested as it noticed this large human-sized icicle coming its way. It turned its body while swinging that giant sword-tail at the incoming ice lance.

It managed to slice it in two while only part of it collided with its heated up plates. Due to the loss of size and momentum the damage was minor. The monster now looked to Lucille and Robert while Roland was given a well-deserved breather.

Agni appeared at his side and started whining. It was clear that the tamed beast would not be able to last even one hit.

“Agni… go and hide…”

The ruby wolf curled up its tail as it felt without use. He was smart enough to know that he would only get in the way so it decided to bide its time for the moment that he could be useful.

While Agni was moving away Roland looked at the lava-covered ground that was melted by this creature. He did not think that his armor would offer him enough resistance against this monster’s attack. Even if he pumped all of his mana into his ice shield he would only last a few seconds before it gave out.

‘This thing is resistant to ice…’

This was one of the worst possible outcomes. Previously they enjoyed a rather easy time against the lesser monsters in this dungeon. It was enough to just lower their temperature slightly and they would just shut down.

This one on the other hand had some kind of internal heating organ. Even when they brought its temperature below 0 degrees it could just heat itself back up. The monster was also a large one and they only had one-handed swords with not much weight behind them.

Roland had brought things along as a large two-handed axe and hammer for such an occasion but it was left behind with the porters. The bag that he had with him only had his runsemithing tools along with provisions.

The spatial bag he had lacked the capacity and carrying a backpack in the dungeon was too much of a hindrance while fighting. Thus he was only left with some bombs, spell scrolls, and what he had on himself.

None of these things would probably be able to cause long-lasting damage to this monster. It was heavily armored and had quite thick legs. There was also the huge burning swordtail, which was a problem in itself. Would he be even able to resist it with his runic shield? Or would he be sliced in half with one swing?

It didn’t seem like he would have much time to reorganize his thoughts though as the monster gave out another giant scream. He expected it to fire another flaming breath or charge at Robert and Lucille. Instead of doing that it took out a wider stance while arching its back.

‘What is it doing…’

He could soon spot the tips of the backplate spikes glowing brighter than before. Roland took a step back before looking at Robert and Lucille.

“Don’t just stand there, scatter both of you!”

Lucille was surprised at Roland’s outburst while Robert furrowed his brows while looking at the monster. He seemed to understand the situation as he quickly sheathed his sword and lunged towards Lucille.

“Sir Robert? W-what are you doing?”

“Forgive me, my lady…”

The knight lifted up the noble lady with both his hands and started running. Almost at the same time, those glowing back spikes shot up into the air. They were clearly heated up and produced dark smoke.

There were four large spikes that at the apex of their trajectory exploded. This produced many smaller red hot embers that plummeted to the ground in various directions. Roland saw this and started dodging at max speed.

The moment one of these glowing chunks collided with something on the ground a small explosion occurred. They were slow-moving enough for Roland with his agility buff to react in time, on the other hand, Robert and Lucille weren’t as lucky.

Robert raised his shield while one of these projectiles collided with it. The explosion rattled his hand and tossed him along with the girl he was carrying to the side.

The Arden Knight didn’t let this be their demise though. He firmly grasped the runic shield that he was given and activated its magical effect. A large shield of ice appeared while he held it in place.

Roland could see the many explosive projectiles colliding with this shield while he was trying to evade them himself. The shield of ice was quickly faltering and only more mana could mend the holes back up.

He was in no position to help them though, from afar he tried casting a few runic spells but there were far too many of those flaming balls coming down. It looked like a small meteor shower raining down from the sky.

Robert was somehow able to defend himself and Lucille but he was slowly reaching the limit of his mana. This shield was not designed for someone like him in mind, it would quickly drain a non-mage in a matter of moments.

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The monster was also there and it could see the stationary targets. It opened up its maw once more, the target this time was Robert and the melting shield of ice that he was holding.

The explosive rain was almost over but it didn’t seem that this monster would be letting up, it had clearly produced this attack to somehow tie its targets into one location. This time around it wasn’t a breath of molten lava, the charge up was not there.

Before Roland could interrupt this attack a large ball of fire traveled from the creature’s mouth.

“Watch out!”

He shouted while Robert turned the shield to intercept this ball of flames. A loud explosion resounded through the area. There was a lot of dust created by the previous attack along with this one. Roland could not see what happened to his two party members.

After raising his magic rod higher he produced many frozen arrows. From the other side, he also activated his armor and created a few arrows made from hard rock. The magical attacks flew forward and successfully interrupted the monster’s second flame attack, however it also made it turn its massive head back towards Roland.