Chapter 214: GEC
———Lerim———
<10: 51 pm>
“Bird sightings? Who cares about that? Aren’t you gonna ask me to do another dirty job?” I asked while leaning back on my chair.
“Right. Right… I got a call from someone yesterday about something happening on the coast, more specifically… Actually. We need to make sure no info leaves this room. Could you at least promise me to not talk about it if you’re not gonna take the task?” He said with the sense of tension clear in the office.
“I could do that much.” I’d probably look like an insane person saying anything from this serious meeting anyway, based on the vibe.
“...Okay then. Let’s start with the location. It seems like something has happened somewhere on the Atlantic Coast. More specifically, the New York Bight. I got a call from someone yesterday about a big event happening there, so to speak.” He starts recounting.
“New York Bight…” I muttered as I pulled out my phone to look at where that is… “That’s so far from here, are you for real right now?”
“...You went to Washington and back in less than a day. I believe such a trip wouldn’t be taxing, correct?” He said like some sort of smartass.
“Yeah? Doesn’t mean I like the idea of doing it. What am I even supposed to do there anyway? Who even sent in this tip? Are you sure it’s not a troll or something?” It’s weird that he seems so adamant on me doing… whatever this is about.
“It’s not. In fact, after verifying something, I came to the conclusion that it actually has a bit of weight to it.” He said with confidence. Alright then. He has been pretty good with his intuition so far, let’s see if this outlandish one holds any water.
———Orrel———
<1: 01 pm>
“...Now this is a weird one.” Malk muttered as we got off the ship and saw the scenery better. Compared to the previous ones that don’t look all too different from normal terrains we had before the snake rain,
The plants aren’t green, for one. They came in blue, grey, and yellow. Those are certainly not common colors for vegetation. There are a lot of high grounds and streams of water moving through the area. Outside of the coloration itself the general terrain is only about as exaggerated as the previous Fantarban Realm we have been to.
In the distance we can see a giant bat-like creature flying in the sky, having a dark blue coloration and soon perching on one of the giant stone structures towering over most.
“Alright everyone, go do your thing. I’m gonna relax on the ship. Make sure to come back in two and a half hours.” Rico said before walking back into the ship before we could say anything in return. As apathetic about this trip as she has always been.
Some of us already started moving and ready to hunt. The usual suspects ran off and left only a few of us in front of the ship.
I casually walked forward in random directions just to get a better look at the scenery. I don’t really plan on hunting anything specifically and simply enjoying the sight and the fresh air. They never have us do anything specific in these areas outside of just exploring.
“I guess this is where they got some of the weird trees from.” Useph remarked as he followed me. Guess he’s not hanging around with the rowdy bunch today.
“It’s hard to tell if that’s the case or not. I think those are more otherworldly than the plant life around here.” I replied as we kept moving and a strong wind blew past our faces. This place is quite windy, and alongside the many airborne monsters gives the area quite a dangerous atmosphere. “...Looks like they are targeting us already.”
Two frog-like monsters jumped towards us, about as tall as an average human with gray and yellow color scheme.
*Zip* *Bite* *Tear*
Before the fight could actually start, one of those giant bats came over and tore both frogs to shreds before turning its attention to us.
“Guess we’re fighting this thing now!” Useph said with his sword and shield out, running towards the giant bat before I could even say anything in return.
*Swing* *Block* *Slash* *Swing* *Block* *Slash*
The two of them went at it and he countered each attack with precision and counter back with strong and devastating slashes each time.
*Bash* *Crash*
He rammed his shield against the giant beast and sent it flying towards one of the giant rock tower structures, hitting the top of it. It seems to be the prominent landmark of this place. There are multiple sets of four stone towers all across the habitat.
The giant bat climbed up onto the top of one of these towers to catch its breath as it stared at us two. Despite the injuries already being sustained it’s still raring to go.
“Guess the big shots of this place are no match for us, eh?” Useph smugly said. The fact that it could withstand multiple attacks from Useph means it’s no pushover, at least.
*STAB*
Before anything else could be said or done, suddenly a massive metal spike protruded out of the structure the bat was perched on and killed it instantly, crushing its body and it fell right off the spike. Why was there just an insidious trap in there?
*Rumble* *Rumble*
Suddenly the ground started to shake and cracks formed. Suddenly the piece of land below the four rock pillars gave way to something that crawled out from underneath.
“Something tells me… that wasn’t the apex predator of this area.” I said as the giant figure buried deep in the ground revealed itself and shook off the dirt and stones covering its body.
We finally get a good look at this giant beast that has been hiding right under many. Its body is gray with a tint of blue, having an exoskeleton, having many legs, giant beady black eyes…
“A giant enemy crab!” Useph yelled out.
*ROAR*
Its mighty roar from its giant mouth full of fangs that looks like it could fit multiple humans in there creates strong wind and pressure that’s causing the grass and leaves to flutter wildly.
I looked around and saw multiple pillars rise up from the ground as well. Looks like multiple of these things have awoken after we arrived and caused some disturbance. Seems like we are not the only ones having to deal with this thing.
*Swing* **Leap**
Both of us retreated as it swung its arm towards us, getting some distance from it as we tried to figure out how best to tackle this hulking beast.
Despite clearly being a crab of some kind, it still has some unnatural traits, such as its claws being more akin to large gorilla arms covered in exoskeleton, the multiple eyes strewn across its body, and the four giant spikes on its back that could extend and kill anything perched on top of it. Also, the long tail on the back that looks more akin to something on a scorpion.
“Well then. Looks like we get something to actually struggle against!” Useph said while brandishing his weapons before running in before I could say anything.
*Slash* *Block* *Parry* *Clash*
He starts attacking the giant monster, clashing with its massive armor-clad arms despite the massive difference in size. He must’ve expected the difference in power to be close enough to engage it in straightforward combat.
“Ugh!” He isn’t having a good time. Such a massive difference in size also came with different power output that’s isolated from the mana pool someone has. Trying to trade blows with such a massive monster is a fool’s errand, and a hit-and-run tactic would’ve been much more preferable.
*Lift* *Crash*
I lifted up the piece of debris left from its wake using magic and threw them right at its face to give Useph some breathing room.
“Nice save!” Useph shouted out as he gave himself some distance while the monster was temporarily stunned by my sudden attack.
*Sizz* *Leap* *Slash*
His sword is temporarily engulfed in flame as he jumps towards the monster with a heavy slash right on top of its head, causing visible crack.
*Lunge* *Block* *Thud*
“Tch!” Useph clicked his tongue after disgracefully landing down after blocking a surprise attack from its surprising long stinger tail. Getting hit while still in the air doesn’t give him a lot of room to recover and prepare to land.
Despite taking a big hit, it’s clearly something akin to a minor scratch in the grand scheme of things as the crack is barely visible. It clearly hasn’t hit any of its vital organs.
*Swing* *Leap*
It tried to attack him with its arms again and he quickly jumped away and retreated back to my side.
“Okay. Maybe this won’t be easy. We need some gameplan here.” Useph said, understanding the gravity of the situation. Indeed, this Titayrant seems to be on a completely different level than the ones we fought before. Its sheer size for one thing, but its extremely durable exoskeleton also compensate for its relatively low agility. We might be here for a long while before wearing it down.
*Shine* *Blast* **Evade**
“Ah crap!” Useph yelled out as suddenly the four pillars on its back lit up and started raining down energy attacks right towards us that we needed to quickly react to and dodge. This kind of attack isn’t something we can take lightly. “[Shield]! [Shield]!”
*Block*
Useph shouted out the spell in a panic as he conjured a barrier for the two of us to take shelter instead of risking being hit by the barrage of spells.
“Alright, gameplan, quick.” He said while still maintaining the barrier that is still shielding us from the rain of attacks from above that doesn’t seem to be stopping.
“I’ll immobilize it and you’ll hit it really hard. You need a lot more time to gather up enough energy to crack through its tough exterior.” It’s very simple but right now we don’t have a lot of time to deliberate. “Hit it where you already make a crack just to quick break through. It should stop this energy rain soon.”
*Swing* *Crash* *Thud*
“Aaah!” When the hell did it stop its assault and crawled over here!? It smashed the barrier we were in and sent both of us flying in different directions. Who is it going after right now?
*Swing* *Evade*
I see it being occupied, so it must’ve gone after Useph.
“Agh!” My whole body is in pain after that massive impact of its giant armored hand hitting me and sending me flying. That doesn’t really matter. My main focus right now isn’t running away or any form of physical exertion. I just need to gather enough power for this next big spell and make sure to aim it just right.
I can’t quite make out what Useph is doing or if he even remembers the plan, he could realistically forget it in the heat of the moment, but I have faith that he’ll follow through with that no matter what.
…Steady… Steady…
“Haaaa!” I screamed out loud as I let out a massive burst of mana that quickly surrounded the giant crab monster and started trapping it in a prison made of ice.
*Crackle* *Crack*
Most of its body is covered in ice yet it still has enough vitality to try to break through it. I am still sending out mana towards the magical ice prison, keep reinforcing it and making sure it can’t break through the structure.
*Shine* *Sizz* *STAB*
Before it could break out of it, I can see Useph’s figure jumping up high with his sword glowing bright red and he stabbed down onto its head, piercing through the damaged shell.
*Thud*
All of its movement came to a stop. Looks like that finally did it in.
“Phew…” Useph let out a sigh of relief as I stopped the spell and walked over to him. “...You’re good?”
“Pain lingered on my entire body, but I’ll manage.” It’s not something that I can’t shrug off as long as we don’t run into another one of those. I can still hear them rampaging in the background, probably fighting the others.
“Well that’s good. That was way tougher than it had any right to be.” He said, despite the fight being over in a rather short timeframe. Admittedly it also took quite a lot of effort as well. “I’m spent just from that fight. Last time we fought something on that scale it was pretty easy.”
“It seems we had to expect some of these tyrants to have quite a high ceiling in potential danger level…” I said, pondering on if we could find something way too much for the others to handle.
*Rumble*
“Ah. Crap.” Useph said with his eyes widened as suddenly another one of these giant crabs showed up. Right now of all times? “Let’s make a break for-
*Slice* *Split*
“H-Huh?” Useph muttered in confusion as suddenly the giant monster was cut clean in half before it could attack, perfectly down the middle. “Was that like, Emmie or something?”
Whoever that was used their power to push the two halves of the big building-sized monster away to pave their way towards us.
“Yeesh. I didn’t expect you two to get such bad luck.” A voice we recognized but didn’t expect to be here was heard as the figure came into view.
“...Navi.” I muttered as the fox woman walked closer with her katana still unsheathed, making it clear she was the one who cut that giant and dangerous monster clean in half like it was nothing. There was barely a sound and the slash felt instantaneous. “Why are you here?”
“Oh. I have my reasons.” She said as she looked into the distance, observing the commotion going on elsewhere. “You know, we all got a reason to be here and all that. Anyway, I guess I gotta split. See ya all another time.”
*Dash*
Before either of us could ask her anything else let alone even making sense of why she’s even here, she already ran away with incredible initial velocity.
“Uhh…” Useph understandably felt loss as to why the previous chain of events even occurred.
“...Let’s think about this another time. Let’s return to the ship and recover first and foremost.” I said, since it’s not a guarantee that we won’t run into a third one.