Chapter 142
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 142
Chapter Title: Field Boss Defense Battle (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
‘Fast...!’
Aiden, who had been watching the battle while toppling trees, let out a pure gasp of admiration at Maya's movements, forgetting his own dire situation.
‘I never saw moves like that even once during our spars.’
And no matter what monster she faced, Maya had never shown movements like these.
It was like facing a single beast.
She prowled every inch of the space as if it were her territory, reading the enemy's moves ahead of time and seizing the optimal positions.
The lord's attacks, which threw off rhythms repeatedly to counter Maya, left even Aiden at a loss for how to block them.
Yet Maya moved without a shred of hesitation.
‘What if I had to face an enemy like that...?’
It would probably feel like fighting underwater.
How despairing it must be to battle an enemy who freely manipulated space in such overwhelmingly unfavorable conditions.
‘It's not just me who's been growing.’
Maya had shattered her growth wall in this very moment and ascended beyond it.
Aiden, who had felt that sensation countless times, could tell.
Right now, Maya was in a state of perfect no-mind trance.
‘She broke through the wall.’
Jun, observing Maya's battle, shared a similar sentiment with Aiden.
Of course. Maya's talent was hardly lacking; it had just been overshadowed by Aiden's rapid growth.
‘And from the troll's perspective, the matchup was terrible.’
The lord's off-beat patterns were tricky against upright swordsmanship like Aiden's... but not for Maya.
She had spent most of her life in this capricious Blackout and knew how to adapt her movements to it.
And for a creature relying solely on its recovery, Maya's [Spirit Swarm Frenzy] was a near-perfect counter.
‘Killing it in one go would be tough, but crippling one leg completely is feasible.’
Even now, Maya targeted only its right leg, ignoring everywhere else.
Ku-ru-aaaah—!
However, the lord was no simple monster.
Five bottles of mana flow liquid lay scattered around Jun already.
With such immense mana swirling and distorting space, from its perspective, the biggest threat to its life was none other than Jun.
But Jun still needed time, so his gaze turned to Aiden, who was slashing through trees in the distance.
Just then, Aiden noticed the lord's eyes shifting toward Jun and began drawing mana from a mana flow bottle.
Aiden had been admiring Maya's movements, but he hadn't neglected tracking the lord's actions at all.
On the contrary, he meticulously noted every move, simulating how he'd handle it himself.
‘When Maya threw her dagger earlier, its hide pierced more easily than expected.’
If he could react to those erratic attacks, he could buy time against it too.
[Charge]
Mana courses through the body, cleaving through the air toward the enemy.
Circulating mana through his body, Aiden surged toward it through the air.
His speed was nearly impossible to track with the naked eye.
Already maximizing 'Destroyer's Hide,' bolstered by Jun and Eleanor's support, Aiden was like a single gust of wind.
At the same time, he unleashed his mana to its limit.
Ku-rurr...!!
The lord whipped its head toward Aiden as he closed in.
Reacting to the red mana cloaking Aiden's body.
Whooosh!
A house-sized hand came crashing down from above.
Strategic and smashing downward, its speed was far greater than before.
Kwaaaang—!!
In an instant, the ground Aiden stood on vanished without a trace, replaced by the lord's massive fist.
[Bash]
A searing impact reverberates through the descending hand.
Creeeack!
Ku-ruuh...?!
A burning sensation from the struck hand.
The fist split apart, fingers crumbling away like rotten branches.
And flames erupted from the severed areas.
The effect of the 'Salamander's Blessing' that Jun had obtained from the Volcanic Mage Tower and passed to Aiden.
Originally meant to conceal Aiden's imperial mana, it proved exceptionally effective even against monsters with immense regeneration.
Aiden leaped from the gap in its hand, climbing along its arm toward the neck.
Severing the ancient-tree-thick neck in one blow would be impossible, but he could at least halt its advance toward Jun.
Ku-uuuuh—!!
Of course, the lord had no intention of letting it happen.
It swung its other arm to crush Aiden outright.
Calculating that Aiden couldn't swing his sword properly from his current position.
But in that instant, the lord felt its body tilting and collapsing.
A vicious pain exploded from its right leg.
Ku-ooooh!!!
Maya, who had been steadily accumulating damage, unleashed [Spirit Swarm Frenzy].
The lord's right leg turned pitch black and necrotic.
This injury couldn't heal unless the leg was severed entirely.
Ku-rugu-tuda...!!
At this rate, it was done for.
Sensing this instinctively, just before Aiden reached its neck, the lord slammed its gathered energy into the ground with its massive fist.
Kwaaaang-!
The area exploded, blasting everything around it away.
“Krat...!”
“Krgh!”
Aiden and Maya, caught off-guard by the blast, were hurled back.
The collapsing lord boldly gripped its blackened, dead leg.
Crack...!
With a gruesome sound, the hide tore free, and dead blood gushed out like a waterfall.
Its hand, slashed by Aiden earlier, had already regenerated.
Aiden, flung far away, stared in disbelief.
“...A true monster.”
The erosive energy infesting the troll's body writhed around the wound, visibly regenerating the leg at a startling pace.
Of course, Aiden and Maya wouldn't just watch.
They pulled out more mana flow bottles, absorbed the mana, and charged back at it.
The lord no longer sensed a lethal threat from the two, but it had expended the energy it had painstakingly gathered on them, leaving it hard to exert full power.
In this situation, it planned to separate the pair and charge the most dangerous mage.
Maya first—
A massive boulder hurtled toward the threatening Aiden.
[Bash]
The boulder is cleaved in two.
When Aiden looked ahead after bisecting the rock, a tree ripped up by the roots came flying next.
Aiden retreated, still unsteady, only for another massive boulder to follow.
Thud!
“Kugh...!”
He tried to split it mid-air, but lacking strength, the boulder struck him squarely.
Protected by Eleanor's holy magic and mana, the impact still nearly shattered his consciousness.
Meanwhile, Maya closed in fully and climbed its shoulder, targeting the left head.
Aiming to drive [Spirit Swarm Frenzy] into the red liquid mass controlling the twin-head troll's body.
But in a split second, dozens of sharp spears erupted from the liquid, targeting Maya's entire body.
Kagagagak! Puk!
“Hup...”
The backlash from her prior [Spirit Swarm Frenzy] slowed Maya's reaction.
She blocked all vital strikes, but her thigh was pierced through.
At that moment.
[Pierce of Light]
A sacred golden spear embeds in the shoulder joint.
Ku-ooooh—!
Only then did the lord's gaze snap back to dead center.
Jun and Eleanor.
With venomous eyes, it yanked out the golden spear and hurled everything in reach at them, just as it had with Aiden.
Kwang! Kwakwakwang!
Jun's pre-prepared [Shield] blocked the incoming rocks and trees, while Eleanor sustained it using 'Lament of the Bell.'
Finally.
“It's ready.”
Jun, who had been silent, spoke.
Their eyes met the lord's.
[Multi-Chant]
[Volcanic Tornado]
A storm of flames erupted.
‘Monghwan’ invoked ancient magic, layering mana atop it.
Ku-ruda-aaaah!!!
The creature bellowed, unleashing a mana-infused roar to shatter the spell.
But the [Volcanic Tornado] infused with ancient magic didn't waver easily.
After prolonged focus, the completed flame storm was incomparably larger than before.
The result of Sergei's left orb and Jun's insights.
The blood-red trees made from monster corpses burned black.
As the source sustaining this space incinerated, the lord warily stood on its regenerated leg.
“Not over yet.”
Ice formed high in the sky.
Defying gravity, the floating ice masses resisted the flame storm's updrafts, channeling cold downward.
Finally.
[Lightning Call: Variant - Thundercloud]
Vast heat and cold collide, birthing steam rapidly. Black thunderclouds devour the sky, blotting out all light.
Vast heat and cold collided, spawning steam explosively.
The resulting black thunderheads swallowed the heavens, extinguishing all light in the area.
Darkness descended in an instant.
Aiden, sensitive to mana, gazed at Jun's spell in awe.
He wasn't well-versed in magic, but this felt like...
Like a human commanding a natural disaster.
Eleanor's reaction, viewing the world through [Clairvoyance], was much the same.
“Insane...”
A mere 5th-circle mage manipulating nature itself!
Nature, once ruled by the heavens' will, now heeded one man's intent, birthing a miracle.
This was magic, pure and true.
Ku-ruwaaaaah——!!!
Sensing the ominous portent, the lord charged toward the pair in frenzy.
[Block of Light]
A sacred wall materialized in the air, halting the lord's fist.
Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
As the golden wall crumbled under relentless blows heedless of its own bursting flesh...
“Haaap!”
Partially recovered, Aiden and Maya lunged at its ankles.
Their slashes carved a V into its Achilles tendons, toppling its stance momentarily.
But its desperate punch flung them back again.
Before the lord, a steel rampart rose.
The massive steel wall summoned by Monghwan crumbled to dust under ceaseless punches.
[Summon]
The golem, long absent from the world, absorbed the surrounding earth and rose.
Filled with Jun's mana over time, its size rivaled the lord's.
Wuuuung—!!!
Kuwaaaaah!!!
As the two giants clashed, a massive shockwave shook the charred trees.
Meanwhile, the flame storm closed in, the sky darkened further, and ominous crackles echoed.
A brutal brawl between two unarmored titans.
Kwang! Puk! Kwaaaang! Puuuk!!
The golem crumbled first.
Its summon duration was severely shortened in the mana-blocked space.
The exhausted lord dragged its weary body before Jun.
It flashed a triumphant smirk.
“Too late.”
With the mage's quiet verdict, the spell completed.
[Heavenly Thunder]
A new spell born solely from Jun.
Lightning-attuned energy, concentrated to its limit, flashed.
The blackened world turned blank as fresh canvas.
——————!!!!
Before the sound of exploding air reached them, light struck the ground.
Once, twice.
Not stopping there, ultra-high-temperature energy reaching tens of thousands of degrees poured down over a dozen times onto the lord's head.
And then.
At Jun's gesture.
———————————!!!!!
The final thunderbolt fell.
Creeeeecrack!!
Creeeeong—!!!
A colossal thunderclap reverberated through the silent world, announcing its presence belatedly.
“...”
Silence blanketed the world once more.
As if the chaos had been a fleeting dream.
The party stared toward where heaven's wrath had repeatedly struck.
There stood the lord, charred black, right before Jun's nose, billowing dark smoke motionlessly.
Crack...
Fissures spiderwebbed across its body.
As if triggered, cracks spread over its entire form and collapsed.
Its flesh, burned through, crumbled like a coal statue.
Yet Jun kept his eyes fixed on it.
“Still alive.”
“What...?”
Eleanor beside him glanced incredulously at Jun, then the charcoal lump.
Ignoring her, Jun crushed the blackened flesh underfoot as he approached slowly.
From what was once its head, red liquid still bubbled and writhed across the ground.
Like a desperate struggle to survive.
“Predator. It's been a while for prime fare.”
Squelch!
Holding Predator to the red liquid, it greedily sucked up every last drop.
Sluuuurp...!!
Only when not a drop remained did the barrier finally collapse.
Living as a Mage in the Hero's Party Chapter 143