The Human Bomb
Mini Forest Keepers sprouted from the fruits scattered in all directions. They were called "mini," but in reality, they were a full head taller than the average adult male.
Phase two of the Forest Keeper. This was its resurrection pattern. If we failed to defeat all the Forest Keepers born from the fruits within the given time limit, the boss would revert to phase one.
This was essentially tantamount to failing the raid. There was no way a party that had already exhausted their strength in phase one could defeat the Forest Keeper all over again. Therefore, we absolutely had to stop this phase two resurrection pattern.
"Listen up, everyone." I pointed at each of the fallen fruits. "The more of these mini Forest Keepers we defeat, the stronger the remaining ones will become. So, we'll clear out the ones on the outer edges first, and then we'll group up to take down the final one in the center."
Since the situation was urgent, I kept my explanation brief and to the point. Everyone nodded, their faces showing they understood.
"Poara, focus entirely on healing from now on. There will come a moment when we need to unleash another massive burst of firepower. Same goes for you, Saint."
"Yes!"
"Understood."
The remaining Forest Keepers had to be handled by me, Seron, and Aisha.
"Sweet Potato, how on earth do you know how to deal with an Apostle you've never even seen before?" Seron asked, gripping her axe. Is she seriously curious about that at a time like this?
"I studied." In times like this, shamelessness was the best policy.
"...I've been studying at the academy too, and I have absolutely no idea?"
"Then you must not have studied enough." I dashed forward before Seron could get annoyed.
Because the battle had dragged on, many gray zones had formed. Stepping on one would drain a massive amount of health, so I had to run with the utmost caution.
The gray zones were also the reason I had ordered them to clear the outer edges first. If we started from the inside and the Forest Keepers retreated inward, it would become a massive headache. Fortunately, everyone seemed to understand this without me having to spell it out.
In the distance, Aisha and Seron began their ambush on the Forest Keepers. Aisha was a given, but Seron, despite her constant grumbling, was exceptionally skilled.
After confirming that the two of them were engaged, I looked up. Before me stood a Forest Keeper, flailing the vines sprouting from its body.
It had four sturdy legs, two arms, and vines wrapped around its entire body. The vines were coated in a poison that would melt human skin upon contact, but...
Whoosh! Slash! With my Steel Skin, that didn't apply to me at all.
I sliced through the incoming vine with the edge of my hand and gripped my shield. Thud! At that moment, a stone projectile fired from the vine slammed into my shield.
This was the Forest Keeper's basic pattern: attacking with poisonous vines, followed by firing stone projectiles. The monster was moving exactly as I remembered. That meant the standard strategy would work.
I caught my breath. I kept my body moving to prevent my muscles from tensing up and causing a mistake. This was my very first real battle.
To prevent the bad ending, I would have to fight countless Apostles in the future. This battle was nothing less than the first step in that long journey.
To be completely honest, I was terrified too. I was charging headlong at a monster a full head taller than me. The pressure was on a completely different level compared to the mock battles.
In the mock battles, there were plenty of professors and assistant instructors ready to save my life. But this was the real deal. There was no one here to save me. A place where you had to look out for your own life—that was the Demon Palace.
Which was exactly why I couldn't afford to be afraid. Fear would shrink my muscles, narrow my vision, and throw my mind into a panic.
Be bolder. Be more precise. Recall every single strategy to defeat the Apostle and seize victory.
The edge of my hand sliced through another incoming vine. I pulled my shield close to block the stone projectile. Before I knew it, the distance between the Forest Keeper and me was barely two meters.
Realizing the distance had closed, the Forest Keeper stopped swinging its vines. Instead, it swung an arm so packed with muscle it resembled a gorilla's.
A massive, axe-like blade was attached to its arm. It carried enough weight to inflict a fatal wound even on me if it connected.
I rapidly lowered my center of gravity as I dashed forward. As if proving the endless training sessions with Aisha hadn't been in vain, my legs extended smoothly, and the Forest Keeper's arm swept harmlessly over my lowered head.
I had dodged the first melee attack. But I didn't let my guard down. One more time.
Boom! A sudden explosion echoed from the tip of the Forest Keeper's swung arm. It was the sound of a heating fruit attached to its wrist detonating.
Propelled by the explosion of the heating fruit, the monster's arm whipped back toward me with even greater force. This was its combo pattern—unleashing a second strike even if the first was dodged. An arm larger than my own head came flying at me.
Maintaining my forward momentum, I kicked off the ground with all my might. Crash!
Because the Forest Keeper's arm had been aimed at my previously lowered body, it swept low to the ground. I evaded it by leaping high, stepping firmly onto the monster's shoulder right in front of me. Then, I tensed the edge of my hand.
The Forest Keeper's head turned to look at me blankly. It realized its mistake, but it was already too late.
Crack! Channeling all my strength, the edge of my hand plunged straight into the Forest Keeper's head. My hand pierced through its thick outer hide, sinking deep inside.
A sickening, squishy sensation wrapped around my hand. Keeping my hand inside, I twisted and tore through its brain before pulling it out. My hand was drenched in purple blood and brain matter.
I didn't even have time to feel disgusted. Kicking off the collapsing body of the Forest Keeper, I landed on a patch of ground free of the gray zone.
"Whew." A short breath escaped my lips. I was truly grateful for Vikamon's body. If it weren't for this highly responsive, physically gifted body, I wouldn't have been able to execute my thoughts so perfectly.
Of course, I had also prepared backup plans in case of a mistake. That was why I could move so fearlessly. It always paid to be prepared.
That's only one down. There were still plenty of Forest Keepers left. No time to stop. I had to keep going.
Thanks to the efforts of Aisha, Seron, and myself, the number of mini Forest Keepers rapidly dwindled. However, once we cleared more than half of them, our pace began to slow down.
As mentioned before, the resurrection pattern meant that the fewer Keepers remained, the stronger they became. With half of them gone, the remaining ones were twice as strong, and the time it took to defeat them naturally dragged on.
The Forest Keepers' attack patterns began to grow more diverse. The final one we would face would wield all of these patterns at once. It was best to experience them firsthand during this battle.
"Pant, pant... Are you—are you two even human?!" Seron, having just taken down a Forest Keeper with her explosive axe, yelled at Aisha and me. If you have the energy to yell, I'd appreciate it if you put a bit more effort into fighting.
Aisha and I dashed toward the next Forest Keeper with completely nonchalant expressions.
"Compared to our daily physical training..." Aisha started.
"...this is a walk in the park," I finished.
I had grown stronger thanks to the endless hellish training sessions with Aisha. And Aisha, who designed those training courses, was on a whole other level.
"Haha, should we call them the Greatsword Iron Man and the Hand-Blade Iron Man?" Sirmiel, watching us from a distance, chuckled warmly. At this rate, we might actually end up with those ridiculous nicknames.
"Senior Hanon, the roots are moving again!" Just then, Poara pointed toward the roots hanging beneath the dark clouds. Just as she said, the roots had begun to squirm once more. It was a warning that the resurrection pattern was progressing.
We're running tighter on time than I thought. Avoiding the gray zones while fighting the Forest Keepers was consuming far too much time. Unlike the game, this was reality. Having to watch my footing while keeping an eye on the monsters divided my attention and ate away at our precious seconds.
Should I have saved some of Poara's firepower? I had used our trump card, the Spirit Sovereign, because getting through phase one without casualties was the priority, but this resurrection phase was proving to be a real headache.
"Seron, no time to rest! Get up and take down at least one more!" "Ughhh, I know, I know!" Groaning, Seron dragged herself up and charged at a Forest Keeper.
"Senior," Aisha called out, suddenly appearing by my side. "At this rate, we won't make it."
"...Yeah, if we keep this up, we'll be too late." Aisha nodded.
"Senior, isn't the main reason we're struggling to clear these Apostles quickly because of the gray zones?" She was absolutely right. Defeating the Forest Keepers themselves wasn't that difficult. But having to constantly worry about the gray zones under our feet was eating up too much of our time.
"Just once." Aisha gripped her greatsword tightly. "I can make it so you don't have to worry about the gray zones. What do you think? Can you finish them off in that window?"
My eyes widened slightly. I realized what Aisha was planning. "Leave it to me." I immediately backed away from Aisha and ran toward Poara.
Meanwhile, Aisha slowly lowered her stance, holding her greatsword. Just then, I grabbed Seron, who had just finished off another Keeper. "Hey, hey! What are you doing?!"
"Poara! Can you attach a lower wind spirit to me?" "Y-yes! I can manage that much!"
Ignoring Seron's protests, I shouted to Poara. She quickly summoned a lower wind spirit and attached it to my back. The tiny spirit, resembling a small butterfly, fluttered its wings.
I tossed Seron right between Poara and Sirmiel. "Saint, a violent gale is about to blow."
I glanced back at Aisha, who had lowered her stance to the absolute limit. "Can you make sure we don't get swept away?" "Of course," Sirmiel replied, beginning his prayer to prepare a defensive blessing.
Meanwhile, Aisha began to spin from her crouched position. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh— Her spinning speed accelerated to an unbelievable degree, and before long, a fierce wind began to whip up around her.
All the air in the vicinity was sucked toward Aisha. The gale grew so violent that even the Forest Keepers were lifted off the ground, dragged toward her.
"...Is she even human like the rest of us?" Seron stared with a pale face, watching the Forest Keepers get swept up in a storm generated by Aisha alone, without even the help of a Spirit Sovereign.
Aisha was indeed beyond human limits. But that was exactly why she was the most reliable ally I could ask for right now. Sirmiel cast his defensive blessing over our area, keeping us firmly anchored against the howling wind.
"Poara, get ready!" Stepping out of the defensive blessing, I began to run toward Aisha. It was coming. The storm was coming.
The moment the gale reached its peak around Aisha, she raised her massive greatsword high above her head and slammed it straight into the ground. Boom! A devastating tempest erupted across the battlefield.
Rumbleeeee! The storm rising from the ground swept up everything in its path in an instant.
Caught completely off guard, the Forest Keepers tangled with one another as they were swept into the air by Aisha's wind. The moment I saw this, I raised the edge of my hand and roared to Poara, "Launch me!"
At my shout, Poara used the wind spirit to launch me forward. My body soared high into the air. But simply charging like this would make me nothing more than a single steel cannonball crashing into them.
At this very moment, I needed to become a bomb capable of wiping out every single Forest Keeper at once. Thus, I unleashed the trump card I had been saving.
Across my skin, magically engraved characters began to surface, glowing in unison. Magic Engraving. It was a technique I had learned from Sharin.
Normally, magic engravings were meant to be carved onto tools, not human skin. But what was my skin? It was Steel Skin, sturdier than most suits of armor. That was why I had engraved the magic directly onto my own flesh.
By using the Bandage of the Veil to conceal the engravings, no one would ever know they existed until they were activated. Heat surged through my body as flames began to ignite. This was the ultimate move I had prepared specifically for a day like today.
The magic engraving I had prepared was explosion magic—and Sharin herself had helped me engrave it.
Magic Engraving: Explosion
I am a human bomb. The moment my body reached the clustered Forest Keepers, I was completely enveloped in a blinding light. The belated struggles of the monsters were utterly futile.
Take this.BOOOOOOOOOM! It was an explosion of unprecedented scale, tearing through the first floor of the Gray Forest.