Chapter 31: Calm
Clouds formed above the palace, and strong light emitted from it.
Then it grew denser and denser, compacting into a singular point in the middle of the whole formation before releasing at once.
A beam of energy shot down at the ice dome.
The ceiling of the palace, which was barely held together until this point, evaporated in an instant under the beams' heat.
And even all of this wasn't enough to break the frozen barrier. Not even a scratch was being left on it.
"Hey Gloppy, is it me or does he look a bit tired."
Leo pointed towards the swordsman, who had now dropped both of his weapons on fell to his knees, visibly enduring some kind of great strain that unknowingly to them was a laser the width of Slimy Pear.
His Warlord nodded, having realized that himself.
"I don't know if we will get a better chance of attacking. Let's go!"
They tried to evenly spread their 200 slots between the three of them.
[Summoner Slots 150/200 ⚚]
No matter how much they tried, they couldn't recall the last 50 summons. Even worse they couldn't see them either.
"We don't have time to think about it, we gotta move! Fearmonger take 100, we will split the last 50."
If they were supposed to beat it, they would need as much firepower as they could, in the literal sense.
She nodded and flew upwards to bombard the swordsman with nonstop fireballs from her Hellwings.
On the bottom, Gloppy kept creating slimes as meat shields to allow them to get closer.
"Don't think you will be able to get NEAR!"
The boss threw a wave of spikes at the flying demon.
"That won't help you!"
Leo countered by summoning a serpent right in front of the spikes. As all the spikes sunk into it, the sea monster died, however, that didn't matter to them as the Hellbats were way more important right now.
"Don't stop!"
[Black Swordsman ⚠︎]
[HP 4 059/15 000]
Its HP didn't decrease, but it was visible that it was for sure doing something, as the swordsman was now screaming in agony.
Cracks began to appear on the ice dome as the boss began to run out of Mana to keep it up.
The Slime Overlord put the palms of his hands together and closed his eyes.
[Pirate Fleet: Slimy Pearl]
More and more cracks kept appearing on the barrier as the Mana reserves fully ran out.
"cough cough"
Before getting hit with the beam, the last thing the swordsman saw was the sight of the Slimy Pearl breaking through his barrier as it fell to pieces.
"I did... what was required of me..."
Now that it was no longer obstructed, the beam fell from the sky and leveled the part of the palace where he was to the ground.
Leo and the rest fell back on the ground, shocked about it since they didn't know about this thing's existence.
The heat it emitted burned down everything in its proximity that wasn't resistant enough.
[Spirit Sword Style: Hermit Turtle]
[Transfer everything into Stamina + Damage Reduction 40%]
[Stamina 216]
Even with all of the stamina and damage reduction, they were beaten pretty well by the heat.
"Ouch! My back hurts like hell!"
After the heat died down, Leo stood up and scratched the bruise on his back, going toward the middle of the hole where the dark swordsman was.
And to his surprise, the boss was still alive and moving, although without the lower part of his body and with one arm missing.
Around it was nothing but ash, as the ground was so charred that this was the only thing left behind.
"How is this thing still alive, I thought it would be nothing but ash."
The Fearmonger approached and sat on the swordsman's back, sliding her sharp finger into his neck.
To Leo, something else was far scarier though. There were weird black patches on the boss's skin. A purple hue of energy pulsated through them at a rapid pace.
Its pules got faster and the body rapidly gained in size, almost bursting from the sheer amount of energy.
[Spirit Sword Style: Agility]
[Transform all statistics into Agility]
[Agility 216]
He grabbed The Fearmonger under one of his arms and began to run for it, sensing that the growing energy inside the swordsman had enough force to kill all of them in the gate.
"You sure are a naughty one~!"
She commented on his sudden actions. Gloppy ran in front of them due to not being slowed down by the heavy demon.
In no time at all, they ran through the entire path, ending up in front of the entrance.
There, Nyssa and Zeph stood, waiting for their arrival.
Leo held one of his arms high up and waved it towards them while screaming.
"RUN!!!!"
They didn't hear what he was screaming and looked confused as to why there was such a hurry.
BOOOOOOOM!
An explosion of black magic grabbed their attention, it was way faster than them, almost catching up instantly to them.
The summoner spun around and threw The Fearmonger through the gate, and before he made his way through, he grabbed both of the women who stood there in shock.
[Giving personalized rewards]
[+ 0 XP]
[+ 0 Gold]
[+ 0 Summoner Slots]
[+ 0 Hobgoblin Skin]
[+ 1 Corrupted shard]
[3/10 Gates cleared]
Nyssa looked back at the gate which burned with pitch-black flames until nothing was left.
"What was that!?"
Her heart was beating fast and her breaths were very short and shallow.
Zeph was also shaken by the whole experience.
"I think you will have to excuse me for a moment."
She ran back to the van which was parked close by. Leo looked at the brawler who was awaiting his explanation.
[Mind Archive]
...
But the worst part was that he had no idea what just happened, not once in the thousands of pages was something similar to this mentioned even once.
[Mind Archive]
...
Neither nothing about no Gold, no XP, and no loot...
Nothing at all!
"What's going on!?"
Confused Leo screamed out, he looked around, searching for the slime generals, but couldn't find them anywhere.
"Gloppy, summon them right now."
He tried to calm down.
'Everything is under control, it was just a fluke! I'm sure.'
The slime tried to summon his generals, however, it didn't work, he was about to relay this information to Leo, but seeing him in this state made him question if it was a good idea.
"Uhm... what happened to the gate?"
A mage from the previous party walked over to them, handing a paper bag to Nyssa so she could puke in it.
"Not now! Gloppy, did you summon the three slimes?"
Leo shut him up, still shaking from the whole situation and trying to get everything under control.
"If you are looking for Ruby, she and her sisters drove off to the Tower with the rest of my party."
Even though the summoner tried to shut him up, he continued, seeing that this information was crucial for his mental wellness.
Hearing that made the adrenaline stop, letting him relax for a moment as he fell to the ground on his chest.
"phew... that was exhausting... now what are you..."
[Corrupted Shard]
[1/5]
[&%#*!)_#(*@(&!^*$*@()_$U*@()W_(&!&#(!))))]