They ran through the plains with overwhelming speed, and the two arrived at the place where the Lord was. Now, due to the downpour of the light, demon essence flickered from the whole body of the Lord. It was kneeling on one knee, and the armor, which covered its whole body, was cracked in several places. Its HP gauge was about half-full. Great damage was already dealt to it even though they hadn’t attacked it directly, due to the powerful skill Shin and Schnee released together, which at the same time was its weak point.
“GGUUUuuuuu…”
It looked down at the two people while roaring. The demon-flames that lit up the interior of the skeleton, now in this situation, emitted an ominous light. As expected from a monster whose level exceeded 800, the pressure it exerted could not be neglected.
“I wanted to ask it various questions, but it seems that it can’t talk.”
Shin muttered in front of the Lord again. From the beginning, he didn’t expect that he could talk to it directly, but the monster itself didn’t exist in the game, so he observed its whole body in the hope that it might shed some light on information that he didn’t know.
Its appearance gave off the impression of an upgraded King class Skull Face, although it was tattered. Including the information from 【Analyze】, it was still of the higher kind of Skull Face.
“Either way, since the start, it was an opponent that must be defeated.”
“Indeed…I’m about to begin.”
“Roger.”
Following Schnee’s response, the Lord, which was preparing a counter attack, was attacked.
The Lord’s hand reached out and grasped a deep dark-colored greatsword out of thin air, and unleashed a powerful slash at the two people who broke through the front. Towards the blow that cut through the air, Shin stepped forward and readied the long katana to cross blades.
Due to the sudden acceleration and weight of the long katana, combined with Shin’s flashy physical strength, the middle part of the Lord’s greatsword collided and clashed against his katana.
When the steel frames collided, a thunderous sound was emitted. The Lord barely managed to keep its hand on the greatsword, which had bent backwards as a result of the clash. Schnee, who held two blades, prepared to approach the almost defenseless body of the Lord.
Sword system martial arts skill 【Blade Breaker】, suddenly appeared.
It was a skill that was highly effective against an opponent that was resistant to slashing attacks. Shin gave Schnee the 《Mythology》 grade ninja katana 『Lazuline Flame』, and the dagger 『Scarlet Flame』. Two flame colors, red and blue, left a trail while the two blades drew an arc through the air. Every time the armor of the Lord was smashed, the interior was exposed.
Inside, the broken armor was filled with a tar-like black liquid. It pulsated as if the thing itself had purpose. At the same time, as she was crushing the armor, it stretched toward Schnee.
“Uh!”
Schnee, who sensed the impending crisis in the form of a black tentacle, gave up the chase and retreated momentarily. The black tentacle that approached her was repelled by the two swords, and she withdrew from the tentacle range.
“Its attack is like the Gel Bison’s.”
When he saw the black tentacle emerging from the Skull Face, Shin was reminded of the monster in the plains, the Gel Bison. Was this because the Gel Bison was turned into demon essence and absorbed by the black orb? It immediately came into his mind.
(Don’t tell me, it’s able to use the abilities of all the monsters it absorbed?)
It was an assumption that he didn’t want to be correct, if possible. Undead monsters had many things that resembled a unique characteristic, and almost none of them relied on endurance to fight. Gel Bison did not really have much of a special attack, but Shin was worried about the monster that was absorbed first, the Pecker Hollow.
“No need to hold back.”
Confirming that Schnee had withdrawn, he gathered magic power in his left hand.
In the following moment, crimson flames were fired toward the Lord from Shin’s hand.
It was fired without chanting, flame system magic skill 【Flare Volcano】.
A roaring flame that exceeded the Lord’s height by dozens of mels ran through it in a flash, as it directly hit the Lord who couldn’t even properly move anymore.
It was burnt by two different kinds; the light of purification and the crimson flame, and the Lord was destroyed soon after it raised a death cry. The flames were extinguished after a while, and they left a trace of muddy melted earth from the high temperature that extended horizontally in a straight line.
“Is it over?”
He fired it with the intention of defeating it. However, Shin felt a strong sense of something being wrong, for the ‘strangely too quick’ end of the act.
Schnee might also have felt the same, as she didn’t let her guard down.
Shin, who carried 『Hamon Hirumaki』 on his shoulder, activated the detection system skill to the max. The demon essence in the atmosphere became dense as a result of the battle, and they concentrated on the flow of demon essence that they didn’t sense until now. Thereupon, they noticed the unnatural flow of the surrounding demon essence. The demon essence of the Skull Faces that had fallen didn’t dissolve in the air, but was absorbed into the earth. Not just one or two bodies, but it could be said that it was almost all of them.
“…Beneath us!”
The moment Shin turned his attention to the underground, a large shaking hit the 2 people.
A small red marker appeared on the map at the same time that Shin looked at it. It’s size increased along with the earthquake, until finally, it’s size exceeded that of the Lord.
“Master.”
“Ah, it looks like this is it’s true form.”
A black orb pierced through the ground and appeared simultaneously with Shin’s words. Unlike the time when he saw it earlier, this black orb had red lines drawn upon it; traveling like blood vessels and pulsating like a heart.
“The one that came up a while ago was just an empty shell, huh?”
That explained why the Lord fell so quickly. Apparently, the empty shell was just a decoy so it could gather the demon essences in the entire plains for the main body.
After the appearance of the black orb, a noticeably larger shake occurred. Gigantic arms emerged in sequence, with which it was even possible to grab a King class Skull Face. 3 pairs, or 6 arms, gripped the ground and dragged its main body out.
Its head was decorated with twisted horns, its body was a collection of Skull Faces, its lower body had the impression of a crustacean with 4 pairs of legs, and it had 5 scorpion-like tails.
It might still have obtained the ability of the Pecker Hollow, too. Its total length exceeded 20 mels, so judging from that standard, it was different from a conventional Skull Face.
As the orb was absorbed and it fused with the gigantic body, a demon-fire lit-up inside its eye sockets.
“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA――――――――!!!!!!!”