From within the ten meter wide magic circle emerges a monster as big as the circle that summons it. It stands on four legs and had some kind of horn on its head. To Hiro, the closest thing it resembles a dragon although its height is just 4 meters. However, unlike a dragon, its eyes glow bright red, and as it clacks its wicked sharp claws and fangs together, flames sprouts from the horn.
Everyone stare at it in slack-jawed horror, and Havoc Reskina’s terrified whisper resounds surprisingly clearly throughout the room.
“Oh my god... It’s... a Behemoth...”
A wave of unease washed over the knights when they see Havoc Reskina, the reliable captain who’d always been their reassuring pillar of support, breaks out in a cold sweat.
Ivanna realized she is up against a truly fearsome opponent, and turns to ask Havoc, her father's cousin about its properties.
However, the Behemoth, a monster that have even the White City’s strongest knight quaking in his boots, refuses to grant them luxury of time. It sucks in a huge breath, then let out a guttural roar, signaling the start of the battle.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
“Huh!?” The roar brings Havoc back to his senses, and he quickly begins barking orders.
“Alan, take the kids and the prince break through here! Kyle, Ivan, Bael, and other magic casters, create a barrier! We have to stop that thing, no matter what! Ivanna, head to the stairs with the rest of the men!”
“Please wait, uncle! We’ll help too! That monstrous thing is really bad news! We’ll also—”
“Idiot! If that thing really is a Behemoth, you kids don’t stand a chance! It’s a monster that shows up deep in the cave! Even the legendary adventurer, who everyone called the strongest in the world, couldn’t stand against it! Now get out of here! I definitely won’t let you kids die!”
Ivanna falters momentarily at the intensity in Havoc’s gaze,
but he refuses to leave. Havoc opens his mouth to yell at Ivanna, but before he could say anything, the Behemoth roars again and charges... straight toward the retreating people.
A glowing dome of light materializes, stopping the Behemoth in its tracks. A huge shockwave spread out as it crashes into the barrier,pulverizing the ground near the impact. Despite being made of stone, the entire bridge shook precariously. The retreating men screams, and some of them fall down.
All semblance of formation crumbles as everyone scrambles for the stairs, trying their best to escape. The lone knight that stays with the group, Alan, tries to calm everyone down, but they are all far too terrified to listen.
Amidst the panic, someone shoves Selene from behind, and she falls forward. She groans in pain and looks up, only to see a soldier brandishing its sword right in front of her.
“Ah!” At the same time she let out that gasp, the soldier panically swings its sword around at her head, intended to knock away falling rocks.
I’m going to die, she thought, the soldier is suddenly shoved away.
He looses its balance, so the swing goes wide, hitting the ground with a clang.
In front of her, squatted Hiro, panting heavily. He has been running as fast as he could to save her.
He runs over to the dumbfounded Selene, grabbing her with his hands and pulling her up to her feet. She silently let herself be pulled up, still in shock, and Hiro smiles reassuringly at her.
“Come on, we’ve gotta hurry!” Hiro confidently slaps her on the back, and she stares at him for a minute before saying “Yeah! Thanks!” cheerfully, and running off.
The Behemoth is still ramming the barrier over and over. A huge shockwave accompanies each charge, and the stone bridge begins creaking ominously after its repeated assaults. Cracks are forming along the barrier, and it is only a matter of time before it shatters.
The fifteen mages are adding their incantations to the barrier as well, but it doesn’t appear that it would last long.
“Agh, blast! It won’t hold much longer! Ivanna, you need to retreat!
The rest of you as well!”
“I refuse! I can’t leave you guys behind! We’re all going to make it back together!”
“Kuh, now’s not the time to go on an ego trip...” Havoc grimaces as those words left his mouth.
In such a cramped space, it would be difficult to dodge the Behemoth’s charge. Which is why the best course of action is to run while the barrier is still up.
Unfortunately, though, Havoc has tried to explain the situation to Ivanna, who absolutely could not accept the idea of “abandoning” anyone. Plus, to make matters worse, she still thinks she could take the
Behemoth head on. The glint in her eyes clearly shows that she wants to fight.
Auroras of light pours out from beside her.
"Lighting." Sylvia cast her electricity magic.
The skill Sylvia has used is of the same category as the Lightning she’d unleashed in many occasions before, but this one is far more powerful. The bridge creaked ominously as the rays of light gouged furrows through the stone while racing toward the Behemoth.
Havoc and Ivanna retreat the moment Sylvia finishes chanting.
The bombardment of lighting crashes into the Behemoth with a thunderous roar. It is covered in a coat of white as the light envelopes it. Cracks begins appearing in the bridge.
“That should have been enough... Haah... Haaah...”
“Haah... Haaah... Yeah, that had to have killed it, right?” Ivanna immediately grabs Sylvia's arm as she is about to collapse due to overuse of magic.
The behemoth let out a low growl, and the dark red aura that is unique to monsters begins pouring out of its body. The murderous glare it aims at Sylvia is so intense that Ivanna beside her feels she might die just looking at it.
Then it raises its head high, and its horn begins letting out a high pitched buzz as it glows red hot. The red spread to the rest of its horn until it seems like its entire head is a glowing ball of magma.
They are able to leap to the side to avoid a direct hit, but the shockwaves from the impact bowl Havoc and the others over.
"We are coming to help!" Kurotsuchi, Clementine and Sekrit run towards them, but Havoc shouts,
"No, don't come here. We are abandoning this spot!"
They roll across the ground like toppled pins, and are covered in wounds from head to toe when they finally stop.
Havoc is still somehow able to move and he runs over to the others. The rest of the knights are either limping, or kneeling down.
"Blizzard."
After that chanting, a large ice cone emerges from the ground beneath it, and thrusts from bottom up, piercing into behemoth's lower body.
"Grrrroooooooor!"
It roars in pain.
On the other side, there is another group consisting the one who force this expedition, Bratt Reskina, one of the sins of Farlord Reskina and his retinues. In front of them, Hiro, Ivanna and Hanabi.
The trio is closer to the behemoth than everybody.
"What are you doing there? Retreat!" Havoc shouts.
"You escape first, we will follow later." Hiro responds while looking at Ivanna. Ivanna understands that Hiro intends for her relatives to be safe, and smiles gratefully to him.
The Behemoth braces its legs and tries to pull its lower body out of the ice cone.
The Behemoth smashes into the ground, pulverizing the spot
Havoc has been standing on not even a second before. The shockwave and rubble are blown away by the wind wall, keeping them unharmed. With how imprecise the Behemoth’s attacks are, even a weak protection spell is enough to help avoid indirect damage. But if Havoc has been forced to defend Ivanna and the others he would have been utterly crushed.
While the Behemoth is still stuck in the ice cone, Hiro jumps up onto it with Selene on his back. The residual heat burned his skin as he lands. However, he ignores the pain as Selene gathers her magic energy, and chants. The Behemoth, which has been struggling to unstick
its body from the ice cone, suddenly stops moving. Because every time it tries to dislodge itself even a little, Selene reforms the ice cone and ground surrounding, strengthening the cone, freezing its legs and lower body.
It braces its legs, attempting to use the weight of its whole body to rip its body free, only to find that the ground around its legs has been frozen as well. The Behemoth’s legs has been glued to the ground by ice. And to make completely sure it wouldn’t be able to break free, Selene hardens the stone around them as well.
Then, Hanabi jumps and grab both of them away to the previous spot.
Even then, the Behemoth’s strength is fearsome, and Hiro knows even a moment’s lapse in concentration would allow the Behemoth break free. It keeps struggling, cracks continually forming in the ice, but Selene continues to relentlessly freeze the ground to repair them. The end result being that the Behemoth is unable to free its body. Were this not a matter of life and death, it would have looked rather comedic.
While busy dealing with the monster, Hiro can't stop feeling goosebumps because of the sharp stare by Bratt Reskina who is several meters behind them.
