With a tug in my belly I controlled the wind and instantly took to the air, flying towards the thing while taking a glance at its status.
Manticore
Race: Monster
Tier: 5
Level: 300 (Max)
Mana: 200,000/200,000
Stamina: 310,000/310,000
Health: 320,000/320,000
Stats
Strength: 280
Speed: 285
Dexterity: 305
Endurance: 310
Constitution: 320
Mental: 25
Spirit: 200
The monster was stronger than anything I've ever faced before. It reminded me of my mother facing down that high-class adult dragon. They weren't on the same level sure, but this thing could probably give that dragon a run for its money.
That didn't make a lick of difference to me though. My spirit was way higher than his, which meant my magical attacks will still take out huge chunks of health from it. And at the end of the day, I was here to kill it, one way or the other.
I put back my bow into the inventory and equipped my trusty spear, the great piercer. I didn't wear any armour because they were too restrictive to my wings. Even with lvl 5 object creation, I couldn't quite make something like a strong armour that will allow my wings full freedom while still protecting the rest of my body. I just wasn't that good of a designer. And thus, I'd decided to forgo armour in favour of my wings. The 30 to strength, speed, and dexterity was too much to give up.
The manticore was still sitting on its butt leisurely, not looking even a little concerned. It was a horrendous looking being, having a face of a shaggy man with golden fur and the body of a lion. But it's tail was replaced by a scorpion's sting with jet black spikes gutting out. It looked like something made just for the sake of killing.
Every part of its body had some kind of weapon attached; its mouth was full of sharp teeth even though it had a human's face, it's lion body was strongly muscled with sharp claws that could probably tear through steel like butter, it's tail had 15 inch long and very sharp spikes that also seemed to be dripping venom. It wasn't a thing I wanted to get close to, and my main strategy was to fight it like I fought the Minotaur an year ago.
Anything that can't fly was a target for me.
"Welcome, foolish half-blood." The monster growled out as I flew closer. "The lord knew you would be dumb enough to take the bait."
...What. The thing could talk...and just admitted someone was controlling it? ...Why? And who the hell was it's lord? Hades?
"Well, if your...'lord' thinks that a simple Manticore would be enough to destroy our camp then he is obviously the dumb one between us." I replied with a confidence I didn't feel.
Something else was at work here and I was entirely ignorant about it.
The monster barked out an ugly laugh, it's big sharp teeths glinting in the sun's rays. "Fool, yes that is what you are. A fool. We were never here to destroy the camp, no. We are simply here...for you. Well, one of you atleast. The lord only needs one alive afterall."
My heart grew cold at that. Me or thalia, the monster meant, I was sure. I had to go back to Thalia.
But then the beast continued.
"And why would you think I came alone, fool boy?"
It happened then. I felt a slight shifting in the air as if something was moving... invisibly.
[Skill Created: Mist sense] Lvl 1
–Allows you to sense the presence of mist.
"... Oh, fuck." I whispered in horror at the new sight in front of me as the air slowly opened up to reveal a sight of nightmare.
Hellhounds, skeletons, Scythian Dracaenae...Cyclops!...a huge freaking crab more than 10 feets long! And what looked like...Empousas!? The fuck did they come from!? The entire farm road was covered with a huge monster army with monsters I've never faced before... right in front of our eyes!
"Retreat!" I bellowed, releasing my wings and taking into the air. "Everyone retreat!"
"Not so fast, fool boy." And then the Manticore was upon me, crossing over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye, with it's tail coming at me in a deadly arc.
I barely had time to bring my spear up before the tail crashed into me, and its impact was so strong that it sent me flying back deeper into the monster army.
Even dazed, I managed to manipulate the air enough to dodge a hellhound's pounce and a couple of spear thrust from skeleton warriors, before finally getting full control and taking off high into the air, flapping my winds rapidly.
I looked at my weapon and noticed that it had dented badly from that single strike. My mother's gift...rendered useless in a second.
I suppressed the anger inside me, pushing it down with all my might, and reminded myself that I was still in a battlefield. That beast was strong. And fast. Very fast. Even amongst tier 5s, this thing was a different breed.
I needed to act cautiously.
Shaking my head I turned to quickly take a look at the battlefield. The demigods had just cleared the decoy army and noticed the trap, while the automaton just landed beside them. Thankfully Michelle was screaming at everyone to retreat instead of acting like those dumb Ares kids who were running towards the monster army. And Thalia...oh no Thalia. The girl was coming towards me.
"No! Thalia, leave! Go back to the camp!" I created a tunnel using the air to enhance my voice but my stubborn sister ignored me.
...and now Anastasia was following after her, ignoring Michelle's plea...and Luke..and Ares cabin...and Apollo cabin... and Hermes...oh for fuck's sake! Everything was going to shit just as I predicted but it didn't bring me any satisfaction.
I didn't have more time to be frustrated though because the next moment the furies came at me out of nowhere.
"Die Mikael, son of Zeus!" The three ugly tier 4 bitches screeched as they came towards me with their talons out.
I desperately used a huge amount of divine energy to fill my dented spear with electric discharge, and struck them with a wide sweep. All three of them dodged backwards successfully from the spear, but none were able to dodge the multiple bolts of electric discharge.
They were shocked for just a second but that was enough for me. I threw my dented spear at one of them like a boomerang, while launching Holy spears at the other two, before following after them.
My Holy spears cut through the two furies feets like butter while the third one tanked the spear with her wings.
I was upon one of them before she can gain her balance from becoming feet-less and slammed a blade of holy light directly into her head, disintegrating the creature instantly.
Without pause, I launched myself at the second one. She swiped at me with her talons in panic and I took the blow on my steel-like wing in favour of launching a punch covered in holy power in her face. The fury was blasted away while screeching in pain, slowly disappearing in smoke.
The last one still had the celestial bronze spear stuck inside one of her wings.
"Curse you, half-breed!" She spat at my face.
"You should've thought twice before showing your ugly faces to me again."
The being could do nothing as I swatted aside her talons before removing the celestial spear with a jerk and jamming it down her throat, literally. I ripped the fury apart before placing my ruined spear back in the inventory.
I didn't even stop to wave away the level up notifications, simply willing my system to shut the fuck up for now.
I quickly turned back to assess the battle towards the base of the half-blood hill.
The dragon automaton was again thinning the ranks of hellhounds and skeletons while the Ares demigods faced down the giant crab, with some of the Apollo cabin supporting it from behind.
The rest of Apollos and Hermes were with Thalia, Luke, and Anastasia as they made their way towards me while keeping the Minotaur in bay. There was only a single Scythian Dracaena remaining, but the empousa seemed to be giving thr group a lot of trouble.
Unfortunately, they were soon going to be overwhelmed by the two Cyclops and loads of skeletons who slowly made their way towards them.
Then there were the hellhounds who were harassing everyone on the field, with dozens of them spread out into the shadows, ambushing any unsuspecting demigod.
And the manticore?...the Manticore was rapidly running towards the dragon automaton.
'Oh that fucking bastard. It knew just where to hit us, didn't it?'
I flew towards them as quickly as I can, but even as I reached Thalia, the Manticore had already shot enough spikes inside the automaton to bring the whole thing down. With the dragon down, the hellhounds and skeletons were free to target us.
'We need to act. Now.'
"Luke! To the Manticore!" I shouted as I struck the Minotaur from behind with a Holy blade directly upon its head, killing the already injured bull in one fell swoop.
I dodged a tail swipe from the Scythian Dracaena before instinctively sending a huge wave of wind towards the thing in response. Without my spear to direct it though, it wasn't concentrated enough to harm it much but my wind manipulation Lvl 7 did its job by blowing the serpentine creature away and a couple of demigods ran to finish her off.
Then I turned towards the last opponent who seemed the most tricky of them all. I could already see three male bodies down at her feet and desperately hoped I didn't know them.
"Oh honey, you wouldn't attack me would you?" The empousa winked flirtatiously. I actually wanted to vomit as the grotesque creature made a kissy face towards me, hiding her vampire like fangs.
[Charmspeak negated by Gamer's Mind]
"An ugly donkey legged bitch like you? Of course I would." I replied with a disgusted sneer as my holy blade cleaved the shocked monster in two.
The tier 4 monster disintegrated into dust and I waved off the system levels ups again.
There was silence around me for a second. I turned to look and saw everyone staring at me in awe.
"You just come in and clear all of our enemies in a second? How is that fair?" Luke complained as I landed beside them.
"Not now guys. Retreat back to the camp first! This mission is a bust!" I bellowed the orders before glancing at the manticore. "Do not go after any monsters, just defend yourselves and run! I need to kill the Manticore and rescue the air crew. Thalia, Luke, keep the hellhounds away from me as I fight off that thing, please."
I instantly flew away in urgency, not waiting to see if they followed my orders. When I finally saw the full picture though, I knew it was too late.
The Manticore chewed upon the bloodied head of Markus while his body laid elsewhere. John's dead body was motionless under the destroyed pieces of the dragon automaton, which was torn into pieces, and the other two archers were no where to be seen.
I felt hollow as I saw my friend's headless dead body. Headless body...the words didn't make sense for some reason...headless body.
And Markus...Markus had been at my side for more than a year. We might not be as close as I was with Thalia or Luke, but he was still my friend. A trust-worthy friend who I'd love to fight alongside.
A part of me wondered how it happened so quickly. One moment they were flying on the automaton, the other moment they were falling down. Now they were dead...why? Because I didn't arrive in time? Because I stopped to help my sister? Because I wasn't strong and fast enough to be quicker? Because I was foolish enough to fall for this simple trap?... Was it truly my fault?
"Ah, fool boy. Soo-o-o good of you to join us. Say Hi to your friends." The manticore mocked, dropping my dead friends head down like trash before pawing it towards me.
And for the first time in the battle, I felt true rage. Markus died... not because of me...but because of this monster.
I was going to kill it. And it will be painful.
I closed my eyes for a second, letting the calm of gamer's mind keep me from doing anything stupid. I then accessed that familiar well of power, feeling a tug in my stomach.
"Aww, is the little fool boy crying? You need doccy thorne to call your mommy? I'll be glad to do so..."
The shimmering rage almost broke through the cold calm, but I managed to control myself. I touched the air around me slowly, not controlling, simply caressing, and then I put all of my rage inside it. I don't know why, it just seemed right.
I felt the air shifting, and instead of bringing it under control, I let it rage around me, connecting it to me on an emotional level. I felt free. Free to show my anger and let it out almost physically.
[Skill crea–]
"What's that? A little–"
I didn't let the monster complete his words and simply shot towards it in a burst of speed I've never flown before. It was too startled to defend properly, it's tail missing me by inches as it tried to back away.
But to no avail as my Holy fist met it's jaw with a satisfying crunch and sizzle. It took a few steps backwards and started twitching slightly, bits of electricity dancing around it's body while its mouth hung open in a silent scream.
Only then did I notice the... phenomenon around me. A miniature storm of wind and lightning had formed around me like an aegis, revolving continuously with sparks of electricity enveloping all around it's edges. The ball of wind and lightning spun like a tiny cyclone. A small spherical cyclone that covered me completely.
[Skill Created: Lightning Storm] Lvl 1
[Skill Leveled Up...]
I let a cold smile light upon my face. The monster was going down today...
And I was going to make it painful.