Hopes and dreams. That's all I could see as the Desert Scourge announced its presence with a roar and although it tried to follow me through the thick forest that surrounded the clearing, it lost me and thus obviously focused its all-consuming murderous fury on the Apollo adventurers.
But just like hopes and dreams, we all had to awaken from them.
Screams rang out as the Desert Scrouge showed the low leveled adventure's why even if level fives could kill it fairly easily. It was still a Monster Rex and thus far beyond humanity typically.
The spikes on the undulating body of the massive sandy brown centipede monster tore through flesh bone and armor alike if they weren't ultimately just flattened under the sheer mass that was the Desert Scourge as the monster rex was twice as thick as two elephants standing atop one another.
Even more pathetic was how their melee weapons broke upon his scaled body and only the few Apollo mages managing to get some distance to chant some spells to throw at it, made any headway in killing the Boss.
Seeing what had to be Apollo's high-level two elf that had his face covered up with a scarf and had blond hair jump atop the Desert Scrouge and attempt to stab out its tiny eyes but only to end up shattering his longsword thrown up into the air and swallowed with one bite made me realize something very clearly.
People without the true strength and abilities of at least a Level three should just toss aside their delusions if they think they can take on the Desert Scrouge at least. Because Monster Rex's were horrors for a reason, only powerful magic or equally powerful adventures could hope to tear them apart to the point where their bodies failed and broke down allowing the extraction of their monster stone.
"Filthy beast you have done enough!" I heard a male voice roar and even the Desert Scrouge whirled onto the person speaking as it went to devour a pallum who was straight up just running away from the boss.
Hyakinthos Clio the Captain of the Apollo Familia finally strode into the fray and like I thought before only he with his actually well-forged sword was capable of fighting the Desert Scrouge somewhat evenly as he had the pure physical strength to break through the boss's scales.
Then as Hyakinthos tore apart the monster systematically with grace, he seemingly tired of trying to meet the much more physically powerful monster in a dance of melee and having to constantly dodge all the spikes on its sides, so he dodged to the side and dashed away before whirling on the Desert Scrouge as he quickly chanted. "My name is love, precious child of light. I offer my body to my sun. My name is sin, jealousy of wind. I call a gust of wind to my body. Released ring of fire - Come, wind of the west!"
A large ring of pure light, no condensed solid flames formed beside Hyakinthos, and as the Desert Scrouge attempted to eat Hyakinthos along with digging under the ground to continue chasing the other Applo members, Hyakinthos sent the ring of fire into the Desert Scrouge's mouth before dashing away.
"Phoebus's Light!" He roared and the apparently swallowed ring of fire violently exploded blowing off the massive jaws of the Desert Scrouge who screamed an ear-piercing wailing noise as it suddenly whipped to and for in agony, and I grimaced as one of the spikes on the side of the Desert Scrouge literally shot off like a missile and slammed through Hyakinthos leaving a basketball-sized gaping hole in his upper chest and I knew the man was dead.
"Guess these bosses do have an enraged state." I grimaced as I dashed back towards the fight as honestly, the Apollo Familia had failed this event. They were arrogant and didn't set up a proper fighting formation and they didn't even come to me for information on the entity.
If Hyakinthos actually fought at the beginning of the battle and allowed Apollo's dozens of magics to pepper the boss and with the help of that more agile elf and Cassandra who literally had a spell that gave her the speed of an upper level three they could have easily kited the monster to death.
I came swinging in on my grappling hook tearing me through the tree line and as soon I hit the ground, I took advantage of my Hermes boots to lay a hail of laser bolts from my Space Guns in my hands as with my armor they literally took no mana from me.
The Desert Scrouge seeing me screeched in primal fury as it locked onto me. It didn't even bother dipping into the ground. No like a snake and a centipede combined it slithered and crawled over the ground in a desperate bid to end my life in the quickest way possible.
I just kept shooting the boss in the face before it got too close and then I hopped into the air, grapple hooking onto the hard scale-covered back of the boss which dragged me over his head as he rose up to eat me. Once I was in the air, I threw three sticks of lit dynamite into its mouth before using another grappling hook to snag onto a nearby tree and drag me away as the Desert Scrouge snapped at me in the middle of the air.
I rolled across the ground as the second grappling hook was not at all a clean hook and I ended up getting snagged on some stuff before I detached it. But as I jumped back to my feet and faced the Desert Scrouge prepared to keep moving, I laid witness to its head violently exploding into a bloody mess as chitin and scales went everywhere as the three sticks of dynamite had more than enough force to blow off the lower section of its head where the dynamite landed in his gullet.
Then it faded into ashes as a soft thump rang out in unison as cloth bags landed at the majority of the Apollo member's feet along with my own...
'Man, the people without bags got to feel devastated as even Cassandra who only had a couple of healing spells got a bag which was good to note.' I thought wryly as I picked up my bag and strode towards literally the only level twos seemingly in Apollo's Familia in Cassandra Llion the Seer, and her minder Daphne Lauros.
"Are you two the only level Two's left in Apollo's Familia?" I asked rather bluntly, and Cassandra just stared at me flabbergasted so I almost waved in her face before her minder Daphne spoke up.
"Forgive my friend she is just... In shock as well as being close to her mind down due to all the healing she did... But yes, it seems we are the last as Hyakinthos won't survive that wound even with the Dea Saint's efforts." Daphne spoke softly as Airmid Teasanare and the other healers of the Dian-Chet Familia took this opportunity to try to drag people from the grips of death for their own Falna growth.
"How are we still alive... I saw us die! I knew we were to die just then!" Cassandra began blubbering and I gave her a look as I eyed Daphne who didn't expect her friend to spill the beans.
"Little seer, not even the gods know the concrete future. It is literally infinite possibilities and not even the gods of time itself, know what will happen in the infinite number of possible futures." I patted Cassandra on her black hair-covered head bringing her out of her panic attack. "Fate is what you make of it. Sure, you must face the inevitable destiny brought moments as an Adventure. But nothing says you cannot beat it, overturn it, or otherwise cheat it. Like I broke your future of death that you saw. If I did not interfere, no one else would have and thus you would have died. But I did and now you are alive and will face countless other destined moments." I said and her eyes dilated as she softly nodded in my direction not really focusing on me though.
"I would get her out of the way... Things are likely to get ugly." I muttered to Daphne as I saw Apollo stomping towards me furiously.
"You! How dare you! Look at the state of my Familia do you have any Herk!" As Apollo grabbed the front of my armor, I noticed how it didn't burn his hands which made sense with how he was a god of the sun. But I wasn't going to be jerked around by some asshole so with a lunge I headbutted the shit out of the god with my helmet-covered head.