Boooom!
Baaanng!
Ignis and Kate continued to relentlessly attack the eclipsian guardian, their weapons striking the monster's body with deadly precision. Despite the monster's attempts to retaliate with its own skills, they managed to dodge every single one.
The guardian was left with no choice but to leap and bound around in a futile attempt to shake off its attackers. However, the duo continued to strike it with powerful blows.
Frustration set in as the monster failed to land a hit on them or use its throwing skills due to its inability to locate the other maggots. It leapt and bounded around, but all its movements were in vain. After a while, the same attack pattern would start again from the maggots, attacking the guardian with deadly force.
Ignis and Kate relentlessly attacked the monster's weak points, their hard work slowly chipping away at its health points. The guardian's HP had fallen to 2,799 out of 10,000, a sign of their progress.
Ignis's rage and frustration at the monster's attack on Ethyn fueled him with fierce determination. He unleashed his attacks with deadly precision, his face devoid of his signature smile, signifying the gravity of the situation.
Kate's determination fueled her attacks with unyielding ferocity, even though she was running low on stamina and could only last for another minute. She was determined to keep fighting until the very end of the battle.
In the distance, from the centre of the battlefield.
Zen's eyes slowly fluttered open, and he blinked a few times, taking in his surroundings. Despite feeling a lingering pain throughout his body, he was relieved to see that his HP was full. However, confusion swept over him as he tried to recall how he ended up here.
Suddenly, the memory of being slammed into a tree flooded back into his mind, and he grimaced at the thought. He gingerly checked his wound, but to his surprise, he found only a small scar left behind.
As Zen attempted to stand up, he braced himself on something that felt like a pile of fluffy pillows. Before he could enjoy the sensation, a sharp slap landed on his cheek, and he was suddenly jolted back to reality. He was met with a furious voice so sharp, he thought it could slice through steel.
"Watch where you put your hands, you pervert!" the voice screeched.
Zen rubbed his cheek, trying to regain his composure. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Save it!" the voice interrupted.
Zen knew who this voice belonged to; he looked to the source of the voice and saw Hannah was also lying down beside him, and even Rex was there.
"I'd skin you alive if you did something like this again!" Without waiting for a reply, she continued, "Help me get up, but only by touching my hands... Okay! You got it! by only using my hands!" She iterated the last part with intense focus in her voice.
Zen wanted to tell her to get up on her own but grudgingly obeyed Hannah's command as he saw her angry face with threat written all over it, using only his hands to help her up, all the while trying his best not to make any comment about how soft her hands were. He had a feeling that Hannah's slap would be the least of his worries if he dared to utter anything inappropriate.
As he helped her up, he couldn't help but think, 'Wow, I bet she moisturizes.' He quickly shook the thought out of his head, reminding himself that he valued his life more than indulging in such pleasure.
They both then attempted to rouse Rex from his stupor, but he remained unresponsive. His face was etched with fear as if he had just experienced the worst nightmare of his life.
"Looks like Rex bro is out cold for a while!" Zen exclaimed as he tried to wake Rex up.
"I don't think he'll wake up anytime soon, so try using your buff on the group; I'm going to h-" Hannah's words were cut off as she heard a blood-curdling scream.
The scream echoed through the battlefield: "AAARRRGGGHH!!!"
Hannah and Zen dashed towards the battlefield, dodging behind boulders that provided cover as they made their way closer. Finally, they managed to cross the last one and arrived at the scene, taking in the chaotic battle before them.
The scene in front of them was so terrifying that they both stood frozen, unable to even draw a breath. The scene was beyond their worst nightmares. The battlefield was bright; not a shred of darkness could be seen.
As they approached the battlefield, the sight before them made their blood run cold. The man who had screamed was now on his knees, his missing arm leaving a bloody stump.
A monstrous creature, three metres tall, stood not far from him, oozing a black, goo-like substance from its ears and nose. The creature was completely white except for the black goo, making it even more terrifying. It slowly moved towards the kneeling man, its gaze fixed on him.
The aura emanating from the creature was familiar to Hannah—the same feeling she had experienced earlier. It was an indescribable sensation that left her feeling numb and powerless. This was the same sensation she felt when she had heard the humming sound earlier and had fainted.
Zen, on the other hand, had not heard the humming sound before and was experiencing the eclipsian guardian for the first time.
There was no humming in the air, but there was a certain aura that was emitted from the monster. For a brief moment, he felt a sense of familiarity, but soon the fear took over as he saw the scene before him.
As they stood frozen, their bodies refused to even take in a breath, as if any movement would draw the creature's attention to them.
a few moments earlier.
Ignis and Kate used their nimble movement and fast attack speed to attack the monster, lowering its HP below two thousand.
Kate soon began to slow down a bit, as her stamina had been drained.
The next moment Ignis, he used his skill [stinger] and destroyed one leg of the monster, which fell down and couldn't even balance itself.
He kept lowering its HP and raising his guard because he knew this monster had a skill that allowed it to transform as it had done before.
He saw Kate slowing down and thought of letting her retreat as she was fighting much earlier than him. He started moving towards Kate and shouted, "You are exhausted; go; I'll cover for you."
As he approached Kate, the sky began to tremble strangely, and all the darkness that had spread across the battlefield began to congregate around the monster.
Seeing this, Ignis knew his intuition was correct and roiled towards Kate, telling her to retreat. Kate, who witnessed this phenomenon, tried to flee but was so exhausted that even standing took its toll on her.
Sssssehhhssss!!!
'It's fast, very fast,' Ignis thought to himself as he saw something emerging from the dispersed, dark air and heading straight towards Kate. He gritted his teeth in anger at the monster, knowing that Kate was the weakest among them at the moment.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ignis activated his boot's special ability, which allowed him to move 50% faster than usual and rushed towards Kate. However, before he could reach her and she could even react, the monster delivered a swift kick to her stomach, sending her flying.
As the monster advanced towards Kate once more, Ignis attempted to use his kusarigama to attack, but the creature quickly changed direction and caught the chains, pulling Ignis towards itself.
'Not good,' Ignis grunted as he was dragged towards the monster and kicked in the stomach. As he was sent flying, the monster caught up to him again.
'Damn it, its target was me, not her,' Ignis realised as he saw a massive blade coming towards him while he was in mid-air. He braced himself for impact as he landed, but the sword was already upon him.
'Not like this,' Ignis thought as he raised his kusarigama, preparing to defend himself against the enormous sword. However, a foul smell suddenly assaulted his nose, distracting him for a moment. Before he knew it, the sword was replaced by a lightning-fast kick that struck him hard.
The force of the kick sent Ignis tumbling through the air, and he hit the ground hard. He groaned in pain, clutching his stomach. The monster was now closing in on him, its sword at the ready.
Ignis knew he had to act quickly. He tried to stand up, but his body was still reeling from the kick. He had just reached the kneeling position when he saw the sword coming towards him, and he felt the sense of death looming over him. But he refused to give up and let out a battle cry as he used his kusarigama to block the sword. To his surprise, the sword was now strangely surrounded by a white hue.
The sword and chains collided, and Ignis was pushed hard into the kneeling position. He could hear the sound of the chains of the kusarigama breaking under the pressure. The force of the collision was so great that he would be buried in the ground.
'This can't go on like this; my weapon is just an ordinary rank; it can't compete against this freak,' Ignis thought to himself as the sword continued to pressure him. He decided to use his skill [Stinger] in that kneeling condition and tried to move the chains to attack. But the sword, which had collided with the chains, didn't let them move, and the skill was wasted.
The pressure of the sword increased to an unbearable level, and with a loud "kaacchh!" sound, it tore the chains apart, leaving Ignis defenseless. In a split second, something familiar dropped to the ground, but before his brain could process what it was, a searing pain shot through his arm. The pain was so intense that it felt like his entire body was on fire. Ignis screamed in agony, realizing with horror that his hand had been amputated by the monster's blade.
As Ignis looked down at his arm, he saw blood spilling out of the freshly severed wound. The pain was so intense that he could feel his body starting to go into shock. He tried to move his fingers, but his hand was no longer there.
The sensation of phantom pain shot through his arm, making it feel like it was still there but in excruciating agony. Ignis let out another agonizing scream, and tears welled up in his eyes as he tried to process what had just happened. But his brain couldn't process anything and he fell unconscious.
Soon everyone got a notification.
[Group notification: Group member Ignis has been affected by the curse of ####.]
No one took note of the notification, and no one noticed that the monster's data had changed and its HP was depleting 100 per second.
Hannah and Zen, who had just witnessed the event, were terrified.
Kate could only groan in agony and hear Ignis' agonised cries; she couldn't move an inch.
The monster approached Ignis and noticed the white hue around Ignis's amputated hand. Seeing the white hue, the monster didn't care about Ignis anymore, and then it dashed over to Kate and, with a brutal swing of its sword, amputated her left hand. Kate was unable to register the excruciating pain and fell unconscious.
As the monster's health bar hit zero, its body began to crumble. Suddenly, a burst of white hue emanated from its body and washed over the battlefield like a wave. Hannah and Zen were unable to move as the wave of energy hit them, assaulting their bodies and causing them to fall to the ground like apples falling from a tree.
On the battlefield, everyone was unconscious.
Several notifications went off in the group chat system.
[Group notification: Group member Kate has been affected by the curse of ####.]
[Group notification: Group member Zen has been affected by the curse of ####.]
[Group notification: Group member Hannah has been affected by the curse of ####.]
[Group notification: Group member Ethyn has been affected by the curse of ####.]
[Group notification: Group member Rex has been affected by the curse of ####.]
[Ding! Your group has killed the gold-unique ranked monster, the guardian of the eclipse.]
[Ding! Your group has... ]
After several notifications went off, the battlefield became eerily silent. The sounds of fighting and screaming had been replaced by an unsettling stillness.
After a few moments, the goo-like substance and the monster's body parts began to glow with eerie energy. As the glow intensified, the pieces of the monster began to dissolve into a swirling vortex of light, and soon the energy was drawn towards Ignis and completely absorbed by him.