The plan began. We charged out of the cavern as rapidly as bullets.
Meanwhile, the Beast was still dazed, distracted, not realizing our presence.
Everything was still going according to our plan.
My dad started shooting dozens of sparks up high, since the goal was to create a fire to burn down the whole forest, so he didn't need to use too much mana on these assaults.
The forest instantly burst into flames, lighting up the entire dark forest. Normally, people would feel dreadful and downhearted when witnessing this view, but this was our only hope in order to survive from the Beast.
The Beast immediately reacted after recognizing that the whole forest was on fire. It turned to face my father, who was shooting sparks up into the sky.
It then rushed towards my dad.
It tried to grab and eat him with those hands, but he simply dodged the strikes and sometimes counterattacked. The main purpose was to buy time for me to put the entire area on ice.
***
Not far away from the giant forest, there was a group of knights consisting of dozens of people, each wearing flashy armor while riding on mighty horses.
"Captain, look!" A knight informed his captain.
The captain looked in the direction he was pointing, which was the giant forest, and it was on fire. Thick, black smoke was rising and the flames showed no signs of stopping.
"Could it be a sign of the Beast we lost?" The knights continued.
"Maybe." The captain replied.
Just like that, the entire group of knights sprinted towards the giant forest.
***
After a while of struggling, the Beast finally noticed that something was not right.
It was gradually losing strength and breathing was becoming more strenuous than before. Its entire body was also burning hot. The Beast gradually went insane. It moderately moved out of control.
It destroyed everything around it. It broke down the burning trees, but it didn't know that this action only made the fire spread even more, causing it to suffer more.
Meanwhile, my father was still attracting its attention by running around the giant worm. Sometimes he shot a fireball at it.
The Beast couldn't take it anymore, it wanted to burrow into the ground. Just like that, it jumped up and plunged straight into the ground. But what greeted it was not the slushy ground like usual but a layer of glacial, thick ice.
It tried to grope to find its mushy ground but it was trying in vain because the entire ground within a 100 meter radius was completely covered in frost. Of course, since it couldn't see, it could only keep up the fumble.
Meanwhile, I was lying down on the frigid glacier, panting from the excessive use of mana.
'That's it, now my job is just to sit back and wait.'
The plan was perfect, but I had accidentally overlooked another characteristic of the Beast, which was its limp-looking arms.
The Beast began to use its arms and continuously strike the ice below. Although the damage from the strikes wasn't that great, but because it had dozens of arms, it seemed like the ice was about to crack.
'Fuck!'
I quickly stood up, and my father seemed to have noticed it's strange actions as well.
***
'What is the Beast doing?' Aether looked at it in shock.
He realized that if the monster broke through the ice and went underground again, the plan would completely fail and the only thing waiting for them would be death.
'Damn it!'
He quickly threw some not-so-strong sparks at it to gain its attention, but it didn't seem to work. The Beast was still pounding the icy ground.
Aether then summoned a stronger fireball and shot it towards the Beast. The fireball hit the giant worm and detonated. The monster was knocked back, but it quickly regained its balance and continued pounding.
It could be seen that the fire in the forest had weakened the monster a lot, but that was still not enough to finish it off.
At that moment, Aether saw Lucian stand up and run towards the giant worm.
***
My body was automatically moving towards the Beast. After witnessing the Beast continuously smashing the ice, I had already started running to it.
I rushed towards the Beast while forming a plan in my mind.
'What should I do?'
The answer was obvious. I needed to reinforce the ice surface that the Beast was pounding. I had to make it thicker.
Now the Beast and I were only 5 meters apart. It could eat or kill me at any time but it couldn't because it was focussing on damaging the ice to find a way out.
I took a deep breath and touched both hands on the ice.
"Garghhhhhhhhhhhh!" I shouted loudly.
The ice that the Beast was hitting became thicker and the part of its body that was interacting with the ice was also gradually frozen to make sure that it couldn't proceed anywhere.
I could sense that a large amount of my mana was being continuously drawn out, without delaying. I soon felt weak, I was sleepy, I was cold. But my will wouldn't allow it. I continued to brace myself, using all of my stockpile mana to fortify the ground so that the Beast couldn't run away.
Meanwhile, the Beast was still unaware that part of its body had frozen and the ice it was hitting was getting thicker.
***
Aether immediately understood Lucian's intentions after seeing his son touch the ground.
'Damn it!' Aether was worried about his son but he couldn't do anything because this was the only option to kill the Beast.
Now he could only pray that the Beast would be weakened faster and he could finish it off in one strike.
'Please let me and my son return alive!' He prayed to the 8 Authors while still observing the Beast closely.
As expected, the Beast's punches were gradually decelerating down and the punches were no longer as powerful as before.
This was the right time that he had been waiting for.
Aether couldn't spare his mana anymore, he used as much mana as possible. He then formed 10 small flames on his 10 fingers and made their damage as considerable as he could.
Aether aimed straight at the monster and fired.
All 10 rays of fire were aimed at a single target, the giant worm.
Some of the rays pierced straight through the Beast's body while the others exploded one after another, splitting the Beast in two.
The upper body of the Beast fell to the ground near Lucian. And the boy also fainted along with the Beast.
***
I could no longer pay attention to what was happening around me. Right now, I must only centre on solidifying and enfeebling the Beast.
There were rays of fire being fired towards the Beast, perhaps. I couldn't lose focus, just a moment of inattention and my body would be exhausted and pass out.
Consecutive blows happened near me but I didn't care.
Finally, the Beast's body fell near me. Making the smoke and dust fly.
'Did we make it?'
Just like that, I lost my concentration and steadily fell asleep.
***
"Lucian!" Aether shouted and rushed towards his child.
He panicked while picking Lucian up and checked his breathing.
'He's still breathing!' His anxiety cautiously faded and his stiff body eased.
He looked up while still holding Lucian tightly in his arms.
The forest that had been flaming fiercely earlier had now calmed down, although there were still small fires going up in the leaves.
'We did it!' Aether looked at Lucian proudly.
Just a moment ago, he was still thinking about sacrificing himself to save Lucian but now they were both alive, however Lucian had passed out.
Suddenly, Aether heard many footsteps and the neighing of horses, he instantly stood up while still holding Lucian and making a defensive stance.
"Show yourself!"
Luckily, it wasn't Monsters but just a group of knights.
"Phew..." Aether breathed a sigh of relief.
"You guys are really late! We've already dealt with the Beast!" Aether said as he pointed towards the Beast's corpse.
The entire group of knights were stupefied by this insane scene.
But then.
"Captain????" The captain of the knights suddenly exclaimed when he saw Aether.