The Gamer's POV-Chapter 201: Home of the Hollow Ones [17]

Not to mention, it also had to watch out for Audrey’s arrows, which somehow kept finding their way through the narrowest gaps in the melee.

After a few more seconds of the intense exchange, the crystal on its head glowed again, and its speed increased just a little bit more.

It ducked under Aurora’s glaive with predatory grace and kicked her squarely in the chest. The blow landed with the sound of a heavy hammer hitting a drum, sending her flying backward and crashing onto the ground.

Fortunately, it seemed that her regalia had a defensive property because, right as the monster’s foot connected, a thick layer of ice formed instantly over her chest plate to absorb the impact. Without that sudden barrier, her ribs would have shattered and she would have probably been killed instantly by the force of the strike.

However, because the creature’s strength was overwhelming, the ice shattered into a thousand glittering shards despite the magical reinforcement, and Aurora lay on the cold stone, gasping for air as blood leaked from the corner of her mouth.

Before the others could compensate for the lost pressure, the monster lashed out with its khopesh, the flat of the blade slamming into Leon’s side to clear even more space. The force sent him tumbling to the side, leaving him on the floor with broken ribs.

He clutched his side as he rolled across the floor, groaning in agony.

With both Aurora and Leon sidelined, the creature could now focus on just Cedric and Aika who were still unrelentingly exchanging strikes with it even at that moment.

It pivoted, dodging Cedric’s blade, then it thrust its khopesh forward in a lightning-fast strike aimed at Cedric’s throat. All the alarms from Gamer Privileges flared red, telling Cedric to duck, which he quickly and desperately tried to do. And just then, the blade of the khopesh broke his mask, grazing the skin of his face and hitting off his conical hat with a sharp, metallic ring. The hat was sent spinning across the floor as Cedric felt the cold sting of the blade just millimeters from his jugular. Blood began to bead along the shallow line on his cheek, eyelid, and forehead, but he had no time to process the near-death experience.

Fortunately, just as the monster was about to give a follow-up, a heavy shadow suddenly fell on it from above.

It looked up and raised both its khopeshes in a cross-guard to block both of Levi’s monstrous armored feet, as he had jumped into the fray from behind the cadets.

The impact sent the red bridge monster’s feet skidding back and it struggled to maintain its balance as the stone floor scarred under the force of the shove.

Then Levi leapt back to reset his momentum and then lunged at the beast along with Cedric and Aika. The three of them moved as a single wave of steel. Levi led the charge with a predatory roar, his armored form acting as a living shield, while Cedric and Aika fanned out to his sides to exploit the monster’s wide guard.

The creature was forced to swing its khopeshes wildly to keep the three attackers at bay. But just then, Evelyn joined the fray.

Despite the fact that she had only one arm, she moved with a fluid, terrifying grace, thrusting the spear she had been using at every opening she could find.

The creature had just begun to watch out for her when its eyes tracked Xavier coming for it from the side with his longsword.

Xavier stepped in with a heavy, grounded stance, swinging his blade in a wide, sweeping arc that forced the monster to lurch backward. It tried to parry his steel, but the combined pressure of Levi’s brute force, Evelyn’s stinging spear, and the cadets’ relentless pursuit left it with no room to breathe.

The monster’s movements, which had been so deadly and calculated moments ago, were starting to become frantic.

After a few more minutes of this grueling war of attrition, it began to notice that its khopeshes were becoming heavier than it could carry. Of course, it did not know the reason why this was happening, but Cedric who also noticed it knew why.

It was because of Xavier.

Xavier had the power to change the weight of every object he touched, either making them as light as a feather, or heavy as a mountain. Although this ability was faster if he used his bare hands, he could also transmit it through the objects he held. And so, every time his longsword clashed against the creature’s blades, he had been applying his ability, layering more and more weight onto the monster’s weapons with every strike. What started as a slight sluggishness had transformed into a crushing burden.

After a few tense, agonizing seconds, the creature could no longer hold on to its overburdened khopeshes, and so, it dropped them and began using its metallic arms to parry. The heavy blades hit the stone with a deafening, floor-shaking thud, proving just how much weight Xavier had layered onto them.

Even without its weapons, the monster was a blur of motion, its metallic forearms clashing against the incoming steel of the cadets with desperate, ringing strikes.

Meanwhile, up in the air, Audrey took out another metallic arrow from her quiver and drew her bowstring back.

She had been waiting for the exact moment the creature’s guard widened. With its weapons discarded and its focus entirely on the warriors surrounding it, she felt like she could kill it now. Audrey held her breath, ignoring the stinging smoke and the chaos below, and channeled every bit of her focus into the arrowhead.

’You can do this, Audrey...’

A hushed second passed for her, then another, and then... Audrey let go of the string.

The arrow flew through the air like a streak of silver light, cutting through the heavy atmosphere of the chamber. The monster, busy trying to knock aside Levi’s heavy strikes with its bare metallic forearms, didn’t even have time to look up.

And so, before it could react, the projectile struck the opening in its chest, causing it... and everyone to halt.