Chapter 685: Despair?

There was the 20% bonus sun-flame damage from the wooden sword [Azure Pine].

There was the gravitational "heavy momentum" from [Heavy Tide], falling invisibly upon the blade mid-swing.

And there was the forcefield energy from [Gravity Etching], which ignored almost all defenses in the Material Plane to deal what could only be called "true damage."

These three distinct types of damage, empowered by his most basic and versatile [Spinning Slash], transformed into pure numbers and burst forth in an instant.

Swept by the sword light, the snake-man monster's shield-bearing arm and its assisting arm offered almost no resistance. They proved more fragile than the twig-like arms of a goblin.

Amidst the flashing light, the two arms were sent flying into the air by the blade's residual force, spraying dark purple blood.

The curved arc of sword light, mixed with raging flames and ochre Strength energy, covered a massive area. Even as the snake-man desperately twisted its body into a deformed posture no natural creature could achieve, the blade still caught the side of its abdomen.

Its unarmored snake scales—which should have provided considerable defense—and the mycelium-propped muscles beneath them were equally fragile against the devastating strike.

In an instant, a large chunk of flesh was sheared away.

"Hiss!"

The piercing shriek erupting right beside him made Xia Nan's eardrums ache. At this extreme proximity, he could even feel the air vibrate with the snake-man's cry.

Xia Nan wasn't disappointed that his meticulously planned strike had missed the enemy's vitals. He maintained a steady mindset, keeping his primary goal for this exchange at the forefront of his mind.

Without the slightest hesitation, he rode the momentum of his [Fang Hunt] sword swing into a continued forward charge. Using the superhuman core strength granted by his powerful physique, he shifted his mid-air posture, dropping his center of gravity.

Raising a leg, he combined his charging momentum with the weight of his armor to deliver a flying kick. He slammed his foot directly into the tower shield, which had lost the support of the snake-man's arms and hung frozen in place by frost.

"Bang!"

His boot, caked in mycelium and blood, violently slammed into the back of the metal shield.

Simultaneously, his mental energy rapidly drained as he used [Gravity Control] to drop the shield's gravity to its absolute minimum.

"Whoosh—"

Stripped of its weight, the solid metal tower shield flew away like a flimsy wooden board under the force of the kick.

It flipped and spun through the air, sailing straight toward the edge of the battlefield.

Leveraging the rebound from his flying kick, Xia Nan activated [Fang Hunt] once again.

Wrapped in a biting, pitch-black gale, he transformed into the phantom of a black wolf and rapidly retreated back the way he came.

He calmly dodged a vengeful dagger thrust from the snake-man—an attack slightly delayed by its severe pain—and opened up a massive gap between himself and the monster.

In this exchange, Xia Nan's original goal had simply been to disarm his opponent. It was only thanks to Winter Wolf Fanny's excellent coordination that he'd found the opportunity to deal an extra, heavy blow.

Now, managing to strip away the troublesome shield while simultaneously wounding the snake-man meant he had perfectly achieved his goal.

With a clang, the metal tower shield landed. The instant its bottom edge touched the ground, the gravity manipulation faded. It instantly regained its full physical weight, slamming violently against the stone bricks with a heavy thud.

"Mr. Ake, over here!"

Fully aware of their status as dead weight, Winsor and Zanfrey had hidden together at the edge of the battlefield. They minimized their presence as much as possible to avoid drawing the enemy's attention and distracting Xia Nan.

Neither of them could clearly track the high-speed maneuvers Xia Nan had executed in the blink of an eye, and their shallow combat experience left them unable to comprehend the tactical goals in a battle of this level.

However, they could still react rationally to obvious situations.

From their perspective, Xia Nan—the strongest adventurer in their party—had inflicted a massive wound on the snake-man while simultaneously knocking away the shield that originally belonged to Ake.

And he had knocked it straight toward them.

In fact, it had landed right at their feet.

Meanwhile, Ake, who had shifted his position to look for an opening to help, was nervously limping toward them—or rather, toward the fallen shield.

Under these circumstances, the two youths—neither of whom had even obtained a Class Level—made the right move.

They displayed remarkable unspoken coordination in their haste. After rushing toward the shield's landing spot almost simultaneously and realizing their paths overlapped, Winsor instantly changed direction, charging toward Ake instead.

This allowed the young fisherman to act as a midpoint between Zanfrey and Ake the moment Zanfrey hauled the heavy shield up from the ground.

"Catch!"

Using all his strength, Zanfrey heaved the massive shield through the air to Winsor.

Winsor caught it firmly with both hands.

The fisher youth gritted his teeth, his fingers tightly gripping the shield's sharp edge.

His tenacious will, tempered by storms and ocean waves, might have gathered dust through his past experiences, but at its core, it remained as hard and gleaming as steel.

He ignored the intense pain radiating from his palms.

Pivoting on his feet like a hammer thrower, Winsor gripped the heavy shield and leaned his entire body weight into it.

He spun, gathered power, and threw.

The heavy iron shield traced a less-than-elegant arc through the air.

Yet it was accurate enough, landing right in front of Ake as he stumbled forward.

In the end, they were merely passing a weapon.

But for these two youths, it was everything their strength allowed.

And through their courage and decisiveness, they bought Ake and the team at least three seconds—a fleeting window, but an exceptionally precious one in a battle like this.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield.

As Xia Nan engaged the snake-man monster in direct combat, the two members of the "Shadow Crows," whose mental defenses had previously been shattered, were gradually inspired by the black-haired adventurer.

They were, after all, veteran adventurers. Their mental fortitude shouldn't have been this fragile; they were only performing so poorly because of the residual fear effect inflicted when the snake-man defeated them prior to its metamorphosis.

Now, seeing Xia Nan fight the evolved, visibly stronger monster without being overwhelmed—and even managing to mount significant counterattacks—the two men slowly recovered their bearings.

Their will to fight slowly welled up from the depths of their hearts.

Xia Nan, acting as the primary combatant alongside his Winter Wolf companion, had wounded the enemy and achieved his tactical goal. The Shield Warrior of the "Shield of the Silver Lake" family was about to regain his gear. The two veteran adventurers were recovering their fighting spirit—

Everything on the battlefield was trending in a positive direction.

Under normal circumstances, Xia Nan's strike should have been the critical turning point that tilted the scales of victory in their favor.

However, the snake-man monster's next move dealt a heavy blow to everyone present.

"Hiss!"

That piercing hiss unique to serpentine creatures echoed through the temple.

The massive, twisted creation stood rooted in place.

Its two lower arms had been completely severed, leaving only bare stumps twitching weakly.

A hideous wound gaped on the side of its abdomen, through which writhing internal organs were faintly visible.

For almost any natural creature, such injuries—even if not instantly fatal—would inflict agonizing pain and severely hamper their combat prowess.

And initially, this was true for the snake-man as well.

The dagger thrust Xia Nan had dodged was the monster's vengeful, rage-filled response.

But—

When Xia Nan's blood-caked boots touched the temple floor and he looked forward...

Dark purple mycelium was surging upward.

It was as if the creature had merged with the fungus to form a symbiote, fundamentally altering its body structure and life form.

The dark purple mycelium moved with a will of its own. Creeping up the snake-man's tail from the fungal carpet, it coiled and climbed strand by strand, covering the horrific wounds.

The tiny tentacles squirmed and linked together. Defying the natural laws of life, they tangled and solidified to mimic the original muscle, bone, and skin, perfectly replacing the ruined limbs and torso.

In just a few short seconds, it completed a shocking form of "limb regeneration."

To most adventurers, this sight would induce profound despair and powerlessness.

Risking their lives to execute a plan.

Racking their brains just to narrowly sever two of a powerful enemy's arms.

Believing they had finally turned the tide, only to watch all their efforts erased in a single breath.

Even if it didn't completely shatter their will to fight, it would still deal a devastating blow to morale.

Truth be told, however, Xia Nan was not severely affected.

He wasn't entirely immune to disappointment, of course.

Watching the wounds from his full-strength strike vanish in an instant naturally left him feeling slightly deflated.

But in the very next second, the resilience forged by his personality and the countless battles he had fought since transmigrating two years ago dispelled that negative energy.

If he could sever two of the creature's arms with a single strike...

...then he could sever the third, the fourth, and eventually the monster's head.

His last strike proved he could break through the enemy's defenses.

He had exposed its health bar, which meant "death" was possible.

Furthermore, although the snake-man appeared fully healed, Xia Nan's maneuvers hadn't been in vain.

At the very least, he had completely removed the troublesome heavy shield. Thanks to the urgent relay by the two youths, it was now safely in Ake's hands.

Even more crucially, through his careful observation...

The snake-man monster appeared to have completed a terrifying feat of limb regeneration through mycelial mimicry.

Yet, guided by his outstanding Perception, Xia Nan noticed something.

The monster's overall aura was slightly weaker than when it had first emerged from its cocoon.

This meant regenerating severed limbs was not without cost.

As long as he persisted, hacking away strike after strike, he would ultimately win.

Xia Nan's expression remained placid, but a trace of concern flickered in his heart.

As his most lethal combat technique, the forcefield damage attached to [Gravity Etching] could ignore defensive resistance to produce true damage. However, its usage was strictly limited.

He could use it up to five consecutive times, regaining one charge every four hours.

Setting aside his earlier usage, since entering the Underdark, he had spent one charge on the first dire corby he encountered, then two more against the mutated hook horror. He had used a few more while fighting various other monsters. Factoring in the strike he'd just unleashed against the snake-man...

His remaining uses for [Gravity Etching] were actually running dangerously low.

However, the cooldown for this combat technique cycled continuously.

Its charges replenished at a fixed rate.

After that last swing, Xia Nan still had three charges of [Gravity Etching] left.

Considering this battle wouldn't last four hours, this was the absolute limit he had to work with.

If he wanted to finish the enemy off without relying on his most costly trump cards, he needed a precise plan.

The enemy might also possess a special ability akin to a "Stage 2." If possible, Xia Nan needed to keep at least one charge in reserve for emergencies, even after burying his blade in the creature's skull and detonating the forcefield.

These thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.

He was still calculating how to maximize the value of [Gravity Etching] and put those final three charges to perfect use...

...when a human roar echoed from the flank of the battlefield, accompanied by a firm, resilient flash of blue light.

Ake—who still had the strength to fight but had been forced to reluctantly skirt the edges of the battle without his weapon—had finally retrieved his tower shield.

He wasn't about to waste the opportunity his teammates had entrusted to him.

Ignoring the agonizing pain from his severed right foot, he fulfilled his duty as the team's frontline Shield Warrior. Despite his staggering steps, his speed didn't drop in the slightest as he raised his shield and charged headlong at the snake-man monster.