Chapter 214: A Human Flying in the Sky

Among the rising clouds of dust, the towering figure of the stone monster began to rise again, making everyone’s heart sink.

It was bad. The worst outcome any of them could have expected.

The shot hadn’t killed it or even knocked it down for long.

Now it was the monster’s turn to attack.

A crack was visible across its massive, red gemlike eye, but that didn’t stop it from opening its mouth.

Turning its enormous mouth, filled with seemingly endless rows of stone teeth, toward them, it began sucking everything in again, this time directly targeting their group.

The dust still floating in the air was rapidly drawn into its mouth, along with the dirt and rocks scattered across the ground. 𝚏𝗋ℯⅇ

Terror spread across everyone’s faces as their clothes began fluttering violently and their feet started sliding across the dirt.

"Form a defensive line! Begin retreating!" Renna refused to let the situation shake her as she shouted her orders.

Her commands snapped everyone back to their senses. Shaking off their fear, they immediately moved into action.

The Shadows stepped forward, forming a defensive line in front of the Witches. They pulled their towering shields from storage and drove the pointed lower ends into the ground, anchoring them firmly in place to resist the suction.

Taking cover behind the shields, the Witches raised their hands and began bombarding the creature with spells, using what little mana they had left to distract it. Meanwhile, they slowly retreated, taking advantage of the protection their Shadows provided.

Renna didn’t remain idle either. Her body was now engulfed in bright, scorching flames, and she pressed her feet so hard against the ground that deep holes formed beneath them as she resisted the pulling force.

Every spell she cast was aimed directly at the crack in the red gem, trying to widen it until the eye finally broke.

And it was working. They could all see the crack spreading, the sound of stone cracking mixing with the explosions.

But the suction was also growing stronger with every passing second.

The arms of the Shadows holding the shields began to tire and weaken, making it increasingly difficult to keep them in place.

Finally, one of the shields slipped from its owner’s hands and flew toward the enormous mouth at terrifying speed.

The Shadow who had been holding it was only saved from being pulled off his feet when the comrade beside him caught his arm at the last second.

’We won’t make it at this rate.’ Renna finally accepted the inevitable.

Still casting her spells, she glanced at her team, at the familiar faces of people she had known and fought alongside for at least the last 5 years.

She hadn’t been the leader of this group for very long, but they had spent years taking missions no one else wanted to attempt, venturing into places many considered suicidal, and returning successful every time.

Their team wasn’t the most elite, but it was certainly the most famous for its courage.

When they heard about a mission in the Underworld involving a battle against the Devouring Desolation, they were the only group to step forward and accept it.

After the destruction of the other realms, the Underworld was the only one that remained relatively stable. It had become the Witches’ greatest source of income and resources, which they had continued collecting over the years.

But recently, the Devouring Desolation’s seal had broken, and the monster had returned to its former self, a mindless territorial boss that destroyed everything in its path. It had devastated the Witches’ only remaining resource-gathering region.

Their mission was to defeat the creature and restore stability to the area so the Witches could resume farming and collecting resources.

But in the end, they had failed, and now their entire team was facing the danger of being wiped out.

’I can’t let that happen.’ Her resolve hardened as she made up her mind and gave her final order.

"Get ready to run on my signal. I don’t want anyone stopping or looking back. Run as fast as you can until you reach the camp!"

Hearing her words, everyone’s expression changed to one of shock.

They all knew exactly what this order meant.

They had experienced something similar before.

The last time Renna had given the same order was when they were attacked by a Green Dragon.

They had managed to escape back then, but their leader had been forced to sacrifice far too much to make it possible.

She had only survived because a Grand Witch happened to find her floating on the surface of a river, barely clinging to her last breath.

This time, however, she couldn’t count on being that lucky. There was no Grand Witch in the Underworld to save her.

"Forgive my rudeness, Lady Renna, but this time, I’m going to ignore that order," one of the Witches said through gritted teeth.

Another let out a chuckle. "I’ve already said my goodbyes to my family, so I can’t let that go to waste, can I?"

"Well, I don’t have any family left, so..." another added.

The Shadows said nothing, but their refusal to move from their positions and their continued efforts to hold the shields in place made their resolve equally clear.

Renna frowned at their responses, feeling her anger begin to rise.

It wasn’t because they were ignoring her orders, but because they were about to die for no reason.

They could all survive if only 1 person sacrificed herself, yet they were refusing to accept that out of their own selfishness.

It was getting on her nerves, and she finally raised her voice. "Stop being foolish! Do you all want to die?"

"Ouch, the team leader is angry. We’re doomed," one of them joked, laughing with a mixture of mockery and nervousness.

They all knew what happened when she got angry, yet none of them backed down or stopped casting their spells.

Even Renna, despite the anger building inside her, eventually had to calm down, realizing that nothing she said would make them listen.

Their only option now was to hope that breaking the monster’s red, gemlike eye would kill it before they were sucked into its mouth.

But with their current firepower, that wasn’t looking very likely.

Then a voice came from the front line. "There’s something in the sky."

A Shadow peering out from behind his towering shield pointed toward something above the Desolation.

Everyone, including Renna, immediately turned their attention in that direction. After all, even the smallest change on a battlefield could completely turn the situation around.

The distance was so great that most of them couldn’t see anything through the flying rocks and dust. But the Shadow, who had better eyesight than the others, quickly described what he saw.

"Wait... It looks like a human."

They could hardly believe what he was saying and were about to mock him for seeing things out of fear when the sight before them made them swallow their words.

At the exact spot where the Shadow was pointing, an explosion suddenly erupted against the Desolation’s stone body, sending a loud bang echoing across the battlefield.

It was as though a human had flown through the sky and crashed straight into the gigantic monster.