Chapter 238: Time Is About to Accelerate

With heavy pants, the massive Abyssal Creature stopped in front of Ron and his party. It was about six meters long, with its upright torso standing roughly two meters tall.

The demon's lower body was like that of a giant snake, while its upper body resembled a well-built female Elf. Six arms extended from its shoulders and sides, each brandishing a scimitar. It raised its body slightly, looking down at the group in the dead-end alley as if they were cornered rats.

"Gods... how does it not cut itself?" Sera narrowed her eyes and took a fighting stance.

The feeling this demon gave them was completely different from the Giant Bull Demons lying on the ground!

"HISSS—" The Six-armed Snake Demon's sinister gaze swept over the group, the sound of a flicking tongue echoing intermittently. In an instant, its cold eyes landed on Ron—or more precisely, on the head of Queen Farama floating by his shoulder.

"Ron!"

Ron felt a sudden gale whip past him as Aive's tower shield instantly enveloped him in its shadow. Even so, when he subconsciously reached up to his head, strands of severed hair like golden threads drifted down.

'Golden?'

Ron turned his head and saw the Queen, who had nearly been shaved bald, her long hair now a buzz cut. The flames in her eye sockets flickered, and her expression was one of utter humiliation.

'Such a fast blade!'

The Six-armed Snake Demon had attacked without warning. If Aive hadn't been so close to Ron, he feared he would have been sliced to pieces. 'How on earth does this demon wield its six arms? I didn't see the slightest trace of movement or any warning sign!'

"Counterattack! Counterattack!" The earth goblin Klade's furious roar echoed in Ron's ears, and the clash of metal instantly erupted around them like a sudden storm. Though they faced only a single demon, it felt to the group as if they were fighting an entire army.

"Farama, you never said there was something like this here!" Ron could no longer afford to hold back his Magic. A massive amount of Arcane Energy surged from the Gemstone and his own body as he helped his companions struggle against the Six-armed Snake Demon.

The six scimitars in the demon's six arms all flared with the light of Magic, and its thick tail was just as deadly a weapon. Facing this living meat grinder of a creature, Victoria's Kite Shield, made of living wood, let out a sharp cry, and even the tower shield held by the Half-Elf was covered in countless jagged scratches.

"Damn it, I can't get past its defense!" Sera fell back for the umpteenth time, her arms mangled and bloody, the wounds so deep that bone was visible. Yet even though she was fighting for her life, she still couldn't land a single blow on the demon's body!

"This is just like that Death Knight!" Silvia's figure stumbled back out of her Dark Magic, reverting from her gaseous form. She had tried to use her shapeshifting to get close enough to the demon to release her Magic, but she couldn't get near it either.

The Vampire Descendant pulled at her tattered Magic Robe, briefly covering the large patches of exposed pale skin before waving a hand to summon a pack of Night Howling Hounds. Unfortunately, these creatures, a nightmare for any mortal, could only tuck their tails and flee before a true demon.

"A Death Knight? You've fought one of those before?!" Aiksuuri coughed. It could feel that the organ inside its body was now completely empty—it had expended all the fuel for its breath weapon, but it had barely troubled the Six-armed Snake Demon. 'This thing's offense and defense are one and the same!'

"How did you survive that time?!"

"Didn't Mazarino tell you? His Magic was what trapped the Death Knight!" Ron raised a hand and fired a Lightning Bolt, but it did little more than blast a hole taller than a man in the wall behind the Snake Demon. "And now my Arcane Magic advisor has run off somewhere!"

"Why don't we just give the head back!" Delaford shouted, loosing a rain of thorny arrows, only for the Snake Demon to knock nearly all of them down. "Its target seems to be her, anyway!"

"No, this shouldn't be happening!" While the others were all injured and could only fight the demon to a standstill, Queen Farama seemed to have been driven mad. Her head twitched as if having a seizure, the flames in her eye sockets changing color seven or eight times in just a few short minutes, yet still continuing to shift into new hues.

"Six-armed Snake Demons are usually generals and commanders in the Abyss, true high-ranking demons! Even when my kingdom was destroyed, only one Six-armed Snake Demon appeared. Why is there one here?!"

"This shouldn't be happening!"

"You crazy woman!" Ron grabbed her now-hairless head and slapped her across the face. "You're the strongest Caster here! You have to think of a way out of this, or I'll let it slice you to pieces and see if Gracia still favors you then!"

"Gracia... yes, Gracia!"

Apparently snapped to her senses by Ron's slap, the Queen's voice quickly calmed from its panic. "You, the grayish-white Elf, come here! I need you to act as a bridge for a link!"

"A Shadow Spirit!" Yelena wiped a bloody gash on her neck. If Andre hadn't desperately blocked the flurry of scimitars in front of her just now, her head would have been sent flying. She felt as if she'd received a royal pardon now that she was being told to leave the fight.

"Lord Ron, I need your help!" Constance immediately filled the gap left by Yelena. But despite how much the Half-Elf had grown, she was still outmatched by such a terrifying foe. In an instant, a small but fatal gap was torn in the defensive line, and Constance had no choice but to shift the pressure to Ron and call for his support.

"Me?!" Ron suddenly felt like a gofer being ordered around, but seeing the others on the front line in mortal danger, he had no choice but to hastily formulate a spell from his Weaving Introduction that he hadn't prepared for the day.

As he moved and chanted, a turbulent stream of time gradually materialized between his hands, becoming visible. "Constance, watch the rhythm! Get ready, time is about to accelerate!"

"Farama, what in the world are you doing?! What good does it do you if we're all wiped out here!"