Chapter 326 - 321: Battle of the Full Moon (3)

Chapter 326: Chapter 321: Battle of the Full Moon (3)

A wall of pressure swept over them.

Ola stabbed his battle-axe deep into the mud at his feet, barely managing to keep his footing.

He watched, wide-eyed, as the mountain-sized octopus Magical Beast smashed their freshly reformed ranks to pieces with a single sweep.

There were no screams. After one dull thud, the spot became a slurry of flesh, bone, and armor.

A massive gap had been torn in the center of the defensive line.

’All commanders, avoid the Magical Beast head-on!’ Diana’s firm voice rang through the psionic channel. ’Main force, with me. We’ll outflank them from the side and continue the charge on Unas’s main formation!’

Once the order was given, the entire battlefront immediately began to shift.

At the bellowed commands of their officers, the soldiers quickly reformed their ranks. They raised their shields and skirted the death zone ravaged by the great beast, surging toward the Bonebreak Clan forces on the flank.

The once-crowded center of the defensive line was cleared, leaving a wide, muddy, open field.

And Sir Finley, Ola, and their most elite Warriors became a lone island in this open space, directly facing the terrifying, mountain-like beast.

’Finley! You, Ola, and the ’Blade’ squad will hold that monster back!’ Diana’s voice came again, this time from within the shifting formation.

’Understood!’ Sir Finley replied grimly, a flicker of solemnity in his eyes.

A Level 5 Magical Beast. He knew exactly what that meant.

Under normal circumstances, it would take a hunting party of at least five experts of the same level to even have a chance of dealing with it.

Yet, orders were absolute.

He immediately led his most elite Warriors to form an assault team with Ola and his men, charging toward the writhing forest of tentacles.

The moment they engaged, Finley sensed something was wrong.

The great beast’s aura was terrifying, but its movements were noticeably sluggish. Its strength wasn’t at the peak level expected of a Level 5 Magical Beast; it was clearly weakened.

’There’s a chance!’ The thought flashed through Finley’s mind.

’Ola, feint on the left! Get its attention!’ Finley sent an urgent mental command.

’You got it!’ Ola understood immediately. With a great roar, he swung his giant axe, smashing the blade down on an incoming tentacle. The blow barely left a scratch, but it successfully drew the great beast’s attention.

Seizing the opening, Finley moved like lightning as battle aura flared from his body, infusing his Longsword.

He aimed for a relatively thin tentacle, and man and sword became one, streaking forward like a beam of light!

SQUELCH—!

The blade successfully pierced the tough hide, sinking deep into the flesh.

With a spray of dark green blood, a tentacle over a meter thick was hacked off by the combined attack of him and several elite Knights behind him!

"Nice one!" Ola shouted excitedly.

The squad’s morale soared.

They saw a glimmer of hope. Under Finley and Ola’s clever coordination, they alternated between feints and surprise attacks. At the cost of a few injured soldiers, they managed to sever two more tentacles.

If this continued, they might actually be able to work a miracle and wear down this behemoth until it died.

However, Unas, standing in the distance, obviously wouldn’t just stand by and watch his trump card get whittled down like this.

One of the shamans under his command raised a Withered Bone Magic Staff and began to chant an obscure, ancient incantation.

A beam of eerie green light shot across the battlefield and sank into the body of the Deep Dweller’s Bane.

ROAR—!

The great beast let out a sky-shattering roar. Its previously flagging aura surged with power. Madness glinted in its giant, crimson red eyes, and its sluggish movements instantly became swift and savage!

Just as Finley was about to repeat his old trick, a newly empowered tentacle swept toward him at a speed too fast to react to!

The force behind it was far greater than before, like a lashing steel whip!

He only had time to raise his Longsword horizontally to block before a tremendous force slammed into him.

WHAM!

His entire body was sent flying like a pebble struck by a sledgehammer, crashing into the shallows dozens of meters away and sending up a huge splash.

"Finley!" Ola cried out in alarm. He wanted to rush over, but the great beast was clearly enraged by their previous attacks.

All its tentacles stopped their indiscriminate flailing. One of them rose like a giant python, its suction cup at the tip opening to reveal grinding, chitinous teeth like a meat grinder, and aimed at the fallen Sir Finley.

’It’s over.’

The thought flashed through the minds of Ola and the other Warriors at the same time.

This scene also caused the previously suppressed Warriors of the Bonebreak Clan to erupt in cheers—the enemy’s hero had fallen!

Unas, who was fiercely engaged with the main force led by Diana, keenly seized this opportunity.

He sent a human Knight flying with his spear and roared furiously.

"The time has come! Crush them!"

The invigorated Bonebreak Clan Warriors, their morale soaring, actually launched a fierce counterattack under the leadership of their Centurions, pushing back against the allied pressure!

The battle line that Diana had just managed to stabilize was now in jeopardy.

SCREEE—!

Just at that critical moment, a sharp, piercing cry cut through the night sky, drowning out the din of the battlefield.

Unas, who was directing the counterattack, looked up in annoyance.

Under the moonlight, a dark shadow blotted out the sky.

In the lead was a magnificent gray-black Pegasus. Its rider was clad in black armor, seeming to merge with the night itself.

Behind him, twenty Knights rode Dragon Eagles, forming a circling attack formation as they looked down upon the battlefield.

Unas looked at the enemies in the sky, first stunned, then letting out a disdainful sneer.

"Flying insects dare to challenge the majesty of the sea?"

High above, Velin ignored the clamor from below.

He calmly observed the great beast below.

His will was relayed to every Dragon Eagle Knight through the Hive Terminal.

’Target: The Deep Dweller’s Bane.’

’Switch to ’Fish Hunter’ armaments. Execute Protocol One.’

’Fire at will.’

The order was given.

A Dragon Eagle Knight broke from the circling formation. The Dragon Eagle beneath him let out a low cry, folded its wings, and accelerated into a dive.

The Knight steadied himself against the turbulence, aiming the alchemical arbalest on his shoulder at the hill-sized octopus Magical Beast below.

BOOM!

A loud crack echoed.

A three-meter-long, custom-made harpoon shot out of the barrel, whistling as it flew toward the water.

The tail of the harpoon trailed a gleaming steel cable, the other end of which was connected to a winch beneath the Dragon Eagle’s saddle.

THUNK!

The harpoon head sank into one of the Deep Dweller’s Bane’s flailing tentacles, but the thick hide and mucous layer caused it to deflect, leaving only a shallow wound.

ROAR!

The Deep Dweller’s Bane roared. It felt threatened. The injured tentacle thrashed wildly at the sea’s surface, kicking up huge waves, but it couldn’t immediately locate the source of the attack.

The Dragon Eagle Knight, having missed his shot, didn’t linger for a moment. He immediately pulled up, rejoining the circling formation. The winch whirred, rapidly retracting the steel cable.

’Target’s hide possesses a highly resilient mucous layer. Kinetic penetration failed,’ the data flashed through Velin’s mind. ’Adjusting attack protocol.’

’Protocol Two. Adjust firing angle. Target: nerve ganglion.’

Through the terminal, he projected a marker into the Knights’ minds—it was an inconspicuous fold of skin where the base of the beast’s tentacle connected to its torso.

Immediately after, a second Dragon Eagle Knight began its dive.

This time, he aimed for the spot Velin had marked.

BOOM!

The harpoon shot out once more.

SQUELCH!

This time, it was the sound of a sharp blade slicing into soft flesh.

The barbed and grooved harpoon head pierced the relatively weak, folded skin and plunged into the nerve bundle beneath.

The pain caused the tentacle to go rigid in mid-air.

Having scored a direct hit, the Dragon Eagle Knight immediately pulled up. He pressed a button with his right hand, and the steel cable detached, preventing him from being dragged down by the Magical Beast.

The Deep Dweller’s Bane let out a shriek, completely different from its earlier angry roars—this one was filled with panic.

It finally realized something was terribly wrong.

Around the wound where the harpoon had struck, a circle of strange, purplish-black veins was spreading outwards at a visible rate.

It was the potent neurotoxin smeared on the "Fish Hunter" harpoon heads.