Novel Full Chapter 662: [No.93] [Descent of the Feathered Serpent] (3)
Keeping my eyes fixed on the ultra-massive block of ice, I landed a short distance away.
Then I immediately thrust my staff forward.
[Pulverize Zone]
A blue circle sprang into existence and rapidly spread outward.
The wider it was, the higher the hit rate became, but its power dropped in inverse proportion.
So I stopped it when it was just large enough to almost encompass the entire Feathered Serpent.
Set the time for two minutes.
At the maximum of three minutes, the odds of the thing escaping were far too high.
And anything in the one-minute range wouldn’t deal as much damage as I wanted.
It’s on the sturdier side for a boss.
It wasn’t a grotesque HP pig like the Black Serpent Fang Lord, but it still had more health than the average B+-rank boss.
And the energy it had absorbed through the ritual was substantial too.
The anti-air cannon had already landed several direct hits, I’d connected with [Spiral Explosion], and I’d even crushed it with [Magic Scroll - Glacier Summon (S)], but we’d still have to beat on it a lot more to bring it down.
And right now is the perfect chance to force damage through.
The Feathered Serpent was half-disabled from the [Concussion Mark] into glacier combo.
If we shaved off as much of its health as possible now, then [Pulverize Zone] two minutes from now would hit even harder.
It might even become the finishing blow.
I’d already warned them during the planning stage, so the party moved immediately.
Dang Gyu-ri charged in with the undead, while Seo Ye-in and [Mirror Image] switched the mana anti-air cannon into ground mode.
WOOOOOOOONG—!
As the charge gauge filled up one bar at a time,
the Feathered Serpent writhed like an earthworm pinned under a rock, with only its head sticking out of the glacier.
Why had I used that precious S-rank scroll when we still had decent odds in an aerial battle?
The first reason was to increase the power and hit probability of the [Pulverize Zone] I’d just used.
The second was to force exactly this kind of ground battle.
Because we were closing the distance second by second.
The next moment, golden energy gathered in front of its head and took the shape of a sphere, growing rapidly—
FWAaaaa...
And then it scattered apart.
The second effect of [Concussion Mark]: “the next skill/trait cast fails.”
Its cooldown would have been multiplied several times too, so for the time being, that move was effectively sealed.
Dang Gyu-ri narrowed their eyes and slid me a glance.
“Senior~ what kind of evil skill did you learn this time?”
“I was simply fulfilling the duties of a support.”
“A support’s duty is helping allies, isn’t it?”
“Isn’t that exactly what I’m doing right now?”
I was weakening the enemy and making things easier for my allies, wasn’t I?
At my shameless argument, Dang Gyu-ri arched an eyebrow.
“...The more I think about it, the more convincing it sounds. I can’t refute that.”
Then they kicked off the ground and shot forward, mercilessly smashing the Feathered Serpent in the head with their club.
KWAAAAANG—!
Right after that, the Gyu shadow undead swarmed onto it and began pounding it with attacks.
Shadow blades ripped through the body covered in golden feathers, and the Research Director’s heavy fist crashed in.
I linked together [Mystic Sound Jade Demon Finger], [Frost-White Shot], and [Chain Explosion], all amplified to S-rank.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM!
[‘Pain Delay’ activates.]
[‘Retrocovery’ activates.]
[Cooldown 2 days 23:59:58]
I kept going until the elemental penalty stacked up enough to trigger [Retrocovery].
Then Seo Ye-in’s fully charged mana cannon came flying in and slammed into it.
BOOOOOOM—!
Even so, it didn’t retaliate.
It seemed to have decided that getting out from under this damned block of ice came first.
A moment later, its feathers flashed with intense golden light—
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Large and small golden explosions erupted one after another all over its body.
That’s basically self-destruction.
Since it was inside the blast radius too, it would naturally take some damage itself.
Still, it was a fairly efficient way to break out of the glacier.
If it weren’t for the unremovable freeze, that is.
The duration of [Diamond Freeze], amplified to A-rank, was a full fifty seconds.
Until then, the ice wouldn’t just fail to break—it wouldn’t even get a scratch on it.
BOOM-BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Only after blowing itself up for quite a while did the Feathered Serpent seem to realize something was wrong.
“Maybe if you try a little harder? Feels like it might break. Just a little more?”
“Anyway, all you have to do is break out, right? Come on, put some effort into it!”
Even now, the party’s concentrated attacks were pouring down.
Compared to trying to answer this as a ground battle, forcing its way back into the sky was by far the better option.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
So the Feathered Serpent detonated its whole body and struggled for what felt like an eternity across those fifty seconds.
And finally—
RUMBLE...
The ice began to crack, and its long body slowly started forcing its way out of the glacier.
That won’t do.
From our point of view, the easiest and most efficient thing was to keep the boss pinned in one place and beat it senseless.
If it escaped the glacier, that also meant it would escape the range of [Pulverize Zone].
Let’s season it first.
[You use 'Octopus Arms'.]
[You use 'Mutual-Destruction Eye'.] x30
[The target is afflicted with the 'Poisoned(S)' status ailment.]
[The target is afflicted with the 'Weathered(S)' status ailment.]
[The target is afflicted with the 'Frozen(S)' status ailment.]
......
[Cooldown 14:59:58]
FWIIIIISH—
CRRRRACK,
When I used it all the way up to the maximum of thirty times, wind wrapped around its entire body and ice spread over it.
It was now weakened against wind magic, and its body had stiffened.
Seizing that instant, I cast [Wind Force] again—
BOOM!
And shoved the thing trying to crawl out right back in.
At the same time, the other party members’ attacks slammed into it as well, and the glacier cracked and came crashing down.
RUMBLE...
And crushed it a second time.
Having a glacier around makes this way too easy.
That S-rank scroll was really earning its keep.
Wearing a satisfied smile, I offered the Feathered Serpent another few words of encouragement.
“Come on, break out again! You can do it! Heave! Ho! Heave! Ho!”
It just kept silently focusing on breaking the ice.
Though whether it could actually get out was another matter.
BOOM!
The moment it seemed like it was about to wriggle free, I shoved it back in.
BOOM!
When it started to come out again, I shoved it back in again.
After that repeated a few times, the priest finally opened his now-heavy mouth again.
In a tone that said he was sick of this to the core.
And only then did he seem to realize it.
That for quite some time now, a blue circle had been covering him.
And that once the countdown ended, something terrible was obviously going to happen.
“7, 6, 5...”
KWAAAAAAAAANG—!
And turned the Feathered Serpent into a flat snake.
Of course, I’d adjusted the range carefully, so the very end of it remained relatively intact.
We still need to take the shadow, after all.
That had been one of the main goals.
But if we hesitated, we might lose even that chance, so I gestured to Dang Gyu-ri.
“Sis, hurry.”
“Mm-hm.”
As if they’d been thinking the same thing, Dang Gyu-ri darted forward at once.
Then they stretched out a hand, and a huge shadow was smoothly sucked in and absorbed beneath their feet.
▷[Shadow Extraction] [4/5]
“Nice. We got one.”
“From here on out, it’s Flying Gyu-Gyu.”
“Seriously. Good work. Ye-in too.”
Seo Ye-in looked quietly pleased as well.
As she cleaned up the mana cannon and walked over, she gave a small nod and replied,
“It was fun.”
“Because you got to test-drive the new weapon?”
“Yes.”
Then she looked at Dang Gyu-ri, her eyes lighting up even more.
“Flying Gyu-Gyu.”
“Heh-heh, want me to give you a ride?”
“Yes.”
Apparently the desire to fly was universal.
Dang Gyu-ri also looked like they wanted to test out their new Gyu shadow, but—
RUMBLE...
We felt a tremor and the sound of something collapsing somewhere.
Which meant the dungeon had started to break down, so the best move was to get out fast.
So we headed toward the newly opened exit, grabbing the boxes laid out in front of it first.
[Descent of the Feathered Serpent Random Box (B+)] x6
The way out was the same as it had been in Black Serpent Fang.
Dang Gyu-ri went out first and activated the stealth skills, then received us as we followed afterward with [Shadow Pouch].
Fortunately, everything went according to plan again, and we quietly slipped out of the deep layers and headed for the upper floors.
On the way up, I caught sight of Song Cheonhye too.
It looked like she was still on patrol.
She wandered around with a sullen face, constantly glancing into empty space.
Looks like she’s checking her messages.
More precisely, she was probably opening them and closing them again.
Since I still hadn’t replied, she probably felt like she was being ignored, and was suspicious too.
I’ll just send it once I get back.
I had the excuse that it was the middle of the night, after all.
With that thought behind me, I kept moving, and before long we reached Floor E, then Floor F, and at last emerged onto the surface.
“......”
Even then, Dang Gyu-ri carefully scanned the surroundings to the very end.
By now, word that the dungeon had collapsed would have spread throughout the underground floors, and there was always the chance that the Discipline Committee or faculty had already come up first and were lying in wait.
Once they saw nothing especially suspicious, they finally relaxed.
Then I asked,
“Should we split up for now?”
“I’d like to stay together a bit longer.”
“You want to open the boxes?”
“You’re the one who’s good at that.”
“Then what?”
“I was thinking maybe we could just take a walk together.”
“I’m all for it. Let’s go.”
Seo Ye-in also chose to stay with us rather than head back first, and the three of us decided to take a light stroll along the walking path.
But near the entrance, I spotted the silhouette of someone standing there.
As if he had been waiting for us, he walked toward us and greeted us.
“Long time no see.”
The man was none other than this year’s Discipline Committee president, Gwak Seungjae.