Chapter 33: Desolate desert [1]
Chapter 33: Desolate desert [1]
With the sun reaching its highest point in this scorching desert, where there was not a glimpse of shadows to rest in, Erik and Violet could be seen changing quietly. Glancing at their surroundings from time to time, looking for signs of any monsters.
Since they began to walk through the dungeon, they had not encountered any life since they entered, and began to walk around the place.
Violet watched Erik, who seemed unaffected by the scorching sun in the dungeon at the moment. "Don\'t you feel hot?"
Erik looked at her, responding a bit puzzled. "No, I don\'t feel hot. Are you overdoing it to the point of wasting your magical power on an umbrella?"
A puzzled expression appeared on Violet\'s face. She couldn\'t believe what she had just heard. How was it possible that Erik wasn\'t feeling the heat? If it weren\'t for the umbrella she had conjured up, she was sure would be crawling exhausted across the hot sand.
"You really don\'t feel heat?"
Erik shook his head. To really, the heat wasn\'t affecting him at all, and he preferred not to feel hot because that was the worst thing in the world that could happen.
\'How come there are people who like summer?\'
That was the season Erik hated the most. Imagine being sweaty and sticky all day, and the nights were hell if you didn\'t have air conditioning or a fan; you got to sleep practically naked. But the only good thing about summer is going to the beach or pool because you can see beautiful women in bathing suits.
At that moment, as they were deep in thought, the sand began to vibrate slightly. They both stopped immediately, to check if it was really vibrating.
"Did you feel that?" asked Erik, to make sure it was just him who felt the slight vibration.
Violet attended, confirming that she also felt the slight vibration. In an instant, her face took on an absolute seriousness as she began to conjure her spell.
At the same time, Erik hastily coated his spear with the End Energy, preparing for the monster\'s imminent emergence.
RUMBLE!!!
The ground began to shake violently, giving way to an imposing shadow that slowly emerged, revealing the figure of a giant scorpion with a wingspan of about three meters.
Erik was not going to wait for the monster to fully emerge. He lunged towards it, thus preventing the situation from becoming even more complicated.
Without looking away from the monster, Erik spoke earnestly. "Violet, try to restrain its movements."
Violet, who was already prepared, didn\'t take long to conjure the spell. "[Crista\'s Glacial Chain]"
Several chains of ice began to appear beneath the huge scorpion, restricting its mobility.
"KIRRRR!!!"
The huge scorpion was just a loud angry scream, feeling restricted by Violet\'s spell.
\'Perfecto....\'
Watching how the monster was being restrained, Erik concentrated much of his strength on his legs. He lunged with even more speed, which raised a large cloud of dust. In less than ten seconds, he was on top of the scorpion that was struggling to free itself from the restraints.
Arching his body back, Erik took a deep breath, transferring all his strength into his arms, causing them to swell and the veins to bulge. He swung his spear with all the strength gathered in his arms.
The spear descended with such speed that the human eye would not be able to see anything but a thin white line, which was the manifestation of the End Energy that was impregnated in the weapon.
CRACK!!!!!
A loud crack echoed loudly in the desolate desert as the spear made contact with the scorpion\'s hard shell, Causing the monsters miles away to become alert.
"Shit..." Erik let out a curse as his hands felt numb from the attack he launched.
Although he used all his physical strength in the attack, he only succeeded in cracking the scorpion\'s shell. In short, the scorpion had not received any damage. Rather, the attack only made it irritated.
As he fell on top of the scorpion\'s body, Erik frowned. He could not believe that the attack, in which he had used all his physical strength, had landed squarely on the scorpion\'s shell. Which is the toughest and hardest part of the monster.
"Fuck, why am I so unlucky?" exclaimed Erik in frustration. He wanted to launch another attack right away, but he had spent too much on the attack in the previous attack and his hands were cramped.
\'Well... let\'s try this fire I had earlier,\' Erik thought as he concentrated on his hands, summoning the \'Flames of Helheim\' he had gotten as a reward when he rose through the ranks.
A black fire with purple hues began to manifest in his palm, emanating an intense cold. Erik stopped covering the spear with End Energy and began to coat it with the \'Flames of Helheim\'.
The whole process took no more than forty seconds. Watching as the spear was enveloped in the dark fire with purple hues and now emitted a cold aura, Erik prepared to strike again and finish off the scorpion. But just before he could do so...
His senses warned him to turn back, and as he did, he saw a stinger just inches from his eyes. He could even make out the drop of venom on the tip of the stinger.
With amazing reaction speed, Erik managed to arch his body backward, moving a few inches away from the stinger. In that small space, he placed the spear in front of him.
Clang!
The sound of clashing metal echoed through the air as the stinger made contact with the spear, sending Erik flying due to the force of the scorpion\'s attack until he landed next to Violet.
Erik sat up, dusting off the dust that had accumulated on his shirt. He looked at Violet who was still restraining the scorpion.
"Violet, deactivate the spell. Don\'t expend any more magic power."
Violet let transfer magic power to the spell, letting out a small sigh of exhaustion. She had used more magic power than she had thought. She looked at Erik, whose spear was now engulfed in a dark fire with purple hues.
"What do we do now?" she asked, preparing to begin the next spell.
Erik held Violet\'s gaze for a moment, then turned his attention back to the scorpion, whose stinger tip was frozen. He spoke calmly.
"Hmm, prepare to cast a spell in unprotected space," he indicated, pointing to the vulnerable area.
Violet assisted by understanding Erik\'s indication. She began preparing her next spell and continued, "How do you plan to limit his movements? I can\'t hold two spells at once."
Erik didn\'t immediately respond, he simply sketched a smile as he let the End Energy flow from his core, coursing through his veins all the way to his hands.
"[Curse of the Chaining]" exclaimed Erik with a grin, noting how half of his reserves were depleted with just this one ability.
Instantly, a series of portals opened around the scorpion, from which chains began to emerge.
Ching! Ching! Ching! Ching! Ching!
The chains that emerged from the numerous portals quickly surrounded the scorpion.
"KIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!"
The scorpion let out a scream that echoed throughout the desolate desert.
Violet watched all of this in awe, marveling at the portals and chains that restrained the scorpion.
Besides, she didn\'t remember seeing this ability when Erik had employed it against the huge spider in the dungeons where David and his group had betrayed them.
\'What is it? I don\'t sense any trace of magical power in it?\', she thought to herself.
"Violet, don\'t lose focus," Erik reminded her, snapping her out of her thoughts. She shook her head to concentrate on conjuring her spell. In front of her, a magic circle appeared, from which a huge ice tip emerged.
"[Ice Crystal Tip]," Violet exclaimed.
The ice tip shot out swiftly, generating friction in its trajectory towards the scorpion struggling to free itself from Erik\'s ability.
Boom!
"KIIIIIRRRR...."
A large cloud of dust rose up as the spell contacted the scorpion, followed by a loud piercing scream.
The large cloud of dust began to slowly disappear, revealing the lifeless scorpion. A small path of green blood was created in the sand beneath the scorpion\'s corpse.
Tti-ring
[You have defeated a Rank D Titan Scorpion]
[Monsters - rank D, 10 times; incomplete (1/10)]
Erik quickly scanned the notification on the screen and realized that they had defeated the huge scorpion. He turned his gaze to Violet, who was wiping the dust from the confrontation from her face.
"Shall we continue or would we rather rest for a bit?" he asked.
"Let\'s keep going. I don\'t think I can take this heat for long," Violet said, creating a new ice umbrella before heading toward the monster to extract the mana stone.
Erik headed towards the monster as well. As they extracted the mana stone, Violet asked, "What was that about the chains you used earlier?"
Erik didn\'t answer, just gave a small smile and continued dissecting the monster.
Receiving no answer, Violet decided to change the question. "What about that fire that enveloped your spear?"
But once again, Erik didn\'t answer, keeping the same smile. Seeing this, Violet decided not to ask anymore, knowing she would get no answer.
....