Bermuda

The walls on all sides, which had been densely filled with majestic pillars and statues, had collapsed miserably to the point where their original form was unrecognizable.

In the middle of that desolate, devastated scene, Hugo was catching his breath while facing the descending light. His cool gaze and the dozens of ice spears floating around him were aimed solely at the monster in front of him.

The mother body was hanging upside down with its claws dug into the wall, staring intently at Hugo.

Seemingly aware of the ice glittering in the light from above, the creature's movements had stopped, but three or four dark red eyeballs rolled back and forth as if looking for an opening.

Moreover, because it was crouching as if about to spring out at any moment, Hugo couldn't relax his tension for fear that it might suddenly charge.

Beyond the railing blocked by the ice wall behind him, Liner was still complaining of breathing difficulties, and he had no way of knowing the condition of the two people who had not yet come out from between the ice pillars.

Overwhelmed by the heavy sense of responsibility to protect them, Hugo barely held onto his blurring vision and consciousness. He had only one body but two places to guard, and he felt his stamina being chipped away even in this standoff.

Meanwhile, the bigger problem was that the creature seemed to be dragging out the situation as if it knew this fact.

The mother body's speed was so swift that it could catch up even if the battalion commanders, including himself, fled at full speed. However, after confronting him, its movements had slowed down dramatically, and it even started showing behavior as if openly inviting an attack by clinging to the wall like that.

But whenever he launched an attack, aiming for the right timing, it quickly dodged and crawled upwards, resulting only in consuming mana without making any real progress.

Having been fooled by this pattern several times, Hugo became increasingly gripped by a sense of unease as time passed.

'...What's its intention?'

It didn't seem to be cowering from the shock of having ice embedded in its leg, as the monster before his eyes showed no sign of fear at all. Rather, its behavior of slowly writhing its body and heightening the tension seemed as if it was observing him and looking for some opportunity.

As the queen and progenitor of the peninsula's monsters, its intelligence was clearly overwhelmingly higher compared to other monsters. Therefore, if they continued to be played according to its intentions in this space that was like its home, it would undoubtedly be disadvantageous for their side.

In the end, Hugo decided not to drag it out any longer. It was then, as he once again solidly cooled the surface of the ice surrounding him on all sides.

The flesh at the end of the mother body's tail gathered together, once again covering the long thorn in the center. Soon after, the tail, which had returned to the form of a heavy mace, swung widely for a moment as if to gain momentum.

Hugo, who had caught that momentary movement, simultaneously poured all the ice spears he had floating around onto it.

Kwagwagwang-!

However, rendering the savagely stabbing attack futile, the mother body dodged to the side in one breath. Then, spewing yellow gas from its split skin, it scraped the wall with the tip of its tail. Knowing that this was intended to collapse the rock and obscure their vision, Hugo immediately countered by creating a strong wind.

However, before the dust mixed with gas could be completely pushed away, a huge shadow became rapidly clear from within the thick fog. The direction in which the gaping mouth and raised claws were charging was towards where Leonardo and Isabella were.

Hugo instantly threw his body and drew mana into both hands. As soon as the fiercely rippling blue energy was fired towards the creature's nape, its tail flew in to block the front as if to deflect the attack.

Kwaaang-!

Kaaaak-!

The tail, which had taken a direct hit from the beam mixed with ice shards, seemed to have suffered considerable damage, as its hide was torn off and acidic liquid burst like fireworks. Hugo narrowed his eyes, keeping his gaze fixed on the creature while spreading a barrier to block the splashing liquid.

'Is the nape its weak point?'

For a moment, the creature's nape, which had almost been hit by the attack, seemed to harden similarly to when Battalion Commander Roslin had struck it. The fact that it even tried to block with its tail on top of that added credibility to the hypothesis that this area might be a weak point.

Moreover, judging from the situation just now, it seemed that when the creature hardened one part of its body, it couldn't harden the other parts. In other words, if they could disrupt the mother body's nerves with a joint attack, they might be able to cut off its tail or one of its legs by taking advantage of the moment it tried to protect its vital point.

The mother body, which had let out a pain-filled roar, twisted its body and tried to crawl up again. Just as he was about to chase after the shadow heading into the pale dust with dangling flesh, he felt an intense mana energy from between the haphazardly risen ice pillars.

As Hugo quickly lowered his gaze and stared at that spot, two human figures that had been holding their breath burst out with fierce momentum.

"Now-!"

The two leaped into the air with mana enveloping their entire bodies as if they were fully armed.

Simultaneously with Leonardo's incomprehensible shout, Isabella, grasping her giant sickle, charged straight towards the queen's tail. As the tip of the blade, rippling with poisonous energy, clearly aimed for one spot, Hugo, who had hesitated, understood the two's intentions and rushed towards the mother body along with them.

Leonardo flew at an even faster speed, soaring upwards while creating a dark red mass of mana in his hand. It was different in nature from the fireballs or red beams he had used so far; he had cast earth magic in one hand and fire magic in the other, then combined the two with strong pressure.

What was created by mixing the two magics of different natures was lava boiling at an ultra-high temperature that could melt everything upon contact. It was such threatening energy that the mother body briefly slowed its speed and rolled its eyeballs upon sensing it.

'Please work, please.'

Leonardo, not missing the opening, threw the lava mass he had grasped with desperate hope towards the queen with all his might.

Seeing the dark red magma flying through the air, the creature immediately changed direction and thrust its head forward in the opposite direction, but immediately, about ten of Hugo's ice spears rained down in front of it. The massive body, with its escape route suddenly blocked, flinched and howled nervously.

While it momentarily hesitated, Leonardo fired one more red beam behind the flying lava mass. The beam crossed the air at the speed of light, instantly catching up to the lava, and soon after, the two concentrations of mana collided in mid-air.

The boiling lava exploded with a powerful wave, scattering in all directions like a meteor falling.

Kwaaang-!

At that fierce signal flare, the queen, which had instinctively hardened its nape first, broke through the surrounding ice and grasped the rock with its front paws.

However, as the scattered magma spread all over its body, burning and flowing down viscously, a sharp sound that could pierce the ears came from areas other than the hardened parts, where the hide was more than boiling. [N O V E L I G H T] Between the thick black smoke rising up, the reddish inner flesh sizzling and burning was nakedly exposed.

Kaaaak-

The queen screamed and shook its body violently, trying to shake off the magma that had embedded in its hide. In the same situation, Isabella's sickle also dug deep into the creature's tail under the protection of Hugo's barrier.

Unlike before, small and large gashes had opened up the hide, and this time it couldn't use its hardening technique, so the giant sickle penetrated the thick flesh in one go, cutting through nerve tissues and muscle fibers in large chunks.

As it dug in and even spewed out deadly poison, Hugo urgently shouted upon seeing the surface turning black and rotting,

"Now's the time!"

Leonardo immediately understood the intention and instantly went down to assist Isabella. As dozens of Hugo's ice spears then concentrated fire on the creature's nape, the unhardened flesh around it was pierced, and due to the pressure, the mother body was helplessly pressed and fixed against the wall.

While the blue barrier blocked the savagely splashing acidic liquid, Leonardo and Isabella, clinging to the wildly swinging tail, faced each other and cruelly tore into the split flesh with a flame sword and poison-filled sickle.

"Keep going!"

Each time the tips of the sword and sickle dug in simultaneously, the flesh sizzled and blood mixed with acid and poison splashed around, thoroughly soaking their bodies. But the two only roughly blocked their faces with small barriers and forearms, not caring much as they slashed madly.

When the flame sword, striking down for the fourth time like that, penetrated a protruding nerve and sent black sparks flowing, the mother body, as if electrocuted, shook violently and swung its tail widely left and right to shake off the two humans. The cross-section, kneaded with flesh chunks, blood vessels, and bone fragments that had been cut off more than halfway, finally revealed itself as the huge, thick tail snapped off and flew towards the wall.

In that moment, thanks to Leonardo pushing her shoulder, Isabella succeeded in falling off with perfect timing, but Leonardo, who had been hanging onto the direction where the tail was bending, couldn't overcome the instantaneous centrifugal force and was pushed back by the massive flesh chunk, flying back together.

He quickly tried to spread a barrier behind his back to cushion the impact, but as the heavy body mass collided with the wall, pressing down on his body, he exhaled a rough breath as his vision temporarily blurred.

"Leonardo!"

As he barely raised his head, stimulated by the familiar voice in his ear, he saw the monster's front paw flying in right before his eyes over the broad shoulders, along with an overwhelming body scent. It was at a terrifying speed that he couldn't even dodge in time.

By the time he realized the situation, he was already in its grasp.