World's Best Protagonist [BL]

Just like Noir described, the boss monster was a monstrous fusion of anglerfish, kraken, and deep-sea horror. Its jaw split open into five segments, revealing rows of sharp, moving, uneven teeth and dozens of eyes blinking across its body.

As planned, Claude covered the monster in a poisonous, melting mist, but it did not affect the boss. Thus, they knew it carried poison as well. He changed the mist into a dark fog that covered the eyes of the monster, and then he shouted to the others.

"Now!"

The damage dealers—Lexie, Noir, and the other three members of Charlie’s team—who had memorized the position of the monster boss, began attacking. Noir led the other long-range attacker while Lexie initiated the first blow.

Claude was floating in the air next to Allen, commanding the direction of the dark fog. The fog would clear on the path of the damage dealers but thicken on the area of the monster’s eyes.

The boss monster retaliated despite not seeing its opponents. Its tendrils struck everywhere. Without needing to command the two tanks, Terrius and Jerome began to engage, drawing the attention of the boss to them.

With Jerome’s taunting skill, Battle Roar, a deafening roar that forces enemies to attack the user, the boss monster’s attention turned to their direction and attacked them. Terrius dealt with the damage by freezing the water upward and using it as a shield.

Allen buffed his allies, while Kian, the support from the Charlie team, slowed the monster’s movements by creating a warping space, an illusion that only the target could see.

The boss monster retaliated using water. It created intense whirlpools and opened its jaw with a massive sucking force. The dark fog was sucked by it, and its covered eyes cleared, some were already bleeding from the attack of the damage dealers, but many were still working.

Its body glowed. One of the damage dealers from the Charlie team was compelled to move closer as if he were in a trance offering his body as feed.

"Don’t look at the glowing scales!" Lexie shouted from below the monster. One of the tendrils swung at her direction, she jumped away but the impact of the attack made her lose her balance and she fell on the water.

"Lexie!" Etienne shouted.

Claude dived in and swam underneath the water, searching for Lexie. He found her struggling to fight one of the spiky tendrils underwater. Claude swung his sword and they teamed up to cut off the tendril.

The monster moved its body, but its movement was slowed by Noir’s controlling ability. Some of its tendrils had lost function and knotted each other. The monster screeched. It momentarily deafened them, except Lexie and Claude.

Jerome roared again, and the monster’s attention tore away from Allen, Kian, and Etienne. Allen shuddered. It seemed like the monster knew they were the ones interfering with its powerful attacks.

It opened its mouth again, trying to suck in the entire surrounding. The water and all the debris in it were swallowed. Some members were caught in their teeth.

"No!" Kian shouted, watching in horror how one of his teammates was caught inside. Etienne gasped. Noir tried to control the mouth of the monster but its teeth crunched and soon blood seeped from its gaps.

Jerome was stunned for a moment, but he regained himself again and focused on the fight, more determined and revengeful.

Lexie and Claude emerged from the water. They were just beneath the ribbed body of the monster. Claude immediately covered its glowing scales with dark fog again and swam away.

"Did you see the hollowed part on its neck, captain?" Lexie asked, panting.

Claude nodded.

Lexie wiped her face and added, "I think that’s where the core is. I tried to attack it when I was underneath the monster before, and the skin contracted and covered the hollowed part. Aim on it, we will support you."

"Okay," Claude replied. He shot Allen a meaningful look and the latter nodded. An increase of power surged in his body, and he was covered in a protective shield. Lexie informed Noir and the others of the plan and they all joined Terrius and Jerome to deal damage and tear away the monster’s attention from its lower body.

Etienne provided distance healing to all the members since their fatigue was now visible and they sustained countless injuries, yet they weren’t folding.

Claude climbed on the ribbed body of the monster. He was like an ant crawling on its skin. He found the hollowed part on its neck, hidden by its elongated head. It was throbbing.

Claude carefully moved closer. He peeked inside a cave-like hole and found a webbed structure, protecting a green mana stone in the middle. He stepped his foot inside the hole, and shouts erupted in the distance.

"Captain!"

It was too late to avoid a tendril slapping him away from the spot. The spikes of the tendril caught him by the legs, piercing through his flesh.

Lexie and Terrius jumped in to cut the tendril into two, but the spiky ones were tougher than the ordinary tendrils on its back.

Claude shouted to the two, "Move away!"

At that moment, his sword shined and the light cut through the spiky tendril. He fell on the water. Jerome caught him and they jumped away from the writhing monster.

"What was that light?" Jerome answered, but Claude had no time to answer.

His eyes widened when the boss monster stopped wriggling in pain, its head moved up and turned in a certain direction, and then it swam toward it at a faster speed, abandoning the fight and ignoring its opponents.

Everyone was dumbfounded, except Noir and Allen.

Allen’s terrified shout cut through the air. "Jade!"

Claude’s body sprung up despite his bleeding leg. He dashed, catching up with the monster’s speed. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Everyone followed them. Even though they knew that Jade was protected by Allen’s most powerful shield; if the boss monster swallowed him instead, he might not be harmed inside the monster’s stomach, but retrieving him would be difficult.

They were nearing the two buildings where Jade was when the monster slowed, its body twisting in unnatural ways, and the glowing scales on its body flickered. Some eventually died completely.

Then, they saw Jade crawling out of the ruins, staggering, but his eyes were fixed on the monster, like he was in a trance, engaging in a staring battle with it.

The bioluminescent parts of it did not affect him and with the help of Allen’s Infinite Fortress, the futile attempt of the monster’s tendrils to attack him didn’t work.

Claude and Terrius took that opportunity and invaded the hollowed part. The skin contracted again, so they forced it open. It revealed the core, but the color was duller than before. They both knew Jade had something to do with it.

Without wasting time, they tore off the core from the body together. The monster slowly weakened and soon after, it completely died and fell into the water.

The fight had ended.