Chapter 372

Chapter 372

Briel had her hand on the cocoon, her eyes closed.

She could feel Har’s agitation.

Har was uneasy right now.

If Har was uneasy, the spirit was bound to become uneasy as well.

Briel whispered,

“It’ll be all right, unnie! Why? Because Zeon and Levin are out there. They won’t let the monsters enter this Black Forest.”

“......”

“You know Zeon too, don’t you, unnie? Yes! He’s become even stronger. So trust him and reassure that child.”

At that moment, the trembling of the cocoon disappeared.

Briel removed her hand from the cocoon and sat beside it.

BOOM—!

Roooaaar!

Explosions and the roars of monsters could be heard from far away.

In the sky, Zeon and Levin were flying around, hunting the flying monsters.

The sight of flying monsters falling like autumn leaves felt almost unreal.

Originally, Briel had tried to participate in the battle as well. But Zeon stopped her.

“Stabilizing Har is far more important than fighting. Watch over her so she doesn’t become agitated and can help the spirit be born.”

In truth, Har had begun to show visible agitation from the moment the monsters appeared at the entrance.

That was why Briel stayed here.

Whenever Har became agitated, she spoke to her and calmed her down.

Har, a half-elf, and Briel, a High Elf, could feel each other’s emotions.

BOOM—! BOOM—!

“Don’t fall back.”

“Protect it even if you die!”

Explosions and people’s desperate shouts came from outside.

They were truly fighting the monsters as if their lives depended on it.

Briel murmured,

“Little one! So many people are fighting to protect you. So please, you must be strong too.”

Whoooom!

As if it understood Briel’s words, the cocoon shone brightly.

Briel looked toward the entrance of the Black Forest again.

“Everyone, stay strong!”

---

Zeon stood in midair, stepping on a sandstorm.

Countless flying monsters filled the air.

Flash!

Levin unleashed Purple Lightning, but not many monsters fell.

The greatest strength of flying monsters was their speed.

Not only were their movements fast, but their reaction speed was insane too.

At first, they had been helplessly struck by Purple Lightning. But as time passed, they began coming up with countermeasures of their own.

They sensed the moment Purple Lightning erupted and avoided it in advance.

The slower ones still could not dodge, but the fast ones succeeded in evasive maneuvers.

The ones that slipped past Levin were Zeon’s responsibility.

Zeon caught them with Sand Tornado and ground them apart.

Countless flying monsters were shredded by the sand. But he could not kill every flying monster spread across the entire sky.

For now, the best he could do was stay behind Levin and stop the flying monsters that approached too close to the Black Forest.

The situation at the entrance of the Black Forest was the same.

The Dark Elves and human Awakened were doing their utmost to block the monsters. But the number of monsters was unbelievably high.

No matter how many they killed and killed again, they could not block all the monsters surging in like a tidal wave.

The Dark Elves and Awakened were gradually pushed back. Even so, they endured out of sheer spite.

BOOM—!

A large martial-type Awakened blocked a Cyclops’s club attack with a shield larger than his own body.

The tremendous impact made him feel as though his entire body were breaking apart. Even so, he gritted his teeth and endured.

Because if he collapsed, the entire battle line would fall apart.

Grind!

He put strength into his thighs and waist and clenched his teeth.

“You did well. Leave the rest to me!”

Floa, who had been behind him, sprang out as she spoke.

She stepped on the Cyclops’s club and leapt upward.

At that moment, the Cyclops’s single eye met her gaze.

“What are you staring at, one-eyed bastard?”

Floa swung her sword without mercy.

Slash!

Rooooaaar!

The Cyclops, whose pupil had been cut, screamed and thrashed. With its only eye lost, the entire world had turned to darkness.

The Cyclops swung its club wildly.

The Awakened and Floa quickly retreated, and the Cyclops’s club struck the innocent monsters around it instead.

Kueeek!

Graaar!

Most of the monsters suddenly struck by the club were turned into mush, but there was one still unharmed.

It was another Cyclops.

The Cyclops, suddenly attacked by its own kin, flew into a rage and swung its club.

BOOM—!

Its club slammed into the shoulder of the blinded Cyclops.

Rooooaaar!

The blinded Cyclops screamed in pain. But soon, it came to its senses and counterattacked.

BOOM—! BOOM—!

The two Cyclopes tangled together and fought fiercely.

A fight between two large-class monsters was no different from a disaster to smaller monsters.

Small-class monsters caught in their brawl burst apart brutally, and even medium-class monsters did not escape unharmed.

Floa watched the Cyclopes closely with sharp eyes.

Thanks to the rampage of the blinded Cyclops, they had bought some time, but she knew it would not last long.

Cyclopes were Grade B monsters.

With powerful bodies and even force fields around them, they were difficult to deal with.

Unless someone was an Awakened who could use Aura Blade like Floa, it was impossible even to wound them. But that was only when humans or elves were facing them.

The attacks of a fellow Cyclops were strong enough to pierce even a force field.

In the end, the blinded Cyclops was beaten one-sidedly and lost its life.

The Cyclops that had killed its own kin charged toward Floa and the others, filled with rage.

“It’s coming! Get ready!”

Floa shouted, raising her sword upright.

BOOM—!

With an explosion, the battle between the Cyclops and the Awakened and Dark Elves began again.

Zeon watched all of it from the air.

He wanted to help those on the ground, but he could not descend yet.

That was because griffins, Blade Frigatebirds, and even wyverns had appeared.

“All right! Let’s see whether you bastards die first or I die first.”

He could still deal with the Blade Frigatebirds while conserving his strength, but wyverns were monsters on a different level.

They had powerful force fields, absurd physical abilities, ferocity, and intelligence on top of that.

Wyverns were not called the tyrants of the sky for nothing.

Ordinary Purple Lightning did not work against the force fields surrounding their bodies.

Levin had to go all out.

Flash! Rumble!

Lightning on a completely different level from before struck down.

It was a sight that made it seem as if the Lightning God had descended.

Zeon did not simply watch either.

Roooooar!

The Sand Tornado he created spun fiercely and swallowed hundreds of flying monsters.

Griffins and Blade Frigatebirds were ground apart by Sand Tornado. But wyverns were the exception.

Cunningly, they did not come anywhere near Zeon.

When Sand Tornado tried to approach them, they fled far away outright. Then, when Sand Storm was grinding away other monsters, they approached Zeon and attacked.

While the wyverns distracted Zeon like that, several of them were circling far around and approaching the Black Forest.

The exceptionally large wyvern was the Alpha of the flock.

It was a cunningness hard to believe from a monster.

“Tsk!”

Zeon clicked his tongue when he spotted the Alpha Wyvern gliding toward the ground. He had no choice but to descend himself.

“Levin!”

“Yes! Hyung.”

“I have to go down to the Black Forest. I’ll leave this place to you.”

“Don’t worry, hyung! I’ll stop them here somehow.”

“Good! I’ll leave it to you.”

As soon as he heard Levin’s answer, Zeon’s body plunged toward the ground.

Whoooosh!

In Zeon’s sight as he fell like a meteor, he saw the huge body of a wyvern.

BOOM—!

Zeon slammed into the wyvern’s back with all his strength.

Kieeek!

With his body weight and acceleration added to the collision, the wyvern suffered a tremendous impact and screamed.

Zeon struck the wyvern’s head with his fist clad in the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

BANG—!

With an explosion, the wyvern’s head burst apart.

Zeon kicked off the headless wyvern’s body and launched himself toward the Alpha Wyvern.

The Alpha Wyvern, realizing Zeon’s surprise attack, turned its head and roared.

Roooooar!

The high-frequency sound contained in its roar struck Zeon’s eardrums.

It was one of the Alpha Wyvern’s Skills.

For an instant, Zeon lost his balance and staggered.

“Kgh!”

The high-frequency sound that had penetrated through his eardrums had shaken Zeon’s brain for a moment.

The other wyverns did not miss that opening and attacked Zeon. They judged it to be the perfect chance to kill him.

They knew that once someone was hit by their leader’s high-frequency sound, they would be unable to come to their senses for a while, and their physical abilities would drop drastically.

Roooooar!

They opened their huge mouths wide and tried to bite Zeon apart.

Their teeth, large enough to tear a human body apart in an instant, were packed densely like saw blades.

If caught in those jaws, human bones would be crushed in an instant.

Zeon, staggering without regaining his senses, looked like easy prey to them. But before their teeth touched his body, Zeon had already recovered.

Not only had he recovered his senses, but his physical condition was also returning to normal.

Fwoosh!

A rain of fire poured down around Zeon.

It was the Fire Rain Skill.

The rain of fire slammed into the bodies and wings of the wyverns attacking Zeon.

Graaaah!

Kieeek!

The wyverns struck by the rain of fire screamed in pain.

The flames Zeon created with the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat melted their hides and burned their muscles.

The wyverns flailed and tried to put out the flames, but it was useless.

The flames spread even larger and swallowed the wyverns.

Rumble!

The wyverns, engulfed in flames, crashed to the ground. But Zeon did not even glance at the fallen wyverns and launched himself toward the Alpha Wyvern.

It had already reached the deepest part of the Black Forest.

When the pure white cocoon came into view, the Alpha Wyvern opened its enormous mouth wide. Since it knew Zeon was following, it intended to swallow the cocoon where the spirit was being born first.

Its huge mouth was just about to swallow the pure white cocoon.

“Hmph!”

Suddenly, with a snort, something flew into the Alpha Wyvern’s mouth.

It was a vial thrown by Briel.

The vial contained venom.

It was venom extracted from monsters for use in alchemy.

Not knowing that venoms from different kinds of monsters had been mixed together, making detoxification impossible, the Alpha Wyvern bit down on it with its teeth.

Crack!

As the glass bottle shattered, the venom spread through the Alpha Wyvern’s mouth.

The venom melted the Alpha Wyvern’s tongue and palate in an instant.

Rooooaaar!

The Alpha Wyvern writhed in agony.

Zeon unleashed Sand Tornado at the Alpha Wyvern.

Grrrrrrind!

The sand spinning at terrifying speed crushed the Alpha Wyvern’s body. If it had been the Alpha Wyvern in its usual state, it would have looked for an opportunity to escape somehow with its force field and powerful body, but the venom was melting its palate and had reached even its brain, leaving it no room to do so.

In the end, the Alpha Wyvern was caught in Sand Tornado and vanished without a trace.

Only then did Briel let out a sigh of relief and look at Zeon.

“Zeon!”

“You did well.”

“Hehe!”

At Zeon’s praise, Briel smiled cutely.

It was then.

Rumble!

The entire Black Forest shook as if an earthquake had struck.

Zeon’s expression changed completely.

There was only one being powerful enough to shake the entire Black Forest.

“A Grade S monster.”