Chapter 373

Chapter 373

BOOM—!

The earth burst apart as if a volcano had erupted, and a huge rocky mountain suddenly appeared before the Black Forest.

“What is that?”

“Kuh!”

The Awakened and Dark Elves were horrified by the rocky mountain that had appeared out of nowhere.

There was no way a rocky mountain could exist in the middle of a desert made of sand.

It was a monster.

A monster with a massive body comparable to Archelon, the mobile fortress.

The monster, shaped like a crocodile inflated thousands of times over like puffed grain, was made of rock.

THUD! THUD!

The crocodile made of rock charged straight toward the Black Forest.

Kueek!

Kiaaak!

Countless monsters were trampled and crushed beneath the Rock Crocodile.

Just as large monsters trampled small monsters, the Rock Crocodile trampled large monsters.

Even large monsters were no different from flies before the Rock Crocodile.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Every time the Rock Crocodile moved, huge pits were gouged into the sand.

“To think a monster like that exists?”

“A monster made of rock......”

Not only the human Awakened, but even the Dark Elves were thrown into confusion, unable to identify the creature.

It was a monster they had never seen even once in Kurayan.

A Golem came to mind, but they had never even heard of a Golem that enormous.

“Is it a new kind of monster born on Earth?”

“Even if it is, that thing is......”

The Dark Elves looked at the Rock Crocodile with drained expressions.

At that moment, Floa shouted,

“What are you all doing? Attack it already.”

“Y-yes!”

“A-attack!”

Only then did the Awakened and Dark Elves come to their senses and pour attacks toward the Rock Crocodile approaching the Black Forest.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!

Skills of tremendous power struck the Rock Crocodile’s entire body, but the creature barely took any damage.

At most, a little of the rock on its surface broke away.

“Insane!”

“How are we supposed to stop that?”

Despair appeared on the faces of the Awakened and Dark Elves.

Floa, who had been encouraging them, gritted her teeth and launched herself forward.

‘I can’t just stand here doing nothing. It must have a weakness too.’

Floa landed on the Rock Crocodile’s head and swung Aura Blade.

Slash! Slash!

Each time she swung Aura Blade, armfuls of rock fell away. But that much did not give the Rock Crocodile any real shock.

With Floa riding on its head, the Rock Crocodile charged toward the Black Forest.

Even the wide moat Zeon had painstakingly made was nothing more than a small stream for the Rock Crocodile to cross.

In an instant, the Rock Crocodile crossed the moat.

‘Is this the end?’

A look of despair appeared even on Floa’s face.

The Black Forest was right before them.

She could see the trees that had only just sprouted.

When she imagined the sprouts being trampled under the Rock Crocodile’s feet and vanishing, tears came to her eyes.

It was then.

“Get away!”

Zeon’s voice reached her ears.

Without even thinking, Floa kicked off the Rock Crocodile’s head and shot into the air.

Rumble!

At that moment, the sand beneath the Rock Crocodile collapsed.

The enormous Rock Crocodile plunged straight into the sand.

“Lord Zeon?”

Floa’s face lit up.

Because she knew that the only person here who could command sand like that was Zeon.

Just as she guessed, the owner of the voice was Zeon.

Zeon, who had appeared at the entrance of the deep forest, looked at the Rock Crocodile with cold eyes.

Roooooar!

The Rock Crocodile, buried in the huge sand pit, roared.

It thrashed to climb out of the pit.

Zeon had weakened the cohesion, so the sand continued to flow down, but at this rate, it was only a matter of time before it climbed out.

The moment the Rock Crocodile fully climbed up, the Black Forest would be trampled miserably.

They had to deal with it before it got all the way out.

“Did a crocodile and a Golem fuse?”

Just as Moby Dick had been born when a spirit and a dying whale fused, the Rock Crocodile also seemed to be the fusion of a crocodile and a Golem.

The difference was that Moby Dick had possessed a complete ego, while the Rock Crocodile seemed to have only instinct left.

In its eyes, he could not see the intelligence or life force that any living creature should naturally possess.

It moved like a crocodile with a Golem’s body, but that was all.

The Rock Crocodile had no soul.

That was why it had come here.

To devour the newborn spirit.

A spirit was the purest lifeform.

In some ways, it was the closest thing to a soul.

If it devoured and digested the spirit, the Rock Crocodile might also gain a soul.

No one had taught it that, but the Rock Crocodile knew it instinctively.

The Rock Crocodile’s gaze turned toward Zeon.

The emotion in its eyes, made of inorganic rock, was rage.

It knew too.

That the existence called Zeon was its greatest obstacle.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!

Suddenly, with explosive roars, the shell on the Rock Crocodile’s back exploded, and rocks flew out.

The Rock Crocodile had fired the stones on its surface like cannonballs.

Hundreds of boulders as large as houses poured down toward Zeon like rain.

“Insane!”

Zeon gritted his teeth.

Avoiding the rocks was not difficult for Zeon. But the moment he dodged, the Black Forest behind him would be devastated by the enormous number of rocks.

The Black Forest, which had only just sprouted, would be utterly ruined.

He had to stop that worst-case scenario at all costs.

“Chaaat!”

Zeon began firing Sand Blaster.

Dozens, hundreds of streams of Sand Blaster shot upward and began intercepting the rocks. But it was impossible to stop rocks hundreds of times heavier than light sand or change their direction with sand alone. So Zeon made the Sand Blasters cause dust explosions the moment they struck.

It was a method made possible by the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

BOOM—!

BOOM—!

The Sand Blasters exploded the instant they collided with the rocks.

The explosions shattered the rocks to pieces or altered their flight paths.

The rocks exploded in a chain through the air.

A tremendous amount of stone fragments scattered in every direction. Fortunately, they failed to inflict any real damage on the Black Forest.

Groooaaar!

The Rock Crocodile let out a monstrous roar and pushed its head out of the sand pit.

After firing the rocks, it had climbed up the pit.

The Rock Crocodile’s huge eyes met Zeon’s eyes right in front of him.

He felt the empty gaze of an incomplete being.

He felt as if he understood why the Rock Crocodile was after the spirit. But understanding did not mean he could allow it.

They, too, desperately needed the spirit.

He could not hand over a being that would become a turning point for a new era to something like the Rock Crocodile.

“We’re desperate too.”

Snap!

In that instant, Zeon flicked his finger.

Grrrrind!

The sand beneath the Rock Crocodile’s feet began to rotate.

As the sand spun, the Rock Crocodile, which had painstakingly climbed up, was thrown back down.

Then the sand began spinning fiercely and covered the Rock Crocodile.

It was Sand Mixer, capable of turning most monsters into bloody sand in an instant. But Sand Mixer did not work on the Rock Crocodile, whose entire body was made of stone.

Tick-tick-tick!

Its surface was ground away amid flying sparks, but compared to the Rock Crocodile’s whole body, it was only an extremely small portion, barely noticeable.

Groooaaar!

The Rock Crocodile roared and tried to break free from the sand spinning at furious speed.

Zeon had never thought he could do anything to the Rock Crocodile with Sand Mixer alone.

“But if it’s Sand Gehenna, the story changes.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the sand surrounding the Rock Crocodile began to melt.

Bubble! Bubble!

The thickly melted sand boiled like lava.

The Rock Crocodile began melting in the ultra-high-heat lava. But the Rock Crocodile paid no attention and moved one step at a time.

THUD! THUD!

The Rock Crocodile could not feel pain.

Even if its body melted, it did not hinder its movement in any way. Moreover, since it was made of rock, the melting speed was extremely slow.

Before even one-third of its enormous legs had melted, the Rock Crocodile was about to break out of Sand Gehenna. If it escaped Sand Gehenna like this, a great disaster would befall the Black Forest.

Zeon raised his control and began rotating Sand Gehenna.

The lava spun fiercely like Sand Mixer.

The lava clung even more stickily to the Rock Crocodile and stretched.

The Rock Crocodile, which had gotten out to some degree, was dragged back into Sand Gehenna.

Its legs melted rapidly in the ultra-high-heat lava.

Roooooar!

The Rock Crocodile thrashed, but the more it did, the deeper it was sucked into the lava.

Its legs were completely submerged in lava, with only its head and body exposed.

Now it was only a matter of time before it melted completely. But Zeon did not relax.

It was a Grade S monster in name and fact.

Though it did not have a proper ego and had no soul, there was no way it would simply sit still and be killed in a crisis.

Zeon’s prediction soon became reality.

The Rock Crocodile raised its head and looked up at Zeon.

Its inorganic eyes were filled with rage toward him.

The creature’s immense hostility and rage surged toward him like a tidal wave.

The Rock Crocodile’s hostility was so tremendous that it could make most Awakened lose their reason.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!

Just as the Rock Crocodile’s eyes turned red, its enormous rock body suddenly exploded.

As its mountain-sized body exploded, rocks as large as cars flew toward the Black Forest.

They were on an entirely different scale and power from when it had exploded and fired off its shell a moment ago.

“What?”

Even Zeon, who had prepared in advance, had not expected the Rock Crocodile to self-destruct.

At the same time, he felt puzzled.

No matter if its body was about to melt in Sand Gehenna, to choose self-destruction just to kill him?

It did not match the monster physiology Zeon knew.

It was then.

Pop! Pop!

Four legs and tails suddenly burst out from the fragments of the Rock Crocodile. Then long faces formed.

They were small Rock Crocodiles, like the Rock Crocodile had been shrunk dozens of times over.

“So it wasn’t self-destruction, but division?”

Since it was difficult to escape Sand Gehenna with its enormous body, it had reduced its size.

Its body had become smaller, but in exchange, it had multiplied into hundreds, so it was not exactly a losing choice for the Rock Crocodile.

The hundreds of Rock Crocodiles that landed on the ground writhed and tried to crawl into the Black Forest.

“Damn it! Stop them.”

“Fuck! There are too many.”

“Die!”

The Awakened and Dark Elves struggled desperately to stop the small Rock Crocodiles.

They were smaller now, but they were still about the size of ordinary medium-class monsters. On top of that, their entire bodies were made of stone, so ordinary attacks did not faze them.

The army of Rock Crocodiles pushed into the Black Forest without hesitation, relying on their tremendous numbers and defensive power.

The moment the defensive line was about to collapse under the Rock Crocodiles’ wave tactics—

An enormous number of soldiers suddenly rose from the sand.

It was one of Zeon’s Skills, Sand Soldier.

Against wave tactics, he responded with wave tactics.

That was Zeon’s choice.

“Go!”

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

Hundreds of Sand Soldiers surged like a tidal wave toward the army of Rock Crocodiles.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!

A fierce battle erupted with explosive roars.