Chapter 18: It’s A Trap! Luring The Roaming Boss!
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"ROOOAAARRRR!"
"Huh?!"
Showing his clear inexperience, the leader of the cultists provoked the massive beast right in front of him. This reckless action forced the Tyrant to unleash its strongest attack without any hesitation.
"Y-You’re kidding me—"
A massive breath attack of pure azure flames erupted from the dinosaur’s throat and struck him nearly at point-blank range. The heat was so intense that the air itself seemed to distort around the blast.
BOOOM!!!
A massive explosion followed immediately afterward. The searing flames burned through his skin and armor as he screamed in pure agony. He turned and ran while the beast chased after him without the slightest mercy.
"Y-You bastard... you did... you did this!"
"?"
Riven, who had made sure to hide safely behind a large rock, noticed two cultists still hanging on and the guard who had been following him. Both men pointed their weapons directly at him with shaking hands.
"What’s wrong? Need a hand?" he asked in a calm, almost mocking tone.
"GRYARRR!"
Suddenly, from within their own shadows, large creatures resembling baby T-Rexes emerged with surprising speed. The hatchlings bit into their thighs, necks, and arms, tearing through flesh as easily as if it were made of paper mache. Blood sprayed across the cave floor as the men struggled helplessly.
"W-What is this?!"
"Gyaaaaahhhh!"
"W-Where did they come from?!"
As they screamed in pure horror while slowly devoured alive, Riven calmly offered them one final piece of information about this dungeon’s first roaming boss.
"The Tyrant is always a female, and she always brings along her chicks," he explained with a small, knowing smile. Daniela watched the gruesome scene in complete horror while hiding closely behind him. "They are blind, so they follow prey only by scent. You’re all covered in blood right now. Don’t you understand why their mother left you only half-dead? It wasn’t accidental at all. She had to feed her babies somehow... She deliberately made their prey easy at the beginning so the chicks could get some practice hunting."
"Y-YOU DAMN BASTARD!!!"
One of the remaining cultists charged toward Riven with a cursed dagger raised high above his head. Riven simply punched him square in the face with overwhelming force and sent him flying straight back toward the hungry babies.
"Enjoy," he said before calmly walking away and leaving the hatchlings to their bloody feast.
"Y-You’re not going to take them down?!" Daniela asked in complete disbelief, her voice trembling.
"One of them will grow up to be just like their mother one day," Riven answered without looking back. "To keep the ecology of the Gate balanced, we cannot hunt everything, can we?"
"E-Eh?" Daniela was taken aback by his eccentric way of thinking. The idea of intentionally sparing future threats felt completely foreign to her.
Yet he was not lying. His true goal remained their mother, after all.
"ROOOAAARRRR!"
"Gaaahh! Damn monster! Stop chasing me!"
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
The cultist leader fought the Tyrant with growing desperation and fury. Her powerful roars shook the entire cavern. Devastating breath attacks, a sharp bladed tail, and massive claws made her an almost impossible foe to defeat with his current build and equipment.
By carefully observing his fighting stance, the way he moved, and the abilities he displayed, Riven quickly guessed that the man was an Executioner who belonged to the Authority of the Blood-Soaked Shadow Wolf, Fenrir.
Unlike many other Authorities, Fenrir was a ruthless and ravenous predator by nature. His apostles had built an entire cult based entirely on his doctrine of hunting the strong and devouring their power.
The kidnapping plan had mostly been a way to gather much-needed funds, just as the leader had claimed earlier. In reality, they would probably have killed Riven the moment they received the money from his family.
Unfortunately for them, nothing had gone their way today.
"What’s wrong?! Need a hand?" Riven mocked him while sneaking around the battlefield with Abyssal Shift, remaining nearly invisible in the shadows.
"RIVEN CLAYMORE!!!" the sect member roared with pure, unrestrained fury. His long red hair waved wildly as his dark aura surged around him. "I’ll kill you no matter what!!!"
He charged straight toward Riven with murderous intent but Riven simply took a calm step backward. A giant claw suddenly "protected" him by striking the cultist with tremendous force and sending him crashing hard into the ground in complete disbelief.
"H-Huh?!" he gasped, unable to understand what had just happened. "She... protected him?! How?!"
Riven smiled quietly. The boss was not even considering him as a possible meal. If anything, she had coiled her massive tail around him in a clearly protective manner!
Just how was this possible?
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