Chapter 88: [Dream] "I want you to eat it..."
They decided to circle around the snowy area to carefully prepare for an ambush.
According to the plan, they would attack both monsters at the exact same time and finish the fight as quickly as possible.
This was to ensure they would not have to face a Level 33 monster head-on, especially when it was cornered. A monster was always the most dangerous when it was backed into a corner, after all.
Night, Eve and Lilith formed one team, while Death, Lucy, and Sage formed another.
Previously, during the fight with the Level 62 Spectral Eye Devil Soldier, the Nightmare Mist had proven lethal when used properly.
While it was completely natural for Night to wield it, everyone except Sage severely struggled to control it, especially after his recent transformation.
So, with Night and Sage distributed between the two teams, the others just had to strictly focus on creating an opening. Night and Sage would act as the finishers.
The fight between the two beasts had reached it crescendo when the exhausted monsters got into a brutal brawl.
They violently slammed their massive paws into each other and fought with reckless abandon. The bear closer to Night’s group suddenly backed away a little, looking like it was trying to escape.
The other bear gave chase, but it fell for the trick.
The retreating bear had stealthily hidden sharp ice spikes below the snow at some point and used the brief opening to shoot them directly at the pursuing bear’s weak points, the groin and armpits.
Receiving the vicious attack, the pursuer screamed in agony, having taken serious damage.
The bear closer to Night’s group jumped using its final burst of strength and slammed heavily into the weakened bear. It got right on top of its rival, its claws turning even sharper as it coated them with dense ice using whatever mana it had left.
Seeing the opportunity, Night brought both his hands together and clapped.
It was the signal they had decided on to launch the ambush.
He clapped in such a subtle way that the sound was low enough not to alert the monsters, but the vibration range was wide enough for Sage’s group to notice.
Two stone, one-sided axes suddenly appeared in Night’s hands.
Their sharp edges were coated with a thin film of Nightmare Mist. The simple stone axes now looked ominous, radiating a blackish-purple glow.
Using [Wind Overdrive] and [Wind Dash], he instantly appeared right behind the winning bear.
A moment later, a tiny monkey appeared right beside the pinned, losing bear. It was holding a grey staff, the tip fully covered in swirling Nightmare Mist. It was Sage, completely covered in thick, grey-colored stone armor.
Both monsters instantly became aware of the new intruders and went on high alert, especially the winning bear.
But before it could do anything, Night, who was close, performed another dash. He appeared directly hovering over its massive back and swung both axes down viciously, not wasting a single moment.
The bear desperately tried to summon ice to coat its back, but with no mana left, it could only try to tank the blow with its raw physical body, planning to furiously counterattack right after.
The pinned bear below saw it all the more clearly because of its view. It also distinctly sensed Sage, but it was in an even more awkward, defenseless position than the winning bear above it.
As the axes touched the top bear’s back, they created a massive, bloody cut, flawlessly ignoring all of its natural defenses as if they were wet paper.
However, Night immediately had to jump away when the massive beast violently thrashed.
While the dual attack did a lot of concentrated damage,but the actual area of the cut was pitiful compared to the sheer size of the 10-foot bear.
ROAR!
Howling in pain, the bear got up and quickly turned back to face Night, ignoring the weaker bear below it.
Before it could launch a counterattack, it heard the other bear scream, a piercing, horrifying sound that chilled the blood.
Looking back, it saw its fellow bear sporting a bloody hole in its head, going straight from the back of its skull all the way through to the middle of its eyebrows.
Through the gaping hole, a thick stone staff could be seen, which was currently rapidly reducing in size.
After the staff shrank and pulled away, the remaining bear could clearly see a tiny monkey covered in stone armor holding the weapon.
The winning bear got chills as it saw the rival it had to fight with everything it had, effortlessly killed in a single strike by a weak-looking monkey.
[Ding!]
[You have slain a Lvl 33 Ice Bear | +330 EXP]
Level: 20 (EXP: 380/21,000)
When Night saw the system notification, he was completely stunned as well. He really hadn’t expected Sage to use such a simple method to creatively overcome the size difference between them.
As the rest of the ambushers finally arrived, the surviving bear’s shadow suddenly betrayed its owner.
The shadow elongated, raising shadowy hands that tightly grabbed the weakened Ice Bear and held it in place. Just as it tried to frantically struggle, it was heavily hit by a barrage of [Death Bullets] released by Death, weakening it even further.
Eve and Lilith flawlessly used [Wind Dash] and [Wind Overdrive] to instantly appear right near its massive legs.
They both smoothly pulled out sharp kunai from somewhere and threw them; the duos targets were the bear’s glowing crystal eyes.
From this throwing distance, it was impossible for them to apply Nightmare Mist to their flying weapons, so they covered them with Dark Energy and crackling Electric Currents, respectively.
The bear desperately tried to close its eyes, but at that exact moment, it felt a piercing pain in its naval region, causing it to widen its eyes in shock instead.
Night had perfectly used Meditative Stealth to close the distance unseen, delivering a highly timely, coordinated attack.
Both of the kunai flawlessly found their marks, effectively blinding the massive bear. It immediately fell backward as its own shadow ruthlessly pulled at it, looking as if Lucy wanted to drag the beast completely into the shadow.
Taking full advantage of the golden opportunity, Night closed the final distance and cleanly beheaded it.
He had dispersed one of his axes and rapidly increased the size and mass of the remaining one, learning from Sage’s creative combat display.
When the Ice Bear’s head hit the snowy ground, it lost all physical sensation of its body. It didn’t even realize what had actually happened because of the sudden blindness, but the rapid loss of its life force made it understand that it had been killed.
Grrrr...
It died with a low unwilling rumble.
[Ding!]
[You have slain a Lvl 33 Ice Bear | +330 EXP]
Level: 20 (EXP: 710/21,000)
Sara clapped her hands in genuine appreciation while Blade stood silently beside her.
Sara said in pleasant surprise, "Congratulations! You guys killed a monster 13 levels above you. I honestly thought I would have to intervene when Night failed to deal significant damage in that opening attack."
Beside her, Blade was not surprised, having already seen the terrifying properties of the Nightmare Mist in action firsthand.
Night gave an embarrassed, sheepish smile.
Looking down at the bloody corpse, Night then fell into deep thought. The Nightmare Mist is really strong. Taking down such strong opponents should not have been this easy.
He seriously wondered what its actual upper limit was.
[Dream] chimed in smoothly. "It should remain this overpowered until you encounter a beast with a true Divine Bloodline or an enemy wielding a Divine Weapon. The core of your true main body is made of divine material, after all."
Night spoke as if he were an expert who had already reached the peak. "So I have no match for now?"
[Dream] quickly humbled him. "No, silly. Pretty soon this advantage will be completely useless. For some reason, your planet has a large amount of traces of divine energy. And it is only increasing as time goes on. The ambient density of divine energy is easily twice as much as it was just the previous week."
"I think something is happening behind the scenes."
Night frowned. "What could it be?"
[Dream] mused, "While I don’t have a full view like [Blaze], i can sense the overall destiny of this world has changed a lot since your transformation. Most of it was obviously our doing..."
Night prompted, "But...?"
[Dream] chuckled softly. "But nothing. I think some native human must have recently broken through to become a Demigod, which boosted the entire planet to become a ’Demigod Planet’."
Night asked curiously, "What exactly is a Demigod Planet, and how does that affect us?"
[Dream] explained, "A planet inherently benefits when a native species evolves on its own. A planet naturally upgrades into a Demigod Planet when a native becomes a Demigod."
"And evolving using System-granted resources does not count like all the high-leveled beasts, Devils and the things hiding in ’Heaven’ ."
"As for how it will affect us? Becoming a Demigod on an established Demigod Planet is exponentially easier for everyone. It means vast new opportunities, secret realms, and powerful resources to evolve will naturally appear on this planet."
Night connected the dots. "Is the increase in Divine Energy part of that upgrade?"
"No," [Dream] corrected grimly. "A planet only naturally produces divine energy after a God is born from it and I am sure no native has reached the God’s realm yet."
"The only reason a mortal planet like this would have divine energy everywhere would be because someone is releasing it on purpose."
And since no living God is remotely dumb enough to waste their source doing such a thing... it means it is not a living God, but a dead one."
"If my theory is true, then I have one request from you..."
Night shrugged easily. "Sure."
Up until now, [Dream] had only ever generously given to him and had not asked for a single thing in return. She hadn’t even asked him to revive her yet.
"I want you to eat it..." she said softly.
Night blinked. "Eat what?"
[Dream] "The dead God."
...
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