Chapter 163: I Love Your Courage [Bonus - ]
SCREECH!!!!
"This?"
The Forest Queen froze mid-strike, instantly recognizing the terrifying sound of the skill. But before her reflexes could initiate a retreat, the piercing sonic wave smashed right into her.
[Stun Activated.]
[Duration: Ten seconds.]
"Now."
Asher moved with razor precision, weaving between the frozen, thorned vines suspended in midair before him. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a glowing golden dice. "To one-shot you without wasting any opportunities, I won’t hold back."
He threw the dice ahead of him, his boots never slowing their rapid pace across the rocky soil.
BAM!
The golden dice tumbled across the ground, coming to a sudden halt with the single number facing upward.
{Master Gained 100% increase in attack.}
’It is still something.’
[Flash - Activated.]
𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
He vanished from sight, instantly reappearing directly behind the stunned Forest Queen. Raising both Supreme Mythic-Tier daggers high above his head, he brought them down with absolute, lethal force.
[Judgment Strike - Activated.]
WHOOSH!!! X10
"....?!"
Marianne and Denise watched in absolute horror from within the protective barrier as Asher landed smoothly on his feet behind the monster. At that exact millisecond, the ten-second stun duration timer reached zero and vanished.
"AHHHHHHH!!!"
The Forest Queen screamed in sheer, agonizing horror, her massive personal vines completely detaching from her body like dying roots.
"You bastard!!! You Bastard!! What have you done!!!"
BOOOM!!!
Her body exploded into a thick cloud of volatile, green-engulfing smoke that expanded outward in a violent shockwave, spreading all over the immediate battlefield and smashing heavily against every single person present.
{Warning Master!!!}
[Warning Player!!!]
"...?!!"
Asher, Marianne, and Denise were completely dumbfounded, their eyes darting wildly through the suffocating haze. They could see nothing around them except the dense, opaque green fog.
’This can’t be poison—I am completely immune to poison... Then what on earth is this?’ Asher thought, his senses firing on all cylinders.
"Hehehehe, thank you for getting rid of her."
{Warning Master!!!}
Asher snapped his head sharply to the side as an unmeasurable, dark figure blurred through the smoke directly toward him. Instinct taking over, he quickly raised both daggers into a tight defensive cross-block.
BAM!!!!
An apocalyptic physical force smashed right into the twin blades, the sheer shock sending him flying backward through the air. He flipped mid-flight, landing heavily on his feet and dragging his boots through the dirt to stop his momentum.
’What the hell?!!’ he thought, coughing as he wiped a trail of fresh blood off his lips with his sleeve.
{Defense: 0.}
{Health: 1,000,000/2,720,000 (+120,000).}
’A whole 1.5 million defense points completely wiped out in one hit,’ Asher calculated in grim shock, looking down at his chest. His overcoat was shredded down the middle.
’Even my Mythic-Tier Armor got damaged... I’ll have to ask a master Blacksmith to repair this when I get back.’ He thought, his teeth gritted in sheer rage as the thick dust and residual aura slowly began to clear.
{Warning Master!!}
{Soul Defense Destroyed.}
Asher snapped his head toward Marianne and Denise as the green smoke finally dispersed, exposing the devastating reality of the surprise attack.
"This?"
He stood frozen, his black eyes widening in shock. Marianne was down on her knees, her heavy warrior helmet missing entirely, with thick red blood flowing down her forehead and across her pale face.
Denise was in far worse condition—he was missing an entire arm, the limb severed completely at the shoulder socket.
"AHHHH!!" Denise screamed in agony, clutching the spurting wound with his remaining hand as he collapsed onto his side.
"Hold on!" Marianne gasped through her own pain, rapidly pulling out a glowing, crystalline flask from her spatial storage—a Divine-Tier health potion.
"No!! That is our only Divine-Tier potion! Use it to heal your own head injuries!" Denise yelled through gritted teeth, trembling as he pressed down on his missing shoulder.
"Are you crazy!! Do you think this is the time to say all this!!" Marianne growled, forcefully grabbing his jaw and pouring the entire glowing liquid down his throat. She wiped the blood from her eyes, retrieved her longsword from the dirt, and forced herself back onto her feet.
"I am alright." She said, giving a firm nod to Asher, who simply blinked at them, processing her sudden, unyielding resolve.
"Marianne?"
"Don’t speak!! Just stay behind me, I will take care of this," Marianne declared, looking over her shoulder at Denise while keeping her posture weapon-ready.
WHOOSH!!!
"Watch out!!" Asher shot toward them like a dark lightning bolt, sensing the exact same invisible killer energy surging straight toward Marianne’s blind spot.
"....?!"
Marianne snapped her head around to face him, only to see a massive, pitch-black demonic claw shooting directly out from the tear in space itself, aiming straight for her exposed neck.
"This?"
BAM!!!!!
The claws smashed right into the soul defense barrier Asher cast, spiderweb cracks instantly spreading across its surface. But before the claw could shatter the barrier completely, Asher dropped beneath the trajectory, slashing his twin daggers violently upward at the arm.
WHOOSH!
His blades sliced through empty air.
’It vanished again... What is happening here?!? Shadow Gaze should be able to see through all illusions, stealth, and dimensional veils, but it can’t perceive whatever this thing is... I could only barely sense its presence using Infinite Senses,’ he thought, stepping directly in front of Marianne. His shadow Knights quickly closed their ranks, forming a tight, impenetrable defensive circle around the group while Tempest took up a rear guard position.
"Hey, there is a way to exit an SSS-Rank dungeon, right?" Asher asked, looking over his shoulder at Marianne without dropping his posture.
Sara had survived several SSS-Rank Dungeons in the past according to records. If the intelligence he gathered was accurate, she had managed to escape without clearing the core floor boss, meaning an extraction mechanism existed.
"Yes! As long as we haven’t stayed inside the rift for a full 24 hours, we can initiate an emergency recall with the Awakened System interface." Marianne answered quickly, her voice urgent.
"The two of you, exit this dungeon right now."
"You...!!"
"...?!"
Both Marianne and Denise were completely stunned by the command.
"Are you crazy!! We are both still SSS-Rank hunters!!" Marianne snapped at him, her eyes flaring with indignance.
Denise gritted his teeth and forced himself back up onto his feet, the bleeding at his shoulder having completely stopped as new tissue slowly knit together thanks to the Divine-Tier potion:
"Yes, Lord Asher! We can still fight! My arm will regenerate over the next few days thanks to the potion, but even without an arm, I can still wield a blade!" He raised his sword firmly with his remaining right hand.
"A true Swordsman never runs from a fight."
"Hehehehe... I love your courage. It almost makes me feel bad that I have to slaughter the three of you."
"...?!"