infodatos Chapter 146 Beast vs. Beast
Chapter 146 Beast vs. Beast
Chapter 146 Beast vs. Beast
breathe----
Heavy breaths condensed into white mist in the cool air.
Da da da
The claws slammed into the stone slabs, making a crisp sound, and a terrifying suspense began to brew in the hall.
Death is on the way.
Blackwing Rattlesnake, a masterpiece of Akosim-Bissalius, a wizard of the Arken Sage Summoning School. It was his favorite among the second batch of magical monsters created.
Human face, lion's mane, dragon wings, scorpion tail.
It was once so majestic, with near-perfect body proportions, coordinated muscle work, and an attack method with no blind spots. Its mobility, lethality, and survivability, coupled with its potent venom, made it a born slaughter machine. Infused with the magic of Aksim, this scorpion-lion tasted the blood of countless humans.
But that was more than a thousand years ago.
The manticore has forgotten its past rampage on the battlefield, but there is a feeling it can never forget.
magic.
Delicious, delicious magical energy.
It was starving. The magic of this world grew thinner with each passing century, and Blackwing Rattletail, like a fish trapped in a puddle at low tide, watched helplessly as the water it depended on evaporated beside it, slowly suffocating, its very strength fading away—
The manticore raised its head and sniffed the air.
He seemed to sense something, and stopped in the hall, his狰狞 (zhengning, meaning ferocious or hideous) face turning towards the stone door.
"roar----"
A trembling growl came from the beast's throat, and the walls of the entire hall shook with it—it smelled a familiar scent in the air.
magic.
blood.
And fear.
Dust rose from the cracks beneath the stone gate.
"Alright—alright, dwarf—you can do it—" Dulin murmured in a voice only he could hear, his beard trembling slightly. He took a deep breath, the cold air seeming to lessen some of his fear. He held the crossbow firmly in his tense arms and nodded to his companions on either side of the stone gate.
"Rub your calves, Dulin," Geb said. "Don't get a cramp at the crucial moment."
"Don't laugh at me—open the door now! Don't give me time to think, the more I think about it, the scarier I get!" Dulin said through gritted teeth.
Geb put the resonance crystal into his dimensional bag to conceal its magical aura, then nodded to the swordswoman on the right and Soton on the left.
The woman and the beastman nodded in response. Dove's expression was grim, as was the beastman's usual somber demeanor.
Gebu chanted the incantation softly: "Invisibilis".
The goblin vanished in an instant. Using this as a signal, the swordswoman and Thornton pulled the switch!
Boom—
The heavy creaking of machinery echoed through the hall.
The dwarf swallowed hard and lifted the crossbow.
The door slowly rose—by the faint light filtering through the cracks in the ruins' dome, the manticore's body was shrouded in an ominous glow.
The dwarf took two steps forward, exposing himself completely to the manticore's view.
Come on—come on, you big lizard—cat? Scorpion? Whatever you are, charge at me now!
The manticore's massive tail swept out in a fan shape in the air, and the air passed through the tiny holes in the tail, making a terrifying rustling sound.
The beast didn't rush up. It stopped where it was, about forty meters away from the dwarf, and looked at the dwarf with a hint of curiosity. Its human-faced nose wrinkled slightly, as if trying to discern whether the scent in the air came from the creature in front of it.
The opportunity was fleeting! Dulin snapped his eyes shut and pulled the trigger almost instinctively.
Boom—Whoosh!
The thick crossbow bolt, whistling as it tore through the air, struck the scorpion lion's thick shoulder blade squarely!
"Awooo—!!!"
A roar filled with excruciating pain and rage exploded like thunder, instantly shattering the deathly silence of the ruins!
The sound was not a pure beastly roar, but more like a distorted wail mixed with ancient curses.
Dulin felt a shockwave carrying a foul stench crash down on him, almost knocking him over. He watched in horror as the enormous dragon wings suddenly unfurled—the wounds on those wings, pierced by the siege crossbow, had already healed. The wild magical power had rapidly rejuvenated the manticore's body; now, it was ravenously hungry!
The air currents generated by the dragon's wings stirred up a cloud of millennia-old dust. The eyes on the human face instantly ignited with murderous intent, locking onto the small figure behind the archway.
The dwarf's blood froze instantly. He even forgot Geb's last instruction to "run into the door," and all that remained was the most instinctive fear a creature feels when facing a apex predator, making his legs feel as heavy as lead.
"Run! You stupid dwarf!!!" Geb's scream exploded in Dulin's mind through the communication spell, like a whip lashing Dulin's stiff body.
"The ancestor's beard!"
Dulin let out a strange cry that was hard to tell whether it was a roar or a howl, and with an agility rarely seen in dwarves, he swung his short, thick legs and charged into the depths of the room at his fastest speed ever.
Boom—!
The massive stone archway groaned under its weight. Stone chips flew everywhere, and a huge, deathly shadow completely blocked out the light above Dulin's head. It was a manticore! Almost the instant Dulin rushed into the inner chamber, its massive body slammed into the stone archway!
The inner stone hall was much narrower than the outer one. The manticore's rampage was not only stopped by the stone frame, but it also felt a kind of restrained rage.
It let out an even more ferocious roar, its front paws clawing at the inside of the door frame, its powerful force causing thick stones to crumble and fall.
The manticore raised its upper body, its barbed tongue flying out, its murky beastly eyes fixed on the back of the dwarf who was running away in a disheveled manner with his back to it.
The diminutive figure and the lingering, clearer magical fluctuations in the air (emanating from the crystal after being charged by Geb) became the final catalyst that devoured all reason.
At this critical moment, from the shadows on either side of the inner door, two murderous auras that had been gathering power burst forth like thunder!
"Now!" The swordswoman's roar was as cold and decisive as a drawn sword.
Left side! Soton moved. The burly figure of the beastman vanished in a blur.
He roared, as if pouring all the resentment and rage over the loss of his companions into this charge. His powerful, half-human, half-beast muscles bulged instantly. He landed on all fours, his limbs stretched out, and his savage face lost all human features!
This is a head-on confrontation between beasts!
There were no fancy techniques, no room for dodging! He used his broad shoulders and arms covered in thick iron armor to launch a desperate "Stag Charge" at the relatively vulnerable side of the manticore's waist and abdomen—the junction connecting the lion's body and powerful hind legs—just as it was about to exert force after crashing into the door frame!
Bang—Click!
A dull, teeth-grinding thud resounded. Thorton felt as if he had crashed into a rock wall, his antlers piercing the manticore's side! In an instant, the thinner branches of the antlers broke off against the monster's hide, leaving only the thickest root firmly embedded in the monster's flesh, blooming with a red flower!
Thorton was slammed into the ground by the immense force, a trickle of beastly blood even seeping from the corner of his mouth. But he succeeded!
Caught off guard, the manticore's massive body was slammed against the other side of the door frame by the violent lateral impact! The balance it was maintaining while charging forward was instantly shattered, and its entire body, like a toppling tower, crashed heavily and askew against the huge stone door panel and frame on the right!
In the same millisecond, on the right! Like a cheetah, the female swordswoman pounced out of the shadows, her figure leaving several afterimages in her wake.
She channeled all her strength into the sturdy round shield she gripped tightly in her right arm, and seized the moment when the manticore was forced to the side by Soton's impact, exposing its vital neck, and struck with the shield!
Clang—Boom!
The dull thud of metal colliding with flesh and bone!
The swordswoman felt as if the bones in her arm were about to crack. The immense recoil nearly sent her flying backward. She kicked off the door mechanism, causing the stone door, which had risen to the top, to fall again! Then, using the force of the switch, she lunged forward, shoving her shield into the manticore's mouth!
The scorpion, its teeth caught in the metal shield, was enraged and violently swung its head. The woman with the knife was caught off guard and was thrown out, crashing into the door frame!
"Ugh!" The woman let out a muffled roar, the air in her chest was forced out, and blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
Seeing the woman being thrown aside, Thorton wrinkled his nose, and with a burst of strength from the ground, he used the antlers embedded in the manticore's flesh to lift it up at a 45-degree angle—the manticore was lifted up by him and slammed into the descending stone gate, creating a crack in the heavy stone slab!
The manticore was completely enraged. It pressed down with its claws, and Soton had nowhere to hide. He was trampled under the manticore's claws, and the antlers stuck in the manticore's body were stretched taut at a negative angle, trembled, and then exploded!
Bone fragments flew everywhere!
"roar!!!"
The beast-like Soton, its broken antlers reduced to a mere half-inch of blood, let out a bloodcurdling howl. A man was completely subdued by the manticore; the monster flipped him over with its claws, its tail rising from behind and opening like a flower, revealing a stinger the length and thickness of a forearm. A bluish-purple venom flowed from the white, translucent bone stinger!