"What the hell is it doing?!" Jack asked Peniel.
"I don't know! That must be one of its unknown skills," Peniel answered.
The shuddering did not get any less. Whatever, the beast was preparing, it was nothing simple.
"Move back! Move back!" Jack called out to Samuel. He himself walked away, putting more distance from the Ice Demon Spawn while drinking a healing potion. His sword's Overlimit state had ended already, Storm Breaker reverted to its original shape. He guessed his sword damage should now be less than Samuel's.
Throughout the noise following the shuddering, Jack realized it was not just the sound of the cave quivering. He looked back and saw the row of icicle walls were shivering greatly. The icicles were hitting each other from the shaking and producing clinking sounds.
Suddenly, a few of the icicles shot out from the ground. It flew up high into the air. So high up that it disappeared into the darkness above. Jack could feel the danger with his mana sense though. He hurriedly jumped to the side just as those icicles rained down and pierced the ground where he was standing a moment ago.
With trepidation, he saw more and more icicles getting sucked up into the air. In fact, a whole section of the icicle walls disappeared into the darkness above. They soon came down. It was like watching the rain, only instead of water droplets, it was endless ice spears.
The area of effect was too wide. It was impossible to evade. His Barrier was no more, neither was his Magic Shield. He got no Magic Wall scroll as well. Jack activated Dragon's Eye and re-equipped his Whirlwind Falchion again. With the icicle descent being slowed in his perception. He performed the burst attack of Formless Flowing Sword style.
The icicles were too sturdy to be broken, as Jack had tested before. But he could still knock them so they fell away from him. With this slow-motion effect, his twenty-four rapid slashes managed to hit every icicle that was aiming at him, changing their course slightly.
His twenty-four burst slashes were fast, but they were also slowed down in his perception. He got a strange feeling after executing this sword art during slow-motion. It was like he felt something was off. There were angles and gaps in between slashes that he felt were flawed. It was as if he could analyze his own move at this time.
Fascinated by this, and also due to more icicles still raining down, he executed another twenty-four rapid slashes. He was more certain now. There was room to improve, and due to Dragon Eye's slow-motion effect, he now knew where to improve.
In the twelve seconds duration of Dragon's Eye, he continuously executed Formless Flowing Sword style's burst slashes, again and again. Partly to save himself from getting impaled by the raining icicle, another part was to improve his sword art further.
At the end of the twelve seconds, his two swords became a blur as forty-eight slashes knocked all the nearby icicles away.
'Phase two!' Jack exclaimed with elation in his mind. But as he finished executing the last burst assault, extreme fatigue washed down his body. Most of the icicles had come down, but there were still a few left.
Jack no longer could move his arms when an icicle fell and pierced his shoulder. His HP fell to critical. There was still one more icicle heading for him. He watched with dismay as his body still refused to move.
A healing light fell on him just before the icicle stabbed. It brought his HP up before the icicle cut it down again. However, due to this heal, he survived despite having only a sliver of health left.
Jack turned to Peniel, "you can heal again?!"
"Right on time! Damn, that whole business with Healer Society almost cost you your life," Peniel said. She had been hiding behind Jack, using him as cover, when the icicles rained down. Her healing ability had returned at the last moment.
No time to rest. His body was still heavy, but now he could catch his breath again, he felt he could move again. He quickly took out more recovery potions to drink. He also drank energy potion. The energy potion not only replenish his Stamina and MP, he found that his fatigue was also slightly recovered. Still, he didn't think he could unleash another forty-eight burst slash anytime soon.
The Ice Demon Spawn was still on its four limbs on the ground. It had also lost rather lots of HP due to the fight just now. It was astounded to find the two intruders were still alive after it executed its ultimate skill. These icicles were a part of it which it had set up in advance for use if the faction above decided to come for it. There were still lots more icicles that could be used, but wasting them on two ants seemed too wasteful.
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Yet, these two ants had caused it to lose more than one-third of its HP. This was unsettling. It decided to be prudent. The two seemed to still recover from its last attack. It could press on the attacks but the two's movements were rather fast. It decided to heal itself first.
It ran towards the top of the mound and prepared to suck the fire element to heal itself. When it arrived up there and was opening its mouth to suck, it suddenly realized another figure not far away.
When Jack and Samuel were engaging the Ice Demon Spawn, Jack had his copy lead Kirsi to the control panel beside the mound. She had finished the maintenance process which was interrupted when the monster first appeared. She was now waiting for Jack's cue.
When Jack saw the Ice Demon Spawn headed to the mound, he had used his copy to give Kirsi the instruction to get ready. Once the beast was at the top, Jack gave Kirsi the go sign.
However, nothing happened.
"Hey, have you activated the machine?!" Jack yelled.
"I have! It needs around twenty seconds to start up!" He heard Kirsi yell back.
'F*ck…! Why didn't you give this information before?!' Jack cursed in his mind.
The Ice Demon Spawn was not moving. It was surprised to find a third intruder. But this third one was also just another ant, nothing to worry about. It got into the pose when Jack and the others first saw it, its huge mouth opened and the fire started streaming inside.
Jack could just let it happily eat at the fire element, oblivious that the machine above it was starting. However, when he saw the monster's HP was healing rapidly, he knew he couldn't let it continue. By the time the twenty seconds passed, the monster would be at full HP already, rendering all their struggles just now pointless.
He made a quick thought and fished out another bottle of Holy Water. Without hesitation, he threw the bottle at the monster. The bottle broke and the water splashed all around its body. The part that was touched by the water exuded white smoke and a hissing sound. The Ice Demon Spawn screeched out a painful howl.
Since the Ice Demon Spawn was classified as Demon, the holy water not only cause damage, it also nulled its recovery ability. Its HP was no longer going up despite it continuing to suck the fire element.
The Ice Demon Spawn realized this, it hollered in anger. It was about to head over to teach Jack a lesson when it found that Jack had already come by himself.
Jack had used Charge and rushed over. He intended to keep the Ice Demon Spawn busy on top of that mound until the machine activated. He could already hear the metal ring above humming up.
The Ice Demon Spawn swat down. Jack decided to forgo offense and fully concentrate on evasion. He used the not yet fully learned Eight Diagram Illusory Steps as he dodge one slap after another. The Ice Demon Spawn was also weakened by the Holy Water for two minutes, which affected its speed, so Jack had an easier time dodging compared to before.
Samuel also arrived, he had also suffered many wounds from the icicle, but his high HP allowed him to survive. Kirsi did what she could by shooting her crossbow.
Peniel used her Group Fast Heal skill. Jack's HP was still low, this heal brought his HP back up again. But the one who benefitted the most was Samuel. Unlike Healer's spells which heal a fixed amount of HP, Peniel's skill heal by percentage. His current skill healed 50% of maximum HP. Due to a native's high pool of HP, this 50% healed a great deal amount of HP, which immediately allowed Samuel to engage the beast more recklessly.
"Keep it above that hole!" Jack shouted, indicating the opening on top of the mound.
Twenty seconds were not long, but Jack felt like it might as well be an hour. Yet, their perseverance finally bore fruit. The situation could large be associated with the Ice Demon Spawn being oblivious of their intention. The monster simply thought that the three were trying to prevent it from healing itself using the fire element. When the metal ring above gave out a loud sound and the fire mana site inside the mound stirred. It then knew that something was wrong.
But it was too late, a large pillar of fire shot out. It was not the small stream where the Ice Demon Spawn could eat using its large mouth, it was a thick column that engulf its entire body.
Jack and Samuel reeled back from the force exerted by the flame pillar. Jack felt as if he was burnt due to the vicinity. He rolled down the mound as he tried to put as much distance as possible.. All the while, he heard the shrilling screech of the Ice Demon Spawn, which was thrashing inside the flame pillar.