Big bad frog [3]

For a short moment, the vast cavernous space grew eerily silent, with nothing but the buzzing hum of Azhdaha's body collecting elemental energy serving as a source of sound.

Lumine looked at the people that suddenly appeared out of thin air. She recognized each one of them— after all, they were all valued regulars of the cafe as Isaac would put it.

However, she knew that they were somewhat similar to her, who was pulled to Isaac's cafe via unknown methods.

As Isaac's assistant behind the counter, she often met and talked with them and gained some insights about the current state of the other nations. But when it came to other intricate or detailed questions, they would either not answer or give a vague one.

It was as though they were being kept from answering her honestly.

Although Lumine had found such a thing arduously annoying, she didn't press them on it. She thought that they just had their reasons.

For a while, she thought that that was just the way it is with the mysterious lord of the cafe and his customers...

But now, seeing them suddenly appear and seemingly trying to help her, she just had one thought in mind.

'What the heck...?!'

---

Isaac saw Lumine's baffled expression and could not help but be amused, suppressing the urge to laugh out loud and tease the bewildered blonde traveler. At moments like this, he needs to put his act on.

Gone was the presumptuous barista— it was now time to act.

Shifting his gaze at the behemoth that was very obviously charging up some kind of attack, he quickly glanced at Xiao and nodded.

"Just as planned."

"Yes."

The Conqueror of Demons caught his nod and returned the same gesture. Then, with a sway of his hand over his face, a terrifying demonic mask appeared over it that seems to strike fear into the hearts of all evil.

Holding his jade polearm in one hand, Xiao looked as if he was a demon that came straight from the depths of hell— ready to drag back any vile sinners to the eternal embrace.

'Should I get a mask better than a clown's?'

Seeing Xiao pull up the demonic drip, Isaac internally sighed in envy. Unlike the serious and condemning aura of Xiao's mask, his clown mask back at Fontaine was rather... comical.

Not wasting any more time, he grimaced and pulled out his revolver, prepared to use his Dendro vision.

The sharp contrast between the beastial demon and the posh gunslinger made quite an odd duo, to be honest.

But Isaac paid it no mind. Because at the next moment, the sealed king of the Vishaps yelled in an enraged tone.

"Morax... Even if you bring a whole colony of annoying insects... This does not change anything!"

With a furious growl, the stone dragon stomped to the ground and shook the Earth. Then, subsequently, elemental shards flew from its stone body, transforming into elemental attacks.

Isaac and Xiao, without uttering a word, swiftly moved. They had already planned their strategy and just needed to fight the dragon accordingly— if they do so, then their victory would be guaranteed.

Empowered by his demonic mask, Xiao disappeared in an azure flash and appeared above the stone dragon before plummeting down, delivering a fierce strike.

Before Azhdaha could shift its attention to him, however, another attack was already about to be sent by Isaac.

Holding on to his revolver, he shot six consecutive bullets to the beast. As expected, the normal bullets did nothing against the tough stone hide of the behemoth.

But that wasn't what Isaac was aiming for. Instead, what he was aiming for were the eyes. And it worked— Azhdaha was stunned.

Without wasting any time, Isaac activated his vision and commanded the nearby fauna. It took a couple of moments, but soon, wild thorny vines emerged from the ground and held Azhdaha in place. If one of the vibes broke, then more would just replace it, perpetually locking the behemoth on the spot.

"These...! Argh!"

Simultaneously hit by Xiao and Isaac, Azhdaha furiously shook its body, struggling to move due to the joint effort of the two ants. It then raised one of its massive legs, preparing to send out another powerful stomp, prompting Isaac to gather more vines.

Needless to say, maintaining and creating such constructs drain a lot of mental energy. After all, elemental manipulation is intricately linked to one's mentality.

Fortunately, Xiao was also attacking the behemoth alongside him, as such, its attention was divided.

Infuriated, Azhdaha screamed louder, prompting Isaac to wince. He never got to cover his ears, as such, it has stunned him for a second.

But that was all what the behemoth needed.

"Useless tricks!"

Gathering more elemental energy in its body, Azhdaha started producing more elemental crystal from its stone hide. However, instead of producing small projectiles, they instead concentrated on its mouth.

Seeing this, Isaac's eyes widened. 'It's not going to...'

Before he could finish that thought, the behemoth was already finished charging its breath. From its mouth, a stream of cold wind and ice shot out, freezing a good part of the battlefield.

'This darn frog...!' Swiftly dodging the devastating attack, Isaac silently cursed.

If he wasn't careful, he would have turned to a popsicle at that moment.

Springing back up to his feet, Isaac bit his lip and commanded more elemental energy to surge in his vision— thus commanding more Dendro elements.

Soon, more thick thorny vines sprouted near the behemoth's head and reached for its mouth. They reached up and soon encircled it, forcefully stopping its ice breath.

'This... Is much harder than I thought...' Slightly disoriented by the control of his vision, Isaac looked at his other companions.

Xiao, who has evaded the attack too, quickly made use of Isaac's vines and swooped in for another attack, relentlessly barraging the monstrous stone beast with his jade polearm. Coupled with his Anemo powers, each strike gave the beast a devastating blow.

However, the stone dragon persisted relentlessly, determined to crush the ants. Its powerful body tried hard to move, causing Isaac to drain more and more of his elemental energy. If this continues, then Isaac won't be able to keep this up for more than twenty seconds.

'Agh... When would they start...?' Slightly nauseated, Isaac thought of his other two companions.

But he did not need to think further.

While Isaac was maintaining the vines, he suddenly sensed something behind him. He did not even need to turn his head since he already knew what was happening.

Not far away from Xiao and Isaac, on the rear, Yae Miko and Klee were also preparing their attacks.

Yae Miko summoned several electro constructs around Azhdaha, encircling the behemoth in what was essentially an electron field.

Beside her, Klee was pouring an absurd amount of pyro element into a strange device— no, it was obviously a bomb. The fact that it can take in the elements as a charge should indicate how much damage it would cause.

"Are you ready, little one?"

Yae Miko, who was done setting up her constructs for a powerful attack, looked at the elf beside her with an amused smile.

The little pyromancer looked back at her while holding the new device in her hand. With an excited expression, she nodded.

"Yup! The Dodoko Type-Armageddon is ready! I'm sure that it would have a lot of... Armageddon Flames!"

The crafty fox found that name interesting and decided to ask about it later to the child. But for now, they had to concentrate on the battle.

Turning her gaze back to the trapped behemoth, she nodded.

"Then let us commence."

"Okay!"

With that said, both of them started their part of the plan.

Yae Miko stretched out her hand and sensed all of her constructs present in the field. Then, with them, electro energy started humming around the air as they concentrated above the stone dragon.

The concentrated destructive power of pure lightning would without a doubt leave a devastating blow on the stone dragon.

The crafty fox lingered for a bit, gathering more energy above, before finally letting down divine punishment on the behemoth.

At the same time, the child beside her threw a device the size of her own head towards the stone dragon. It's design was a cute bunny... But the fact that it has a sinister timer made it look comically sinister.

That device emanated an intense amount of pyro energy— enough to set the seas ablaze— yet it was still thrown.

Going back to Isaac, he sensed the electro energy prepared by Yae Miko and knew that the next part won't be pleasant.

'It's time...'

He lingered for a moment then decided to stop restraining Azhdaha. Instead, he concentrated all of his energy around himself and formed a cocoon made of thick vines around his person.

As for Xiao, he too sensed what was about to happen. Once more, he disappeared in an azure flash and appeared far away near Lumine.

"Pathetic!"

Freed from Isaac's restraints, Azhdaha easily broke free from the thick vines. It was just about to unleash another powerful attack, when suddenly, it noticed something roll beneath it.

The stone dragon's frenzied eyes looked at the item and saw a cute drawing of a bunny.

...and a time hitting zero.

- Beep, Beep, Beep!

As the bomb reached its countdown, it started to detonate. Similarly, the concentrated electro energy hovering above condensed and finally struck down, unleashing a powerful divine punishment from the envoy of the shogun.

- Boom!

The strong, destructive force of the bomb caused a catastrophic explosion. However, instead of spreading outwards, the flames instead stayed in the middle while the smoke formed a strange mushroom cloud.

Paired with the condensed and concentrated strike of a destructive lightning, needless to say, the party had dealt significant damage to the stone dragon.

Isaac, on the other hand, was not having a good time. This was because he was currently the one closest to the explosion, as such, he could feel the heat brushing past his face.

'Hot... It's so hot...' Hidden inside his cocoon which was being burned and repaired, Isaac scowled.

The other members, however, were doing much better than him.

Yae Miko and Klee were being protected by Nahida's Dendro shield which was several times stronger than Isaac's, while Lumine and Xiao were being protected by Zhongli's nearly indestructible shield.

Truly, Isaac was the unluckiest one for deciding to stay nearby.

It took a moment for the dust to settle down, but even then, the remnants of the devastating explosion still lingered.

The pyromaniac elf's bombs were just that powerful.

Hesitating, Isaac slowly unwrapped himself and peeked out from his cocoon. Fortunately, the explosion was over.

However...

"What a tenacious frog."

Standing there where it had been earlier, Azhdaha's domineering body stood amidst the sea of smoke around it. The attacks did hit it, but those had only given the ancient behemoth a few shattered regions in its body.

Overall, it was still alive.

Seeing this, Isaac silently cursed. He knew that their attacks could not actually kill it, but still— it was a relatively powerful attack. How could that thing still stand?

Azhdaha, on the other hand, opened its mouth and let out a stream of smoke from its maw. Its crimson eyes are still filled with madness and fury. But now... They were even more profound.

Soon, a menacing voice emanated from it.

"Good... You have selected good champions, Morax. But in the end, they're nothing but insects— no less than you!"

Indeed, the ancient stone dragon was just too powerful for mere vision wielders to defeat. Isaac knows this, and so did the other two people in the cavern.

...or rather three.

He also knew that there were only two ways to defeat Azhdaha; either a God would defeat it, or... another fragment of it, which was still hiding, would come out and stop it.

But it seems like that fragment is taking its sweet time.

'Darn it...' Standing not too far away from the massive stone dragon, Isaac searched his head for any possible solutions.

Then, in a fraction of a second, a bold and daring thought emerged in his mind. 'Hold on...'

Opening his status window quickly, he made sure of something before checking his elemental energy reserves.

'...there's enough.'

Isaac was planning something— a gamble.

'This... This might work!'

This new method he discovered, from observing his vision and one of his skills, would surely help him defeat the behemoth.

However, at that moment, he saw something from the corner of his eyes.

Down in the ground, a water puddle was present that remained from the ice blast attack Azhdaha did earlier. From it, Isaac saw his reflection.

...but why did his reflection look...

Odd?

He should be wearing a face of excitement right now for finding a new method to fight the beast, so why was it that his reflection showed... pity?

Looking at his reflection weirdly, Isaac soon shook his head. He brushed off those thoughts and focused on the matter at hand.

Looking at the stone dragon, he smirked while preparing his Dendro vision.

'Alright, let's go try it.'