Chapter 26

I made sure not to miss the chance to take advantage of my twitching victim and inflict some pain upon it.

A Holy blade formed in my hands while a Demonic magic barrier formed in another.

I truly wanted to fight with two weapons and start pummeling the Manticore but I knew how stupid that was. No matter how angry I may be, the thing was still strong enough to send me flying with a single smack of its tail while denting celestial bronze.

As I closed in on the monster, I launched multiple blades of light to keep it busy, aiming for its head and chest. The Holy blades made deep and nasty gashes on its furry face, it's screams of pain giving me immense satisfaction.

With my Holy spear in hand, I stabbed towards the monster's head, but it had recovered enough from the shock to block the spear with its claws while it's tail launched multiple spikes at me as it retreated.

I raised my demonic magic barrier quickly but was surprised to see the first three spikes getting deflected by the swirling sphere of wind and electricity around me.

The last two spikes managed to enter my storm though, slower and weakened, each smacking against my barrier. The first one was still strong enough to send cracks through the multilayered defensive barrier, and the next one outright shattered it.

I leapt away from the still moving spike before looking at the Manticore. It was maintaining its distance, staring at my sphere of storm warily.

I snorted at the thing derisively.

"Not enough balls to mock me now, you disgusting freak?" I sneered down at the monster. "What a spineless coward. No wonder no one remembers you in the history of famous monsters."

My goading didn't work as well as I'd hoped, and the thing just growled in return, simply shooting another round of spikes. I flapped my wings and took to the air, letting my personal sphere of lightning storm deflect the spikes enough to dodge them easily.

"Of course you don't have the balls, you disgusting dickless cuck." I mouthed off whatever bullshit I could spew.

There was a moment of silence before it responded.

"What does that mean, boy?" The monster growled out confused.

I tsked to myself. How do you insult a monster?

Doesn't matter.

I launched a bolt of electric discharge and flew towards the manticore but the monster agilely dodged the electricity while it retreated again, launching a steady stream of spikes at me to deny any chance of closing in. The spikes were threatening enough that there was nothing I could do save to dodge and deflect.

After a bit more of cat and mouse with the monster, I grew tired of the pathetic time wasting fight and just raised my hand to the sky, willing to summon a full-blown divine lightning bolt.

But I was interrupted and had to dodge away as the shadow around me melted to reveal a couple of stray hellhounds. The monsters were easily slayed by a couple of Holy spears but they'd done their job of distracting me.

'Where did they come from anyway?' We were quite a bit away from the main battlefield.

I shifted my attention to the Manticore who was suddenly blasted from the side by a bolt of electricity. I took the provided chance and dove towards the monster instantly as it faced where the bolt came from.

Out came Thalia running towards the Manticore with her spear extended and the horrible sight of medusa on the aegis fully displayed.

The Manticore actually flinched back from the side and didn't even react as I stood on top of it, my storm sphere once again electrocuting it, enabling me to swing a greatsword made of Holy light towards its neck.

At the very last moment, it's twitching tail managed to extend enough to block the attack but my holy blade cut off the thing cleanly before falling upon its neck. It didn't decapitate him but cut deep enough to be critical.

Roaring in pain and shock, the monster flailed around and tried to shake me off, but I kept my balance and once again plunged the Holy greatsword down into its injured neck, cutting through the other side cleanly. The being roared horribly, a cry of pain echoing throughout the area.

But the thing's fate was sealed the moment he took his attention off of me. Uncaring of its plight, I twisted the Holy sword to completely decapitate the monster.

And thus ended the mighty Manticore, turning into dust a second later and simply leaving behind its spiked tail.

Finished with the fight, I knelt down on the ground, taking deep breaths to catch my breath.

I absently picked up the monster's tail, a grim smile coming to my face with a feeling of satisfaction and victory. It was instantly doused when my eyes took in the headless body of my dead friend.

"Should we...umm.. do something about that, Kael?" Thalia asked in a small voice as she came to stand next to me, looking queasy enough to throw up.

Her eyes sneaked in uneasy glances at markus' head, and I remembered that for all her strength and bravery, she was still a 13 years old girl. I put a hand on her shoulder and turned her away, getting a grateful smile in return.

Just then Luke finally reached us, a sword in his hand, looking battle ready. He took in the scene quickly, before his eyes finally rested on the cut-off tail in my hand.

He turned back around, shoulders slumped.

"Right. I'll just fight with this stone down here then." The boy announced, depressed.

Then he actually started poking at a tiny rock.

Even with anger lurking in my mind, the silly act managed to get a chuckle out of me. I shook my head and focused on what was important.

"Our job isn't done yet. C'mon guys, we need to get back behind the border. Did everyone else go through?"

"Not all of them. Michelle was able to get most of the cabins to retreat, but Ares, Apollo, Hermes, and Aphrodite stuck around." Luke answered from ahead.

"Shit. Alright then, let's go."

With a flare of my wings I prepared to take fight again.

"Wait! Take me with you this time." Luke stated, as he came running towards me.

"I've had enough of running behind only for you to handle the monsters alone." And like a baby he raised his hands towards me.

Which was especially insulting considering he bent down to my level before raising his arms.

Bastard.

"What about you, Thals?"

She stilled for a moment before turning around and sweeping her spear towards a pouncing hellhound, killing the thing instantly.

"No. I think I'm good." She replied before starting towards the half-blood hill on foot.

"Alright, come on. Let's wrap this up."

I bound up Luke in a rough net of air before taking off into the sky. I took a single glance back towards the fallen demigods and promised to come back for the bodies. I could've used my inventory but just the thought made me as queasy as Thalia.

'God fucking damnit, I'm such a pathetic friend.'

As we flew towards the lower hill, I realised the demigods were in a desperate position.

The giant crab didn't seem to be injured at all whatsoever, while the Cyclops and the skeletons had already caught up to them, and the Apollo and Hermes were trying to stoll them while retreating.

What truly shocked me though, were the sheer number of Hellhounds still remaining– atleast 30-40 of them were shadow travelling around the battlefield, trying to catch the demigods off-guard.

Haven't we been slaying monsters all day? What the hell happened? Why were so many of them still alive?

I looked on in stunned silence as several of the Apollo demigods carried bodies.

Some injured, that the Apollos did their best to heal. But quite a few were dead, I was more than sure.

I felt like a dick when I prayed to the gods that it wasn't one of my friends. Ultimately I was selfish being, and I couldn't help hoping it were some random demigods that I've never interacted with.

I zoomed towards the huge crab, which looked incredibly beautiful from above. It's blue and black shell shone under the sun, looking like a pearl.

'Observe'

Karkinos

Race: Monster

Tier: 4

Level: 399 (Max)

Mana: 75,000/75,500

Stamina: 182,980/195,000

Health: 190,000/190,000

I waved away the status after confirming it was a Tier 4 creature.

Why was it still alive though? The demigods around me weren't some clueless kids, but experienced warriors. I expected better.

"Put me down beside the Ares counselor!" Luke yelled as his body zipped through the air like a plastic bag.

I did as he asked, landing just behind Mark. The first thing I did was search for Anastasia, and was relieved when I found her alive and kicking, keeping the hellhounds and skeletons in bay alongside the rest of Aphrodites and Apollos.

"That thing is invincible!" The Ares counselor screamed as soon as he saw us. "No matter what weapon you use, it's shell will defend it from everything! It's indestructible!"

"Leave! I'll handle it. Luke, take the Ares kids and distract the Cyclops. And some of you keep those hellhounds off of my back as I fight this thing! Everyone else, keep retreating! We're almost at the base of the hill!"

I didn't wait for their answer as the crab had just managed to grasp one of the Ares kids.

I launched holy spears on its claws before it can crunch the demigod. It's sprit was less than mine, and it wasn't dexterous enough to dodge my attacks, and yet, the Holy spears only managed to make it flinch back slightly, instead of completely shearing off the claws like I expected.

But atleast the Ares girl was released.

"I'll take this..." I quietly muttered, picking up the girl's dropped spear before once again forming the wild sphere of lightning storm around me.

[Skill Leveled Up: Lightning Storm] Lvl 2

This time, I took notice as the sphere actually cracked multiple piece of stones and gravel around me. Even the ground was vibrating slightly from the sheer pressure my personal lightning storm created.

I felt powerful. Almost like a god. Had I not seen my mother in action so such, I would've been arrogant enough to declare myself a god.

I approached the giant crab with a surety I usually wouldn't feel, even as the huge creature towered over me by atleast 3 times my own height.

It's furious crab-like hissing noises were ignored and as it snapped it's pincers towards me, I knew instinctively at what angle my sphere storm was deflecting the claws. It was simple enough to dodge the attack smoothly after that.

I entered inside it's guard and stabbed my lightning coated spear towards its mouth, resisting the urge to gag as the strong smell of shit and garbage assulted me.

What I wasn't expecting was for the spear to do nothing more than create a few sparks and sizzling noise before getting deflected.

Finding that its mouth and head were as armored as it's shell was shocking and I immediately tried to retreat, but the thing moved faster than I thought possible for a 10 feet big crab, and blocked my escape route with its huge pincers. As I tried to fly away, it's pincers snapped towards me, overpowering my storm through sheer strength while electricity and wind danced around them uselessly.

Even knowing where they were headed, I wasn't able to do much due to its rapid speed and one of my wings were clipped tightly.

In response I quickly shot an overpowered bolt of electricity directly towards one of its eyes.

The crab finally showed some reaction and flinched back.

Unfortunately it didn't let go, instead it started hissing angrily and shaking me by my wings like a toy before throwing me away.

But air was my domain, and just a few meters away I regained my balance with a flap of my wings and flew above to retreat it's attack zone.

I launched a couple of Holy spears towards it's shell experimentally, but they didn't do any real damage except giving it a scratch and making it even more irritated. But there was nothing it could do to me in the air either, so it just waved it's pincers above itself, chittering angrily.

My mind raced through possibilities to end the monster.

'I need a weak point to attack. There was no mention of a monster even more invincible than the Nemean lion, so this crab's definitely got a weak spot. I've already tried it's head and mouth, so the most obvious one remaining is it's stomach.'

Now how on earth was I supposed to reach its stomach?

Perhaps my air Manipulation can push it onto it's back? Or better yet...

A crazy idea started to take place in my mind. Normally I would never experiment on live battlefield where my allies might be dying at this instant, but some of my newfound confidence from my recently created OP skill made me think my plan will work.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, shutting off the revolving sphere of storm around me. My storm resembled a cyclone closely, what was to say I couldn't create a cyclone of my own? Hmm, too ambitious. Though maybe I could start with a small tornado? It was basically a revolving wind top wasn't it?

My plan decided, I willed the wind to do my bidding, concentrating on the air around me before imprinting the image of what I wanted inside it.

I wanted the air to gather in place, more and more concentrated. And then I wanted it to spin in place. Fast. Faster. More Faster!

[Skill Created: Wind Tornado] Lvl 1

The next moment I felt exhaustion take place in my body, feeling inexplicably tired. I opened my eyes, and the sight of a huge tornado greeted me. Particles of dust, grass, stones and gravels were mixed inside the spinning globe of wind and with a bit of control, I let the whole thing lose upon the giant crab.

With surprising agility the crab scuttled away from the oncoming tornado but with my will guiding it, there was no escape.

The tornado chased after the crab, it's intense swirling winds managing to pull the whole giant thing up in the air as soon as it came in contact.

I didn't miss the opportunity and launched a wave of Holy spears, peppering the soft flesh underneath.

In the next second, it's shell started to turn red and the crab burst into dust, leaving behind the glowing shell.

Instead of letting the tornado disperse, I willed it towards me and it carried the shell up in the air, directly in my hands.

With a smile, I picked the thing up and placed it in my inventory before letting the tornado die down.