Chapter 58
He had to decide.
Azek closed his eyes and reached his decision in an instant.
He opened them and conjured a spell.
Mana manifested, and blood came trickling down his lips.
He slowly gestured with his hands.
The headless body blasted into smithereens as mana devoured everything.
Azek didn't stop there. He immediately turned on his heels and ran toward the center of the battle.
The last of the mana crystals were crushed and flew right into the middle.
Bullets of excited mana danced around him.
They were smaller compared to before, but now far greater in number.
Fire arrows continued toward Ryan's location.
Ryan already had two mages beside him, assisting.
One continuously put up defensive spells, while the other healed his wounds with water mana.
But the monster wasn't letting up, so Ryan also had to consistently attack with lightning spear.
The color drained from his face continuously, despite being healed.
Azek took in the whole scene.
Ryan's spear, the mages' attacks, the bleeding points, monster's attack.
He gestured with his hand.
Puck.
A single bullet was fired, and it lodged into an already bleeding wound.
He slowly closed his eyes and sensed the mana threads.
Flesh was pierced as another bullet launched into the same spot.
Then another.
And another.
And it continued.
By the time the monster realized something was wrong, it jerked its head and tried to retreat into its shell.
Azek felt the mana and made a gesture with his hand continuously while manipulating mana, completing the spell.
Sparks flickered inside the monster's body, and a chain reaction started.
Bullets continued exploding, exciting the mana all around and pushing deep inside toward the heart.
Boooooooommmmm!
A portion of the shell blew up, and spike fragments scattered everywhere.
Ryan and the fellow mages didn't let this chance slip.
The lightning spear came crashing down on the blown-up shell and blew off another chunk.
Spells launched in rapid succession, blowing and fragmenting the rest of the body.
The monster took its head out from the shell, barely standing, and tried to attack.
Another circle started forming in front of it, but now at a much slower pace.
Ryan's expression was grim.
It was healing itself.
The part that had blown up earlier already had a thin covering of flesh surrounding it.
Azek realized it as well. No matter how much they blew it up, it could still recover unless they cut off its mana supply at the heart.
He tapped inside his pocket.
The holy amulets he carried with him all emitted light.
The pain eased a bit, and he braced himself for another spell.
He knew he could only push it one more time.
Any more, and he wouldn't be able to practice magic for the rest of his life.
Azek started gathering mana.
There were no more magic crystals to use now.
So all he could use was internal mana.
He had already been pushing himself.
Although the holy amulets had healed a lot of damage, he knew he would become crippled if he tried to push himself again.
So now he had only limited mana.
And only one chance to turn things around.
Phew.
He exhaled slowly.
Mana started gathering.
He canceled the spell he had cast on the battlefield.
Mana continued layering into a very sophisticated spell.
He squeezed out every last bit of it from inside his core.
An arrow formed in front of him.
It was very small.
But it carried every last bit of his strength.
He gathered mana around, and the arrow became surrounded by excited mana particles.
Similar clouds formed all around.
He looked at the monster and scanned for its injuries.
The injured part already had a thin layer of flesh covering it.
He sensed the mana he had left on the monster's heart.
The threads responded.
He started burning threads.
The monster screamed in pain.
A cloud of excited mana assaulted it externally at the same time.
But the monster ignored it.
Inside, threads continued burning the heart, and some separated, burning mana pathways, trying to create a tunnel.
The circle in front of the monster came to a halt.
Clouds of dust continued assaulting it.
When the last of the spells crashed into it, the monster let out a horrific scream.
There were still all sorts of spells assaulting it, distracting it, but it still sensed something was wrong and tried to look for the reason.
But the mana it had ignored earlier now carried something lethal inside it.
And it was already lodged in its body, making its way toward the heart.
The monster thrashed violently and tried to protect itself by canceling the spell and regenerating.
But the mages pushed for one final struggle as they burned through every last bit of mana.
Ryan gritted his teeth and lodged the spear again inside the body, impaling the monster to the ground.
Threads continued burning mana pathways.
The monster was still trying to contract its flesh and bones to protect its heart, and a small circle started appearing on its body.
Puck.
The arrow had gotten ahead.
Once inside the heart, a chain reaction occurred.
It started exploding from one end, and the scale only grew when the head exploded.
Boooooooooom!
A deafening sound resounded.
The whole body opened up and blew into pieces.
There was a few seconds silence on whole battlefield.
But they weren't able to put their guard down.
The flesh tried to recreate the monsters.
Malformed bones and flesh started generating.
But the mages didn't give it a chance.
Compared to before, the smaller forms were much easier to take care of.
Ryan looked at the battlefield.
Every last piece had been incinerated.
He closed his eyes, and slowly fell to the ground.