Chapter 286: Two Shattered Cores
The battle raged with mounting ferocity. The colossal creature seemed tireless, its attacks a torrential storm where each wave of destruction crested higher than the last.
Yet it was here that the most troublesome aspect of Bakunawa's rule-level 'immortality' revealed itself. No matter how shocking the damage Lumine and Stelle inflicted—shattered scales, wounds charred black, gashes deep enough to expose bone—the monster would recover. If the interval between their attacks stretched for even a few seconds, a dense, nauseating abyssal energy would surge from its injuries. It was like the highest-grade repair gel, frantically mending damaged tissue and carapace at a speed visible to the naked eye.
A massive fissure just carved open by Lumine's blade would be instantly filled by new, foully-glowing crystals. Areas seared by Stelle's overloaded lance would soon be covered by a thin, writhing layer of dark granulation tissue.
"This healing factor… it's ridiculous!" Stelle couldn't help but exclaim, her lance shattering a scale that had just finished reforming moments before.
"We have to keep up the pressure! Don't give it a single moment to breathe!" Lumine called back, her voice low and tight with focus. Her greatsword, once again imbued with the dense, golden light of Geo, came down in a powerful overhead chop, slamming Bakunawa's rising left foreclaw back to the ground with a deafening crash.
The fight devolved into a grueling tug-of-war, a brutal war of attrition. Fortunately, with the collective hope of all of Natlan fueling them, Lumine and Stelle found their own reserves of energy holding steady.
A turning point finally appeared after more than ten minutes of relentless, high-intensity attacks.
During one of Bakunawa's attempts to strike Lumine with its right claw, the flow of energy within its left shoulder pauldron faltered. The constant cycle of damage and repair had finally caused a momentary, sluggish delay in its systems. The flaw was infinitesimal, a flicker lasting less than a heartbeat, but for Stelle and her razor-sharp battle instincts, it was a gaping vulnerability.
A golden light erupted in her eyes. Without a shred of hesitation, she switched her Flame Lance back to the unassuming baseball bat—a weapon that, despite its mundane appearance, contained an unmatched, world-shattering impact force.
"Eat this!"
Her titanic form rotated slightly, channeling every ounce of her strength. The terrifying mass granted by her giant transformation, combined with the vast energy infused by the Light of Hope, was poured into a single, unpretentious swing.
The bat sliced through the air, the sheer pressure of its passage sweeping gravel from the ground. It connected with Bakunawa's left shoulder pauldron—at the precise node where the energy flow had stalled—in the most pure, brutal, and direct manner imaginable.
BOOM—!
A dull, colossal sound erupted, completely unlike the sharp ring of blades or the crackle of elemental explosions. This was the sound of an ultimate blunt-force impact colliding head-on with an absolute defense.
The effect was immediate.
The thick shoulder armor, which had previously endured countless slashes and explosions only to ceaselessly repair itself, shattered like bulletproof glass struck by a hyper-velocity projectile. This single, crushing blow had exceeded its tolerance limit. Starting from the point of impact, a dense web of spider-like cracks spread across its surface in an instant.
Then, amidst Bakunawa's roars of astonishment and pain, the entire left pauldron exploded. It disintegrated into a storm of countless dark purple crystal fragments that rained down upon the battlefield.
The constantly pulsating core in its left arm, now exposed, was already covered in clear fractures. Its light flickered rapidly and erratically, as if it would extinguish completely in the next second.
But there was no next second.
Almost simultaneously with Stelle's swing, Lumine had already understood. She had drawn her sword back to her waist, her hands clasped together. A vast, pure Hydro elemental force rapidly compressed and condensed before her palms, forming a rapidly spinning, deep blue vortex of water over ten meters in diameter.
The moment the left arm's core was exposed and fractured, Lumine let out a sharp cry.
With a final, decisive push, she slammed the giant water cannon—imbued with terrifying penetration and concussive force—directly onto the failing core. It struck with the pinpoint accuracy and unstoppable momentum of an electromagnetic railgun shell.
Pfft—SPLASH!
The core, already at its breaking point, could not withstand this final, overwhelming blow. Under the impact of the dark blue torrent, it exploded like fragile glassware, transforming into a scattered cloud of inert abyssal energy, which was promptly cleansed from a distance by Welt's Synthetic Black Hole.
"ROOOAR—!!!"
Bakunawa let out the most mournful and agonizing wail since the battle began. With the shattering of its core, its entire left arm, along with a portion of its shoulder, instantly lost all luster and power. The limb went limp, completely and utterly severed.
Losing an arm greatly reduced Bakunawa's threat, and its attack patterns became far simpler. But Lumine and Stelle dared not relax in the slightest. They even had to periodically blast the severed stump, burning and purifying the area with elemental power or the energy of the Paths to slow the regeneration of a new core and arm. Otherwise, with its abnormal recovery ability, it would likely grow a complete limb back in no time.
They had to strike while the iron was hot.
Under the intense pressure, the coordination between Lumine and Stelle became even more fluid. The advantage of their similar size was now fully evident; they could execute cross-attacks and cover each other's blind spots without hindrance. Deprived of its left arm for defense and restraint, Bakunawa's massive body seemed even clumsier, riddled with openings.
A short while later, after Lumine used the power of Anemo to accelerate and create a perfect offensive window, Stelle once again seized the opportunity. She thrust her Flame Lance forward, forcibly breaking through the defenses of Bakunawa's right shoulder pauldron.
Immediately following her strike, Lumine's Starfell Sword—condensing all her Geo elemental power—descended from the sky like a true celestial body. It powerfully smashed the struggling right arm's core, along with the scapula beneath it, into a shower of glittering fragments.
"They did it! Both arms are gone!" March 7th, watching from afar, couldn't help but pump her fist and cheer.
The situation on the battlefield seemed to have become clear.
Bakunawa, having lost both arms, was like a tiger without its fangs. It could only rely on heavy stomps and sweeping its tail in futile counterattacks.
However, the madness and alien nature of a rule-level abyssal creation far exceeded normal imagination.
Just as Lumine and Stelle prepared to press their advantage and attack its chest core, a light of extreme malice and grim determination suddenly shone in Bakunawa's eyes.
It first let out a deafening roar, its remaining right leg stomping the ground so violently it caused a localized earthquake. Simultaneously, its whip-like tail lashed out toward Stelle's waist without warning, moving with a speed and power that eclipsed any of its previous attacks.
This strike contained most of its remaining power, and its velocity was extreme.
Although Stelle managed to block it with her Flame Lance in time, she was still sent staggering backward by the enraged blow. Her massive body only stabilized after she slammed into an emergency Geo construct Lumine had raised, which shattered on impact.
Bakunawa, meanwhile, took a vicious Palm Vortex from Lumine, who had seized the opportunity to strike, squarely on its back. The swirling Anemo energy carved dazzling sparks and deep grooves into its dorsal armor, but the beast seemed utterly oblivious to the pain.
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