LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 91
The Subjugation Team advanced towards the source of the soaring Spirit in the sky.
And what awaited them was a multitude of Akusare Mushroom Golems.
Along with a gigantic, grotesque monster.
The battle between the Akusare Golem and the monster had long shifted to the Subjugation Team being surrounded by enemies attempting to encircle them, while they fought back and counterattacked.
“Damn it! No wonder things have been so easy lately!”
Aindelf, the Dwarf Warrior participating in the Subjugation Team, swung his axe as he shouted.
“There’s no way a subjugation mission would end this easily! But what’s with these damn golems? They smell so delicious! I’m starving to death over here!”
“Oh, looks like our little dwarf barbarian is hungry. Thinking of pairing it with some cold beer and freshly baked sausages, are we?”
A mockingly sarcastic tone anyone could hear.
Aindelf flared up, but given the situation, he swung his axe towards the revealed core of the mushroom golem instead of at his comrade, the Elf Jerika.
And he shouted.
“Someone shut that parrot-mouthed woman up!”
“No time for that! Everyone, gather around me!”
The team leader and only wizard, Jurin, shouted.
The party members, including Aindelf and Jerika, who had been scattered and regrouping, practically rolled back to Jurin’s side.
They weren’t alone.
A warrior stepped forward, bearing a great shield that resembled a door of a small fortress.
As a wizard finished casting a spell and stomped his foot, a large earthen wall rose up.
After casting his spell, Jurin also readied his staff, raising it to summon a wall of water.
And just as the wave froze, the monster erupted in a fierce flurry of spiny claws, launched from its body, raining down like a storm upon the battlefield.
Amidst dodging yet another widespread attack from the frozen wave, Aindelf grumbled.
“Damn it! Can’t our Grand Wizard senior provide some defense magic like this morning!?”
“Hey you greedy, fuzzy-bearded fool! With him working so hard, you shouldn’t complain!”
Klink, the Gnome Thief, quickly wiped the delicious oil off his dagger and kicked Aindelf’s shins.
Klink’s words were spot on.
The Subjugation Team Leader and Grand Wizard, Catherine, was commanding the adventurers of the Subjugation Team and casting support spells in unfavorable spots on the battlefield, while personally intercepting the giant Akusare Mushroom Golem being thrown directly by the monster.
By her side, the Necromancer Narque was also at work.
Wielding a staff that glimmered like his pale, shining eyes, Narque moved his hands, reciting incantations.
Nothing elaborate, just simple hand gestures.
But at the end of those fingers, a part of the Akusare Mushroom Golem that the Subjugation Team had previously hunted rose up and attacked the beings that until recently had been their kin.
“Oh, this is something.”
“What’s what? You magician. So uneasy.”
“The shield’s durability is at its limit.”
“What?”
Before Klink’s dazed voice could finish, the ice wave they had been relying on finally crumbled.
The fortunate thing was that the monster’s wide-area attack had concluded.
The unfortunate thing was that, without a moment to spare, the gigantic Akusare Mushroom Golem swung its fist at them.
At that perilous moment, a woman clad in priestly vestments and chain mail leaped out and bashed the golem’s fist with her mace.
The fist that had been trembling like a wave in a puddle shattered into shards in the air.
As the golem staggered backward from the shock, the party, who had been hiding behind Jurin’s shield, quickly targeted the golem to hunt it down.
“Is anyone injured by that monster’s attack? If so, speak up quickly. We need to purify!”
“Thanks to our wizard friend, we’re safe.”
“Hmm! Is that so?”
The priestess Lumiere, who had silenced the advancing golem with a mighty blow from her mace, looked around, swinging her long hair tied in a ponytail, then glared at Narque before she flinched upon seeing Aindelf, who had taken out a pot.
The dent in the pot strikingly resembled Lumiere’s visage.
“Aindelf. What’s that for?”
“No, if you rush at that corpse-lover again, I’ll use this on you—”
“It’s not like I crush heretics every time.”
“Is it just that there’s a bigger monster over there that’s more tempting?”
Aindelf’s mockery left Lumiere speechless, causing her to look away in silent affirmation.
A creature was a creature, yet the heretic named Narque was merely a tolerable nuisance compared to the repulsive monster with scales like a thousand claws.
“Hey! You chatterboxes! Just how long are you going to lounge around!?”
Klink, clinging to the Akusare Mushroom Golem, jumped off, stepping on Jerika who was dodging the golem’s tendrils.
“There are still plenty of enemies to deal with!”
“Well, at least there are fewer than before, so maybe things will ease up a bit.”
As Jurin finished off the golem that had been trying to shake Klink off with his long sword, he brushed the oil from his blade.
At that moment, a projectile from the golem was intercepted by Catherine, who, as it shattered into pieces, gathered the debris into a massive ice pillar and launched it like a missile.
Kaboom—!!!
The colossal ice timber struck the monster.
Crushing the limbs that supported its massive body, it lodged itself into the lower half of the creature.
A gigantic monster losing three legs in one blow.
Naturally, it could not maintain its balance.
The monster toppled forward.
Hiiiyaaaaaaaa—!!!
A chilling scream that could freeze the soul.
A pale light burst forth from the orifices of the monster’s head that swayed like a piece of straw as it hung there.
The spirit that had been soaring into the sky began to settle back onto the ground.
The spectacle visible to all in the Subjugation Team.
Including Catherine, the experienced ones finally realized that the monster was getting serious.
As the adventurers tensed up, Jurin and the Healers in his party.
Lumiere shouted instead.
“That’s it!”
“What? What are you talking about—”
“Can’t you see!? That head is clearly its weak point!”
Lumiere shouted at Aindelf, who was dumbfounded.
Then, with her shield and mace gripped tightly, she charged toward the creature alone.
“Haha, this is complete chaos. Everyone follow Lumiere!”
“This is insane. Dwarf! Keep up!”
“Damn it!”
Everyone was taken aback, not by their party member’s sudden actions.
Of course not—each one uttered a curse as they followed Lumiere, who ground the mushroom golem into dust as she dashed forward.
Naturally, the Akusare Mushroom Golems didn’t stand idly by.
The shrieks of battle echoed across the field, along with the Spirit.
With that, the Akusare Mushroom Golems began to move faster and more violently.
An even fiercer assault struck Lumiere and her following comrades.
But.
“What’s with them?”
“Can’t you see? They must have found a weak point!”
Group mentality.
While one might hesitate alone, the veteran adventurers, sensing the sudden change on the battlefield, began to follow suit.
Soon, that atmosphere spread to the other adventurers.
The situation on the battlefield effortlessly shifted from defense to offense.
“Oh my goodness. Up close, it’s much more horrifying.”
“It looks like a twisted hybrid of maggots and slime.”
Jerika and Aindelf voiced their thoughts, and the party agreed, but soon scattered to avoid the barrage of flying hands.
It was as if a swarm of mice had come face to face with a predator, or they were cockroaches caught in a light, but soon the adventurer party, Jurin and his comrades began to attack and cooperate simultaneously.
Lumiere pushed back a hulking figure trying to crush Jurin with her shield and strength.
Using Lumiere as a springboard, Jerika leaped and, alongside Klink tossed into the air by Aindelf, they descended to slash at the monster’s torso.
As many claws aiming for Lumiere from their blind spots were frozen by Jurin, Aindelf smashed down upon the body of the golem.
Soon after, Lumiere climbed from Aindelf and Jerika, raising her mace toward the monster’s head.
“Oh, this isn’t hitting! You monstrosity! Don’t resist so easily—”
“Hey, get the shield in front!”
Sensing a threat instinctively, the golem slammed into Lumiere with a headbutt, sending her sprawling.
The golems surged forward towards the fallen Lumiere.
But the Subjugation Team wasn’t made up solely of Jurin and his gang.
“Seeing the other sisters of the Temple of Many Gods perform with such vigor, I cannot sit idly by!”
“Even that necromancer acts for the sake of people, hurry and move! Oh, blades of Tyr, shouting for justice!”
“Oooooooohhhh!!!”
More terrifying than the heretics were the greater heresies going against the monster.
The various priests believing in different gods who arrived ahead of the other adventurers were inspired to rush towards Lumiere, who was confronting the grotesque monster.
Pure hatred and rage against the heresy and monster threatening civilization.
Feeling pressure, the monster unleashed a volley of claws, shooting its many hands like spikes.
Catherine quickly caught on.
“Where do you think you’re going, you monstrosity!”
Shraaawsh! Swoooossh!
In the blink of an eye, an ice wall formed at Catherine’s gesture.
The ice wall that blocked the monster’s ranged attack surged forward, smashing against its body.
With the time afforded by the Grand Wizard, all the battle priests who followed Jurin and the party surged towards the monster like cannonballs.
“Oh my goodness, what on earth is that?”
“What pure faith! It’s enough to bring me to tears.”
“What is that?”
Truly, moved to tears, Lumiere was slightly rebutted by Aindelf.
To him, they appeared to be simply a human mass charging forward, blinded by hatred.
Yet Lumiere did not respond to his retort.
Clank! Bam-bam-bam!
“No.”
“Huh? Dwarf. Where did the zealot go?”
At Jerika’s question, Aindelf simply pointed with his axe in one direction.
When Jerika followed the end of his axe, she slapped her forehead.
Unable to contain her excitement with the fervor of faith, Lumiere was racing forward to join her fellow priests.
“Geez, there are way too many of those that boastfully raise their heads in this party.”
“Jerika. I’ll support you, so please take care of Lumiere’s back.”
Tch. Jerika clicked her tongue lightly, darting like the wind over priests, adventurers, and Akusare Mushroom Golems.
However, contrary to Jerika’s thoughts, the zealots were dealing with the enemies very effectively.
The monster swung its wings and legs threateningly, as if chasing away the flies clinging to its body, while rolling its bulk. But since it was large, its movements were distinct.
The priests that had retreated or dodged from the monster’s attacks resumed their assaults.
By the time Jerika joined in, some adventurers from the Subjugation Team were teaming up with the battle priests in turn.
“Zealots! Hey! Lumiere!”
“Hmm? Jerika? When did you catch up?”
“After you jumped out like a wild boar. The wizard said he’d provide support magic, so I was told to help you.”
“Then—”
At that moment.
Lumiere and Jerika both felt a chill.
Not only them—the entire Subjugation Team felt it.
Goo—!!!
“This is—”
“Jerika! Below!”
At her words, Jerika looked down and quickly turned her head away.
The dense Spirit that had been laying on the ground like fog was now concentrating around the monster’s head, seemingly being sucked into it.
Someone was preparing something ominous for sure, showing a threatening visage.
Both Lumiere and Jerika dashed forward instinctively at the same instant.
The battle priests, too, wielded their stored Divine Power and charged in, but most were halted by the stimulated mushroom golems.
Adventurers were equally impacted.
The blows from the increasingly fortified, accelerated, and threatening Akusare Mushroom Golems staggered even the magic-wielding adventurers.
But for some reason, a surge of power welled up within Lumiere, and before she knew it, she crushed a mushroom golem with a frozen mace, letting out a cry.
She could feel that this was different from the abilities enhanced by magic and Divine Power.
An icy fury like frozen glaciers.
And the strength burning hotly in her heart.
As well as the chill-inducing mace that carried a foreign Divine Power.
And she realized.
The god was watching over her.
Overwhelmed by the surging emotions and power, Lumiere, oblivious to Jerika’s strangely scrutinizing gaze, screamed.
“Yustitia!!!”
“Oh no, that’s not me.”
In that moment, a warm voice whispered into Lumiere’s ear in a startled manner. But too thrilled by the knowledge that the god was indeed watching her, Lumiere didn’t hear it.
“Hey, Lumiere! Lumiere!”
“Please watch over me! Yustitia! I dedicate this battle to you!!!”
Leaving a bewildered Jerika behind, Lumiere vanished in a blur.
With powers she had never experienced before, with every step she took, her balance wavered, but Lumiere forced her body to move through that strength and will.
The party leader, Jurin, launched a water burst that exploded against the mushroom golem blocking Lumiere’s path, and the adventurers who heard her screaming began to rally.
Of course, the monster sensed this as well, twisting its head, which had been focused on concentrating Spirit, and aimed a massive sphere of Spirit at Lumiere and the adventurers.
“Oh no.”
“Could it be a breath attack!?”
A shout rang out from one of the adventurers.
Lumiere, whose focus had left her, was jolted back to awareness in that moment.
The breath attack held considerable power.
The threatening sphere of Spirit that had been squirming suddenly lost its balance and scattered.
Not only that, the monster writhed in agony, leaking mushroom shards and fluids from its maw.
Lumiere had seen a similar scene before.
She turned her gaze to the back of the Subjugation Team.
The pale-eyed Necromancer Narque was trembling as he whispered, blood spilling down from his mouth as he leaned on his glowing staff.
“What did he say? The nemesis of chicken legs?”
Confusion clouded his words, which seemed cut off by bewilderment.
Yet Lumiere forced herself to focus on the creature, writhing in pain on the ground.
Whatever the case, slaying this monster had to take precedence.
A wounded monster is a dangerous beast, but at that moment, Lumiere couldn’t care less.
Now, she could perceive every motion of the cotton fluff swirling in the wind.
With all her strength, Lumiere sent herself soaring like a cannonball.
Easily dodging the strikes from the creature, which unleashed hundreds of hands.
Soon, she sacrificed her ice wall and the shield in her left hand to block the monster’s claws and hands raining down like heavy rain.
Regaining her balance on her staggering body, she dashed toward the creature’s head.
With the frost-coated black mace, she swung it toward the monster, that seemed to illuminate hollow eyes and mouth from its head that swayed in the air.