Shocking Hope
Shocking Hope
Var Agus tried to dip his head into the water multiple times but unfortunately, no matter how many times Var Agus sunk his head into the water, he couldn't see anything thanks to the murkiness.
"Nooo!" Things were going wrong for Var Agus, what could he do now?! He had no mount, he had no spear, and he didn't have the courage to ask for help again...
'God! Please help!' Or did he…? In as desperate a moment as things were, Var Agus really had no choice but to muster some courage. So what if their God had already given him so many ways to defeat it and he failed?! It might make one seem incompetent, but nothing looked worse than dying!
It was just too bad that Ed who heard his plea had no real way to assist Var Agus. Having just recently used the link skill, it would still take a few more minutes before he could offer any sort of significant help. In a battle of this caliber, such a long wait was no different from a death sentence.
"Var!" A lizardman shouted from within a ship. The mount had to fly over the ships and it therefore landed near one of them.
Var Agus no longer pleaded in his mind realizing there was no response. He instead swam over to the ship and quickly climbed up. The sight that met his eyes made him put on a grizzly expression.
The casualties on the ship… Despite the dragon's noble sacrifice, a good chunk of the lizardmen were still unfortunate enough to be pierced by the rock solid shards.
Var Agus' expression then turned stoic, he refused to cry at the sight. He instead looked at the beast hoping that he wouldn't see its grimy tentacles getting closer to them with the intention of wringing them dry.
"The spear…!" Var Agus was thus rightfully surprised to find that the gauntlet beast much too preoccupied to pay any attention to them.
"It's fighting the beast!" Even while encased in ice, the continued electric shocks never ceased to reach the beast and its nearby core. That was because while ice was a poor conductor of electricity, it was a conductor nonetheless.
Not to mention that Blood was also a rather nice conductor since it contained both salt and water. The heating caused by the electric shocks would also be enough to start melting the solid ice.
In order to prevent the spear from fully breaking out, the beast would have to continuously cast its icy spell over the spear preoccupying a part of its mind in return.
It had to be mentioned, since the gauntlet beast was not controlling the blood as if it were its own body, but rather as an extension of it, it had to put sufficient mental power onto the task.
The consciousness it originally received from the blood clot was not enough to sustain such a heavy duty. In fact, the reason why the blood clot seemed incapable of doing nothing more than shooting its tentacles at its target was precisely for this reason.
It was incapable of thinking.
If Ed were at the scene, he would surely deduct that the gauntlet beast had to evolve a skill similar to, or the same as, Bloody's. W did get the opportunity to use it previously and it provided the ability to sense and see blood even past troubling obstacles.
With this skill the beast would appear to have some method to its madness. But the reality simply was that the beast would become a formidable yet predictable and dumb foe.
Actually, the creation of its AOE attack was perhaps one of its only clever tricks. One could only speculate as to its origins.
Regardless of whether Var Agus could understand any of these principles or not, he was able to understand that there was an opportunity before them.
"How many rounds do we have left?!" Var Agus asked having noted that the shooting of the cannons had long since ceased.
"We… We don't have anymore" One of the few remaining lizardmen said.
"Alright, which ship went down first and where?" Var Agus asked hurriedly.
"It was Yot's ship! Somewhere… over there!" The lizardman answered back.
"Yot's ship…" Var Agus felt a bit saddened by the news, Yot had shown himself to be a capable leader. But there was nothing he could do for the deceased lizardman except for winning their current battle.
Var Agus looked at where over there was and saw a part of a ship barely sticking out of the surface.
"Let's get the rounds from there and get back into action, we have one chance!" Var Agus commanded with a roar. It was impossible to know if the gauntlet or the spear would run out of juice first but it could actually be easily inferred who the winner was.
The gauntlet.
It received energy from blood and it just so happened that it carried around a near limitless supply of blood with it.
With a sense of haste in his heart, Var was ready to scavenge rounds from the sunken ships but their boat started to shake unexpectedly. Var Agus was thrown into a stagger.
"Woah!" He cried out as he stabilized himself. The shaking had stopped but the disturbance made Var Agus run towards one of the ship's sides to investigate.
Upon seeing the cause of the ship's turbulence, Var Agus formed a wide smile.
"You are alive!" Var Agus shouted gladly before jumping off the ship and landing upon the dragon's back.
"Ah!" Var Agus then nearly slipped off the creature.
"You... You were stuck in the mud, huh?" Seeing how muddy it was Var Agus came to an understanding regarding the creature's apparent disappearance. It made sense for that to happen considering how quick the dragon's descent had proven.
The more amazing matter however was how sturdy the mount God provided him was. It was really incredibly sturdy! Apart from being muddy, Var Agus could not see even a single crack.
Another remarkable detail was that somehow, despite being muddied the creature still managed to exude a clean shine from its scales.
A new plan quickly formed in the mind of Var Agus and it was just in the nick of time.
"An attack!" A lizardman shouted noticing approaching tentacles.
The blood beast had to control an insane amount of blood causing its mental capacities to slow to a crawl. As it continued to spend that blood however it became a lot more able. This was another aspect as to why the gauntlet would be able to ensure a smooth victory over the divine spear.
"Toss me a spear! I'll take the lead!" Var Agus shouted to the lizardmen on the ship. Within moments, a simple spear found its way onto Var's hand.
Sadly, it was already too late for Var Agus to fly off and fend the attack. Just as the ship was about to be slammed against by the thick bloody tentacles they were cut apart by what appeared to be nothing more than the wind.
"This…" Var Agus was stunned but promptly regained his wits.
It was then that Var Agus suddenly felt something grabbing onto the side of the dragon which was floating beside the ship.
"Huh?!" Var Agus was stunned to find Sharog emerging from the raging waters and holding firmly onto the dragon.
"Who are you?" Var Agus asked but alas, Sharog could not understand his words.
But not everything was bad, soon other lizardmen emerged from behind Sharog. They started to use their superior swimming skills to instantly board the ship.
"Yoashk!" Var Agus exclaimed happily seeing his old friend boarding the ship.
"Var, those two were sent by will of our God, they can assist us" Yoashk told Var Agus who quickly nodded.
"Alright then, I can't explain much right now so just try and keep the ship safe!" Var Agus said before instructing the dragon to prepare to take off.
As soon as the dragon started to hover beside the ship however Sharog hopped off.
<"Dakgu, you join him"> Sharog was better off casting skills from the ship. Her mana count was also quite low so she couldn't risk getting so close to the beast.
<"Got it!"> Dakgu responded excitedly before hopping onto the dragon with lightning at his feet.
Var Agus was quite astounded by the technique.
"I might be able to change my plan" Var Agus said pleasantly surprised. He intended to have the dragon plummet into the beast after weakening the area with potshots. The force would in theory break the spear out of its entrapment and allow it to shock the gauntlet directly.
In order to ensure such a plan would succeed Var Agus intended to hold onto the dragon even as it plummeted onto the beast capable of sucking him dry.
If Dakgu could take his spot and shock the beast however… the plan not only had a much higher chance of success but it also became a lot safer!
"Collect the rounds, we'll be going ahead!" Var Agus said as a final reminder before the dragon rushed forward.
<"Woah! This is cool!"> Dakgu was left amazed by the feeling of flying atop a dragon.
Var Agus couldn't understand the language but he nonetheless let out a chuckle. Dakgu's genuine emotions managed to lower his tension.