Chapter 1681 Chapter 1681. Storm into the Capital
Inside the eldritch beholder, Jack continued to rain one attack after another. When the eldritch beholder tried to forcefully blow him out, the dark energies became thin. It slowly built up its density again since then. It was now as thick as before and maybe even more. Jack's HP was going down at a dangerous rate. If not for his insane recovery speed boosted by the Life Elevating Art, his HP would have been zeroed long ago.
Unfortunately, Life Elevating Art was nearing the end of its duration.
"I guess it's time for me to leave," Jack said. He couldn't see the eldritch beholder's HP bar from inside here. He hoped he had reduced the monster's HP enough.
When Jack first entered the eldritch beholder, she had clamped her mouth shut to trap Jack inside. Midway through the unending torture Jack brought about, she opened her mouth, trying to drive Jack out. When she failed to do so, she continued to leave her mouth open, in hopes that Jack would leave by himself.
Jack finally did.
Jack cast Wind Jet and shot right out. Since he was not in lightning form, the anti-magic planar wall didn't block him.
When the eldritch beholder felt the torment inside her stop and that hateful flea flew out of her, she was extremely relieved. It was as if the small prickle stuck inside her skin and caused her incessant agony was finally pulled out. That relief soon turned into anger.
"You, insect! I will destroy you…!!!" The eldritch beholder shouted with a directed mental attack that was focused on Jack.
Jack felt as if something had banged his head with an iron mallet. If he hadn't trained to protect his mind using mana manipulation, his thoughts would have gone blank.
Several tentacles on the eldritch beholder's body huddled into one and their eyeballs all glowed a green light at the same time. These combined green rays became a thick green beam that shot at Jack.
Luckily, Jack could still think straight. He used Wind Dash. His body shot to the side and dodged that dangerous-looking beam. He cast Hundred Mirages on the way and then used his staff's Vision Bending. The eldritch beholder couldn't find Jack from all the illusive copies that appeared.
Arlcard and Broidrireg attacked when the eldritch beholder focused on Jack.
Arlcard spun at high speed with his rapier pointed forward. He turned into a drill and stabbed into the eldritch beholder's gigantic eye at high speed. The eldritch beholder screamed in pain, but a quick spell of force impact sent Arlcard flying away.
Broidrireg again coiled his long body around the eldritch beholder and sunk his claws into the giant eye that Arlcard had hit earlier. The eldritch beholder thrashed about trying to throw Broidrireg off her.
Jack noticed now that the eldritch beholder was close to death. Her HP was below 10%.
Jack then heard multiple thunderclaps followed by lightning. Another dragon with a lengthy body appeared. But different than Broidrireg, this one only had two legs near the tail. The wings were larger, though. This was the first time Jack laid eyes on this dragon but he knew this dragon was Quetzalcoatl, Verremor's country guardian.
Jack thought at first the lightning dragon would come and aid them, but Quetzalcoatl continued flying down.
Quetzalcoatl looked in their direction. He gave a reverential nod at Broidrireg as he flew by. Broidrireg just responded with a glance. He was too busy clinching the eldritch beholder.
*
Four Winds was going ahead with his plan to storm the palace. He sent a message to John informing his intention. John agreed after learning that the palace was empty.
John sent some guild members with hang gliders to head into the palace ahead of the army. They would be the scouts to make sure the palace was truly empty. He also organized the Themisphere army to open the way while Four Winds rode ahead with a legion of Verremor troops. Four Winds called Wicked Witches members to follow his legion.
With the Aurebor army losing, they were unable to prevent this legion. The gate was gone with the wall, there was no barricade stopping the legion. The elven soldiers that were originally stationed at the gate immediately reacted when they saw the enemy troops approaching. They tried to form a fence.
While they were still halfway into forming a formation, a thunderous roar startled them. They looked above and saw a giant dragon swooping down at them. This dragon opened his jaws and a thick lightning breath shot out.
This lightning breath slammed into the middle of the formation. The soldiers who were hit directly by the breath were incinerated. The rest was shoved back by the force of the impact. They were flung far away.
Four Winds and his troops charged in then. These elven soldiers were unable to stop them. Four Winds ignored these soldiers. They continued charging through the capital straight toward the palace.
The nature constructs were defending the capital with an automated response. Since the enemies went inside the capital, they disengaged from their battle, turned back, and chased after Four Winds' troops.
Those who were fighting these nature constructs struck these automatons and prevented them from chasing Four Winds. Not everyone could stop these giant automatons. Some nature constructs drove their attackers off and ran toward the capital, but a massive torrent of lightning stopped them in their tracks.
Quetzalcoatl hovered above the place where the wall gate used to be. His pose signaled that nothing should get past him.
*
In the sky, Jack re-cast Double Clone. It was without the double-cast effect this time. He had already used the remote magic field after using reset inside the eldritch beholder's mouth to boost his offensive spells. These two clones flew toward the capital to help Four Winds' force.
His true self stayed. He flew to the eldritch beholder's side while his hundred mirages were still in effect. He found Therras. His pet was still bound by the tentacles. The worst thing was it had lost all its buffs. It was now losing HP faster because of it.
Jack used Beast Howl, healing Therras. Therras' previous buffs were given before Jack entered the eldritch beholder. They were now available again since Jack used Reset while inside. He was now reapplying all the buffs. Therras turned into eternal grade again and his body became larger.
Jack also resummoned Spark. With Spark, the two performed a one-word slash on the tentacles that bound Therras. Jack's one was performed by combining Brave Slash empowered by mana manipulation. Their moves cut off more than half the tentacles that bound Therras.
With half of its bindings removed, Therras pulled with full force and finally tore itself free.
The eldritch beholder's HP hit 5% then. As it did, the anti-magic planar wall faded.
"She lost her protection. Time to finish her…!" Jack exclaimed. He was about to ask Arlcard and Therras to use their elemental finishing moves but Broidrireg stopped them.
"Hold!! She can't be killed," he told them.