Realm Wars

Chapter 119: Three Lairs and Three Tablets 5

The Merwyrm lashed at the group with a frightening gait, exhibiting with it a chilling force enough to freeze any warm bodies on its path.

The group immediately dispersed, with Jane taking the precautionary step to imbue her and Theodore's bodies with a spell that increased their movement speed.

"Be careful! It's immune to water and ice!" Seraphina warned the others.

Vein didn't care as he disappeared in the shadows while Masha didn't bother to take out her pet Griffin. The Merwyrm's only lethal attack was its poisonous body and chilling ability. But besides that, it was weaker than the Reaper Leviathan as long as you didn't get hit with its claws or any part of its poisonous body.

A hammer appeared in Masha's hand. It had a long handle and an enormous metal head weighing two thousand kilograms, enough to pound the Merwyrm's skull in one blow. 

"You're mine!" All Masha thought were the treasures lying after they defeated the Merwyrm. She needed to kill the beast and get her treasures as soon as possible!

BaaAAaMm!

However, the mighty force of her hammer only smashed the uneven ground, and the Merwyrm escaped in the darkness with lightning speed.

Masha clicked her tongue. "So slippery!"

Theodore raised his staff and called forth a spell the imbued the area in perpetual light.

[Shine]

RoOAaRr!

The Merwyrm couldn't stand the glaring light, and it shut its eyes and slithered itself in the darkest part of the cave. But it was no use since Theodore's spell covered every crevice, and there was no part in the cave that his light didn't shine.

"Attack it now!" Kai yelled with his scimitars in his hands. He shot forth into the Merwyrm's range, aiming for its neck.

"Look out!" Seraphina shouted when the Merwyrm was about to swipe its claws in an attempt to fend off its foes.

Kai instinctively ducked behind the Merwyrm's heavy swing, only to discover that he underestimated it too much. Even with its sight impended, it had an impeccable sense of hearing and smell. Its hissing tail struck at his lowered posture, and it placed a deep puncture hole into the meat of his shoulder.

"Gagh!" Intense pain pulsated through Kai's arm, shooting into his hand with clenching agony. The Merwyrm's poison quickly spread to his body, and before the poison caused his legs to spasm, he leaped back just in time that another swipe of the Merwyrm's tail could claim his head.

Kai couldn't move from the poison, and his back remained on the ground. Any slight movement felt like his bones were grinding to dust. But he didn't have time to think of the pain as the Merwyrm slithered its way to him within a blink.

Damn! It could sense heat from living things! That was the only explanation as to why it discovered where he was with its eyes closed.

Kai gnashed his teeth. It was too late to summon ice to shield him from the Merwyrm's jaws.

RoOAaR!

However, before the Merwyrm opened its mouth and devoured Kai, a hurl of dense wind smashed it into the walls while the poison and the hole in Kai's shoulder were closing from Seraphina's spell.

"Thanks." Kai grinned at Seraphina but barely gave a glance at Jane for saving his life.

Seraphina helped Kai to his feet. "Be careful. It must be an elder Merwyrm that evolved with heightened senses from all the years of its captivity inside this dark cave."

The Merwyrm went to its feet and shook its head while its scales rattled. It was injured from the blow, and the side of its body was covered in blood. It shrieked at the mortals before it crawled to an area with a puddle of water. 

The others were amazed when the wounds on its hide were closing, and the blood sipped right back into its body.

"What is that thing?" Kai's head was thumping. "It could heal itself with water?"

"The only way to defeat it is to obliterate it completely." Jane summoned multiple [Wind Blades] sharp gusts of winds that aimed at the Merwyrm. The wind blades carried with it a whooshing sound seeking the life of its foes.

However, the Merwyrm was too fast, even faster from Jane's wind spell.

"Stay still!" Jane attacked it with a barrage of blade-like winds, but all her wind hit was the moss-covered walls and the uneven stone floors.

"Quit wasting your mana and practice on your aim first!" Masha laughed despite the situation they were in. With two mages on their side that could disperse the Merwyrm's poison and heal even the ghastly wounds, she had nothing to worry about.

Masha swiped her nose with her thumb. "Yosh! Let me show you what real speed isargh!" 

Masha almost tumbled on the ground when a gust of wind went past her in the form of Ryu. "Hey! Watch where you're going!"

Ryu didn't even spare Masha the barest attention as he dashed towards the Merwyrm. 

"Ryu, it's too fast! Even for you, you can't catch it with just your speed!" Kai warned, but his warnings went to deaf ears.

Kai was about to leap and help Ryu when Seraphina stepped forward. "I'll hold it off." 

Seraphina's mouth mumbled incantations, and a thick tangle of constricting vines erupted through the area. It caught the Merwyrm off guard, and the vines wrapped the Merwyrm in its grasp. It crushed the Merwyrm with enough force that everyone heard a cracked of bones amidst shrieks of agony.

[Constricting Vines]

Seizing the opportunity, Ryu doubled in speed. His whole body twisted in an exaggerated arc as the gauntlets in his hands crackled with electricity, and he powered into the Merwyrm.

RoAar!

The Merwyrm shrieked, but it couldn't move much less flee, and the fight ended with a deadly ram of Ryu's gauntlets into the Merwyrm's chest where its mana core lies. His strength, coupled with the gauntlet stat boost, was enough to crack the Merwyrm's body before it burst into pieces without any chance of recovery.

.. .

.. .

"Whew." Kai and Seraphina both had bright smiles on their faces. Every battle where they came out alive was worth celebrating.

Theodore almost wet his pants from relief when two holes opened from the cave. 

Jane was the first to run inside the newly opened access, but the smile on their faces quickly dropped at the appearance of Vein, who was already grabbing the second tablet from the only chest on the pedestal of the newly opened cave.

"Hey! No opening of treasures without me!" Masha bumped Jane's shoulder as she went past her and stuck out her tongue before she went to Vein's side.

"You didn't even help." Kai spat to the ground.

Theodore clutched Jane's robe when the latter was shaking with anger.

Without looking at the others, Vein stored the tablet and proceeded to divide the piles of treasures on the ground.

"I prefer to save my mana. There are already six of you against that Merwyrm," said Vein while his face twitched a little. The treasures this time were just useless pieces of gold and stones. Was it because the Merwyrm was weak? Did the rewards correspond to the level of the beast?

"Seems like the treasure this time isn't worth much," Seraphina chimed in.

Kai exaggeratedly scratched his dirty gold hair. "Even so. It's better than nothing. I bleed for that treasure."

Jane nodded and threw a sharp look at Seraphina. "At least it could compensate the loss of our mana." 

Seraphina knew what they were hinting at. "Alright. Then let me get my share and divide it with you guys."

Kai sighed when Seraphina left them. "Always just getting the scraps. Well, I guess it's better than nothing." His eyes then narrowed at Vein. "We need to kill that guy fast if we want to acquire rare items and artifacts."

Ryu, Jane, and Theodore agreed.