Chương 206

"[Legendary Sage's Eyes]," Rudra muttered. His vision shifted. The dusty room became overlaid with deep magical data. He stared directly at the Banshee's rotting throat. He watched the way the mana gathered in her dead lungs. He watched it travel up her trachea and violently vibrate her cursed vocal cords. [Understanding of the Banshee's vocal structure is increasing...] [Understanding: 10%...] [Understanding: 20%.] … The Banshee took another deep breath. Her glowing white eyes locked onto him.

This time, she didn't throw a wide, sweeping wave. She concentrated the sound into a tight, dense point in her throat. She fired a physical shockwave of pure noise. It shot toward him like a cannonball. [Super Sensitivity is warning that a concentrated sonic attack is approaching. Evasion impossible due to projectile speed.]"Then we don't evade," Rudra said. He planted his boots in the dirt. He gripped his black staff, Extortion, with both hands. [Atlas's Rebound]. Rudra spun the blacks staff in front of him.

The dense physical shockwave slammed directly into the spinning metal. The force of the scream just sank directly into the weapon. The staff instantly felt like it weighed a thousand pounds in his hands. It hummed violently, vibrating so hard it made his palms go numb.

"Thanks for the weight," Rudra said. He had to hit her fast. If he held onto this stored energy for too long, the recoil would blow his own arms off. He needed raw, overwhelming burst damage to guarantee she wouldn't get a chance to scream a third time. He triggered [Spell Store]. With his mana pool sitting comfortably over 750, 000, he didn't care about the cost. He drew on Mumud's magic tree. He fused Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Wood, Darkness, and Light all at once. [Elemental Convergence].

He banked the highly volatile, defense-ignoring, nine-element spell directly into his staff. The weapon started to spark wildly. The blue lightning of the staff mixed with the crazy elemental colors. It looked like he was holding a dying star. But he wasn't done. He wanted absolute certainty. He tapped into his titles. [Harbinger of Divine and Demon]. He pumped his golden Divine Energy and his freezing black Demonic Force straight into the staff at the exact same time.

The two opposing energies violently clashed on the surface of the metal, creating an unstable, chaotic grey aura that wrapped around the staff. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. [Super Sensitivity detects a fatal weak point at the base of the monster's rotting throat!]"Time to drop," Rudra said, locking his eyes on her neck. He kicked off the stone floor. [Abyssal Step]. He created invisible footholds in the air, launching himself from unpredictable angles.

He bounced off the air twice, completely confusing the Banshee's tracking. He ended up high above her floating body, looking straight down. He raised the supercharged, unstable staff over his head. [Comet]. He brought it down with everything he had. The 900% physical damage overhead smash combined with the stored kinetic shockwave, the nine-element magic explosion, and the violently clashing divine and demonic energies. It was absolute overkill. The staff smashed directly into the Banshee's weak point.

[Critical Damage!] [You have dealt 90, 450, 800 damage to the target!] KABOOM. The explosion was deafening. A massive shockwave of color and force blasted outward. The remaining stone pillars in the room turned to dust. The 10-meter blast radius completely vaporized the boss. She didn't even have a physical body left to hit the floor. Rudra landed heavily on his feet. The chaotic aura faded from his staff, leaving the dark metal smoking slightly. The room went completely silent.

The dust slowly settled around his boots. [You have cleared the Third Trial.] [You defeated the Echoing Banshee before she could complete a single echo cycle!] [As a reward for exceeding the limits of the trial, All Stats +15!] [Reward: Forgotten Skill Fragment x3] [The Champion's Rite] [Progress: 3 / 15 Temples Cleared] Rudra wiped the dust off his coat. He checked his system messages. Defeating a sonic boss without letting the sound bounce was apparently the hidden clear condition.

He happily accepted the free stats. He picked up the three glowing skill fragments from the dirt and tossed them into his inventory. Then, he opened his skill window to check what he had learned from staring at her throat. [Skill Acquired: Banshee's Wail (Lv. 1)] [Rating: Unique] [A cursed vocal technique used by the banshee. By gathering mana directly into the lungs and forcing it violently through the vocal cords, the user can release a concentrated shockwave of sonic damage. - Deals 15, 000 fixed sonic damage to all targets in a 20-meter frontal cone. - Sonic damage ignores all physical and magic defences. - Has a high chance to inflict 'Stun' and 'Confusion' on targets. - The human throat is not designed for this. Using this skill will deal 5% of your maximum health as damage to the user. - It will inflict the 'Silence' and 'Bleeding' status conditions on the user for 3 minutes, preventing the use of any vocal spells or commands. Resource Consumed: 2, 000 Mana Cooldown: 1 Hour.] Rudra read the description twice.

"Well, that's a perfect skill for me," Rudra muttered. Fixed damage that bypassed shields was incredibly rare and highly valuable. It was the perfect tool for cracking open heavy tank classes or monsters with absurdly high physical defense. As for the Recoil, Rudra wasn't worried about it too much, since his Mana would be consumed instead of health due to [Mana Heart] and his Mana regeneration was broken and his Legend title should allow him to resist those status abnormalities.

He turned around and walked back toward the heavy stone doors. Kratos was still sitting on the ground, shaking his head side to side to clear his ears.

"My ears are ringing," Kratos complained, pawing at his head and shaking out his golden mane.

"Can we eat now? It's been hours since breakfast."

"Not yet," Rudra said, patting the lion's massive shoulder.

"One more trial for this phase. Then I'll cook you something good." Rudra laughed. They walked back down the rocky slope toward the small wooden boat. Thalassa and Neria were waiting for them in the shallows. The Chief looked at the silent cave, then at Rudra.

"I did not hear the echoes," Thalassa said, his voice full of quiet shock.

"I hit her really hard," Rudra said simply. He climbed into the boat.

"Where to next?"