Chương 234: Emperor Chalco Beetle

The shaking of the ground reminded everyone of the rumbling that occurred while fighting the Slash Rat horde. When that connection was made, they quickly connected the shaking to the giant sinkhole that had swallowed the bulk of their Slash Rat kills. Thinking another such sinkhole might open underneath them, the group quickly began to scatter in every direction. Damion leapt onto his Ice Sword and took the sky with Phil who was now letting out a battle cry through their bond.

Being a Ferocious Beast, the Snow Hawk was able to detect the Demonic Beast, either through scent, sound or perhaps it detected the beast's aura. Whatever the case was, Phil's senses were just as keen as Damion's, and he had the assistance of True Sight. Fortunately for the group, no sinkhole appeared, what did happen, was a portion of the hill they had been walking across split off from the rest of it and started walking away.

"What is that thing?" Ronald screamed, causing the rest of the group to curse at him to be quiet.

"Are you trying to get us all killed," Thomas, who was the closest to him, hissed.

"Sorry," Ronald replied sheepishly.

"But what is that?" The Demonic Beast that had emerged from the side of the hill had obviously been there for some time as the dirt and debris of the landscape had completely concealed it. As the Demonic Beast began to lumber away, with each step it took more of its was revealed. After a fourth step, the group could see that the creature appeared to be a giant horned beetle.

"I think that is an Emperor Chalco Beetle," Inara hissed to the others. Damion could see the resemblance to the smaller beetles that usually only grew to about ten to twelve centimeters. This Emperor Chalco Beetle however, had a thorax close to five meters long and once you included its head and front horns in its length, the Demonic Beast was truly monstrous. What stood out the most, was the horn directly on top of the beast's head.

Such a prominent horn usually indicated a Demonic Beast was stronger than normal for its type and was hence given the title of king or emperor. Through True Sight Damion could see the Emperor Chalco Beetle had a Stone affinity and he thought perhaps that was why the Demonic Beast liked to burrow itself into a hillside and sleep for who knows how long.

While this likely was a different Demonic Beast than the one that had caused the sinkhole in the Slash Rats' nest, Damion thought it likely the creature responsible for that was another Emperor Chalco Beetle.

"It has a Stone affinity," Damion announced to the group.

"I'll keep its attention, you all focus on breaking its legs. Once it can't move around freely, it should not be that hard to finish off." The task Damion gave them was easier said than done. Demonic Beasts with Stone affinities had notoriously hard to breach defenses. Thomas, Yuri and Geoffrey might be D Ranks like the beetle, but they would be hard pressed to break through the tough carapace of the Emperor Chalco Beetle.

To make sure he had the attention of the Demonic Beast, Damion flew down in front of it and sent out an Ice Shard. The Emperor Chalco Beetle might be able to shrug off attacks from other D Rank beings, but Damion was C Rank and, with his EX Rank affinity, his magic was able to punch through the strong defenses of the creature. Unfortunately, just like when Damion faced off against the Deinosuchus, his small Ice Shards where not sufficient to critically injure the large Demonic Beast.

He would need to either hit a critical spot or poke so many holes into the creature that it would succumb to its injuries. While the Ice Shard did grant Damion the Emperor Chalco Beetle's full attention, it also lashed out at him by swinging its horned head around in an attempt to strike back at him. Since he was flying, Damion was able to easily fly higher and avoid the attack, but Geoffrey was not so lucky. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The Fire mage had moved into position to attack one of the Emperor Chalco Beetle's front legs and when it swung its head around, Geoffrey took a hit and tumbled backwards, sliding down the broken hill. The impact looked minor to Damion, but he did not see his teammate get back up. Wanting to give the others the chance to reach Geoffrey to check on him, Damion worked to try and move the Demonic Beast away from the fallen Fire mage.

Flying to the other side of the Emperor Chalco Beetle, Damion sent another Ice Shard into its head. He aimed at the creature's eye, but between its head movements and Damion's own flight, the attack glanced off the Demonic Beast's thick carapace. Damion saw Yuri running over to check on Geoffrey while Inara and Thomas both sent attacks at the Demonic Beast's back legs. Ronald was behind them and was casting Razor Leaf, at the Emperor Chalco Beetle's less armored underside, but the leaves were just bouncing off.

The E Rank Mage did not have the magic power to penetrate the creature's defense.

"Ronald, you check on Geoffrey," Damion shouted.

"Yuri, drop a Driving Rain on it." Not wanting to let the fight drag on, Damion decided it was best to use the same combo he and Yuri had used against the Slash Rat swarm. Soak the opponent and then freeze them. It might not kill the Emperor Chalco Beetle outright, but it would certainly slow it down. Yuri stopped halfway to Geoffrey and cast his Driving Rain above the Demonic Beast's head. The Emperor Chalco Beetle barely registered the rain as an attack.

The water slid off its thick armor without resistance, prompting Damion to send a few more Ice Shards at the Demonic Beast. Poking holes might not do much damage, but he could at least open up spots for the water to get in. Once Driving Rain ended and the water had made the ground around the Demonic Beast muddy, Damion flew close to the creature's head and cast Frost Over. The spell now projected its freezing field in a spherical radius of 25 meters from him when cast.

So, even though Damion was casting while hovering 6 meters in the air, the spell would still hit and freeze the ground. After casting Frost Over, Damion cast Ice Clone and ordered his construct to attack the Emperor Chalco Beetle's legs with his teammates. Once his Ice Clone was slashing at the legs of the Demonic Beast, he cast another Frost Over. This time the spell was more effective, and ice could be seen forming where water remained on the carapace of the giant beetle.

Phil was repeatedly swooping down and spraying the back of the Demonic Beast with Ice Breath, but the thick carapace on the Emperor Chalco Beetle's back was preventing the Snow Hawk from doing much damage. What they needed was a heavy attack from above to crack through the area Phil had weakened.

'One more cast of Frost Over should be enough to freeze it in place,' Damion thought as he flew closer to cast his spell one more time. Unfortunately, the cost of keeping the Emperor Chalco Beetle's attention, meant it had plenty of chances to learn. Before Damion could get close enough to cast his spell the Demonic Beast spat a rock half a meter in diameter at him.

Not expecting such an attack, Damion did not have his Ice Shield up and since he was so close to the Demonic Beast he did not have enough time to fully dodge. He was able to move mostly out of the way, but the Emperor Chalco Beetle's attack still hit him in one knee and since he was in the air, the attack sent him spiraling away due to the transfer of inertia. The attack did not actually hurt him, since the wards on his armor were active and it was an attack from a D Rank creature.

But by the time Damion righted himself midair, the Emperor Chalco Beetle had sent another small boulder at him. This time, he was far enough away that he could successfully dodge, but it still meant Damion was not able to counterattack.

"Alright, enough of this," Damion announced. Instead of flying close, he cast Summon Ice, and a two cubic meter chunk of ice appeared in the air beside him. Willing the block of ice to split, Damion formed it into four long spears. Flying above the Emperor Chalco Beetle, he sent the four ice spears down at the Emperor Chalco Beetle. The four ice spears hit at almost the same instant. Two targeted the Emperor Chalco Beetle's thorax, where Phil had repeatedly hit the Demonic Beast with Ice Breath.

The other two were targeted at the head of the Demonic Beast, aiming for its eyes. The first ice spears to hit were the ones on the back. Both ice spears pierced through the Demonic Beast's thick carapace and punched all the way through the belly of the beast. Of the two ice spears sent at the creature's eyes, one glanced off and buried itself in the half frozen muddy ground. The other ice spear though, struck home and buried itself in the Emperor Chalco Beetle's brain.

A few seconds after the attacks landed, the Demonic Beast collapsed on the ground and when True Sight's Ranking of the beast faded from his vision, Damion knew he had killed it. If you are reading this novel anywhere except Royal Road you are reading a pirated copy. Support authors and their mediums by reading on the original hosting site.