Creating a small Mana bomb next to the monster’s—the one tearing my insides—core, I exploded it.
Boov!
My guts were sent flying as the creature got shredded.
I stood up with biomancy as my wounds healed, throwing a bone sword at a Maw that had risen too quickly.
You have killed Hungering Maw, Lv. 64
I flew into the air, escaping the Maw enclosure.
The Mancer had destroyed a wall on the second floor and was harassing the stone men from behind as the Maws attacked from the front.
The situation was horrible, and only Sallera’s fireballs seemed to hinder the creature, creating scorched marks on its limbs.
I shot at the beast.
Forming a bone sword in my hand, I infused it with Mana, sharpening its edge.
The beast was holding a struggling stone man, moving him into a salivating mouth on its side.
I swiped.
My sword easily ate the flesh. Tearing into the bone, it struggled a bit.
Another limb reached for me, but like a bug annoying a human, I dodged it.
The hand slacked down—being half cut—while the fingers released the stone man.
He ran away, but being surrounded by the Maws… his fate wasn’t pretty.
I didn’t dare get too close to the Mancer for fear of another flesh piece tearing off to attack me, so after a moment of contemplation, I shot at a blackened spot.
I didn’t use Mana Bombs as they needed lots of Mana, which I preferred to keep for healing.
The monster swiped at me while harassing Sallera and eating a few stone soldiers—the line fighting the maws was slowly untangling. Tob fought valiantly to keep them from being overwhelmed.
The situation was bad.
Reaching the black scorched spot, I was overwhelmed with the smell of burnt flesh, my eyes tearing.
Thankfully, as I had expected, no flesh tore, and I managed to hack a few deep slashes into the beast.
Roar!
Mouths on its body cried, jarring me as darkness crept into my vision.
Regaining consciousness, I found myself lying on the ground as Maws ate at me.
For some reason, my soul was hurting badly.
…What the heck happened?
Reaching for the bone sword, I pierced the Maw atop me before swiping upward.
Hot blood spilt on me, and as I was about to strike another, two amorphous flesh blobs pounced at me.
With a roar and a surge of Mana, I squirmed away, barely dodging the blobs.
I habitually used [Identify].
Flesh Creations, Lv. ??
An idea popped into my mind.
Could the Maws be its creations, too?
I flew upward with difficulty, taking with me the two Maws stuck on me.
That thing has soul manipulation like me!
I had reached this conclusion after contemplating the roar, which had left my soul in terrible pain.
Creating flesh, the Mancer had moulded it into the Maws, then infused a part of its soul into them. After that, it had put a Mana core inside them, which it used to control these beasts.
Everything clicked into place, except…
How did it create the cores?
AHHHH!
A guttural scream. A stone man was being eaten.
It’s after the stone men’s cores!
The two blobs beneath me flew towards me, turning into thin spears with grey tips.
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I conceded on my Mana stinginess, throwing a Mana bomb at them.
Boov!
They were blown into smitherens, but my Mana condition was getting horrible—only a tenth left.
Looking at the Mancer, I tried to think of a way to kill it.
It has no head, neck, or any normal living being features…
The creature had no visible weakness, plus the wounds I had inflicted on it had stopped bleeding and seemed to be slowly mending.
Stopped bleeding… it has blood!
I flew a bit away, intending to focus on what I was about to create.
Taking a final glance at Sallera, Tob, and the villagers… their situation was dire. Some Maws had even managed to pass the crumbling defence line and were eating the woman and children above.
At this rate, we’ll not only fail, but we’ll die too.
Creating a large bone spear, I made it hollow, then chopped the opposite end from the tip and made a bone circle that fit tightly into the cut space.
I then filled it with the same coagulant I had used against the Hyena before making a fine hole in the spear tip.
I imbued Mana into the spear, reinforcing it while making its tip sharper.
I threw it.
SwiiiiSH!
The spear flashed through the air before impacting against the Mancer.
Well… that was excessive.
The spear had not only pierced the beast, but was too deep that nothing remained visible of it except a gaping hole signifying its passage.
Blood gushed, and the Mancer screeched—a soul-piercing cry.
I was too far away to be affected, but most of the stone men fell onto their knees, holding their ears as their faces scrunched from pain.
Somehow, the Maws weren’t affected; they started to tear into the stone men.
I shot towards the villagers, but Sallera was faster.
The Complex Magus had blood dripping from her nose, but didn’t fall. She swiped her hand, and a green Mana wall appeared between our forces and the invading monstrosities.
It stopped their crawl.
“Leave it to me!” Sallera shouted.
I stopped in the air, assessing her claim.
The monsters were halted for now, while some stone men seemed to be recovering as they stood up. Tob hadn’t stopped fighting, killing one Maw after another with his Mana arm, crushing the hideous beasts.
I reluctantly nodded, heading towards the Mancer.
The beast had a thin limb inside the spear wound, as if it was trying to take it out.
Reaching the small limb, I completely cut it off with a single Mana imbued slash.
All the beast’s eyes were now on me; they looked angry.
A dozen limbs shot at me, while blobs fell in masses from the beast before becoming spears.
I created a Mana bomb before accelerating upward with all my might.
Boov!
The explosion pushed me faster while destroying a part of my legs, but the beast was left in a worse condition.
A lot of its limbs now had gashes, and the close ones to the explosion had gaping holes.
I didn’t stop my ascent, anticipating…
Screeeeech!
The soul attack barely affected me.
Clenching my sword tightly, I dropped back down.
The ensuing struggle was one of the hardest in my life.
Limbs, flesh blobs, screeches, and Maws all attacked me. The beast was putting all its effort into killing me, a bug compared to its size.
Thankfully, this had the effect of lessening the strain on the villagers, and Sallera even managed to aid me in some bombs here and there.
The Mancer’s attacks were numerous, and it had scored a few hits on me, but the marks left on it by me were more.
The beast now had a few dozen slashed, scorched marks and gaping Mana bomb injuries.
Floating above it, I caught my breath as I reassessed the situation.
The poison spear is working.
The beast’s wounds weren’t bleeding, and I noticed that it was getting sluggish. Some parts of it had turned purple, then black from the coagulated blood, while others became white from insufficient blood supply.
All these were good signs, but they weren’t enough. My Mana was at 1%, and my stamina drained.
If this continues… I’ll be the one to fall first.
Looking at Sallera, she, Tob, and about a dozen stone men were facing the last batch of Maws.
The Elf was sitting in a corner, holding her bleeding side.
So she can’t heal.
I smiled. The Elf couldn’t do something I could for once.
I was an envious creature.
Sallera was barely controlling a Mana bolt while Tob and a high-level stone man were solely holding the line, defending the weak stone women and children behind.
Looking back at the Mancer, a third of it was twisted upward, seemingly gazing up at me with its remaining eyes; they were filled with hatred as it waited for me to drop down.
I debated whether to let it die on its own, but I knew that leaving it alone for a few seconds would lead it to attack the already drained stone men.
…So what? Let it attack them.
I didn’t know what would happen if we failed the mission, but it couldn’t be death as the Noblesse wouldn’t probably agree to that result. They needed me for Somani’s class.
But what if I can escape this place if the mission is completed?
I doubted that, as the Noblesse wouldn’t have allowed these gates to exist if they’d led to their prisoners escaping.
But… there’s still a small chance.
Maybe the dungeon had hidden these gates from the Noblesse. Maybe they were too hard a challenge for the contestants, so they had ruled out the chance that any prisoner could escape through them.
After realising the three parts of life, a plan of escape outside this prison had formed in my mind, but it was too high-risk.
This option, even though it was bleak, looked better.
The Mancer stopped looking at me, turning towards my teammates and the remaining stone men.
‘What are you waiting for? It’ll kill them in a few seconds!’
Somani urged me to take action.
Leave them to die and risk losing your best escape chance, or intervene and risk losing Somani.
The Mancer’s barely functioning arm slapped a stone man, exploding him against a wall into fine gems and stone shards.
A fist, the same size as Tob, punched him, sending him flying.
He broke through a wall before falling to the ground.
Sallera stood up weakly, gazing at me as she said something, but being this far away, I heard nothing. Still, I read her lips.
“Your Suprmeness.”
I made my decision, fully knowing that to win, you had to risk it.
Forming a bone spear, the largest one ever, I entered its hollowed insides.
If the poison’ll take this long to finish you off, then I might as well do its bidding.
I coated the spear with the last bit of Mana left inside me, completely draining Somani’s core and my film.
SwiiiiiiiiiiiiiSH!
The beast turned towards me, but it was too late.
I pierced through the first limb, then the second, before entering the monster’s body.
My vision blackened—spherical and human senses.
AhhhH!
The cry was muffled, having to cross so much flesh to reach me.
Taking control of the bone spear encasing me, I split it in half before pushing on each half.
Blood, organs, and tissue pressed on me.
Moving was hard, while breathing was impossible, but like always, I pushed through.
Using the same technique as the flesh blobs, I started to tear and hack at the beast’s insides.
Organs?
I cut them.
Vessels?
Cut them too.
Fat tissue?
Met the same fate.
I cut, cut, and cut.
From time to time, the muffled screams of the beast would reach me, but for some reason, they didn’t injure my soul.
The process was gruesome, and my lungs were burning from oxygen loss as my muscles protested, but I kept on hacking until…
Light.
I widened the cut.
The flesh gave apart, allowing me to squeeze out.
It took my eyes a moment to adjust, then…
The battlefield was filled with the carcasses of the fallen Maws.
Some had arrows in them, while others looked to have bled to death. There was a stone man sprinkled here and there.
Looking up… the Mancer was lying flat on the ground as its middle part slowly rose and fell; it was taking shallow breaths.
I created distance between us, not relaxing until…
You have killed Fleshmancer, Lv. 168
Primus Magus has reached Lv. 50
Skill selection available!
I heaved a sigh before heading into the half-destroyed building.
Going across the bodies was hard as my muscles protested every movement, but I wanted to see if there were any Maws still alive—the System still hasn’t acknowledged our success.
The moment my spherical vision encompassed the second floor, I ran.
Reaching there, Sallera was fighting three Maws, the last ones, on her own, but that wasn’t the problem.
She was fighting them using her physical strength; she had run out of Mana.
Squeezing whatever Mana I had regenerated in this short while, I sharpened my sword’s edge.
A leap… I cut the beast in half.
Its friend noticed, but my sword made it meet the same fate.
I turned to the third, but then…
The Mana reinforcing the sword had completely run out, meaning the bone sword had a dull edge now.
I batted the creature, but was too exhausted to do any real damage.
It bit my sword, disarming me with a forceful shake.
At this moment, I remembered something crucial… Somani was still just a human kid.
The creature pounced on me.
I fell to the ground, struggling to keep the Maw from tearing my face off.
Sallera tried to shake it off me, but she, too, was physically weak.
At this moment… I thought death would come for Somani.
To think that we’d lose to a weakling.
‘It’d been good knowing you, Kid,’ I said, the beast a hair’s width away from tearing my face.
Unexpectedly, or expectantly, Somani’s last words were full of courage.
‘Defeat the Empire!’
But before I could make any promises…
Tob, bloodied and barely standing, held the monster from behind.
Raising it, he threw it off the building.
“Took ya long enough to kill the boss.”
I take it back. I don’t hate this human.
But the surprises didn’t end there.
The Dungeon has watched your struggle and deemed it worthy of a reward it so chooses.
Somani, you have been rewarded with…
Initiating return to cell…