Chapter 23: Thrilling Disappointment
Cassian didn't have a second to lose. His mind registered the incoming projectile the instant it breached his Search perimeter. He slapped both hands flat onto the roof of the carriage. In the blink of an eye, the entire royal carriage, along with its unintended passenger, was instantly zapped out of existence using a high-level instantaneous displacement spell.
It reappeared soundlessly one kilometer backward from its previous position. However, before anyone—adventurers or Knights—could question Cassian's impossible action, the exact spot where the carriage had been standing erupted.
BOOM!
The explosive impact, accompanied by a deafening roar of wind and stone, violently knocked the forward Knights off their feet. A massive shockwave radiated outward, sending the adventurers—who had been standing further back—flying and tumbling across the forest floor.
Cassian watched the destruction from his new, comfortable perch atop the carriage.
"That was close," he remarked, dusting nonexistent ash from his lap.
"A surprise attack aimed specifically at the carriage. This should be interesting."
The dust cloud began to clear, revealing a massive crater in the earth. Standing in the middle of the devastation was a creature unlike anything they had ever seen. Cassian was momentarily stunned by the sheer hideosity of its appearance. He had encountered countless monsters in his time, but this one was truly repulsive.
He let his jaw drop, his gaze fixed on the creature: a completely black entity, unnaturally round in the face, yet built with massive, rippling muscles. It possessed glowing red eyes and a wide, slavering mouth, completely filled with jagged, serrated teeth from which thick, dark saliva dripped onto the scorched earth.
Then, his shock dissolved into profound disappointment.
SIGH. He let out a loud, frustrated sigh.
"Knights are really so undependable," he muttered to himself.
"We were promised a God-Class monster, but we got this? This is just an irregular brute. Even God-Class monsters should possess basic linguistic communication."
"I'll let them handle it," he decided, settling back down.
"Besides, I did them a massive favor by saving the carriage. One way or another, I'm getting paid for this."
He watched the drama unfold, unaware that his casual assessment was catastrophically wrong, and that everything he saw was not all it seemed.
The Commander and the Magic Knights were the first to scramble to their feet. Magic Knights were trained intensively, pushing their bodies past breaking points to achieve an evolutionary physical resistance. The average adventurers, most of whom lacked formal, sustained training, were sluggish.
To the Commander, they were barely better than monkeys sent into battle with oversized weapons.
A Knight came running, sliding a large, heavy battle axe across the ground to the Commander. All five Knights quickly formed a tight battle stance before the creature. With its massive height, the monster stared down at them with blood-red eyes, but it did not make a move, a stillness Cassian found both strange and intriguing.
The five Knights included two with longswords, one with a spear, another wielding a large greatsword, and the Commander with the battle axe. They stood rigid, waiting for the Commander's order.
"Just like we planned!" The Commander yelled, his voice strained but commanding. "Strike!"
The Knight wielding the greatsword instantly vanished from his position, moving too fast for the eye to track. He reappeared directly behind the creature, leaped impossibly high to meet its enormous head, and raised his weapon high into the air.
"Flash Crash!" he roared, pouring all his magical enhancement into the final word. He swung the greatsword down, aiming for the creature's thick neck.
"It's over already!" an adventurer who had finally stood up cheered, confident in the Knight's finishing blow.
Cassian, however, simply smiled, a knowing glint in his eye.
"Big mistake."
The Knight's sword plunged down with enough force to shear apart a stone tower. Just as the strike was about to connect, the creature's body began to vibrate violently, almost like it was shimmering or fading from reality. In the next instant, it completely vanished.
The Knight was momentarily stunned, but the immense force of his technique could not be stopped. The greatsword slammed into the ground where the monster had stood, unleashing a massive shockwave that crushed the earth and sent fractured stone and dirt flying. Cassian felt the entire area tremble violently from his distant perch.
"Impressive. I didn't expect a simple attack to have that much physical power," he conceded, watching the dust settle.
The Knight, visibly shaken, strained to pull his massive greatsword from the earth. The other Knights, even the Commander, were openly stunned that the monster was able to evade the powerful Flash Crash.
"Where is it?!" The Commander yelled, spinning frantically.
Suddenly, the creature reappeared directly behind the greatsword Knight, a clenched fist raised high. The fist was glowing, radiating a thick, sickening dark energy, unlike anything Cassian had ever seen before.