I was scanning through the text for all character names and terms from the glossary. This appears to be a battle scene featuring the protagonist fighting against the Insect King with party members including Lily, Camilla, Adel, and Yulice.
Even in games, I'd often get frustrated whenever I encountered the Insect King.
This damn bastard never died easily, not even once.
A quick decisive battle?
Of course.
No one would want to fight that thing while dealing with countless monsters.
But saying it is easy.
Game companies always understood players' intentions and found various ways to mess with them.
And "Molt" was one of those ways to mess with players.
A skill that greatly increases defense while potentially restoring the boss to full health if you make a mistake.
Players had to break through that shell and somehow draw out the Insect King again.
"Phew."
To be honest, the situation wasn't great.
Though I had thoroughly prepared a plan, I simply didn't have enough time to grow stronger.
Even at this point, I couldn't guarantee a certain victory.
It definitely wasn't good, but it wasn't the worst either.
*I've made it more than halfway through.*
Molt is a skill he can only use once every few years.
That means this was probably his last survival skill.
Bang! Bang!
Beyond the walls of the Audience Chamber, I could hear countless insects pounding. They were still desperately struggling to protect their king.
I didn't know when those walls would break.
However, what mattered was that my objective remained unchanged.
Eliminate the Insect King as quickly as possible.
That goal hadn't changed at all.
"Lily, please prepare a spell. Something with high destructive power and speed."
"Huff, haah... Wait a moment. Do you think I'm some kind of all-purpose magic machine?!"
Lily, who was drinking a mana potion, suddenly snapped.
Perhaps from using too powerful a spell, her complexion looked a bit pale. Not only her, but Camilla and Adel were also sweating profusely.
In many ways, our party was exhausted too.
"Wait, look over there!"
"The summoning circles are gradually fading."
But there wasn't only bad news.
The three summoning circles the Insect King had created were being dispelled.
Focusing on recovery meant he had to temporarily cancel his other spells.
"From now on, we'll change our formation slightly. Everyone, stick close and attack him quickly."
I told my party members.
Until now, I had been handling the Insect King alone because they could have been in danger.
I was fine since I had poison resistance and knew all his patterns, but they didn't.
I had kept them back to protect them from potential injuries.
But now the situation had changed.
We needed overwhelming offensive power.
We needed to draw him out as quickly as possible to have any chance of winning.
From that moment, we all joined forces to attack the Insect King's cocoon. The barrier that had barely been scratched by my attacks started to break down when all four of us attacked together.
Indeed, their overall specs, including attack power, were still superior to mine.
"Hup-!"
Slash!
Camilla let out a short battle cry as she swung her sword downward.
The tough skin of the sand worm was cleanly cut by her blade.
As a proper Sword Aura user, she could deliver definite damage, even if it took some time.
"Slice it to pieces!"
Following that, Lily unleashed her magic.
Sharp, honed winds mercilessly slashed at the Insect King's chitin armor.
Though each individual strike wasn't enough to penetrate the armor, dozens piling up gradually broke it down.
What remained were the dimensional thorn bugs' spikes surrounding him like a fence. These things had enough strength to easily withstand a knight's sword.
They were essentially the most troublesome ones, but I simply placed my hand gently on their spikes.
Whether the spikes were hard or not, it was still a form of life.
And as a living thing, blood would flow inside it.
[Casting "Blood Energy Absorption"!]
Sssssss.
As if drawn by some force, their blood gradually gathered toward my body. I consumed all the energy they possessed.
After draining a fair amount of energy, I swung my sword at them.
Slash!
The thorn barrier protecting him was cut down more easily than expected.
Seeing that, Camilla quietly muttered.
"Dark Magic is certainly helpful..."
Well, I haven't even shown you the real thing yet.
While I was thinking that, something unexpected happened.
Bang!
One part of the wall was breached, and insects began pouring in.
It meant the stone pile that had been blocking them was reaching the end of its lifespan.
Hundreds, thousands of monsters and insects began gradually filling the Audience Chamber.
The party members panicked and asked:
"Kyaah! They broke through! They broke through!"
"Hero! What do we do now?"
"What else? We need to kill this Valkan right now!"
After saying that, I hurriedly swung my sword.
From now on, the battle situation would turn unfavorable in an instant.
The sheer number of insects pouring in was enough to crush us.
Of course, with considerable effort, we might be able to block them somehow...
But the best method was to end Valkan's life before that happened.
My sword flew toward the bandages, the last remaining barrier. I intended to cut him along with those bandages.
However, the Insect King moved faster.
Tak!
Suddenly his hand moved and blocked my holy sword.
The hardened bandages gave him enough defense to block my strike for a moment.
Crack!
Through the gradually breaking bandages, the Insect King's eyes gleamed fiercely.
"You people... are really impatient."
His body was still covered in wounds. His arms were full of biological energy, and there was a long stab wound on his abdomen.
But all other major injuries had been healed.
As the situation became urgent, he came out himself.
Because of that, he couldn't heal all his wounds... but at least he could continue fighting.
"Damn it."
I gritted my teeth.
As expected, he had become too strong.
Even though he was supposed to be the toughest of the Four Heavenly Kings to appear first, his specs were too high.
Usually, just before monsters rush in, I would somehow drive him to the brink of death... but this time I only managed to inflict serious injuries.
I felt increasingly desperate.
But the more desperate I became, the more I tried to calm myself.
It's okay. This is a situation where I need to maintain composure.
Although many things had deviated from the original plan, it was still within the expected range.
I just needed to continue what I was doing before.
"Let's change formation again. Please block the insects as much as possible like before. Lily, prepare one strong spell and cast it at the Insect King."
"Are you kidding? How are we supposed to block that many?"
"And if we don't? Should we all die here?"
"...Kuk."
Camilla clicked her tongue.
It wasn't a question of whether we could or couldn't.
If we didn't do it, we would die. With each passing second, our demise drew closer.
I took out a mana potion from my bag and said:
"I'm not asking you to block all of them. Just block as many as you can."
Fortunately, he wasn't in perfect condition either. He had used his only survival skill, and he had lost most of his bodyguard thorn bugs.
Although time had become much more pressing, it was still doable.
With that thought, I cast a skill.
After considering the cost and reward, I quietly muttered:
"...I sacrifice two of my fingers to increase my physical abilities for a certain period of time."
At that moment, two fingers on my left hand disappeared.
Splash!
Blood spurted out along with a burning pain that pierced my mind. Fortunately, due to the urgent situation, none of my party members noticed my condition.
Crunch.
Simultaneously, my body was strengthened. An unknown power surged throughout my body.
The value of just two fingers.
As I mentioned before, regenerating parts don't provide much reward.
As such, the increase in my abilities was barely noticeable.
But.
*That's better than nothing.*
Even that tiny bit was precious in the current situation.
Excluding permanently damaged value, this was the greatest value I could use.
So I charged at him again.
I could see his frowning face. The thorn bugs that had been protecting him were gone now.
"Kuk, hurry and protect me!!!"
Instead, he chose another method.
He used some of the swarming insects as his shields.
Although the party members were trying their best to block them, four people were simply not enough to stop the flood of creatures.
"You really are persistent."
I paid no mind and swung my sword.
Some strikes only killed a few monsters, while others managed to reach his skin.
I had to break through. By any means necessary.
At some point, that single thought filled my mind.
Then suddenly:
"It's no use! We can't block this!"
"Cough...!"
"Adel? Adel! Yulice, purify over here!"
Bang! Bang!
The passages Lily had blocked were continuously being breached.
The number of incoming insects and monsters doubled.
I kept swinging my sword.