Chick 328
by Cristae328
“The boss room… is multiplying?”
No sooner had Sergey finished speaking, a tremendous roar erupted.
Bang! Bang! Bang! KWA-BANG!
Every boss room door was shaking.
The sound of rattling and pounding echoed through the air, as if something inside was desperately trying to break free.
Sergey, staring in stunned disbelief at the bizarre scene, finally found his voice.
“…Are there multiple bosses now?”
Gidan bared his teeth in a sly grin. For the first time in ages, he felt the thrill of blood pumping in his veins.
“Well. We’ll know if we clear them all.”
[Activating skill ‘Violet Bloodstream.’]
[Activating skill ‘Lion’s Breath.’]
A wave of powerful mana began to suck all the air out of their surroundings.
Groo, who had been busily poking away with his hoe, rolled his rounded eyes in confusion.
“Waaah?”
“That jerk! Always casting skills before thinking!”
Cursing, Sergey scooped Groo up and started to carry him to safety.
Suddenly, the dungeon’s temperature dropped. A chilling cold that seemed to freeze even the breath pierced their skin.
The boss room doors, which had been thundering moments before, now stood utterly still.
“…”
“…”
A suffocating tension filled the air.
Gidan and Sergey’s eyes locked on the same point.
There, a child stood.
With unseen speed, Gidan was suddenly in front of the child, blade extended.
“What are you?”
The child looked up at Gidan with an expression of pure indifference.
“I am—”
The child’s mouth split wide open.
“Robali.”
As he spoke his name, shadows surged from his feet, churning and splitting into countless writhing strands.
[Robali Perdoc (SSS)]
“SSS-grade…”
Seeing Robali’s rank, Gidan let out a soft, grim sound.
Then, Robali lashed the writhing shadows like a whip, and Gidan barely managed to block them.
Each shadow, swinging with chilling accuracy and sharpness, was more menacing than anything before—even far surpassing Malikian from before.
They had to run. With Sergey, he could buy enough time.
But there was one major variable.
There was no guarantee the currently quiet boss room doors wouldn’t open.
Judging by the fact that the boss rooms had all grown silent after Robali appeared, the monsters were almost certainly under his control.
‘In that case, the top priority is…’
Gidan turned his head.
Meeting Sergey’s gaze, the two nodded in silent understanding.
‘Protect Groo.’
Groo, who felt their tension-filled gaze, stared at them with his hoe in hand, mouth agape.
In contrast to Gidan and Sergey, Groo showed no sign of tension at all.
Next to the child, Bailach poked his head up like a meerkat, and Mephisto’s eyes glinted shrewdly.
Both were thinking the same thing.
‘An SSS-grade health tonic…’
Since first tasting takoyaki, Mephisto had never shaken the thought of rare delicacies.
And now, a priceless health food had come rolling right up to him.
Mephisto licked his beak and stabbed the air with intent.
At that, a quest window popped up before Groo’s eyes.
[Caregiver Quest: Let’s make a filial health tonic for Caregiver Mephisto!]
[Caregiver Mephisto is not satisfied with takoyaki. Try making an SSS-grade filial health tonic for hungry Mephisto!]
‘Ta-Tako!’
Groo recalled the time he’d made takoyaki from an SSS-grade monster and fed it to Mephisto.
‘He was a bad guy.’
Mephisto had tried to eat him first, after all—he got what he deserved.
Groo gripped the hoe tightly and raised his hand.
‘Do I have to make it again?’
He would have to use that dangerous power once more. Today, the hoe felt especially heavy.
Eyes wide, he stared at the fierce scene before him.
Sergey conjured sandstorms to cloud the enemy’s vision while unleashing spells, and Gidan fought tooth and nail, sword in hand.
As if testing Gidan and Sergey, Robali split each shadow into two, then three, each time one was cut—a relentless assault.
When all the shadows were finally destroyed and exploded, there was a brief lull.
“Finally over? So, what next?”
Gidan caught his breath and sneered.
But Robali, unmoving, just stared at him.
At that moment, Sergey screamed.
“Gidan! Look out front!”
CRASH!!
Suddenly, Robali’s churning shadows snapped inward.
His body shuddered, and with an explosive bang, Gidan’s form was hurled backwards.
Where Gidan had stood, Robali now stood alone.
Gidan lay sprawled, motionless in the dust.
Gulp.
‘Damn it… I didn’t even see that.’
Sergey swallowed, clutching his staff, eyes locked on Robali.
Slowly, Robali turned his head and met Sergey’s gaze.
Robali’s previously expressionless face began to twist grotesquely.
His wide open eyes tore at the corners, and multiple pupils spun inside erratically.
Once the swirling pupils settled, and Sergey’s reflection appeared in them, Robali’s mouth split into a chilling grin.
A shiver raced down Sergey’s spine and all the hair on his body stood on end.
For the briefest moment, Sergey sensed death.
He instinctively squeezed his eyes shut.
A cold chill, penetrating to the bone, seized his body. Frost crept at his feet.
“Haa—”
Sergey’s breath puffed out white.
Even for a monster from the Frost sector, this level of chill should have been impossible against an S-rank…
Cautiously opening his eyes, Sergey saw Robali’s attack had stopped just short.
Robali seemed frozen in the snowy field, like a statue of ice.
Sergey’s eyes shook in disbelief.
Soon, he saw what had brought this on…
‘Groo?’
Robali was staring at the small child trudging through the snow toward him as if seeing something deeply, deeply terrifying.
Robali swallowed hard.
His opponent was nothing but a little child, and yet a primordial terror and awe rose up from within his very genes.
Instinctively, he was about to kneel before his Monarch.
“Ugh!”
Sudden agony exploded in Robali’s skull.
‘Mother…!’
“Kuuh!”
Fighting his instincts, Robali again struck at Sergey.
Sergey, unprepared, gasped as the attack descended.
Vroooom—
BZZZT—BZZZT—
Groo’s bag flew open, and, like angry bees from a nest, drones swarmed out.
Groo had gotten the idea from an aircraft carrier—a combined drone attack.
The drones rose in perfect unison and unleashed a barrage at Robali.
Pew!
KWA-KWAKWAKWAKWA-BOOM!!
Eight drones poured out an unbroken stream of railgun fire, and Robali had no time to recover.
In the overwhelming barrage, his entire body was shredded to pieces.
Unable to dodge, trapped by an unknown authority, Robali’s form was battered down in no time.
He could hardly believe that he, Robali, had been felled without resistance.
All he wanted was to rise up and kill every human in the dungeon.
But—
“Bad children have to be punished.”
The little child brandished a sharp hoe before his eyes, appearing impossibly vast and terrifying.
Crushed and trembling, all Robali could do was cower on the ground.
His mother’s orders were simple.
With his power, he could push any human to the brink.
That’s what Robali believed.
But me? Why…?
How could a human open the cradle?
And how did I end up like this?
Robali couldn’t believe it.
Somehow, he now found himself in a clay pot.
Was it the savage cold of the snowy field, or his irrational fear of the little child? He couldn’t tell. But as he trembled with a chill, warm water was poured over his body again and again.
Robali looked confusedly at his stubby arm—a classic, flightless bird’s wing.
Robali Perdoc, SSS-grade monster.
He was now a plucked quail, sitting in a pot.
And he wasn’t the only one caught off guard.
Gidan, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth as he rose, having recovered mana thanks to the green glow of a drone flying around; Sergey, regaining his lost magic; and everyone else stared, dumbstruck, at a single person.
At the center of their gaze, Groo huffed out a grave breath and pronounced:
“You, are Mephi’s filial health tonic now.”