Chapter 179: The Unexpected Or Somewhat Expected Attack
Alex's PoV:
I flew towards the spot where the level 77,000 great forest spirit was obliterated and searched within the vicinity of any mana of the level 77,000 great forest spirit with the use of the [Mana Sense] skill.
I made sure not to miss any location in my search range so that the level 77,000 great forest spirit wouldn't be able to revive anymore. Even a sliver of the level 77,000 great forest spirit's mana was enough for it to be revived but with a long revival duration.
I didn't found any mana of the level 77,000 great forest spirit even within or near the trees and grasses that the level 77,000 great forest had manipulated. Even if there was, I would have removed it so that the level 77,000 great forest spirit wouldn't be able to revive anymore.
"It's all clear! No signs of the level 77,000 great forest spirit!"
I declared to Pedonar, Sophie, and Aileen after finishing my survey within the surroundings.
Pedonar was currently lying on the ground while Sophie and Aileen were sitting a meter near Pedonar.
Pedonar, Sophie, and Aileen had told me that their mana was almost depleted and at least 5% of their mana was left. It was the same for me as my mana had at most 15% left.
I descended on the ground while deactivating [Flight] and lie on the ground beside Distere. Distere's mana was at least 80% full and he was the only one among us who could fight against the high-level monsters.
Satomi was busy fighting against the huge tiger while Aerin was secluding herself with Axel inside a wooden hemisphere.
Aerin should have expended some of her mana in supporting me in defeating the huge cheetah and she was currently depleting mana in maintaining the wooden hemisphere.
As I thought of the current situation in the heroes' group, I sensed a powerful presence coming out of the forest. It was the huge horse with three sharp huge horns protruding from its head.
I was right all along! The huge horse had indeed been lurking in the forest. The problem was that none of us could fight against the huge three-horned horse.
The huge three-horned horse had some slight injuries on its body but nothing that life-threatening. The huge three-horned horse must have recovered from some of the wounds that Axel and Aerin had inflicted on its body during the time it had retreated.
I knew that the huge three-horned horse wouldn't back down without a fight and the huge three-horned horse must have already decided to exterminate all of us.
Even the huge cheetah that could be anthropomorphic and speak the human language didn't negotiate with Distere and me but attacked the two of us as a battle junkie. So, it was unlikely that the huge three-horned horse would negotiate with us to end the fight since it couldn't even speak the human language.
The huge three-horned was a powerful opponent so I thought of a way to defeat it in my current condition.
I could activate a hero-related skill as my last resort but it would place a huge toll on my body after the duration of the hero-related skill had finished.
Unlike all of the heroes, the God Of Worldly Systems had granted me the [Surpass Limits] skill instead of the usual [Limit Break] skill that Axel and the other heroes possessed.
The [Surpass Limits] skill enabled the user to boost all of his or her stats by twenty times instead of the ten times boost that the [Limit Break] skill provided.
Of course, the [Surpass Limits] had a side effect due to the enormous stat boost that it would grant on the user which was body paralysis, unlike the [Limit Break] skill.
The [Surpass Limits] skill's side effect could be avoided if the user had a durable body to withstand the sudden outburst of stats. I did not possess a durable body as of now so it was risky for me to activate the [Surpass Limits] skill so I decided to only use it in times of emergency.
In this situation, the huge three-horned horse wasn't my opponent even in my peak condition but now that I wasn't in my peak condition, it had gone a lot worse than I expected.
I could escape if I was at my peak condition but I wouldn't since it wouldn't be a tactical retreat if I let my comrades fend off for themselves in their weak condition against a high-level monster.
Even if I didn't accept the system mission, I would still help my teammates until the end so retreating wasn't an option for me.
The huge three-horned horse started charging three mana spheres on top of its three horns while pointing it towards Pedonar, Sophie, and Aileen.
After noticing the huge three-horned horse preparing its attack, Pedonar, Sophie and Aileen stood up and looked at the huge three-horned horse.
Pedonar, Sophie, and Aileen had already forced their exhausted body to stand up and it would be difficult for them if the huge three-horned horse launched their attack.
Aileen's condensed sphere of dragonic mana should be similar to the huge three-horned horse's triple mana sphere that required a long charging time but with destructive power and an overwhelming speed.
A mana charging type of attack was as fast as the speed of light or even faster depending on how powerful the attack was. The charging time of that type of attack doesn't have any minimum time since it could be released whenever the caster of that type of skill wanted to release it.
The maximum time to charge a mana charging type of attack depended on how much mana the caster had and the charged mana that the caster could handle in charging the attack without harming the caster's body.
Pedonar, Sophie, and Aileen's current condition couldn't even dodge a 15 seconds mana charging type attack from the huge three-horned horse so they could lose a limb or even die if the huge three-horned horse released its three mana sphere attack that already exceeded 15 seconds worth of charging time.
"[Surpass Limits]!"
I yelled as I activated the [Surpass Limits] skill and it caused a shockwave to burst out of my wave from the sudden surge of mana and stats.
Pedonar, Sophie, Aileen, Satomi, and the huge tiger were blown off by the shockwave while Distere had withstood the shockwave with the use of his mana. Aerin and Axel were inside the wooden hemisphere so the two of them weren't affected by the shockwave.
The huge three-horned horse had withstood the shockwave at the expense of having to use a second worth of mana charging time in its three mana sphere.
I felt that I could defeat anyone in here but it must be all in my head. The high-level monsters that are just beside the border wouldn't be my opponent even with the use of my [Surpass Limits] skill.
I might be able to put up a fight against multiple high-level monsters at the same time but for now, I had to defeat the three-horned horse and witness how long the three-horned horse could withstand my attacks.
It was my first time to activate the [Surpass Limits] skill so I might as well test the power and backslash of this temporary boosted power of mine.
I forwarded both of my hands and accumulated mana from my mana pool a meter away from my hands. I imitated the three-horned horse's mana sphere but instead of three, I only created one to focus the mana sphere's power.
A small mana sphere was created in front of my hands and the small mana sphere became bigger at a much faster rate than the huge three-horned horse's three mana spheres.
After ten seconds had passed, the mana sphere I had created was at the same size as one of the huge three-horned horse's three mana spheres.
I launched the huge mana sphere in front of me towards the huge three-horned horse. The huge mana sphere collided with one of the huge three-horned horse's three mana spheres.
The huge mana sphere's collision with one of the huge three-horned horse's three mana spheres caused an explosion and afterward, the other two huge mana spheres on top of the huge three-horned horse exploded and the explosion resulted in a chain reaction.
Unfortunately for the huge three-horned horse, the huge three-horned horse's three mana sphere including my own huge mana sphere attack exploded near its head so the huge three-horned horse received the explosion of four huge mana spheres with only the huge three-horned horse's bare body
The huge three-horned horse had not activated a defense of some sort on its body since its mana expenditure was too focused on charging its three huge mana spheres.
Since the huge three-horned horse was stunned by the explosion of four huge mana spheres, I quickly ran towards the huge three-horned horse while concentrating my mana towards my right hand and directing it towards the huge three-horned horse.