The Devil"s Evolution Catalog Chapter 58: A Fierce Battle with the Ratman Boss {Draft}
No matter who it was, whether it was the one-star imps or the two-star One-eye, none of them stood a chance against the rampaging locomotive known as the ratman boss. It barely took him a second for him to knock aside anyone who got in his way.
A portion of the large imps were so terrified that they lost their will to fight. All they could do was stand there in a daze, dumbly watching as the rodent charged towards me.
"Master be careful!"
"Master stand back!"
No.3 and Big 4 shouted as they rushed out to shield me. From the moment they saw him break into a charge, they had already adopted a vigilant stance. In just a short span of time, the formidable rodent had already knocked aside ten more imps as if they were nothing more than bowling pins.
He had come. After forcing his way through hundreds of my imps, he was now a measly 50 meters away from me. At this distance, I could feel his hatred filled eyes boring into me.
He picked up his pace even further. With just a few more seconds before he reaches me, there"s no longer any need for hesitation or caution. He charged, the fury in his eyes growing more oppressive with each step he took.
My heart skipped a beat as the sheer ferocity of his gaze stunned me for a second. Focus! I forcefully suppressed my body"s discomfort.
Bone Wall!
Just as he was about to collide with No.3 and Big 4, I erected my bone walls. Three ma.s.sive bone walls rose out of the ground in a flurry of bone fragments and dust. Due to the sheer speed of the ratman, I couldn"t channel too much mana into these walls thus resulting in the walls being significantly thinner than I would like.
While it definitely couldn"t stop his charge, hindering him for a second should be possible.
As the bone wall rose up without warning, the ratman boss"s feet landed right on top of it, abruptly halting his stride, causing him to trip and nearly fall from the loss of balance. However, the ratman immediately reacted to this by stomping down on the brittle wall, crushing it in an instant before continuing his charge, leaving the bone wall to continue its pointless ascent.
While this bone wall didn"t slow the ratman down by much, it still succeeded in delaying him for a second.
The timing of the bone wall must"ve also been perfect as the ratman"s pacing had been significantly disrupted by that minor trip. As he struggled to maintain his furious speed, he staggered a few steps before finally giving up and adopting a more primitive beastlike stance.
"Chit Chit Chit!!"
It was still the same old chittering from the ratman but at this moment, he seemed more like a terrifying dragon from the legends.
Having adopted a b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l charge, his ferocity rose even further. He tore through the remaining two bone walls as if they were paper and continued his charge unhindered.
"Go and die!"
No. 3 and Big 4 roared as he dashed to meet the ratman head on. Unfortunately, their lack of an arm made them that much weaker than One-eye. With a slight acceleration on his part, the ratman easily sent them flying.
With the two hindrances gone, his focus locked back onto me.
At this very moment, the only person who could protect me was the snow white puppy standing beside me. However, there"s no way this newborn puppy could possibly stand up to this ferocious charge.
Just based on the size difference alone, he could probably stomp her to death.
"Stop him!"
In the heat of the moment, I had almost forgotten that I still had one more trump card to play. As I looked at the silent grimoire, I pinned my last hopes on it and tossed it at the rat in what was my version of the hail mary throw.
Who knew that this b.a.s.t.a.r.d would immediately betray my hopes. After flying for a mere two meters, it immediately flew back at me. It even flew above me, to a height where I couldn"t reach even if I jumped!
"Hey! ヽ(ಠ_ಠ)ノWhat are you trying to pull here! It"s a crucial moment right now, if you don"t help, I"m going to die!"
As I hastily backpedalled, my right arm hugging the devil egg still, I yanked on the bone chain connected to my left arm, hoping that it would be enough to drag that little b.a.s.t.a.r.d back down. However, the grimoire stubbornly refused to come down, leaving me in an awkward situation.
As all these happened, the ratman was still charging towards me. Without any other option left, I decided to take a gamble and activated my untested ability ----Shadow Guardian.
As the mana instantly drained from my body, the shadow behind me began to stir of its own accord.
By now, I could see the whites of the ratman"s eyes. His mouth widened as if he was going to swallow me whole and howled with that rancid breath of his.
The shadow guardian swiftly elongated itself and coiled itself around the ratman like a giant python. With a raise of his shadowy scythe-like hands, he hacked ruthlessly at the ratman"s neck. However, this was merely a minor obstacle to the ratman.
He violently writhed around and a split second later, tore through the shadowy binding and began to attack me once more.
He dove at me head and claws first. Up close, I finally felt the brunt of his oppressive, murderous aura. As my head blanked out in fright, I fell on my b.u.t.t and dumbly stared at the impending doom, any thoughts of crawling away, totally forgotten.
Is this the end? If there"s no other surprises, I"m definitely dying the very next second. No! I must hold on even if it"s just for one more second.
The shadow guardian only requires a second to reform after being destroyed; all it cost me was more mana.
As the shadowy figure stirred from my shadow, it turned into a serpentine figure once more and coiled around the ratman. I knew the result would probably be the same. The shadow guardian is just not able to match this rat so all this is just a futile endeavor. All it could do was buy me one extra second of life.
By now, my vision was filled with his furry visage.
I"m going to die again...there"s no one left to save me this time...by the way, why aren"t I dead yet? It"s already been several seconds.
Hey, what"s with the mime show. If you are going to kill me, just do it, why must you mock me!
Wait...something seems off. Why isn"t he killing me. It certainly looks like he"s trying, his claws are shaking from his tremendous effort right now but something seems to be holding him back.
"Did that scare you?"
Violet Snow"s deadpan voice rang out beside my legs. As I lowered my eyes to look at her, I caught a glance of the mysterious force holding back the rat.
Unbeknownst to me, both of his feet had been fully encased in ice.
"This...this is your doing!?"
My eyes widened in disbelief as I gazed at the harmless-looking puppy before me. She actually managed to bind this Boss-level monster.
"Chit chit chit!"
The ratman boss continued with his violent struggling and finally after a few more seconds, the ice began to crack as he pulled out his bound legs. At the same time, the shadow guardian binding him was dispersed as well. Without the ice holding him back, the shadow guardian stood no chance on its own.
Upon regaining his freedom, he immediately tumbled away, at the spot where he once was, was a pile of ice residue.
"Chit chit chit chit!"
The ratman chittered angrily at me before resuming his murderous rampage. However, his target was no longer me but the white puppy beside me.
Violent Snow calmly raised her right front paw and slapped the ground. An icy stalagmite rose from the ground the very next instant and rushed towards the rodent"s belly. The ratman immediately tumbled away, dodging it at the last second. Having extended to its maximum range of two meters, the stalagmite was no longer able to reach the ratman.
He resumed his charge but Violet Snow was already way ahead of him. As she opened her adorable little puppy mouth, she breathed out a frosty cloud of ice shards. Seeing the razor sharp ice residue hurtle towards him, the ratman immediately jumped to the side and latched onto the wall beside him.
With a casual lift of his claws, he continued his charge while scaling the wall like a gecko!
That icy gale only took a second of her time. Seeing that it failed to restrain the ratman, she immediately dodged backwards. As if she had predicted his moves, right as she did so, the ratman landed on the very spot she just occupied a second ago.
As he busied himself with Violet Snow, I wasn"t standing idly by the side either. I began channeling my fireball. However, this was a slow casting spell. Furthermore, this rat seemed to possess an agility inconsistent with his burly stature, making this a tough shot to make.
Even so, this was the only spell I had, that could hurt him right now. If I didn"t use this spell, I will have nothing left to cast.
Having missed his mark entirely, the ratman boss stood still for a moment as he searched around for Violet Snow. Naturally, this once in a lifetime opportunity didn"t go unnoticed by me. I locked onto him with my eyes and immediately shot out the basketball-sized fireball at him.
As the fireball hurtled towards him, he began to feel the heat singe his hairs slightly. He instantly knew what was coming towards him. Without even turning his head, he attempted to dodge to the side. However, this bit of rashness cost him dearly as Violent Snow took this opportunity to strike at him.
From the moment she dodged backwards, Violet Snow begun concentrating mana in her mouth. Just as the rat landed on the ground, she shot out a basketball-sized ball of ice. The iceball careened through the air and crashed into the ratman"s legs before he managed to dodge my fireball.
*Bang*
The iceball shattered loudly upon impact and instantly encased the ratman"s legs in a thin layer of ice, preventing him from moving. The next moment, my fireball crashed into his back. As the scorching flames burnt into his back, the rat howled in pain but unfortunately for him, no amount of howling could reduce the damage.
"Chit chit chit!"
The ratman seemed to have noticed that he was clearly outmatched in this two versus one match. He gave us a furious glare before turning around and trying to leave.
"Don"t even think of escaping!"
"Where do you think you"re going!"
My two little potatoes, No.3 and Big 4 showed up once more to try and stop him. Having not learnt their lesson from their previous encounter, the two one-armed heroes charged at the ratman with their large swords raised high and...they were knocked away once more…
Lucky for them, the ratman boss was busy trying to escape and had no time to finish these two off. A moment later, the two of them got to their feet and glared helplessly at the slowly disappearing back of the ratman boss as it faded into the chaotic battlefield.
With the unexpected retreat of their boss, the Abbadon Rodents" morale instantly plummeted and they began to flee for their lives as well. Now that their leader was gone, no one was stupid enough to stay behind and fight to the death. After 10 minutes of chasing after them, this battle was drawn to a close.
Footnotes:
TL: Since callmecat (editor/guy in charge of website stuff) is busy on a date with hurricane Irma, the chapters will have to released in draft form. I"ve done some proofreading but if you notice any glaring mistakes , please contact me via the contact us page.
Credits:
Special thanks to Steve Granger, Ichitsuzen, and LaRue Martin!!