In a single, synchronized motion, Eric and Raymond launched themselves at the monster like human projectiles. Their swords sliced through the air with a deadly whistle, severing both of the colossus's muscular arms in half.
Blue blood sprayed like a profane fountain, splattering the air and ground, as the monster emitted a deafening screech, a sound that tore through the air as if a thousand sharp knives stabbed into our ears and pierced our brains.
The floor, already cracked and littered with debris from previous battles, was soaked in pools of blood that spread like dark veins of a dying organism. Despite its devastating wounds, the monster remained an imposing and menacing presence, its arms outstretched like a grotesque crucifix and its legs still trapped in ice, as if struggling desperately to break free from its crystalline prison.
At its feet, the ground was fractured in multiple spots, with small craters marking where its attacks had struck with force capable of pulverizing stone. Around the giant, the bodies of our comrades lay motionless like broken dolls, some with tattered clothes and shattered armor offering no protection, others with frozen expressions of pain or surprise that would remain so for eternity.
Blood splattered their pale faces and pooled beneath them, while weapons like swords, shields, and spears lay scattered, some still clutched by lifeless hands, as if death had caught them mid-fight, denying them even a final stand.
"It stopped moving! Don't give it time to recover!" someone shouted from the crowd of survivors. "Let's finish it together!"
Eight figures emerged from their strategic positions, surrounding the monster with fierce determination blazing in their eyes like flames of war.
Warriors, knights, and assassins moved with superhuman speed that defied the laws of physics, wielding their weapons with unique skills forged through years of brutal training, while mages and sorcerers prepared spells that lit the chamber with flashes of multicolored light.
They were giving everything, putting their lives on the line to end the creature once and for all, sacrificing everything for victory.
"Not yet! Don't rush in!" I roared, my voice laden with the fury I had been suppressing throughout the battle. An indescribable rage burned within me, making the veins in my neck and forehead bulge under the pressure.
Nothing was going as planned. Every move, every decision, seemed to lead us closer to total disaster. It was as if fate itself conspired against us.
Suddenly, from the monster's severed arms sprouted multiple tentacles, like nightmares made real, each a pale, translucent blue pulsing with a life of its own, unfurling with the speed of a whip in a torrential rain of blue blood.
The creature swung its mutilated arms, and a dozen tentacles lashed toward us at a terrifying speed that turned the air into a blur, closing the distance in less than a blink.
In the center of this renewed massacre, the head of a man with night-black hair and features marked by years of combat flew through the air, severed in an instant, as blood sprayed like a macabre fountain painting the walls red.
The others were caught in a web of writhing, flexible tentacles, twisting like living snakes feeding on human flesh, crushing and tearing with relentless fury that knew no mercy.
The tentacles struck with the speed and rage of frenzied carnivorous eels, moving in a frenzy that seemed to stretch time itself to its limits. In the heart of the renewed carnage, a warrior with a face hidden under a tattered straw hat wielded his sword with savage fury bordering on desperation, slashing the air and leaving a trail of blood that splattered in all directions like a grotesque work of art.
Around us, fighters fell one after another like dominoes. One knelt, a deep gash in his chest revealing the glistening pulse of his internal organs. Another stood with difficulty, his right hand enveloped in a flickering orange fireball that sparked intermittently, briefly illuminating his pain-hardened features.
A third warrior, in blood-soaked dark clothes and a staggering posture betraying internal injuries, fell backward, his sword still gripped but utterly useless, as blood gushed from an open wound in his abdomen like an unstoppable fountain.
I stepped back several places, gasping for breath as my lungs struggled for oxygen, dodging the tentacles raining around me like spears of flesh and death.
My armor was severely dented in several places, and blood dripped from a deep wound in my shoulder, staining the ground a dark red that mingled with existing pools to form a macabre mosaic.
"Idiots, you shouldn't have gotten carried away!" Eric shouted, strategically positioned behind Raymond, his face contorted with accumulated rage and the exhaustion that had overtaken his body like a disease.
The survivors watched the monster with wide eyes like saucers, pupils dilated by visceral fear and paralyzing awe. Their arched brows reflected absolute disbelief, their half-open mouths and trembling lips betraying exponentially growing anxiety with each passing second.
Their bodies, tense and rigid like marble statues, executed jerky, nervous movements, clear evidence of a mental state on the brink of collapse. Yet, despite the fear consuming them, all were ready to strike at any moment, clinging desperately to the faint hope of surviving this floor.
"Fall back, all of you," I said, stepping forward decisively with my spear firmly gripped in my right hand. "If we advance thoughtlessly, all we'll achieve is needlessly increasing the body count. I'll handle this."
[Private attribute activated: The Man Who Overcame Adversity]
I activated my private attribute fully aware of its severe limitations and the terrible toll my body would pay if I exceeded the set time limit. From bitter experience in past battles, I knew its effect would last exactly ten minutes before the dire consequences began manifesting in my body like a slow poison.
Without further unnecessary delay, I lunged forward, straight toward the beating heart of the giant. The tentacles descended on me like ravenous predators scenting fresh blood, as if they had been patiently waiting for me to come close enough to tear me apart.
Each descending tentacle produced a sharp, terrifying whistle, slicing the air like razor-sharp blades seeking human flesh. Though none struck me directly due to my superhuman speed, the wind displaced by their violent motion cut my exposed skin, leaving fine red lines that burned like liquid fire, reminding me that death lurked mere centimeters away.
With feline agility honed through years of brutal training, I leaped to dodge the dozen tentacles falling like guillotines hungry for human blood.
Each impact left deep craters in the stone floor, and the air itself vibrated with the tremendous force of the appendages crashing against it. Seizing a fleeting moment in its defense, I drove my spear into one of the main tentacles, feeling the viscous resistance of its unnatural flesh clinging to my weapon.
The appendage split with a wet, utterly repulsive sound, writhing on the ground like an independent, autonomous creature, still alive even severed from the main body. The sensation of cutting through that dense, fibrous flesh sent a shiver of revulsion down my spine like an electric current.
These tentacles, roughly twenty meters long, were incredibly tough and moved at a ridiculous speed that defied all logic. If my spear weren't the specific one I was using, my body would have been utterly shredded. Time was my most dangerous enemy; if I delayed too long in ending this, I wouldn't withstand the consequences.
With an explosive burst, I kicked the cracked floor and moved in a blur of speed invisible to the human eye, effortlessly dodging the dozen tentacles shooting toward me like deadly projectiles.
In less than a second, I was in front of the monster. The creature, gripped by panic, began charging an attack from its cavernous mouth. At less than three meters away, the sheer amount of energy it amassed was simply terrifying and unnatural. I had no doubt: if that attack hit me directly, not even my ashes would remain to mark my existence.
The monster unleashed its attack with the fury of a thousand demons, and the chamber shook as if a meteor had struck directly. A blinding light spread through the space, accompanied by a cloud of dust that completely obscured vision. The roar was deafening, as if the chamber itself were tearing apart from its foundations to its ceiling.
"Arceus!" I heard someone shout from behind.
As the dust gradually settled, a crater over twenty meters in radius was revealed at the chamber's exact center. To untrained eyes, it might not seem like much, but it was only possible because the chambers of the Tower of Paradise were specifically designed to be extremely resilient, capable of withstanding even the attacks of boss monsters like this without structural collapse.
I was upside down, clinging to the chamber's ceiling over ten meters high, carefully observing the three-meter-deep crater that had formed. The giant swung its tentacles through the air, desperately searching for its prey lost amid the dust and debris.
Without wasting a precious instant, I launched myself to the ground like a human arrow, my spear firmly gripped in my right hand. The creature was facing away, and by the time it finally sensed my threatening presence, it was too late for any defense.
I concentrated most of my stellar energy into my arm, infusing the spear with a glow that formed a three-meter-long blade from its tip, a blade of pure stellar light. I let my weapon descend from the air like divine retribution, cleaving the space with unstoppable force.
My spear pierced the giant's body, splitting it in half with a gut-wrenching scream that echoed like a tragic lament. The force of the impact cracked the floor three meters deep, while a storm of blue blood rained around us, splattering the marble and walls with an otherworldly glow. The boss monster's body collapsed with a thunderous crash that shook the chamber, a vanquished titan whose fall trembled the very air.
"Well done!"
"It's finally over!"
"We did it! We defeated it!"
The survivors, cautiously gathered around the smoking crater, erupted into cheers. Their voices, filled with profound relief and extreme exhaustion, echoed through the chamber, a glimmer of hope amid the carnage we had witnessed.