End Online: Volume 6 (25 page)

“Each of you are weak, so
you rely on numbers,” Ladon growls in anger. “Allow me to show you what true
power is!”

Wind coalesces around
Ladon at a speed incomparable to earlier, but instead of forming a defensive
storm around him, it shifts into a strange, green cocoon. It bursts soon after,
and a giant serpent emerges from within.

No, the serpent is Ladon,
the same as Fen was originally a white winter wolf. This serpent, however, is
much larger than Fen’s original form. Ladon is 20 meters long and two meters
thick. His greenish-black scales are sharp enough that they seem to cut the
light around them into pieces, creating a kaleidoscopic visage.

On the serpent’s back are
two dark green wings that form from the remains of the condensed wind cocoon,
granting him the ability of flight and extremely quick movements.

Unsure of his changes, I
quickly use ‘Creature Analysis’ to examine the transformed Ladon. It didn’t
work on the AIs when they are in human form, but fortunately it does when they
are in their original appearance. My skill reveals the stats of the transformed
Ladon:

I stare in disbelief at
the figures in front of me. This isn’t just fighting a difficult boss, this is
fighting an impossible boss. Even though he only has forty percent health
remaining, that is still around sixty thousand health points.

A sense of despair wells
up inside of me, as our defeat and Fen’s death is the only possible result to
this scenario my mind can come up with. I want to run and bring Fen somewhere
safe, but I know that is not possible anymore. We have already forced Ladon
into a position where he had to transform; there is no way we can escape.

I recall the time where I
saw Grael’s stats, and now feel like something is off. Ladon’s health, magic,
and stamina are all higher than Grael’s. Does that mean he is stronger? That
can’t be possible, Grael is an Emperor Class AI while Ladon is only King Class.
There should be a colossal difference between them in Grael’s favor.

‘Is it possible that
the stats I saw for Grael are false? I can’t believe that. We already have such
a small chance of getting the first tablet back off him, but that would make it
even more ridiculously impossible. Or could it be something else that I am
missing?’

While completely lost in
my own thoughts and emotions, a wall of ice a full meter thick suddenly
materializes in front of me. The change brings me back to reality but before I
can move, Ladon’s serpent tail flickers through the air and collides with the
ice wall, shattering and sending shards of ice in all directions.

Our entire party is sent
flying back from the collision, but fortunately the ice wall did protect us
from nearly all the damage. My ‘Partial Draconic Transformation’ also hits its
time limit and disperses, causing me to fall to the ground and splash water
everywhere.

“Lost!” Fen call out in a
panic and rushes beside me.

“I’m fine. But he’s so
strong, his health has become enormous after transforming. ‘Creature Analysis’
showed that even with forty percent health left, he still has sixty thousand
health. Fen... I know I keep telling you to stay safe and am always trying to
protect you, but this time, whether we win or lose, it will depend on you.”

“I’ll be fine. Let me
protect you this time.”

Fen gives me a smile that
despite her ice cold countenance, causes me to feel incomparable warmth in my
chest. I know this feeling well, it is the feeling of love, the kind for which
one would do anything for the other.

“Please, just one thing...
Don’t die.”

Fen turns around to face
Ladon but refuses to respond. I can tell she plans on sacrificing herself for
some selfish reason rather than let me die, even though I will respawn if I do.

Chronix’s party attacks
Ladon from behind with a torrent of heavy attacks, sparing no quarter. The
serpent’s health only drops by a sliver, barely a single percent, but at least
it’s progress. I pay attention to the fact that despite his health explosively
increasing, his defense seems to have dropped to a bare minimum.

Ladon reacts violently,
twisting through the air to avoid any more attacks and opening his enormous
serpent mouth to shoot dozens of wind arrows at Chronix’s party. The players
try to defend against the attack, but their defenses instantly crumble and
force them to drop to the ground in order to avoid as many arrows as possible.
Even with all their efforts, every one of them lost nearly half of their health
from a single attack.

Beside me Fen keels over,
her form growing quickly as she transforms into a giant wolf. She becomes three
meters tall and seven long, much bigger than I remember. Not only that, but she
has a crown of ice and several sections of her body are covered in an armor of
razor sharp ice thorns. The change is enormous, catching everyone, including
myself, by surprise. Of course, the most surprised are Gladox and Chronix’s
party, who have never seen her in wolf form before.

“Lost, she seems
different,” Sir Laurence splashes through the water as he approaches.

“Mmm, I know.”

“Care to explain?”

“Not really, I’m not too
sure myself.”

I do have some
speculations, mainly that Fen is constantly growing and getting stronger, but
it is still only a hypothesis.

Wolf-form Fen raises her
head high and bellows a high pitched howl that causes my ears to ring. The
temperature in the area drops significantly as if in response to her call, and
even the moon in the sky takes on a dim blue glow.

Fen starts walking towards
Ladon, the shallow water freezing beneath her paws with just a touch. From the
frozen water around her ice grows as if it was alive, turning into nine
transparent sculptures that perfectly resemble herself down to the last detail.
Those sculptures then come to life, moving in unison with her.

Ladon stares intently at
her, the wind around him coalescing into a thousand small wind serpents. The
two sides stare at each other, completely ignoring everyone else in the area.
They both have around forty percent health left, but Fen only has a little more
than thirty thousand health, which is significantly less than Ladon’s nearly
sixty thousand.

“You are foool
sss
to attack. I am near tran
sss
enden
ccc
e, about to reach the level
sss
of emperor! You
sss
hould kneel in my pre
sss
en
ccc
e!,”
Ladon’s voice slithers from his mouth with a series of hisses, warning Fen of
their difference.

Fen ignores him and is the
first to attack, howling savagely and causing ice spears, no, ice stalactites
the size of tree trunks, to form in every direction around Ladon like a cage.
The icy stalactites in the air plunge towards their target, creating a
whistling sound in the frigid air as they pierce at Ladon from every
conceivable angle, not giving him a single chance to evade.

It appears that Ladon no
longer has his instantaneous movement now that he is in his massive serpent
form, else he would have used it to escape. Instead, he flicks his tail through
the air like the grim reaper’s scythe, shattering any of the ice stalactites it
passes. He manages to take out a third of the attacks, but the rest still land
on his body.

The exploding ice blends
together, creating a coffin of crystal that looks like it would last for
eternity. It doesn’t even look like ice any more.

Unfortunately, faint
cracking sounds can be heard as the crystal coffin shows stress fractures
quickly crawling across its surface.. Ladon then breaks free, shattering the
coffin into hundreds of glistening crystal shards as he charges up into the air
and hisses loudly.

“Eternal i
ccc
e!
How!?”

I notice that Ladon’s
health has dropped by ten percent, which elates me, but Fen is panting and
seems out of breath as if the last attack put a great strain on her. Just the
one strong attack has evened the playing field, but I don’t know if she will be
able to do it again.

Ladon twists in the air,
coiling around himself while ascending. He floats up until he’s brushing the
leafy canopy above before swinging his tail again, unleashing a torrent of wind
blades similar to his swordlight blades but massively greater in size and
power.

I nod to Sir Laurence and
Gladox, and we charge forward together to try and defend against the attack. I
am pushed back by strong gales of wind. Gladox is also blown backwards, but Sir
Laurence manages to stand firm with the support of his heavy armor.

Sir Laurence defiantly
pushes against the wind and thrusts his shield forward as it flashes brightly.
The holy light from the shield coalesces into a translucent shield array in
front of Fen to ward off the incoming attacks.

The defense is one of the
strongest I have seen him use, but at the same time, I notice his mana
completely depleting in the party screen.

‘I see, a shield that
has strength dependent on the amount of mana sacrificed.’

It is a last ditch effort
on Sir Laurence’s part, but it does help. It manages to block half of the
incoming attacks before finally breaking apart. To be able to defend against
such a powerful onslaught, I can’t even begin to imagine the strength it had.

Fen tiredly evades to the
side moments later, dodging half of the remaining wind blades, but still being
hit by the rest. Her remaining health drops by 35 percent from the attack, but
she appears to have summoned back her strength after her previous attack. It is
only regrettable that her mana is still low and hasn’t recovered.

Ladon isn’t exhausted at
all after his attack, even though it was equal in power to Fen’s. He continues
attacking with windstorms, eventually summoning a tornado that cuts apart the
surroundings mercilessly. Ladon’s attack is about to reach me as well, but a
tombstone like block of ice suddenly erupts from the frozen ground and protects
me.

“Fen, just focus on
Ladon!” I shout at Fen over the sound of the tempest, worried that she will be
hurt for trying to protect me.

No ice emerged around Sir
Laurence, Gladox, or Verde, and they are quickly blown away. Sir Laurence is
the closest and is nearly killed by a single attack, while Gladox’s health is
high enough that he isn’t gravely harmed. Verde is the most unfortunate. With
already low health and armor defense as low as mine, she is instantly killed,
turning into motes of light and leaving her gold behind.

I stare wide eyed and
slack jawed at the pile of gold Verde had. I want to recover it, but the
tornado sweeps it up like so much rubbish and scatters the coins to the sky
where they rain down across the entire forest.

Fen counters Ladon’s
tornado with an equally powerful ice storm, but it isn’t as concentrated as the
tornado. The tornado dominates the ice storm, and I fear the worst, but as I
watch, I notice the ice shards and wind infiltrating the tornado, turning it
icy blue and slowing down the momentum.

Not long after, the
tornado completely stops, revealing Ladon inside covered in sharp ice shards.

Ladon emits a shrill hiss
from the sky before darting down at Fen like a bolt of lightning. Fen bares her
fangs and lets out a resounding howl, filling the night with the sounds of her
call. She meets Ladon’s tail thrust with her claws, forcefully pulling the
serpent out of the air and onto the frozen swamp.

Ladon flails about in her
claws, trying to free himself while at the same time trying to bite down on her
body with his enormous fangs that would probably impale her. It is then that I
realize that both of them are out of mana, forcing them to fight tooth and
claw.

Fen and Ladon entwine
together as each tries to take the advantageous position. Both of their health
points are dropping at a steady pace, but at this rate, it will be Fen who
falls first.

‘Hmm, where’s Chronix
and his party?’ I ask myself as I notice the lack of Chronix’s party’s
presence. ‘It doesn’t matter, if he’s gone, that will be less trouble later.
Perhaps he died in the earlier attack.’

I carefully watch Fen and
Ladon’s struggle, not allowing my eyes to turn away from their depleting health
bars. With both nearly out of health points and my heart about to burst out of
my chest in anxiety, Ladon manages to gain the upper hand on Fen with his
versatile serpent body and pins her down.