In the blink of an eye, Li Xiuman was caught completely off guard, bound tightly by tentacles coming from all directions and unable to move.
“Roar, roar, roar!”
The monster roared, and with its cry, all its tentacles tightened their grip.
“Creak, creak!”
An ominous creaking sound echoed from every bone in his body.
Li Xiuman hurriedly activated the Giant's Belt.
He felt somewhat fortunate that he had equipped the belt the very moment he obtained it.
The Giant's Belt's Giantification, after all, possessed the ability to break free from restraints.
He had allowed himself to be bound on purpose just to test this ability, yes!
“Giant...ification!”
The dark grey belt around his waist began to glow.
Li Xiuman's body, along with his clothes and equipment, rapidly expanded as the magic took effect.
The tentacles wrapped around his body were instantly forced open and broken by his expanding frame.
It wasn't just Li Xiuman's body that grew; the equipment and weapons on his person expanded as well.
Li Xiuman grabbed one of the tentacles, tucked it under his arm, and slashed down with Crystal Orchid.
The sharp blade sliced through the entire tentacle, severing it completely.
“Flameification!”
The Fire Lizardman Armguard activated.
Majestic flames erupted from Li Xiuman's massive body, wrapping around him.
With a twirl of Crystal Orchid, the frost on its blade transformed into precision dragon fire.
He raised the wand in his left hand and aimed it at the monster.
“Tier 2 Magic, Molten Eruption!”
A massive, fiery-red magic circle expanded in front of him, shrouding Li Xiuman's giant body behind it.
“Roar!”
The monster continued to thrust out tentacle after tentacle.
As Li Xiuman's magic circle began to rotate slowly, the fiery-red lava coalesced into a pillar of molten rock, pouring down diagonally toward the monster.
The molten pillar collided with the tentacles.
With a sizzling sound, the monster's tentacles were coated in a layer of scalding lava.
The pain did not make the monster falter.
As if immune to pain, it whipped its lava-covered tentacles around.
Holding his wand in one hand, Li Xiuman maintained the magic circle, continuously spewing lava.
In his other hand, he swung the enlarged Crystal Orchid, slashing with dragon fire.
Flames also continued to billow from his body, as if he were clad in a suit of fiery armor.
He looked like a god of fire descending upon the earth.
As the tentacles clashed with his fiery blade, their speed grew faster and faster, to the point where Li Xiuman's eyes could barely keep up with their trajectory.
Ultimately, Li Xiuman had to rely on the flashing red warning light of the Omen Crystal on his wrist to predict the timing of the oncoming tentacles and slice through them with Crystal Orchid.
From a distance, one could only see a giant mass of flames continuously spewing lava, colliding time and again with the tentacles of the massive monster.
“My strength... is starting... to falter.”
For the first time, Li Xiuman found himself on the losing end of a contest of physical stamina.
The monster simply didn't seem to tire, and the wounds on its body healed at a rapid pace.
No matter what kind of damage Li Xiuman dealt to it, it felt entirely futile.
In a high-intensity battle like this, both Li Xiuman's physical and mental strength were depleting rapidly.
He absolutely couldn't let this drag on any longer.
Cleaving through another sweeping tentacle, Li Xiuman waved his wand and stopped the spewing lava.
“Golems!”
A large number of golems dropped from mid-air—totaling more than ten—rushing toward the tentacled monster from all directions.
These golems were all of Li Xiuman's special creations, kept in his storage space.
Every single one of them was embedded with a Tier 2 magic stone; they were definitely not ordinary.
The tentacled monster swept its tentacle and blew up two of them instantly.
...Please don't perform like ordinary goods!
“Number Zero!”
Number Zero rushed out, caught the greatsword Li Xiuman tossed to it, and charged at the very front.
It braced its Shield of the King to block tentacle after tentacle, looking a bit disheveled but holding its ground.
Taking advantage of the horde of golems drawing attention, Li Xiuman charged directly toward the monster's main body.
“Water!”
Several more Water Mage Golems were pulled out, standing behind Li Xiuman. They raised their hands to form blue water magic circles.
“Tier 2 Water Magic, Flowing Water!”
A vast amount of flowing water was condensed, turning into a massive sphere of water that hovered behind Li Xiuman.
At this moment, the three-minute limit of Li Xiuman's Fire Lizardman Armguard was up, and the flames enveloping his body slowly died down.
“Tier 2 Magic, Water Prison!”
A blue magic circle instantly expanded at the tip of his wand.
The giant water sphere behind him also extended several thick tentacles of water, reaching toward the monster's main body.
The magic stones in the chests of all the Water Mage Golems glowed brilliantly as they collectively concentrated the water elements in the surrounding atmosphere, condensing more water and injecting it into the giant water sphere.
“Roar!”
The monster roared, deploying tentacles of its own to fight against Li Xiuman's water tentacles.
The water tentacles and the dark, fleshy tentacles clashed, wrapping and intertwining with each other.
Li Xiuman gripped his wand tightly, controlling the water to form circular Water Prisons around several tentacles, enveloping a segment of them.
“Tier 1 Magic, Water Burst!”
“Boom.”
With a muffled boom from the water explosion, the tentacles were all blasted apart.
A large volume of flowing water took the opportunity to wrap around the tentacled monster's main body, binding it layer by layer.
Before it could be fully wrapped, he had no choice but to force another Water Burst.
“Tier 1 Magic, Water Burst!”
Because the wrapping wasn't complete, the power of the Water Burst was far from ideal, only causing the tentacled monster's body to sway slightly.
But Li Xiuman seized the opportunity. He dived toward the monster's main body, protected his vital spots, and slammed hard against its meaty bulk.
Crystal Orchid pierced deep into the monster's flesh as well.
“Crystal Orchid, bear with me for just a bit.”
The dragon fire within him transformed back into frost, and a layer of ice quickly spread from where the blade had pierced, aiming to freeze the tentacled monster's main body.
“Prince Sword, you too!”
The Rib Sword was also drawn and stabbed into the other side.
Next, Li Xiuman fished out the blood he had collected from Fantes, enough to fill several wine bottles.
He poured all of it onto the monster in one go.
At last, he went so far as to pull out Fantes's corpse directly, crushing it into a paste, and with a splat, smeared the remaining mush evenly over the monster's main body.
As he smeared it, he muttered.
“Dante's Board Game Facial Mask—guaranteed to satisfy.”
After saying this, Li Xiuman felt quite pleased with himself, rubbing his chin as he began to ponder.
“Could it be... that I actually have a great sense of humor?”
It was more of a talent for lame jokes, actually.
The monster's body began to vibrate violently.
From the areas smeared with the 'mask' and 'serum,' the surface of its fleshy body began to rot, chunk by chunk.
The monster entered its final frenzy, sweeping away all the golems with its tentacles, desperately trying to break free from Li Xiuman's hold.
It then crashed through a row of neighboring houses and charged toward the street on the other side.
Instead of running along the street,
it crashed straight through yet another row of houses and broke into the next street, seemingly trying to use the impact to throw Li Xiuman off its body.
“Dammit!”
Li Xiuman held onto the two weapons embedded in the monster's body with a death grip, preventing himself from being thrown off.
At the same time, he desperately channeled mana into Crystal Orchid, hoping to freeze the monster solid.
With several rows of houses collapsing behind them,
the evacuated citizens came into view up ahead.
They looked in absolute horror at the monster charging directly toward them.
“Scatter!”
Was it already too late?!
Rate on N.U.
