Chapter 248: Prepare to start Skellig’s real BOSS battle.
This corridor is narrow and gloomy. As soon as Lann and others entered, they felt a sour and rancid smell hitting their faces. While traveling, they would step on some unspeakable things from time to time.
Scattered around the corners were piles of bones: elk, snowshoe hare, wolf, bear, and even human skulls, leg bones, and other bones. This corridor is not connected to the outside world, and the air inside is turbid. It is obviously regarded as a warehouse by the ice trolls, and these bones are used by them as collections or decorations.
At this time, there is only one living person in this "warehouse".
"Harold!" East called out this living man's name in surprise.
Patriarch Harold, whom everyone had worked so hard to find, fell on a pile of bones, like a sack piled haphazardly. He has gray hair and a big beard, and has tattoos of family totems and beasts on his arms and back. His figure is extremely strong, especially the pair of forged arms that look like iron.
But at this moment, his hair has been condensed into strands by mud and ice, and large blood scabs have almost covered all of his tattoos, looking extremely miserable.
Immediately, Tursek guards strode forward to help the kidnapped Todaloch family lord, and began to carefully check his condition. After a while, they nodded slightly towards East.
"Still alive." The guard judged.
East breathed a sigh of relief.
Another guard who knew battlefield first aid continued to conduct a simple physical examination on Harold to determine whether he had any serious injuries and to deal with them in time to avoid secondary injuries when he was transported back.
But as long as the person is still alive and won't die for a while, then he can bring the Oak Ring back for treatment. If that doesn't work, there's Lann.
East was relieved. The mission into the mountain was completed. He rescued the patriarch of a big family who was kidnapped by monsters. Fortunately, he did not encounter an ice giant. Not even a single soldier was injured or injured. Everything went smoothly. Incredible.
Just when the soldiers were checking the situation, Harold's eyelids suddenly trembled a few times and he groaned.
"Who is...East?"
"It's me, you're saved." East squatted down and looked at the middle-aged man who still had fear on his face and comforted him.
Harold looked around with confused and flinching eyes, not relaxing at all because of East's words.
"Easter?" he repeated the question again.
"It's me." East continued very patiently, and at the same time motioned with his eyes to the guards around him to help Harold up and prepare to leave.
"No, East, you shouldn't have come!" Harold suddenly screamed miserably, "You don't understand, that monster, the ice giant, you don't understand what it looks like now!" "It doesn't matter
. Rhodes." East said softly, "We have not encountered the ice giant. After that, the seven major families will jointly send troops to destroy each other. No matter what kind of monster it is, there is no way to make an enemy of the entire Skellige."
They carried Harold back. The dark corridor was narrow and long, and the soldiers at the front held their torches high, but they still couldn't dispel the cold and haze in the snow-capped mountains.
Harold was delirious and half asleep during the transfer. But suddenly, he seemed to be enveloped in a nightmare:
"No, it will come back, East, you have to be faster!"
Harold screamed in horror. Before he finished speaking, an explosion suddenly came from ahead. sound.
Everyone's eyes suddenly condensed. Something happened to the troops stationed in the rear?
Lann and East looked at each other and suddenly quickened their pace. Soon, fire appeared from the front, and messy shouts of killing suddenly reached everyone's ears.
...
I don’t know since when, a steady stream of monsters came from the corridors from all directions towards the guards of the Tursek family stationed there.
There was only one kind of monster surrounding them. They looked like water ghosts, but they were more disgusting than water ghosts. The head is covered with bloated folds like a Shar-Pei dog, forming a hood of flesh. The sparse hair on the back of the head, as thick as an intestine, sways wildly as it jumps. The tendons and fascia directly exposed to the air are connected to form a shell of flesh and blood. The teeth are sharp and the ferocious appearance makes people feel chilled.
Rotten demon.
Tursek soldiers had encountered this kind of monster before when they supported the Todaloch family, but their number was very small at that time.
It seems that the Ice Giant's attack on the Todaloch family was a temporary move, and it did not take much time to assemble a group of monsters that it could command, so only the highly mobile Kraken followed - but in the end, they were captured by Lan with the help of soldiers and Drew. Yi was wiped out.
The rot-eating demons were unable to cross mountains due to their short hands and feet, so not many of them participated in the previous battles. But at this moment, they obviously have a nest nearby, so they gathered in large numbers to surround and suppress the Tursek soldiers here.
"Forward shield guards organize a formation, don't fight in close combat, use bows and arrows!" East was not around, and his adjutant took over the command. He had the experience of fighting against the Carrion Eater Demon before, and he had already mastered certain tricks.
Lan En was the fastest and had already reached the entrance of the cave. After hearing the adjutant's order, he couldn't help feeling like he was dead.
"You can't shoot arrows! This is a mine!" Lan shouted. "The rot demons are too dense. As long as one of them is detonated, it will immediately trigger a chain explosion, and this place will collapse!" "Lord Lannister
... ..." The soldiers who were holding their bows and arrows suddenly hesitated and fell into a dilemma.
Fortunately, Lann applied a layer of [Quen's Seal] to himself immediately, and then appeared at the forefront of the team with a flash of golden light. He opened his left palm and pinched the handprint of [Alder's Seal: Bone-piercing]. "We have found Harold, everyone should retreat in
the direction they came from!" East also ran out of the corridor at this time and ordered his troops loudly, "Leave this to Lan!"
It is the most spacious one, and the only one that does not have rot-eating demons emerging. They conducted detailed reconnaissance along the way to prevent the escape route from being blocked, and were sure that they could evacuate safely.
None of the soldiers who received the king's order had any objections and immediately began to exit the mine in an orderly manner.
...
Lann took a deep breath.
Although he took the lead, he actually had no idea whether he could prevent these rotten demons from exploding by freezing them into ice cubes in a [biting] blizzard.
But even if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter. Lann doesn't intend to kill these rotting demons. He just plans to use his own magic power to continuously and steadily spray the storm. The size of these rotting demons is enough to knock them away and delay their pace.
After all, the rotting demons are too deadly in this kind of terrain.
The other demon hunters obviously noticed Lann's plan. One person blocked a corridor and made hand signals at the same time, preparing to delay the evacuation of the army.
[Aldelfa...]
"Boom!"
- The rotting demon closest to Lann exploded without warning.
The shock wave and the rocks hit Lan En's protective [Quen's Seal], causing waves.
Behind the exploding rotten demon, several monsters were knocked to the ground by the shock wave of the explosion of their companions. Then their hands and feet began to twitch uncontrollably, and their disgusting and bloated bodies began to twitch like inferior balloons. The ground twisted and began to expand irregularly, as if there were several columns of gas rushing through their bodies.
Lan En's heart felt cold.
He was very sure that he had not done any aggressive behavior towards the rotting demon just now, but the rotting demon just exploded.
And there are more rotting demons in front of us to follow.
"Boom" "Boom" "Boom"
At the same time, the sounds of explosions were heard one after another in other corridors.
"Go forward at full speed!" East didn't know what happened here, but he knew that something unexpected must have happened. He quickly ordered the soldiers to take Harold out of the mine at full speed, and then he personally led the escort to break up the rear.
...
What exactly went wrong?
Lann continued to retreat, and the violent explosion had broken several beams and pine wood columns used for support. The other four demon hunters have also exited the corridors they were guarding, and rocks are constantly falling down inside.
"Something's wrong, there's something wrong with these rot demons!" Kolgrim shouted, "I didn't use the seal at all, and I didn't touch them at all, but they just exploded in front of me. I guess you are the same way. Situation!"
Cohen listened solemnly to the rumbling sounds around him, and looked at the falling rock dust and rocks: "Could it be that these rotten demons were seriously injured before, and they forced themselves to walk in front of us before detonating? "
They are not worried about themselves. They know that Lan can use the unique "Ancient Blood" to leave the mine at any time and summon them out.
"No, I didn't see any scars on these monsters. Even if there were, they weren't fatal to this extent." Gede denied the conjecture of his two companions. "It's more like they detonated themselves and launched a suicide attack." ——Just to cause the mine to collapse."
Gede looked up at the increasingly trembling mine and motioned for everyone to gather together and prepare to open the advanced protective shield of [Queen's Seal].
The Tursek guards who were the first to leave had already taken Harold out of the mine. They blew the horns to report the situation at this moment, which made East's face light up a little.
"Why do these rotten demons do this? This is not in line with the survival instinct of living things."
Geralt took a deep breath, and a suspicion came to his mind. He replied solemnly: "Unless there is an indisputable being who orders them to do this..."
Everyone's expressions changed. Who else in the mountains has this ability?
There is only one answer - ice giant.
So why did the Ice Giant order so many rotten demons to come to the mine at this time and launch a suicidal attack?
Lann's pupils shrank suddenly and he shouted at East: "Quickly alert the soldiers outside, a battle may break out at any time!"
East's adjutant raised the horn, but before he could blow it, there was a burst of despair and misery. The cry came in from outside first.
The long and narrow corridor trapped the sound inside, forming a response that lasted for a long time, causing cold sweat to break out in the hands of the soldiers still in the cave holding their swords.
The vibration inside became more and more violent, but this time the vibration did not come from the mine tunnels that were unstable due to the explosion, but from the underground.
It was as if the ground beneath their feet was being violently and regularly struck by someone. Muffled sounds were continuously transmitted from the bottom of everyone's greaves to their various senses. They knew that this was the pace of a giant.
Lan En's eyes glowed with bright emerald light, and he was ready to activate [Teleport] to transfer everyone out.
However, the next second, there was a loud sound like a landslide above their heads, and a skylight was cut out of the rock wall. It was not sunny outside, there was no light, only cold air and fist-sized boulders pouring in from the hole.
A rough, ugly, savage head with a face appeared in the hollow place. The head was huge, hard, and covered with folds that looked like cracks in the rock. It had an icy color, and a strand of brown-red hair grew out of the folds, like dead wood on the top of the mountain.
The face on top of the head has distorted features, widely spaced eyes, a short and thick nose, and a huge mouth with staggered teeth. Ferocity and ferocity are the messages conveyed by this face.
But at this moment, among all the oil paintings and illustrations, on this face that could scare a child to tears, a pair of eyes revealed an extremely uncoordinated look - that was confusion.
The confused eyes looked into the cave hall and uttered one word:
"God?"
...
"Easter..." Geralt swallowed, his voice trembling involuntarily, "Your Skellige's Giant...is it that big?"
Monsters that normally have the word "giant" in their scientific names, such as Cyclops, are actually only five or six meters tall at their peak.
But judging from the effect of the Ice Giant's appearance, this monster is definitely over ten meters tall. It can stand a big man on its shoulders, and ordinary people can only hit the opponent's knees when they jump up.
"No, I have seen descriptions of it in poems. It shouldn't be that high..." East murmured to himself, "It is... getting bigger again." Looking at the picture that suddenly
appeared ’s giant face, the emerald light on Lann’s body gradually extinguished.
Because in the hands of the ice giant, there was a person—Harold.
East's face suddenly darkened, and he could guess what the troops he had just evacuated experienced.
Just when everyone was stunned by the appearance of the Ice Giant, the Ice Giant was also looking into the cave through the skylight he opened. Its confused gaze came into contact with East, and then focused on the iron crown.
It looked at Harold, who had passed out in his hands, and then at East, and said the word again:
"God?"
The next second, in East's horrified eyes, an unknown ray of light came from The oak that appeared there tightly wrapped Harold, growing and deforming, and finally formed a wooden coffin. Then the Ice Giant opened his mouth wide and swallowed Harold and the entire oak coffin.
It hit its neck and chest hard, and coughed twice - as if it was choked. The huge sound of it hammering its body was heard far away, and everyone who heard it doubted that the force was enough to break the rock.
After doing all this, there seemed to be a sudden surge of momentum around the ice giant, and it stretched its hand through the hole, and the target was - East!
The guards all gathered in front of their king. Even if they faced a hand larger than theirs, even if their hands holding weapons trembled, they would defend their king to the death.
Fortunately, the next second, the familiar golden light flashed, and Lan appeared in mid-air. Relying on the strong core strength of his waist and abdomen to stay in the air for a short time, Lan raised the Sword of the Lake Lady in his hand above his head. After briefly accumulating strength for a breath, he slashed headlong into the ice giant's wrist.
"Cang-cang!"
A sound like the clash of gold and iron resounded in the cave.
With a "bang", something fell to the ground. Everyone looked closely and saw that it was a pair of wrist guards made of animal bones. It's just that the size of this wrist guard is really over the standard, and it's enough for ordinary people to use as armor.
This is the wrist guard of the Ice Giant. This giant has amazing intelligence and has begun to learn to use tools and even make simple armors - although the defense of this armor may not be as tough as the Ice Giant's own skin.
Lann cut open the ice giant's wrist guard, which was a matter of course. A long sword charged with [Rage Burst] is enough to break stone and iron, and a pair of wrist guards made of bones is no big deal.
The question is, did Rann hurt the ice giant?
No.
The lion-eyed demon hunter flew upside down in mid-air, and a huge reaction force was transmitted from the giant's wrist to his body along the long sword. At this moment, Lann did not feel that he was a systematic demon hunter. Instead, he felt as if he had smashed the city gate with a standard long sword when he had just crossed over. His hands were slightly numb.
Another black magic machete behind his back lit up with flames at this moment, and the ghost in the painting of the Gothic dress appeared for an instant, catching Lan as he flew upside down before he hit the rock wall, and allowed him to land safely.
"God!!"
There was a deep wound on the ice giant's wrist, but before the blood could overflow from it, the skin around the wound began to tighten rapidly, leaving only a scratch-like mark. .
The "deep wound" is for humanity. And the wound was probably just broken for the Ice Giant's size.
But even if there was no blood, Lann's attack made the ice giant, who had not been injured for who knows how many years, furious. It roared angrily, and the momentum that had been gathering around it suddenly reached a peak, and then poured out.
Today, Lan is able to tell that the ice giant is surrounded by rich natural energy.
The badges on the chests of all the witchers trembled violently.
The ground beneath their feet began to tremble, the strong wind between the cliffs began to roar, the snow on the top of the mountain no longer suppressed and turned into waves sweeping down, and the cave where Lan En and the others were located began to completely collapse.
"Run!" Lan yelled.
(End of chapter)