You are all my wings...

Now that the fight has progressed to this point, with Karl critically injured and the knights' stamina greatly depleted, simply using magic to control the pace on the perimeter is no longer enough; someone is needed to draw fire.

Although his Shadow Walker is only Tier 2, it is a rare class with skills stronger than those of ordinary warriors.

Moreover, he is more agile than the four knights and has the movement-type combat skill Shadow Leap, making him most suitable for close-range combat.

Shadow Leap!

He immediately activated the core skill of the Shadow Walker, transforming into a shadow and disappearing from the spot.

Immediately afterward, a shadow suddenly rose up behind the water-swallowing ape.

Infuse the magic sword with magic power, activating the sword's sharpening enchantment.

The sword blade, shrouded in shadow, suddenly slashed down!

Combat Technique: Shadow Sword Slash!

Target: the base of the Water-Swallowing Ape's tail!

Chapter Sixty-Five: Shadow Sword Ascension

The Water Swallowing Ape's tail is muscular, thick, and powerful, measuring over forty centimeters in diameter and seven meters in length, coiling nimbly like a giant python.

It was this tail that caused the knights to lose their footing and disrupt their attack rhythm.

Cutting off his tail would give us a significant advantage in this battle.

laugh!!!!

Leon slashed down with his Shadow Blade technique, but the resistance was so strong that the blade only penetrated a dozen centimeters before it got stuck. He had to pull it out immediately and leap off the ground.

The Water-Swallowing Ape roared in pain and swung its back hand at Leon, but Leon turned into a shadow and left, so the attack missed.

If Lyon hadn't dodged decisively when his attack was thwarted, he would have definitely taken the punch head-on, resulting in a horrific scene like Carl's, with his bones shattered.

This is also his combat style: safety first.

The next moment, Leon's shadow appeared six meters away, leaped up from the ground, and waved his hand to cast a spell.

Ice-based basic magic, Ice Blade! *5.

Magic -5.

Twenty-five ice blades flew out one after another, heading towards the Water-Swallowing Ape.

Bang bang bang!!!

The water-swallowing ape turned around and swept its hand across, deflecting most of the ice blades. Five or six of them slipped through and struck its body, creating a large amount of ice mist but failing to inflict any effective cuts.

However, the icy fog suddenly sprayed out, instantly obscuring the view of the water-swallowing ape.

At that moment, Mark seized the opportunity, leaping up from the side, his sword flashing with magical light, and slashing.

With this sword strike, he aimed for the large wound at the base of the Water-Swallowing Ape's tail.

The magical light on the sword emitted a sharp buzzing sound, and its speed increased instantly.

Tier 3 combat technique: Diagonal Slash!

laugh!!!!

The wound reopened by more than ten centimeters, but when the blade touched the Water-Swallowing Ape's tailbone, it got stuck and didn't go any further.

"Damn it! Why is it so hard to cut!"

Mark thought that since even a magician like Leon could cut such a large gap, he could definitely cut it off by adding his own strength, so he unleashed his full power without holding back. However, he got stuck on a joint, making it extremely difficult to pull out. He ended up hanging from the base of the Water Swallowing Ape's tail, swaying back and forth, which was quite embarrassing.

The water-swallowing ape roared in pain and swung its hand backward.

Mark had no choice but to abandon his sword and kick the water-swallowing ape in the rear, hoping to use the momentum to dodge.

call out!!!!

A fleeting afterimage suddenly streaked through the air.

That was the Water-Swallowing Ape's hand suddenly accelerating, striking Mark and swatting him away like a fly.

Mark, who was sent flying backward, was caught off guard and did not flex his muscles to defend himself. His plate armor shattered, and most of his bones and internal organs were broken. He rolled on the ground like a rag doll, with a mess of blood and flesh splattered everywhere. It was clear that he was almost half dead and could not get up again. He was only slightly better off than Karl.

Leon leaped out from another position and slashed down from under the Water-Swallowing Ape's crotch.

His entire body surged with magical power, converging on the sword blade and flashing with intense light.

This time, Leon amplified his magical summoning, aiming at the opposite angle of the wound, and slashed down from the side with all his might.

laugh!!!!

Combat Technique: Shadow Sword!

The power of the sword quickly tore through flesh and blood, and after three attacks from different angles targeting the base of the tail, it finally ended at this moment.

Lyon's power surged forth, and he felt the sword blade move without any resistance, smoothly slicing through the side of Mark's Demon Sword. He was suspended in mid-air by the upward force.

The long tail throbbed upwards with the force, then fell to the ground with a heavy thud due to its immense weight.

The Water-Swallowing Ape lost its tail, causing it to lose even more blood and its body to suddenly lose its balance. It landed on the mud swamp that Leon had created earlier, its right leg sinking deep into it.

[In a moment of crisis, a desperate strike is launched, and the second-tier combat skill, Shadow Sword, is upgraded to a third-tier combat skill.]

Before Lyon could even check the updated information on the panel, he waved his hand and activated a basic ice spell, extending the ice to the swamp where the water-swallowing ape's right leg was located.

Click click click!

The mud turned into an ice swamp, connecting to his thighs and freezing them firmly.

The water-swallowing ape had lost blood in many parts of its body and was exerting force at the wrong angle, so it was unable to break free in just a few moves.

Seeing this, Milo knew that the perfect opportunity to unleash his fourth-level combat skills had arrived!

If the enemy is temporarily restrained, even if their combat skills are not very proficient, they should still be able to hit them, right?

He took a deep breath, channeled all his magic power into the magic sword, activated its hardening enchantment, and began to charge forward, the longsword trailing behind him.

A figure swept away.

With the added force of the sprint and the accumulation of magic, the power in his thighs, chest, and abdomen solidified, and he suddenly swung his sword horizontally, aiming directly at the bleeding wound on the Water Swallowing Ape's other thigh that hadn't been frozen.

Fourth-tier combat skill: Explosive Cross Slash!

Two sharp sword lights flashed. The first sword, horizontal, smoothly severed the artery in the thigh of the water-swallowing ape, spurting out thick blood. The second sword, vertical, was caught by the water-swallowing ape, who reached out, grabbed it, and threw it away violently.

Bang! !

Milo crashed into the wall, sword and all.

It seems that due to the repeated drops in blood volume, its power has finally begun to decline. This time, Milo was not seriously injured. Although he coughed up a mouthful of blood after hitting the wall, his bones did not shatter like Karl's.

It was at this moment that Iris's long ode finally came to an end.

As she waved her wand, an enormous spear of light suddenly materialized.

This is her most powerful single-target attack spell, condensed into Iris's most powerful Execution Spear to date, achieved through a long chant and immense magical power!

Then, with the sure-hit link, shoot!

The gun of judgment arrived in an instant.

The spear of light passed through the wound left by the previous Demonic Strike in the chest without any resistance, and emerged from the back of the Water-Swallowing Ape, bringing with it a spray of eerily colored blood that fell to the ground.

The water-swallowing ape suddenly stopped moving.

Has this hit a vital organ?

Milo and Bovary, whose condition was barely passable, stared in astonishment ahead. The water-swallowing ape that had been so ferocious just moments before was dead.

"Don't just stand there, finish him off!"

Leon shouted, initiating a new round of suction, drawing a large amount of blood from the Water Swallowing Ape's chest.

The two previous suction winds had dissipated in the chaos of battle due to the lack of Lyon's magic to sustain them.

Milo and Bovary reacted quickly and rushed forward to slash at the vital parts of the body.

The Water-Swallowing Ape's actions ended too suddenly. According to Leon's estimation, even if the Water-Swallowing Ape's heart was hit, it should still have some health left. With its vitality, it should still be able to struggle a few more times.

This change is so unusual that he cannot help but be wary.

With this in mind, he activated another combat technique of the Shadow Walker, Shadow Breath.

This is the basic combat skill for the Leon Shadowwalker class. By adjusting your breathing, you can experience the essence of shadow and master shadow-based skills.

While it's called combat skills, it's more like basic professional skills.

The significance of this profession is no less than that of meditation to a magician.

Furthermore, Shadow Breathing has another function that is very suitable for calming the mind on the battlefield, improving concentration, and enhancing the sensitivity of the five senses.

As he entered the state of Shadow Breathing, Leon quietly activated another spell, Wind Detection.

Chapter Sixty-Six: The Life Alchemist

Wind detection magic is a basic detection magic. Although its effects are relatively crude, it has the advantage of a wide range.

By utilizing his wind perception and the elemental affinity granted by his current elemental mage profession, combined with the enhanced hearing and mental abilities from Shadow Breathing, his detection capabilities will receive a slight boost.

However, because of the focus on the five senses and the effort to increase the brain's processing speed of wind information, activating this move consumes a lot of mental energy. If the amount of information is large, it can consume one point of physical strength and one point of magic power in ten seconds.

Therefore, he rarely uses this technique.

With the two sounds overlapping, Leon felt that the sounds of his surroundings were becoming clearer and clearer.

The sound of water dripping from the cave ceiling, the distant roars of monsters shaking the ground, and the sounds of battle between adventurers on other side paths.

These all came from very, very far places.

Leon adjusted the source of the sound and focused on the sounds in his surroundings.

A few seconds later, he heard it.

Outside the cave, about a hundred meters away, there were whispers deliberately suppressed by supernatural beings.

It was a very low chant, seemingly in the midst of a spell.

Leon vaguely discerned that the chant was likely a spell involving taming beasts or controlling demons.

No, something seems off. Is it something else?

Could it be that the appearance of the Water-Swallowing Ape is related to the Hidden One?

If the two are related, then it makes sense.

It's extremely rare for the Water-Swallowing Ape to chase down the enemy from the 31st floor to the 25th floor in one fell swoop.

Given the strength of those four knights, it would have been impossible for them to escape from the 31st floor all the way down to the 25th floor.

If they were really being chased, they would probably be dead around the 30th floor by now.

The four knights we saw earlier probably didn't provoke the Water-Swallowing Ape on their own initiative.

Instead, they fell into the trap set by the hidden one!

Or it could simply be an undeserved disaster!

The other party's target is most likely Britta, the saint of the Papacy.

Of course, this is a deduction by elimination, because at present, only Berylita has such value that she would attract such a master to target her.

Secondly, there is the relatively unknown diplomat, Elizabeth.

The ability to command a powerful fourth-tier monster, even if not with complete control, and to make the Water-Swallowing Ape so far from its dwelling, indicates that the Hidden One's rank is certainly not low, at least a senior fourth-tier, or even a fifth-tier.

But what exactly is that chanted magic?

Listen again!

Leon always felt that the chanted incantation resembled something he had seen before.

'Hades, the god who holds the power of the underworld, your humble followers beseech you... to manipulate life and death, to alter the course of destiny.'

As these words gradually entered his ears, Leon finally understood.