The lord of the river towered over the three intruders, his massive form casting a shadow over them.
"Your audacity is beyond comprehension. You harmed what's mine without my permission. This is the first time I have been insulted on my turf. You three can forget about leaving this place alive!" the lord of the river bellowed with fury, his voice echoing across the river and ringing in their ears.
Delilah's eyes blurred as she was sent into a daze by the roar. Her face heated up, and she felt that her brain would turn to mush because of the reverberating roar that was slapping her like a wall of pain.
Roy noticed her strangeness in time and covered her ears with defensive force.
She breathed out a sigh of relief as the roar that nearly exploded her eardrums was shunned instantly.
Roy glared at the lord of the river. It seemed as if he was not intimidated by the lord's threat. The lord of the river looked like a cross between a genie and a mermaid, and he held a golden trident in his right hand.
"You don't even have what it takes to harm me. How can you talk about killing me?!" he retorted with bravado, staring down the lord.
The lord's anger only intensified at Roy's insolence.
"Oh, we'll see!" he hissed, raising his trident high. One pillar of water after another rose from the river, swirling and twirling around each other as they gathered into a single point in front of him. It was quickly transforming into a massive projectile that could drown villages and shatter mountains.
"Lord, do something," Delilah said anxiously as she turned to Roy. In their party, he was the only one strong enough to contend against an aura monster. Not to mention, the aura monster they were facing was a water-type monster, and they were fighting him in an environment that was beneficial to him.
"I got this," Roy said calmly as he sprinted towards the lord of the river.
Even at this moment, he didn't feel the urge to back down. He valued his life over his pride, and he would run away from a fight like a coward if it were necessary to remain alive.
But this wasn't one of those times.
The lord of the river, even with the home advantage, wasn't a threat to him, he believed.
"I won't give you the time to complete your spell!" Roy exclaimed as he leaped towards the lord of the river. Pointing his finger at him, he exclaimed, "Fire! Heed the command of your master and give this insolent beast a taste of your might!"
As he commanded, the fiery red sword that had been silent since the beginning of the battle burst into bright red emerald flames and shot toward the lord. It gave off the illusion of a phoenix taking flight, with emerald flames trailing behind it like a burning tail.
"It's already too late. My spell will be completed before your attack reaches me. The innate spell I gained after stepping into the aura monster stage allows me to speed up the process of conjuring a spell by a hundred times!
The lord sneered at his feeble attempt to stop him. He was confident in his quick cast ability, which allowed him to instantly complete a spell. He had gained it when he became a 1-year-old aura monster, and it could be taken as an ability that he had inherited from his bloodline.
Even though there was quite a lot of restriction to using it, it was a trump card that he only showed in an adverse situation. He was no fool. The second he saw hundreds of corpses lying around, he realized that the three intruders couldn't be underestimated. That was the only reason why he went all out, even laying out his trump card on the table.
The quick cast skill could only be used when a spell was half completed, and he could only use it once a day, but it was enough to finish off the three intruders.
It was, after all, his strongest offensive ability. If it failed, he would have no way of defeating them. But he was confident that just like the ones before them, they, too, wouldn't be able to survive the crushing might of the giant projectile.
The water projectile was completed before the sword reached its target.
The lord of the river hurled it towards the fire sword that looked like a phoenix with emerald feathers, and the weirdest thing happened.
"What?!" The lord watched in disbelief as the massive projectile, capable of causing a flood, evaporated as soon as it came into contact with the heat of the fire phoenix. His eyes were as wide as saucers as he murmured, "How is it even possible? How could the attack of a low-level human overwhelm the spell of an aura monster?!"
The fire sword continued its march towards the lord, leaving the towering figure stunned and terrified. He tried to hide from it, but the tongues of bright red emerald fire lapped at it like ravenous dogs. Everywhere he was touched melted away. Anyone with a discerning eye would be able to tell that it was a magical fire. And only the color of level 7 to level 9 magical fire was reddish green. The brighter it was, the higher its level. And the level of the magical fire attacking the lord of the river seemed to be 9!
The lord of the river grunted in pain as the Fire Sword stabbed his chest. The scales around that area burned away. His thick hide and muscles were also not spared. Touched by the level 9 magical fire, they melted into ashes, leaving a gaping hole in his chest and his heart exposed.
"This is my chance." Delilah saw an opportunity, and she grabbed it like a cougar. The aura in her inner world was consumed rapidly as her soul-herding ability activated, allowing her to flash toward the area she was focusing on with her squinted eyes.
