Chapter 122: The Food Truck's Speed Is the Fastest on the Continent! (5) "The wound disappeared? Without even a trace?"
"I'm completely drained from running nonstop… but I feel stronger than before. No, not a feeling—I really did get stronger, didn't I?"
The soldiers couldn't contain the strength overflowing through their bodies and stomped their hooves hard into the ground.
{The physical grade of Lee Jinseo, owner of the Mobile Cooking Facility, has risen to S-grade due to 'Blessing.' This effect will disappear after a certain amount of time has passed.}
{The physical grade of lifeforms hostile to the Emperor Mammoth will increase above a certain threshold. However, it cannot exceed S-grade.}
After checking the messages that appeared in the Status Window, Jinseo reached out to the tree beside him with his right hand and gripped it hard.
Crack.
"Uh… oh no."
When the tree—more than half its trunk torn away—tilted to the side, Jinseo hurriedly grabbed it and slowly lowered it to the ground.
"How truly fascinating. Is this the power of the god you believe in?"
Angelica Crudian lifted the halberd she had been leaning against the tree—not with both hands, but easily with just her left—then spun it in a swift circle.
"I merely… begged Him for this power, and shared it with you all. I hope it helps… in bringing down the one that threatens you."
Fedora Artran, who had consecutively manifested healing and Blessing—abilities only high-ranking clergy of the Heirem Order could use—pressed her hands together and squeezed her eyes shut.
While continuing to endure the pain inflicted by the Nuclear Fire Chicken Sauce.
"Understood."
Angelica Crudian put on the helmet a soldier brought her and turned her body toward the direction the Emperor Mammoth was charging from.
"Soldiers! The god of the other race has granted us another chance to fight that monster! If we gather in one place, we may be put in danger like the previous battle, so each of you scatter and wait!"
"Understood!"
The centaur soldiers who received her orders spread out in all directions around the food truck and hid themselves in the brush.
{Unexpected Quest: A giant monster, the Emperor Mammoth, has appeared. Hunt the Emperor Mammoth and save the monster subjugation force from crisis.Reward: 80,000 mana, 80,000 mileage, physical grade increase.}
As Jinseo checked the quest that appeared right on cue, he made a troubled expression.
It was the strongest monster he had encountered so far, so it was hard to expect an easy victory.
Looks like it'll be difficult unless I join the fight in earnest, too.
If strength was judged by physical grade alone, only two people rose to S-grade due to Fedora Artran's Blessing: Craid and Jinseo.
Hayward remained at A+-grade, just short of S-grade, and Painfolt Artran and Julien were mages, so they were excluded from the start.
Since detailed analysis was only possible for those who had eaten the Mobile Cooking Facility's food, he couldn't confirm the grades of the other centaurs, including Angelica Crudian.
In purely physical terms, he had become one of the two strongest, so he couldn't just stand back and watch like in the battle earlier.
Right. I'm S-grade now, so I should step in.
Entering the driver's seat, Jinseo took out the open-finger gloves from the storage compartment.
When he took down the Kraken, he had used a kitchen knife, but since he wasn't versed in swordsmanship, he chose equipment better suited to fighting with taekwondo.
With open-finger gloves on both hands, Jinseo stood to the left of Craid at the very front, repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists.
"Are you sure you'll be all right?"
"I can't just stand by and watch."
"It'll be considerably stronger than the ones we faced before."
"If it really doesn't work, I'll focus on dodging."
At Jinseo's reply, Craid gave a short chuckle and slowly raised the tip of the greatsword he held in both hands.
"It's coming!"
Pwooo!
The Emperor Mammoth, charging forward with a bellow, began to slow down. The instant it stopped, it swung its long trunk toward Craid.
"Hah!"
With a shout, Craid struck aside the thick, long tip of the Emperor Mammoth's trunk with a greatsword wrapped in aura.
"Now! Everyone, attack!"
At Angelica Crudian's shout, the centaur soldiers hidden in the brush burst out all at once.
Boom!
The Emperor Mammoth's broad left forefoot slammed hard into the ground.
Dust erupted in all directions, and trees and brush were crushed flat in an instant, but Jinseo—its target—had already fled elsewhere.
Boom! Boom!
The Emperor Mammoth struck the ground in succession with its right forefoot and hind foot, but Jinseo dodged every attack, weaving between the giant monster's legs.
Now I can definitely dodge it.
Because he hadn't adapted to his body after being raised to S-grade by Blessing, Jinseo had faced danger a few times.
But now that he had fully adapted, he could watch the Emperor Mammoth's attacks and dodge them.
As a result, Jinseo ended up taking on the role often described in games: drawing the boss's aggro so others could focus solely on attacking.
And rather than tanking the hits with his body, he dodged and weaved without taking a single blow.
Even so, if he dragged things out, Fedora Artran's Blessing could end, so they had to decide the fight somehow before then.
"Your opponent is me!"
Craid drove his greatsword deep into the Emperor Mammoth's right forefoot and pulled it back out.
Pwooo!
The Emperor Mammoth let out a shriek and lifted its right forefoot high, then slammed it down with force—not toward Jinseo, but toward Craid.
Kooong!
"Hoo…!"
Unlike Jinseo, Craid didn't dodge. He braced his greatsword horizontally and caught the right forefoot.
His knees sank into the earth as he endured it standing, but Craid didn't yield in the contest of strength against strength.
Shushushuk.
Spears thrown by the centaur soldiers stuck into its flank, and Hayward's dagger, coated in a powerful poison, grazed across its hide.
"One more time!"
At Angelica Crudian's shout, the centaurs hurled their spears again in unison, and those spears struck the Emperor Mammoth's back along with the fireballs launched by Painfolt Artran and Julien.
"Again!"
The soldiers who threw spears without pause rushed to the Additional Trailer to resupply more.
It was an unexpected gift from Geshtain, who had remained in Veraul because he couldn't participate in this battle as the delegation representative.
He had unloaded every weapon he had stored in his subspace storage and had them loaded onto the food truck, and among them, the throwing spears were proving effective.
Pwooo…
As the Emperor Mammoth's movements slowed with hundreds of spears embedded across its body, Angelica Crudian set down the halberd and instead gripped a lance in her right hand as she began charging toward it.
Her target was the space between the Emperor Mammoth's two eyes.
It had been a vital point that was hard to aim for until now, but with Jinseo and Craid alternating to draw its attention, she judged it was possible and increased her speed even more.
Pwooo!
In an instant, the Emperor Mammoth opened its eyes again, saw Angelica Crudian charging, and lifted its long trunk high.
At that, Craid shouted and knocked away the Emperor Mammoth's right forefoot that had been pressing him down, then leapt high.
"Haaah!"
Craid aimed for the left tusk, already cracked from repeated attacks. The strike landed true and severed the left tusk.
"Jinseo! Step on me and jump!"
"Understood!"
Jinseo stepped on Craid's right shoulder and jumped high.
Floating in midair, Jinseo fixed his gaze on the right tusk and threw a flying kick.
The Dragon Kick—one of Bruce Lee's techniques, striking in the same direction with both feet from a posture with both arms held level—hit the right tusk.
Pwooo!
With both tusks broken, the Emperor Mammoth couldn't endure the pain and bowed its upper body forward.
Now all that remained was for Angelica Crudian's lance to deliver the decisive blow between its eyes.
However, the Emperor Mammoth slammed down the trunk it had lifted high, driving it toward her.
"Your Highness!"
"It's d-dangerous!"
Whooosh!
In that moment, a sudden gust that whipped up behind Angelica Crudian shoved the Emperor Mammoth's trunk far away, and the lance she held pierced straight through its forehead.
The centaur soldiers slowly approached the Emperor Mammoth's body as it lay fallen to the side.
Thinking it might rise again, they didn't let down their guard as they moved near its face.
Though they believed it dead, they couldn't relax—until they saw the Emperor Mammoth's eyelids slowly close. Only then did they finally breathe out.
"Huff, huff…"
Still unable to calm her excitement, Angelica Crudian raised the lance that had pierced the Emperor Mammoth's forehead.
Blood dripped down, but it didn't feel real at all that she had truly brought down the Emperor Mammoth.
"Hm? You are…"
Angelica Crudian belatedly noticed Owl perched on her left shoulder and turned her head to the side.
"You… helped me, didn't you? Just now?"
At her question, Owl tilted its head, then stretched out its beak and pointed at Jinseo standing beside the food truck.
"So that human called Lee Jinseo is your master? I've incurred a great debt."
Angelica Crudian stroked Owl's head with her right hand and began walking slowly toward Jinseo.
"Whew~ That's impressive."
"Even with our help, I didn't think she'd actually bring down the Emperor Mammoth…"
Hayward whistled as he watched Angelica Crudian's back, and Craid couldn't hide his admiration for the skill of someone who looked no more than a girl.
The soldiers who had been examining the mammoth's corpse noticed her walking toward the food truck and followed after her.
"Are there any injured?"
"There are a few, but none are severe!"
"Any dead?"
"None!"
"Good. That's fortunate…"
Only after confirming her subordinates' lives were not in danger did Angelica Crudian let out a long sigh of relief.
She wanted to collapse and rest immediately, but she still had work to do.
"All assemble!"
At her single command, the soldiers quickly lined up.
"Salute our benefactors from a faraway continent!"
The centaur soldiers gripped their spears with both hands so they stood vertical to the ground, thrust them forward, then pulled them back again.
"I can say nothing but thank you. Without you, we would all have been dead. Especially you…"
Angelica Crudian bowed to Fedora Artran, who had healed the wounded subordinates who returned running with mysterious power.
"This is all the blessing and mercy that He, whom I serve, has permitted me."
"I will never forget this grace. First, once we finish settling things here, we will go to the capital at once and—"
Grrrk.
"Th-this is— Ahem!"
Angelica Crudian turned her head aside and cleared her throat to hide her reddening face.
Among the centaur soldiers, more and more began clutching their stomachs with hunger, just like her.
They've all worked hard, so of course they'd be hungry.
Looking at the centaurs who had finished the battle with the Emperor Mammoth, Jinseo felt as though he were looking at soldiers who had just completed a march.
"Everyone, you're all hungry, right?"
Jinseo went into the Additional Trailer and began taking out snacks one by one.
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