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Chapter 301: The Wolf Juggernaut
"We were attacked by a monster! It killed so many adventurers."
"It was too fast. So fast we couldn't even see its shadow."
Another adventurer, missing an arm, babbled incoherently. "No armor… Not even our shields forged from super-hard metal could stop it. They were shredded in an instant."
"And magic! My spell hit it head-on, but it was reflected right back at me!"
The mage of their party was deathly pale, his eyes wide with the lingering terror of narrowly surviving.
Listening to the adventurers' disjointed descriptions, Hedin gently pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose.
A glimmer of understanding flashed through his eyes. He already knew what they were dealing with.
He didn't ask any further questions. Instead, he calmly tossed them a few High Potions.
"Drink these, then run."
His tone was flat, devoid of any emotion. "If we run into it, we'll take care of the monster."
The adventurers grabbed the potions as if they were lifelines, thanking him profusely before turning and fleeing desperately toward the upper floors without looking back.
"Looks like some new breed of Enhanced Species," Allen grumbled, resting his spear on his shoulder. He clicked his tongue impatiently. "Forget about it. Finishing the goddess's mission is our real priority."
To him, some random Enhanced Species wasn't worth a second thought.
How strong could an Enhanced Species born in the Middle or Lower Levels really be? For a squad like theirs, it was merely something to swat out of the way if they happened to cross paths.
Right now, he just wanted to wrap up the goddess's mission and return to her side as quickly as possible.
Just the thought of those four Prums—whom he always found obnoxious—being responsible for protecting the goddess while he was away left a sour taste in his mouth.
"Let's move."
Hedin agreed with Allen. Their primary objective was to rescue Finn and the missing members of the Loki Familia, not to go out of their way to hunt down some suddenly spawned Enhanced Species.
If the monster was blind enough to block their path, they would naturally wipe it out. But actively searching for it? Out of the question.
As for those unfortunate adventurers who died, they were simply out of luck. In the cruel depths of the Dungeon, life and death were just the way of the world.
Aiden shook his head. He had no intention of proactively hunting the Calamity either.
He understood the Juggernaut's terrifying nature better than anyone else, but he also knew its weakness. That monster was an antibody spawned by the Dungeon to eliminate irregularities. Its lifespan was incredibly short. Once its hunt was complete, or if it couldn't find new prey, it would simply crumble and die on its own.
Finding Ais and the others as soon as possible took precedence.
As for the Calamity, it was an absolute anomaly among anomalies. Its first appearance was the tragedy four years ago that nearly wiped out the Astrea Familia. Before that, not even the Zeus and Hera Familias—who once ruled Orario—had encountered such a monster. They hadn't even known it existed.
But Aiden wasn't worried.
A Juggernaut born in the twenties floors would, at best, possess the strength of a First-Class Adventurer. Against a squad as ridiculously overpowered as theirs, the Juggernaut was just a slightly tougher beast.
However, they clearly underestimated the Calamity's sheer tenacity.
Just as they were walking along the lake shore, preparing to head into a deeper passageway, the ambush arrived without warning.
The Juggernaut's sensory network allowed it to pinpoint every surviving adventurer on the floor and execute the most efficient hunt. It had obviously detected the blazing, torch-like presence of Aiden and the others, prompting it to initiate the attack.
Crack! With a sharp noise like shattering crystal, a pitch-black blur—almost entirely camouflaged within the dim environment—pounced from the shadows of the rock wall behind them. Its speed far surpassed the limits of visual perception.
It was a monster built from the purest killing intent and desire for destruction. Its form resembled a small dinosaur fossil clad in dark armor. It was entirely gaunt, devoid of a single ounce of flesh. All that remained were razor-sharp, black spiked bones, coated in a layer of hardened Magic Stones that acted as natural plating.
A pair of scarlet, emotionless eyes trailed two terrifying streaks of blood-red light through the air as it lunged.
In the blink of an eye, that crimson streak crossed the twenty-meter gap and arrived at the squad's flank.
Its dark, razor-sharp claws ripped through the air, emitting an ear-piercing sonic boom. Riding a horrific gale reeking of death, it slashed straight for the man positioned on the outermost edge of the formation: Ottar.
Perhaps relying on bestial instinct, it had determined in a fraction of a second that the silent Boarman was the most lethal threat among them.
And so, the Juggernaut's very first strike was aimed at Orario's strongest—Ottar.
But what greeted it was a counterattack far more violent and ferocious than its own.
The moment those obsidian claws were about to touch his neck, Ottar didn't even bother to turn his head. Operating purely on combat instinct, he reached back, grabbed the hilt of his massive greatsword, and swung it in a vicious reverse arc at a speed too fast for the eye to track.
CLANG—!!!
A deafening sonic boom erupted, sounding as if it would tear their eardrums apart.
In just that single exchange, the Juggernaut's supposedly indestructible claws were cleanly severed at the base by Ottar's seemingly casual slash.
SCREECH—!!!
Agonizing pain forced the emotionless killing machine to let out a piercing shriek. It twisted its body in mid-air with physics-defying speed, desperately trying to escape.
But Ottar's second slash was already on its heels.
A streak of black light from his greatsword flashed. The Juggernaut's whip-like tail was lopped off at the root.
The next moment, with a resounding BOOM, the dark, wolf-like figure smashed straight through the adjacent crystal wall, disappearing into a cloud of flying shards and lingering dust.
That heart-stopping presence rapidly faded into the distance until it vanished completely.
The stone cavern fell deathly silent once more. Only the massive waterfall continued its tireless roaring, as if playing a requiem for the brief, explosive clash that had just concluded.
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