Chapter 80: Battle Against the Abyssal Mimic
The unnervingly smooth journey thus far left Paimon floating in a state of cautious optimism. She could not help but wonder if their luck had finally taken a turn for the better.
That naive hope shattered the moment they stepped out of the suffocating, thick fog at the mountain's base.
There was no clear path forward. Instead, a thoroughly corrupted wasteland stretched out before them. Jagged, purplish-black crystals jutted from the poisoned earth, choking the life out of the withered, twisted vegetation that clawed desperately at the soil.
At the very epicenter of this dead zone loomed a nightmare made manifest.
Its main body resembled the rotting corpse of a colossal tree, thoroughly saturated in Abyssal corruption and mutated to grotesque proportions. The trunk was as thick as a small mountain, casting a suffocating shadow that dwarfed the surrounding peaks.
Whatever life this entity once possessed was long gone. Its entire structure was encased in a dull, gleaming purplish-black carapace—a sickening fusion of jagged rock and cold metal.
Massive, python-like vines thrashed and coiled from its canopy and roots, plunging deep into the bedrock. They pulsed like engorged blood vessels, siphoning a constant, sickening flow of turbid dark purple energy from the contaminated earth straight into the main trunk.
Embedded in the upper-middle section of the massive trunk was a colossal energy core. It rotated slowly, glaring down at them like a malevolent eye, radiating a suffocating wave of pure, oppressive dread.
"Oh my goodness... what... what kind of monster is that?!" Paimon squeaked. All the color drained from her small face. She instantly zipped behind Dan Heng, her tiny hands gripping his clothes as she dared to peek out with only half her head.
Chasca's jaw locked. Her knuckles turned stark white as her grip tightened around her longbow.
"I have never seen anything like it..." she murmured, her eyes tracking the pulsing vines. "Natlan's historical records mention nothing of a monster in this form. This has to be a biological war weapon, secretly cultivated by the Abyss!"
Ling drew in a sharp breath. A biting chill unconsciously gathered around her feet, frosting the dead grass. "It is massive... The pressure coming off it is suffocating."
Dan Heng's eyes narrowed, sharp and analytical. "Rooted in the earth, vines actively absorbing energy... Although its outward form mimics a plant, its internal structure suggests a highly unstable mimetic core."
"It is drawing raw power directly from this contaminated land," he continued, his voice calm but urgent. "The longer we delay, the stronger it will become. We need to end this immediately."
He did not waste a single second, instantly falling into a tactical rhythm. "Ling! Target its energy core or the root nodes connected to the earth. Freeze them solid and interrupt that energy absorption!"
"I will draw its attention head-on. Ms. Chasca, provide long-range support and scan for structural weaknesses. Paimon, keep your distance and observe. If any of us suffer severe Abyssal corrosion, use your purification ability immediately!"
"Understood!" Ling took a deep breath. Her gaze hardened.
She brought her hands together, and a furious, biting chill erupted from her core. The surrounding air temperature plummeted in an instant, freezing the ambient moisture into a swirling cloud of jagged ice crystals.
"Leave the high ground to me!" Chasca declared. She drew her longbow in one fluid motion, a specialized arrow imbued with a faint, purifying light already nocked against the bowstring.
"Ugh... Okay! Paimon is on standby!" Paimon swallowed hard, her tiny palms slick with nervous sweat. She quietly conjured a small, heavy wrench into her hands, bracing herself for the absolute worst-case scenario. She nodded vigorously, her small fists clenched tight as her wide eyes locked onto the impending battlefield.
The air grew heavy. The clash was inevitable.
"Absolute Zero!" Ling shouted.
The accumulated frost reached its absolute peak, exploding outward in a visible, blindingly ice-blue shockwave. The freezing tempest tore across the wasteland, slamming precisely into the root core of the Abyssal Mimic Crystal Tree—the exact nexus where the dark energy flow was thickest.
The impact was immediate and devastating.
Wherever the extreme cold swept past, a thick, biting frost aggressively consumed the corrupted tissue. Several of the massive, thrashing vines and a huge chunk of the carapace-plated trunk were instantly sealed beneath layers of solid, unyielding ice. The frozen prison shimmered with an eerie, glacial blue glow.
The sickening, gurgling flow of dark purple energy suddenly hitched, choking to a complete halt.
"Now!" Dan Heng moved.
His figure blurred into a streak of lightning. The Cloud-Piercer in his grip erupted with a brilliant, piercing green light. Man and spear merged into a single entity, transforming into a roaring Anemo meteor that tore straight toward the frozen core.
But just as the razor-sharp tip of the Cloud-Piercer was inches away from shattering the ice-sealed core, the battlefield shifted.
The massive, frozen body of the Abyssal Mimic Crystal Tree violently convulsed. The entire structure collapsed inward with a sickening crunch.
Ling's solid ice shattered with an ear-piercing screech, pulverized into glittering dust by an explosive, internal force.
A blinding flash of purplish-black light detonated from the epicenter. When the glare faded, a completely new figure stood in the crater. It was several times smaller than the tree, yet the suffocating aura of oppression it radiated had only intensified.
The monstrosity was clad in grotesque, heavy purplish-black armor, its lower half structured like a mechanical centaur. In its right hand, it dragged a massive greatsword forged entirely from pure shadow and raging Abyssal fire.
It was an Abyssal Mimic Golem Overseer.
"Roar—!"
The Golem Overseer unleashed a deafening, metallic bellow. Its single, glowing crimson eye locked onto the charging Dan Heng. Without a single wasted movement, it hoisted its burning greatsword and brought it crashing down toward Dan Heng's head, carrying the sheer, apocalyptic weight of a collapsing mountain.
The speed of the colossal weapon was terrifying.
Boom—!!!
Dan Heng's pupils constricted to pinpricks. In a fraction of a second, he aborted his forward thrust, twisting his wrists to horizontally brace the Cloud-Piercer above his head.
Clang—!!!
The collision rang out like a cracked bell, sending a visible shockwave ripping through the air. A terrifying surge of kinetic force, laced with explosive hellfire and corrosive shadow, traveled straight down the spear shaft and into Dan Heng's arms.
Dan Heng let out a low grunt. The sheer impact forced him backward, his boots plowing two deep, smoking furrows into the dead earth for over ten meters before he finally ground to a halt.
He had successfully blocked the lethal strike, but his arms throbbed with a dull, stinging numbness, and the blood roared in his ears. The residual energy shockwave from the greatsword's impact washed over the terrain, instantly vaporizing the surrounding rocks and turning a massive swath of the wasteland into a smoldering crater.
'Too fast. The physical output is absurd,' Dan Heng thought, his expression turning grave. This monstrosity was not just capable of unpredictable biological mimicry; its reaction speed and raw physical strength completely shattered their initial threat assessments.
The skirmish instantly escalated into a brutal, white-hot melee.
Capitalizing on its momentum, the Golem Overseer lunged forward. Its mechanical hooves tore up the earth as it swung its greatsword in a furious, relentless barrage. Each sweeping slash was heavy enough to cleave a boulder in half, leaving trails of scorching Abyssal flames in the air.
Dan Heng pushed his Cloud Knight spearmanship to its absolute limit. His footwork was as elusive as the wind, his spear strikes as fluid and deadly as a rising dragon. He parried, deflected, and narrowly dodged, expertly weaving through the massive creature's frenzied onslaught.
Every violent clash between the jade-green spear and the shadow-forged greatsword erupted in a thunderous roar, scattering blinding sparks of conflicting energy across the battlefield. Despite the overwhelming disparity in sheer size and mass, Dan Heng held his ground. Relying entirely on his flawless technique and the natural agility granted by his Anemo power, he danced on the razor's edge of the beast's blade.
From the high ground, Chasca provided flawless covering fire. Her arrows hissed through the air like venomous snakes, striking with cunning precision the exact moment the Golem Overseer overextended its swings. The purifying shafts slammed into the beast's exposed joints and the narrow seams of its heavy armor, detonating with flashes of cleansing light.
While the arrows lacked the raw mass to inflict fatal damage, they served their purpose perfectly. The constant, stinging impacts disrupted the centaur's mechanical balance, forcibly breaking its oppressive attack rhythm.
Ling, meanwhile, adapted her strategy to maximize crowd control. Abandoning the slow, heavy buildup required for a massive freeze, she opted for rapid, continuous bursts of biting cold. She aimed her frost directly at the Golem Overseer's mechanical hooves and lower leg joints.
The ambient heat radiating from the beast's Abyssal flames melted the ice almost as quickly as it formed, but that microsecond of stiffness was all Dan Heng needed. He ruthlessly exploited every stutter in the monster's movements. The Cloud-Piercer darted in and out of the beast's guard, leaving deep, jagged gouges and glowing puncture wounds across its thick chest plating.
"Got you! Freeze!" Ling yelled.
A concentrated blast of absolute cold slammed into the Golem Overseer's front right leg, rapidly encasing the joint in a thick, unyielding block of ice. The massive centaur lurched, its entire upper body stiffening as it fought to break the sudden snare.
Dan Heng's eyes flashed. He did not hesitate.
"This sanctuary is but a vision... Break!"
The Cloud-Piercer ignited with an unmatched, blindingly brilliant Anemo light. The sheer volume of energy concentrated at the spear's tip warped the air around it, as if threatening to puncture the very fabric of space. Driven by unyielding resolve, Dan Heng thrust the weapon forward, aiming directly for the glowing core embedded in the center of the Golem Overseer's chest armor.
Boom—!!!
The spear tip struck dead center. A violent, concussive burst of Anemo energy detonated on impact.
The impenetrable heavy armor guarding the beast's chest buckled, tearing and shattering as easily as wet paper. The residual ice crystals clinging to its frame, along with a massive chunk of its metallic torso, were violently blasted into jagged shrapnel.
The sheer kinetic force of the strike sent the colossal monstrosity staggering backward, its mechanical hooves scraping against the stone as a massive cloud of dust and debris billowed into the air.
"It worked?" Chasca lowered her bow slightly, a surge of relief washing over her.
"Yay! We got it!" Paimon cheered, pumping her tiny wrench into the air.
But before the dust could even begin to settle, the battlefield violently shifted once more.
A sharp, ear-splitting metallic screech tore through the smoke.
From the heart of the dust cloud, a massive, winged silhouette shimmering with a sickly purplish-gold metallic luster swooped out at breakneck speed. It bypassed Dan Heng entirely, its glowing optical sensors locking dead onto Ling—who was still catching her breath from her previous barrage.
It was an Abyssal Mimic Aeonblight Drake!
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