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MAZE - Chapter 1072 - An Ancient Foe
🕑 Added 2025-06-14 02:30:12 +0000 UTCInsomniac watched as Hera slowly approached her target. The man liked her initial response, since she wasn't rushing into battle to fight against something that she didn't understand. Instead, the explorer was taking the proper time to analyze the environment before starting her fight.
He noticed how she dismissed a couple of the more dangerous dinosaurs but froze when he noticed her eyes trailing to the Salted Raptor. Unlike what the name suggested, those creatures were absolutely terrifying. Not simply because they were powerful, but also because their numbers were always extremely high. No matter how many of them you would see, there were always more lurking beyond the area.
The fighter was about to step in and stop the Empress before she could do something that would cause many more problems. That's when he noticed that she was now looking at the lake where one of the more open packs of the Salted Raptors was located. And quickly it became obvious that she was not about to go fight those specific creatures.
Insomniac had to give her some points, even if he was deducting a few because she only clocked that one specific pack. If she was able to pay a bit more attention, she would have noticed another group of raptors to the left moving under some of the larger dinosaurs and even another following the Triceratops that she was looking at sooner. They were not attacking it right away, but it was clear that they were preparing to do something with the large beast.
Aside from that, Hera was doing much better than he expected. Not that he actually believed she was bad at her job. But since she got a legacy so soon in her life as an explorer, he more or less expected her to be a bit spoiled and not someone who actually worked on the fundamentals.
He then saw how she chose her target. The Stone Head Dichossaur. It was a good choice, although not the best one available.
The truly best enemy for her to fight would be the Sulfuric Ankylosaurus. And the reason for that was pretty simple. While the name could pose some fear in the hearts of those who didn't know better, it also was somewhat misleading. The creature might have some sulfuric abilities, but those were only related to its skin, body, and blood as a way to stop any predators from trying to eat it.
Yet, Insomniac couldn't blame Hera for not knowing that. It was the type of information people would generally only know about once they tried to fight the creature. Beyond that, it wouldn't really be something to worry about.
But then, the Empress finally chose her target. A Stone Head Dichossaur. It was a good choice, especially considering the state of the monster. It seemed clear that Hera wasn't going just for the glory of a difficult fight, but she was being strategic and choosing someone who might be already injured.
That made it clear to Insomniac that the Empress didn't care about being heroic. She put more value in getting the job done than about the fame that could come from it. Which one more time made him shift his perception of Hera. She might not be someone who just cheated her way into her position, at least not in a sense that she didn't learn anything while traveling that path.
Hera confused the man a bit by shooting a strange dang shaped orange projectile at the monster while her Court, the floating weapons, appeared around her. He wasn't really sure what kind of spell was orange. From what he knew, Hera should be using poison as it was one of her main attacking abilities, but orange poison?
Still, the attack hit and made the creature jump to the side, showing that it wasn't just a stealthy way to apply an ailment.
The monster looked around, and after a moment, its eyes trained on the Empress, who snarled at it in a similar fashion as she had seen other dinosaurs snarling. The Stone Head Dichossaur got angered by the display and started walking in her direction. But instead of waiting, Hera started stepping back, clearly trying to escape from the beast while not really acting as if she was going to bolt at any moment.
Insomniac thought that Hera wasn't a bad actor, but there was a lot of room for improvement. She was focusing too much on the beast, and her body language was clearly indicating that she was about to run away. But that was something that only smarter and more insightful enemies could notice. For a monster, all those micro movements were not an issue, and the Stone Head Dichossaur continued to follow.
The snake on Hera's neck looked back, and its eyes focused on Insomniac before nodding and pointing upwards towards the doorway with its tail. He decided to just follow along the plan, moving back quickly enough and stealthily enough so he wouldn't be seen by the monsters. The man quickly moved upwards, being much faster than Hera, to be sure that he wouldn't be in the way of her hunt.
He was about at the halfway mark when the Empress turned to the monster and spread out her court to form a perimeter around the creature. And just as the monster entered the center of the area, seven figures took form. Seven people that were the seven titled blades of Hera's court. The sudden appearance of more enemies clearly surprised the monster, but it didn't do anything differently. It only became more wary.
With a snap of its tail, the creature tried to warn its attackers, but Hera and her court had a singular goal in mind. To defeat this monster. The creature slammed its tail once more, this time snarling at Hera, but she didn't do anything. Along with her court, they were simply watching the creature, analyzing it and being ready for its attacks.
This was something Insomniac didn't truly agree with. After all, when dealing with a monster, they shouldn't gauge their power that much. They shouldn't be that focused on letting the creature show their cards first. Monsters were, generally speaking, less capable of handling surprise than a person. And for that reason, the right way to go about it was to attack it right away, catching it off guard before allowing it to do anything against you. And he couldn't understand why Hera was not doing that.
Why was she giving the creature a chance to prepare its attack?
But suddenly, realization dawned upon him, weighing heavily on his heart heavy. There was a scenario where forcing your opponent to attack first was a good thing. And that's when you were fighting with a person. In those cases, the right way to go about it was to let your opponent show their hand first. Information was key, and seeing what your opponent could do would be the difference between life and death.
And not just the rush of life and death of fighting a monster. But the real danger knowing that two people were about to kill each other.
The fighter didn't really know how to react to that particular realization, especially considering the fact that he himself was unable to join the efforts in the war. It wasn't his fault, of course, and the man understood that. Things just unraveled in ways he couldn't control, but that didn't make his lack of presence any easier.
Still, it became clear that the Empress was still with the mindset of fighting against people. Instead of attacking the monster, she waited too long, letting the creature deal the first blow.
The monster slammed its tail on the ground once more, letting a plume of dirt fall onto Hera's face along with her entire court. Hera was at least quick enough to react as to not be completely swallowed by the tomb of smoke.
The attack briefly blinded part of the court, stopping them all from seeing the Stone Head Dichossaur as it charged at the Empress. Despite its seemingly low intelligence, it was clear that the creature managed to recognize the biggest threat right away, or it was somehow understanding where the mana was coming from.
Yet, the Empress reacted as if she still could see things without any problem. Moving in tandem with the next attack coming from the dinosaur.
Even then, the creature was extremely quick and was able to close that distance in less than a second. Hera forced herself to jump away, but it wasn't quickly enough, and the Dichossaur slammed its head against her, causing her to topple to the side. But it wasn't a completely unimpeded attack.
Insomniac saw a few layers of mana barriers appearing just in the nick of time to cushion the blow. Every single one of them was completely destroyed by the attack, but it was enough to stop the monster from causing too much damage.
The Empress still was clearly not in a perfect state, as her movements proved that there was an injury there. But her arms didn't seem to have popped out of their sockets, neither were her bones broken.
Livy jumped right into the fray, swinging her waraxe at the monster while Vulcan and Lurize tried to tackle the creature to the side.
The monster had two large legs but tiny arms, and the plan was obvious. If they dropped it to the ground would make things easier for the group. Filigree also did her best to help, wrapping some strings on the monster's neck and pulling in the opposite direction, all in hopes of toppling the beast, but to no avail. Their combined strength wasn't enough to cause this particular dinosaur to fall.
The rest of the court went on the offensive, all slashing and cutting at the monster relentlessly just as Hera clacked her shoes started skiing around the area. Once the monster managed to track her down, she would use her tail to push herself away and open a gap between herself and the creature. And she kept doing that over and over again, causing the Dichossaur to start spinning around in circles.
Insomniac had to admit, it was an interesting way of fighting. She was never in the same spot for too long, and her body movement didn't give any signs that she was about to jump in a different direction. It was as if you were watching her one moment, and the next moment she was gone. But he understood that the only reason she was able to do this so seamlessly was due to her tail.
This wasn't a type of combat style that others would be able to replicate all that easily. Then again, from the brief conversation that they had a while back, this was something she was working on even before becoming an Ophidianite.
However, from the Empress's display, the fighter quickly realized that she would never be able to win this fight. Not because she couldn't handle the creature, but because this particular type of monster had a strong combination of defenses and regeneration ability. And the amount of damage she was dealing so far was nowhere near enough to offset the damage it was recovering.
Maybe she would be able to do something if she started using big skills and spells, but then it would be a situation where they were both in a battle of attrition, and Insomniac was pretty sure that in this particular instance, fighting a monster almost twenty levels higher than her, Hera would end up losing.
But this was already enough for him. He had already seen enough, and many of the potential issues that she might have were nonexistent. There was a lot he could teach her if she was willing to listen, but this would have to happen in a different place.
In fact, he realized that bringing her to a room like this to practice wasn't the best idea. The dinosaurs were not the strongest creatures he ever saw, but they were particularly hardy. Maybe due to their size or some makeup in their genetics, that made those creatures be quick to recover.
Unfortunately, just as he was stepping forward to call her back, there was a rumbling in the ground. The man glanced around and saw a massive tail swinging over the forest. Those were the types of dinosaurs that were truly gigantic, being able to reach over twenty meters tall. And there was only one other creature who could handle them like that.
He shouted, trying to warn her, but he was too late. Just as the voice came out of his throat, a dark shadow covered the sun. The body of a massive dinosaur that was tossed into the air and now landed in the path to the doorway. Insomniac was quick enough to avoid the impact, and so was Hera. But so was her enemy.
However, before the two could return to combat, there was a strange sound, and a crack appeared directly under Hera, causing her to fall into a newly opened chasm.
Comments
DrDankness
Its Silver Lining saying: “Heyyyyyy girl. Been a while. Forgot about me?”
Personssess
What is it with hera and chasms? How does this keep happening 😂😂
