167 Vol. 3 pt. 37 Patch 7.0: Monster Showdown (2/2)

”It's slowed down now!” Oleander shouts.

The monster reaches behind himself, tears out the thorns, and crushes them in his hand.

”Nevermind!” Oleander shouts.

”It's alright! Nell should be on the boat now!” Fenrir shouts, looking over his shoulder.

Serra and Nyaiko are about a fourth of the way to The Shoebill, and he sees Nell standing on the deck fixing her clothes.

He would be mad at her for doing that in this situation if it wasn't for the fact that he never allowed her to get properly dressed, not to mention that she basically got walked in on while completely nude.

Fortunately for those holding the monster off on the beach, Nell only takes a few seconds to get dressed before she hurries to the horn and blows into it as hard as she can!

Ull told them that even people across the ocean would be able to hear the horn's sound.

They learn that he wasn't exaggerating.

The horn is so unbelievably loud that everybody and everything around stops what they're doing to cover their ears. Flocks of birds fly up from the trees, animals burrow underground, and the monster's battle cry can't even be heard with the horn drowning all other noise out.

Fenrir feels like he's going to pass out from how painfully loud the horn is!

But, it's worth the pain. The monster drops the tree to cover his ears with his hands, heading back into the forest to try and get as far away from the horn as possible.

Then the horn goes quiet.

The link that Fenrir shares with Nell allows him to know that she's in just as much pain as he is from blowing that horn. If anything, she has it the worst as she's the closest to the horn. Then there are the girls in the water trying to swim to the ship. They can't swim if they have to cover their ears.

With no ear-shattering sound to scare off the monster, he turns around and looks at the source of where that horrible sound came from.

He jumps back over to the tree he dropped, picks it up, and throws it right at The Shoebill!

”Nell!” Fenrir shouts, but she and the boat are too far out for his call to be heard.

The tree crashes straight into The Shoebill's mast, sending wooden splinters flying in all directions as the boat rocks heavily onto its starboard side.

Fenrir senses Nell's panic, but he also senses that she's safe.

”What now?!” Cassiel shouts.

”We might be in trouble here,” Fenrir says.

”All I can think of is one of us trying to lead it away while the rest escape, then whoever gets sacrificed respawns later,” Oleander suggests.

”I don't think that's going to work.”

The monster, enraged that The Shoebill is still floating, wades into the water. The Shoebill is his priority target now.

This would be a really good time for it to turn into a giant robot like Fenrir wishes it could, but unfortunately, The Shoebill remains floating without any transforming to save the day.

”Olly!” Fenrir shouts.

Oleander shoots off the rest of the thorns that he has, each one finding its target and piercing the monster's back.

The thorns only manage to slow the monster down for a couple of seconds.

Fenrir feels Nell's panic growing by the second.

One of the boat's cannons fires and lands a direct hit on the monster! The cannonball strikes the monster in his shoulder, causing him to reel that shoulder backward, but it's still not enough. The cannonball couldn't even pierce his tough skin, instead just bruising the bone inside of his shoulder before falling into the water.

Fenrir looks beyond the monster and sees Corwin behind the cannon responsible for shooting the monster. Then the cannon next to him fires, and behind that cannon is none other than Tabitha.

The second cannon hits the monster of a boss right in the chest. He grabs his chest in pain and groans as if the wind was just knocked out of him, but he proceeds onward.

Truly befitting of being a boss, neither players nor cannons have managed to do anything other than stall him for more than a few seconds at most.

Nell blows into the horn once more to try and scare him off again, but all the monster does is cover his ears while still wading closer and closer toward The Shoebill.

The second sounding of the horn lasts but mere seconds before Nell can no longer handle the pain from its intensity.

Then Fenrir notices something out of the corner of his eye.

Something is swimming toward The Shoebill. He can't see what it is, but it's large and close enough to the surface of the water that it's creating a wake.