71 Chapter 71: On Fire (2/2)

Flames erupted along the length of the Fiery Ape's heavily muscular arm and it succeeded in knocking Elliot back. Even so, a thin line of blood dripped from a deep cut across its matted crimson fur.

”Hah!” Elliot crowed. ”So it can bleed!”

”If it bleeds, we can kill it,” Nicholas declared.

Spoken too soon. No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the Fiery Ape slammed both its fists against the ground. A supernova of flames expanded out of it in a circle, rushing forward to engulf and incinerate everyone within twenty-five meters of it. Elliot and Nicholas tried to retreat, but they couldn't get out in time. Neither could the injured ranged casters such as Jin Hao…

And I knew I wouldn't make it in time either, despite being one of the people furthest away from the Fiery Ape's apocalyptic fury.

Shin!

Fortunately for us, a barrier propped up around not just me, but Nicholas, Elliot and the other mages. Glancing at the party, I saw that a few of them were standing together, linking their magic to cast a combined barrier spell that created a circular forcefield in front of us. The flames collided with the shimmering, translucent screen and stabbed at it, but didn't cross the line. The three mages were gritting their teeth, perspiration pouring down their pale faces as they struggled to maintain the protective shielding, and fortunately for all of us, it held.

”Thanks!” Nicholas breathed in immense relief, wiping the sweat from his face. ”For a moment I thought we were a goner!”

”It only worked because the Fiery Ape was casting an area-of-effect spell, so the firepower of its attack was diluted,” the only guy of the defensive trio explained, panting heavily. ”Otherwise it would have destroyed our barrier easily if it had focused its attack to a single point.”

That made sense. Area of effect spells were able to spread their effects across a larger number of targets, but at the cost of firepower and intensity. Even then, I had to admire the trio for combining their spells into a single defensive barrier. That had to be difficult to maintain too. Ironically, it was easier for them to link up and summon a single gigantic barrier than to try and precisely conjure a barrier at specific locations when the Fiery Ape attacked their vanguard, which was why they didn't cast the barrier spells for Elliot and Nicholas when they fought close to the monster.

Nonetheless, I was beginning to realize the importance of having a good party and trustworthy teammates. I had been an arrogant fool to think I could go through this solo just because I could summon my own allies. My summoning spells took too much time and magical energy, and I worked best with people defending me while I stayed at the back to safely complete my summons. Only an utter edge-lord would spout nihilistic bullshit about the world not worth trusting and insisting that I go solo without weighing myself down with ”burdens” in the form of teammates. I depended on them to keep me safe just as they relied on me to finish the enemy off with a single powerful technique.

I was horribly mistaken if I thought I could go through life and survive such grueling combat all by myself. I had gotten complacent and taken my summoning magic for granted. Too in love with the idealistic image of my Dad as a solo operative, I had forgotten that I wasn't my Dad. I lacked his experience, his skills, his knowledge and a whole variety of other factors that allowed him to work on his own. Furthermore, I was pretending not to acknowledge that Dad more frequently than not worked in teams or parties. I had seen him join parties before, even met several of his colleagues. Just because I hadn't actually seen Dad at work, I always had this idealistic imagination of him being a cool Mary Sue protagonist completely capable of working alone and winning by himself.

However, there was no doubt that even during the battle against the Syndicate, Dad definitely enlisted the help of his colleagues from his mercenary group, the Apocalyptic Apostles. There was no way one man could single-handedly destroy an underground organization in such a short time by himself, despite movies that romanticized violence and heroes would have you believe. I never asked or sought the details of Dad's missions – to be fair, they were highly classified and kept as top secret, so even if I wanted to, there was no way for me to find out the details – and then I went and built up this unrealistic, heroic image on my own.

Just like how Harvey was hero-worshipping me, I was blindly hero-worshipping my Dad and making all sorts of deluded assumptions. Solely because I had read way too many wish-fulfilment, power fantasy web novels that featured God Mode Mary Sues who could destroy the world on their own.

”Are you done yet?” Nicholas panted as he kicked the Fiery Ape, who had renewed its assault. He kicked it in the calf, and then jumped up to kick it in the face. The monster turned to block his foot and retaliate with a burst of fire, but Elliot had pounced on it with his axe.

Snarling, the Fiery Ape batted him away, but to Elliot's satisfaction, he left an ugly cut on its bleeding forearm.

”Yeah. I'm not sure how long more we can hold out against this beast!” Elliot growled as he landed a few meters away, heaving.

”Done,” I replied as I finished the last of my casting. ”Sorry to keep you waiting, guys. I'll finish this.”

All around me, fountains of water erupted and surged into the air, almost as if they were piercing the heavens. In a second, it almost seemed as if I had just conjured a gigantic lake. The fires left behind by the Fiery Ape's elemental spells were immediately extinguished, turning into smoke as water splashed onto them.

Realizing the imminent threat, the rank C monster whirled around to face me, a ferocious snarl distorting its already brutish face.

I smiled as a gigantic spirit emerged and materialized behind me, its form shimmering as rivulets of water poured down the sides of its black figure.