Chapter 19: Sudden boss fight

The government chose the final battleground beneath the leaning elastic skyscrapers, right on the wide main road. They selected this location for ease of support and because it suited the plan they had prepared.

The government—and everyone involved—was determined to end the boss once and for all. That included all the Crafters who had agreed to fight the boss, risking their lives to defeat the creature that coldly and indiscriminately killed everything in its path.

Those crafters, including Nova and Cyre had already begun fighting the boss, bouncing between the surrounding buildings. They had no choice but to keep moving that way—there was no solid ground to stand on, making it impossible to dodge the boss’s beam attacks and the thrusts of hundreds of worms without constantly rebounding off the structures around them.

Certainly, bouncing around seemed like the ultimate form of evasion. But with so many creatures attacking at once—and the considerable distance between each building—every bounce carried a risk. Without the ability to cancel their momentum or fly, it became difficult to evade sudden surprise attacks after each leap.

Nova and Cyre—who was riding piggyback on her brother as they bounced around—were in exactly this kind of situation now. After their latest bounce, multiple worms were already lying in wait along their path, ready to strike. It wasn't the first time this had happened. But this time, a beam from the boss had also aligned with their trajectory. Thinking fast, Nova deployed a slow sphere in front of himself, using it to slow himself and narrowly evade the attack.

The reason he used his slow sphere skill instead of his wind or other skills to evade the attack was because it had low energy consumption and was easy to use. 

To slow himself inside the sphere without breaking it, he only needed to reduce or stop the energy in the part of his body that made contact with it. He had been doing this every time he needed to cancel his bouncing momentum or when a surprise attack from the boss or the worms came his way.

This time, as he used the slow sphere, the words “low energy” echoed in Nova’s mind. He suddenly remembered the crafters—those who had been fighting since earlier and were still pushing on even after the promised real Severers candidates had arrived. By now, they were likely running on low energy and stamina.

Nova glanced around to check on them. He spotted them far behind, struggling to retreat as the worms kept surrounding them.

At that moment, Nova landed on the side of a skyscraper that faced the crafters after bouncing a long distance.

“Cyre, hold on tight!” he shouted.

He unleashed his wind skill forward, anchoring himself deep into the elastic wall. Then, with calculated precision, he launched himself toward the Crafters. To propel himself and Cyre even faster, he combined his fire, oil, and armor skills—forming a makeshift nozzle that ignited the oil with his fire, creating a powerful explosive thrust.

With all forces combined, he tore through the air, leaping forward at a blistering speed of six hundred kilometers per hour—half the speed of sound.

Nova landed in the middle of the crafters and the worms with a thunderous crash. The force of his impact drove him deep into the elastic ground. Smoke rose from the spot where the ground had caved in. It wasn’t just from the landing—Nova had released it himself, using a combination of his water and fire skills, channeling them through his hands and feet. His water skill was a recent addition, chosen for its potential usefulness in exploring the alien stages.

After a few moments of diving into the ground, Nova and Cyre launched upward. Nova continued releasing smoke, while Cyre redirected their movement toward a nearby building, using a surge of wind and an oil explosion similar to Nova's technique. At times, Cyre also assisted Nova in releasing more smoke. They kept bouncing around the buildings, weaving past the crafters and worms, until the entire area was enveloped in a thick haze.

The Crafters began to grow angry as this unfolded. Veins bulged from their foreheads, and their mouths opened, ready to speak.

But Nova shouted first. He released a burst of compressed energy in the opposite direction from where the people were trying to run.

“Run opposite of the energy I released! Reduce your energy output and rely only on your physical prowess. The worms will chase my energy!”

The Crafters' anger subsided once they understood Nova's plan. Following Nova's instructions, they bounced away into the smoke, trusting his guidance despite the lack of visibility. It wasn’t a foolish idea—Nova knew that with the vast road ahead and no obstacles in their path, even without sight, no one would crash into a building. After all, they were severers candidates.

Meanwhile, while Nova continued evacuating the exhausted crafters, the real severers candidates fought the boss. Nova planned to join them as soon as the evacuation was complete.

Vast roots spread across the ground, intertwining beneath the spherical boss, which levitated twenty meters above the earth. Surrounding the boss were sparse, tall trees—each standing about forty meters tall, including the ten meters that sank into the ground. These trees had wide trunks, about two meters in diameter, and were connected to the sprawling roots. Meanwhile, the worms bounced around the boss, adding to the chaotic scene.

A bulky old man, wielding plant-based skills, charged toward the boss, his presence unmistakably linked to the creation of the surrounding trees. He jumped between the trees, using their thick branches as footholds while launching attacks on the boss whenever he found an opening. Alongside him was the musician girl Nova had met in the alien stage, as well as several other unknown individuals, all joining in the old man efforts.

What caught the most attention, however, was the guy covered in colorful paint, bouncing around the outer edges of the trees and avoiding the center or getting any closer to the boss. He attacked from a distance, periodically shooting bursts of energy in different colors toward the boss. Any worm that blocked his energy was wiped out as if a pencil drawing had met an eraser. Even the boss took a fatal hit, a half-meter hole forming in its spherical flesh.

However, the boss quickly regenerated its flesh, healing the wound in an instant. From that point on, the boss focused its attacks primarily on the guy covered in colorful paint. Occasionally, it fired beams toward the real Severer candidates, who were attempting to gather energy similar to the guy covered in colorful paint.

Yet it wasn’t just his attacks that stood out—the guy covered in colorful paint evasive maneuvers were equally exceptional. He skillfully used the elasticity of the buildings’ walls to his advantage. When an attack nearly struck him mid-bounce, he had already pulled the wall in advance so that its elasticity would snap him back just in time, letting the attack pass harmlessly by.

Similarly, the other Severer candidates weren’t far behind; using wires and knives, some of them executed evasions just as precise and calculated—pulling themselves away at the last second, their tools anchoring to walls or debris just before an attack could strike.

…

Nova and Cyre—still piggybacked on her brother’s back—arrived near the boss, standing atop the thick, tangled roots after finishing the evacuation of the Crafters. They were immediately greeted by a swarm of worms.

Cyre unleashed a continuous stream of fire with a one-meter diameter, targeting the worms surrounding them. Nova added oil to fuel the flames, expanding the blaze to a three-meter-wide inferno that engulfed the worms. The creatures collapsed, scorched and charred, bouncing slightly but unmoving.

They then sliced, punched, and kicked the few remaining worms that had evaded Cyre’s fiery barrage, all while absorbing the ambient energy around them. Their aim was to conserve their energy and gradually replenish it through absorption. When too many worms rushed them at once, Nova occasionally used his slow sphere to buy them time, reducing the attack's number. It barely cost him any energy—an efficient skill that consumed minimal energy.

Cyre found it difficult to slice the enemies while clinging to her brother’s back, so she switched to ranged attacks instead. She compressed a three-finger-sized amount of energy—something she could quickly absorb back from the surroundings—into a finger-sized projectile. Then, she fired it forward, piercing through multiple worms that happened to be lined up in its path.

“Wow, seven at once!” Cyre said, her eyes gleaming.

She kept going, hooked on the satisfying feeling.

“Seven again!” she grinned.

“Four…” she muttered, disappointed.

“Six!” Cyre threw her clenched fist into the air.

“Ten!” she cheered, swinging her body back and forth, side to side with excitement.

Nova’s body staggered slightly from her sudden movement.

“What are you doing, Cyre?” he asked while slicing through any worms that got too close.

“I’m trying to pierce through as many worms as I can at once. My record is ten, hehe.” Cyre grinned, aiming her finger and scanning for her next targets. “Join me, big bro! Loser has to buy whatever the winner wants.”

“That sounds fun,” Nova replied, pausing his knife swings and switching to evasive maneuvers. He mimicked Cyre, scanning the battlefield for worms lined up in a row.

“Fifteen! I want—” Nova declared triumphantly after landing a perfect shot that pierced through fifteen worms.

But before he could finish, Cyre interrupted, “You are cheating! You move around searching for a straight line. I didn’t move!” She thumped him on the head with both hands in mock protest.

It was at that moment a loud cracking sound echoed through the area, grabbing Nova’s and Cyre’s attention. The boss had done something unexpected. Up until now, it had only released two or three worms at a time from inside its body. But this time, it broke open the lower part of its spherical form, unleashing hundreds at once. The damaged section regenerated immediately afterward.

“Looks like I must go all out, right, Cyre?” said Nova suddenly. “All right, the real battle starts from…?” added Nova cheerfully, with a questioning tone.

Cyre waited for the perfect moment, her eyes scanning carefully until all the remaining worms that were heading toward them were in position. Once she was sure, she shouted, “Now!”

Nova released his slow spheres, each already trapping one or two worms inside. The trapped worms, still carrying the momentum from their previous thrusts, slammed into the approaching ones. The impact killed both sides instantly, clearing the path.

With the way now open, Nova and Cyre immediately leapt forward, rushing to join the Severers candidates and offer their support.

As they leapt into the air, slicing through the wind toward the Severer candidates, Nova and Cyre took turns using their explosive oil skill to slip past the oncoming worm attacks. For those that came in dense groups and couldn’t be avoided, they were pushed back by the force of Nova’s and Cyre’s wind surges. Meanwhile, for the worms following behind, Nova conjured a tornado that swept through them, sending the creatures crashing into each other.

Not long after, they arrived five hundred meters from the Severer candidates, the boss, and the hundreds of scattered worms. The worms immediately attacked the Severer candidates as soon as they emerged from the boss.

Nova quickly concentrated his energy, and moments later, he shot a finger-sized slow sphere toward the center, below the Severer candidates. Upon activation, the slow sphere expanded into a two-hundred-meter-diameter energy sphere.

Meanwhile, Cyre, still piggybacking on Nova, remained quiet, focusing on observing the Severer candidates—studying what they looked like and how strong they were.

"Sir, ma’am, please excuse me. Can’t you throw all the worms toward the sphere? We could conserve a lot of energy this way!" shouted Nova toward the Severer candidates. To demonstrate, he pushed some of the worms toward the sphere using his wind skills.

Nova realized that using his slow sphere skill to eliminate all the worms at once would be far more efficient than taking them down one by one, which would be far too time-consuming. With the worms trapped inside the sphere, there would be no chance of missing, and no energy would be wasted.

Many of the Severer candidates immediately understood what Nova meant.

“Good idea, young man,” said the bulky old man, his arms fully enveloped in wood. The wood expanded to twenty meters wide as he scooped up countless worms, directing them toward the sphere.

“You guys are from that time. You’ve definitely become a lot stronger,” remarked the musician girl. She spun a large net, thirty square meters in size, crafted from her skill, and swung it around to capture a hundred incoming worms before throwing them, net and all, toward the sphere.

Nova and Cyre also followed the Severers candidates’ lead, creating tornadoes around the sphere to pull in the surrounding worms. Four tornadoes surrounded the sphere, with Nova and Cyre each creating two.

Others joined in, using different methods to funnel the worms toward the sphere. In no time, the two-hundred-meter-diameter sphere was completely filled.

Suddenly, from beyond the trees, a guy covered in colorful paint fired a massive energy blast—two hundred meters in diameter—straight toward Nova’s sphere. The energy surged through the forest, disintegrating everything it touched, leaving clean, circular gaps that perfectly matched the shape of the blast.

Moments later, the blast collided with Nova’s sphere. Like the phases of the moon, Nova's sphere—and the countless worms trapped inside—faded from full to crescent, then vanished completely.

“Is that a Severer, big bro? They work so well together, even without communicating. They understood what you meant with just a hint. That last guy even wiped out all those worms in one go!" Cyre asked, her tone filled with excitement. Her eyes widened in surprise as she watched the entire sequence of events unfold.

“I don’t know, this is the first time I’m seeing it too. In the previous Severer videos, most of the energy was focused on enhancing their bodies. There was no grand entrance like this. But I guess… yeah, this is Severers." Nova replied, his eyes also widening in shock.

"Hello, Mister Nova. I'm the government official who previously met you on the rooftop of the skyscraper. I wanted to inform you that one of the Severer candidates you asked about has arrived. She's a Crafter who uses a sniper." said the rooftop man suddenly through the intercom Nova was using.

“Is that so? Alright, I’ll head over there after I explain things to the Severers here. But before that… You’ve been watching everything, right? Then do you know why that guy—the one with the painted clothes who unleashed that devastating energy blast—didn’t aim it at the boss instead?” said Nova.

“That’s because the larger the blast, the less concentrated its power becomes. When it’s compressed into a smaller size, it can punch through the boss—just like it did earlier. This only shows how tough the boss’s defenses really are, Mister Nova," answered the rooftop man.

‘That massive blast—two hundred meters in diameter—could only manage a small hole in the boss? The gap between us is enormous. Even if I compressed all of my energy, I doubt I could pierce the boss at all,’ thought Nova.

After finishing the intercom conversation, Nova bounced over to the Severer candidates and laid out his plan involving the sniper. He explained that he intended to stack the sniper’s shots with his slow sphere. By timing the attacks in quick succession, even if each shot only pierced a little—similar to what the man covered in colorful paint had done earlier, together they could bore deep into the boss’s body. The boss’s regenerative ability wouldn’t be able to keep up with such layered strikes.

The Severer candidates agreed to the plan without hesitation. Everything went smoothly, as Nova had somehow proven his capability through earlier actions. His proposal was further backed by the government’s endorsement, making it even more convincing.

However, before saying his goodbye, Nova noticed a swarm of worms launching themselves from the front, aiming to attack everyone in the middle of the discussion. Without hesitation, he bounced forward to the right side of the Severers and extended his hands toward the area between them and the incoming worms. Then, he released a tall, concentrated firewall—thin but blazing—between the Severers and the swarm. The worms, unable to stop their momentum, charged straight into the wall and were charred as they passed through, collapsing to the ground one after another.

After that, without needing any orders, each of the Severer candidates began compressing their energy, preparing to unleash a massive attack on the boss. This time, the boss didn’t respond with its usual beam. Its enhanced energy vision couldn’t detect the Severers through the wall of fire.

The firewall vanished a few moments later. Then, starting from the right side and moving left, the Severers released their compressed energy one by one, each attack spaced half a second apart. The first blast pierced a meter into the boss. The second went another meter deeper. This continued until the fifth attack. This time, the boss’s regenerative ability couldn’t keep up—but to their surprise, a wave of worms leapt in front of it, sacrificing themselves to block the remaining strikes.

They had needed seven hits to pierce all the way through. But with only five making it, they fell short.

Now they understood exactly what needed to be done when executing Nova’s sniper plan later.