Chapter 78 - A soundless cry of pain!

"Damn this big bird is tough. I'm not sure whether or not we can take it out now...", Agiros thought to himself while coordinating Skullcrusher's fight with the Grim Shrieker.

From his perspective, the platinum grade tyrant that he was facing this time came out of nowhere. Why did it come out now of all times? How on Earth did no other binders report any sightings ahead of time so that the Empire could have dealt with it?! These questions raced through his mind as he was fighting, but the answer to that question would have never satisfied him.

In reality, nobody reported it because the Grim Shrieker was never platinum grade until this very night. People had reported sightings of it flying about every and now then or about strange noises coming from the forest, but the details were so sparse nobody looked into it until it was too late. Now the monster that everyone wrote off as a minor grumbling has descended upon them like a natural disaster, ready to wipe everyone out.

"It's that blasted armor! If we only had some serious fire power...", Agiros once again grumbled to himself.

Agiros was an old binder so he knew exactly what aether armor was and how to render it moot, namely use an absurd amount of fire to melt it. The problem is that none of the other binders backing him up had any monsters strong enough to destroy the armor. And he couldn't use group tactics, because the aforementioned binders had their monsters already defeated.

The only thing he could think of now, was to just overpower it with pure brute force.

[Skullcrusher, Leaping Strike]

"PAAAOOOO"!

Skullcrusher glowed with an orange light as he began to charge straight at the Grim Shrieker. Not one to be intimidated, the Grim Shrieker fired off a wind technique directly at the charging Wooly Rammoth. But just as the technique was about to hit, an orange magic circle inscribed with Fury patterns appeared at Skullcrusher's feet. The orange energy then began to concentrate into the Wooly Rammoth's leg and the monster managed to leap into the air, avoiding the attack!

Orange energy then gathered into Skullcrusher's horns as it used its new found momentum to launch a devastating strike at the Grim Shrieker's head! A sickening crack rang out as the horns impacted the Grim Shrieker's head and somehow leaving a visible crack in the aether armor! The Grim Shrieker began to wobble from the attack, and looked as if it was about to fall over!

The other binders cheered at the sight of the wobbling Grim Shrieker, but were soon silenced as the Grim Shrieker stomped one of its front claws with such force that a resounding boom echoed out and cancelled out the ringing caused by the crack from earlier.

Punctuated by the stunned silence, the ice aether armor began to repair itself and the Grim Shrieker began to take several long, deep breaths. Each successive breath seemed louder than the previous, and a bloodthirsty feeling soon became a pervasive presence in the minds of all those present. A final, almost deafening, breath sounded out from the Grim Shrieker before silence overtook the atmosphere. The binders watched with bated breath, as even Agiros and Skullcrusher were stunned by the strange actions of the Grim Shrieker

A second passed before Agiros decided to have Skullcrusher attack before it was too late, but that second was already too late.

As Skullcrusher swung down his trunk, the Grim Shrieker began to glow purple and opened its mouth. The binders began to cover their ears to try and protect it from the ear piercing scream technique...but heard nothing.

Confused, they looked back at the fighting giant monsters to see if the Wooly Rammoth had stopped the technique somehow. Instead, they saw a Wooly Rammoth twisting about in pain and confusion as a Grim Shrieker had its open mouth pointed at it as if it was screaming at it!

None of them could hear the scream, but they could see that it must've been painful judging by the throes of pain inflicting the Wooly Rammoth! How on Earth could they defeat this platinum grade tyrant?!

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[This is an absolutely terrible idea], I told Voxea as the two of us reinforced the icy path once more.

[Oh please, this plan was born from my brilliant mind. Nothing can go wrong as long as you follow the plan], she replied breezily.

If we weren't desperate, I would have recalled her to her drajule, shove it in a wine jug and start shaking it.