Chapter 378 - A Hard Fought Battle

Cecil, who was right above the blast zone of his attack used his arms to shield himself from the impact. He curled himself up and waited patiently until the impact of his attack was over.

He had to stay up there in the sky to make sure that the monster under the water had thoroughly perished after his attack.

He felt a little apologetic because he couldn't fulfill his sister's request. She wanted to tame the beast but the monster itself was much too dangerous and too powerful. Cecil didn't expect her to even be able to tame it even after it was defeated.

He was quite worried for his friends since the last time he checked with his Mana Sense, they were still at the shore. He thought that it was going to be safe there, but he had underestimated his own technique.

The resulting blast had affected everything around, even to their faraway campsite. Cecil still didn't notice that his friends were already far away from the shoreline because he couldn't send his Mana Sense out.

The blast from his Skyfall had sent everything in the surrounding area into disarray so even if he did try to send out his Mana Sense, he wouldn't be able to sense anything.

It took a few minutes before the impact of his attack subsided. He felt a little drained but this was only due to the fatigue he felt from maintaining the technique. Cecil still had plenty of mana in him since the mana he used wasn't entirely his own.

"Ugh...the strain on my mind when I use Skyfall is much greater than when I use Over Flash, but the strain on my body isn't as bad... I just hope that monster is already—shit!"

Cecil quickly dodged away from his current position. A large pulse of water shot through the position he was previously at and this caused Cecil to look down at the lake in shock.

His attack had carved out the land and the water that was in the blast radius had thoroughly evaporated. The shore of the lake was destroyed and pushed back a few miles. The lake was quite large and the area that Cecil had destroyed was only but a fraction of its size so the water from the lake began pouring back into the area that had its waters thoroughly evaporate.

However, since the waters had evaporated, Cecil was finally able to see what kind of monster it was that had been attacking him and his party. What he saw was completely shocking.

The large serpents that he and his friends were attacking earlier were only a part of the monster. The body of the monster was huge and Cecil could make out a large harden carapace surrounding it, but this carapace had been partially melted down due to his attack.

4 large fins poked out from 4 different holes of the carapace and the serpent from earlier were all connected to this large carapace which probably contained the main body of the monster that was attacking them.

Then he saw a large serpentine-figure poke out from a large hole in the middle of the rugged carapace. This was the monster's main head and it began roaring angrily at Cecil. He noticed that a part of its large head had been burnt away due to his Skyfall attack, but it was still alive and breathing.

"Damn...w-what is this thing?!"

"RAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!"

The monster roared out and shot a large bullet of water at Cecil from its main head while the rest of its smaller heads began shooting out similar bullets of water at him. Seeing the shower of attacks shooting straight at him, Cecil began dodging away from them.

The monster didn't even stop attacking and it continued to shower Cecil with numerous attacks. At this point, he couldn't even find the time to even counterattack as he was too busy trying to dodge.

"Crap!"

The water from the lake began filling in the newly expanded area that was devoid of water and it soon covered up the monster's large body, concealing it under the water again. Cecil was able to break out of the waves of attacks and he sent out a Flash Cannon back at the monster.

His attack struck true and it hit the monster's main head, injuring it once again.

"GRAAAHH!!"

"Take that! And why don't you have some more!"

Cecil continued sending Flash Canons at the monster until it was its turn to feel what it was like to not be able to retaliate. It was quite unfortunate, but his Spell Prison and Spell Seal had been destroyed after his Skyfall had struck them earlier along with the monster.

It took some time for him to set it up again and he needed people to buy some time. Luckily for him, he wasn't alone on this battlefield.

"Cel!"

"Cecil!"

"Leader, we're here!"

Cecil's friends quickly arrived back on the battlefield after he let loose one final Flash Cannon which was followed up with an Ascending Blade.

"Guys!"

"Quick, tell us what to do!"

"We already saw the monster's main body earlier! I can't believe we were only fighting its offshoots!" Lucius said in shock.

"Y-yeah...even its offshoots were already S ranked... just how high ranked is this monster?!"

"It may be at SSS or a level beyond that... it's just as strong as the Night Plague we fought against all those years ago...actually, this thing might even be stronger!"

"What should we do then? If we have everyone else participate, it'll only lead to unwanted casualties!" Eli said.

"I'll try and lock it down again. This time, we'll take it down together. I need you guys to buy me time to create my Spell Seal and Spell Prison around it. Those are my two new magic spells that can lock its movements as well as its mana away."

"T-that sounds absurd!" Velicia quipped up.

"It'll keep the monster from using its mana to attack and it'll partially seal its movements so we won't need to worry about it running away from us. Without its mana, you guys won't have to worry about any of its spells, just stay alert of its physical attacks. It still has those small serpent heads that'll defend its main body but with this, we can at least limit the dangers so call in everybody!"

"They're already on their way. So, how much time do you need?"

"Just a little bit, let me catch my breath before I go and begin casting the spell."

"Alright."

Ainz and everyone began heading straight towards the monster. They remained cautious of its attacks and began sending down spells of their own at it. Lucia and Eli, who was carrying Velicia, landed themselves down onto the monster's body and began attacking it in gusto.

They slashed their weapons on the monster's large body. Eli sent her Intent-fused sword strikes at its carapace and slowly carved it out. Lucia created a flaming environment around them to keep the water from fully submerging the monster's large body.

A few moments later, the other members of their group soon arrived around the new shoreline. They began constructing earthen towers and shooting out magic spells onto the monster's body. The numerous smaller serpent heads began retaliating but Cecil was able to prevent them from shooting out any spells in the next moment.

A large magic formation had formed around the monster. It recognized this spell immediately and all of the monster heads turned towards the sky.

"Septum, Spell Seal. Incarcero, Spell Prison!"

Cecil waved his hand and his two control spells quickly enveloped the monster. Chains began bounding its body and it could no longer gather up its mana again. This relieved a large bit of the damage that everyone was supposed to endure.

A few of the braver ones who were more courageous followed after Eli, Velicia, and Lucia's example and began jumping onto the monster's body. Quite a bit of its body had been submerged underwater so a few of the mages began freezing the water again.

After making a scaffold from the ice, more and more members of the vanguard unit began climbing onto the monster's body. Angelia's monsters weren't exempt from this as they immediately began swarming onto the monster's body and attacking the serpent heads that popped out from under the steel-like carapace.

Cecil couldn't move from his position at the moment since he had to maintain his spell. The main head of the monster was already fiercely struggling to break free from his spell but his friends were already preoccupying it by sending their attacks straight at it.

"ROAAR GROOOARRR CREEEE!!"

"Cover your ears!"

Ainz's bellow immediately made everyone cover their ears. A large shockwave erupted from the monster's mouth and it was deafeningly loud. Some of the people who were too late to respond began bleeding from the nose and ears before immediately fainting.

The ones that were able to react in time only felt themselves turn disorientated. There were a few that knew healing spells in the group and they immediately began healing the ones who were only disorientated and started pulling back the ones who had fallen unconscious.

"Pull back the injured! As for the rest, press the attack!" Ainz shouted again.

"OUHH!!!"

The monster's earlier attack hadn't affected only its enemies. Even the offshoot serpent heads had been affected. Some of them directly fell while others had even exploded into a messy gore of flesh.

A few of Angelia's monsters were affected and injured by the attack but after she went over to tend to their injuries, they were immediately healed and ready to fight again. Her healing abilities worked miracles on her contracted monsters as their effects were much stronger on them than they were when she used them on people.

"Guys, can you keep going? We'll try and tame this one and have him join our family!"

"Chiiiiiii!"

"GRAWR!"

"Ouuughhhhrrrr."

Her monsters responded in their own way, relaying to her that they were all okay and ready to go. Angelia nodded and began directing her monsters to attack the enemy's main head. She sent a few to go and back up the Exploration Group's and Little Kings' members.

A majority of her monsters were sent to attack the monster's main head and with the addition of these monsters, the enemy could no longer try and direct its focus onto something else like trying to break free from Cecil's lockdown spell.

Their attacks began breaking apart the monster's carapace and the main head's iron-like scales began to break apart as more and more attacks impacted it.

Cecil was observing that as time passed and more attacks hit the monster, the large beast began to let out strained roars and pained screeches as it slowly stopped retaliating. He immediately saw this as a turning point and he shouted.

"ANGELIA! NOW'S THE TIME! GO AND TAME IT!"

"Huh?! O-Okay brother!"

Angelia was surprised but immediately delighted when she heard his shout. The captains who were attacking the main head heard Cecil's words and began opening up a path for the girl. Angelia flew up the side of the monster's head while dodging and attacking the other serpent heads that were trying to smack her out of the sky.

A few moments later, she finally arrived at its head. Because she was making her way up, everyone had stopped attacking its head. This allowed the monster to try and do something again, but before it could even try anything, Angelia jumped down from Chi's back and landed on top of its head, right in the middle of its eyes.

The monster eyed the girl dangerously but before it could shake her off, Angelia knelt down, closed her eyes, and tried to connect her mind with the monster.

"GRAH—oourrghhh..."

Once she tried to send her consciousness into the large monster, its body immediately froze and the smaller serpents on its body also froze in place. Everyone halted their attacks. A few of the members took this time to pull back their wounded and retreat to the shoreline.

"Don't let your guards down!" Elizabeth shouted.

Everyone heard her shout and they kept their wits about them, if the monster made any sort of suspicious movement, they'd immediately resume their attacks on the beast.

Lucia saw that the monster had stopped moving and she immediately flew over next to Cecil.

"Cel, are you okay? That skill you used earlier looked like it took a toll on you..."

"Physically, I'm fine...but my head's feeling a bit dizzy right now... that skill takes a large toll on my mind than it does on my body... just hope that Angelia can tame this monster soon... I don't think I'll be able to maintain my seals on this monster..."

"Don't worry, if we have to, I'll use my Apocalypse to melt this monster into nothing."