Chapter 690: Destroyed Rock Towers (2)

On, Hong, and Raon's eyes opened wide. The children averaging nine-years-old subconsciously looked toward Cale's back. They were receiving some good news in the middle of the battle.

"Hooooo. That was faster than I expected."

The fake Hilsman also seemed a bit shocked as he looked at Cale's back.
They had located Duke Deruth earlier than he had expected.
They then heard Cale's voice as he calmly started speaking without turning around.

"…You believe you located it?"

Beacrox and Lock couldn't help but flinch, even though Cale's tone was not a scolding one.

"It is not the actual location but a hypothesis?"

"That is right, young master-nim."

Beacrox, whose expression had quickly turned back to normal, gave a short explanation about what had happened.

"The Molan Household was investigating different parts of Puzzle City when my father suddenly felt an abnormal breeze and moved in that direction."

"Breeze?"

The fake Hilsman tilted his head, but the children averaging nine-years-old nodded their heads with sparkles in their eyes.

"We followed the direction of the breeze and found a house. The breeze did not leave that area."

The breeze that brushed around Ron… That was created by a Wind Elemental.
Cale was capable of communicating with the Wind Elementals with his golden top's whip.
However, other people could not communicate with the Wind Elementals even if they held this golden top's whip. But the Wind Elementals had a way of leading people without using speech.
That medium was the wind.
The Wind Elementals had thoroughly searched every nook and corner of Puzzle City. They led Ron, the human holding the top's whip, to the suspicious location as soon as they found it.

"So, did you find it, Mr. Beacrox?"

Lock anxiously asked Beacrox.

"No. We located the house, but we are currently observing it from a distance."

"…Ah."

Lock nodded his head as if he understood.

'It is the right decision to proceed extremely cautiously if Duke Deruth-nim is really imprisoned in that house.'

Beacrox's gaze that had been stuck on Lock for a moment headed toward Cale's back. He could see Cale's hand slowly moving.

Baaaaaang— baaaaang!

Loud explosions rang out every time he moved his hand and rocks turned into dust. Beacrox quietly observed Cale's back as Cale stood there without saying anything else before he started walking.
He walked brusquely until he stopped right next to Cale.

'…I knew it would be like this.'

Drip.

He could see drops of sweat on Cale's forehead dripping down his face. More beads of sweat were forming one by one as well.

"My job is done in about fifteen more minutes."

Beacrox frowned after hearing what Cale was saying while looking like this. He then noticed Cale's hand that had a handkerchief wrapped around it like a bandage.
The handkerchief was full of dark red dried blood. Beacrox did not like it, although the injury on Cale's palm seemed to have closed.

'In some ways, he really is trash.'

The way he did not listen to the people around him telling him to stop getting hurt and to take better care of himself was the same stubborn kid who acted like trash in the past.

"I think you can turn the mana disturbance off now, nya!"

Raon added to Hong's comment.

"That's right! Human, let's turn the mana disturbance tool off, and then I will stop that monster with my magic!"

"I'm not so sure."

It was rare to see Cale stall like this without giving a direct response.

"…It will be quite troublesome if the bastards who messed with my father run off."

It would be very troublesome.
He wanted to save his father and capture all of these abductors.

"But there's still no reason to push yourself too hard, nya."

Cale looked down after hearing a voice.
On, who had walked up to his feet at some point, smiled at him. The silver kitten's gold eyes were calm.

Tap, tap.

On tapped Cale's leg with her front paw before pointing to the side.

"It is over here, young master-nim."

Beacrox handed the golden top's whip in his hand to Cale.

"…You brought this with you?"

"My father told me to do so."

Beacrox repeated Ron's message word for word.

"I cannot hear the voices of the Elementals, so I can only hypothesize that the location the Elementals told us about is the right place. I am sending this with my son as you may hear something else from the Elementals since you can speak to them, young master-nim."

The hand wrapped in a handkerchief grabbed the golden top's whip without any hesitation.
Cale felt a breeze brush past him at that moment. He then heard multiple voices.

'Cale Henituse, we found some houses! The wind flows underground through all those houses!'

'Cale, long time no see! Anyway, each house has a door leading underground.'

"…Many houses?"

'I thought they took Ron to just one house?'

He then heard a deep voice.

'Chaos, despair, deep desire to destroy those abductors. Of the many houses… The house with a gap in the corner of the kitchen leading underground has a teleportation magic circle.'

Cale's eyes clouded over at that moment.
A teleportation magic circle.

"Is that where you took Ron?"

Nobody looked at him weird even though he seemed to be talking to himself. It was only the fake Hilsman who looked at him with curiosity.

'Hope, love, deep desire to destroy those abductors. That's right. We could sense movement underground in every house with an underground passage. We tried to infiltrate it but felt as if we would get caught.'

"Why?"

What could cause the Elementals to get caught?

'Destruction, wrath! There are hostages by the entrance of every underground passage!'

"What? There are other hostages?"

The others, who had remained quiet as Cale chatted with the Elementals, started reacting.

"Human! What do you mean?"

"Young master-nim, what do you mean by other hostages?"

"Hold on."

Cale stopped them. The others could see that one corner of Cale's lips twisted up as he did that. But they could also see the anger in his eyes.
The Wind Elemental shouted in an extremely angry voice.

'There were Dark Elves! They seemed to be Dark Elves from the Endable Kingdom! They left them to guard the entrances so we could not get any closer. We could not let the Dark Elves find us!'

'That's right! Oh, I saw some Bears too! They peeked out of the underground entrances to look outside for a moment and they were all in their berserk states!'

The White Star's subordinate, Bear King Sayeru, had yet to be caught.
Cale thought about him as he remembered something from the past.
The summoning ritual for the unranked monsters at the Endable Kingdom.
Cale had seen dried blood when he was there. That blood must have belonged to the Dark Elves the Bear King had tried to use as sacrifices.

"…They're literally the worst."

Sayeru did not kill some of those Dark Elves and was using them as slaves.

'The Dark Elves guarding the doors will be the first to die if we locate them and attack. The Bears would retreat while we killed the Dark Elves.'

It was obvious.

'Cale, the look in the eyes of those Dark Elves… they… they seemed really tired.'

'Wrath, destruction, ruin! I keep keep keep being angry! Destruction! Chaos!'

Cale's eyes slowly looked out at all of Puzzle City. His left hand moved again.

Boooooooom-

There was another loud noise as a rock shield blocked the dark red light again.

CRUMBLE-!

Numerous rocks crumbled to dust. The people below had quite a lot of dust on their hair and shoulders.

"…More rocks broke than I expected. That's weird."

Cale started to frown.

"Human! The crown prince said that the Lion Dragon will use a new power with five minutes left!"

Stage three.
The Lion Dragon would use its physical power along with two special abilities.
One of them was the Dragon Breath-like power it used earlier.
The other power started from the Lion Dragon's two eyes.

Tang!

Alberu's bullet shot out.
It was headed toward the Lion Dragon's now black eyes.

Baaaaang!

However, the bullet exploded in midair and the Lion Dragon just tilted its head to the side to dodge it. It was extremely agile, unlike during stages one and two.
Cale noticed that Choi Han was looking at him. Choi Han seemed as if he had something to say.
Cale had a pretty good idea about what Choi Han wanted to say.

'The Lion Dragon's attacks are stronger than what was in the information we got from Ahn Roh Man.'

That meant that things had somehow changed.

"Beacrox."

"Yes, young master-nim?"

Cale turned around. He made eye contact with Beacrox.

"The Wind Elementals will go back and tell Ron about a couple of different places. You go back and inform Ron about what is going on and help him out."

"Yes, sir, I understand."

Ron would be able to recognize the breeze caused by the Wind Elementals even without the top's whip. He had experienced it once already.
The locations the Wind Elementals would tell him about would be the houses with the underground passages where the Bears are hiding.

"Lock."

"Yes, sir?"

"Do you have anybody you can spare from guarding the above and underground entrances?"

"Yes, sir. I do."

Cale started to walk. He patted the now calm Lock's shoulders.

"Then lead them to where the Tigers are waiting right now. Attack the place Gashan thinks that the rest of the Bears are located. And Gashan."

"Yes, sir."

The Crow poked its head into the room. Gashan should be seeing and hearing everything through the Crow.

"Attack the Bears as soon as you are ready even if the Wolves haven't arrived. Also, send the Whales to Ron."

"I understand."

Cale headed back toward the window.

Swoooooooosh-

Wind gathered at his ankle.

"On and Hong."

The kittens looked at the whirlwinds gathering at their feet for a moment before looking at Cale's hand reaching toward them.

"The two of you come with me."

"That sounds great, nya!"

"I think I know what we need to do, nya."

Cale finally looked at the black Dragon with the chubby cheeks.

"And Raon."

"Human, what do you need me to do?!"

"What we originally planned on doing."

Raon's eyes clouded over for a moment.

"…What we originally planned on doing...?"

"Yes."

Their original plan before Duke Deruth was abducted. Raon cautiously asked.

"…Are you going to release the mana disturbance?"

"Soon."

Cale turned toward Beacrox as he answered.

"I will stop to see Duchess Violan before I go."

"Okay."

Cale immediately stepped onto the window ledge after hearing Beacrox's response. On and Hong followed behind him as Cale addressed the people standing there.

"The Wind Elementals will follow all of you."

The golden top's whip was sparkling in his hand.

"The Wind Elementals will come and let me know when you are all ready. Then I will send all of you a signal."

The moment he sends that signal…

"The Tiger tribe and the Wolf tribe will suppress the Bears waiting in the forest. The mana disturbance tool will also stop for a moment."

It would be for about one minute.
And during that minute…

"Raon."

Smirk.

The corners of both Cale and Raon's lips curled up.
This place, the only place where mana was still stable… This place where mana was gathered together…
This room that was covered in all sorts of magic circles…
What Raon needed to do here was simple.

"Land one attack. Make it strong enough to topple the Lion Dragon."

Cale said one last thing as he left.

"See you all later."

He then jumped out the window. The wind guided him to where he wanted to go.
On and Hong, their movements assisted by the wind as well, quickly followed behind him.

Tap. Tap.

They jumped from roof to roof to move quickly.

"On. Hong."

"You can tell us anything, nya."

"This is exciting, nya!"

Cale asked On, who was next to the excited Hong.

"What do you think I am going to ask the two of you to do?"

On said that she had a pretty good idea as to what he would ask them to do.
On looked at Cale with an expression that seemed to be wondering why he was asking such an obvious question before she answered him.

"There is no magic."

"Yes, it is impossible to use magic right now."

Magic was out of the equation until the mana disturbance tool was turned off.

"Furthermore, the Lion Dragon attacks anything without a set pattern, nya."

"And?"

"It is also too fast for our allies to land their attacks, nya. The only attack that can harm the monster right now is the crown prince's attack, nya."

"That's right! But his bullets are not hitting the monster, nya!"

Hong quickly added on. Hong then looked at Cale and shouted vigorously.

"That is why we need to either make the Lion Dragon stop moving or slow it down so that its reckless attacking slows down and the crown prince's attack has a higher chance of hitting the target, nya!"

"That is why we know very well what we have to do, nya."

Magic, sword art, and even a Dragon's large body…
If none of those things were a danger to the Lion Dragon right now…

"And what would that be?"

A thick smile appeared on Cale's face.

Tap. Tap.

As Cale and the two Cat children ran across roofs toward the barrier…

– Cale, your body will be burdened if you use any more wind.

Cale slightly nodded at the Sound of the Wind warning him as he looked toward the barrier.

Baaaang, bang! Baaaaang!

The rocks were still blocking the Lion Dragon and attacking it over and over.
Cale turned away from it and looked at On and Hong. The two Cats were looking at him as well.
Hong and On smiled brightly as they spoke one after the other.

"In order to hold the Lion Dragon down even for a moment… There is nothing better than poison, nya!"

"I wonder if poison works on the Lion Dragon, nya."

Cale thought about the answer to On's question.
He had seen the Lion Dragon through numerous video communication devices. He especially remembered what he had seen when Alberu's attacks destroyed its wings and ripped apart some of its scales.

"This bastard moves like a machine but it bleeds."

"Hoooo."

On and Hong's eyes sparkled after hearing that it bleeds.

"I don't know whether poison works on it or not, but… I think it is worth testing it out."

Shhh.

Cale unbuttoned one more button.
The sweat on his body was not because he was using the Scary Giant Cobblestone.

'The approximate number of remaining rocks is...'

His eyes looked up into the air and calculated the number of remaining rocks.
He then looked toward the Lion Dragon.
There were some odd whirlwinds gathering in its now black eyes.

"…It's fast."

They were told that the new special ability would come out with five minutes to go.
There was also a precursor to it using the ability.

'Ahn Roh Man said that it would use the new special ability within one minute of the whirlwinds appearing in its black eyes.'

The Lion Dragon was showing that precursor even though there were still ten minutes left.
If the Lion Dragon uses its new special ability and launches an even more destructive attack in the next ten minutes… Especially in their current situation where magic could not be used…

"There's not enough."

He might not have enough rocks.
Because of that…

"Do you want to help?"

Cale asked On and Hong who immediately nodded their heads. A small rock shield appeared around On and Hong to protect them.

"Don't move away from my side no matter what."

"That's very easy, nya!"

"I didn't plan on moving away from you anyway, nya."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The moment Cale, On, and Hong stepped onto the barrier…

"Waaaaaaaaaaaah-!"

Cale heard people cheering down below.
He looked down to see people cheering with looks of relief on their faces after looking at him. They looked terrible while being covered by the dust from the broken rocks, but their eyes were all alive.

Oooooo-

This was a completely different noise from the mana that was shaking uncontrollably because of the mana disturbance tool.
It sounded as if a wave was pushing forward from a distant sea.
People looked up at the top of the barrier where the noise was coming from.

A red fog.
Through the area that was chaotic because of the mana disturbance…
On top of the barrier…

The red fog slowly rose like a tsunami.
The rocks that were scattered all around the air started approaching from every direction toward the Lion Dragon at the same time.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]