NOVEL WEB Chapter 469: A flaw
They could feel the genuine danger radiating from the small dragon, and their survival instincts demanded immediate action.
Fear, ironically, had begun affecting the creatures who specialised in inflicting it on others.
Including the queen herself, who recognised that her talents and advantages were insufficient against the opponents in front of her. They had incredible willpower that she had never witnessed in her entire life.
The Cackle Queen snarled with desperation, her voice carrying notes of genuine panic that her subordinates had never heard before.
But before any of the hyenas could move from their positions, Arthur activated one of his class skills with perfect timing.
<Shadow Bind>
<Rank: Legendary>
<Active>
<Description: Uses the target's shadow to temporarily bind them. The duration of the skill depends on the difference in strength between the user and the target.>
Arthur's incredibly high mana allowed him to target all ten superior-rank hyenas simultaneously, their shadows suddenly becoming chains that bound them in place with supernatural force.
The power difference between them allowed him to bind them all for some significant time.
"Now, Aether!" Arthur commanded.
Suddenly, the shadows of the hyenas erupted like living things, dark tendrils shooting upward to grab the hyenas and hold them in perfect immobility. Each creature found itself completely unable to move, their strength meaningless against bonds forged from their own darkness.
Simultaneously, space itself locked around the Cackle Queen as Aether's legendary ability took effect. Space that was an intangible concept seemed to become a solid around her position, making movement impossible and escape attempts futile.
The entire pack—queen and subordinates alike—found themselves transformed from confident predators into sitting ducks waiting for slaughter.
...
With everyone stuck in place by his combined assault, Arthur did not wait around for potential complications or unexpected resistance. Speed and decisive action had always been his preferred combat philosophy, especially when facing opponents whose capabilities remained partially unknown.
Immediately, he activated his spatial manipulation talent and appeared directly before the strongest of them all—the Cackle Queen herself.
He wasn't so naive as to focus on the weaker Hyenas first and leave their queen for last.
She stood like a perfect statue, her legendary frame frozen in the exact position she had occupied when Aether's Space Lock ability took effect. Her eyes, despite not moving, still blazed with intelligence and fury that suggested her mind remained active despite her physical immobilisation.
But somehow, as Arthur materialised behind her with his katana already drawn for a finishing strike, the impossible happened. The Space Lock spell that should have been unbreakable suddenly shattered like glass, reality reasserting normal physics around the queen's position with abruptness.
The queen pounced on Arthur with explosive power that had been coiled and waiting for exactly this moment. Her skill attack came with the full force of a legendary-rank predator whose patience and timing had been honed for decades.
Arthur, caught completely off-guard by the sudden failure of what should have been an absolute restraint, didn't have the chance to escape or mount an effective counter. His mana was still heavily committed to maintaining the shadow bindings on the ten superior-rank hyenas.
The queen's claws raked across his chest with devastating force, her legendary strength sending him flying backwards through the air like a projectile. His trajectory carried him directly into the bone-constructed wall of the throne room, the impact creating an explosion of ancient skeletal remains that had been carefully arranged over generations.
CRASH!
Arthur's body carved a crater through the macabre architecture before coming to rest among the debris of scattered bones and pulverised mortar. Dust filled the air around him as he slowly extracted himself from the destruction, his constitution having absorbed the worst of the impact.
He stood up from the debris slowly, his movements carried a slight stiffness that indicated some injury. A thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, evidence that the queen's attack had overcome his damage resistance through sheer legendary power.
Arthur spat the blood onto the bone-littered floor, his expression carrying more interest than pain or anger. "Interesting," he observed with appreciation. "You faked being fully immobilised."
His mind was already processing the earlier event. According to every parameter he understood about Aether's Space Lock ability, there should have been no way for the queen to move or even blink. The legendary skill was designed to be absolute within its operational parameters.
But she hadn't needed to move to break free. Her talent was far more powerful and sophisticated than Arthur had assessed. She had been able to use her nightmare talent on Aether once again, timing her mental assault so perfectly that the void dragon wouldn't even have a chance to warn Arthur of the incoming disruption.
She had targeted Aether's concentration for less than a second, just enough to shatter his focus and cause the Space Lock to collapse at the exact moment when Arthur was most vulnerable to counterattack.
Arthur wasn't quite angry; in fact, he was happy. Arthur had never seen Aether use that skill before, so had they used that skill on a much more powerful enemy and failed, Arthur would have been in deep trouble.
It was a good learning experience; he understood that the skill wasn't invincible and had its flaws. People with illusion-type talents, like the queen, could use their talent to break the spell, not because they were stronger than Aether, but simply because the skill required focus, and once they ruined that focus with their talent, the skill was gone.
From his position on Arthur's shoulder, Aether's voice carried shock and fury that exceeded anything Arthur had heard from his companion before. "Master! I'm so sorry! I failed you again!"
The small dragon's form began trembling with rage that seemed to make the very air around him vibrate with power. His void-black scales darkened further, absorbing light so completely that he appeared to be a hole in reality itself.
"She made me lose concentration! I let her hurt you! It's my fault, master is injured," Aether's voice cracked with emotion that transformed his earlier enthusiasm into something approaching fury.