Free Web NovelChapter 41: Chapter 41: Lightning Bolt
The bandit who had just tried to flee was stunned for a moment before his expression darkened.
His once-smooth ears began to lengthen and sharpen into points. The messy brown hair on his head turned a sleek gold. The Gobi Desert-style clothing he wore slowly faded, replaced by a suit of ornate Elf Light Armor.
"No! Miles!" the Sorcerer cried out, his face pale. "I’ve known him for five or six years! Don’t tell me he never existed in the first place?"
"You really aren’t very bright," Ming Datiss, now in his true form, said with contempt. "But you’re right about one thing. You’ll never see your Miles again."
"I spent a little money to lure him here and used him to attract the Mire Throat Monster’s attention. Then, I used the Invisibility Technique to take the Treasure Pearl from its body. The most sophisticated plans are often realized through the simplest steps."
"And you, meddlesome Ron, do you know why I pulled you back just now? There was no pit. Miles’s corpse was lying right there!"
Ron watched him silently, then pointed to his own eyes. "You tried to be clever, but you outsmarted yourself."
"You were worried I’d find the body in the water, but have you ever considered this possibility? I don’t have Dark Vision. Even if I had tripped over it, it would’ve been difficult for me to see what was going on."
"However, that was only one of the things that made me suspicious. You were so focused on me, you didn’t notice Victoria, did you?"
"Such a strong magical reaction... How could a mere bandit possess that much power?" Victoria said, letting the Spiritual Light in her hand dissipate. She had never let her guard down around the bandits and had used Detection Magic on the one who’d mixed in with their team from the very beginning.
Ron and the others didn’t even need to speak. All it took was a quick turn to see Victoria’s hand signals and where she was looking. freewebnovёl.ƈom
"And another thing: if you were just a bandit, why would you run when your side wasn’t even losing? Was it because you have no backbone, scared out of your wits? And why did you run only after we arrived?"
"Because I thought you hypocritical, self-righteous bastards would attack the Mad Frogmen on sight!" Speaking of this, Ming Datiss’s face twisted. This was the one thing he admitted to miscalculating all night. "I never, *ever* imagined that a Priest of Heim, a Half-Elf from Rose City, and a Barbarian who lives to hunt beasts and monsters would actually try to *negotiate* with a bunch of ugly animals!"
"What the hell is going on in those heads of yours? Garbage?!"
"What did you say?!" The Mad Frogmen did not appreciate Ming Datiss’s words. They were nobles, after all! freeweɓnøvel.com
"I follow Ron’s lead. It’s that simple." Aive looked like she wanted to shrug, but her armor and shield prevented the motion, letting out a series of clanks instead.
"Ron is my leader. Since he has his own plan, I will follow his will." Victoria’s expression was placid, her gaze lowered. She saw her role as a subordinate; she would obey his commands even if they went against her own wishes, unless they were utterly absurd.
"I know I’m not the smart one," Sera said, casually waving her axe. "If someone else is making the decisions, that just saves me the brainpower."
"Ron! Ron!" Delaford chimed in, but since he was basically just treading water, Ming Datiss all but ignored him.
"This is... absurd!" Ming Datiss was fuming. For an Elf, his temper was clearly atrocious. "Utterly absurd!"
"But none of that matters now. I have obtained one of the eight puzzle pieces I need, and all of you are going to die here!"
As he spoke, Ming Datiss produced a spherical Gemstone from his clothes that pulsed with a blue-purple light. The Gemstone orb wasn’t large. Ron and the others recognized that its size and shape would fit perfectly into one of the holes on the stone slab. This treasure was clearly one of the seven keys. They could only wonder what series of events had led to it being embedded in a Mire Throat Monster’s head.
"This puzzle piece is itself a powerful Magic Item. It allows me to cast Lightning Bolt six times a day and grants me immunity to lightning damage. I already used a few charges to kill that Mire Throat Monster, but it’s more than enough to deal with you!"
Ming Datiss sneered, plunging the Gemstone in his hand into the water. Ron and the others immediately felt a tingling current from beneath the surface. For Aive, clad head-to-toe in metal armor, the sensation was overwhelming; she was so benumbed she could barely move.
"Stop him!" the Mad Frogman butler shrieked. Instantly, everyone—the Mad Frogmen, the bandits, and Ron’s team—charged toward Ming Datiss.
Unleashing a Lightning Bolt in this terrain... anyone could imagine the devastating power it would have.
"Too late!" Ming Datiss roared with laughter. As far as he was concerned, everyone in the cave would end up like the Mire Throat Monster—a pile of charred flesh.
A searing white light erupted from beneath the water, and a massive bolt of lightning engulfed everyone in the cave. In that critical moment, the only thing Ron had time to do was rip apart the Spider Technique Scroll he carried.
"HAHA, HAHA—Huh?"
Amid the tremendous roar of lightning, Ming Datiss’s laughter echoed through the cave. Because Ron’s team had been standing around him and had immediately dodged, they weren’t directly hit by the Lightning Bolt. But the charging Mad Frogmen and bandits weren’t so lucky.
The scent of cooked frog meat soon filled the cave.
Then, perhaps because his joy was fated to turn to sorrow, just as Ming Datiss was certain of his complete victory, the cave was wracked by a violent tremor.
"W-what’s happening?!"
Amid the shaking, the standing water on the floor began to drain away with incredible speed. Perhaps the powerful lightning blast had destroyed the cave’s structural integrity, or maybe it was simply the final straw. In any case, in the aftermath of the lightning, the entire floor of the Mire Throat Monster’s cave started to crumble, revealing a dark space below.
In the midst of the earth-shattering tremor, not even Ming Datiss, holder of the Magic Item, was spared. He had no time to escape before the ground gave way beneath him, and he plummeted into the unknown depths below.
And in his final moments, his upward gaze caught one last sight: a figure, hanging upside down from the cave ceiling, watching his descent.
As he fell, Ming Datiss roared and screamed, but there was no outlet for his fury. He couldn’t understand. ’How can this greenhorn be hanging from the ceiling? How in the hell did he get up there?!’
