Mimic Awakening

Chapter 32: Mimic Vs The Hero’s Party

Crunch!

The platform they are standing on suddenly folds like a closing book. Following are the audible sounds of snapping bones that can be heard from the heroes’ position. The platform swallows them all. Not a single drop of blood spilled.

In a blink of an eye, the members of the adventurer party, Mighty Bones, are instantly killed by the unknown entity. Everything happens so fast that the others watching the horrible sight cannot comprehend what just happened until it is too late.

"Aah... AAAHHH...!!!" ƒreewebɳovel.com

The first one to react is an adventurer. He is horrified by what he saw.

"Everyone, back out! It’s a monster!"

Immediately after snapping back to his senses, Geoffrey tells everyone to step back and prepare for battle. The heroes immediately ready themselves, pointing their weapons at the enemy. The knights, adventurers, and mercenaries are prepared as well, but some of them are having a hard time drawing their weapons due to the suddenness of the scenario.

"What kind of monster is that?!" One of the adventurer leaders yells.

After the monster devours the adventurers, the folded wooden platform begins to distort physically. It is in the middle of its transformation, and what the humans are seeing is something so grotesque.

The wooden surface turns to flesh and then something like a metal surface on its body. Teeth begin to appear, and the whole body of the entity starts to take form. The transformation only lasts two seconds. Standing before the group, the monster finally reveals its form.

The monster is shaped like a treasure chest. The lower part is a box, and its upper part is an arched lid. Its body is gray, and the texture is seemingly like that of slates. Its corners are protected by metal pieces, and its shape and interlocking teeth are so large that they protrude from its mouth.

The monster measures three meters wide, a meter and a half thick, and stands at two meters tall. At first glance, the monster looks like a certain monster.

"Wait, is that... a mimic?" Bashel is perplexed by how the monster turns out to be. "Aren’t they supposed to be found only on the first floor?"

"It appears to be a mimic, but it’s quite big for a normal one," David states as he draws his bow. "Given how no one, not even I, noticed its presence, it’s no ordinary mimic. Don’t let your guards down."

Assessing how dangerous the monster can be, everyone in the group turns serious. They nervously and cautiously observe the monster. Geoffrey and Agatha glance at one another and nod in unison. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Gripping her staff with both hands, Agatha aims it at the monster before she casts her spell. But as soon as her magic circle manifests, a magic circle suddenly appears in front of the mimic.

"What?! Magic?!"

In less than a second, the spell that is assumed to have been cast by the mimic fires before Agatha can finish hers. From the magic circle, a single two-meter-long Icicle Lance, an advanced-class magic, is flying towards the group at an astonishing speed.

"Hmph!"

Without hesitation, Bashel quickly throws himself forward and thrusts his shield forward with the intent to block the attack. Since he has enhanced his body and his shield beforehand, the ice lance breaks into pieces after colliding with the shield.

Shatter!

However, the blow is still powerful enough to make Bashel lose his footing.

Whoosh.

Following his lead, David fires his arrow, which is glowing a pale light due to the prior enchantment, and it flies several times faster than the Icicle Lance did. However, when the arrow is about to hit its target, it is stopped by a translucent barrier around the monsters, breaking the arrow like a dry noodle.

"A defensive magic?!" David voices his shock.

Even though the arrow failed, the real purpose of David’s shot is to stall time for Agatha.

"Eat this! Flame Blast!"

Flame Blast is a high-tier magic spell that shoots out a powerful and scorching hot concentration of fire in a straight line. The power of the flames varies with the concentration. The smaller the area, the more powerful, the hotter, and the faster the flames are.

In this case, Agatha manages to shrink the area to a diameter of twelve inches. This is Agatha’s most powerful attack at its maximum power. Theoretically, this attack is so powerful that it can bypass a dragon’s natural defense and resistance and make it to the other end.

Concluding that this is the most powerful enemy the party has ever faced, Agatha did not hesitate to use her trump card. With Shirley buffing her, the firepower of the spell increases significantly.

The Flame Blast flies at an insane speed, a little faster than the Icicle Lance before, and is heading to the stationary mimic. The monster just stands there as if anticipating the flames hitting it. Its confident behavior makes Agatha break a sweat.

BOOM!

The highly concentrated Flame Blast hits the lone monster, and a loud explosion echoes in the spacious room. Smoke and dust follow, and the spot where the mimic stands is fogged.

The adventurers and mercenaries, who are just witnesses at this point, are awestruck by how powerful the mage of the heroes’ party is. What they just witnessed was something they had never seen before. They are even questioning if it was possible to reach that level.

"Did we make it?" David asks.

Over time, the dust slowly settles, and the situation of the monster is getting clearer and clearer. However, their eyes widen once they get to see the outcome of the powerful attack.

"No way..."

"Impossible..."

"This is bullshit!"

The mimic definitely took the attack head-on, and it should have died or been severely damaged. But their eyes betrayed their expectations. The monster is still standing in the same spot, completely unscathed.

Just what kind of monster have we stumbled upon...? That is the general question that everyone wants to ask.

"What the hell...?"

The strange mimic monster is supposed to be destroyed by Agatha’s most powerful magic, instead, they see it standing there seemingly unharmed. Everyone who witnesses it is blown away by the absurdity of that monster.

"My magic didn’t work on it? But how?"

"Take a closer look. Something has changed."

Upon closer inspection, the surface of the mimic has visibly changed. Earlier, its skin was gray in hue with a texture like that of rocks, but now the nonmetal parts of the skin have turned to something deep red.

The texture has changed as well. From a rough surface, its skin became as shiny as steel. In addition, the skin greatly resembles something familiar to the heroes’ party.

"That skin...!" Geoffrey says. "Those are dragon scales!"

"A dragon, you say, Sir Hero?!" Russell’s mind is blown away by Geoffrey’s revelation. "Now that’s something terrible."

"Deep red scales..." Geoffrey mutters. "I have read this before. It has the same scales as the dragon that one of the heroes in the tales had fought. The legendary Flame Archdragon!"

"Archdragon?!"

"Watch out!"

While the group is in the middle of shock, the deep red mimic opens its grotesque mouth and conjures a two-meter-wide magic circle. Recognizing the spell based on the runic scriptures written in it, Agatha immediately warns the others about it.

"Get out of the way! It’s a Whirlwind! It will pull anyone into it!"

Some of the group immediately get her words and move away from the entrance of the room. However, several knights, adventurers, and mercenaries are not able to catch up, and the advanced-tier magic has been activated.

Whoosh!

"Hold on, everyone!"

Upon unleashing the magic, powerful winds begin to pull everyone in its range. While the others are firmly sticking themselves to the floor and the wall, there are unfortunate ones who are blown away by the strong winds, lifting them in the air and dragging them directly into the caster’s huge mouth.

"HEELPP—?!"

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Even though they cannot see it, they can faintly hear the sounds of those people’s broken bones despite the loudness of the rapid winds. All they can do is to hold tight onto whatever is preventing them from getting sucked and let their ears hear the cries and suffering of their fallen comrades.

"I’m sorry, everyone...!" Geoffrey says as he bites his lip. "We could not save you all."

After what they feel is a long time, even though it only takes seconds in reality, the Whirlwind finally comes to a stop and the strong pulling winds vanish.

"Everyone, let’s retreat! We cannot handle that monster!"

Judging by the situation, Geoffrey decides it is better to back off instead of fighting the enemy. Naturally, the others do not have any objection and run as fast as possible away from the monster.

"Just what the hell is that?!"

As they are tracking the path in the maze back, David loudly voices the biggest question in his mind. Agatha’s hovering light is guiding them through the dark corners.

"Are we even sure that it’s actually a mimic?!" Bashel yells. "There’s no way Agatha’s magic won’t work on it!"

"I’m sorry to tell you, but there is."

"Agatha?" Shirley looks at Agatha’s uneasy face.

"If what Geoffrey said earlier was true, then that’s the reason why my magic won’t work," Agatha then begins her explanation. "According to the legends, archdragons had insane levels of natural magic resistance to the point they gained immunity from magics of their own primary element."

"In that sense," Shirley speaks. "The mimic probably altered its body to that of a Flame Archdragon to neutralize your fire magic."

"Exactly."

"Ha ha. That’s... just insane." David let out a wry laugh; he briefly lost his sanity. "So mimics can replicate legendary dragons now? I thought they were just obviously fake treasure chests?"

"Mimics are one of the weakest monsters out there. But that particular one is different from any other," Agatha continues. "If it could take a part of a Flame Archdragon, there’s a high chance it could do other attributes as well."

"So using magic against it is rendered useless, huh?" Russell concludes.

"There is something on it that I cannot simply explain with words," Geoffrey says in a serious tone. "I know that it definitely is unnatural and has an uncanny air around it. Some are out of this world. That’s why we need to retreat and go back to the sur—?!"

Suddenly, Geoffrey and the group abruptly halt as soon as they see a light ahead of their path. It is a magic circle with unique runic texts, a magic of a very rare branch of magic called arcane. A second after the appearance of the magic circle, the strange mimic from earlier has appeared before their eyes, still in its deep red appearance.