"Feidric's magic is pretty incredible..." Cipher marveled silently. Since that was the case, she no longer needed to worry about Aria's situation and could focus on dealing with the small fry in front of her.
-
The perspective shifted back to Aria.
The golden Divine Smite slowly dissipated, revealing the Giant Infant within, charred black as if severely burned. Its face twisted in agony, and it opened its mouth wide to wail.
Just then, Douglas joined the fray, slamming a vicious right hook into the Giant Infant's cheek.
BOOM—!
With a thunderous thud, the cry was abruptly cut short. Douglas grinned. "Crying so hard, little brat? Must've been wronged, huh? Let me comfort you properly!"
Though his words dripped with sarcasm, they were rooted in truth. In the Dragon Ember Empire, during Douglas's childhood, War Priest trainees were forbidden from crying. When children faced setbacks or hardships, no one came to comfort or guide them. Tears didn't earn sympathy; they earned punishment.
"What are you crying for? War Priests don't cry! Get up and hit back!"
This was the education Douglas had received as a child.
At this moment, Douglas's size was comparable to the Giant Infant's. He immediately unleashed a barrage of blows, raining punch after punch upon the creature. His speed was so immense it almost left afterimages. Under this high-frequency, continuous assault, the Giant Infant was beaten so relentlessly it had no chance to retaliate, remaining staggered and completely unable to move.
Meanwhile, Aria charged her power. Once she was ready, Douglas instinctively stepped back without needing a signal. Then, an even more powerful Divine Smite crashed down.
The battle fell into a cycle: Aria would charge her Divine Smite while Douglas stepped in to keep the Giant Infant staggered. The creature was treated like a punching bag, taking a constant beating without ever landing a single blow.
However, Cipher sensed something was wrong. After stomping the last small fry beside her into oblivion, she stared grimly at the Giant Infant. She realized the creature seemed to be... growing.
If it was a newborn infant at the start, it had now grown to the size of a toddler, roughly a year old. Furthermore, its skin, once charred black from burns, was slowly turning a pale gold.
The creature's health pool was immense, and its regeneration rate was astonishingly fast. The true effective damage Aria and Douglas dealt was their total output minus the creature's regeneration. When compared to the Giant Infant's total health, this effective damage was pitifully inadequate.
Worse still, the infant was adapting!
Cipher could clearly sense a Paladin-like aura gradually emanating from the creature. It sounded absurd, but it was undeniably true.
Aria's Divine Smite dealt extra damage to evil entities, but the Giant Infant no longer fell into that category. She had lost the precious bonus damage from her signature ability. Meanwhile, under Douglas's relentless barrage, the creature's physical resistance was steadily increasing.
Their combined effective damage output was steadily decreasing!
Finally, after about four or five attack cycles, the infant had grown to the size of a three- or four-year-old child. It suddenly caught Douglas's punch with one hand, while its other hand lashed out like lightning, its fist glowing with golden light.
If one had to name this move, it might be called "Divine Fist."
BOOM—!!!
Douglas was sent staggering back several steps, his face a mask of astonishment. He wasn't the only one; even Feidric, watching from a distance, wore a strained expression. "Analyzing the attack... Adapting to... Divine Smite."
Then, Feidric shouted, "This thing is constantly evolving! You need to use different skills to attack it!"
But his words put Aria and Douglas in a bind. They only knew a handful of skills!
Aria, in particular, had relied on Divine Smite from the start of her adventures to the end. It was her one-trick pony, and she hadn't bothered learning anything else.
As for Douglas, although he was currently considered a Pseudo God of War, Gods of War weren't known for flashy skills. They were simply good at dealing and taking damage. Beyond that, he possessed traits like "the longer the battle, the higher his combat power" and "the worse his condition, the higher his combat power."
In a way, this Giant Infant boss was a terrible matchup for both of them. But just then, Cipher narrowed her eyes slightly and said, "In situations like this, enemies of this type usually have a fatal weakness. If we can find and shatter it, we might be able to severely wound or even kill it in one blow!"
Many novels, anime, and movies featured similar setups: when the protagonist's party couldn't defeat the boss through sheer strength, they had to find and exploit a weakness.
Cipher continued, "You two hold it off and buy me some time. I'll find that weakness!"
However, despite her words, Phainon was also present. He could clearly perceive that this Giant Infant had no such "weakness" at all. Cipher was just making it all up.
However, while others' fabrications might be useless, Cipher's were not!
Cipher glanced around. There weren't many people present—fewer than fifty, even counting Daphne and all the Warlocks. To make her lie a reality and create a weakness for an Outer God out of thin air, she needed a vast number of people to believe it. Fifty was nowhere near enough.
But this wasn't a major problem. Back in Okhema, Tribios immediately took action. A report was drafted and pinned to the top of the World Wide Web.
The report, framed as a news bulletin, stated that an Okhema team had encountered an avatar of the Outer God, the Mother of Flesh, in the Great Forest and was fighting to save the world.
While it appeared to be a standard news release, it contained detailed information about the Mother of Flesh's avatar: its appearance, its abilities, and—most importantly—the "location of its weakness."
As everyone knew, official government news carried immense credibility with the public. The citizens of Okhema accepted the report without a shred of doubt. And with that, Cipher's Authority began to take effect.