At first, Artie stiffened on impulse, but after a few seconds, she relaxed her posture.
All the hunters could do nothing but quietly watch what was about to happen, while a few of them cast envious eyes at him.
Then immediately, a gust of wind exploded out of Eliron's body, curling around him as though it were green fire.
That aura encapsulated Artie as well, like flame clasping onto paper.
The moment it did, Artie gasped at the sheer intensity of the mana.
But he was not done.
Next, Eliron summoned Wind Slash, but instead of launching it at the monster, he coated the arrows with it.
The arrows glowed fiercely, waves of violent wind surging around them as Artie lifted the bow.
'Will this be enough?' he mused.
The mammoth's hide was so tough that a bombardment was not enough to make a dent.
Eliron was sure the attack would pack a punch, but somehow, he felt it still wasn't enough…
He sighed and then activated one more skill. [SSS Ranked Skill, Luck]
Artie, noticing his reluctance, then said, "So your plan is to hit it with a mana-boosted strike."
"In that case…"
A pure golden ray of light burst out of her palms, completely surrounding the arrow in its glow.
The light flashed like a beacon, momentarily blinding them, and then it condensed, coating all five arrows like a second skin.
Eliron smirked. "Now we are talking!"
Artie pulled the bowstring, and with Eliron's help, they dragged it back till the point that both edges were nearly touching for maximum thrust.
The bow snapped immediately the arrow was let loose.
VWOOOOSH!
The arrow cut through the air with enough force that a sonic boom exploded outward, rattling Eliron's bones.
All the plants and the trees providing coverage for them were blown to smithereens as the arrow surged through the foliage and onto the monster's knee.
The sound of the impact was deafening.
SKREEEE!!
Light flashed on impact, the winds stirred, and then right before their eyes, the monster's knee snapped, eliciting a thunderous, pained cry from the beast.
"It worked!!!!" the hunters screamed, celebrating their success.
But all that did was further annoy the mammoth, which had now fixed its enraged gaze on them.
In the blink of an eye, red currents sparkled around its gargantuan body, and its trunk swelled like a balloon—
"Run!" Eliron screamed at the top of his voice.
But he was far too late.
The magister mammoth unleashed a strike of livid lightning from its trunk, the blast surging forward with the sound of thunder.
Just at the last second, Yennefer stepped right in front of the blast.
She was already chanting the last part of her spell, and suddenly, the familiar golden dome surrounded the group, just as the lightning made impact.
BANG!!
The shockwave alone sent all the hunters to their knees. Only Ash, Artie, and Yennefer were able to remain upright.
The dome trembled, blood spewing out of Yennefer's nose almost instantaneously as the lightning coursed around it.
Every single tree surrounding them was burned to ash, the lightning carving a deep crater in the earth as it poured out.
The hunters stared around the dome, eyes wide, cold sweat running down their backs as they looked all around them.
It was like they were stuck in a nightmare. The dome stood like a thin glass veil, the lightning coiling around it like raging currents.
Disaster was mere inches away from them, and they could see it coming. It was seconds away from burning them to ash and embers.
— My God! I don't want to die!
— What about my kids, how will they survive without me?
— Lord Eliron, please, do something!
One of them cried, tears rolling down his face.
Crack!
A long spiderweb of cracks spread through the shield, and Yennefer doubled over, nearly collapsing.
Eliron frowned.
She wasn't going to last long. Her body was already trembling all over, and her nose was bleeding nonstop because of how much strength she was exerting to keep it up.
Normally, her spell shouldn't have been able to hold back such an attack, since she hadn't perfected it.
So she was overcompensating by pouring out mana far faster than her body should have been able to handle.
Eliron dashed towards her just as she was about to fall and held her to his chest.
"Drop the shield!" he shouted to be heard over the thunderclaps.
"What the hell do you mean, drop the shield??!" one of the hunters, Damian, screamed.
He got to his feet and was about to rush towards Eliron when Artie and Ash barred his path.
Ash's gaze was sharp and cold as he stared at the man. "Calm down, Damian. Don't do anything stupid."
Realising that he would not last a second against the two of them, he slumped to his knees and clasped his hands around his head.
Meanwhile, Yennefer's expression faltered when she heard him, but she nodded, and then she dropped the shield, exposing them to the lightning.
At the same time, Eliron lifted his hand, a blue-black, glassy distortion appearing right in front of him.
The distortion was so large that it completely shielded them from the lightning.
But it was no shield…
The moment the lightning rammed into it, instead of shaking or breaking, it sank right in.
Eliron gritted his teeth, feeling his mana burn like wood chipping in a fire. Transporting so much mana was taking a toll on him.
But he persisted.
After a few seconds, the bombardment stopped, and the lightning ceased…
It didn't last long.
"You did great, Yen. Now you can leave the rest to me…" he said to her.
Then he glared at the mammoth.
"Hey, ugly, you can have this back!"
The lightning came down with as much intensity as it had originally had, raining down from the sky like crimson streaks of disaster.
The mammoth's eye widened as the lightning flashed in his vision, just before it exploded into its thick back.
Its steely hide caved on impact, stone-like chunks flying into the air.
The hunters stood there, stunned, unable to utter a single word as the mammoth let out a wail, its mouth wide open.
Then Eliron let go of Yennefer and dashed towards it, much to the surprise of the others.
'This is my opening!'
Now that the mammoth was distracted, it was the only chance he had to kill it!
The moment he got to the edge of the quicksand, Eliron propelled himself into the air with a blast of Wind Slash as he flew toward the beast.
Then he unsheathed his sabre, the weapon gleaming in the light as he raced through the air.
But at the last moment, the mammoth's head suddenly shot towards him, its eyes locking onto his comparatively small body.
And then, in an instant, right before Yennefer's eyes,
Eliron was swallowed whole.