The stone statue's sudden agility at such a critical moment left Leonard stunned.
Though not quite despairing, he still felt a pang of disappointment—his hard-earned ultimate attack had been dodged.
The thunder dissipated, channeled entirely into the ground by the stone sword, leaving a deep pit in the floor. Freed from the lightning's restraint, the statue regained its mobility and once again swung the stone sword down at Leonard.
This time its target was clear: the boy who had nearly taken it down with one big move—Leonard.
It didn't even spare a glance at the nearby Midgard.
Leonard might have been disheartened, but he wasn't about to throw his life away.
The stone sword's sweeping arc was massive, though, and he doubted he could dodge it completely.
Still, he had to try. Better to get grazed by the shockwave than crushed head-on.
"Protego!" Leonard shouted, rolling to the side while casting the reinforced Shield Charm on himself.
The colossal sword, carrying a gale-like pressure, skimmed past his shield. The impact burst into dazzling sparks, unstable ripples spreading outward across the barrier.
The next instant, the sword slammed into the ground. The earth quaked, and dust and shattered stone blasted into the air, turning into deadly projectiles under the force of the impact.
His shield wavered, on the verge of collapse. Leonard rolled and leapt forward, desperate to put distance between himself and the onslaught.
But he wasn't fast enough. A fist-sized stone struck his shield, making it ripple like water as it tried to absorb the blow. Already riddled with cracks, the barrier finally gave way.
A sharp shatter rang out as the shield broke, the stone whistling straight toward Leonard's head.
Suddenly, a dark blur flashed past. Midgard appeared behind him, her claws slicing the stone into three pieces with a cold gleam.
She seized Leonard and darted clear of the continuing shockwaves with practiced agility.
"Leonard, keep attacking!" Midgard roared. "Your magic works—hit it hard again!"
Compared to her own earlier attempts, Leonard's magic had left clear marks on the statue's body and had nearly melted its stone sword.
The results were obvious—far better than anything she had managed.
"It's not that easy. I can only manage one more. If it dodges again, we're done for."
Still caught under her arm, Leonard spoke helplessly.
He glanced at the Ancient Sprout tucked in his sleeve. Its silver glow had dimmed, the strain of casting that spell weighing heavily on it. He could feel that half its magical reserves were already drained.
"Just one more shot? That's useless!" Midgard snapped as she carried him, weaving between the statue's heavy strikes.
Leonard bristled. "Who are you calling useless? Put me down, and I'll fight it for three hundred rounds!"
"Brat, don't try to act tough with dirty jokes. Wait until you've grown up." Midgard narrowed her eyes, lunging forward the moment the giant sword slammed down. Her claws raked across the blade.
A blinding spark flared. As the sword lifted again, she lashed out with a violent kick, then grimaced at her nearly flattened claw.
That sword was unbelievably hard.
"What now?" Midgard leapt onto a broken pillar, eyes fixed on the statue's movements.
"Your magic can't touch it, and we can't get close. Even if we did, there's nothing we could do against something this huge."
Frustration tugged at her. At first, she had thought the statue's massive size would make it easy to wear down. Just keeping it busy should have been enough.
But this opponent wasn't budging.
"The answer is still my magic," Leonard said gravely. "But we have to find a way to restrict its movements."
"Restrict it?" Midgard pointed at the advancing statue. "How? With a Petrification Spell?"
She let out a cold, bitter laugh.
"Don't rush me. I'm working on it," Leonard said steadily.
The more desperate the situation, the calmer he forced himself to be. Panic would only lead to mistakes, and mistakes would make things worse.
Restrict its movements...
Leonard watched the colossal figure swing its massive sword, helplessness flickering across his face.
Its size wasn't the problem. The real issue was that it resisted magic and moved with unnerving agility.
Did it have no weakness at all?
A weakness... a weakness...
Leonard's gaze roamed up and down the statue, searching for inspiration—anything that could bring the monster down.
Then, suddenly, something caught his eye.
The stone statue was no longer unscathed!
Beyond the sections scarred and half-melted by lightning, large patches of cracks now marred its surface.
The fissures weren't deep, barely scratches compared to the statue's immense body—like scrapes on a human hand.
But they stood out starkly, because every crack carried the same blackened burn marks.
Burn marks? Fire magic hadn't harmed the statue at all.
Burn marks...
Leonard's eyes lit up with sudden realization.
They weren't from the statue itself—they were the remains of plants clinging to its surface, scorched away by Midgard's flames.
The fire hadn't touched the stone, but it had burned the plants and their roots down to nothing.
And those cracks were the work of the roots!
The statue might boast powerful magic resistance, but without activation, it was still just stone—stubbornly durable, yes, but no stone could resist the slow, invasive force of plant roots.
Leonard's gaze swept across the statue. In just a few seconds, he spotted cracks all over its body.
They were its weak points. Small, perhaps meaningless to the statue, but to Leonard, they were openings—gateways to bring it down.
An ant's nest can collapse a thousand-mile dike. These cracks were the nest.
All Leonard had to do was send in the "ants."
"Midgard! Head for its feet!" Leonard patted her, grabbed a tuft of her fur, and swung onto her back. "I've got a way to pin it down!"
"Got it! Hold tight!" Midgard didn't hesitate. She charged straight for the statue's legs as its sword came crashing down.
The statue reacted quickly. Instead of lifting its sword, it dragged the massive blade like a plow, gouging through the ground in pursuit.
The hall shook violently. The floor split open with a thunderous crack, a three-meter-wide trench ripping across it as the enormous sword tore after Midgard, threatening to swallow them whole.
By then, Leonard and Midgard had already reached the statue's feet.
"Now! Go, Thornpiercer!" Leonard pulled a jagged thorn seed from his pocket and hurled it into a crack in the statue's leg.
It was a seed enhanced with both Thornpiercer Empowerment and Root Empowerment.
Amid the roar of the collapsing floor, the tiny seed slipped into the fissure.
In the next heartbeat, vivid green thorns burst forth, climbing the statue's leg under Leonard's control. In an instant, a spiked lattice spread across its surface, weaving a cruel, thorn-covered "pant leg."
The thorns' spines couldn't pierce the stone, and their numbing poison was useless against it.
But their roots wormed deep into the fissures, while their tough branches wrapped tightly around the joints, locking the statue's movements.
The power of plants was not to be underestimated.
Soon, the once-fresh green thorns hardened into sturdy, deadwood branches. Roots forced the cracks wider, pressure mounting from within until the statue staggered. Its massive sword, still tearing at the ground, halted mid-strike.
"Keep going!" Leonard shouted. "The other leg!"
One leg wasn't enough. To be safe, they had to bind all four limbs.
"On it." Midgard landed on a protruding slab of stone, spun sharply, and sprinted toward the statue's other leg.
As they closed in, Leonard tossed a second seed.
"Crack!"
Another Thornpiercer spread across the leg. Again, its poison had no effect, but the roots burrowed in, and the withered branches, working together with the first, formed a prison that shackled the statue.
Its legs bound, the statue swung its sword in frustration, trying to swat Midgard down like a fly. But she darted out of reach each time.
"Next are the arms! This is the most important part—we can't let it use that sword to draw down the thunder again!" Leonard shouted. "Get us up there!"
Leaping now was no different from suicide. Midgard would have no footing in midair, and a single mistimed move could see the statue swat them from the sky.
She didn't hesitate, but neither did she jump blindly. For all her lack of finesse in planning and daily affairs, Midgard's instincts in battle far surpassed Leonard's.
The Thornpiercer vines climbing the statue's legs had already told her what Leonard intended. She darted back, forcing the statue to shift from tight swipes to wide, heavy swings.
But with its legs bound, its movements slowed drastically. Each downward strike left a brief pause before it could pull the sword back up.
That pause was exactly what Midgard needed.
The moment the sword slammed into the ground, she vaulted onto the massive blade, using it as a runway. With Leonard clinging to her, she sprinted up toward the statue's arm.
The statue, seeing this, raised a massive hand and swatted toward them.
"Too slow! Too slow!" Midgard laughed heartily, clutching Leonard with one hand as she rolled past the statue's swatting palm and landed squarely on the back of its hand.
At such close range, even with his head spinning from Midgard's acrobatics, Leonard couldn't possibly miss this chance.
A seed slipped neatly into a crack on the statue's hand. In an instant, thorny vines burst forth, snaring its arm and locking its joints and palm tight.
And because the statue's movement had been so precise, the spreading vines ended up binding its palm directly to the massive sword.
The statue strained to lift its hand, the thorns grinding with a teeth-aching screech.
Wood chips and stone flakes scattered as it fought desperately to rip free of the binding vines.
Another seed landed on its last free arm. This time, with Midgard's help, it sank into a fissure near the back of its forearm.
The vines grew rapidly, clutching from the upper arm to the shoulder, completely locking the limb. For now, it couldn't raise its arm at all.
That meant it no longer had any way to shield itself with the stone sword against the lightning about to fall.
Midgard leapt from the statue's shoulder. Just before hitting the ground, she flung Leonard into the air, catching him again once she landed.
It was humiliating to be tossed around like a toy, but Leonard knew she was preventing the shock of impact from injuring him.
He didn't have Midgard's werewolf physique. The Ancient Sprout only boosted his body slightly above that of a normal child—it hadn't turned him into anything close to superhuman.
Necessary, yes, but there was no time to dwell on it.
Leonard slipped free of Midgard's arms, brandishing his wand as he drew on his inner magic.
He would use ancient magic again—and redeem himself.
The Ancient Sprout swayed against him, silver energy flooding into his body like a surging tide.
Overhead, dark clouds gathered quickly, lightning weaving through their depths.
Sensing the danger, the statue struggled violently. The withered vines binding its legs, wrists, and arms began to snap.
This was a race against time. If the statue broke free first, Leonard and Midgard were finished. But if Leonard's spell completed first, the statue would be destroyed.
Wand gripped tight, silver light spilled from Leonard's eyes. Veins bulged across his face, twisting his features into something almost feral.
There was no time to marvel at the apocalyptic spectacle of ancient magic.
Bolts of lightning rained down, guided by Leonard's control to avoid the binding vines and strike the statue directly.
The statue froze mid-struggle, its movements halting for a single instant.
That instant tipped the scales of victory toward Leonard and Midgard.
The storm above had fully formed, thunder's oppressive weight shaking the ruins.
Pouring every ounce of magic he had into the spell, Leonard forced the ancient magic to complete its charge early.
"Fall for me!" he roared, swinging his wand down with all his strength. A massive lightning pillar crashed from the heavens, engulfing the statue completely.
Under the blinding silver glare, the statue crumbled apart piece by piece. Lightning serpents slithered across the floor, melting stone as the unchecked power of ancient magic poured out without the sword to guide it.
The lightning raged for half a minute before finally dissipating. When it cleared, the once-mighty statue was gone, leaving only a puddle of half-melted sludge, like wax from a candle.
Leonard lowered his wand. Nothing seemed wrong, except that the Ancient Sprout looked utterly wilted, like a plant left unwatered for weeks.
Its silver glow had dimmed to almost nothing. Had it not still clung weakly to his hand, Leonard might have feared the two ancient spells had drained it completely.
But it endured. It lived.
"Phew... we survived." Midgard sprawled on the ground with a sigh of relief. In her wolf form, covered in fur, dignity was already a lost cause.
"Haha..." Leonard gave a weary laugh, collapsing onto the floor. "Yeah... we survived."
Exhaustion weighed heavily on his face. He hadn't done much physically—Midgard had handled most of the strain, and the Ancient Sprout had borne the true burden of casting ancient magic.
But in a battle of life and death, his nerves had been stretched to their limits. Now that it was over, fatigue hit him harder than ever before.
Midgard felt the same. This fight hadn't even burned as much energy as her normal training, and she hadn't taken the lead in attacking. Other than getting clipped by a rock early on, she hadn't been hurt at all.
But the mental exhaustion was crushing.
Neither of them felt like talking. One sat, one lay down, both just trying to recover, until the sudden cracking of walls around the ruins jolted them awake.
Awake wasn't the word—they were scared half to death.
"No time to rest," Leonard said, pushing himself to his feet. "We search the ruins once, then get out."
The battle's aftershocks had nearly destroyed the place already. The ruins still stood, but only barely.
"Right." Midgard rolled over and sprang up, then froze. "But... what are we even looking for?"
Good question. What were they looking for?
Leonard had no real idea. He only knew this ruin was tied, somehow, to ancient magic.
Drawing a deep breath, he opened his magical sight again.
Through it, he saw the shattered statue, traces of magic still lingering within.
First came a floating, mysterious symbol, and behind it, a shimmering, illusory gate.
...
[Up to 50 chapters ahead for now]
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