I suppose you would need to expect some kind of boss guarding a treasure trove like this…
"Mages! Focus fire on the giant Anomaly!" I ordered.
Hopefully, they would be able to pummel the giant Anomaly down before it could reach us.
I was expecting the fact that its giant size would slow it down, but it suddenly lurched forward and closed the distance almost instantly.
It raised its fist, threatening to bring it down to crush us.
Olivia let out a roar and leapt into the air, her fist pulled back and cackling with electricity.
She punched her fist forward at the same time as the Anomaly, both of their fists clashing in midair.
Lightning exploded around Olivia and she managed to repel the punch from the Anomaly.
But as she fell back towards the ground, the Anomaly recovered faster than she could and was already readying for another punch with its other fist.
I had to help her, but at this distance, I would not be able to reach her in time.
Do I have any ranged attacks, damnit?!
Why does she get lightning punches?! Where is my lightning pu--
Lightning suddenly coursed around my body, gathering around my fist.
I looked down at my fist and decided not to question my new power and just punched out my fist, shooting out a bolt of lightning directly at the monster's chest.
The lightning crashed against the monster, obviously not strong enough to kill it but enough to give it pause and buying Olivia precious time to land back on her feet to leap at the Anomaly again.
This time, she opted to smash her fist against the monster's chin, her fist once again clad in lightning.
The monster stumbled back several steps, a low wail coming from its mutated jaws.
"Mages, now!" I ordered.
As one, the spells were sent flying towards the monster, all of them crashing into its chest.
The Anomaly let out a baleful cry before it toppled over backwards, crashing into the other smaller Anomalies.
It tried to push itself up but Olivia jumped up into the air and smashed her foot down on its head, smashing it into pieces and killing it.
There was a break in the Anomalies and we took the chance to regroup again, the rangers and mages resuming their bombardment of the creatures.
The Vanguards who were hurt in the initial clash also had their injuries healed by the healers at the back of the formation.
"My Lord… How?" Olivia asked when she returned to my side.
"How what?"
"That lightning that you shot out… That was my lightning…"
I raised my eyebrow, "I didn't know you had a claim over lightning."
She shook her head, "That's not it… The lightning you shot out was similar to mine… I won't mistake a different lightning for mine. How is my lightning in your hands, my Lord?"
I was going to say I don't know until the Jade book suddenly flew in front of me and flipped open to another page, this time showing a picture of Olivia on it.
The only difference was that her picture only had the lineart that was drawn in black and white as compared to the Anomaly on the other page that was drawn in full colour.
Olivia frowned, "Is that… Me?"
I opened my mouth the answer but saw movement ahead of me and turned to face the oncoming Anomalies again.
"Let's focus on the monsters here first," I told her.
She agreed and turned back to face the Anomalies still rushing at us.
We counter charged them, our front lines smashing against the Anomalies and forcing them back.
Near me, Olivia went back to smashing through the creatures and reveling in the carnage of the battle.
Now that I knew I somehow gained Olivia's powers, I started using them as well, striking the Anomalies that were charging at me with lightning infused punches.
Still, I could tell that the lightning I was shooting out from my fists was not as powerful as the ones that Olivia could materialise.
I wasn't dumb, of course. It was clear that my sudden ability to use this lightning was tied to Olivia appearing in the book.
So now I was sure that my sudden increase in strength was most likely tied to that wolf Anomaly appearing in my Jade book as well
Now the question is what were the conditions for something to appear in this book?
If it was only the wolf Anomaly appearing, I would have thought the condition to be personally killing the target.
But with Olivia also being one of the entries, that could not be the condition.
Or at least… It can't be the only condition.
Now I have another clue about my myth, someone who is able to use the abilities of others for themselves.
Which God could do that?
Ah, now's not the time to be thinking about this.
Another of the Anomalies shambled up to me, prompting me to punch at it to shoot out another lightning bolt that struck it in the chest.
This was one of the ones that would self destruct and it immediately exploded into a fountain of gore, the shockwave of the explosion throwing the other creatures around it away.
Even with that, more Anomalies shambled forward to take their place, running up towards us while flailing their limbs menacingly.
But before these could get to me, an even larger Anomaly shoved them aside and charged towards me, its disembodied mouth opening impossibly wide to let out a roar before rushing towards me.
One of the Vanguards tried to intercept it with his great sword but he ended up getting swatted away like a fly, the poor guy crashing into the ground a short distance away.
I raised my own fist and punched forward, the Anomaly attempting to do the same as well with its right fist.
Our punches met in the centre and there wasn't even a contest as I smashed through its arm like it was made of tofu.
It roared out in pain but was quickly silenced when I gave its abdomen a kick to send it flying back.
Guess the wolf Anomaly is stronger than this Anomaly.
The smaller Anomalies that were swatted aside regrouped and tried to resume their advance, only for a centaur dressed in combat armour to appear and gun them down with a machine gun held at their hip. They were even wearing a kevlar helmet and a modified vest with tons of ammunition strapped to it.
A machine gun wielding centaur… That's new.
Honestly, I was half expecting another of those giant Anomalies to crawl out of the home again but that never happened.
As a result, we managed to finish off the remaining Anomalies without any problem.
And if you ask me, Olivia had proven herself to be an especially capable fighter.
Despite her being in the thick of the fight the entire time, she suffered no injuries and held her ground on her own despite being surrounded and outnumbered.
I would say that the reason why we had no casualties was thanks to her taking most of the Anomalies' attention.
We managed to reduce their numbers down to a quarter but I made sure to warn everyone not to be complacent and maintain our formation.
If we were fighting normal, rational people, they would lose morale or even flee by now but these Anomalies know no such thing and will keep charging until they die.
We've already been fighting for almost an hour straight and a number of the Vanguards were starting to show fatigue.
Still, we had no choice but to fight as the Anomalies continued to rush towards us.
The only good thing was that there weren't any more big ones appearing to throw us into--
ROAAARRRRR
Fuck.
Me and my big mouth…
Another of those big creatures pulled itself out of the hole, this one looking like it was an amalgamation of several different Anomalies mashed together to create this single Anomaly.
As though to confirm my thoughts, it slammed its hand onto the ground and several of the smaller Anomalies got sucked into that arm, merging with it like they were made of liquid.
The Anomaly got even bigger and a third arm appeared from its back, appearing just above its right arm.
I think this is the real boss monster and the other one was just a miniboss…
I looked back at the Vanguards, most of them looking up in despair at the new Anomaly.
I raised my hand, "Anyone who is confident of their strength, follow me!! The rest of you continue with the mobs and hold them back!! This is the final push!! Victory is in our grasp!! We are almost there!! Hold on just a little bit longer!!"
I wasn't really expecting a response but they actually let out a warcry and started to fight with renewed vigour.
A few of them peeled away from the main group, forming a smaller group to follow behind me to charge at the giant Anomaly that was still trying to absorb more of its brethren.
Just one more… One more push!