SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will

Chapter 180: Surrounded by Heretics

What made the creature dangerous beyond its mobility was its affinity to an element that had surprised Moon when first demonstrated.

A mid-tier element: Sound.

The Black Raven’s screeches were immensely powerful sonic attacks, devastating enough that Moon’s ears were perpetually on the verge of bleeding from the constant attacks. The wave-form assaults were like having red-hot needles driven repeatedly through his eardrums while his skull vibrated at frequencies that disrupted concentration and balance.

Despite this agonizing disadvantage, Moon had killed dozens of Heretic warriors who’d foolishly attempted to attack him during their fight. Their corpses now littered the battlefield in various states.

Till now, the Black Raven had been playing its role cautiously from maximum distance, employing its sonic powers as ranged support rather than engaging in direct close-quarters combat where Moon would dominate agile creatures.

Moon wasn’t entirely certain whether the guardian beast was inherently intelligent enough to recognize he wasn’t displaying his full combat capabilities yet, or whether it remained simply exhausted and injured from its fight against the White Swan and still required recovery time before risking aggressive action.

Either way, the creature’s cautious approach represented a sound decision. Otherwise, Moon would have already stunned the flying beast with close-range lightning paralysis, then finished it off or inflicted severe crippling injuries until it eventually died.

Since the Black Raven insisted on maintaining its supporting role from a safe distance, Moon had decided to endure the constant damage to his hearing and simply focus on eliminating the scattered Heretic ground forces first.

The remaining warriors were considerably more careful and disciplined than when combat initially started—they’d learned from watching their comrades die under Moon’s hands. Now they maintained good spacing from each other to ensure Moon couldn’t efficiently eliminate multiple targets with single, powerful attacks like Ignite.

SCREEEEEECH!

The Black Raven unleashed another sonic wave, the sound carrying such concentrated force that the air itself visibly vibrated and distorted.

Moon’s left eye twitched involuntarily from the searing pain that threatened to break his composure and force an audible grunt. Blood began trickling from his ears despite his high constitution.

The Heretic Chief watched with mounting frustration and anger. The lone intruder standing before their strongest remaining warriors and their S-rank guardian beast was proving far more powerful and resilient than he’d ever anticipated.

He’d heard scattered reports about the mysterious deaths of powerful apex predators across the island—creatures that even the strongest hunting parties of their own avoided engaging. Over a short period of time and accumulating evidence, he’d come to suspect that this intruder group was somehow responsible for those kills.

But the Chief had assumed the entire group worked together as a team to achieve those victories with great difficulty.

Yet this small, unremarkable-looking human stood completely alone before their strongest veteran warriors and their S-rank guardian beast with his back perfectly straight and his facial expression composed, as if he wasn’t bothered by being surrounded, as if he wasn’t afraid of death.

That un-shakeable confidence deeply bothered the Chief on an instinctual level. In desperation, he’d sent wave after wave of warriors to engage Moon in close combat, hoping superior numbers would eventually overwhelm even exceptional skill.

Yet that strategy only resulted in more corpses piling up around the silent reaper.

Moon stood there like a reaper, killing anybody who showed even momentary negligence in their defense or dared to attack him directly. His movements were efficient, wasting no energy on flourish or intimidation.

For the first time in his long life, the Heretic Chief felt a tinge of fear creeping into his heart.

He glanced toward their guardian beast, who continued its relentless screeching attacks, sending concentrated sound-based assaults toward the human reaper.

Although the sonic attacks weren’t directly targeted at the Heretic forces themselves, the spillover was still injuring them slowly but inevitably due to the exposure. Some of their weaker, younger members had already collapsed to the ground completely unconscious, their eyes rolled back and blood seeping continuously from their ruptured eardrums.

The Chief made a command decision, shouting orders in his native language.

<Set your weapons ready!>

The remaining warriors immediately complied, raising bows, javelins, and throwing spears into prepared firing positions.

<Aim carefully!>

Dozens of projectile weapons locked onto Moon’s stationary position from multiple converging angles.

<Fire everything!>

Tens of deadly projectiles flew simultaneously toward Moon, charging through the air. Spears, arrows, javelins, all hoping to impale or at least injure Moon severely enough to create an exploitable opening.

Moon’s staff struck the ground with a powerful force, the sound echoing in the vicinity.

Instantaneously, an earth dome erupted around his body with a radius of one meter, forming a complete spherical shell of compressed stone that blocked incoming attacks from literally every direction simultaneously.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!

The weapons embedded harmlessly into the exterior surface of the protective barrier, the damage absorbed completely by the dense earth dome.

Inside the temporary sanctuary, Moon took the brief respite to catch his breath and reassess the situation.

’The Black Raven won’t commit to close combat. The ground forces are too spread out to eliminate at once. And Selene should have successfully extracted the prisoners by now, she should be here within a few minutes at best, unless something bad has happened in the process.’

Moon’s eyes hardened briefly, he wasn’t going to wait like a damsel in wait for Selene to come and save him. ’Time to stop playing defensive and end this decisively.’

He began channeling a larger amount of mana, far more than he’d employed for any previous technique in this battle.

Upon spotting the apparent failure of the weapon barrage against the protective earth dome, the Heretic Chief’s eyes suddenly glinted as a thought which appeared to be a golden opportunity sprouted in his mind.

They could advance and finally defeat the troublesome human trapped inside.

<Charge directly to the dome! He’s completely surrounded and vulnerable!> the Chief shouted in his native language, his voice carrying over everyone on the battlefield.