Durin's Diary

The Greasy Spell and Web Spell had clogged the alley to the brim, and the monster had charged headfirst into the web, being delayed in its charge while also having to face the greasy area — thus as it struggled to break free from the web, it predictably slipped and fell.

The use of the spells drew curious glances, but when the children saw the monster in the alley, they immediately screamed.

Durin told the kids to run away and call for adults — they were still some distance from the square, so he and Anta couldn't free up their hands and could only send the kids to alert the adults.

The screams from the children seemed to confuse the monster that had just stood up, as it twisted its head around, apparently listening.

"Durin, do you see? The monster is blind; it heard too many sounds and can't pinpoint our location," the mental whisper from Anta rang in Durin's mind.

"I know, like this, you prepare the Flame Explosion Spell Formula, I'll add a little more to the mix," Durin said, noticing the Halfling proprietor's cart nearby, its owner nowhere to be seen, and the half-eaten brain on it seemed to explain his whereabouts.

Durin used Mage Hand to grab two cans of oil from the cart and threw them into the alley.

At the same time, the Spell Formula once again took shape in his hand.

At this moment, the monster was still listening; its vision was indeed pitifully poor, so poor that it only reacted after an oil can smashed on its head and burst open, then, in retrospect, hit the second oil can whistling towards it with its bony tail.

But this was exactly what Durin had in mind — the oil from the broken can covered the creature thoroughly.

Durin's Ray of Frost hit the greasy area under the monster's feet, and as the freezing spread, the monster slipped and fell, and Anta had already released her Flame Explosion Spell just at the moment of its fall.

Flames devoured everything in the alley, even starting to ignite flammable materials on nearby buildings. Although regrettable, Durin felt that if they let the beast escape, it might cause even more damage in town.

Houses could be rebuilt, but if people died or were injured, that would be much harder to fix.

"Did we kill it?" Anta looked at Durin doubtfully as the fire blazed high.

The next second, the monster rose up from the flames!

"It's not dead!"

Durin grabbed Anta's hand and started running backward.

Behind them, in the inferno, the monster, fully aflame, leaped high, aiming to pounce on Durin.

With no time to spare, Durin smacked Anta with a Feather Fall Spell and used the ever-present Mage Hand to push her away — failing to push the girl away, both of them would have been drawn into close combat.

Pushed by Durin, Anta, now in midair, glanced at the monster and stretched out both hands, with her left hand bestowing a Feather Fall Spell on Durin and her right hand slapping a Haste Spell onto him.

The monster adjusted its posture in mid-air, diving towards Durin with its body engulfed in flames.

"Push me."

Durin leaped, and in the next moment, Anta's Mage Hand and Stoneskin Spell simultaneously took effect on Durin. He was pushed away from the deadly blow of the sharp claws, and at the same moment, he activated the Arcane glove on his left hand and drew out his custom-made pistol from his waist.

GLOCK33, with an integral compensator, a 13-round magazine, a three-stage trigger, fully automatic.

He fully depressed the trigger, and in just two seconds, all thirteen bullets, along with the fourteenth in the chamber, were fired. Four bullets that hit the monster's head were deflected by its bony plates, but the remaining bullets penetrated the body, causing injury and making it bleed black blood.

The recoil pushed Durin further away from the monster, and the backward motion also helped him dodge the bone tail's piercing blow — the black spike stopped just a centimeter from Durin's eye socket, no longer advancing.

Using the recoil, Durin spun in midair, reloaded with a new magazine, and even found time to pick a Spell Formula from the Spell Pool — since your body isn't immune to piercing, that makes things easier.

"Anta, try to immobilize the monster!" Durin instructed Anta in a whisper as he landed.

"No problem, Fossil to Mud Spell is ready!"

Ah, Fossil to Mud, Durin liked that Spell — judging by its appearance, the monster was quite large, nearly three meters long without its tail, and the dust it kicked up when it landed indicated, conservatively, it weighed half a ton.

Softening the ground on a large scale could indeed cause it a lot of trouble, and just holding on for a while, Durin believed the capable adults would arrive and eliminate the threat.

"It's coming again, jump up," Anta warned.

Anta's warning made Durin start, and this time, Durin's own Mage Hand lifted him from below, enabling him to fly backward faster. He first dodocked the monster's pounce, then, while floating in mid-air, he twisted his body to the side to avoid a bone tail that could have bisected his waist.

Anta's Mage Hand gave Durin a push, hastening his retreat even more.

The monster squatted, ready to leap, but Anta's Fossil to Mud Spell got there first, so the monster's squat turned into a disaster—it fell into the mire.

Durin's Metamagic dagger cloud arrived as well, and his freed right hand completed a spellcasting.

At the same time, three Mage Hands completed a lateral shove of Durin.

As he was descending to the ground, Durin saw Anta finally complete her Flame Explosion Spell with Extreme Effectiveness. A huge orange fireball hit the monster, still struggling and bleeding in the mire and daggers cloud, followed by an explosion and flames. The intense heat of the Arcane sent the debris in the impact area directly into oblivion, and the monster struggled in the sea of fire but soon stopped moving under the influence of the two spells.

And with the explosion, Durin witnessed a horrific sight—the whole street was collapsing, revealing the Abyss beneath the stone pavement.

Durin, who was landing, had to adjust his posture and tried to use Mage Hand to push himself away from the collapsing area, but just then, a stone brick whistled through the air and struck him in the chest.

Pain interrupted the spell guidance, the Mage Hand went out of control, pushing Durin straight toward the ground.

In that moment, Durin let go of his pistol and instead sought to grasp a tree root that was exposed.

But it was too slippery, and Durin couldn't hold onto the root. Drained of his strength, he saw Anta, the girl at the edge of the collapse, futilely stretching out her hand to grab Durin. Their fingertips touched, but then they missed each other.

"Durin!" the girl cried out in vain.

Drained of his strength, Durin no longer had the energy to respond. In the last moment, he cast a Dancing Lights spell beneath himself.

The good news was that the light source allowed Durin to see that the Abyss did have a bottom.

With Feather Fall Spell, Durin wouldn't die from the fall, but the throbbing in his chest made him feel like he was about to lose consciousness—he had lived long enough to know what kind of injury was fatal; a rib had broken and punctured his lung, making it wrong even to breathe, let alone speak.

Moreover, Durin saw that monster— Fossil to Mud couldn't bear its weight, and the Abyss provided a better place for it and the great pile of mud. Thus Durin watched as the monster and the earth cascaded down together.

In the end, Durin managed to steer himself away from the creature and then consciousness faded.

His unconscious body landed in a corner, and his final struggle kept Durin away from the monster and its sharp spines.

The next second, something began to solidify on the monster's body.

And in front of Durin's chest, a circular object was also solidifying. Once it had finished forming, it first swept over Durin with a beam of light, then turned to the other side, where a half-open metal pod lay.

The circular object approached the pod, and a metallic sphere was guided out of the gaunt shell inside the pod, then it carried the sphere to the front of the monster's corpse.

At this moment, the newly solidified substance, twisting like mercury, caught the attention of the circular object. After a moment of consideration, it guided the metal sphere to absorb the mercury-like substance.

It brought the metal sphere to Durin's side.

By this time, Durin's breathing had grown extremely faint.

The circular object finally entered the metallic sphere, and the next second, the sphere began to emit light.

· Personal biological maintenance terminal is restarting.

· Energy infusion received.

· System terminal unable to complete wireless networking, unable to access physical network, entering offline mode.

· Critical injury target detected, scanned as a small-sized pet, dying.

· System upgrading biological directory… Critical injury target detected, scan confirmed as a Grassland Elf.

· Initiating healing protocol, beginning to repair damaged bones and organs inside the target.

The metallic sphere finally entered Durin's body.

Some time passed, and Durin's breathing steadied.

Meanwhile, above the Abyss, brighter sources of light were descending.