Page 2390 -- CCXXVIII.

((The Father's Day Special -- page 6 of 24))
Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-Eight: 'The Battle of the Sunken Forest...'
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Hector had thirteen spawn-filled cubes whirling around him. He kept increasing the speed, bringing them to verge of what he was capable. He had to flirt with losing control in order for this technique to work, after all.

That limit was higher now than ever before, though. The wind that the boxes whipped up was strong enough to threaten his footing a little, even in his full suit of armor.

He loosed the first one at rocket speed, straight toward the Beast of Lorent.

The impact threw up so much dust and rock that, at first, Hector couldn't even see what had become of the monster.

But then a giant, bulging hand wiped the cloud away like a fan.

And Hector saw.

The Beast had caught it.

Two enormous hands had emerged from its frog-like form, and one was now holding the iron cube. The force of the catch had pushed the creature back a few meters and torn up some rock around its giant feet, but no damage appeared to have been done.

"Thank you," said Chort. "Now, the rest. But a bit gentler, please."

Certainly, Hector hadn't expected that one blow to end things straight away--not after what he'd seen during that vision--but still.

Just how strong was this fucking thing?

Well. First things first.

Hector raised his right arm and made a fist.

Every single iron box was immediately filled with spikes, skewering their contents.

"No!" cried the Beast, apparently able to sense what he had just done, and it bounded forward.

Its other children followed immediately after it, spitting fire and acid at the party.

Iron and copper walls rose up in their defense, shielding everyone from the vomited projectiles, but the creatures clambered over the structures like spider monkeys.