Chapter 131: Strength and Technique
「Master. Thing I wanted to try.」
『Lay it on . I’m ready for whatever, though I’m a bit nervous because we aren’t really going to get to practice it or anything.』
「Nn. Skills. Air Compression, Magic Thread Weaving… 」
Fran ultimately ended up asking to set fourteen different skills: Fla Magic, Wind Magic, Atmospheric Circulation Control, Air Compression, Air Jump, Vibration Fang, Anti-Weight, Weight Boost, Elental Blade, Charge, Parallel Processing, Magic Thread Weaving, Magic Poison Fang, and Coordination.
She got to work the mont I had them set, and raised both arms in front of her with her palms facing forward. She made use of the Atmospheric Circulation Control skill and created herself a pair of cube-shaped blocks of air, each about a ter and a half across. Each was populated by a bunch of thin magic threads.
『Oh, I get it now! Nice thinking!』
The combination allowed her to manipulate the threads in midair and move around in kind of the sa manner as Spiderm*n or soone with a Three Dinsional Maneuver Gear.
Fran imdiately moved the threads behind her and leaned on them to pull them back. They were elastic, so they quickly sprung back against her and launched her through the air.
At first, I’d thought that her actions resembled those of a pro wrestler, but a bit more observation led to think of the threads as the spring in a pinball machine.
Fran used Air Compression and covered in a layer of wind as she leapt into the air and delivered a powerful overhead swing.
「Nn. Works well.」
She nodded with a satisfied look on her face. I didn’t know exactly what she was planning, but it looked like it was going well.
「Ti for practical application. Will explain in detail.」
Fran filled in on her plan. The thing she had in mind was nothing short of interesting, though, under normal circumstances, it would likely be labeled as reckless.
『Alright, let’s do this.』
As per her suggestions, I used Long Jump and teleported us way up into the sky directly atop Rynford’s head.
「Starting now.」
『I’ll support you with everything I got!』
「Nn!」
Fran began compressing the air and generating magic threads the mont she teleported. Unlike our little trial run, however, this ti, she was going all out and pouring every last bit of magical energy she could muster into her spells. She soon started free falling, but didn’t seem to mind as she calmly placed the thread she constructed above her head.
She then used Air Jump to leap straight up, and did exactly as she had during the little practice session earlier. This ti, however, she didn’t fly launch herself horizontally. Instead, she propelled her body straight down.
And that was just the beginning.
Fran used Air Jump and Wind Magic in tandem to create herself a series of vertical footholds, which she ran straight down in order to raise her speed even further. She readied for action by raising above her head and used Atmospheric Circulation Control to minimize the amount of wind resistance generated while also using Weight Boost to bolster my weight to a point well over the fifty kilogram mark.
I’d beco incredibly heavy for a weapon, but the combination of Fran’s strength stat and the Anti-weight skill allowed her to continue wielding without any issue.
We rapidly closed in on Rynford, while using the Espionage skill to to remain undetected.
I molded the shape of my body as she got ready to swing. She’d requested to take on a form with a backwards arching blade. There were a few other instructions as well, and so, in the end, I ultimately ended up as sothing that closely resembled a katana, a result that left shocked. I’d never told her about katanas before, the idea she had was one that she’d ford all on her own.
The only worry I had was that our sword skills wouldn’t end up applying to katanas. We did have a few potentially applicable skills, like Single Edged Sword Arts, but their levels were all fairly low. The fact that Single Edged Sword Arts and Double Edged Sword Arts had been differentiated ant that they likely were mutually exclusive, so I made sure to leave two edges and retain a more longswordy shape in general.
「Oh?」
Rynford finally noticed us after we got within the twenty five ter range, which made sense. It was pretty hard to avoid detection without any cover given our proximity to him.
「You were still alive, girl!?」
Rynford stared at her with bloodshot eyes as he let loose a hate filled scream. A rancid, purple miasma accompanied his words and leaked out of his mouth as he shouted. The smoke-like substance was filled with evil energy; everything that touched it, be it skin or armour, would end up lting away as if dipped in acid. The most annoying part about it was that it had an incredibly large area of effect.
So what do? I had no idea how we were supposed to go about avoiding it.
「One trick pony.」
I didn’t manage to think up a solution myself, but it was an attack that we’d already seen ti and ti again. Fran had long predicted it and prepared a counterasure.
「Burnia」
Burnia, a level two fla spell, allowed its caster to use the power of an explosion in order to provide themselves a burst of speed. It was a bit difficult to use, as the caster would end up getting caught in the explosion radius.
Fran quickly created a barrier of wind that served not one or two, but three functions. It reduced the amount of damage the explosion inflicted upon us, allowed her to increase her velocity even further, and even protected her from the miasma’s effects as she charged straight through it.
Rynford’s eyes bulged as he realized that she managed to break through his smokescreen without taking any damage.
「Damn you, you impudent brat!!」
He rapidly raised both arms and guarded his face against the assault he couldn’t help but label as dangerous.
What an idiot.
He’d fallen for our feint. Fran had directed all her bloodlust at him while gazing straight into his eyes, so he’d assud that we’d been targeting his head.
But that was far from the truth.
「Haaaahhhhh!」
『Haaaahhhhh!』
Fran’s strike was aid not as his cranium, but at his torso.
The level five Collaboration skill allowed to understand her intents without the two of us having to perform any sort of actual communication. I casted Elental Blade to wreath my body in fla, activated Vibration Fang, and triggered Magic Poison Fang right as we got ready to strike.
And of course, I wasn’t the only one to act. Fran had activated the exact skills, but with Magic Poison Fang substituted out for Weight Boost. She seed to know that my blade wouldn’t hold out for too long, so she made sure that the six skills we casted remained active for only a fraction of a second.
That, however, was more than enough. Fran drew from the air she had compressed around like a sheath and concentrated all her energies into a single godspeed slash.
Her attack wasn’t like my Telekinetic Catapult. It wasn’t sothing as simple or dull as a display of brute force, but rather, a finely crafted technique that embodied the very aning of the term “ultimate.”
「Nraaaaghhhhhhhhh!!」
The vicious strike left a deep wound that extended all the way from Rynford’s shoulder down to his midsection. I felt my blade sever his very heart in two.
We weren’t able to imdiately check out our handywork in detail, as I was forced to teleport Fran away before she crashed into the ground.
「Thanks Master.」
『Whew, barely made it.』
Fran was calm despite the fact that we would’ve ended up face planting into the earth’s surface if I waited even a second longer. Not to brag, but I could tell she really trusted .
We turned back towards Rynford shortly afterwards in order to examine the effects of our actions.
「Curse you! Curssseee yyouuuuu!!」
That single strike removed half his life force. He had no choice but to take a knee as blood spilled out of his newly opened wound.
Wait, he’s still not dead!? Holy sheet! Why the hell is he still alive after having his heart literally cut in half? Damn stubborn old man, just die already!
I was surprised that we didn’t manage to finish him off, but all was good. Our efforts hadn’t gone to waste.
『We did it Fran.』
「Nn! Ultimate obtained.」
The only problem with our newfound secret technique was that it could only be used under a specific set of circumstances. We wouldn’t use it in any sort of cramped environnt, so it probably wasn’t going to be all that useful whenever we went to the dungeon we’d been planning to check out.
Well, that only applied to the attack as a whole though. We could still use parts of it. That pseudo-sword draw technique? Yeah, I could see us using that all the ti. Unlike the pain in the ass stuff you’d see in real life back in Japan, the sword draw technique Fran had devised was actually practical. It could be used for more than just a horizontal slash from one’s waist, and the blade would actually accelerate far more quickly than usual when pulled from its sheath. Moveover, the technique had great synergy with the Weight Boost skill when used with a vertical slash.
It looked like Magic Poison Fang was doing its job too. Rynford’s state now claid him to be envenod. That said though. he had Resistance to Abnormal Status Conditions and Regeneration so he wasn’t actually taking all that much damage. That said, the fact that we’d more or less nullified the effects of Regeneration ant that he was now far more vulnerable to all the other combatants’ attacks. In other words, he was pretty much screwed.
「Don’t let the opportunity Fran’s given us go to waste!」
「Mmph.」
「Great job, Miss Fran!」
「Orders acknowledged!」
「I’ll show you what it ans to have a Dwarf’s strength!」
「Hahahaha! These guys’ve all got so fight in em, but that’ll have to wait. Right now, it’s your turn, you old sheet!」
「Do your best everyone!」
The all star team followed Amanda’s orders and focus fired Rynford. We wanted to join them, but that little trump card of ours had caused my durability to plumt. I wasn’t able to heal up enough in ti to join them even with Instant Regeneration. Fran was pretty much completely out of mana too, unfortunately.
Rynford’s left arm was mauled by a spear as the rest of his body was pierced by countless magic swords and struck over and over again by an unrelenting whip. He was then lifted off the ground by one of Colbert’s uppercuts, only to have his right leg smashed back down and pulverized by the Guildmaster’s hamr.
「Gugagagagagaaaahhhh! You sons of b*tchesss!!!」
「The finishing blow is mine!」
「Damned traitor…!」
Zerrosreed’s assault had ended up removing his other leg and caused him to crumple onto the ground. Turned out the Beserker really had been going for the finisher. Bastard was trying to use his Cannibalism skill to make himself even stronger.
But luckily, it turned out that the battle had still yet to end.
「Hoooowlll!」
Urushi imitated Fran’s actions and dashed straight down from sowhere way up high. He drove his fangs into Rynford’s neck and gave it a good tear before plumting back into the shadows the mont he was about to faceplant.
Damn boy! You totally just stole the spotlight right there!
「Graaaaggh… Why… Not like this…」
And leaving only those four words, Rynford breathed his last.
「Oh god foocking damn it! Stupid god damn dog got in my way again!!」
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