“Just what…power is that…?”
Scoruas, still reeling from the kick he had received, whispered his astonishnt while pulling up his body, scorched by lightning and flas.
“I’m wondering too. Do you know anything?”
While perceiving the energy from the other battle, Shin answered to Scoruas’ mumbled words.
As the lightning stopped, Shin kicked the ground and closed in on the demon.
His right hand wielded 『Moonless』, the left one the newly unsheathed 『Oboro Muramasa』. Its grade was superior ancient, similar to 『Moonless』. In this world, it was a masterpiece among katanas, regarded as a “sword of the gods”.
“ThiSs poWeErr…are yOu rEeAlly hUmaN?”
“Who knows? In any case, you’re going to die here, so you’re fine not knowing, right?”
Shin answered Scoruas while cutting through the octopus tentacles that stretched towards him.
The tentacles were hard enough that Legend-grade weapons would simply bounce off them, but, before Ancient-grade weapons, they were as helpless as regular octopus tentacles.
With 【Limit】 released, Shin’s muscular strength was unbound, which, coupled with the blades’ sharpness, sliced through the tentacles like a hot knife through butter.
“Here’s a little bonus too.”
After slashing 3 of the tentacles in half, Shin activated the Fla and Wind combination skill【Echo Bomb】.
What appeared was a ball of fire with a 1 l diater.
The balls of fire quickly beca 10, then 20, then rained on Scoruas’ face.
“GwAAh?? nOT onLy pOweR, bUt MagIC toOo!? ”
Scoruas tried to parry the fireballs with his pincer-like arms.
The fireballs exploded as soon as they touched the pincers, thus inflicting damage to the monster’s shell. The compressed air within the fireballs was also carried by the blast, sending its vibrations to the enemy’s shell.
As the directed sound waves hit the shell, they gradually caused cracks to appear on its sturdy surface.
【Echo Bomb】was a skill that caused damage both by sound waves and explosions, useful for damaging a monsters’ hard skin and armor.
The endless flood of fireballs crushed Scoruas’ pincers and scales, which were starting to fall off.
Continuous casting of this skill was a feat that not even several magicians could perform, even when taking turns casting.
It only beca possible when one managed to cast it without chanting, possessed enough magical power, and high enough stats.
“As expected of a Grand Duke, you’re pretty sturdy.”
This fierce attack would have turned a normal field boss to ashes, but Scoruas’ HP had barely decreased.
Protecting himself with his pincers helped too, although Scoruas’ defensive power was originally very high.
With his previous kick, Shin had planned to crush the demon’s organs. However, Scoruas’ stomach was now only slightly dented and had already recovered to the point that it couldn’t be said to have been sunk in.
Shin’s main priority had been to create distance between the two demons, but to withstand an overlimit kick showed that Scoruas’ defenses were quite impressive.
“The scales form a layered armor, I see.”
Shin ford his guess while looking at the scales still falling from the demon’s body. New scales were created where fallen ones used to be, hiding the demon’s skin from sight.
“Looks like I can’t just lock you down.”
The newly ford tentacles knocked down 【Echo Bomb】before Shin’s eyes.
The 3 tentacles, huge in comparison to the demon’s body, moved all around and hit all the fireballs, barely missing any.
The few fireballs left were blocked by the pincers.
The recovery ability probably extended to the whole body, as the demon’s lower body also began to move again.
“Not a chance.”
Shin, while keeping the magical skill active, rushed towards the horse legs that were trying to move.
The trunk-like legs were nothing more than a target for Shin. He closed in and swung his swords down, attempting to cut them off in one fell swoop.
The legs, however, noticed the sudden change before Shin could get close enough.
Octopus-like tentacles began sprouting from the horse legs’ surface.
Every tentacle was roughly 15 ls long and as thick as a big rope. The tips were ard with knife-like shells, but the most notable thing was their massive numbers. The octopus leg-like appendages, easily numbering over 100, chased after Shin just like tentacles hunting their prey.
“Quit sprouting bizarre stuff!”
“dO noT thINk I wIlL juSt SIT BaCK aNd do NOThINg!!”
Shin put so distance between him and the demon, all the while cutting down tentacles. After roughly 10 ls, the tentacles stopped their pursuit.
In their place, huge tentacles ca crashing down on Shin’s head.
“Hah!”
Shin swung『Moonless』and 『Oboro Muramasa』in a cross, which was enough to blow away 3 tentacles sprouting from Scoruas’ right arm.
“Oops!”
The left arm’s pincer ca on the offensive as well. It was not impossible to slash it, but if he remained in place he would have been thrown back.
As Shin jumped to dodge it, he felt a stronger gaze pointed towards him.
Shin faced upwards and found Scoruas, with his mouth wide open and pointed at Shin. A large amount of compressed water was already present inside the mouth.
“Kaaahhhhh….”
It was highly pressurized water breath – a wide range attack sea-dwelling monsters excelled at.
But it could not be unleashed.
“GRUAAAAAAAA!!!”
“——!?!”
Kagerou had circled around the demon, jumped on its back and sank his claws on Scoruas’ head.
Returning to his original form, Kagerou had jumped while using【Hiding】, attacking Scoruas from his blind spot.
After Shin had kicked Scoruas away, Kagerou had hid on Shin’s shadow.
Streams of water burst through the gaps of the demon’s closed mouth. By forcing Scoruas’ mouth to close just before the shot, the breath attack was unleashed within the demon’s mouth.
The leaked waterstreams cracked open whatever ground they touched, proof that the attack’s power was not to be underestimated.
“YoU FiLThy BeASt..!!!”
Scoruas was now rampaging, trying to shake Kagerou off his back. He tried to reach around his back with his tentacles, but Kagerou had enveloped his whole body in lightning, thus burning the tentacles and preventing them from wrapping around him.
Scoruas was a rank 3 boss, but close to rank 4.
In comparison, the Gruefago -the ordinary monster version- was roughly in the middle of rank 3.
Kagerou, however, was a mutated species, and his rank was more or less the sa as Scoruas’.
His physical abilities were more than enough to cause damage to the demon.
“GHAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”
Kagerou, his battle instincts now completely released, unleashed a roar that bood throughout the surroundings. His lightning-clad blow easily crushed Scoruas’ scales and sank into the demon’s flesh.
The divine beast then attacked the pincers’ base with his fangs, causing cracks to open on the monster’s carapace with a loud creaking sound.
“Kagerou! Get away!”
Schnee’s voice resounded through the battlefield.
Scoruas was freed from Kagerou’s attacks, but his relief was short-lived; seconds later, the demon was once again under attack.
Just as his attention was drawn to his back, crescent-moon-shaped blades of ice targeted him from the front. The blades were thin and almost invisible to the naked eye.
The blades were roughly 1 l long: if they could be caught, they looked extrely fragile.
“Kh!”
Scoruas tried to crush them with his tentacles, but felt that each blade was imbued with magical power; he then quickly jumped away while using his shell-clad left arm as a shield.
“My arM…is FReeZiNG…”
The ice blades did not cause much damage. Yet each spot they touched froze instantly, in a 2 l radius.
The chilling air affected not only the surface, but also deep within the carapace, robbing Scoruas of his mobility.
“I apologize for being late.”
“We were all waiting for you.”
Because of his physical abilities, Shin always struck first. In this situation, separating the two demons was of the utmost priority, so it was not a real problem.
“It looks like they are struggling less than expected. They might really defeat the enemy before we join them”
“Fantastic news. That Adara demon wasn’t that strong, then?”
“It appears that Wilhelm’s spear and Tiera’s arrows had a greater effect than expected. They were much more powerful than I expect them to be.”
“That’s intriguing. We’ll have to ask them after we take care of this one.”
Shin and Schnee drew closer to Scoruas, all the while conversing in a perfectly usual manner.
“The tentacles always get in the way. It’ll be easier to use this too.”
“I’ll borrow it, then.”
Shin passed a card to Schnee, who materialized it.
What appeared in her left hand was a short sword with a transparent erald-green blade and dainty decorations. The blade part was roughly 60 cels long.
The na of this superior Ancient-class weapon was 『Suirentou – Kabutohana』.
“Here I co.”
Schnee’s silhouette vanished in thin air. Moving quickly and gracefully as if dancing, leaving after-images in one’s wake was a Kunoichi’s specialty. It was fruit of the combination of the movent-type martial skills 【Ground Shrink】and 【Mirage Dance】.
While the tentacles unsuccessfully tried to halt her advance, Schnee carved Scoruas’ front left leg with her blades. The weapons she wielded were both of Ancient grade; the carapace’s defense power was nothing before them.
At the sa ti, she had activated the Katana-type martial skill 【Pogranate Burst】.
Scoruas’ front left leg, struck by a storm of blue and green slashes, had already lost half of its functionality.
“It won’t go like before this ti!”
Shin was running towards the demon’s front right leg.
His attack was straight from the front; 『Moonless』and 『Oboro Muramasa』repeatedly unleashed cross-like slashes.
It was the Katana-type martial skill 【Brilliant Void Cross】.
The Light and Dark elental blades felled the tentacles and carved cross-shaped scars on the demon’s body. Scoruas’ front right leg lost all of its functions roughly at the sa ti that the left one was crushed by Schnee.
“ThIS iS…ABsUrD…hOw coUld I…”
Because of the damage to the legs and Kagerou’s lightning attack received from behind, Scoruas was now slumped forward. Before his eyes stood Shin and Schnee, both with weapons at the ready.
“Let’s go with a combination attack.”
“Understood.”
The magical power focusing in their weapons caused even the atmosphere to emit a sharp, grinding sound.
The concentration was so dense that all that Scoruas’ pupils could register was a violet and blue flashing light.
“ThIS lIGht iIIiiSS…!!!”
Scoruas could not finish his sentence before the slash reached its target.
Cooperation-exclusive skill 【Decapitation Spark】.
It was a crushingly heavy sword slash, coming from a gigantic blade-shaped energy, extending from 『Moonless』and 『Blue Moon』.
What they had unleashed was a single flash. A single cleave that cut through the arms Scoruas had raised to defend himself, his harder-than-steel carapace and layers of scales, as if they were nothing.
The blade descended as rcilessly as a real guillotine.
The skill, possessing power unimaginable in the ga era, cut Scoruas’ head off in one fell swoop.
“Better safe than sorry.”
“Yes.”
Shin and Schnee readied their blades before the skill ended.
Their opponent was a Grand Duke; even if its HP had beco 0, they doubted it would just die like that.
Scoruas’ gigantic body was run through by sword slashes, which crossed in its center and divided the demon’s body in 4 parts.
It was defeated, without a shred of a doubt; after so ti, the demon’s body turned into particles and started disappearing.
“How could I lose so easily…? Just who are you…?”
“You only have your head left, but you can still talk? Well, there’s no reason for to tell you though.”
Scoruas’ sliced head had started speaking. It was a mystery where the voice ca from, but its distorted tone had returned to a more human-like one.
“Soone who could subdue Schnee Raizar and a divine beast…haha, now I see, you are a hi—”
That was everything Scoruas managed to utter. It appeared he could not maintain his existence anymore; his head also turned into particles and disappeared.
Items such as jewels and tals were the only things left where Scoruas’ body had been.
“Demons drop items in this world?”
“The demon we defeated at the king’s castle did not drop anything, though.”
On closer inspection, the dropped gemstones were all Unique class. The tals too were rare kinds, such as Orichalcum and Mithril.
Shin assud that the items the demon created within its body were expelled when the demon passed, thus appearing just as dropped items would.
They did not seem tainted by the miasma, but to be sure Shin purified them before converting them into cards and storing them in the item box.
“Well then, let’s rejoin the others.”
“It doesn’t look like they needed help after all.”
Adara was nowhere to be seen. While Scoruas was disappearing they perceived a large quantity of magical power and turned around, to find a deep red flash of light rising in the distance, signaling the conclusion of the conflict.
The effect suggested that 【Kagutsuchi】had been activated.
The group of 3 quickly started on their way back and re-joined with Shibaid’s entourage.
“You wrapped things up pretty quickly.”
“That’s my line, honestly. I thought your party would have needed more ti, Shin.”
Shin’s words were answered by a disappointed-sounding Filma.
Based on the monsters’ shapes, Adara was much easier to fight than Scoruas. The latter would take longer to fight because of his many unpredictable attack patterns. Scoruas was also slightly higher than Adara in terms of level of ability.
If both groups stopped the enemy while continuously adding damage, normally Filma’s group would have finished their opponent sooner.
“We had the chance to power up a little, you see. Let’s talk more later.”
In order to regroup with Konig’s entourage, which had gone a safe distance from the battlefield, Shin materialized the carriage from a card.
A short while after the group’s carriage departed, Konig’s marker appeared on Shin’s map.
The 『Cloak of Hidden Threads』Konig was wearing was sothing Shin had lent him, so he would not be hidden from Shin’s sight.
Maybe because he had noticed the cloud of dust raised by the carriage headed in their direction, Konig had stopped moving.
Shin left the reins and waved in Konig’s direction, who unequipped his cloak.
“Apologies for the wait. We’re going back to Ball, so please get on board.”
“I have a mountain of things I’d like to ask…but first I suppose I shall do so.”
Konig was carrying Hermie on his back. She had regained consciousness, but her expression was still somber.
“How do you feel?”
“I am fine, thank you. I humbly apologize for all the trouble I caused you.”
“No, we made so unexpected findings on our own, so please do not worry.”
If Hermie and Wilhelm hadn’t been kidnapped, Shin’s party would not have rushed to their location. In that case, Scoruas’ plan could have been successful.
For Hermie and the worried Lilishila it was an unfortunate turn of events, but Shin was glad they could crush the demons’ plans. Of course, he kept such an opinion to himself.
“We will depart right away.”
The group planned to head towards Ball, then travel by sea to a town close to Sigurd, lastly reaching Sigurd with the carriage.
Reasons for this route were also that the carriage alone would have taken too much ti and Vizzy’s dragons could not carry all of them.
It would have been possible if they rode separately, but they were not in a rush like before, so Shin decided not to reveal to Konig that they can ride dragons.
After they reached Ball, Shin’s party went directly to check the ship’s titable. They also had to stock up on food.
Konig also left to send a ssage to the Church.
Hermie, who was not feeling too well, stayed in the inn, with Wilhelm as her guard.
“I apologize to have you stay back for soone like …”
“What?”
Wilhelm’s brow furrowed after hearing such self-deprecating words. Hermie had spoken unusually belittling herself on the carriage as well.
In the beginning he thought she felt down for having been kidnapped, but even so, her voice and expression were far too dark. It felt as if she was rejecting everything about herself.
Wilhelm thought about what the reason could be.
“Did those bastards say sothing to you?”
Scoruas, Adara, the Summit Faction mbers. Those were the possible answers.
“I am….no, because of , many people were sacrificed.”
“Now that you ntion it, I seem to rember them saying sothing like that. But it’s nothing for you to worry about, is it?”
Wilhelm spoke lightly, as if it wasn’t anything important enough to be burdened by.
“That’s not…!! All those people, they..”
“I couldn’t save them either. Even Shin and the others didn’t make it in ti. Also, you can’t fight. The mont they got caught by those bastards, it was obvious that they couldn’t be saved. They were doing that stuff even before kidnapping you too.”
Hermie couldn’t possibly be the reason why they were sacrificed.
“If you’ve got enough free ti to think nonsense like “it was my fault” or whatever, think about what you can do from now on instead. There might be other people captured in that cave, after all.”
“Concerning that, Konig, who can command the Church’s knights, is contacting the Church. Once he knows the reason, His Holiness the Pope will surely authorize them to act…”
Hermie answered Wilhelm’s words. The destruction of one of the Summit Faction’s bases was surely advantageous for the Church. There was no reason to hesitate.
“Is there anything I could do…?”
“Who knows. They call you Holy Woman, though. I don’t know what you can or can’t do, but if you just say sothing, there are plenty people who can achieve sothing better, isn’t it?”
“Holy…Woman….am I really worthy of such a na…?”
“Hmm, well…before we talk about who’s worthy or not, I don’t even know why they call you that.”
Wilhelm knew that those called “Holy Won” existed, but did not know why that was.
Excluding Konig, among the current mbers the only ones that maybe knew were Schnee, Shibaid, and possibly Milt.
In answer to Wilhelm’s admission of not knowing the reason for that title, Hermie started talking in a feeble tone of voice.
At first, people found her creepy. Soone from the Church heard rumors about her and ca to pick her up, she learnt how her power can help others. With ti, they started referring to her as Holy Woman.
Hermie narrated her story, sotis finding that the words died in her throat and wouldn’t co out.
“People treated you like a creep, and still you think about helping them, that’s really sothing.”
“If I was asked why I did, it would be difficult to give a clear answer. Maybe…I wanted to prove that even soone like can be useful to others.”
“And isn’t that good enough? They call you Holy Woman because there are people that were saved by you, right?”
“Is what I did, right…?”
“That’s what they call a question with no answer. Maybe even if you weren’t there they would have gotten by sohow, or maybe an even worse tragedy would have happened. In the end, we can only do what we believe in.”
Wilhelm’s words might have sounded banal, but they were the truth. To know all consequences one’s actions could bring was sothing not even a Star Reader could do.
“Besides, a certain High Human said that even he can’t save everyone. In other words, it’s not possible even for a living legend. Just give up.”
During their serious conversation, Wilhelm ntioned it as if there was nothing they could do.
“A certain High Human…?”
“Once I was trained by Schnee Raizar, see, and she told so.”
“Is…that so. All the more reason to do our best, then.”
It wasn’t clear if she had believed Wilhelm’s words or not, but she showed a different smile from before.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it. It’s going to get busy now too. You better rest up while you can.”
“I will. You really are the person I was told about…”
“Huh? You were told about? By whom?”
Hermie’s words provoked a clearly annoyed look by Wilhelm.
“Let us just say that children watch the people around them more than we think.”
“Tch.”
Wilhelm clicked his tongue, a grimace on his face. Seeing this, Hermie let out a chuckle.
The group would now cross the sea towards Sigurd.
To their ears then echoed a distant sneeze.
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