by Aneko Yusagi
Had they just been cut apart they might have been able to regenerate, but with the electricity, it should be enough to end it.
“That’s not all! Ruby Flame!”
Rushing to finish the job, Therese summoned burning balls of magic flame from the accessory I made her and sent them careening into the monster corpses.
“Naofumi! Protect the others!”
“I know! Shooting Star Shield!”
Just as the barrier appeared to envelop us, Glass slapped open her fan and began to dance. She was holding Kizuna ’s hand—they were dancing together.
“Circle Dance Zero Formation: Reverse Snow Moon Flower!”
A breeze lifted cherry blossoms and blew them at the enemy. Therese ’s magic set them ablaze. They burned and sliced up the fallen enemies.
Snow Moon Flower was an area of effect attack, but she could keep it from hurting her allies by holding hands with them.
After all the attacks cleared, there was no trace of the enemies they ’d hit.
“Not bad,” Kyo muttered.
Kyo remained, along with his neo-guardians and Albert, the man with the mirror of the vassal weapons. Everyone else was gone.
Glass was facing Albert, ready to take him on . She could probably handle him on her own. Kizuna couldn’t attack humans anyway, so she was stuck supporting Glass for now.
“Looks like we took care of your little experimental homunculi army, eh? What are you going to do now?”
“Experimental? Ha! I didn’t make these things. I suppose I made some improvements to them, but you just killed the person who made them.”
He must have stolen them from Trash #2.
“He was doing his own research, you know. The things that I make are far more impressive.”
“I bet,” I sighed. I didn’t want meet any more inventions.
But isn ’t it strange that all three of them were researching homunculus? What was going on? There were too many coincidences.
“You must be proud of yourself for surviving my gravity attack, ha! You are so clueless—you’ll see!”
“Kyo! Give it up! You’re finished!” Yomogi shouted.
“Shut up! I’ll kill you along with the others! My research is nearly complete—and you’re all getting in the way!” Kyo snapped, stepping forward and raising his book.
How were we supposed to fight Kyo if he commanded all the Spirit Tortoise ’s energy?
We were weaker than the last time we fought Kyo, but on the other hand, Glass and L ’Arc were stronger. We had a chance. We could do it.
“I’ll make it quick and finish you all off at once. Behold my skills!”
Pages flew from his book and filled the room, fluttering and flapping around our heads before they turned into shining sheets of energy itself.
“You losers can’t cast combo skills without the cooperation of your allies? Pathetic!”
This guy couldn ’t say anything without turning it into some kind of boast.
I was really getting tired of him.
Trash #2 had been the same way. These people were enough to drive me crazy.
“Behold!” Kyo shouted, pointing a finger at Kizuna. “Flame Formation: Magic Explosion!”
Kizuna quickly dropped to a defensive posture. A split second later, I realized why.
Flames appeared around Kizuna and . . . no—the flames were pouring out of her.
“Arrghh! My magic !? ” Kizuna shouted. She was on her knees, staring at her hands. She looked like she was about to collapse. Glass ran over to support her, lifting her to her feet.
“It’s shaving away my soul power, too ?! ”
“Ahahaha! This is my first time using it on a holy hero, but I’m impressed with how well it works!”
I was about to cast a healing spell on Kizuna when Kyo pointed his finger at me and howled, “Don’t bother with that! Rot Formation: Magic Explosion!”
“Ugh . . . ah . . .”
Spiraling wind whipped up all around me, dark and thick with magic power. I could feel it draining my magic away.
But . . . But that was all it did.
“Damn. You’re the type with no offensive magic to begin with. You’re an irritating little bastard!”
“Yeah . . .” I moaned. I took a bottle of magic water out of my shield and drank it, then immediately cast Zweite Heal on Kizuna to heal her wounds.
I had given Kizuna a bottle of magic water before the battle, and she drank it, realizing it would replenish what she ’d lost to Kyo’s attack.
“Ah, I see. Your skill steals the opponent’s magic power, then uses it to produce a spell that hurts its owner,” I announced. It was clever—and hard to counter. The stronger your magic power, the more the skill would hurt you.
It had a weakness though. It wouldn ’t work very well on people without offensive magic to begin with. That was why it didn’t actually hurt me at all.
“What do you think? There’s more where that came from! Let’s see what it does to that foolish spirit who’s been sipping soul-healing water!”
“Glass!”
Kizuna ran to protect Glass.
“Kizuna! Ahhhhh!”
Kizuna was caught right in the path of the attack. She was sliced all over her body. She took heavy damage. Worse than that was she hadn ’t been able to protect Glass from the full brunt of the attack, and Glass took damage too. The attack must have had an effect over an area.
Luckily, Glass didn ’t take so much damage that she was knocked out of the fight, but that attack of Kyo’s was going to become a problem if we didn’t figure out how to deal with it.
It appeared to have a very short cool down time. If he used it in quick succession on us, we ’d end up taking a lot of damage.
It was close cousins with the defense rating attacks I ’d dealt with before. Only that this was for magic.
“Think we’ll just sit back and take this? Ha! Kiddo, let’s do this!”
“Wait, L’Arc! He’s already hit us with magic power and SP attacks! He could have . . .”
“Strength Form Explosion!”
Magic blades of light burst from L ’Arc and spun around him, slashing at him ruthlessly. Knicks and cuts and gashes appeared all over his body. Blood spurt from his wounds.
“Gahhhhhh!”
“L . . .L’Arc!”
“I’m alright! Ain’t nothing I can’t handle—ARGH!” he shouted, swinging his scythe.
The tip swished by Kyo ’s face, missing him by a hair.
“Oh look at you! Not good enough!” Kyo jumped back and sent a stream of pages flying at L’Arc. They slammed into him and sent him soaring backwards, but Therese ran over and caught him before he fell to the ground.
“Whooeee—The Spirit Tortoise energy is great stuff. I can do anything with it! I can use your own strengths against you!”
All he had to do was point at us.
And based on how quickly he ’d been using it, it must not have needed much from him.
The very strengths we needed to beat him powered his attack. He could use them against us!
Luckily, the attack didn ’t seem fatal—yet.
It s attack power must have been based on some kind of calculation that was different from simply taking the target’s attack power as is.
The sort of person that would be most affected by an attack like this would have a special attack power that ignored defense all together. There was no one in our party like that.
I was probably the closest, actually.
The worst part was that Kyo ’s attack actually used whatever trait it was targeting. Not only would the target take damage, but it would also lose the ability of whatever trait had been targeted. It was a really bad combination for us.
If he hit me with it and took advantage of my defense rating, it would leave me unable to defend for a while.
“That’s enough experimenting for now. ” he said. Pages from his book curled up and turned towards us.
He wasn ’t going to s
end out all those attacks at once, was he?
“Take this!”
I felt an impact jolt through my stomach, followed by a sharp pain that ran through my insides. I heard myself moan in pain. I could hardly stay on my feet. I quickly checked my stats.
It was as I feared. I ’d taken heavy damage. But worse than that, I was left without any defense.
The Shooting Star Shield barrier had absorbed a lot of the direct damage from the attack. Had it not been there, I might have been killed. But, considering my defense rating, the barrier shouldn ’t have been enough to keep me alive. The damage must have been calculated some other way, or I must have been blocking it with some other ability . . . like maybe something I’d gained through support magic, or one of my equipment’s effects.
It wasn ’t an attack that any of us could use, so it was difficult to pin down exactly how it worked. My guess was that the skill was really intended as a debuff , and this attack ability was some kind of side effect.
“Ouch! Owwie!”
Filo and Raphtalia had taken heavy damage. Filo was rolling on the ground in pain.
I ’d been able to protect Raph-chan, so she was okay.
There was only one person who managed to stay on her feet. Someone who se stats were so low to begin with that Kyo’s attack hadn’t managed to do anything to them .
The better your stats were the more damage the attack did. But, it wasn ’t able to deal any fatal damage, and that was its weakness. But it had another weakness—it was no good against people with low stats, against someone whose true power wasn’t reflected in the numbers.
“Ri . . . shia . . .”
Rishia didn ’t look like she’d been hurt at all.
Judging from that, the attack must have only worked on base stats, which are raised or lowered to hurt the target.
It didn ’t work on support effects, or on other, more specialized types of power.
At first glance, it looked like it was invincible, but it had weaknesses—and now we knew them.
As for the weapons, I hadn ’t figured out what it did to them. It was a bit different from the defense rating and defense ignoring attacks that Glass ad L’Arc used. Glass’s stats went up when her energy increased, which is why Kyo’s attack might have been able to kill her. Kizuna had been there to take the brunt of the attack.
Rishia stepped out ahead of Raphtalia, Filo, and I, and glared at Kyo. She was going to protect us.
“You! How can you still be on your feet?”
“Because your attacks are worthless against me.”
“I guess that means you’re the weakest of the bunch! Ha!” Kyo burst out laughing while Albert raised his mirror, preparing to finish her with a final attack.
And the only person that was left to stand against them was . . . Rishia?
“Does it feel that good? Paralyzing your enemies so you can laugh at them? Does that make you feel powerful?” Rishia barked, glaring at Kyo. She drew her sword and leveled it at him. She moved so easily it was like she was completely unaffected by the gravitational field.
“Exploiting the enemy’s weakness and making the kill, it’s sort of the first rule of battle. Don’t you know that much?”
“That is not a battle. That is called trampling on the weak.”
“God, you’re insufferable! Die already!”
Pages shot from his book and folded themselves into the shape of a flaming bird.
“Do not think you can take our lives so easily.”
Moving like a ninja, Rishia dashed left and right, slashing through the flying birds of flame with her short sword. The birds fell to pieces and fluttered to the ground.
“What the hell? You’re really getting on my nerves!”
Yes! It was like this was the very moment that Rishia had been waiting for—the role she’d been born to play. She’d been relegated to assisting the rest of us for so long, but now she was the best fighter in the party.
“You’re so annoying! I can’t stand it! Barking on about justice, you’re just as bad as Yomogi!” Kyo shouted like a spoiled child.
Ha! What a brat!
I climbed to my feet and cast a healing spell.
“I’m not mature yet. I can’t do all that I should, and I always need help. But . . . but I . . .”
She griped the hilt of her short sword and held it out in front of her. She was moving exactly how Eclair did when she used her skills.
She hadn ’t studied and she hadn’t trained extensively. She was just trying to copy what she’d seen.
“If there’s such a thing as destiny, then I believe it is mine to put a stop to your ambitions!” she yelled, rushing forward, the top of her blade glinting in the light.
I cast a support skill just in time to help her.
Then I saw that Kizuna had the same idea, and her skill landed at the same time as mine.
“Attack Support!”
“Double Lure Hook !”
The skills flew at Kyo, they would connect just before her blade hit him. I hoped that my skill hit before the Double Lure Hook skill . If it didn’t, Rishia’s attack would only be strong enough to annoy him.
“Ugh!”
Kyo quickly grabbed Albert and shoved him between himself and Rishia ’s blade.
My skill hit him, followed by Kizuna ’s Double Lure Hook. Finally Rishia’s thrust followed, and her blade slammed into Albert’s mirror.
I felt the force of the impact from across the room.
The vassal weapons, like the holy weapons, were impossible to destroy. If he used the mirror like a shield, he ’d probably be able to fend off her attack. But if her attack was strong enough, it would pierce right through the mirror itself and impale Albert.
Glass had don e that once to me, when she used Moon Break after drinking soul-healing water.
“Ugh . . . ga . . . gagagaga . . .”
Her blade stabbed through his mirror and slipped deep into his chest.
“Ah . . .”
Rishia was stunned at the sight of blood, and stepped back a few feet, speechless.
Blood sprayed from Albert ’s chest, splattering both Rishia and Kyo.
Albert ’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed.
A glowing ball of light rose from his corpse and then slowly circled the room. Then it looked as though something split off from it before the ball of light floated through the wall and left the building.
Was that . . . was that the mirror vassal weapon?
It was like it checked to make sure that the person who held it was really dead before it left for good.
“Unbelievable! I’m supposed to believe that this weak little girl just killed a holder of a vassal weapon ?! ” Kyo snapped, glaring at Rishia. He shot a glance over at Kizuna and me.
I wonder if the Support Attack skill I used was . . .
“It looks like you can use a skill just like Double Lure Hook, Naofumi,” Kizuna said.
“I guess so. And if we can use both of those skills, then we can do some serious damage.”
That ’s right. If it worked the way it seemed, then we could use two multiplying skills at the same time, essentially quadrupling the amount of damage we could do. Pretty damn impressive.
When Rishia was in this awakened state, her attacks were pretty strong to begin with.
“Rishia, I know there are still these neo-guardians around, but focus your attacks on Kyo.”
Kizuna and I waited for the cool down time on our multiplying skills to run out, then prepared to use them again.
Kyo was speechless, like he truly couldn ’t believe what he’d just seen. He glared at us with bloodshot eyes. He looked furious.
Oh man , I’d been waiting so long to see that look on his face! Ha!
“This isn’t over! Not yet! You’ll see what I have up my sleeve!”
Again, pages flew from his book and filled the room. The mandala appeared on the floor around him again, and the gravity in the room began to grow stronger and stron
ger.
But Kyo was breathing heavily, and it showed. He was trying really hard. Things weren ’t so easy for him anymore.
I became aware of energy flowing around the room. He was gathering more and more Spirit Tortoise energy around himself.
But a lot of the energy flowed into my shield. An icon appeared in my field of view.
“Sorry to say it, but I don’t think that’s going to work,” I shouted at Kyo.
I held my hand against my shield and imagined the shield I wanted to switch to.
I hadn ’t met the conditions to unlock it, but I had to believe that it had been waiting for this exact time to reappear.
Kyo was glaring at me—staring at the shield in my hands.
He ’s seen it before. That’s right—it was the very same shield I’d used to defeat him in the last world!
The Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.
It was the shield I ’d received from the same being he tortured and controlled, the being whose energy he stole—The Spirit Tortoise. Ost.
Let ’s see if he recognizes it—the real difference in our power!
Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield (awakened) 80/80 AT
abilities unlocked : equip bonus: dragon vein protection
equip effect: gravity field, C soul recovery, C magic snatch, C gravity shot, life force up, magic defense (large), lighting resistance, SP drain nullification, magic support, spell support.
special effect: 20%; mastery level 100
Any trace of exhaustion I ’d had disappeared in an instant.
“Looks like changing weapons will take care of Kyo’s status nullification attack.”
“Ahhh. That’s really good to hear,” Kizuna nodded, pleased with my new discovery. She switched to a new weapon.
If we kept on top of the healing magic, we ’d be able to avoid losing the battle due to that.
But there was a bigger problem.
It didn ’t look like I could use Energy Blast. Twenty percent was not a very big number.
I wasn ’t sure what I needed to do to raise that number, but it seemed pretty clear that I couldn’t use the attack if it was only twenty percent charged.
But there was yet another, bigger problem.
I was concerned about the gravity field listed under its equip effects.
