The elf’s voice was finally free from her incantation and she shouted a warning to her ally, but the human had no intention of obeying.
Gripping the hilt of her saber with even more force, Aiz’s body tensed as she charged toward Udaeus.
“You fool…!”
Aiz could hear Riveria chastising her as she chose to go on the offensive.
The monster was already aware of the elf, sending some pikes to bar her path and even more spartois in her direction. Physically separated from Riveria, Aiz engaged Udaeus head-on.
The greatsword came down at an angle.
She could tell by the position of the sword and the monster’s stance where the attack was coming from and quickly moved to evade, but she was still caught in its wake, the sharp air biting at her skin. She winced in pain. The weapon made contact with the ground at that same moment, showering her with debris and filling her ears with a deafening BOOM.
Every time she charged closer, a new wave of pikes barred her path. They weren’t intended to attack her directly, but to create a five-meder wall to cut off her offense. Aiz couldn’t break through the many rows with only one slash, and she was forced to break off each of her assaults as well as dodge Udaeus’s follow-ups. Wind whistled by her ears as the floor boss destroyed the pillars in its attempts to hit Aiz with its overwhelming power.
The enemy could attack with pikes and explosions of magic energy. Saying it was difficult to overcome would be an understatement.
Aiz moved all around as fast as the wind would allow, managing to get behind Udaeus many times, but the obstacles and newly spawned spartois wouldn’t allow her to get as close as before. The beast’s black bones bore many scars inflicted by her saber, but it wouldn’t allow her to get close enough to strike its joints or any other vital areas. In fact, it gave up defending everywhere else altogether.
Udaeus swung again; Aiz had lost count of how many she’d dodged. All that mattered was she keep moving at full speed.
Finally, she found a window of attack and moved in to strike.
Crick!
She heard the muscles in her body physically give out.
“”
She’d been using Airiel at full power for too long.
However, it wasn’t her Mind that broke under the incredible strain, it was her body that had reached its limit first.
A red pain flooded her entire body in an instant, setting off even more alarms in her head. Strength left her body like the cut strings of a puppet. Her movements became meek, visibly losing their edge and vitality.
Udaeus saw its chance and brought another wave of columns out of the ground with ferocity.
“!”
One, sharp and thin like a black spear, was aimed for her temple. Though she twisted away at the last moment, the strike disrupted the air current protecting her.
Another round of pikes ascended at Aiz in succession. They came from left and right, front and back, each cutting deeper into the wind armor, and delivering blow after blow directly to her body.
Off balance, Aiz had no way to escape from the onslaught. In the midst of her desperate flips and spins—her golden eyes saw it.
Udaeus, with its left arm high in the air.
Shoulder, elbow, wrist. All three joints glowing violet, and the arm about to come down.
Aiz was easily within range. Her blood ran cold as the crimson flames mercilessly stared down at her.
Her mind went blank. She didn’t even feel the strikes pelting her body.
Then she summoned everything she had left and jumped into the air using sheer willpower.
A moment later…
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“Ugh!”
It connected.
The last traces of her wind armor shattered as the blade slid past her body. Even though she had avoided a direct hit by jumping wildly into the air, it had left her wide open to a shock wave that accompanied the impact. That was more than enough to launch her into the air.
The angle was shallow, so she hit the ground rather quickly. However, Aiz kept rolling for dozens of meders, bouncing off of shattered pillars and debris as if caught in raging rapids. Wind armor long since broken, the last traces of Airiel came to an abrupt end.
Her smoking body finally came to a stop, leaving her on her back. She was in too much pain to fully comprehend the extent of her injuries, but even so, she forced her eyes open.
Her vision was tinted deep red.
“Aiz!”
Riveria’s scream.
The girl’s body shook softly as she tried to sit up. Riveria’s face contorted, seeing her in so much pain.
“—MOVE!!”
“Geh?!”
Riveria wildly swung her staff forward, knocking the spartoi out of her path and putting a major dent in its head in the process.
The last of the monsters that had surrounded her dispatched, the elf started to run toward her battered and bloodied friend.
“OOOOOOOOOooooooo!!”
“!”
However, new columns rose at her feet. Riveria acrobatically dodged the threat and looked up toward the monster. Udaeus was a great distance away, but she could tell that the two crimson flames deep in his eye sockets were focused directly on her.
It must have identified her as the greater threat. Riveria’s eyes narrowed as she dodged another round of the black pikes.
“Harbinger of the end, white snow. Gust with the wind before twilight.”
She would blast the thing into oblivion.
The mage’s beautiful face took on the extremely rare expression of rage as she ran at full speed while Concurrent Casting. Her jade eyes were burning in their own right as she glared back at Udaeus. The one-hundred-meder distance between the two didn’t mean a thing. More and more pikes burst from the floor as a magic circle appeared under Riveria’s feet.
The monster could sense an unusually large amount of energy gathering; its shoulders started to tremble. As for Aiz…
Her eyes wide open, she shouted at the top of her lungs:
“Riveria!!”
The girl’s voice broke Riveria’s concentration and the magic circle disappeared.
“Don’t interfere…!”
Sitting up, the girl grabbed Desperate from the spot where it lay at her side and used it as a cane to pull herself up.
The cut on her cheek still leaking fresh blood, she sounded as if she was about to cry.
“Please, don’t…!”
Drip, drip. The wound on her face showed no signs of clotting as red trickled down her chin.
Aiz climbed back to her feet while standing in pools of her own blood.
Riveria stared at her in disbelief as Aiz cried out her trigger spell:
“Awaken, Tempest…!”
Air currents enveloped her body.
She once again turned to face the monster with the blessings of the wind assisting her movements.
The crimson flames shook once again, this time in disbelief that the girl still had the will to fight.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
“!!”
She kicked off the ground at the same moment the monster howled into the air.
She ignored her body’s groans of pain and forced it forward out of sheer willpower, pouring all her Mind into the wind.
She didn’t care about later. The only thing that mattered to her now was settling the score with Udaeus once and for all. She charged forward, saber at the ready.
“Aiz…?”
Riveria stood in awe of what she was seeing.
All spartois in the girl’s path fell by a single stroke; all the pikes missed her in her up-tempo dance. The silver blade left deep gashes in the floor boss’s black bones.
The wind howled as Aiz put her life on the line.
More…More!
Each strike, each movement was filled with passion, desire.
Each kick off the ground was fi
lled with the yearning to be faster than anything else.
Her heart screamed out, placing all her faith in the wind that embraced her.
I want more!!
Each limb was heavy as lead; her throat was parched and lungs were dry; streams of red blood flowed down her cheeks.
She burned with anger at the body they wanted to collapse to its knees. Why are you so frail, so fleeting?
How could she turn this mind and body…
…Turn this mind and body into something like the sword in her grasp—a sword that would never break, a sword that could become as fast as the wind? How?
More—I need more power! I have to be stronger!!
Her vision flared white before becoming black.
Her consciousness left the battlefield, all while her body fought against the gigantic monster, finding its blind spots.
Into her soul, into the very deepest parts of her being.
Down, down even farther.
More, I want—!!
She couldn’t, she couldn’t, she couldn’t.
Aiz couldn’t allow this weakness.
More than anyone else, she refused to let this frail girl exist.
I will—
Aiz knew too well.
Up to this point, and from this point on…
She knew that the path she walked would always be littered with the corpses of countless monsters.
Slice, cut, and slash.
She would climb the mountain of bones to go even farther beyond.
And toward what waited for her there.
On that distant height—
—I will take it back!!
Her desire.
Her craving.
Her earnest wish.
“—UUAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
Noise escaped from the throat that had forgotten how to express emotion.
The parched scream led her hands, feet, entire body past their limits.
Faster, sharper, more instantaneous strikes overwhelmed Udaeus, breaking its bones.
And where their two weapons collided, the cutting edge of the black sword started to crack.
“GUUUuuuuu!”
Udaeus felt a twinge of fear.
Fear of the girl. Fear of the superior knight of wind.
Fear of the figure charging this way, slashing down all the spartois in the blink of an eye and weaving her way through the pikes.
Losing blood, her bones on the verge of cracking, her body was as stable as a candle’s flame in a strong breeze. But all that paled in comparison to the rage that consumed her, increasing her strength further still. The Kenki’s mighty strikes were terrifying.
Her still-pristine silver saber flashed as if it was expressing the power of her will—a power that went beyond the floor boss’s ability to suppress.
“—OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Udaeus howled in an attempt to purge its trembling black body of the fear threatening to take hold.
Aiz’s craving for more had driven her speed to godly levels. The monster tried to charge its magic for another slash, but Aiz attacked its joints like a divine wind. Udaeus had no choice but to cease charging and defend itself. Now that they were both at the upper limits of their power, the decision Udaeus had to reach was clear. No matter what obstacles it sent in Aiz’s direction, sharp spears or high walls, she saw them coming, dodged, and landed a hit that was too strong for the beast to repel. Spartois were being struck down faster than they could be born from the Dungeon floor.
But above all, her strikes were heavy.
Her blows were cracking its ribs, instilling fear in its core, and even its sturdiest component, the black greatsword, had been damaged.
There was no limit to the power of the wind.
“UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!”
“!”
Udaeus had to take a chance.
Looking out over the vast field of broken bones in front of it, the floor boss summoned row upon row of extremely large pikes only in front of itself.
Thousands of sharp points weren’t aimed at a single target, but instead at everything on the surface of the floor that it could see. Aiz was forced to break off her attack and gain some distance.
Then, Udaeus used the last of its pillars to form a circular barrier around and behind the girl while pumping energy into its joints.
“!”
The spikes were humongous, jutting ten meders into the air and standing so close together that there was no space between them, a perfect wall. Aiz was caught in the middle of a crescent moon.
The only way open to her was forward, trapped in a cul-de-sac of death.
The beast had prevented her from getting close, forced her to retreat, and still managed to trap her within striking distance. Udaeus had run out of pikes, so it raised the damaged black greatsword high into the air. Rotating his shoulders, it got into position to unleash a strike that combined all its destructive power and speed at once.
The only direction that Aiz could go was toward the beast, and the sword would come down long before she could escape from the ring.
Shoulder, elbow, and finally wrist. Aiz looked on as violet light emanated from the joints of the monster’s left arm—and made her decision, frowning.
She squatted low to the ground, gathering as much power into her knees as possible, before jumping and flipping backward high into the air.
Higher and higher she went, until she reached the top of the crescent-moon wall at the end of the cul-de-sac and landed on her feet.
She made eye contact with the crimson flames that were shaking in surprise before launching her painful and protesting body into a full-blast air current.
Udaeus’s howl accompanied a flash of magic as it brought the black greatsword straight down.
By contrast, Aiz focused her divine wind on a singular point.
“Lil Rafaga!!”
The massive black blade collided with the spiraling arrow of wind.
Finishing move versus finishing move in a head-to-head test of strength. Udaeus’s three joints pulsed like supernovas of violet light. The gale whipping around Aiz cut through the air faster than any natural storm could hope to achieve.
Wave upon wave of air fought against the purple glow, like two rivals trying to determine which was ultimately strongest.
“Wind, wind, wind!!”
Her voice was heard and the wind pushed itself even faster in response.
Udaeus’s burning eyes flickered as it felt the force against its blade. It howled even louder, forcing more energy into its joints. The violet glow grew into a blinding light, and this time it was Aiz who grimaced as the rival met her challenge.
Each increase in the wind speed brought her body closer to the verge of being ripped apart. With each passing moment, there was a feeling that the two great powers would destroy each other. Footsteps of impending doom crept up in the back of her mind—when suddenly…
“Gather, breath of the earth—my name is Alf!”
The tones of the radiant voice reached Aiz’s ears.
“Veil Breath!”
A jade light descended onto the girl’s body, its warmth enveloping her like a glove.
Glancing to the side, she could clearly see Riveria standing relatively close to the area between her and Udaeus with her staff raised.
Veil Breath was Riveria’s support magic.
It took the form of a deep green light that sat on a single target like cloth, adding a layer of protection from both physical and magical attacks. Similar to an enchantment, its effects continued for a set amount of time, and also, however slightly, healed the recipient.
Riveria’s assistance granted Aiz’s body a small am
ount of relief, giving it a chance to reclaim some of its strength. The elf’s sharp, jade eyes met the human’s golden ones, wordlessly conveying, “At least allow me to do this much!” They only maintained eye contact for a few fleeting seconds before the human turned her head forward, back toward her enemy.
Thanks to the layer of light surrounding her body, the pressure of the boss’s blade felt lighter. With this—Aiz thought to herself as she gathered energy in her revitalized muscles and unleashed Airiel’s full power.
“!!”
In that moment, the shaft of the black greatsword fractured as Aiz’s arrow of wind claimed victory.
The blade of Desperate carved its way to the crumbling sword, breaking it down to half its original size. Aiz emerged from the falling rubble and tore through the air toward her opponent.
The torrent of wind wrapped itself around Udaeus’s left arm, and tore it apart at the joints.
“!”
The pieces of Udaeus’s left arm fell to the ground with thundering crashes.
Aiz could hear the beast howling behind her after taking his other arm off at the shoulder. But her body had reached its limit, every bit of strength leaving her muscles as her magic faded.
She fell out of the air, hitting the ground with a dull thud.
“Ah…!”
She lay on the ground like a masterless puppet.
She closed her eyes for a moment, the red spots in her vision turning to black. However, they were open again in a flash.
From the vibrations reaching her through the floor, she knew the monster was in pain. Despite being covered with wounds from head to toe, Aiz slowly climbed to her feet, the green glow still enveloping her body.
…I’m fine.
Riveria’s magic was still with her.
So.
One more time, she could squeeze out more strength.
Just a little more, and she would use the last of her power.
To defeat the enemy. To surpass it.
To become strong.
To rid herself of weakness forever.
“…Awaken, Tempest.”
Her voice might have been weak, but her words were clear and determined.
Wind armor returning, she looked over her shoulder toward the enemy behind her.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 2 Page 20
