Chapter 844 - Chapter 6: Beyond That ⑤
"Normally, a kick to the face would have settled the match. It was a splendid reaction. You jumped on your own for a moment to reduce the impact."
It must be the effect of the Cat Stone. After all, when I used it, the Beastman was surprised. When I ran over with Beatrix and Beowulf, although she had been kicked in the face, she had a beautiful face with her eyes rolled back. Just in case, I cast Heal with an orb.
"Geez! Losing consciousness like that! It can't be helped."
Beatrix grabbed Will with her left hand and reached out her right hand to me and Beowulf.
This is... the signal for emergency evacuation.
Beowulf and I both grabbed Beatrix's right arm.
"Teleport!"
In an instant, we moved to where Lyudmila and Violet were. It was behind the Demon Lord.
"Second! Mary! I'm coming!"
Mary, who had moved to a slightly distant place before I knew it, raised her voice.
"Cocytus!"
Furthermore, she suddenly blasted Cocytus toward Gavan-sama. It was a move aimed at the opening created when Gavan-sama's attention was drawn here by Beatrix's Teleport. She must have been chanting in advance.
"Oops! A splendid coordination."
Gavan-sama jumped back with a thump-thump to take distance. The reason he didn't come forward was likely to avoid a direct hit from the icicles. If you take as much time as possible until firing, you can aim for a direct hit at point-blank range against an opponent who carelessly jumps in. Gavan-sama didn't fall for that. A mage cannot beat a martial artist in speed and continuity. In exchange, they have to choose between firing after drawing them in or gaining an advantage with long-range area-of-effect attacks with big moves. Mary was forced to choose the latter for her first strike.
The icicles fired as they were hit in front of Gavan-sama. And they froze the floor. Gavan-sama would have to move over the ice. The floor would be slippery and he wouldn't be able to walk properly. Furthermore, Mary began to aim at Gavan-sama with Water from the index fingers of both hands.
Previously, Eleanor-sama had shown me how she could pierce a wooden board with water fired with Water. The current Mary is ultra-high-level. It must have considerable power. As proof of that, when the water fired hit the floor frozen by Cocytus, it made a sharp kyun-kyun sound. Gavan-sama is desperately avoiding it but can't come forward at all. After all, Water is a basic spell. She can fire many of them.
"This is... you're quite good."
He had a relaxed smile even while avoiding. If he avoids until her mana is exhausted, it will be Gavan-sama's victory.
In contrast, Mary changed the tempo of her firing. Instead of firing monotonically and alternately with left and right, she started firing two shots in rapid succession after firing one shot.
"Muu!"
Gavan-sama, after jumping to avoid the first shot, was now being aimed at his landing point with the two consecutive shots. Movement in the air is impossible. He twisted his body to dodge, but he began to get hit. Every time he was hit, black blood sprayed out. However, they weren't fatal wounds.
When it exceeded twenty times—in other words, she had fired sixty spells—several scratch-like wounds appeared on Gavan-sama's face, and blood flowed down his neck. His hands and feet had already been hit several times. Mary, for her part, was on one knee and was drenched in sweat. She might be at her limit soon.
"Ah!"
After Mary raised her voice, she looked at both her hands. Finally, her magic failed to activate. She's at her limit.
"You've run out of moves, haven't you?"
Gavan-sama said that and jumped diagonally in front of Mary. By not standing directly in front, the timing for firing magic shifts slightly.
"Ice Cube!"
However, Mary fired magic... and an intermediate-level spell at that, and as if she had predicted Gavan-sama's movement, she froze both his feet at the same time as Gavan-sama landed.
"Kh!"
Gavan-sama, whose feet from the shins down were completely fixed in a block of ice, was unable to move.
Mary, who stood up, pointed her right hand at Gavan-sama's face.
"Not yet!"
Just as Gavan-sama readjusted his staff and lowered his waist.
"Water!"
I heard Lyudmila's voice from diagonally behind me, and then Gavan-sama's head was blown off.
"Third, Lyudmila."
It was a complete surprise attack. With his feet still frozen, Gavan-sama's headless corpse fell backward from the knees.
"Thank you, Lyudmila. That was splendid timing."
Perhaps relieved that she won, Mary, who sat down on her bottom, showed a smile to Lyudmila. The areas under her eyes were pitch black. She must have squeezed out everything, leaving only one final move. But to even pretend that her magic wouldn't activate, she's quite something.
"You're welcome. But are you okay?"
"I'm at my limit. I only managed it by using the trump card my master taught me."
I see. It's Hughes-sama's trick. As expected of a hero. I'll have him teach me next time.
"Demon Lord-sama, what is the judgment?"
Her words were elegant, but her face was red and her nose was bleeding. Her eyes were also bloodshot, and her fingertips were trembling. She's truly at her limit.
"She is unable to continue fighting and must be sent back, but it is your victory."
"I see, that's good."
As soon as she said that, she fell over sideways.
"Are you okay?"
I rushed over and applied Hand Over with all my might, and the nosebleed stopped. Since her face remained red, I placed my hand on her forehead and she was as hot as a patient with the plague that affects the lungs. Despite that, she was sleeping peacefully with a kuu-kuu sound.
"An ultra-high-level mage won't fall into darkness just by using a mountain of basic spells, but she'll need two or three days of rest."
Beatrix said that and began preparations for sending her back. Lyudmila produced several small pieces of ice with magic, so I wrapped them in a handkerchief and applied them to Mary's forehead.
"We had decided in advance, but I was on edge because Mary was working so hard."
Lyudmila sat down like a girl next to Mary.
"You decided?"
"Yeah. While Will was fighting. She said she was second and I was third."
"I see."
"Yeah. We decided with just eye contact behind Jeanne's back. I don't think you noticed."
They were doing something like that? I didn't notice at all.
"Was it not just for a split second that your eyes met? You did well to understand with just that."
Even the Demon Lord was surprised.
"Because I was taught by one of the people who defeated the Demon Lord. We have to make it so even the Demon Lord doesn't notice, right?"
"I see."
Hughes-sama again.
"Did you decide the order?"
"Yeah. Just the order. But it's appropriate, right? Since there should be warriors left, Beowulf absolutely has to stay. And since Translate is needed, Beatrix has to stay too. I wanted the Priestess, Fiona, and Violet to stay with Jeanne until the end. We just decided which of us, me or Mary, would be the second if Will lost."
"Hmm. Certainly, the variation in attack is different if a Vampire Quarter takes the opening."
Lyudmila replied with a smile to the Demon Lord, who had completely seen through her true identity.
How did she see through even Mary's feint with just that?
"Because I've seen Jeanne lose consciousness many times. I've become able to tell if someone is truly at their limit."
Listen. Is that how it works?
"Because it's Mary. There's no way she'd end with that. But it's good that Gavan-sama couldn't use magic. He couldn't see through Mary's lure. He was a truly strong person. At the moment I fired, he tried to dodge by twisting his head for a split second. If the size of the water droplet had been the same as the ones Mary fired, he would have dodged it."
The final Water must have had much more destructive power than the Water Mary had been firing. Otherwise, his head wouldn't have been blown off. He must have been on guard, but she pushed through with power that exceeded that. As Count Vectis said, the magic control of a Vampire Half far surpasses that of top-rank human mages. In a sense, at the point he couldn't see through that, it might have been Gavan-sama's loss.
We sent Gavan-sama off, and that was it for today. I think it's safe, but just in case, we'll rest within the barrier of Violet's net. So the Demon Lord is with us too. We made a hot pot and everyone ate.
With this, we've defeated four. Four of us have also been sent back. There are three opponents left. Two warriors and one mage. But we have seven people. Can't we do this?
The battle beyond the fifth door the next day was centered on Lyudmila. According to Fiona's scouting, a muscular light infantryman desired a one-on-one match, and I was like, "What's that?" but it was exactly as it seemed. Because he was a magic warrior. He wasn't halfway. The Demon Lord said he was an ultra-high-level mage and a top-class warrior, and if such a monster is the opponent, it has to be Lyudmila or Violet. Since Lyudmila said she would do it, we left it to her. Over her Lindwurm leather armor and hat, as usual, I cast Almighty Guard and handed her the Cat Stone.
It's a battle between a magic warrior, one of the legendary heroes who became a monster, and a Vampire Half. The magic warrior's weapon is a sword, and Lyudmila is unarmed, wearing only the Lindwurm shield on her left hand.
The battle began with Lyudmila's attack, as she suddenly fired Thunderbolt, an upper-level lightning spell, horizontally at the magic warrior who jumped back to take distance after they had announced their names.
The opponent, as if caught off guard, jumped sideways and rolled on the floor while firing the same Thunderbolt... or rather, he fired it diagonally upward from near the floor, aiming for Lyudmila's torso. In response, Lyudmila, who charged in, deflected the magic with the Magic Reflection effect of Almighty Guard. The opponent, caught off guard, tried to block it with his sword instinctively, but he dropped the sword from the impact of the hit. Lyudmila charged in and tried to kick the opponent in the face. It's no exaggeration to say it was faster than the eye could see. The opponent gave up on the sword, rolled further, and threw a throwing knife aiming for Lyudmila's thigh area. He must have hidden the knife inside his left wristband. I didn't think he had one. This was also a surprise attack. To my surprise, Lyudmila kicked the flying knife away with her right foot. Or so Beowulf told me.
"Isn't it dangerous to kick a knife?"
Wouldn't she injure her toes if she wasn't careful?
"I think she probably kicked the flat part of the knife, but I wonder?"
Beowulf's guess was denied by Violet.
"That knife. He threw it while it was lying horizontally. And it's double-edged. If you try to brush it away carelessly with your hand or foot, you'll get hurt. He probably put poison on it too."
"Eh?"
Poison... Is she okay?
"She's fine. Because Lyudmila kicked the handle of the knife accurately with her toes."
She apparently avoided the blade and kicked the handle with her toes, which protruded as she bent her ankle.
I can hardly believe it.
Now that I think about it, the last time I saw Lyudmila fight was before she inherited her mother's power. Previously, she only fired magic. I had never seen a roundhouse kick.
"That feeling. I think Lyudmila learned her martial arts from Count Vectis. He must have been teaching her."
According to Beowulf, it's fundamentally different from the martial arts humans learn.
"Lyudmila is strong. Very much so."
According to Violet, her reflexes alone are equal to Roberts-sama. And she can use ultra-high-level magic that Roberts-sama cannot use. Moreover, she's still in the middle of growing. She's putting her passion into agricultural research, but how strong would she be if that passion were directed toward combat training? She'll likely choose agricultural research, though.
"But, you know. As I thought, her not being used to battle is... a worry."
Since Lyudmila challenged him to ultra-close combat, it's become a battle of martial arts. From what I see, Lyudmila is unilaterally on the offensive. The magic warrior is doing his best just to dodge the irregular attacks that Beowulf calls non-human. Even if he dodges, he's only dodging fatal wounds, and he's apparently being hit not only on his hands and feet but all over his body, so damage must be accumulating. But Violet's assessment seems to be different.
"Is that so?"
As far as I can see, it looks like the other side will be the first to tire out.
"It's monotonous. He's starting to miss more and more."
"What should she do?"
"If it's not a lure, she should take some distance."
A lure is apparently when you use the fact that the opponent thinks your attacks are monotonous and has read them to your advantage to land a counter when they go on the offensive.
"Isn't that difficult?"
"Yeah. If you don't have experience."
She probably doesn't have experience. Or, could it be that when she inherited the power from her mother, she even inherited things like that?
"Ah!"
The moment Beowulf raised her voice, Lyudmila took the opponent's kick squarely in the stomach and was blown away. Blown backward, Lyudmila did two backflips as she was and regained her stance with one knee up. She's holding her stomach with her right hand, but her gaze remains fixed on the enemy. When an ultra-beauty has a grim expression, I'm reminded of how scary she can be.
"Phew, you're tough."
The opponent also seemed unable to finish it all at once, so he jumped sideways, picked up his sword, and got into a stance.
"I-Is she okay?"
"She took it squarely. But now she's got distance. From here on, it's a magic battle."
The opponent's experience won out in close combat, I guess. Lyudmila, who has Almighty Guard cast on her, should have the advantage in a magic battle.