WALPURGIS
Oh, crap. I’m screwed.
Who’s screwing me? Milim, of course.
Dealing with Milim as a foe made Clayman’s
anger seem like a toddler’s tantrum. She hadn’t taken the battle form Phobio
saw yet, so she still wasn’t going all out…but her strength went beyond all
common sense. I was already exercising everything I had. Raphael, at least, was
really humming along for me—seriously, if I didn’t have that skill, I would’ve
been dead already.
So I was fully booked with Milim, but my
fighting companions were working hard as well. I had thought being outnumbered
might sink us, but now I wasn’t so sure.
Ranga had summoned two
star leaders, fellow commander-level starwolves, boosting his team so it was
three on three. I guess it was possible for him to summon up to three at once,
but Gobta was using the third one right now, so that was all we had on hand.
Still, I think it was enough.
Nine-Head boasted a massive amount of magical
energy, but it didn’t seem too experienced in battle. Ranga held the upper hand
from start to finish. The two magical beasts Nine-Head summoned, however, were
trickier than I thought. Analyze and Assess told me they were a White Monkey
and a Moon Rabbit, respectively. They were both intelligent and capable of
attacking in tandem, which made them fiendish in battle. The Moon Rabbit could
control gravity, weighing down everyone in the battle zone. It allowed the White
Monkey to pummel their foes and Nine-Head to finish them off.
That was their standard path to victory, but
Ranga saw right through it, breaking down their teamwork. If he used one of his
stronger finishers, he could’ve wiped them out instantly, but he was hesitating
since Shion might be caught in the cross fire. He had the upper hand, but
landing a decisive blow was proving elusive.
Shion, meanwhile… Well,
she was hanging in there, out of pure fighting spirit more than anything. The
black robe was hiding an elaborately built magical puppet, and I’m not kidding
when I say it looked stronger than Clayman.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! How do you like Viola, my
greatest work of art? Beautiful, is she not?”
Clayman was boundlessly confident, and I could
see why. A real tour de force, although beautiful
wouldn’t be my choice of words if asked. Not with, you know, all those swords
and spears flying out of her. Each one of those projectiles was a Unique-grade
weapon, as was her armor, but this kind of kitchen-sink approach wasn’t what I
would call beauty, really. Whether it was heat, electricity, blizzards,
crushing, resonation, or anything else, she had a seemingly limitless supply of
every attack type in the world, and she was lobbing it all at her foe.
It was nothing to Shion, however. That was
thanks to Ultraspeed Regeneration, which sucks if you’re fighting someone who
has it. No matter how much damage she took, Shion could instantly heal back up.
Clayman and Viola working together prevented her from going on the attack, but that
was just helping fill up Shion’s anger gauge. Once that blew up, things were
gonna get scary.
As I thought about that, Shion had someone
join her.
“I apologize for making you wait. Sir Rimuru,
please utilize my power.”
Whoa, it’s Beretta! I don’t know how, but it
must’ve broken into this battle zone.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Beretta!”
“Yes sir!”
“This needless meddling… I was just about to
turn these fools into a pair of bloody husks!”
Shion was acting like a sore loser, but I’ll
just ignore that.
“Well, don’t let up. Smash them!”
“““Yes sir!!”””
We were now fully back to the original script.
No losing now. The path
we took here got a little hairy midway, but with things as they were, our
victory was unshakable.
The only problem was Milim. She still wasn’t
going all out. If I could free her, we’d win for sure. My qualms about the
future settled, I focused my full consciousness on her. The noise surrounding
me disappeared. I sharpened my mind, looking at nothing but Milim. Now, much
more clearly than before, I could see the path her fist traced in the air.
I focused, using every cell in my body for my
calculations. If I lose this, it’d all be meaningless. I had to do whatever it
took to release the curse Clayman placed on her. Come on,
Raphael. Analyze and Assess every inch of her for me!
What was that? I’m berating my foes for
relying on other people, but using Raphael to solve all my own problems? I
don’t know where you’re getting the wrong idea. Raphael is
my power.
There isn’t a single iota of guilt in my mind!
So, uh, yeah, go ahead.
Understood. Conducting
Analyze and Assess… No results.
Huh? Huhhhh?!
Um, what do you mean by that? You can’t seriously
mean that you can’t figure out the silly curses Clayman placed on her?
No curse-oriented magic
found. This is—
Dude, how useless can
you get?!
Whenever this happened before, I figured it
was because I wasn’t concentrating hard enough, but after all that effort,
nothing. It couldn’t even discover any curse at all. Guess I can’t trust
Raphael in a pinch.
This was bad. Really, really bad. Not to sound
all depressed, but the chances of me winning in a knock-down, drag-out brawl
with Milim were laughably poor. Well, so be it—I’ll just have
to hold out until Shion and the rest defeat Clayman.
My mind made up, I confronted Milim. I had gotten stronger. She might be both under someone’s
control and not really trying yet, but I was certainly
holding my own against Milim. In the past, I’d be eating dirt before a minute
elapsed. Right now, we were at minute thirteen or so, and I was still fighting
at a full clip.
Hey, maybe she’d snap out of it if I just gave
her a good sock on the noggin?
The thought crossed my mind for just a moment,
but I dunno… Striking Milim kind of goes against my personal rules…
Suggestion. An energy
absorption attack using Belzebuth.
Oh? Ohhhh! That could
work!!
I immediately tried it out. Any direct strike
on my body would cause damage, so I was mainly parrying her moves. I would be
applying just a little bit of force from the side, enough to adjust the paths
of her punches and kicks. As I did, I’d use Belzebuth to vacuum up her
magicules.
This turned out to be pretty effective. Milim
reared away from me, a scowl on her face. It was a teeny-tiny amount of damage,
but it worked. All of Milim’s attacks were protected by her own draconic aura;
if I could take that out of the picture just by touching it, I’d gradually be
able to sap her stamina.
Would I win with this, though? That was
another story. If I was focused on “winning,” I’d need to bust out my full
strength, leaving nothing behind, and even then there was no guarantee. Even if
I pulled it off, I’d wind up revealing all my hidden abilities to the demon
lords watching us. In the big picture, that’d be a defeat.
Right now, all I could do was chip away at her
like this as I waited for her curse to be undone. Let’s hope
that Shion can finish off Clayman sooner rather than later.
I couldn’t say how many
back-and-forth exchanges we went through.
I say exchanges, but
it was entirely me defending. The rules were intense—one mistake, and you’re
out—but I was still fending her off.
A roaring fist from Milim surged past my right
cheek. If I didn’t focus, I’d never be able to dodge it. A single hit would
shatter my body, no doubt. I had Infinite Regeneration, a healing skill more
powerful than even its Ultraspeed cousin, but abusing it would drain my
magicules too quickly. I could probably regenerate myself after being reduced
to goo, but keep that up long enough, and I’d run out of stamina first.
So focus. Focus. Read ahead of Milim’s moves.
Her right fist had changed in shape. A
dragon-fang lash disguised as a punch. It’d glance past my cheek once again,
then decapitate me with the nails on her fingers, like the teeth of a dragon.
The correct way to deal with it was not to dodge but to take it from the side.
So I took it, pushing myself with my left hand
from the inside out. I could feel a burning pain sear through that hand, an
explosion of energy that left it heavily damaged. And that was me avoiding the attack. Trying to take a full-frontal blow from
her would’ve been crazy. Absolute power, on this level, was a kind of finisher
in itself, crushing its opponent. I had just learned that the hard way, but if
I didn’t sacrifice my left hand, I would’ve been mortally wounded. I was fine
with that, but I was really starting to resent the sheer unfairness of this.
Then, as if reading my mind, I had an
unexpected chance. Right there, as Milim lost her balance, she forced her
remaining left hand to snap off a punch.
Here we go!
Report. It is believed
to be a trap—
Huh?! I thought, but it was too late.
Leaving Raphael’s composed guidance in the
dust, I began my attack, grabbing Milim’s left hand and attempting to throw
her. If she was off-balance, I thought I should be able to pick her up on my
back and slam her down.
But if that was Milim’s trap…?
Her hand stopped dead in the air, a carefree
grin on her face—a total “gotcha now!” smile.
Oh, craaaaaaaaap?!
I was attempting to twist my body in front of
Milim, both hands reaching out for her left arm. I could see all of that with
Detect Magic as if watching it on TV, but it left me totally open. Cornered.
Game over.
Her fist moved again—and just before she
smashed it right against my head, something cut in between us. A dull thud rang out.
“Gnhh?! Where did that come from? That was
just mean.”
I was greeted by a dark-skinned man with blond
hair. Looked a little bit like me, actually… Wait, Veldora?!
He was curled up on the floor, grabbing at his
head and looking like he was in at least some pain. But if taking a punch from
Milim only did that to him, I didn’t see much need to worry. I took the
moment’s delay to rebalance and steel myself toward Milim.
“Hey, Veldora, why are you
in here?!”
“Grrnnn, what a cruel blow…”
“You’ll be fine, all right? What’s happening
in town?”
“Nothing. That man, Diablo or whatever it was,
came back, so our defense is as strong as ever.”
Huhhh? Diablo was back? There’s no way they
could’ve captured Farmus that quickly…but let’s focus on Veldora for now.
“So what are you here for? If it’s to whine at
me, then go away.”
“Why are you being
cruel, too, Rimuru…? Ugh. Look, it’s about this!”
He thrust his hands out at me, as if a ta-daa! sound effect should have been playing behind him. He
was holding one of the volumes of manga I gave him—the final volume of a
long-running series.
“What about this?” I asked, confused.
He looked at me, positively indignant. “What
do you mean, what about this? The story in here’s
completely different from the rest of the series! Were you playing some kind of
trick, taking the ending away from me?”
Ahhhhh! Yes! Now I remember. Yes, it was a trick. I kind of pulled a prank on him, the idea being
that I’d give him the rest of the manga if he followed my orders. Kind of like
training a pet, really. I had no idea that was the
series I left for him.
So he traveled all the way here just because
he wanted to read the ending? In this enclosed space in an alternate dimension?
I knew I could summon Unlimited Imprisonment with my ultimate skill Veldora,
Lord of the Storm, but I guess he could, too. That’ll
learn me, I guess.
But that didn’t matter. Diablo was already
back in town. Might as well make lemonade out of this.
“All right. Before I give you the real ending,
I need you to do me a favor.”
“Mm? What?”
“Play with Milim over there for a while. But
don’t hurt her.”
“Milim? Ahhh, yes, my brother’s only daughter.
I haven’t met her before, but she’s still just a child, isn’t she? Very well. I
am on my way!”
I didn’t know whether it was the manga or
Milim that captured his interest the most, but either way, he agreed. The “my
brother’s only daughter” bit captured my interest, but
again, everything in due time.
Milim herself was looking our way, steeled for
anything, and Veldora seemed to be capturing her interest. I could see it in
the twinkle in her eyes. Hopefully that meant I was safe leaving for now. Which
one was stronger anyway? I was kind of interested to see, but if Veldora was
stronger than me, I was sure he could buy me enough time.
There’s just no way I can’t take advantage of
this chance—so with my newfound freedom, I wanted to defeat Clayman and settle
the score for good.
Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar