Chapter 303 - An Unforgivable Flash

As always, the problem is his absorption ability.

The Spirit Turtle Shell cannot stop the drain of MP.

The Barbarian Armor has Absorb Resist (Medium), so luckily, my magic didn’t fall to zero.

… I can’t deny the possibility that he can absorb SP as well.

I could change to the Soul Eater Shield with Drain Null, but then my defense would drop.

It’s not that I wouldn’t be able to manage, but I think my Spirit Turtle Shell was just barely able to take that last attack.

I don’t have to rely on Wrath yet… but I don’t know what option to choose.

Hmm?

The Lower Level Houou has regenerated itself. Its damage is gone.

Oy… could it be that whenever this attack is released, its recovery hastens?

I turn my eyes to the higher one.

That one seems that it’ll take a while longer before it fully recovers, but this is an annoying ability.

“Cut at it before it can heal itself!”

“Yeah!”

Itsuki: “I’ll try.”

On my orders, the attacks resume.

Everyone releases their strongest attacks, and the Houou in front of my eyes gets visibly weaker.

There’s a large difference between the Spirit Turtle battle, and this one.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

That one took forever, but this one doesn’t seem that it’ll take too long.

That troublesome attack is… dangerous, but I’ll try withstanding it with my Soul Eater Shield.

I instruct the supports to cast Fire Resistance periodically.

Good, I hold down Houou, as I pop a Lucor Fruit in my mouth to recover my magic.

And I cast All Revelation Aura once more after it wore off.

Firo: “Master~”

Firo looks upon me from above.

Firo: “I need more power~”

Naofumi: “Got it, come down!”

Firo: “Yeah!”

I control the Filo Rial Familia parasiting off of my body, and toss one at Firo.

The thrown ball of fluff sticks to Firo.

And it transfers its power to Firo.

Firo: “Thank you~”

Firo spreads out her feathers, and rushes at the Higher Houou.

… Right.

Can’t I do this to the Filo Rials supporting us in the rear?

By what I’ve seen, Filo’s followers like… Piyo, was it… are in the back casting support, so if I give them these Familia… their output should increase. But that’s only if it works.

“Pii!”

As if sensing my intent, the Familia exit my body, and run towards Piyo at a high speed.

After a while, an Icon besides Firo’s popped up in my vision.

Good, this one’s for regulating magic.

Now it should get a little easier.

Next is… Should I use Come on, Raph?

I slowly look at Raphtalia.

Raphtalia: “What is it, Naofumi-sama?”

Naofumi: “Come on Raph…”

Raphtalia: “Didn’t you already bring them with you!?”

Yeah, that’s right.

There’s no point in increasing their numbers at this point. And My SP will go down.

What’s more, I can’t have those guys get killed off for no reason.

Do I have anything to deal a finishing blow?

… yeah.

Naofumi: “Gaelion!”

“Kyua?”

Naofumi: “Grab Ren, and go attack the higher altitude one.”

Ren: “Naofumi, are you sure?”

Naofumi: “We have enough firepower here. Go assist in weakening that one. Once you think that one’s about done for, release a skill in this direction.”

Ren: “Got it.”

In accordance with my words, Gaelion and Taniko descend.

I hope this leads to a quicker resolution.

Its recovery is annoying, but taking care of the higher one is tougher.

The lower one has a higher recovery rate, but it’s not that strong, it seems.

Ren hops on Gaelion, and flies off.

And wait… The higher one has powerful magic, so perhaps it’s weak to physical attacks.

The Queen and Sadina’s large scale magics didn’t have much of an effect, so that’s likely the case.

In this case, there’s the chance that the one below is weaker to magic.

Perhaps she sensed that I thought of something. Shadow appears before me.

“By the Queen’s analysis, we wish to try hitting this one with covenant magic-gojaru.”

Oh? If it isn’t the one I know. Where did she go?

But I can figure that out later.

Naofumi: “Got it! Everyone separate from me! A large Scale Magic is headed this way.”

Atlas: “What about you!?”

I hear Atlas’s voice, and turn to it.

Naofumi: “I can stand it. When the magic is over, we’ll continue attacking again.”

Atlas: “But-”

Naofumi: “I’ll be fine. More importantly, hurry and get away.”

Raphtalia: “Understood. Atlas-san, let’s go.”

Atlas: “… Why are you always like that?”

Fohl has a fed-up expression, as he drags Atlas away, with Raphtalia.

After confirming that the forces had retreated, the Queen and Sadina face me and Houou, and activate their magics.

A tornado made of water comes down on me from the sky.

Gu… I can stand it, and it doesn’t hurt or anything. But I can’t breath.

“KYUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!?”

The high-pressurized whirlpool lasted around 30 seconds, but I wonder if Houou took any substantial damage.

It’s sorrowful that the attack wasn’t near Ren’s level of power, but it was around the level of a light barrage from Raphtalia and Fohl.

As I thought, the lower one was weak to magic.

For now, I think I can see the ending.

“KYUIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

The lower one changes its body to fire, and tries rushing again.

I change my shield to the Soul Eater Shield, and stop the attack.

The attack scorches bits and pieces of my body, and I feel that I’m going to lose consciousness.

It’s a hard attack to take from the front.

And even with this, I have fire resistance cast on myself, so I wonder just how hot theses flames are.

After the rush ends, I take a deep breath, and wait for the supports to cast recovery magic on me.

And I check whether or not the higher one is going to fire his laser.

… Yeah. It seems that if the lower one doesn’t take any magic, he can’t use it.

His mouth lets off a few sparks, but nothing happens.

The problem is that the lower altitude one’s recovery didn’t stop, though. I guess that was unrelated.

We can do this. At this rate, we should be able to kill him.

If we just whittle down the lower one, and crush them together, we’ll win.

“Okay! It’ll be over soon!”

It was at the same moment I declared that.

… I would never forget the events that unfolded.

-From the very back lines, a long stream of light… something pierced the greatly weakened higher Houou.

“Wha-“

We should have waited to inflict a fatal blow, I mean, the lower one had just recovered HP, so why…

I look towards the source of the light.

It was farther back than our armies extended. Way in the distance.

What the hell was that!?

Houou’s hidden skill? Or perhaps…

No, now’s not the time for that.

“KYUIIIIIIIIII”

As if it had burned away to nothingness, the higher Houou vanishes, leaving nothing but its feathers.

The remaining feathers flutter in the wind, and scatter over the land.

This is bad…

The rear magicians had just finished chanting a large scale covenant magic.

Even though we know the lower one is weak to magic, we can’t take it out immediately.

Having regained our senses, we turn our eyes to the remaining Houou.

“KYU-”

It suddenly stopped moving altogether.

And…

Gobo…

A distorted and peculiar sound reverberated through the air.

Little by little, the Houou’s form distorted onto itself, and expanded.

Magic and heat condensed around it.

“Everyone attack it at once! Quickly, we need to kill him as quickly as possible!”

We don’t even have the time to retreat. It’ll blow up in seconds.

We have to kill it before that, or the area will become a sea of flame.

「Meteor Sword」! 「Gravity Blade」! 「Hundred Sword」!

「Meteor Spear」! 「Brionac」! 「First Javelin」! 「Second Javelin」!

「Meteor Bow」! 「Bird Hunting」! 「Spread Arrow」!

Without even taking a breath,the heroes let out consecutive skills.

「Erst Throw」! 「Zweit Throw」! 「Dritte Throw」! 「Tornado Throw」!

「Bagua Karma Blade Consecutive Blows」! 「First Stroke」! 「Second Stroke」! 「Third Stroke」!

「Tiger Break」!

「High Quick」! 「Spiral Strike」!

“Naofumi-sama! We have to kill it quickly! Tei!”

Atlas quickly starts pricking Houou’s vital points.

We’re truly desperate! I raise Gaelion’s abilities by equipping my Wrath Shield.

Eroding my Heart? Like I care!

Giant Dragon Gaelion seems to understand the situation. He shoots a magic breath at Houou

「Prominence Dark Nova」!

With Taniko’s assistance, he immediately releases his strongest breath.

“Pierce through! 「Shield Prison」! 「Change Shield (Attack)」! 「Iron Maiden」!”

Right after Gaelion’s breath hits him, I bind him in my Shield Prison.

Of course, I strengthened it with my SP and EP, but that is only temporary.

And using all of my remaining SP, I summon an Iron Maiden. It shatters the chains of my Prison, and eats Houou whole.

Naofumi: “Haa… hah… ha…”

I take out and drink some Spirit Water just in case. I wait for the Iron Maiden to wear off.

“D-did we do it?”

“S-somehow.”

Everyone is out of breath after that extreme barrage.

I even ended up using my Wrath Shield.

With this…

Snap…

Just before the Iron Maiden was about to wear off, the maiden of steel burst.

Inside was a swelling Houou, that had gotten too large to contain.

Gu… the cooldown time is…

“Damn! We can’t be killed off here.”

In order to prevent further casualty, I’ll stain my hands with the move that I was still recovering from.

「Blutopfer」!

I immediately chant, and release my Curse Skill.

Gu… blood spouts from all over my body.

Atlas: “Naofumi-sama!?”

Raphtalia: “Naofumi-sama!”

Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki didn’t have the confidence to use their curse skills without getting swallowed by their curses.

They’re forbidden skills we can never get used to using, andthere’s no time to think of something new on the fly.

Then I just have to do it myself.

I took heavy damage, as I release my Blutopfer at the expanding Houou.

Good!

From the ground, a tiger trap that resembled the mouth of a raging dragon emerged, and closed on…

“Wha!?”

With a bang, Houou burst!

Losing its target, the trap gets enveloped by the flames.

I sway back and forth, as I step in front of everyone. In order to contain the explosion, I use the skill I thought up with Atlas, Collect.

At the moment, if we get hit by this, everyone besides me will probably die.

Perhaps the Heroes will be able to stand it, but the Army and the Slaves are here too.

I can’t stand down.

Where Houou was standing, is now a ball of fire as brilliant as the sun.

And it’s still expanding. The ground below it scorches and melts. Nothing is left in its path.

At the same time, far, far away… the flames could be seen, even from Melromark.