“It’s closing in,” she said. “To the left. Lysandra’s side.”
“You can tell?!”
All three of us shifted our focus. We couldn’t see it, of course. We were greeted only by an unbroken view of the mountainside.
“It’s overflowing with mana,” Lucy explained. “Or, I suppose it’s more accurate to say that it’s leaking...? Anyway, it is definitely using magical defenses. Ha ha! But at that density, anyone with a sensitivity to mana would notice it right away.”
“Man...that’s amazing,” I muttered, keeping my eyes fixed in the direction she’d pointed out. “I didn’t think you’d find it before it even revealed itself...”
The rest of us couldn’t see it, but it was still nice to know which direction the monster was coming from. Now we had to see if it attacked. What would we do if it didn’t? We couldn’t swing our swords blindly at the air, after all.
After a tense few seconds of waiting, Lucy shouted, “Here it comes!”
“Graaaah!”
A huge monster immediately manifested in front of our eyes. It was aiming for Surena, but with a fraction of a second of warning, she was more than ready. Someone as strong as her could easily make use of that much time.
“Hah!”
She parried the strike successfully, blocking the impact by crossing her two swords and warding it to the left to lighten the burden on her muscles. I was to her right. Lucy and Allucia were behind her. Parrying to the left was a good decision.
“Hmph!”
“Haaah!”
Right as Surena fended off the attack, Allucia and I charged in from both sides. I was a fair bit closer, but our strikes landed at about the same time. Her acceleration was as explosive as always.
“Tough as ever...!”
“Mrgh...”
Unlike last time, I hadn’t swung one-handed in desperation. I’d put all my strength into the attack, using both hands. Allucia had done the same. Despite this, the feedback I’d received was unsatisfying. I hadn’t cut through any flesh at all—Id Invicius’s sturdy exterior had blocked my attack completely. I could hear Allucia grumbling too. It didn’t sound like her attack had been effective either.
“It’s gone...”
Just before our swords had come into contact, Id Invicius had suddenly vanished into thin air. Judging by the sensation left in my hands, though, I’d definitely struck it. It felt strange to wield my sword against an invisible foe. The information processed by my brain and the feeling in my hands were completely mismatched. I doubted there were many monsters out there like this, so it wasn’t like I had to get used to the feeling. But I certainly didn’t want this battle to drag on.
“Hmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm... I see... What an amusing use of mana... Child’s play.”
Once again, Id Invicius had erased its image and presence—it was withdrawing after one hit. Lucy was nodding meaningfully in the direction it had probably gone, the corner of her mouth raised.
Judging by her words and expression, she knew something. It was a little annoying that this invisibility, which had all the swordsmen completely stumped, was mere “child’s play” to her. When it came to magic, she really did tower above all others. It wasn’t an exaggeration to call her a singularity in this world.
“Looks like you figured it out,” I said.
“Yup,” Lucy confirmed. “I’m a genius, after all.”
“Yeah, yeah...”
I’d just been thinking the same thing, but still. It was good fortune that Lucy had an idea of what we were up against after only a single encounter. Even if I asked how it worked, I probably wouldn’t understand the explanation.
“We’ll do something about that invisibility on our next encounter,” Lucy said. “Will our attacks work, though?”
“Unfortunately not,” I told her. “I’m pretty sure its toughness is some kinda magical trick too... What do you think, Allucia?”
“This is my new sword’s first major sortie, so I don’t really want to accept such an outcome...” she answered. “But Id Invicius is unbelievably sturdy. I doubt it can be physically cut at all.”
“So you think so too, huh...?”
Even if we did something about its invisibility, there was still one other problem: It was far too tough, and our attacks seemed to make no difference. Allucia felt the same—neither of us could picture cutting the thing successfully. There was something about it that seemed supernatural. If neither of our blades or techniques worked, I wanted someone to show me where in the world you could find a way of injuring the thing. It was invisible too, so aiming for normal weaknesses, like the eyes and the inside of its mouth, was out of the question.
“Hmm... Now that I think of it, Allucia, is that a new sword?” Lucy asked.
“Y-Yes,” Allucia confirmed. “I took very good care of the one I’d been using before...but everything has a limit.”
“I see... Beryl’s sword will probably be fine too,” Lucy muttered. “Lysandra, yours are pretty sharp too, yes?”
“Yes. They’re a rarity made from a slain dragon’s fangs,” Surena explained. “They’re in no way inferior...I think.”
Our problem was our weapons. Lucy’s magic might work, but there was no telling until we tried it. My sword and Allucia’s were masterworks that had just recently been forged. Surena’s were made from a dragon’s fangs—her nickname Twin Dragonblade wasn’t just for show. If none of our swords could deal damage, then I was stumped at how we could possibly break this deadlock.
“Well, it’ll work one way or another with your weapons,” Lucy said without explanation. “Here, hand them over.”
She was acting as if the answer were so simple, even though the rest of us were at a complete loss. Now, she was asking three swordsmen to hand over their lives.
“You want...our swords?” I asked.
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” she said, an air of exasperation to her voice. “Just hand them over. It’s running farther and farther away.”
Uhhh...what to do? It was true that we didn’t really have time to waste, but I was somewhat reluctant to let go of my blade. There was no telling when Id Invicius would attack again. As eccentric as she was, I didn’t think Lucy was going to mess up our weapons, though.
“Understood.”
“Here.”
Ignoring my internal conflict, Allucia and Surena quickly unbuckled their sheaths and handed over their swords.
I feel kinda dumb for worrying about it. The two of them saw Lucy as the reliable magic commander. I saw her in the same light, but due to our outrageous first meeting, I had a hard time wiping away my poor impression of her. Lucy was a woman who jumped back and forth between being a good and bad friend. Now wasn’t really an appropriate time for her to be shady, so it was best for me to just take the plunge.
“Fine,” I conceded, removing my sheath from my belt. “So? What’re you doing?”
“To put it simply, I’m amplifying them with mana.”
“Hmmm...”
I kind of understood what she meant. Our current weapons did nothing to Id Invicius, so she was going to boost them with magic. This probably made perfect sense to a wizard. The problem was how exactly she was performing said amplification. There were probably a myriad of ways of doing it. I wanted to avoid the weapon’s weight changing or its center of gravity shifting.
“That’s fine and all, but are we going to be able to wield them normally...?” I asked.
“There’s no need to worry about that,” she told me as she took my sword. “Let’s see...”
“Uhhh... Well, I’ll leave it to you.”