“But I don’t really want to get used to the sensation...” Surena replied.
“True. Well, let’s leave that for later!”
We’d figured we would get through its hide after seeing Allucia’s attack pierce through. And indeed, Id Invicius’s skin didn’t repel our blades—that was something to be happy about. However, the sensation of cutting it was, well...strange. It was a little hard to explain—like the feedback I’d been expecting from the blow and what I’d actually felt were vastly different. It was simply weird. Maybe it was similar to slamming a block of butter with a club, yet bisecting it cleanly. Even that description didn’t seem quite right.
But this probably unraveled the truth behind Lucy’s amplification spell—our weapons’ edges weren’t doing the slicing, but instead, the magical component was forcibly prying open our opponent’s defenses. It was amazing in terms of pure destructive potential, but it worked against a swordsman’s intuition. Judging by her expression and tone, Surena seemed to have mixed feelings about it too. And if I had to guess, Allucia shared our opinion.
Man, swordsmen sure are hard to please. We were liable to complain when the sensation of a blade going through flesh was a little off. But it was a small salvation to have people I could share such feelings with.
“Misty!”
“Right away!”
Anyway, setting aside such unnecessary grumbling, our priority was finishing off the named monster before us. As that thought came to mind, Joshua barked an order, and Misty responded immediately. She quickly grabbed the whip at her waist and cracked it toward her target.
It was quite a long weapon. In general, the longer a weapon was, the harder it was to handle, but Misty didn’t seem to have any trouble controlling the whole thing. Using something like that would’ve been impossible for me. The techniques needed for it were far too different from wielding a sword.
“Master Joshua!”
Misty’s whip hadn’t strictly been an attack—it’d coiled around Id Invicius’s foreleg, stopping its movements for a moment. I doubted she had the physical strength to actually restrain such a large monster. No normal human could do so, and she knew this. She didn’t brace herself and instead let her body get yanked into the air.
“Well done!”
Normally, this would’ve been a suicidal move, but Misty and Joshua worked as a team. Annoyed by the whip around its leg, Id Invicius tried to shake it off, but that simple action created an opening.
“Tch!”
Joshua’s flamberge flashed forward in a slash. To repeat myself yet again, a split-second opening was more than enough time for a first-class swordsman to exploit. Joshua was one such swordsman.
However, while his sword struck true, it didn’t damage Id Invicius. The way he carried himself was excellent. His title as a black rank wasn’t just for show. The weapon in his hands had to be quite the masterwork too. But even so, no unenchanted weapon could pierce that sturdy skin. The feedback ringing through Joshua’s hand from the failed strike had to be reinforcing that fact in his mind.
This was a monster who vanished completely and couldn’t even be wounded by any normal weapons. You would typically question how such a thing could possibly be defeated. That was how it had survived all these years with free rein to hunt whatever it pleased.
“Ha ha ha, is that your trump card? How boring...”
However, we now had the extremely alien element called Lucy Diamond on our side. She’d stripped it of its ability to vanish and had even overcome its impenetrable physical defenses. Those two features would normally make it invincible, and nobody in the world would be able to beat it. However, using only her skill with magic, Lucy had torn that veil of invincibility away.
Magic truly was terrifying. It was territory you could never reach while only wielding a sword. I was beginning to understand why the kingdom was so desperate to secure wizards and fund magical research.
“Grrrr!”
“Hmm, resolved to fight to the death now? It’s a little late for that—especially against this lot,” Lucy declared coldly.
We were fighting on a mountainside but had a clear space around us and relatively stable footholds. Id Invicius had chosen this spot to attack because it was more convenient in case it decided to flee from us. After all, even though it could turn invisible, bumping into foliage would give it away. It wasn’t physically vanishing from the world. That was why it was best for it to assault its targets in locations where there were no obstacles—it was a good strategy for both attacking and escaping.
However, its tricks no longer worked, and this battlefield was now disadvantageous for it. Frankly, it would have been unreasonable for a human to predict such an outcome, much less a monster. Still, we couldn’t afford to let it learn from this encounter. We had to bring it down here and now. Surena and I needed to settle our grudges too.
“Hah!”
“Graaaah!”
Following up after me, Surena, Misty, and Joshua, Allucia regained her balance and rushed in once more. It felt nice to be so in sync with such talented swordsmen, all without even having to communicate with each other. We all understood what the others wanted to do, and we were all extremely quick to take action in response to the situation. It was a great blessing to be part of such a formation. Had I remained holed up in the countryside, I probably would’ve never experienced this.
“Seems you really have no more tricks up your sleeve,” Lucy said. “Haaah, what a disappointment.”
“Don’t say that...!” I snapped.
Even after tearing away its invisibility and rock-hard defenses, Lucy seemed discontent. I really wanted to complain to her about it. We hadn’t been able to raise so much as a finger against it until she’d taken care of those issues—if it had even more tricks up its sleeve, the entire battle would turn on us in an instant.