✦ ✦ ✦
Elsewhere in the wasteland, Lily and Wilbert faced off against Pain, Chrome, and Kasumi.
Ray had charged in, Pain had attacked, and Lily had fended that off, generating armies to turn the tide.
“Blood Blade!”
“Holy Splendor!”
Kasumi’s katana liquified, and Pain’s sword unleashed a torrent of light. They easily pulverized the army of sword-bearers Lily had sent.
“Reproduction.”
“Able Aide. Tactical Tutelage. Transcendent Power.”
But she added new troops as fast as the old ones went down, buffing them and blocking all paths until a vast quantity of guns was aimed at their foes.
“Stimulation! Multi-Cover!”
Wearing Necro, Chrome blocked the barrage. He took damage, but not enough to overwhelm his self-healing.
“If we can just thin these enough, we’ve got this.”
The troops she summoned weren’t that big a threat—there was just a lot of them. None of these three were particularly built to dish out AOE damage, and it would be tough to clean them out without skills.
“Pain, I’ll handle it. Fighting as-is would be futile.”
“Go for it.”
“Awaken.”
Kasumi called out Haku, had it use Supergiant, and charge into the armies. Each turn of its bulk crushed entire hordes.
“Ha-ha, so sad to see them go down this easy. They should be tougher than that!”
“But you’ll just make more.”
“Naturally.”
True to her word, Lily kept on summoning and buffing, but Haku was not letting her gain an advantage.
As the wall of soldiers crumbled, Pain stepped in.
“Holy Schism!”
“Hah……!”
Lily blocked his swing with her flag.
“This is technically a spear!”
The sword deflected, she spun the flag round, delivering a series of thrusts.
Her summons were her main strength, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t handle herself in close combat.
“Sand Swarm!”
“I knew you’d be good.”
“Appreciated.”
Lily sent new summons at Pain, forcing him to fight against the odds.
In a one-on-one battle, he’d prevail, but her constant reinforcements did not allow him the leeway required to score a clean hit.
Kasumi and Haku were busy keeping the horde at bay, so this was still not that bad.
“Cover! Necro, Dead Weight!”
“Holy Condemnation!”
Matching Pain, Chrome moved forward and reduced Lily’s movement speed, pulling a number of troops away.
With the pressure on him eased, Pain took a shot at her.
“Guard Heart!”
Lily yanked her troops in, forcing them to soak his strike, then swept the flag horizontally as she backed away.
“You all right, Lily?”
“Yes. Still…these three are making it rough.”
The trio knew Wilbert was sticking to buffs and understood that the pair’s fighting style was not just a matter of simple synergy.
In a situation like this, buffs were far less effective than if Wilbert was attacking himself.
Either he couldn’t attack, or there was a downside if he did—that much was clear.
“Kasumi, I’d like to keep pushing.”
“Got it. I’ll match you.”
“I’ll handle defense.”
If they let the pair back off and swap to Wilbert, he’d shoot Kasumi down first. That was their worst-case scenario.
Meanwhile, the armies were whittling down Haku’s HP. Better to go for a quick end than draw this out further.
With that brief consensus achieved, they matched each other’s pace, lunging in.
“Sword Mountain!”
“Holy Havoc!”
Right after Haku tackled, two skills went off, clearing troops and giving all three the necessary space to lunge forward.
“Will, shall we?”
“……!”
He nodded once.
“Rest,” Lily said.
It was a familiar command—which is why it felt so out of place.
If she was simply summoning her pet monster, she’d use Awaken.
“Mandate: Divine Punishment,” Will said.
That didn’t sound like a buff.
“Mind’s Eye!” Kasumi cried.
Her skill showed a red column covering the entire area. Kasumi swiftly ordered Haku back in her ring, shouting Chrome’s name.
“Guardian! Guard Aura!”
A column of light descended, damaging anything it passed through. All three raced outside the range to avoid taking more damage, and their gazes followed the column up to its source.
Clouds passed by, the clear night sky behind them, and floating against that darkness was a giant eye surrounded by a fissure-like pattern.
An eye peered out from a crack in the heavens, gazing upon the ground. This was clearly the source of Wilbert’s preternatural spotting powers.
“Whoa…you tamed a doozy.”
“Ours is rather unique. It takes the two of us to control it.”
“So the real fight’s just starting?”
“Ah. All the more reason we can’t let them pass.”
Sharing a single pet between them, Lily and Wilbert used two rings to borrow the power of the eye in the sky.
That meant Rest functioned differently—if either used that command, all power not only flowed into their partner, but it also gave them access to a new set of skills.
“Now we attack together.”
“Seeing too much is rather exhausting, so I’d like to end this fast.”
Wilbert could see for miles, which meant having mountains of information pumped into his head at once. He was wincing even as a magic circle appeared behind him.