Chapter 8
“I’VE COME ACROSS quite a few enemies in my day, but it’s my first time running into one quite so difficult to read. Not only that… I’ve never fought something my spells have so little effect on!” Wallenstein said, struggling with their foe’s troublesome and unorthodox nature, a short while after their battle against the bizarre monster had begun.
At first glance, it looked like a dark demon, and yet its body was almost amorphous, such that it could move and maneuver in unexpected and unconventional ways.
At first, Wallenstein had attempted to cautiously study how their foe moved. However, when he realized that there was no way to make sense of this, he’d decided to attack.
However, perhaps because it was of the same ilk as the bizarre-looking monsters, he found that his banishing spells were much less effective even though it possessed demonic power.
“Too bad. Well, in that case, you might as well leave attacking to me!” Mira said.
The creature moved very fast, and its attacks were quite difficult to read. Not only that, standing just over thirteen feet tall, it was both massive and extremely tough.
Its strikes were vicious enough to send a holy knight flying, and its hide was so tough that even a dark knight’s sword couldn’t cut through it.
The pseudo-demon possessed effectively the same fighting ability as a raid boss, which would normally be taken on with an entire party.
However, Mira didn’t show the slightest concern or hesitation. This was because she was surrounded by friends with whom she’d escaped the jaws of death countless times.
“I’ve never fought anything like this! This is a super exciting battle!” Meilin called out, fighting the pseudo-demon on the front line. The way she evaded the creature’s extendable limbs made the battle look like a choreographed performance.
Indeed, it even looked as if they were on stage, such that the scene unfolding before Mira resembled a waltz with death. And yet, blithely unaware of this despite being in such a situation, Meilin’s excitement continued to grow unabated.
Catching ahold of Meilin as she dashed about through the air was a nearly impossible task. That said, the pseudo-demon was capable of stretching its limbs, and so no matter where or at what angle she was, she’d still be within the pseudo-demon’s attack range.
The pseudo-demon struck with fairly wide swings. And so, while Meilin could easily dodge these, an arm would swing out to block any route she might take to avoid them immediately afterward. It did so just moments after Meilin signaled that she’d move to dodge the blow.
It was a well-aimed, preemptive attack which even a true master would’ve had trouble evading. Even Meilin wasn’t able to twist away from it.
[Immortal Arts Earth: Crimson Bouquet]
Therefore, she took the attack head-on. What’s more, she didn’t just instantly perceive the trajectory of the limbs that came barreling toward her—she also managed to grab ahold of them with both hands and blasted them away.
The roar of an explosion ripped through the room as the two limbs were blasted to smithereens, followed closely by what sounded like the voice of the pseudo-demon screaming.
Its screaming was dreadful to hear, and it resembled some cacophonous amalgam of noise that didn’t sound as if it could come from either man or beast.
It was the kind of scream that instinctively filled one with dread and paralyzed them with fear.
However, the scream didn’t seem to faze Meilin one bit. “Cheap tricks like that won’t do you any good!” she cried, stepping into midair, before quickly moving right before the pseudo-demon’s face by using [Shrinking Earth].
[Immortal Arts Earth: Three-Clawed Blaze]
Immediately after she used the technique, the flames around Meilin’s hand formed into three claws and slashed the pseudo-demon across its eyes and face.
But that wasn’t all. Flames then spouted out of the deep gashes, and a powerful explosion once more rocked the room.
The attack, which delivered two types of damage, cutting and explosive, certainly seemed to have had an effect. The pseudo-demon let loose another shriek, one that could’ve been interpreted as either a scream or a challenge, and swung its arms. It acted so quickly that it seemed to be a natural reflex.
What’s more, it did so wildly, as if it wanted to utterly crush Meilin. And so, its strikes were so heavy that they reduced the nearby debris to dust.
But, needless to say, Meilin was no longer there.
“Impressive as always,” Mira said.
In fact, she’d silently drawn near the pseudo-demon from behind. And, not only that, she also had one of the light swords with the power of the sacred sword Sanctia imbued in her right arm.
After Meilin’s furious attack, Mira immediately moved to attack with that sword. She hit the pseudo-demon in the back with a strike containing the sacred sword’s energy. The force of the attack could only be described as devastating. It crunched into the pseudo-demon’s back, accompanied by a flash of light and a loud blast.
“Wow, that was pretty… Whoa!” Mira said.
However, she only had a moment to appreciate how devastating it was in actual battle. Perhaps because the creature was so amorphous, it counterattacked unusually fast, and the rest of its body sprouted arms that it then launched at Mira.
Meanwhile, obviously unable to react quite as quickly as Meilin, Mira managed to pull herself away, despite the attack grazing her arm.
Though she felt the impact, Mira’s sacred frame did its job flawlessly as its protective capabilities absorbed the damage on her behalf, such that Mira herself took no damage whatsoever.
Having done all she could, Mira put some space between herself and the pseudo-demon and restored the sacred frame’s protective capabilities which had been damaged. Then, appearing rather impressed, she looked at Meilin and said, “But wow, to think she’s able to take on something like this head on…”
Quickly jumping in front of the enemy as if to switch off, Meilin once more began battling the demon, who’d readjusted its position, head-on.
Meilin’s sharp strikes plunged into the creature’s elastic body.
Once more, the pseudo-demon counterattacked with unusual speed. Because it was amorphous, it would react immediately by unleashing its own withering blow even if it took a devastating hit. It was undoubtedly an enemy that was particularly tough to fight at close range.
Understanding this quite clearly after the strike it’d grazed her with, Mira could only commend Meilin’s incredible skills, which had allowed her to unhesitatingly take on such a foe at such close range.
“But actually, there are plenty of other ways to take it down,” Mira said.
There was no chance of competing with it in pure close-quarters combat, and yet there were plenty of other ways to fight.
Feeling herself getting fired up, Mira gleefully flew forward, ready to test out her next technique.
“By the way, Wally. No matter how you look at it, don’t you think fighting that thing from a distance would be best? I seem to remember that the two of them have attacks that they can use from long range, no?” Barbatos said.