“If you and Sue are so determined to fight, I suppose I’d better follow your lead, too.”
“Katia?”
“Come on, work!”
Katia mutters something to herself.
Has she decided to do something in this battle, too?
“There it goes!”
Her face lights up with satisfaction.
“There what goes?”
“Appraise me and see for yourself.”
Blinking in confusion, I follow her instruction and do so.
And then…
“Wait, wha—?!”
There’s something strange about the information that pops up before my eyes.
Her skill list is far shorter than it should be.
“Huh?!”
I let out another exclamation of surprise when I see one of those few skills.
[Chastity].
It’s one of the Seven Heavenly Virtue skills, a ruler skill.
“You’re aware of my unique skill, are you not?”
At that, it all finally comes together.
Katia’s unique skill is called Conversion.
It’s a weird skill, one she always complained was basically useless.
The effect: It can turn a skill back into skill points.
In short, it lets you reallocate your skill points.
But the exchange rate isn’t 100 percent. The more you use it, the less beneficial it becomes.
So Katia decided to keep this skill locked away, and never used it once.
But now, looking at her current state, it’s clear what she decided to do.
“You finally used Conversion?”
“Precisely. Though I lost most of my skills in the process.”
Most of Katia’s skills are gone.
All that’s really left is Chastity and the handful of skills gained from the Ruler of Chasity title she acquired as a result.
Since her stat-improving skills are all gone, too, her stats have even gone down a little.
They’re still easily over a thousand, on average, making her stronger than most ordinary soldiers.
But in this particular battle, stats like that are practically worthless.
Even my usually impressive stats and skills would only slow our side down, after all.
That must be why Katia decided to convert all her skills back into points and bet everything on the Chastity skill, which might just come in handy.
“Mr. Hyrince, are you familiar with the Chastity skill, by chance?”
“Chastity is a barrier-based ability. Its defense is even higher than a Divine Dragon Barrier.”
“Why, that’s exactly right! So without further ado, I’ll serve as our tank. I shan’t let you get so much as a single scratch, Shun!”
Now this is promising.
I’ll be the healer, and Katia will be the tank.
This way, maybe we can at least be helpful as support, even if we can’t do anything as attackers?
“Well, that’s just great. Now I’ve lost my role as the tank.”
Mr. Hyrince’s giant shield was obliterated by that first attack.
I guess it was as good as a piece of paper on this kind of battlefield, anyway.
It didn’t stop Hyrince from being killed by that strike to the chest.
“But I guess it’s a good thing I came with a little insurance.”
A sly grin spreads across Hyrince’s face.
Then, three magic circles appear around him.
Is he…summoning something?
Sure enough, three summons appear: Wind Dragon Hyuvan, Ice Dragon Nia, and Dark Dragon Reise.
“Huh? But how?”
“I made a familiar contract with each of them before we came here. So that I could summon them in case anything happened.”
“You got it, boss man!”
“Oh dear. I was rather hoping I wouldn’t have to do anything…”
“Well? I assume you wouldn’t have summoned us unless something rather serious was afoot, hmm?”
Hyuvan looks amped up, Nia heaves a lazy sigh, and Reise peers at where the others are fighting Wakaba with great interest.
“Some crazy stuff went down, and now we’re fighting the evil god D. If we beat her, we get a happy ending.”
“Thanks for the short and simple explanation.”
“So we just gotta jump into that there shootout and lay the beatdown on the stranger, yeah?! Wait, why’s that one look like a funky copy of the white spider dame?!”
“That’s the evil god D! Go defeat her!”
“I suppose that is easy to follow, but wasn’t there any more eloquent way to put it?”
“There’s no time for a more detailed explanation. I’m counting on you three!”
“Gotcha! Let’s do this!”
Hyuvan takes his dragon form and goes charging into the fray.
Nia transforms as well, slinking over reluctantly.
“Heh. A happy ending, eh? HOW THRILLING.”
Reise’s tone changes partway through the statement.
Looking over, I see something like a half-human, half-dragon.
Is that their dragon form?
We watch as Reise leaps after the others.
“Well, that summoning used up all my MP. There’s nothing else I can do now. Pretty useless, huh?”
Despite his self-abasing words, Mr. Hyrince looks satisfied.
“I was able to summon those three, thanks to you reviving me, Shun. But I’m of no further use now. So if I die again from here on out, you don’t need to revive me. I wouldn’t be any use to you anyway.”
Hyrince’s broad smile is at odds with his absurd request.
“…I can’t do that. I decided to win this fight without losing anyone, remember? So I won’t let anyone die. If you do, I’ll bring you back.”
Saying it aloud reminds me of what I have to do.
“So please do your best not to die, all right?”
“Honestly…my adoptive little brother has turned out to be awfully greedy. And unreasonably demanding, to boot.”
Hyrince chuckles and shakes his head.
But then his expression turns serious, and he starts issuing orders.
“Shun, you’ll use your Mercy skill to bring back anyone who dies. Miss Yuri and Ms. Oka will be in charge of healing otherwise. Ms. Oka, you have the Charity skill, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Ms. Oka nods at Hyrince’s question.
“That means you can use Miracle Magic, yes? So you should handle the seriously wounded, while Miss Yuri can deal with lighter wounds. But your roles should be flexible, depending on the situation, of course.”
Miracle Magic is the advanced version of Healing Magic, able to heal wounds that the unevolved version can’t handle.
This magic comes with acquiring the Ruler of Charity skill.
“Ms. Oka’s Charity skill has the effect of improving the regenerative abilities of anyone it deems to be her allies. Wounds that aren’t instantly fatal should be fairly manageable. If someone does get instantly killed, that’s where you come in, Shun.”
Charity is one of the Seven Heavenly Virtue skills, which apparently gives any of the user’s allies the equivalent of HP Ultra-Fast Recovery LV 1.
As long as they don’t die, they should recover from wounds at a remarkable rate.
I’ve never experienced the effects for myself before, probably because I didn’t usually get wounded when we were working alongside Ms. Oka.
…At least, I hope it wasn’t because she didn’t consider us allies at the time.
“Ms. Oka, please think of everyone here as allies except for D, as strongly as you can. If you aren’t confident enough, the skill might not register them as allies.”
“Understood!”
Wait…does that mean maybe we really weren’t registered as allies before?
N-no, I’m sure it’s just that I never got injured in front of her.
That’s got to be it.
“Miss Katia, you protect the rest of us with your barrier. Miss Fei, you’ll be our transport.”
“But of course!”
“Right. Not like there’s much else I can do anyway.”
Katia responds with enthusiasm, while Fei sounds a little relieved.
I don’t know how powerful Katia’s barrier is exactly, but with our stats, a single hit from Wakaba would be enough to kill any of us.
Katia’s barrier has to be able to ward off Wakaba’s attacks or it’ll all be over.
And Fei will use her size and speed to bring us to the dead or wounded.
It’s a role only she can manage.
“…So there’s nothin’ for me to do, huh?”
As we all figure out our roles, Natsume is just standing there.
With his abilities…honestly, I’m not sure there’s much he can contribute.
Natsume’s brainwashing with his Lust skill, while powerful, is more useful for long-term strategies than head-on battles like this one.
It was the same way when I fought him.
He needs to use it on someone repeatedly over a long period of time to successfully brainwash them.
And his other ruler skill, Greed, has the incredible effect of absorbing the abilities of any enemies he defeats…which still hasn’t been enough to make him stronger than I am.
And if I’m not any use on this battlefield, Natsume must be even less so…
“Guess you and me will be a burden together, brother.”
Hyrince slings an arm around Natsume’s shoulder.
“Don’t ever call me that again.”
Natsume cringes away from Hyrince, scowling.
“Well, let’s just try and do whatever we can, anyway.”
Undeterred, Hyrince claps Natsume on the back reassuringly.
Just then, two giant creatures appear.
“No way!”
Queen taratects.
Two imposing legendary-class monsters tower over us.
Demon Lord Ariel must have summoned them!
On top of that, more summoning circles appear all around the queen taratects.
Soon, an entire swarm of spider monsters is being summoned.
“Wow. They’re terrifying as an enemy, but it sure is reassuring to see them on our side.”
Hyrince whistles as he watches the spiders continue to multiply.
“Looks like they’re going all-out, too.”
“Agreed.”
The Demon Lord must be just as determined as we are to beat Wakaba.
Then we’d better make sure we give it our all, too.
So we can win it all and finally give this world a happy ending.