Encroaching Sea-Altar, R’lyeh, Depths of Jealousy
“Ah ha ha ha ha! Let’s go! Let’s do this! Here I come!” Brandishing her trident and filled with fighting spirit, Overlord Invidia charged at Juliet.
The girl’s eyes widened. Juliet had a wealth of combat experience, but the largest opponents she’d faced thus far were the Armordragon King she’d battled during the Exodragon King incident and Rosa after using her ult to create an exoskeleton.
However, G was now larger than either of them—and had stats that surpassed them both. Her trident thrusts were more like the charge of a battering ram. They left her completely open to attacks, but the overwhelming strength of her massive form shattered the stonework whenever she moved. She was like a natural disaster in human form.
But she also had a technique that no natural calamity could possibly possess.
This was demonstrated by the thread of light extending from the tip of the trident and connecting to Juliet’s body.
Ah...! The pull’s even stronger than before! Juliet thought. Harodihg Gnik’s force apparently scaled with the wielder’s STR. Held by G in her second form, it could attract its prey with over ten times more power than before.
The fearsome pull left Juliet so unbalanced that she couldn’t even cast her dark magic to block G’s sight.
That thread of light was now a nigh unavoidable death sentence.
“Purgatorial Flames!”
Ray, however, would not let that sentence be carried out. Extending his left hand, he made his Miasmaflame Bracer spew its fire.
With G’s vision blocked, the thread of light was severed, allowing Juliet to escape the charge.
But a moment later, the trident was swept sideways, tearing through the fire as it flew in Ray’s direction.
His eyes widened. G’s thread of light had only been a feint, intended to bait Ray into trying to block her line of sight.
Not minding the flames whatsoever, she broke through and closed the distance between them.
“Ah ha ha ha ha! What’re you gonna do now?!” As her reversed and enhanced Poison debuff regenerated her bunt flesh, G swung her trident at Ray.
He didn’t have the time to meet her weapon with his—and her mighty sweep would’ve simply shattered the halberd in any case.
“Counter Absorption!”
Instead, Nemesis quickly transformed into her greatsword form and blocked the attack using her barrier of light. Though the barrier creaked at the impact, the Overlord’s trident didn’t break it.
“There’s more where that came from!”
But the moment both of them stopped moving, G reactivated the Attraction Anchor, connecting it to Ray this time.
Ray was abruptly dragged out from behind the barrier of light and flew straight toward the tip of the trident...
“I won’t let you...!”
But this time, Juliet attacked G with her magic, severing the filament of light.
Ray used the opening to switch back to Nemesis’s Flag Halberd and backed away from the Overlord.
“Ah ha ha! Almost nobody lasts this long after I transform! You two are pretty good!” G laughed and praised them, but neither Ray nor Juliet were in a state to appreciate it.
One wrong move and a single hit would break them. G’s massive stat increase had also made Harodihg Gnik far more fearsome than before.
If Ray and Juliet didn’t coordinate to block G’s vision continuously, defeat was inevitable.
“Your party’s gotta be in perfect sync or you wipe,” Ray said. “What is this, an MMO raid?”
“Huh? It kinda is, isn’t it?” G asked.
“...Yeah, you’ve got a point.” Dendro was definitely an online RPG, and G was very much like a boss monster, so Ray couldn’t help but agree. “I can see why she’s called the most Overlord-ish of them all.”
“She really does look the part of a horrifying monster,” said Nemesis as she looked up at G, now standing three metels tall—not quite sizable enough to be truly monstrous, but enormous for a person.
As though she’d heard that, G froze as if shocked and laid a hand on her chest.
“I mean, it depends on how bad my debuffs are, but this is generally how I end up. Whenever I transform, my clan and all the comments on my videos often tell me to change back. Personally, I think both my forms are fine...”
“I-I do think it looks cool and sexy, though...” For some reason, G was starting to look a bit sad, so Juliet couldn’t help but share her honest thoughts in the hope it would make her feel better.
Ray, however...
“I mean, if they like the cute design of your first form, of course they’d want you to turn back. You really don’t pass as a ‘charming devil’ right now. You’re more like some kinda hulking demon or something.”
...wasn’t as kind.
“Thanks, Julie! Unbreakable, though... You’re dead meat!”
“As if you weren’t trying to kill me anyway! Bring it on!” G was in the middle of trying to PK Ray and taking his arena. His rebuttal was entirely reasonable.
But unfortunately... he thought. Fighting her head-on might be a bit hard now.
They had about ten minutes left until the arena was taken.
G had grown a lot stronger, and she quickly regenerated most damage done to her. If there was any way for Ray to defeat her, it was by using Counter Absorption to stock up damage for a fatal use of Vengeance, or...
Wait. If all I want is to prevent her from taking our arena, I should forget about G herself and go for...
“Oh? Are you looking for the trapezohedron?” G asked, noticing that Ray was looking around.
Ray’s eyes widened. Indeed, that was exactly what he’d been thinking—if they just needed to stop her ult, they could ignore G and for that instead.
“If that’s what you’re planning, then I’ll do...”
Reading his intentions, G took the trapezohedron from her chest...
“This.”
...and swallowed it whole.
“Huh?!”
“Wha—?!”
“Aaand nooowww... You have no choice but to fight me! There’s no escape!” As Ray and Juliet were struck dumb with shock, G flashed a mischievous—but belligerent—smile. “Now! Let’s go! Let’s do this! It’s bombing time! Ah ha ha ha ha!” With a loud laugh, G resumed the battle, firing countless black light projectiles.
It was the same low-rank spell she’d used before, far from the strength of a job ult, but...