“You little...! Hurry up and get smooshed already!”
A metallic orange mace swung mercilessly toward the small girl.
“[Power Rise]!”
Frei took the round shield she had pulled from her [Storage] and blocked the mace. The shield had a star drawn in the center of the double circle, almost as if it were the shield of a certain American superhero. The small girl was able to control it at will, blocking, repelling, and deflecting all attacks that came her way, no matter the angle.
Thanks to Yakumo’s sacred treasure, the gravity effect of the woman’s wicked vessel was weak enough that Frei could handle it. Though even in its weakened state, any regular person taking the attack would no doubt have their arm completely shattered. Watching her daughter take such heavy hits, Hilde couldn’t help but feel frustrated; the mace-wielding woman had presented several large openings so far, so if Hilde wanted to strike, she very well could have.
However, that would then mean that a divine ward had taken down a member of the wicked devout. Due to that issue, her role here was purely as Frei’s support—unless her daughter was on the verge of danger, she was to stay put. Even Frei had been very clear about that.
“I’ve not awakened to my divine trait like Yae has, so I think it would be perfectly fine for me to fight...”
Though when she saw Frei look so happy despite the circumstances, she also realized that she might be disappointing her if she interfered.
Hilde glanced at the other pair that was fighting a distance away. Under Yae’s watchful eye, a boy even smaller than Frei was holding a silver shortsword. A ring-shaped object was shot at the boy—Kuon—from his opponent.
The ring was a shimmering dark green chakram flying straight for Kuon like an arrow. Kuon took Silver and deflected it with a horizontal slice without showing even a hint of panic. The deflected chakram flew off in a random direction, but then it stopped midair and shot back toward its wielder. The woman wearing the gaudy feather mask caught it with two of her fingers and gave a bewitching smile.
“Not half bad, little boy. It’s not every day I find someone who can deflect Viridian.”
“I feel honored to receive your praise. I have been putting in quite the amount of training.”
“Quite the amount, you say? Are you aware that being too modest can end up being annoying instead?”
Peacock, the wicked devout now fighting Kuon, spun the chakram with her two fingers and then threw it up into the air.
The chakram split into several more chakrams that began swirling around her.
“How about this, then?”
Peacock took the ten chakrams orbiting her and fired them all toward Kuon at once.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
Ten simultaneous attacks—no matter how you looked at it, there was no way to avoid them all. It seemed as if a magic barrier would be able to deal with them, but in reality, Peacock’s chakrams would slice through even that. The wicked devout pictured the boy collapsing in her mind’s eye, blood gushing from his body, but then what she saw instead was something unbelievable.
At some point, Kuon’s right eye had turned an orange-gold. Kuon swayed his body to the side...and a chakram narrowly passed by his right shoulder.
He lifted his left hand a little...and a chakram passed through the gap between arm and flank.
He raised the sword in his right hand and swung to the side...and a chakram was deflected. He bent forward slightly...and a chakram passed right over his head.
“What?!”
Kuon dodged the rest of the chakrams with similar small but controlled movements, and Peacock could only look on in disbelief.
“I failed to dodge two of them, I suppose,” Kuon muttered in disappointment.
“Now hang on, kiddo, you just dodged eight of those things! That’s pretty impressive, if ya ask me!” Silver said.
As Kuon had said, he had technically deflected two of them with Silver, not outright dodged them. Even with his Mystic Eye of Precognition, there were things he simply couldn’t evade.
Since there were only two he knew he would be unable to avoid, he simply deflected them with Silver, but had it been any more, he would’ve likely used either his Mystic Eye of Compression or Immobilization.
“What a creepy little boy!”
“I apologize for disturbing you.”
Peacock split her chakram into ten and threw them at Kuon again, to which Kuon repeated what he had done, dodging all except two that he deflected with Silver.
At a glance, Kuon was the one at an advantage, but using his Mystic Eyes repeatedly would tire him out. Any time he tried to get closer to Peacock, she would simply fire her chakrams again, so he was left completely unable to launch a counterattack. He might have had a chance if he combined the usage of different Mystic Eyes, but Kuon’s goal here wasn’t to take the wicked devout down, it was to buy time while Yakumo dealt with Indigo, so he decided it was best for him not to risk anything.
Yae was also thinking similarly, keeping a close eye to ensure Peacock wouldn’t interfere with the fight with Indigo.
Kuon glanced at his older sister within the [Prison], continuing to deal with the chakrams being thrown at him all the while.