“You done saying your goodbyes?” asked Grist as he cracked his knuckles and readied himself for battle.
“You’re waiting on us? You sure seem confident.”
“Well, I did my research after the siege on Ishtar. I’ve got no clue how you managed it, but I’ll admit, you deserve some praise for somehow protecting the city and taking out all my underlings and those monsters. You’ve gotta be pretty strong for adventurers, but...that still means you’re no match for me.” Grist immediately cast a strength up buff on himself, using not a staff as his medium, but a ring.
Huh, so a ring could serve as a medium. Though there was no way he could use it to cast high-level magic.
Apparently, Grist could use support magic, though there were plenty of people who’d cast buffs on themselves. Even Yui could, but only on herself. Casting magic on others was much more difficult.
Additionally, Grist likely wasn’t a support class, which meant his buffs couldn’t be too strong. Though the real problem was his crazy MP reserves.
“This is bad...” It was hardly efficient to use MP to strengthen spells given the cost, but Grist had done so anyway, and he had used so much his buffs easily outstripped those of a weakling like me. He wouldn’t overpower us through technique, but mana. Only a demon could use such a strategy.
“You better be ready!” roared Grist as he bolted forward.
“Get back!” Daggers immediately equipped his broad shield and stepped before us. On cue, I silently cast some buffs on him.
But that single punch was enough to shatter Daggers’s shield and send him flying. His back slammed against a tree.
Despite the evident pain, Daggers managed to stand, which seemed to surprise Grist. “Wow, so that wasn’t enough to take you down, huh? Maybe you guys deserve a little more credit than I thought.” Grist began to emit even more mana.
“Hey, now. I would have been a goner if not for Lloyd’s buffs.”
I could still feel Grist’s mana even without my detection magic. It made me falter.
“Daggers! Can we do this?” asked Yui.
“Don’t think so. This guy’s beyond us.”
“I can’t believe the Legendary Party fought against monsters like him,” muttered Silica.
“Yup. I was pretty proud of my strength, but I see I’ve still got a long way to go,” added Cross.
If these S-rank adventurers couldn’t handle this guy, then just how weak and unbecoming was I? I felt so powerless, it hurt.
“Storage!” Daggers summoned a shield, but not one I recognized.
“What’s that?” asked Yui.
“A shield made of something called mythril, which is apparently pretty tough. It’s also super heavy, so it’s a bit hard to handle, but...” Daggers held up a weighty, lightly ornamented shield. “This should help a bit. Though we better keep our guards up.”
“You must have spent a fortune on that thing!”
Yui was right. Mythril was rare and hard to work with, which made it expensive. This shield had to be pretty costly.
“It was a pretty penny, but I really did get a great deal.”
“Thought so.”
“Well, it’s a cheaper price to pay than my life. And some amazing blacksmith made it, apparently.”
He was right. Even an amateur like me could tell it was leagues above the average shield. I had no idea what had happened for Daggers to get his hands on this, but it’d definitely come in handy. Right now, he looked even more dependable than usual.
“Then take this!” Grist slammed his fist against Daggers’s shield even harder than before. Given the shield’s durability, the hands of an average man would have been crushed, and this battle would be over. That’s just how tough this thing was.
Thanks to the mythril, the shield remained in perfect shape even after that blow. Just how had Daggers managed to get his hands on this thing? If there was a shop out there selling equipment like this, I’d like to see it.
But despite the shield’s sturdiness, Grist wasn’t deterred. Considering he could fight against mythril—the toughest ore in the world—on near equal footing, his fists were clearly quite tough themselves. It was abnormal, to be frank.
“Is this guy for real?!” Daggers was shocked to see that Grist was still pushing forward.
“And take this!” He continued to fling his fists against Daggers’s shield without pause. In fact, he almost seemed to be enjoying it.
“Don’t forget about me!” shouted Yui, trying to divert Grist’s attention from Daggers. She had her sword held up high in the air, and I did my best to cast buffs to cover her swing, but...
“You don’t really think you can cut me, do you?” Her blade definitely met Grist’s arm. But despite clearly having predicted this attack, he didn’t even attempt to dodge.
There wasn’t a scratch on him.
“H-How’s that even possible?!”
“You didn’t land that blow, obviously,” said Grist, barely swinging his arm to send Yui flying.
Immediately, I was assaulted by an unbelievable blast of wind. “So, that’s how it is...” That was enough for me to realize what Grist had meant.
“Did you figure something out, Lloyd?”
“Yeah. The power of your attack was neutralized before it met his skin.”
“Wh-What do you mean?” asked Yui, her expression blank. I could get why she’d have a hard time following.
“Yui, didn’t you feel something when you swung your sword?”
“That’s right! Mana! I felt mana!”
Yup, I was right. “He’s manipulating it.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“He’s emitting mana and wrapping it around his body like armor. That’s why he can slam his fists into mythril. He’s not actually touching it.”
Grist was emitting high concentrations of mana, compressing it around his fists to attack and wrapping it around his body to defend. Depending on how he adjusted this mana, it would rampage, creating blasts of wind. Yui’s attack had been blocked by a shield of concentrated mana, which meant...
“Huh. I’m impressed you saw through my mana manipulation.” His sharp eyes stared right into me. But somehow, he seemed to be enjoying this. “I was just thinking there was someone here I wasn’t expecting. You must be that abnormality who ruined my plans! I can’t believe there’s a white mage like you around. Guess that’s why these adventurers are stronger than I thought.” He seemed to have figured something out, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Just what was he mumbling to himself about? “Well, whatever. Killing you will solve everything!”
Now, I sensed even more malice from him. Clearly, playtime was over.
“First, I’ll kill the rest.” Grist took his eyes off me and ran up to Cross.
“Ack!” As soon as he noticed, Cross fired some arrows, but they didn’t work on Grist. They just bounced right off. So, they weren’t powerful enough to break through Grist’s mana armor. Arrows concentrate their force at a single point, so I thought a bow might be able to stand a chance. Apparently, I was wrong.
“Burst!” A red magic circle appeared beneath Grist’s feet. Then came a dramatic explosion. The warm blast cut through the trees, blowing away the fog.
This was good. A blast like that would definitely wound the average demon or monster.
But really, Silica was amazing. Explosions were high-level fire magic, and very few mages could actually manage them, especially ones who could use all four basic elements like Silica. Adventurers on her level were incredibly rare, from what I heard. That had to have left a mark, right...?
I fearfully turned to look toward Grist. However...
“N-No way...” Despite being in the center of the blast, he seemed perfectly fine. He stood there confidently and dauntingly, as if invincible.
To be honest, I had lost all hope.
“Not hot enough,” said Grist, immediately closing in on Silica and launching a fist toward her gut.
At the last minute, Yui managed to attack from behind, allowing for Silica to dodge.
“I’m your opponent!”
“How annoying.”