The smallest of the orbs was about the size of Zara’s head, and the biggest was as tall as he was.
The orbs coming from overhead were moving a bit slowly. The deva would probably take damage if they crashed into the ground. That meant the orbs they needed to pay attention to were the ones attacking quickly from in front of them and to the sides.
The giant warrior and Zara entrusted their backs to each other and focused on tearing open the orbs and knocking them to the ground.
Zara had Ende’s Shield. He could use it to repel the big orbs. The shield’s blessings reflected physical damage and reduced recoil, so Zara shouldn’t have been getting pushed back at all, but every time an orb hit the shield, he felt like he was going to get lifted off his feet. The impact was also being reflected back onto the opponent, of course, which should have been inflicting great damage to the deva.
He repelled smaller orbs with Bora’s Sword. But because the massive number of orbs attacked without pause, there was no way he could block all of them.
The orbs appeared as if they would be soft, but they were actually as hard as metal. Some scraped against his side and waist, some knocked him off his feet, and some injured his elbows and shoulders. The injuries were healed by Bora’s Sword’s Health Leech ability, and he continued to focus all his attention on fighting off the flying orbs.
If either Zara or the giant warrior received a direct hit and had their timing thrown off, it was likely they would both have been immediately overwhelmed by the tornado of orbs and killed. Zara’s heart pounded hard in the middle of this life-and-death battle.
No orbs came at Zara from behind. The giant warrior was blocking all of them.
Unfortunately, Zara’s defense was not so perfect. The giant warrior was much taller than him, and as a result, a few orbs were getting through and injuring the giant warrior from behind. But the giant warrior didn’t utter a word of complaint and continued to handle the orbs in silence.
They weren’t simply standing in place. They were also stepping to the right and to the left and making use of their entire bodies for defense and attack.
Zara drew his left foot back deeply; then, while turning counterclockwise, he waved about his shield and used centrifugal force to send the orbs flying with his sword. Then, with effortless coordination, the giant warrior matched his timing brilliantly and turned with him, and the two switched places.
The two warriors moved in perfect sync, as if they were professionally trained dancers. It was a dance of death, where one missed step meant certain doom.
Zara did not feel the least bit of despair.
Normally when fighting with a party, your movements were restricted somewhat because you had to pay attention to your companions, but he didn’t feel that restraint at all in this fight. His partner picked up on his every movement and responded accordingly.
Zara felt as free as if he had been given wings, and while feeling immersed in the joy of the greatest battle of his life, he watched as every move he had ever learned came flowing out of him.
The orbs then suddenly stopped attacking. They lifted high into the air and combined together.
It was clear the deva had taken no small amount of damage. It had also been fighting out of desperation.
Zara scolded himself. He was breathing heavily and felt like he would fall to his knees.
The giant warrior had also been cut up all over his body and was in terrible shape. But he looked calm as he stood and stared at the deva, and it seemed as if he felt no pain or hardship at all.
Zara thought he looked just like a king.
No.
He had to be a king. There was no doubt that this warrior was a hero revered by the people of his tribe.
Zara was fighting with the five treasures of House Mercurius and Bora’s Sword, all of which contained impossibly powerful blessings, but this proud barbarian warrior who was wielding nothing but a single sword was still stronger than him.
He found that humiliating, but at the same time, it made him feel strangely encouraged and joyful. This was the height that people, that warriors, could reach.
The deva was growing more and more compact. It then stuck to the roof of the dome and stopped moving.
Zara was shocked when he realized what it was planning on doing.
The deva is going to quit fighting and wait us out!
The deva could wait for a thousand years. If it waited, then more fragments would be sent its way, enabling it to regenerate and build up its strength.
They, however, would not be able to leave this place until they killed the deva.
Zara wasn’t sure about how the giant warrior was faring, but Zara would soon die from miasma poisoning if things continued like this. The only way for Zara to survive was to continue fighting and absorbing health from the deva.
The deva was shrinking and trying to harden itself. When it had collapsed to the ground earlier, it did not attempt to harden itself right away. It could soften in an instant, but hardening took time.
We need to get it down from there and kill it quickly. We won’t be able to damage it if we give it time to finish hardening.
Zara looked at Raika’s Ring. There was still light in it. He could fire one more Summon Comet.
He held up Bora’s Sword in his right hand to establish his aim for Summon Comet, but then the giant warrior threw something.
It hit the ceiling right next to the deva and exploded, cutting into the rock. It looked like a bent animal bone, but it was probably an exploding sword. That was a blessed weapon obtained on the ninetieth floor of the Sazardon Labyrinth.
I can’t believe he threw it so high. This warrior’s strength is not normal.
The giant warrior threw one exploding sword after another at the deva. Cracks formed in the rock that made up the ceiling of the dome.
Zara counted fifteen explosions before the giant warrior stopped throwing them. It seemed like that was all he had.
The giant warrior then looked at Zara, who answered his wordless demand with a nod, and raised Bora’s Sword to the ceiling.
“Summon Comet!”
A huge comet appeared and collided with the ceiling. There was a massive explosion at the point of impact. Cracks spread quickly, and the ceiling began to crumble.
The deva then fell. It crashed to the ground with an enormous sound.
It had become shockingly small compared to the beginning of the fight. It was trying to condense and harden itself, but its hardening was not yet complete.
With a leisurely motion, the giant warrior swung his sword horizontally. The deva’s body was larger than the sword’s length. But the giant warrior didn’t worry about that and swung his longsword anyway.
That technique!
That circular movement!
This sword movement that looks easy but is guaranteed to cut anyone who enters its inviolable arc!
This was a secret technique handed down in House Mercurius. Zara had learned it from Pan’ja Raban.
While wondering how this giant warrior knew that technique, Zara swung his sword as if being invited to do so. They surrounded the deva from perfectly symmetrical positions and drew two circles.
The circles were different sizes, but they traced exactly the same arc. The two swords penetrated the deva’s body easily, the tips passing each other as they did so.
By the time the giant warrior’s and Zara’s blades returned to them, the deva’s body had been cut in two, and it collapsed to the ground. Its shape then melted into something that looked like sand, which absorbed into the ground and vanished.
They had killed the strongest deva.
The ground began to tremble.
Softly at first, then it grew gradually more violent.
The rock dome was beginning to collapse.
The deva labyrinth would probably remain in ruin for a time, then be re-formed and wait for the day it began to collect fragments again.
The giant warrior disappeared.
Zara also disappeared.