It was certainly true that this spirit was incredible. Having such deep-seated anger that you lingered on after death, all that sinister power… But that was all the credit I was gonna give him.
“I knew you had some kind of hidden power. I felt a different presence down in the depths of your heart…but I hid something from you too.”
“Hid something? What?” asked Javagiir suspiciously.
I smiled, overjoyed to be fighting such a strong opponent. “Ain’t it obvious? A trump card. Super Yuri Mode. Activate.”
An evil spirit that couldn’t be controlled, even with necromancy? Oh, yeah. That was perfect for punching. Time to see who was stronger: his Joker or my trump card! I activated Super Yuri Mode.
A feeling of total elation, a sensation that I could do anything, surged throughout my body. I felt light, as if I had grown wings. With the limiter removed from my brain, my body could move more freely than usual. There was nothing stopping me now.
In the time it took Javagiir to step forward, I swooped around behind him.
“To free someone from possession, you gotta hit the back of the neck. That’s what Filia said.”
I swung my hand down on the back of Javagiir’s neck, hitting him with a karate chop. He let out a cough and collapsed on the ground. His face was as pale as ever, but despite how he looked, he seemed pretty sturdy. He probably wasn’t dead. Then—maybe because the evil spirit was so shocked from having been thwacked out of Javagiir’s body—it plunged toward Filia’s ranging wind wall.
Whoa—wouldn’t that tear it to shreds? What in the heck was it doing?!
At that moment, the evil spirit broke through the wall of wind.
“It went through?! Crap, not good!”
I’d known it was a powerful spirit, but I hadn’t thought it was that powerful! Filia and Ashley were already fighting a great host of spirits outside the wall. If that mega-bad spirit joined up with them, the scales were definitely gonna tip the wrong way!
“Can’t let that happen!”
I rushed into the furious wind wall. It hurt, but not so much that I couldn’t bear it, thanks to my well-trained muscles. After bursting through, I scanned the area to assess the situation. Filia, Ashley, and Loli Loli were all covered in sweat, completely exhausted—and in front of the three of them loomed a black shadow the size of a mountain.
It seemed Ashley had managed to help Loli Loli regain consciousness with Filia’s help. But the situation was still highly unpredictable.
“I only took my eyes off it for a second, but…that spirit’s pretty gnarly, huh?”
“Yuri! You’re okay?!” shouted Filia, noticing me.
I ran over to the three of them, keeping my eye on the giant spirit. “Yeah. So, what’s the deal with that?”
“That spirit suddenly jumped out from the wind wall, absorbed all the other spirits in the area, and grew into a titan.”
It could absorb other spirits? That was a thing?!
Wait. Wait, this was bad. Because I’d failed to defeat it, now it was a downright beast…
“Oh, yeah, is Loli Loli okay?”
“A-okay, I would say! But I’m sorry, everyone. I dragged you all down…” Loli Loli sounded heartbroken.
“There’s nothin’ to be down about.”
We’d been completely blindsided by that attack. It would be totally unfair to expect her to just brush it off. And besides, if anyone was dragging the group down in this situation, it was me. I’d gotten us into this mess because I couldn’t cleanly defeat Javagiir.
“Grooaaah!”
The merged shadow, whose legs alone were taller than I was, took a step forward. Even though its body didn’t have any actual mass, it still gave off this powerfully oppressive presence. As I looked up at the spirit, Filia explained the situation.
“Ashley, Loli Loli, and I are out of magical energy. Frankly, Yuri, this battle…if it goes on much longer, we’re going to have real problems.”
Right, then. Maybe the reason that spirit had been able to get through Filia’s wind wall was because her magical energy was almost exhausted. I frowned, but an impatient voice derailed my train of thought.
“This isn’t the time to be talking about that!” said Ashley. “Now that our magical energy is used up, we should focus all of our efforts on getting everyone out of the village! If the old folks get attacked by that thing, they won’t be able to protect themselves at all! We should leave a decoy and the others will help the rest of the villagers escape!”
Seeing as how the spirit seemed to be readying itself to go on a rampage—it didn’t seem to possess any kind of intelligence whatsoever—I agreed with Ashley. Anything else would spell our defeat. The ever-talented Filia and Loli Loli agreed with Ashley as well.
“In that case, I’ll be the decoy,” said Filia. “You evacuate all the villagers!”
“No! I’m the one who dragged you all down!” shouted Loli Loli. “I’ll be the decoy!”
“What are you two saying?” Ashley interrupted. “This is my village. The answer is obvious—I’ll be the decoy.”
Wow, they were gonna argue about this? Jeez, normal people would’ve wanted anything but to play bait for a monster shadow. And every second we wasted bickering, that same shadow lumbered closer and closer.
“Calm down, I still have a plan.” I said.
“What are you saying, Yuri?! We have to hurry and get everyone out of here!”
“Yuri…?” Filia asked. My eyes met hers. She read my mind and nodded, not showing a hint of surprise. “Listen, you two. Please, believe in Yuri.”
“Oh, I believe! Yuri is a strong guy!” said Loli Loli.
Ashley gritted her teeth and let out a short sigh. “If you die, I’m going to hold such a grudge, though! I don’t know what you’re gonna do, but you better beat it!”
Thanks for believing in me.
With that, I ran over to the Fire God idol and stood between it and the giant spirit, ready for the face-off. I had a little time left before Super Yuri Mode ran out—enough for one last shot. The spirit monster towered before me.
I smiled. “So, I gotta beat ya with magical energy, huh? Then I’ll give you everythin’ I got.”
If I only had one shot, then I was going to put everything I had into it, and the spirit could bring it.
“Hoooaaahhhh!”
Pushing my strength to the max, I punched the idol. The form of the Fire God, which had been maintained through fire magic, collapsed the moment it met my fist. The flames that formed the idol rumbled and shattered into sharp fragments like arrows—and flew in the direction of the giant spirit.
“Groooooohh?!”
Flames enveloped the evil spirit. It let out screams of agony in its last moments as its body gradually became thinner and thinner. Then, at last, it completely disappeared from this world…
Exactly when my Super Yuri Mode ran out.
“Phew!” Man, it really was exhausting using that technique all the way until the last second of a fight. I still had lots of training to do.
“Um, Yuri,” said Ashley, “could you explain what just happened?”
“What just happened? Well, Filia said my attacks wouldn’t work unless they were filled with magical power, right? So I smacked the Fire God and sent it flying. By doing that, it gave my attack magical energy.”
“That’s amazing, Yuri!” Loli Loli cheered. “Even though you don’t have magical energy, you just smacked a physical body made of magic!”
“I can use magic though. Muscle magic.”
Filia grinned. “Yes, fine, muscle magic is magic.”
“Oh, you’re finally startin’ to get it, Filia!” I beat the spirit and Filia was starting to understand? Talk about a happy ending!
“Whew.” I caught my breath. “I know this is weird for me, but I’d like to rest. Let’s just secure Javagiir first.”
I headed over toward Javagiir’s body, feeling completely drained. Most of his bones were broken and he was unconscious. It seemed like he was still alive, but he looked like he was in a lot of pain. If we just left him like this, he’d probably die.
“Filia, can you still use your recovery magic?”
“I think I can manage to at least keep him alive,” she replied.
Even if Javagiir was the culprit, it would’ve felt wrong to just let him die. Putting aside the fact that I’d killed in the heat of battle before, I didn’t really like the idea of just letting someone die a slow, torturous death. As Filia cast her recovery magic, Javagiir’s body was enveloped in a familiar white light.