Chapter 191: Total War
Link: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7583de/
Author: Hirukuma
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
The current fighting force consists of Ramis, Mishael, Pitee, Hevoy, and Shui.
On the enemy side, there’s Leader Keryoil, Vice-Captain Felmina, and the Red-and-White twins.
A 5-plus-1 vs 4 looks like good odds on our side, especially since we have the advantage in combat ability as well… Or so I thought.
We already knew about Leader Keryoil’s <Shattering Eye>, so he can’t surprise us anymore. Furthermore, we should have the edge when it comes to overall strength.
“Master Hakkon, leave Captain Keryoil to me.”
As we had decided before, Mishael, who doesn’t rely solely on special abilities, would be the one to take on Leader.
“Go-t th-is”
“Yes! Leader Keryoil, shall we cross blades?”
“Oh? I shall be honoured to have Mishael as my opponent.”
Leader Keryoil most likely guessed our intentions, but he still went along with it. Could it be that he trusted the rest of his family’s abilities that much?
“Then, the rest of us will face the Vice-Leader.”
“I shall take on that idiot kid-su.”
“Annoying people are… annoying…”
“People who call others idiots are idiots!”
“Yes, yes, make sure to take this fight seriously.”
The pre-fight chatter was rather relaxed, as though they were about to get into a training session rather than a serious battle. However, there was no denying the seriousness of the coming struggle.
Although neither side appeared to be serious about killing each other, no one planned on slacking off either. It was a sobering thought to see my comrades gearing up to battle to the death.
“Still, I never thought I’d see the day I’d fight against former comrades,” said White.
“If you don’t take the fight seriously, you could be in trouble. So, it’s fine, White,” said Red.
The Red and White twins looked at each other and laughed. Then, they turned to us and each raised one arm at the same time.
As they swung their arms down with great force, darkness overflowed their bodies. Not only that, a single bat-like wing sprouted from their shoulders. A left wing sprouted on White’s right shoulder while a wing sprouted on Red’s left shoulder.
“That’s right, Vice-Leader Felmina is rumoured to have vampire blood, right?”
While Hevoy managed to maintain his stoic expression, Shui’s eyes widened with shock. Pitee’s face was hidden under her bangs, but her body language showed that she, too, was shocked.
“Hey, that’s really cool, isn’t it?”
Ramis’s reaction was pretty carefree. [1]
Vice-Leader Felmina’s red eyes were most likely due to her vampire lineage.
“I shall show you my true form.”
Vice-Leader Felmina then spread her arms open, and bat wings in the form of black mist gathered around her. She looked more like a fallen angel than a vampire or a demon.
“Careful, everyone, vampires have superior physical abilities. If you underestimate them, you will get seriously injured,” Hevoy warned.
Everyone nodded gravely.
In the background, Mishael and Leader Keryoil were already in the middle of a fierce battle. Mishael was on the offensive with his refined sword techniques while Leader deflected and counterattacked with his daggers.
“Those eyes of yours are quite the bother!”
“You’ve discerned the power of my ‘Shattering Eye’, have you?”
From the sound of it, it seems like the <Shattering Eye> was more than just the nullification of special abilities.
“Dad’s going all out, so we’d best do the same.”
“Yup, we don’t want to hear about it later.”
The twins charged in.
Red wielded a short spear while White had a straight dagger in hand. They excelled at swift attacks, which were weak against monsters with high defence, but these skills were enough to kill humans.
“Your opponent… is me…”
Pitee stepped forward with a gigantic shield and kept on strolling forward as she easily blocked the twins’ attacks. The twins did not attack from one angle either; they flashed around at speeds that left afterimages, attacking from all angles, left, right, up, and down, but neither managed to even graze Pitee’s body.
Their attacks were beyond what we had ever seen, but Pitee’s defence was like an impenetrable barrier. Although it looked like her shield would obstruct her view, she still managed to block all attacks.
“This is… faster than… I thought… scary…”
“Ugh, I can’t hit her!!”
“It’s seriously annoying!”
Despite their complaints, they sounded oddly cheerful. I guess this is a reflection of their personalities. Suddenly, the Red and White twins jumped back.
“Ambushes are for villains!”
“Quite right!”
“Shut up-su. A win is a win.”
“Indeed, in this world, the victors define justice.”
The ones uttering such morally ambiguous phrases were Shui, with a bow drawn, and Hevoy, wielding an extended morning star.
It looked like the two of them had employed some kind of sneak attack.
“If you don’t behave, I shall tell your father… oh my…” Vice-Leader Felmina stopped herself, a wall of water flashing upwards to block Ramis’ punch.
That’s right, Ramis and I had circled around to launch a sneak attack at the Vice-Leader. However, our attack was easily deflected. The amount of water needed to block Ramis’ hit was shocking, which just shows how much water she can manipulate.
“You noticed us?”
“Indeed, the movement of moisture in the air is enough to inform my wings of your approach.”
In other words, these wings also acted as sensors. What a cheat-like ability. Underestimating Vice-Leader Felmina won’t just end with a black eye.
“De-fen-ce”
“Lea-ve me”
“Right, I’m counting on you!”
Rather than trying anything new, I shall focus on maintaining the <Barrier> while Ramis handles the attacks. Ramis stepped forward, the ground exploding behind her as she closed nearly five meters in a single stride.
Another massive wall of water appeared, but her accelerated punch shattered it in seconds. Vice-Leader Felmina clearly had not expected that, as her face went beyond shocked to slack-jawed.
“Gotcha!”
If Ramis hit anyone with the same momentum she had when destroying the wall of water, the target would be minced meat. Therefore, instead of punching, Ramis snagged Felmina in a bear hug, and the Vice-Leader exploded.
“Aaaah! Hakkon, Felmina exploded! What do we do? Did I put too much power into it?!”
Ramis was crying and screaming. She had completely missed the fact that the explosion was nothing more than water. It looked like the Vice-Leader had exchanged herself with a water golem of some sort.
“Fo-cus”
[2] Unable to form the words to calm her down. I floated a bottle of water in front of Ramis and, the moment her eyes focused on it, I launched the bottle skywards with my <Barrier>.
Ramis automatically looked up to see Vice-Leader Felmina in the sky, her bat-like wings flapping hard to keep her suspended in mid-air.
“Unfortunate, isn’t it? Your attacks are certainly threatening, but I can simply escape into the sky.”
If she were a normal magic user, I was confident that with my <Barrier> and Ramis’ destructive power, we could have sealed her off easily. However, escaping into the sky makes her practically untouchable.
“You should refrain from water attacks. In this state, I can manipulate water at will.”
Ugh, she was right. Even if she isn’t, at that height, my high-pressure water attacks would be about as effective as a water pistol. To date, we don’t have any real defence against aerial attacks. If Kuroyata were here, things would have been different.
However, I’m not the kind of vending machine that hems and haws over what could have been.
Indeed, we have no real defence against aerial attacks to date.
That is, ‘to date’.
That’s right. Even before meeting this opponent, I had been thinking of ways to battle against aerial enemies. It was a form I had never taken before!
“Cha-nge”
This wording was something that I had decided on with Ramis in advance so that she would not be surprised whenever I transformed.
My body stretched out sideways to three times the normal width, even as my height remained the same. It looked like Ramis was carrying a small wall on her back.
However, I had not just transformed into an ordinary box wall. On my front were small blue doors arranged in a regular pattern. Each of the doors has a coin slot and a key stuck to it.
That’s right, I have transformed into a <Coin Locker> form. You may have seen these coin lockers at train stations, airports, swimming pools and even libraries.
I had chosen this form as an option, thinking that I could use it to store random belongings and allow others to take them out at any time. However, while I was experimenting, I came up with another use for it.
“Such a strange shape. What do you plan to do as a larger box?”
“Th-is”
I popped open all the doors except the ones pressing behind Ramis’ body.
Inside were the used weapons we had bought on the Dark Forest Floor.
“Arm-s fo-ld”
“Um, like this?”
Ramis had no idea what was going to happen, but did as instructed and folded her arms to her chest.
By the way, there’s no reason for her to do this, but I just thought it added to the mood. Since we were looking up at Vice-Leader Felmina, the angle was just right. I refuse to let the second-hand weapons we bought on the Dark Forest floor go to waste.
Then, by synchronising <Telekinetic> and <Barrier>, countless weapons shot out from the lockers and flew upwards at Felmina.
[Gumihou: Woah, that’s… actually pretty cool.]
[1] Deleting repetitive things.
[2] Adjust details for a smoother transition
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