Chapter 20.5

Chapter 20.5

Translator: Adam Seacord

Editor: Weasalopes

「Stop that song!」

Unable to bear the powerful purification, Barold finally discarded his human shape, transforming into a devilish monster, before spring to Haruna, when…

「Where ya think ya goin’!?」

With an activation of Outclass, Hiroshi blocked Barold’s trajectory and shoving him off. Hiroshi’s presence had veiled him, making him appear several times larger than life in Barold’s eyes. Giving up on even trying to look for Haruna, Barold retracted all of his doubles before attacking Hiroshi.

「It seems I have to tear through you, first!」

「Show me what ya got!」

Hiroshi met Barold, as he charged directly at him, with a wild swing of the poleaxe. Barold, assuming that it was yet another Smash attack, went to counter it when he noticed the trick up Hiroshi’s sleeve.

It wasn’t a Smash attack after all. It was a Novice Strong Strike, Smite. Unlike a Smash attack, Smite had no additional effects of blowing the enemy away or making them stumble. Just a simple attack. Hiroshi had finally gotten the hang of this Novice attack just yesterday, which meant that the power level was at its baseline (slightly lacking compared to a Smash attack) but it did more damage than a vanilla physical attack.

The biggest advantage was that a high-impact attack from Hiroshi no longer telegraphed a Smash. While Smite had its downsides (big opening after the move resolved and it took longer to charge than it should despite the fact that it did less than two of Makoto’s basic attacks at the moment) it was useful enough to bypass a Smash-counter like this time around.

Blocking the Smash-counter, Hiroshi transitioned into Smite. As a result of two attacks (that were more vulnerable than most) clashing, Hiroshi, who was nearly unscathed through the evening, regained his ground first.

「Makoto-san! Brother!」

「On it! Crashing Stampede!」

「Holy Octo-cannon!」

On Hiroshi’s call, Makoto jumped in with one of the biggest attacks in the normal longsword skill category, as Tatsuya slammed a purifying large-scale spell. Makoto’s attack was a flurry-type (rare for a longsword) which she used to slash through left and right, adorning a red aura around her. This move consisted of twenty slashes (each of which could sever a Cerberus in half) in three seconds flat, as Makoto tackled the enemy in a Smash-like tackle. Following this, a bullet, embodying the energy of Pa Kua and every element of nature, struck Barold.

「We… Didn’t do it, did we?」

「Took a chunk out of him though, for sure.」

Makoto and Tatsuya compared their impression after each of their attacks (keeping in mind that they were facing down a boss). While both of these moves were powerful, they weren’t the most powerful, even in the category of ordinary skills.

Crashing Stampede acted as a downgrade of Elemental Dance. It was more cost effective, but two tiers lower on the damage output. Worse yet, unlike Elemental Dance, Crashing Stampede lacked the special effect of guaranteeing the modifier for a super effective (unless the enemy had as much Magic Resistance as Hiroshi, of course). As a result, the difference in damage output in the field was more disparaging than on paper.

Holy Octo-cannon was another powerful move using multiple elements, but there was at least two moves more powerful than this one available as a normal skill. Its relatively easy learning curve, short Cast Time and Delay, as well as its large cost reduction from power levelling led to many players acquiring this skill, but it was far from the most powerful spell out there. There were plenty of savage spells in terms of pure firepower.

Tatsuya, in the first place, was on the lower end of the top-tier of spell weavers. His strong point was the variety of his arsenal, especially when it came to collecting craft materials, and not firepower. Against enemies like Barold (that required a more direct approach than Tatsuya would prefer) he was a little lacking in terms of power level. Just as the smoke from the Octo-cannon was fading, Haruna had finished her song. As expected, Barold stood among the smoke, far from defeated.

「…How thoroughly infuriating…」

「Like it or not, we’re a part of this. We’re not going to roll over and die.」

Tatsuya quipped back with a cheeky grin at Barold, who had spat this line out with wounds that were not yet debilitating but no longer insignificant. Tatsuya proved himself a better actor than Hiroshi in disguising his bravado.

「Just so you know, we haven’t even played our aces yet. If you’re not going to surrender, you better bring your A-game.」

Tatsuya mocked with nonchalance, as if to mock Barold. Elena, startled, whispered:

「Tatsuya, maybe you shouldn’t taunt him like that…」

「No way this guy doesn’t have more tricks up his sleeve. We might as well make him use it before we starting running low on our resources.」

Tatsuya retorted, still confident as ever. The fact that Barold didn’t have a particular trick to make Tatsuya wipe the grin off his face was driving Barold mad.

「I see. You have a point. Maybe I’ll reach into my sleeve, then, just to shut you up.」

Barold said, as he summoned a dozen Cerberus. Makoto and Tatsuya were brazenly done with all of this. Haruna and Mio were beginning to worry, now that they were outnumbered. Hiroshi was more pessimistic, guessing how many hits he was going to have to take. Upon seeing their reaction, Barold cackled with triumph. When it seemed as if the tables have turned, three of the Cerberuses near the entrance were skewered, and four of them in the direction of where the King had went were blown to bits in an instant.

「What!?」

「You would think a big boss would summon something more interesting…」

「These were the same beasts that blocked the King’s way, earlier. Can’t you do anything but send your dogs to do the dirty work?」

Douga appeared from the entrance and Julius from the hidden passage, both exasperated by this. These two wouldn’t let a single Cerberus past them, no matter how many they were facing down. They each took down an additional hound on their way to join the Japanese party and standing on guard on either side of Elena and Aearis.

「I lost track of time, it seems. You seem rather spent, Lord Douga. Unlike Lord Felnork.」

「It won’t take much to block your attacks. We have Julius and Makoto for firepower, not to mention Haruna’s trump card. I barely need to lift a finger.」

Before Douga could finish saying this, more back-up arrived.

「I’m sorry! I’m late again!」

Rayna came running it, slicing up a Cerberus on her way. With just her right arm, as it was obvious that her left arm was broken. With a longsword, nonetheless, which was never meant to be wielded with one hand. This was a testament to Rayna’s ridiculous strength and skills.

「Don’t mind the time. What happened to your arm?」

「It’s embarrassing, but Odenell got me with his self-destruction. I can’t pull any big attacks, but a couple Cerberus won’t give me any trouble.」

Rayna answered Tatsuya, a little embarrassed. The Japanese party (sans Makoto) were aghast at this answer, as Barold gritted his teeth at Rayna’s unexpected strength.

「So, you took care of that scum entirely?」

「There’s not a piece of flesh left of it. I don’t think you’ll see that thing again.」

「Okay. Even if it does, reviving monsters are usually punks, anyway.」

Makoto asked Rayna, about what must have been a mission given to Rayna. As Rayna finished her answer, Haruna healed her broken bone with Goddess’ Healing. It couldn’t grow back limbs, but healing a broken bone wasn’t an issue.

「Thank you, that helps a lot!」

「No reason not to help boost our chances. So, is Odenell the one…?」

「He’s the one. The head of the Mazlack soldiers. I’m mortified that I ever considered Hiroshi to be similar to that thing.」

It looked like Rayna had gotten some closure, and more than one way. All that was left was to take down the man pulling the strings.

「We have some power on our side now, let’s end this!」

「As if it were so easy!」

Just as the team was about to strike, Barold exerted a shock wave. Hiroshi jumped in front to block it. Still, it was enough to break the party’s momentum, stopping them in their tracks.

「I tip my cap to you, really, for making me go this far. But you will not defeat me!」

Barold screamed with a demonic expression, before transforming further. Along with him, Katrina began morphing out of her (barely) humanoid shape.

「H-Hold on a second. We’re too early in the game to have a boss that transforms twice, don’t you think!?」

「Makoto-san. Just because he’s our first boss, don’t mean he’s an auto-win chump!」

Hiroshi answered, as the entire party ready for combat. Although they couldn’t attack through the thick layer of affliction at the moment. In the meantime, they decided to clean up the rest of the Cerberuses, and re-cast their support spells.

After the wall of affliction faded, Barold, who had at least tripled in size and had become more heinous than ever stood alongside Katrina, who had become Medusa, or rather a lamia, with snakes as her lower body and hair.