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「ToAhaaa!」
「Haa!」
「Ku!」
Raising their swords aloft, Mare and Fran charged towards Valkyrie. Defending with her spear, Valkyrie frowned and retreated, giving ground. Although Valkyrie’s spear technique was excellent, she couldn’t hold back the simultaneous charge of both Mare and Fran.
Gradually, the damage Valkyrie suffered became more and more serious.
Meanwhile, the other Evil Beings that had, thus far, been suppressed by Llinde, and Dullahan, who had been tied down by Kuina, also attracted my attention.
From my vantage point, I could also clearly see Llinde’s combat abilities, it certainly was fortunate for us that he was on our side. His airborne combat speed was amazing, not produced by his wings but rather his mana and skills. Thus, as he was flying through the Evil Beings, his acceleration and deceleration totally ignored the laws of physics.
After flying at top-speed for a time, Llinde suddenly halted, then produced another sudden burst of acceleration, seemingly with no warning whatsoever. The ability initially appeared to be performed using Flame Magic as a propellant, but it was more than that, the key to it seemed to be that the magic was released from his wings.
Also, due to Llinde’s substantial intellect, his actions were planned out strategically. He never stepped into the attack range of an Evil Beings’ pike, instead just sneaking up on them and only breathing low-level flames to provoke them. In addition, in order to avoid being targeted by arrows, he never stayed in one place and was always moving unpredictably to avoid being surrounded and becoming a sitting duck. Not just this, but whenever the Evil Beings and Magic Beasts tried to recover, he would roar and sow chaos in their ranks.
Despite the relative infrequency of his attacks, the guerilla tactics he was employing were excellent. His objective wasn’t to kill enemies, just to support his allies and allow Mare and Kuina to be the main force.
Now, thanks to Llinde’s support, Fran and Mare could focus on Valkyrie without being bothered by the Evil Beings.
「Flame Sword!」– Mare
「Quartet Slash!」– Fran
「You damn little girls!」– Valkyrie
「Fine, I’ll show you true fear, War Maiden!」– Mare
「Fuck!」– Valkyrie
「Humph, too late!」– Fran
「Damn it…!」– Valkyrie
Little by little, the converging attacks of Mare and Fran had cornered Valkyrie. Although most of the damage Valkyrie had initially suffered had been transferred to the Evil Beings, it was gradually being transferred less and less frequently. This was because Valkyrie was constantly taking damage during the battle. This, in turn, caused the damage she could transfer to be far outstripped by the damage she was taking, causing the wounds she suffered to become more and more serious.
「Haha. I was thrown off by her wound recovery before, but it looks like she was just using a strategy based on Shield Techniques.」– Fran
「What do you mean?」– Mare
「Shield Techniques is a skill which allows the user to assume a portion of the damage that is suffered by allies. However Divine Shield Techniques is a skill which can transfer the damage the user suffers to their allies.」– Fran
「Oh, I get it.」 — Mare
As we had reasoned out, Valkyrie had indeed been using Divine Shield Techniques. But now that her allies, Dullahan, and the Evil Beings, were caught up in the fierce battle, she could no longer use the skill to its full potential.
For now, we decided to give up on using Skill Taker. This was because in future battles we would likely need the skill to deal with the mysterious figure pulling the strings behind the scenes, that of Valkyrie’s boss, Murellia, so we had to conserve skill usage as much as possible.
What’s more, Valkyrie’s arrow had already proven it couldn’t pose any threat to Fran and Mare and Dullahan’s Divine Shield Techniques had also been completely blocked by Kuina. So, in circumstances like these, there really was no need to use Skill Taker.
During the continuous offensive, I found that, compared to Fran’s thunder skill, Valkyrie suffered more from Mare’s flame skill.
「It looks like, compared to your powerful but fleeting thunder, Valkyrie is more afraid of my relentless, destructive flames.」– Mare
「Oh I see!」– Fran
「You even have the time to chat!?」– Valkyrie
「Of course, we have!」– Mare
「Indeed, we do!」– Fran
「Damn!」– Valkyrie
Valkyrie couldn’t hold back her anger anymore when she saw Fran and Mare were even chatting while avoiding her attacks. What she didn’t know was this was also a part of Fran and Mare’s tactics.
It seemed as though the two were planning to repay all the damage Valkyrie had inflicted on them, with interest. Moreover, because of their provocations, Valkyrie’s attacks had become rushed and messy out of anger, presenting easy openings for Fran and Mare to avoid them. Because of this, neither of them had any intention of stopping the provocation.
「Hora Hora!  Weren’t you oh so confident before? Why have you gone all quiet!?」– Mare
「If you’re having a hard time, just let me know!」– Mare
「Fuck, shut up!」– Valkyrie
Now that the tables had turned in our favor, we could afford to talk amongst ourselves. Valkyrie, however, had been pushed to the extent where she couldn’t even stop to talk.
「It’s time! Go in now!」– Fran
「Gaaaaa!」– Valkyrie
Finally, one of Fran’s slashes broke through and cut off Valkyrie’s left arm. This time, the wound made by the slash didn’t recover and the detached arm flew through the air.
「I did it!」– Fran
「KuA–Ga!」– Valkyrie
Then, with a lunge of her Flame Sword, Mare cut at Valkyrie’s body. The fire wrapped around the sword and charred the wound, instantly turning it black.
「Well, now! Changed your mind?　If you tell me what I want to know, I’ll give you a painless death!」– Mare
「…」– Valkyrie
Valkyrie knew very well that she couldn’t turn things around. Disarming herself, she got up slowly. Even though she didn’t have a skill like dimensional storage, it seemed as though she could still use some sort of ability to arm and disarm herself.
「So d’you feel like talking now?」– Mare
「AhAh, I give up, I will tell you everything I know ——」– Valkyrie
Muttering, Valkyrie began to pull out an object, it was a black spear from which waves of black magic arose. I had seen the same kind of magic wave long ago, it was the same sort of magic used by the Master of Evil Arts Rynford and the Half Evil Being Zerrosreed. After using Appraisal, Valkyrie’s spear was displayed as [Evil Stone Imbued Spear].
「—— Impossible! I’ll never tell you anything!」–Valkyrie
Still being forced back by Fran and Mare, Valkyrie suddenly lost all semblance of control. She roared and veins throbbed on her forehead.
「UGaaaaa! Unforgivable! I will kill you all right here, right now!」– Valkyrie
Then, from the spear in her hand, an evil specter burst forth.
「Even I can’t control it! It will destroy everything until it completely devours my soul!」– Valkyrie
In her rage, Valkyrie’s face had now lost its previous beautiful façade. Her expression had turned distorted, almost demonic.