Chapter 274

274 – Aro vs Abyss

“…”

Aro lowers her stance, her shoulders heaving . There’s no change in the quality of her skin, so she should still have some MP left .

“VEeeeEEhh!”

The abyss she attacked and the others all rush towards us . The two in the back suddenly split left and right, and hide their presences . I follow them with my eyes, but just when I think they’re about to touch a tree, they abruptly disappear .

…Until those two show themselves, I’ll have to leave them be . If they want to eat the grafant, they could be clinging to the it right now . They could also be running away, or they could be aiming for me… For the time being, I’ll keep an eye on the lesser treant and the spiderlings . Their actions aren’t something I can predict .

“VeaaAAaah!”

The abyss runs at me with its eight legs, rapidly closing the distance .

“Earth…ma, gic… [Clay]!”

Aro raises a hand towards it . The ground swells, aiming at the abyss . But it steps back without turning, cleanly dodging the earth before continuing to draw closer .

It really is quite nimble . [Gale] has a larger area of effect, so I feel like it’s easier to hit with .

Aro holds a hand to her face . There’s not much change in her skin, but the faint black light that’s been covering her has grown faint . Is she out of MP? Don’t hold back from absorbing mine, okay?

I signal Aro with my eyes, pointing the tip of my tail up . She gives a small nod and embraces my tail . The black light covering her shifts around as it strengthens .

While she’s restoring her magic power, the abyss has more or less gotten right in front of me . In just a little moment, it’ll be in reach of my tail… It might be better if I gave some physical assistance about now .

Aro immediately returns her line of sight to the abyss and raises both her hands .

“[Gale]!”

The light that fires from each of her hands stirs the wind, forming a pair of tornadoes . They fly away from it, circling around to pincer it from either side . It hastens its legs to leave the two tornadoes diagonally behind it . Aro raises her arms once again .

“[Gale]!”

The two newly appearing tornadoes rush towards it from the front . The four tornadoes have the abyss surrounded . Ooh, this should do some heavy damage, right?

Swaying, Aro supports herself on the bend in my tail . The magic power covering her has grown thin once again . I guess her limit’s about four of them, then . She touches my tail with one hand, raising the other to the abyss .

“[Clay]!”

The abyss bends its legs to try and fly through a gap between the tornadoes . The earth pillar summoned by [Clay] seals its escape route with pinpoint accuracy . Stopping without thinking, the abyss is pinched between the four tornadoes .

With a loud howling noise, the four tornadoes cancel each other out . The strong winds even reach me . I hold my wings out in front of me, protecting Aro from the backlash .

Something that looked like a tree branch is carried by the winds and flies towards my eyes . Dodging would be bothersome and it’s not that large, so I resolve to receive it with my eyelid . It sticks to my eyelids and, strangely, starts contracting and expanding with small movements .

In the next moment, I understand . That long, black, sticky thing is an abyss’ leg .

“Gauah!?”

I instinctively recoil with all my strength, but quickly recover myself, focusing so that Aro doesn’t fall from my tail .

The leg falls to the ground and twitches and wriggles… I didn’t want to see that . If only I’d blocked it with my wings .

Perhaps because I was distracted for a moment, the abyss that Aro was fighting has disappeared . As I turn to check on the spiderlings, I notice an abyss lurking in my blind spot, about leap out at Aro . It’s got seven unbalanced legs… There’s no mistaking it, this is the same one as before .

It’s aiming at Aro rather than me . Perhaps because it’s retaliating for her attack, or because it’s noticed I haven’t helped, it’s judged her to be the bigger threat .

It doesn’t look like she’s noticed it yet . I raise my tail up high . Losing her footing, Aro clings on . The abyss slams its head into the underside of my tail and falls straight down .

Its current status is…

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Species: Abyss

Condition: Enraged (major)

Lv: 24/58

HP: 134/288

MP: 52/58

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

I-it’s finally below half… Aro could do with a rest soon, so should I defeat all the abysses in the area? Thinking that, I look at Aro to see raising a hand to the abyss, still clinging to my tail .

Just when I was thinking I should lower my tail to crush it, it looks like she still wants to fight . This child is pretty motivated about levelling, after all . If the person in question still wants to go, then I guess I’ll wait and see a bit longer .

“[Gale]!”

Her wind magic violently explodes on the defenceless underside of the abyss that had been rolling around belly-up . Perhaps because she activated it so quickly, it doesn’t have the same force as before .

It’s just strong enough to flip it over . Flipped right-side up, the dazed abyss looks around in confusion, raising its head a little .

“[Gale]! [Gale]! [Gale]!”

Aiming for that opening, she fires off three more wind magics . They’re even smaller than before, only keeping their form for about a second . The abyss shrinks down, enduring the wind pressure .

“Ga…kyaaa!”

The wind eddies and bursts at the tip of her outstretched arm . Letting out a high-pitched scream, she crouches down on my tail . Having been dried out by the wind, her arm is covered in cracks . She must’ve been unable to control the [Gale] due to a lack of magic power .

She touches my tail with her other hand once again, absorbing MP with [Mana Drain] . It looks like the most she can do is absorb with one hand and track the target with her other . It doesn’t look like she can fire off repeated shots like a machine gun .

“VeEeah!”

The abyss jumps up for a second time . It’s speed is far greater than hers .

“Ga-…”

Perhaps because it took an longer than she thought to switch skills, her reaction comes far too late . She cuts off the condensing of magic for her [Gale] part way through, as she hardens her stance, holding out her arm . Unrelenting, the abyss stretches out two of its disconcertingly long legs, aiming to strike at her from both sides .

The abyss’ extended forelegs are really are long . Once it’s closed the distance, there’s no time for her to replenish her MP after all . She’s worked hard, so I’m sure she’ll get plenty of experience .

Thinking that, I raise my claw intent on crushing it to death . But in that instant, Aro’s hand swells in size and she grabs its head .

“Gaa…?”

Unthinking, I let out a stupid voice . The abyss floats in the air, its long legs wriggling frantically . I can’t tell what’s happening because my view is blocked from the front .