Chapter 338

338 – [Dark Sphere]

The chimera lich flaps its one wing as it floats in the air, ts long serpentine body swaying eerily below.

It raises both its arms forward, and black light amasses in front of it. I’m certain it’s the [Dark Sphere] skill. It’s aiming…at me, I’m pretty sure.

It’s probably thinking that I’m the only one that could damage it. In truth, if I wasn’t here, then it could easily crush the other three without even using skills. It’s the correct strategy from its perspective, and from my point of view, I’m grateful for it.

“[Gale]!”

From on top of my head, Aro raises a hand toward it and chants magic. A tornado appears in front of her and flies towards it. The chimera lich flies in a circle to dodge. The tornado hits the tree, carving a vertical gouge.

…It really is quick. Gale has a wide area of effect, and is fast. But on top of being a speed-type, the chimera lich can move in three dimensions. Taking the rank difference into account, landing a proper hit will be a bit difficult.

It flies in front of me and swings its arm as it releases the amassed black light from its hand.

“Shashaaah!”

The black light spirals towards me.

Now then, dodging would be easy, but… As long as I’m acting as a tank, moving around too much would be bad. If I carelessly made an opening, treant-san could get torn to shreds. I’m a higher rank than it, and I’m specialised in HP. I guess I’ll just receive it with my body.

I stretch out my foreleg and catch the mass of magic, crushing it. Fragments of black magic leak out of the gaps between my fingers and scatter. Part of the skin of my hand peels off in a spray of blood.

Oww! That hurts! Most of the damage still went through I think. If it’s just my hand, then I can keep regenerating it, but I don’t want to take a direct hit.

The chimera lich lands on another high branch, and once again amasses black light in front of its hands. Another [Dark Sphere]. The target is me again.

“[Clay]!”

Aro shouts, producing two giant needles of earth… But her activation time is a lot slower than usual. Checking her status, I see a lot more magic power was also consumed. Normally the magic is supported by earth from the ground, reducing the consumption. But up on here there’s no earth nearby so the magic has to produce it itself.

…With [Gale] and [Clay] as her main weapons, this area might be disadvantageous to her. Is fighting a higher rank here a bit too much…?

Aro swings her arms down, and the two earthen needles fly out. The chimera lich swings its own arms down and releases the fully amassed [Dark Sphere]. The spheres of black light spiral through the air and crushes the earthen needles. The needle fragments fall to the branch and shatter in a spray of dust. The sphere of black light doesn’t show any sign of slowing down after destroying them and continues towards me.

As I stretch out to repel it with my hand, the black light suddenly speeds up and slips past my hand. It bursts against my chest.

“Gooh!”

Oww! Argh… I let my guard down! I know it should only be aiming at me, but I can’t help but be distracted by Aro and the others. I can take hits just fine, but if Aro or anyone were to get hit by a [Dark Sphere], they’d be killed in an instant, so there might be not be any helping it, but… I-I took a direct hit from that one.

The chimera lich’s MP isn’t inexhaustible. If it realises that the [Dark Sphere] that it’s so confident in doesn’t do much, it’ll probably run away. Even without healing, I can withstand another twenty direct hits. I’ll leave the injury as it is for now.

“Shishishishi… Chih!”

A shot of earth hits the chimera lich’s exposed brain as she floats in the air. The earthen shot loses its momentum as it hits her and falls apart as it scatters onto her head. Tutting in annoyance, she runs a hand through her hair to remove the earth.

It’s the treant’s [Clay Sphere]. The treant sticks out its lower lip and looks at Aro triumphantly.

“……”

Aro glares back in irritation.

I-it’s rare for Aro to get angry… It’s not the normal reproachful look she aims at me sometimes, so has she just normally snapped? H-hold it in, please. The treant’s your friend, right? You’re ruining your cute face. If you also stopped getting along with the treant, I don’t know what I’d do.

I-in the first place, the reason her [Gale] was avoided was because the chimera lich was wary of it! If it hit, it would do damage that it couldn’t ignore, so it had to dodge it! The reason the treant’s [Clay Sphere] was able to hit a weak point was probably because it was completely out of its threat consideration! In truth it only did 1 or 2 points of damage.

But at this rate we’ll just be going in circles… A decisive hit won’t land at all. Because I shoved it against the branch earlier, it’s wary of me and won’t get close. If it got a bit closer Aro might get a chance, but… At this distance, it can avoid her magic with time to spare.

It might not be a bad idea for me to blow off its wing with a [Wind Slash]. I get the feeling that’d end up giving me most of the experience though…

While I’m hesitating, Aro jumps down from my head and rushes forward.

H-hey! Going forwards that far is dangerous! The one it’s most wary of is me, but the target it’s second most wary of is probably the magic battery Aro.

It’s possible that since I’ve only been acting as a spectator, it might not think I have any long range attacks. Taking into account the difference in status, if Aro’s attack lands with her magic strengthened by sucking up my magic power, she should be able to inflict a fatal wound.

It’s clear that as soon as she moves away from me, she’ll become its primary target.

Aro glances back at me and nods her head… I understand, you want to lure it out by getting closer. In the end, I suppose you need some danger or else your level can’t be raised.