Chapter 168

We’re arriving soon . 」

Rona’s words made Ardis to be more aware of the surroundings . To check out the location in question, Ardis and the others had been travelling in the grasslands following Rona .

「I can’t feel anything like strong radiating mana at all though . 」

「That’s true . I don’t feel anything either earlier . 」

「So? Is that the small river where you encountered that thing? 」

Ardis’s gaze was on the small river while he continued talking with Rona .

「Unn, it’s that . 」

It’s a small river with nothing special at first glance . There wasn’t anything he could detect abnormal, nor any alarming presences . If Ardis didn’t hear about the story at first, he probably would’ve thought that way too, it’s a scenery without any oddities in it .

「Here it comes . 」

Just as Rona said so, the plain scenery suddenly changed . The small river changed in color, it looked like something sentient was gaining a solid shape .

「Just as I thought you fled cowardly with your tail between your legs, you dared to return here . What an unexpected fool, four-legged . 」

With a scornful tone, the dark water was provoking Rona . It’s easy to infer the difference in superiority from what he said . But Rona only snorted and answered .

「Look at the polluted water trying to be smart without even knowing what’s going on . 」

「Quit spouting nonsense! You shall not escape this time! 」

The dark water that was enraged from Rona’s provocation created tens of water needles from his own body .

「Your opponent is me . 」

Ardis stepped out between the trajectory of the needles . Creating magic barriers as natural as breathing, the water needles that were heading towards Minerva and Moore were deflected away .

A portion of the water needles were blown to other directions, while some that impaled the ground caused it to crack .

「What terrifying power……」

Witnessing the destructive power of the water needles dig a hole about fifty centimeters into the ground, Moore was speechless .

Ardis hadn’t stopped, after the barrier served its purpose, he pulled out his sword and drew closer to the dark water .

Ardis who had closed the distance in a moment slashed apart the body of water in the horizontal axis .

「Hou, slashing mine body with just a sword! 」

「Though it’s not anything particularly amazing! 」

But the mass of water that had become two parts separated didn’t show any signs of being bothered .

Since it’s a lifeform made from a body of water, a physical separation would mean nothing and it will regain its original shape in no time .

Of course, Ardis realized that already . Ardis who approached the dark mass of water wasn’t given a room for breather as more needles were heading his way .

Though this time, the countless water needles came for his back while drawing arcs . The dark mass of water didn’t seem bothered impaling himself with the water needles .

The water needles encompassed Ardis, performing a concentrated attack .

「Useless . 」

Declaring so, Ardis created same number of ice needles of his own as the water needles coming his way . The ice and water needles crashed into each other and disappeared into nothingness .

It must’ve realized Ardis’s strength looking at that .

The dark water scornfully laughed .

「Oh I see, you thought you can take on me with two! 」

「Eeeh, it sounds troublesome, I will pass . There’s no need for us both to take you on anyways . 」

But Rona naturally diverted the provocation like it’s nothing . It seems like he really intends to only stay there and look after Minerva and Moore .

It had probably realized that just water needles wouldn’t cut it . The dark water had now compressed water from the small river into small spheres of water floating in the air .

Making five of them that looked like they would explode at any time due to the unstableness of the compression, it fired all five of them to Ardis .

Judging that avoiding all of them is impossible, Ardis deployed magical barriers to defend against three of them, and the other two will just be deflected away without any care . Even if one of them headed towards where Rona and the others are at .

「Kyaa――! 」

Minerva screamed unintentionally .

「Don’t move okay! 」

As he warned, Rona made his own magical barrier against the water sphere . The moment when the water sphere touched the thin purplish film, the intense pressure behind it caused powerful shaking that could be felt even behind the barrier .

The water sphere that unleashed all its energy in an instant shook the atmosphere all around them with a ringing sound to their ears . Following the curvature of the barrier, the water sphere dug into the ground, causing the entire grassy area to be uprooted .

The grassy land around Rona and the others turned back into barren earth .

「Hey, Ardis! One of them came here! 」

「Just move a little! 」

Rona was complaining despite being the one not willing to fight despite saying he would, but Ardis did not care any further .

「Oi oi oi, what the heck is that power . 」

The destructive power that was unleashed from a sphere of water not bigger than his palm was unimaginable . At the same time, he felt exasperated by Ardis’s power who had defended against three of them head on and Rona who managed to defend one with a barrier .

「It’s not a level I can comprehend at all . 」

Leaving aside Moore who was shrugging, the battle only became more intense .

「What, only this much? So it isn’t any kind of mutated or special subspecies huh . 」

Ardis muttered as he seemed a little disappointed, all while injecting mana into his sword that had dulled into a blunt weapon and raising the heat nesting in its blade .

「How daring to be distracted! Underestimating me means death! 」

On the other hand, the dark water only made tentacles out of its polluted body in a stance to receive the incoming attack .

Ardis jumped upwards with an invisible foothold in the air . Ardis tried to close the distance while dodging the dark water’s attack in the three dimensions . The tentacles came from all directions .

「Rot here along with your conceitedness! 」

The dark water extended its tentacles in effort to capture Ardis . The ends of the tentacles glimmered like sharp blades, and approached Ardis like predators .

「Who is the one getting conceited here . 」

Ardis said so coldly and dutifully severed the tentacles . The way he fought didn’t seem like he is in danger at all .

Ardis showed a composure as if only chasing away a dog that was barking at the front of his house, Moore imagined so with no particular reason .

「He really makes the demonic being look not very impressive . 」

「Yes, that’s true . ……But surely that can’t be the case . 」

Minerva agreed calmly at the commentating .

Even while that happened, the tentacles regrew and attacked Ardis, but the person himself only proceeded to cut down more as they came .

「It doesn’t matter! No matter how much you slice, I don’t feel any of them! 」

「So? Do you think I don’t know about that? 」

Ardis rebutted emotionlessly at the water that was getting too confident on its victory . The true form of the dark water is a shapeless lifeform that parasitize a body of liquid .

The dark mass of water they can see is nothing more than the river water flowing downstream . That’s why, it’s natural that it doesn’t feel anything even if parts of it are getting sliced off .

Although it’s a valid tactic to remove the body of liquid in order to quell the parasite, leaving aside maybe a bottle of water, it’s difficult to deal with if the body of water is too large .

That’s why it’s a difficult opponent to meet in places like the sea or a pond .

「Well, it’s not hard to erase everything that is in your influence range . 」

「What was that! 」

Ardis’s mana became agitated . As his hands reached out to the sky, large masses of heat was manifested into the surrounding .

Three, four, the masses that increased in number rotated with Ardis’s hand as the axis . The mass that was initially red lost its color and turned white .

「I’m glad we’re not in the sea here . As expected, erasing the sea is not possible after all . 」

「I-Impossible――! 」

Anxiety can be heard from the dark water’s voice after it had realized Ardis’s intention .

The white colored heat left the caster’s hand and fell onto the river . A total of seven white lumps of heat were let loose, and drawing arcs, the places it passed through turned back into normal earth .

「Stop! 」

Ignoring the pleads to stop, four had headed upstream of the river, while two headed downstream, and one of them headed straight into the dark water .

With few moments of silence in between, in the next moment, a compression of shockwave was unleashed, causing strong reverberation in the air .

The water in the small river were instantly boiled off, and became vapors in the air . And then what was left is only a trench that used to be a small river . The originally not very abundant river was reduced into nothingness .

「C-Curse you! 」

The dark water that had defended against it with a barrier on itself could no longer say anything . After all, the volume of liquid that it parasitize is akin to its life force .

With that completely lost now, there’s nowhere to escape, and there’s no way for it to recover the damage on itself .

「W-Wait . Please wait! 」

The dark water had finally realized its position begged to stop, but Ardis naturally had no reason to comply .

「What are you saying this late . 」

Biding his farewell short, Ardis manifested white flame on his fingertips and faced the dark water . The dark water tried to escape but, there’s nothing other than grasslands around .

There’s no liquid wherever he can parasitize .

「H-Help――! 」

The white flame on Ardis’s finger was released . Although it was far smaller in scale than the large lump that had dried up the small river, it has more than enough heat to destroy the dark water .

Easily penetrating the magic barrier that the dark water desperately put up in defense, the white flame pierced its body and evaporated it . After the steam dispersed and carried away by the light gale, what was left there is the trace of what used to be a small river .