Chapter 737
737: Simultaneous a.s.sault
「Hah!」
『Thunder Bolt, multi-activation!』
We continue our barrage without pause, Fran with physical attacks, and I with magic. And that"s not all.
「Grrrr!」
Urus.h.i.+ constantly has himself positioned behind Hilt, while impeding her with black magic.
However, Hilt still had not taken any serious damage.
She didn"t have the extreme durability that Sibylla had. Well, I guess anyone would look like they had paper-thin defenses compared to Sibylla. Generally speaking, Hilt"s defense was rather high with her ki surrounding her like armor.
In the first place, it is necessary to have a technique to improve one"s defense when fighting with your bare hands. Many magical beasts are covered with fire, lightning, poison, etc. If you try to punch them without any countermeasures, you will just be inflicting major damage on yourself.
Even now, Fran"s black lightning was being transmitted to her through me, but it doesn"t seem to be doing any real damage. I"m currently like a powerful stun baton, so touching me would easily be enough to knock out a goblin.
But against Hilt"s ki defense, even the black lightning was not very effective. It may have had some effect on draining Hilt"s magical power, but that was all.
What was more troublesome was her overwhelming combat skill. She was able to perfectly handle all of our attacks.
She used Asura"s magical arms to repel Fran"s slashes, crushed my magic with an Air Grasp, and avoided Urus.h.i.+"s barrage as if she had eyes on the back of her head.
Her ability to move around at high speeds while dealing with our attacks so perfectly made her one opponent truly worthy of admiration.
It is amazing that she could do so much while she is still worn out from the battle against Neidhart…… Fran had mastered the use of Physical Manipulation, so she has a higher top speed than Hilt. But even against a faster opponent, Hilt shows no signs of faltering.
「Sei!」
「Augh!」
And sometimes she threw a nasty counter attack. The force of her fist penetrated through Fran"s entire body, as if it was ignoring her enhanced physical stats. This dealt internal damage to her and slowed her down.
Hilt also seemed to have healed her wounds with some kind of martial art, so there was no visible damage on either fighter. It was rare to see the fighters with almost no damage in such a fierce battle.
「Taaah!」
「Cheryah!」
A tremendous roar echoed every time their weapons clashed.
Hilt"s weapon was quite a work of art. Despite taking several hits from me, it didn"t even have a scratch on it.
（Master, can you bind Hilt?）
『I"ll try. Urus.h.i.+, you sync up with Fran on the follow.』
（Woof!）
I activated my morphing while drawing strength from the blessing of the Wisdom G.o.d.
『Yes! I knew it! It"s easier than ever to use!』
With the improved control of magic power, it"s much easier to control my morphing. With this, I will be able to manipulate my transformation more precisely than before.
『Oh yeah!』
My decorative cord split into twenty strands, about as thick as a tug-of-war rope. I didn"t think thin steel threads will be able to penetrate Hilt"s defenses, so I imagined a spear instead.
Twenty spears moved throughout the air, closing in on Hilt from all sides. With such thick spears, it should be possible to conduct enough mana to make their power considerable. Each was way stronger than an art from your average spearman.
「You can even do that?!」
Hilt noticed the danger at first sight and avoided my spears. It"s impressive how she managed to dodge with a paper-thin margin, but are you sure that was the best choice?
『Have these too!』
The spear that was originally my ornamental cord immediately s.h.i.+fted again, turning into a whip. I tried to simulate Amanda"s whip arts, although it wasn"t even close.
My twenty spears became twenty whips, all aimed at Hilt.
「Kuh!」
My attack did not do much damage due to my lack of whipping skills, but it finally knocked Hilt off balance. I should add some insurance just in case.
『Earth Hole!』
I made a big hole under Hilt"s feet with land magic. With the earth under her feet suddenly gone, Hilt"s eyes widened. In addition, I held Hilt"s body down with telekinesis and wind magic so that her body would fall into the hole. Of course, the whips were still chasing Hilt during all of this.
But Hilt did not fall into the hole.
She avoided the fall by leaping backward at once with a powerful blast of magic power from the soles of her feet. The force was so strong that even my telekinesis was swept away. That must be the effect of Garuda too.
I have to say it was an impressive display. However, during the short exchange between Hilt and me, Fran and Urus.h.i.+ had finished their preparations.
Fran emitted so much killing intent that it looked as if she was about to deliver her strongest move.
Sensing the danger, Hilt"s consciousness s.h.i.+fted slightly toward Fran. But that was a fake.
「Grooowl!」
Just as Hilt was distracted by Fran, Urus.h.i.+ attacked her from behind. Deeply cloaked in pure darkness, Urus.h.i.+ rushed toward Hilt faster than even Fran.
This was the effect of the black magic, Dark Embrace, combined with the physical stats of a monster in the upper echelons of the B threat level. Even Hilt would not be able to get away with taking a direct hit from this.
「…」
Even in this situation, I could see that Hilt was responding without any panic. She kept her back to Urus.h.i.+ and was trying to do something.
Fran, however, would not stand idly by and let that happen.
「Heavenly Judgment.」
A black tiger at the front, and a dark wolf at the rear. Either blow was powerful enough to kill a rank A adventurer with a direct hit.
She had been driven into a corner.
However, Hilt"s face still showed no sign of panic. On the contrary, she stared at me with a somewhat cheerful expression as I was being swung down at her.
Had she given up?
No way.
I was wrong, it was a look of determination.
「Ruaaaaaaaah!」
A tremendous amount of magical power erupted from Hilt"s entire body. Was this the same secret art she used against Neidhart? That was called "Heaven", right? But it was already too late.
Urus.h.i.+"s rush and Fran"s Heavenly Judgment hit Hilt at the same time――
『Eh?』
「!」
「Grrr?」
I was sure we got her. But just after that thought, Fran lost her target and stumbled.
Urus.h.i.+, who had also lost his target, pa.s.sed through and rammed into the barrier.
What just happened?