Act 1-42 - True Dragon's Wings

Chapter 42 : True Dragon’s Wings

Fedor was also heavily wounded right now.

Deep wound on his chest and arm from Edda’s slash, and stab wound on his foot.

He should be close to his limit regardless of our level difference.

At least, all Fedor could do right now was firing 《Dark Arrow》 from long distance.

He would have come to finish us a long time ago if not for the stab wound on his foott.

The reason why Fedor was standing still over there was because he also couldn’t afford to show any gap.

He must be extremely shocked right now since our real abilities exceeded his expectation.

Once more… we just need to land another hit.

We have a chance to get out of this pinch as long as we could seal tha 《Gravidoor》 and 《Dark Arrow》 combo.

「Can’t you summon the devil from before again!?」

Edda was shouting at me.

I’m pondering while chewing on my lips.

I couldn’t even bring myself to say… I can’t.

But, 《Petit Dimordi》 took much more mana to invoke than the mana needed to maintain it.

My current mana was insufficient to summon Beelzebub again.

「It’s futile. That devil should be at least a B rank devil… far higher than yours. To think that such an interesting toy ended up in the hands of a brat like you.」

Fedor spoke those words with an eerie smile on his face.

「How’s the feeling of having such a lucky encounter? Exhilarating, right? What I hate the most is someone who only has luck on their side.」

That eerie smile vanished from Fedor’s face, replaced with icy cold stare that sent shudders down my spine.

He already completed the preparation for the next 《Dark Arrow》 with 《Invitation to Nightmare; Harwerth》 harp.

「But, this place is the end of your luck! Your magic vessel will be mine. I’m different from lucky bastards like you two, I always struggle alone, and win!! And will always win from now on!」

It’s hopeless.

Though I’ve yet to receive a direct hit, I’m almost at my limit.

I’ve exhausted too much of my Odo.

My emptied mana aside, my fighting spirit was also almost bottomed up.

It was barely enough to activate 《Moon Reflection》 once but 《Moon Reflection》was useless against magic, like 《Dark Arrow》 for example.

Though my mana was exhausted to the point that it was only enough for 《Im》 or 《Torch》, The only thing usable in battle was the imperfect 《Trick Dove》.

Even smashing the mana lamp that was left neglected on the ground to limit field of view had almost no effect in this kind of situation.

Rather, we who need to move around to dodge Fedor’s arrow were at disadvantage compared to him who only need to standing still.

「… Listen to me, Dean. Just once, I can use a magic that can counter 《Gravidoor》 just once.」

Edda spoke to me without averting her gaze from Fedor.

「R-Really?」

We’ve a chance to win as long as we can crush 《Gravidoor》.

《Invitation to Nightmare; Harwerth》’s power would only be half as powerful as long as we could counter its close range Grante[gravity magic].

「But, I need a distraction. You go and use a magic, any magic is fine to Fedor.」

「I’m, the bait?」

Dodging 《Dark Arrow》 while trying to get closer to that guy was simply asking for too much.

That’s why I’ve to think of a way to survive during that time.

Even Edda with her speed could barely approach right before 《Gravidoor》’s range.

「Is that impossible?」

「B-Bring it on! We’ve no other choice than that anyway!」

I leaped forward.

At the same time, Edda turned around, moving away to take some distance from Fedor.

『O-Oi, don’t you think that she might use you as decoy to save herself?』

「She might be a sharp tongued and annoying person but, she’s by no means a coward. Moreover, only death is waiting for us if we get cold feet now.」

In the first place, our escape path was blocked by Fedor while behind us was a dead end.

Fedor who visited this place so many times should be familiar with this place. There’s no way he would make a blunder in this regard.

There’s no reason for him to bluff in that regard.

Because all he needed was to guide us toward a dead end passage.

「Hou, underestimating me huh. Fine, show me how you’re going to dodge this!」

Fedor fired another purple light arrow.

I kicked the ground, leaping forward, my body was slightly slanting to the right.

The first shot was aiming for my feet while the second shot was aiming for my flank.

When I dodged the third shot that came from the front, the fourth shot has been fired, aiming for my flank when I dodged the third shot.

I couldn’t dodge this one.

Though I’m thinking of using my leg to block that, I realized right away that it would be the end for me if I lost my mobility.

「DAMN IT!」

I flexed my right hand and received the arrow with my elbow.

The arrow tore my muscle, my blood was fluttering in the air.

I couldn’t prevent it’s aftershock but it relentlessly swept past my abdomen.

「GAHA!」

The after shock alone was enough to knock me on the ground.

My consciousness dimmed.

I felt power was leaving my body.

It’ll be the end for me If the next arrow was fired when I’m in this kind of state.

「GOOD BYE, SH^TTY BR4T!」

「《Torch》!」

I invoked 《Torch》 with more mana than usual.

The ball of light that was floating in front of me was shining so brightly, dazzling the surrounding.

infusing more mana than usual would cause 《Torch》’s light ball to explode.

Though the damage caused by the lowest tier spell like that amounted to nothing, it was strong enough to push me away from my current position, and gave me the momentum I need to force my body to move.

The arrow of light passed right by my side.

「STOP YOUR USELESS STRUGGLE! THIS IS THE END FOR YOU GUYS!」

「《Trick Dove》!」

A Tulpa Dove took a flight from the center of the deployed magic circle, shot right toward Fedor.

This was my last magic.

I also Forced my tired body to stand as Fedor’s attention was distracted by the Tulpa Dove.

「《Gravidoor》！」

a pillar of black light spread outward with Fedor as the center, creating a thunderous noise as it’s crushing the ground along its wake thanks to the increased gravity.

It seems he wanted to crush me along with Tulpa Dove.

No… That’s not the reason.

There’s something that I noticed.

When he used 《Gravidoor》, he also isolated himself from the world outside that magic range.

He couldn’t see anything thanks to that black light, and couldn’t hear anything due to the thunderous noise caused by the ground being crushed beneath him.

Meaning that he was weak toward surprise attacks from outside after 《Gravidoor》’s effect has ended.

Maybe he had no choice but to extend the range to crush me with gravity.

I fell on my knee right at the end of the black light’s range.

「EDDA! NOW!」

Edda was fastening her nails on the area between the ceiling and the wall of the labyrinth’s passage.

「《Lahmjuon》! Idoles Wings《True Dragon’s Wings》!」

A magic circle deployed with Edda in its center, a pair of dazzling, rainbow colored wings was growing from her back.

「B-Beautiful…」

In that moment, I forgot that we’re in the middle of a deadly battle, I was so mesmerized by that beautiful scene.

It wasn’t the kind of flesh transformation caused by curse, or something made from Tulpa.

The most famous thing about the Narc tribe was the fact that they could exhibit a power beyond human comprehension by forming a contract with a mighty demon beast that was sleeping in the spirit world.

There’s a high possibility that 《Lahmjuon》 was a spirit world’s partial summon by using Samon[Spirit World Magic].

Edda kicked the ceiling, her body shot toward Fedor from the height of the ceiling.

Each flap of her wings created a gale in the Demon Labyrinth.

She leaped with tremendous speed.

And broke through the black light created by 《Gravidoor》 by the next moment.

Sure enough, she could force her way through the gravity field with tremendous speed, and landed a heavy attack by making full use of the weight that got empowered by the gravity field.

Not even Fedor could leave unscathed from that.

The thunderous sound of ground being crushed was continued on.

It sounds like Edda fell on the ground due to the effect of 《Gravidoor》.

Thereafter, the black light’s pillar was crumbling down to pieces, and vanished.

Inside that was the figure of Edda, reading her sword and Fedor, still where he is.

Both of them were bleeding.

《Invitation to Nightmate; Harwerth》 was no longer in Fedor’s hand.

The enchanted harp was knocked from his hand after parrying Edda’s heavy strike.

And yet, Fedor has yet to lose his fighting spirit.

His barehand was pointing toward Edda who held the advantage due to her enchanted sword.

But, it wouldn’t even be a fight since Edda could easily lop off Fedor’s head.

On top of rendering someone unable to use the magic*, the status correction given by an enchanted sword to mana and fighting spirit was playing the biggest role in this. [TL* : Dean can use Petit Dimordi for the first time since Beelzebub used her core as a pseudo magic tool.]

「Give it up, Fedor!」

Edda pushed herself forward towards Fedor while slashing with her enchanted sword.

The next moment, Fedor’s figure suddenly vanished.

No, it was an illusion that made him look like he had vanished from there.

In fact, Fedor was stooping over, so low that his face almost touched the ground, he was moving so quickly to get behind Edda’s back.

That was the correct application of the battle art called 《Dark Walker》, a battle art that could erase the sound of your footsteps by applying fighting spirit on the sole of your shoes.

Though it wasn’t a high end battle art since even goblins could use it, Fedor mastered it all the way to its maximum potential.

Even I who saw that from afar mistook him for suddenly vanishing.

Edda got completely blindsided by Fedor right now.

「BEHIND YOU!」

I readied 《Demon Eater Sword; Beelzera》, and rushed forward with its tip pointed at Fedor while sending a warning toward Edda.

When Edda turned around, Fedor once again stooped down outside of her line of sight, and swept her feet while doing so.

Edda pushed out her hands on the ground, trying to regain her balance but, Fedor didn’t let go of that chance.

Fedor’s fist nailed right onto Edda’s solar plexus.

「GAH!」

Edda’s back knocked on the ground.

The clot of blood spitting from her mouth was staining her clothes.

Fedor’s fist relentlessly aiming for her.

「I.. AM DIFFERENT FROM YOU. I… AM NOT LUCKY, NOR I BORN WITH TALENT! I’M CRAWLING UP FROM THE BOTTOM WITH MY OWN POWER! LIKE HELL I’M GONNA LOSE AGAINST THE LIKES OF YOU TWO!」

「S-STOOOOOOP!」

I mustered the remainder of my strength and rushed toward Fedor.

Fedor changed the trajectory of his fist to my head, making the full use of every muscle in his body.

His fist would score a direct hit on my face.

That moment, I activated 《Moon Reflection》 and let his fist go through my semi-liquified head, thus negating the impact.

I loaded my fighting spirit into 《Demon Eater Sword; Beelzera》, and stabbed it toward Fedor’s exposed abdomen.

《Demon Eater Sword; Beelzera》’s tip could easily pierce Fedor’s abdomen, who has already exhausted his mana and fighting spirit.

I pulled out 《Demon Eater Sword; Beelzera》.

「Haa~h, haa~h…」

「I… I…」

Fedor stretched out his arm toward me, one step, and then fell on the spot.

「I… Lost? I, who buried many powerful adventurers lost… to pair of 【Lv:20】 brats?」