Obelisk Assault (12)

In all the times I'd fought Barkan while playing Dungeon in Evil, I had never once seen anything like this.

The type itself was familiar enough. A gimmick where you lose when the timer runs out shows up in just about every game, and Dungeon in Evil was no exception.

But the Obelisk that had appeared in the Behend Kingdom wasn't supposed to have a gimmick like that in the first place. On top of that, I had to wonder whether an even more dangerous enemy could really show up in a place that already housed one of the legion's core officers.

Anything stronger than a core officer is… basically just a Legion Commander, right? Sure, it could be another core officer stronger than Barkan, but a Legion Commander isn't out of the question either.

"Allen! The spell is almost complete!"

Letisia's shout snapped me out of my brooding, sharp enough to drag me back to reality. I hurriedly started chanting.

"Dispel!"

The activation message for Dispel flashed, and Barkan's completed spell winked out with a soft pop.

"Dispel? That's impossible…"

Forced to abandon the spell he'd meant to blast Erinn away with, Barkan had no choice but to thrust his spear in a desperate hurry. The sudden change threw off the stance of a man already wielding an enormous weapon, and Erinn seized the perfect opening.

Whoosh!

Barkan's spear carved empty air. Using her small frame and agility, Erinn slipped in low beneath it and locked onto her target. She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠couldn't go after Barkan himself, so what she aimed for was the Oliphant he was riding.

The pure white light of the Holy Sword snuffed out in an instant. No—looking closer, it hadn't gone out at all.

The light hadn't vanished. It had been steeped entirely in black, like a living shadow.

"Oliphant!"

"BWOOOOO—!"

The Oliphant bellowed and moved to dodge her blade on Barkan's command. For a beast of that size, its speed was unnatural—but the distance had already closed, and the Holy Sword had more than enough reach.

Shrrrk!!!

The shadow-wreathed Holy Sword carved a massive gash along the Oliphant's flank. And in that moment, I understood what those shadows coating the blade were for.

"BWOOOOOH!!!"

The Oliphant screamed in agony. The black shadows clung to the wound the Holy Sword had opened, wracking it with relentless pain.

That shadow-looking stuff is densely concentrated magic power, isn't it?

It had to be. Just being coated in someone else's highly condensed magic would hurt enough on its own—but leaving it inside an open wound…

Imagine taking a bleeding cut and blasting it nonstop with a shower of scalding water. Agony, right? What the Oliphant was feeling right now had to be worse than that.

"Settle down, Oliphant!"

Barkan was pouring everything he had into controlling the thrashing, pain-maddened beast.

But how was something like that even possible? Erinn wasn't a mage…

She must have picked up all kinds of tricks across her regressions.

A life where you get handed a brand-new start. I'd never experienced it myself, so I couldn't say—but this part of it, at least, looked pretty appealing.

At this rate, Barkan would have no choice but to abandon the Oliphant and dismount soon. That would split the two of them apart.

The Oliphant's specs were more than enough to serve as a full dungeon boss on its own—but these were party members who'd taken down even the Lizard Lord without a scratch.

Once it was separated from Barkan, finishing the Oliphant would be trivial. Excellent call on her part.

When I'd cleared Barkan in Dungeon in Evil, the standard approach had always been to take out the Abyss Horse he was riding first, then deal with Barkan himself.

True to someone who'd already beaten him once, she was following the textbook route perfectly.

I figured Erinn would just wait for Barkan and the Oliphant to separate like that.

"Aria!"

I was wrong. That wasn't the end of it.

Erinn had been planning to move one step faster than I'd expected.

Having slashed the Oliphant, she called out to Ser-Aria. Just like the previous order, the archer—already within a one-second arrow's reach—clamped her liquor bottle between her teeth and drew her bowstring taut.

"Pwahaha! You caught on, Erinn."

The drawn bowstring glittered, lit from within by Ser-Aria's magic.

"Leave the finishing blow to me!"

Magic power flowed down the string and into the arrow, and in moments the shaft swollen with Ser-Aria's power became a single colossal meteor.

KRAAAAAAAASH!!!

The instant Ser-Aria released the string, that single meteor tore through the air with enough force to punch through anything in its path—straight at the already wounded Oliphant.

THOOOM————————!!

The meteor Ser-Aria loosed slammed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dead-on into the gash Erinn had already carved into the Oliphant's side.

"Bwoooo…!"

THUD!

The Oliphant's massive body lurched hard, listed to one side, and toppled over completely. I stared in genuine shock.

It went down in one hit?

Ser-Aria's skill had absolutely been a devastating, magic-packed blow—no argument there—but given the Oliphant's overwhelming durability, this still didn't make sense.

I'd figured it would tank at least one shot… Apparently Ser-Aria's arrow packed even more punch than I'd given it credit for, and Erinn's sword strike had been brutally lethal on top of that.

Landing that much damage with a single exchange in such a short window…

If Erinn set this up on purpose, that means she's dropped him like this before…

…Yeah, every last one of them really is the real deal when it comes to skill. Ser-Aria still hadn't taken that liquor bottle out of her mouth, but still.

"Erinn."

"What?"

There was something I needed to tell them. The message I'd seen about a time limit—and the quiet tick-tick-tick of a clock that had been counting down for a little while now.

"If we don't finish that guy off fast, reinforcements are coming."

"…Reinforcements."

Erinn shot me a faintly puzzled look, but given everything I'd pulled off so far, she seemed willing to take my word for it almost immediately.

"How fast do we need to finish him?"

"That…"

That, I didn't know either.

The clock sound seemed like something only I could hear, and the real problem was that it didn't actually display how much time was left.

If you're going to tell me there's a time limit, the least you could do is show me the damn timer. Completely arbitrary.

So the only answer I could give her was this:

"…I don't know."

"…"

Erinn listened to my thoroughly inadequate reply, seemed to mull it over for a second, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then broke into that usual mischievous little grin.

"Well, it's not like a scrub would ever dig up proper intel~♡"

That caught me slightly off guard. There was no need for her to keep that up anymore, and I'd figured that after everything—after calling it the last time—she'd stopped acting like that… Something must have shifted in her.

…Or is she just teasing me so I won't feel embarrassed about not knowing?

…No idea.

Having lightly roasted me, she reset her stance and spoke.

"Anyway, the point is we need to wrap this up fast, right~?"

"…Yeah."

"Got it~."

Erinn said it like she was taking a request to heart.

"…I don't understand."

That was when Barkan—forcibly dismounted from the fallen Oliphant—muttered under his breath. And he wasn't looking at Erinn or Ser-Aria, the ones who'd brought the beast down. For some reason, he was staring straight at me.

"You nullified my magic with Dispel."

Apparently Barkan couldn't wrap his head around how easily his spell had been dismantled. Fair enough. I still barely understood this mysterious power myself—why would he?

"…This magic was personally taught to me by the Magic Legion Commander himself."

Huh?

Magic learned from the Magic Legion Commander. No wonder it was strong.

"How could a mere human comprehend it—and reverse it?"

"…"

Even if he asked, I had nothing to say. It wasn't like I'd understood the structure of Barkan's magic or figured out how it activated and then countered it on purpose.

It just worked. But saying that out loud felt a little too much like teabagging, so I kept my mouth shut.

When I offered no reply, Barkan let out a hollow laugh on his own.

"So you won't answer."

Barkan raised his spear straight up. The weapon that had looked impossibly long while he was mounted on the Oliphant shrank down to match his current stature.

"You are the most dangerous enemy here."

"…Huh?"

A target lock message. It was the signature pattern line for Magic Knight Barkan, one that showed up in Dungeon in Evil as well.

Lock onto a mark, then hurl that massive spear for catastrophic damage. The pattern ignored the boss's accuracy and the character's evasion entirely—it always hit.

In the game there was a separate counter-gimmick for it, but that wasn't the important part right now.

"I must deal with you first if I am to have any hope of turning this battle around."

Why the hell is he coming after me!?

Barkan's spear rose. Watching magic power gather around it, I wondered for a second if it was a spell.

"Dispel!"

But no success message appeared. Erinn spoke from beside me.

"It's not magic."

She was right—it wasn't. It was simply a devastating spear throw fueled by Barkan's raw strength and magic power.

The warning message flashed as Barkan stepped forward to throw. My mind went blank for a second as I scrambled for what to do.

Can I just block it? Is that even enough?

In Dungeon in Evil it was a guaranteed-hit pattern—but maybe there was something different here.

That was when it happened.

"Get back."

Erinn shoved me behind her. Even as her strength sent me stumbling helplessly backward, I stared at her, clueless about what she planned to do.

"Why are you looking at me like you're so worried~?"

Erinn said.

"I'm not such a weak Hero that a porter needs to fret over me~."

"That's not what I—!"

"If you believed you could stop this, you were gravely mistaken."

In that instant, Barkan hurled the spear.

"This is a spear that cannot be blocked."

The weapon closed the distance in a blink, flying dead-on toward me—straight at my heart.

"…!"

Just as he'd boasted that it couldn't be stopped, Barkan's pattern in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Dungeon in Evil was an unavoidable guaranteed hit the moment it activated.

So no matter how strong Erinn was, I couldn't shake the feeling that this one simply couldn't be blocked—and my body instinctively tried to back away.

But then.

CLAAANG!!

The spear never reached me. It slammed into the ground instead.

"!"

"How…?!"

Barkan was stunned—and so was I. A spear that couldn't be dodged without the proper counter-gimmick. Somehow, Erinn had cleanly stopped it cold.

She gave a little snort of laughter, glanced back at me, and said:

"What are you fretting so hard for~♡"