I'll Show You Something Amazing
Spear's Roar shot toward the enemy like a living thing.
Grass was mowed down along its path, and at the very end of its trajectory, the Mole Beastkin's eyes flashed.
“Ngh!”
THWOOM!
Twisting her supple body into a rapid midair rotation, she dodged the attack by a hair's breadth—and apparently finding the situation hilarious, she burst out laughing. Hahah! At the same time, her long outstretched leg carved a great arc through the empty air.
“Heel Cutter!”
Though the blow never touched me, a sharp, tawny hoof-shaped burst of mana rippled outward like a blade of pure force. I retracted the spear I'd attacked with and swept it in a single wide circle to deflect the strike.
KRA-KA-KA-KACK!
The attack carried real weight behind it, and my balance tilted, if only slightly.
She was definitely trickier than the users I'd fought earlier.
If I just follow up with another attack—
“?”
Squeeek...!
A wooden vine had shot out of nowhere and bound my hand. No matter how hard I pulled, it wouldn't come loose. Tracing the flow of mana to its source, I found the smug-looking beastkin holding out her remaining hand—on its wrist hung a green bracelet woven from wooden vines.
“Myeongwol!”
Fwooom.
The hand of the warrior standing gravely at his post began to move—slow yet fast, fast yet slow. He cut twice.
“Two Cuts.”
Emergency.
I forcibly launched my body off the ground with the skill. The long silver longsword vanished as if teleporting, missing the target entirely. What remained in that spot was the green vine still wrapped around my hand.
The binding vine that absolutely had to catch its target was sliced away, reduced to nothing, by an ally's blade.
“Ah!”
The vine clattered to pieces. Freed at last, I multiplied my spear into a dozen blades.
Ten this time—a few more than before. Ten spears flew at the beastkin and the warrior alike.
“ARGH! That idiot Myeongwol! I told him to bind EVERYTHING!”
“...No. That was beyond anyone's control—”
“Beyond whose control?!”
CLANG-KANG!KAANG!Screeeech...!
They were deflecting the five spears apiece far better than I'd expected. The beastkin battered the spears away with two feet and her one remaining hand, while the warrior swung his silver longsword long and short, batting the blades aside at oblique angles.
Their skills and gear were excellent, but they didn't lean on those alone—their fundamentals were outstanding too.
And I've got the higher level.
I couldn't see their levels or stats directly, but by feeling the flow of their mana and touching the weapons bound to their bodies, I could gauge their rough standing. As the Grand General, my level itself was higher, but their mana and physical attributes were impressive in their own right.
Probably stacked with all sorts of buffs. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they were roughly twice as strong as my own team.
But if you asked whether that was a serious gap—no, not really. The difference was only somewhere between ten and fifteen levels at most. Compared to Raizaka, whose exact level I hadn't known but had guessed to be tens of levels above me, these two were far easier opponents. However large the gap in equipment and specs, it posed no real problem.
I drew the spears back in.
“I'll show you something amazing.”
I already showed you the wings, after all.
It should be fine to show them this much too, right?
“ARGH! Why is this thing so strong, seriously!”
“No ordinary foe. As expected of the one who defeated the Supreme One. Quite the oshi, this one.”
“Would you PLEASE stop talking like an otaku...!”
BOOOM!!!
Hahh! They'd barely managed to deflect all five spears. The warrior and the beastkin caught their breath and warily scanned their surroundings. Another attack was coming. They knew most of Lily's techniques by heart.
Ask anyone in DeoEn what the hottest thing going is right now, and nine out of ten will answer, Lily's stream. Her average viewers had blown past a hundred thousand on Twitch—a platform famous for being a brutal red ocean.
In other words: the whole world was in a frenzy over Lily. Which was exactly why so many guilds coveted her. A fighter of that caliber would be a massive asset in the upcoming Continental Quest, and an enormous advantage in Siege Warfare, where guilds fought over castles.
But that wasn't the real reason the guilds wanted her.
A Spear Tornado she was never taught, clone spears, skill counters and copies, a hammer, magic?
Her repertoire was so varied it was almost absurd to call her a spear wielder. These were, by rights, techniques obtainable only through high-grade hidden pieces—but thanks to Lily's ability to wield mana in her own idiosyncratic way, they'd become techniques anyone could pick up.
Of course, none of them could outclass skills with absolute, unconditional effects. But being able to deploy the right technique for the right situation was enormously useful in practice.
That was what the guilds wanted.
The principle behind how Lily uses her special techniques.
“Where'd she go, though.”
“...She's close. That much is certain.”
They knew Lily had thrown the spears and was watching from somewhere, but they couldn't afford to take their eyes off the blades, so they focused everything on them. If they hadn't, they'd have died on the spot and lost a Life—that much was obvious.
But the moment they'd swatted down every last spear, Lily had simply vanished.
The beastkin widened her racial trait, Ki Sense. The most prominent presences were herself and Myeongwol. A few faint ones registered here and there, but she couldn't tell whether they were soldiers provisioning resources or Lily masking her presence.
“Hold position. Something big is coming.”
Myeongwol and the beastkin sank into all-around vigilance, each taking up their stance. What would it be? Spears? The hammer?
Or a brand-new technique?
Whatever it was, she intended to give it everything she had.
If we win, I'll get you that Condensed Crystal somehow. Well, I don't know if I'll be able to snag one for myself either. But they said you'd get at least one, so.
The beastkin recalled the words her guildmaster, Vlack, had said to her.
Honestly, she couldn't really wrap her head around this “moving mana” business. She'd changed her race to a beastkin, and she still didn't properly understand this so-called Beast's Instinct—how was she supposed to grasp mana? She just felt comfortable underground sometimes, and wagged her tail for no reason, that was all. It wasn't like she cared that much... but she wouldn't mind trying it once, at least.
Shooooooosh...
A cool breeze swept through the silent forest. And so they stood there for a long while—until they pulled their feet from the ground.
“What the—”
“...She's gone. Vanished.”
Now not even the Ki Sense registered anything. Had she truly disappeared?
Fwoop.
Rustle-rustle.
FWOOOOOSH!
Piiiiing...
“......”
“You feel anything?”
“No. But something's whooshing past, over and over.”
“What is that sound?”
“Like... like weapons, just whoosh-whoosh-whooshing by...”
THUNK!
“...!”
A spear moving too fast for the eye to follow had punched straight through her hand. It was a bizarre weapon, crafted like an artisan's piece, etched with an unusual pattern and wrought entirely of blue mana. The beastkin tried to yank it free using her body strengthening, but the mana spear, already fused to her flesh, refused to budge. Even her arm wouldn't move properly.
This was no ordinary spear.
The whole thing has to be a skill... what the hell IS this?
“Myeongwol! Cut this thing off me!”
“Understood.”
“Not my ARM!”
The warrior glanced back at the beastkin, gave a short nod, and brought his blade down hard along the spear's haft. CRACK! The shaft of mana shattered—but the spearhead, the most important part, had already buried itself deep in her hand.
“ARGH! What IS this thing!”
“...We must cut off the arm.”
“Cut the otaku nonsense, you weeaboo bastard.”
Shiiiing.
The beastkin ground her teeth. Her eyes burned red, and the brown fur that had covered only her vital points grew long and shaggy.
Beastification—a technique usable only by the beastkin races. As a mole beastkin, she raised the ratio of beast over human to amplify her physical abilities.
The mana gripping her hand slackened slightly, less than before—but a residue of it still remained. And a moment later, a blue sigil seared itself onto her arm above the wound.
The image of a birdcage, a small bird trapped inside. The cage door was sealed fast.
“Are you KIDDING me, I can't use skills.”
“This is no ordinary foe. I shall use my ultimate technique.”
Sssshtk.
Myeongwol drew back his rear foot and breathed in deep. Behind him, a golden full-moon effect bloomed into being—one of the greatest reasons he had joined the guild of the black Moon in the first place.
The silver longsword began to move, slowly.
“Moon Cut.”
Sheeeek.
The moon split in two.
The warrior's 3rd Advancement ultimate—a technique that cut down everything along its path. Tiny insects, the densely packed trees, animals fleeing the battlefield, even the orc standing motionless in the far distance—all of them fell beneath the blade. And when everything that had blocked his sight was gone, Lily was already upon him, blue sword in hand.
“A sword, is it. A reckless choice.”
To dare face him with a mere blade. Myeongwol raised his sword high above the oncoming girl.
And in the instant he brought it down—
“Three—”
“One Cut.”
The blue sword's trajectory—the one they had all seen a hundred times—split the warrior apart.