Double-Cross After Double-Cross (4)
"Now, Master!"
"Die!"
Kanna clung to my back like a cicada and shouted. Avalon's eyes flashed, and he came straight at me.
Whoooom—!
Black energy roared off that iron slab of a fist. I'd wrecked his plan to sacrifice Claxon and Claxon's Fairies and make himself stronger, and he was clearly furious about it.
I'm a little curious how much that would hurt... but I don't need to find out with my own body.
"Time to bounce!"
"Kh?! Why are you moving?! Kyaa!"
I scrambled backward with Kanna still latched onto me. She tried to plant her toes and spoil my escape, and instead her ankle folded over with a nasty crunch.
"Ghhhhhaaah!"
Even through the pain of a twisted ankle, she clung on with everything she had, desperate to pin me in place long enough for her Master to land a hit.
"You little shit!"
Avalon, for his part, was getting more irritated by the second. I was running backward and the gap between us still refused to close.
BOOM—!
He detonated his power in a single burst and appeared right in front of me.
"Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo!"
"...That's it. I'm going to kill you. I won't just kill you. I'll make it hurt. I'll make it wretched. I am going to end you."
I pivoted smoothly, slipped into the wheat field, and kept running. The mocking war whoop did exactly what I'd hoped — his rage burned even hotter.
Shit. That was close.
I put on a show of ease while I ran, but inside I was breathing a long sigh of relief. For a split second I had lost track of Avalon's movement. If he hadn't hesitated — just a flicker, surprised by his own speed — I never would have gotten away.
Careful.
My stats were higher, but everything else belonged to him. And right now I had to take on Avalon's entire party by myself. That was all the more reason not to get sloppy.
"Khnnn!"
"Oh, right. You're still hanging on back there?"
Kanna's groan from behind reminded me she hadn't let go. I didn't stop running backward. I just put some strength into my arms.
"Kyah?! Th-this power...! Kh! KRAAAAAH!"
"You can puff air in my ear all you want, Kanna. Just don't scream."
The moment I flexed, the arms locked around me came apart like wet paper. She tried to hold on with everything she had — soul included — but willpower didn't mean a thing against raw numbers. Her grip failed anyway.
Kanna's Strength sat at 120, the cap for a 6-Star. Mine was 156. Thirty-six points higher. No amount of thrashing was going to close a gap like that.
"A gift, Avalon."
"Kyaaak!"
"Alan!"
I hurled Kanna at Avalon as he charged in like a mad bull. He didn't even try to catch her. He just kept coming for me, and Kanna hit the dirt and rolled.
"Wow... that cold-blooded bastard doesn't have a drop of blood or a tear in him."
I clicked my tongue. If it had been me, I would have stopped — even for a second — and caught my Fairy. How do you just watch someone you'd protect with your life go tumbling across the ground?
Then again. That's exactly why he handed his Fairies over to me in the first place. To put me off my guard.
A man who actually cared about his Fairies would never have tried an NTR game to begin with.
"Eat this."
Still running backward, I swept my sword. My mana rode the blade and a crescent of sword-ki peeled off and flew at him.
"That tickles!"
Avalon swatted the air. The sword-ki shattered like glass. It didn't even leave a scratch on his skin.
No surprise there. The sword-ki skill I was using was sitting at level 1. I kept throwing it anyway, for one reason only: to piss him off. Nothing in the world is more irritating than a mosquito whining in your ear.
"You rat bastard...!"
Right on cue, Avalon's temper hit the ceiling. He stopped caring about mana and dumped a skill straight at me.
Wave of Malice
A wide-area pulse of concentrated malevolence
Wave of Malice was an area skill. Dodging it while running backward was a tall order. I spun around, poured on the speed, and got out of the blast radius.
"Huh?"
"Master!"
The chase had been going just like that — always almost caught, never quite — when my body lifted off the ground. Izabella's voice carried from far away.
She was a Wind Mage. She'd thrown me into the air so I couldn't run. Manipulating the wind at that distance burned a serious amount of mana, and she was pushing herself past her limit to help Avalon.
"Well done, Izabella!"
"Hey, Izabella! We had a good thing going! And this is how you repay me?!"
"Shut your mouth!"
Avalon's eyes lit. He snapped his wings wide and launched himself skyward. A crushing amount of mana condensed around his fist. He meant to finish me here.
"I won't even use you as a sacrifice! Die right here!"
Avalon came screaming toward me. Suspended in midair by Izabella's wind, I measured the distance between us and gave the order in my head.
Now.
SHAAAAAAA—!
A blinding light erupted in front of me.
"Kh?!"
Avalon threw an arm up on instinct, shielding his eyes from the sudden glare. The light gathered, tightened, and became a person — no. A girl.
Go, Nemea.
"A human fused with a demon. What a truly hideous existence."
Nemea, summoned into the air in front of me, frowned at the sight of Avalon. Then she planted a foot on my chest and launched herself at him like a bullet.
CRACK—!
"Ghhhhhk?!"
Avalon had both arms up to cover his eyes. His chest was wide open, and Nemea put her fist through that opening with perfect precision.
Avalon's chest caved in as if struck by a warhammer.
Nemea stood in the shape of a little girl, not even five feet tall. Her fists were so small they called to mind a cat's paws. The power packed inside them had nothing to do with that adorable size.
How could it? Nemea shared my stats. My numbers were her numbers.
On top of that, nothing could wound her. No cuts. No broken bones. In the distant past, before she became mine, Nemea had taken a blow from a monster of her own caliber — the Iron-Blooded Tyrant — and walked away without a scratch. She was armed with absolute defense.
"Hrm... my fist doth tingle."
Hitting that hard meant the recoil came back just as hard, but Nemea was fine. She scrunched her face a little and grumbled, and that was the end of it.
And she was not finished.
"Ghk! Gah! Y-you bitch...! GRAAAAH!"
"For one who hath consorted with demons, thou talkest overmuch. Be still."
Nemea seized the horn jutting from Avalon's temple with her left hand and started beating his face in with her right, utterly without mercy.
THUD—!
Her kitty-punches did not stop even after Avalon slammed into the ground.
"Master!"
"Kh! Hurry — save Master!"
The Fairies stared in horror as their Master got his face caved in, then rushed to pull him out.
They had forgotten something.
"Kyaaak!"
"Izabella?!"
Sonic exploded out of the wheat field where she had been waiting for her moment and tackled Izabella at a dead sprint. The instant Izabella hit the ground, Sonic cracked her across the temple with her scabbard and put her out cold.
Sonic was below Izabella in level, in rank, in skill levels — in everything. She had simply taken the opening: Izabella's mind was sold to Avalon, and a mage Fairy's durability and stamina sat well below Sonic's. One clean ambush was all it took.
Sonic slung the unconscious Izabella over her shoulder and vanished back into the wheat.
"I-Izabella! Damn it! That bitch!"
"W-what do we do?"
"Kh...! Master first. We save Master."
Izabella going down in a blink left Avalon's Fairies spinning. Kanna bit her lip, thought it through, and chose Avalon. Izabella was a precious comrade — but the most precious thing any of them had was still their Master.
One of them could have gone after Izabella. Unfortunately, the leftover roster was a mess. Of the three Fairies still standing, the only melee class was Kanna, the Dark Knight. Razle was a Flame Mage. Hisoka was a Shrine Maiden. Both of them had stamina and durability as low as Izabella's.
If Razle or Hisoka went after Izabella alone, they would just get dropped. If Kanna went after Izabella, helping Avalon became nearly impossible.
On paper, Avalon's party was perfect. Kanna the tank. Avalon himself as a sub-tank who could deal physical and magical damage. Izabella and Razle on ranged DPS. Hisoka on heals. Put the five of them together and they hit like a hammer. Pull them apart and pick them off one by one, and they folded like nothing.
"Master!"
"Get lost!"
"Hnh!"
In the end the three of them wrote Izabella off and charged in to save Avalon.
They had forgotten something else.
"....!"
With Izabella unconscious, the wind barrier that had held me in the air vanished. I hit the ground, left Avalon to Nemea, and went straight at his Fairies.
"Kh! HAAAAAH!"
Kanna stepped up to cut me off. Behind her, Razle started cooking a flame spell. Hisoka poured healing magic toward Avalon in the distance.
"Trying to stop me with your bare hands?"
"Kyah?!"
I drove a fist into Kanna's chest. She read the line of the punch and threw both arms up to cover herself — but like I said, my Strength sat in a completely different weight class. My fist wedged through her guard and slammed into her solar plexus.
Hit in a vital point, Kanna staggered and went over backward. The black aura boosting her defense was the only reason she stayed conscious.
"S-stop right there!"
She scrambled up to grab me again. I was already standing in front of Razle and Hisoka.
"DIIIEE!"
FWOOOOSH—!
Razle dumped the flame spell she had been holding. A sheet of high-temperature fire crashed down over me.
"Shit, that's hot!"
"Kyaa!"
I didn't bother dodging. I stepped through the fire and threw a punch, coming up from below, and caught Razle clean on the jaw. Her lights went out and she dropped. The flames that had been trying to roast me guttered out the instant their caster hit the dirt.
"W-what are you...? Are you even human?"
Hisoka stared at me in raw shock. I had walked out of Razle's fire looking no worse for wear. My hair had burned off down to the scalp — I was bald as an egg — but there was not a single scorch mark on my skin.
That was the mythic-grade trait I had gained when I made Nemea mine.
A broken effect, exactly what you would expect from a mythic-grade trait. Physical or magical, it did not matter. Nothing left a mark.
I grinned at Hisoka as she stood there trembling.
"Of course I'm human. You think I'd be a monster like that master of yours?"