Kobold King Boss Battle (6)

The gem set in the staff blazed with light as the spell took form. What materialized in empty air were lances of ice, each one honed to a killing point.

Three such lances now hung in the air. Choco whipped her head around toward Ho-jin and the others.

The royal guard that had numbered four was down to two. None of the three adventurers looked badly hurt. But not one of them had noticed the Ice Lances reaching completion.

The spell that could snuff their lives in a single stroke launched without a sound.

And only one person was watching.

"Tara!"

"It's ready!"

The answer came the instant she called. Choco flung the arrow inscribed with the Array of Spirit Breaking to the ground and thrust out her hand.

She drew up her spiritual power. Keeping the mage in check had been bleeding it away in dribs and drabs, and there was precious little left. It didn't matter. She scraped the bottom of the well. Her vision began to blur from the exhaustion, and even that was not enough.

"Kyaah!"

Tara screamed at the sensation of her spiritual power being torn away. Choco paid it no mind. She forced her eyes wide and poured everything she had into the working.

A ghostly gleam began to gather in those wide golden irises — the telltale sign that she was pushing her spiritual power past its limit.

Among the principles of Five Elements Daoism, Metal was the energy of transformation. What she meant to do from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠here was simple.

She would twist the very nature of those Ice Lances. She knew full well that blocking a spell was far easier than interfering with one another person had already cast. But no matter how fast she raised a defense, the distance was too great. By the time a barrier manifested, it would already be too late.

Interference, however, had no range. Those ghost-lit eyes locked onto the Ice Lances as they flew.

"Magic!"

Ho-jin's startled voice rang out — he'd spotted the incoming lances, far too late. There was no dodging a sneak attack in the middle of combat. It would have taken something close to a miracle.

And then the outstretched hand clenched into a fist.

"Pwah—!"

Ho-jin, who had already resigned himself and was bracing to log out, flailed as a sudden deluge of water slapped him full in the face. Yeon and Se-jin fared no better. Soaked to the skin like a trio of drowned rats, they stared at one another in bewildered confusion.

"What in the…"

"Ho-jin! In front of you!"

"Whoa—!"

At Yeon's urgent cry, Ho-jin heaved his shield up without even managing to get his eyes open. A dull clang shuddered up his arm. He hurriedly scrubbed at his face with his free hand and forced his eyes wide.

He had no idea how, but he was still alive. He couldn't say what had happened — but he could guess well enough who was responsible. Ho-jin caught the next blow, and the one after that, and shouted over the clash of weapons.

"Yeon! Check on Choco!"

"On it!"

Whatever she had done, her condition would not be good. She had already burned through a huge amount of spiritual power from the moment the fight began. And instead of simply throwing up a defense, she had gone and interfered with an enemy spell outright. There was no way she was in any shape to keep fighting.

Ho-jin's prediction was dead-on.

"Choco!"

"Hah… hah…"

Yeon ran to where Choco had sunk down onto one knee. Even at a glance, she looked terrible. Her face was ashen and sheened with sweat, and every ragged breath made it painfully clear she had nothing left.

"That was a stupid thing to do. You blew past the limit of your spiritual power without the slightest preparation."

"Ta-Tara? Is Choco going to die?!"

"Foolish human. The successor is a vessel destined to ascend to divinity, I'll have you know. She is hardly going to drop dead from overexerting herself this much."

"Th-that's a relief…"

"She won't be able to use spiritual power for a while, though."

"Huh? Ah—!"

The words had barely left Tara's mouth when a soft poof went up and a cloud of smoke billowed into the air. When it cleared, a single limp fox lay in Choco's place.

She had burned through even the spiritual power required to maintain her transformation. Choco had reverted to a fox.

"Wh-what do we do? The fight isn't even over yet…"

Yeon stamped her feet in distress. The remaining royal guards would be finished off soon enough. And once they were, the Kobold King sitting on that throne would finally move — and with Choco out of commission, pressing the fight any further would be nearly impossible.

Simply calling a retreat wasn't easy either. Every member of the party was well past level thirty. If they walked away now, they would never be allowed to challenge this boss again.

Of course, if she thought about it rationally, the right move was to scoop Choco up and run. Unlike the rest of them, Choco could not be allowed to die. The moment she went down, the decision had essentially been made for them.

But she did not want to turn back. Not now. The boss fight was right in front of them. All they had to do was finish the royal guard and take down the Kobold King and the mage, and it would be over.

Yeon knew how badly every one of them had wanted this fight. Even if they hadn't — none of them would have wanted it to end like this.

Choco was the same. If she hadn't had the will to see this through, she would have let the three of them die and simply moved on to the next hunting ground, rather than save them like this.

Instead, she had rescued all three of them knowing full well it would drain her spiritual power to nothing. How was Yeon supposed to be the one who said they should retreat?

But it's also true that we don't have a way forward…!

Choco — the actual core of their combat strength — had fallen, and all that remained were Yeon and the other two. The moment that mage started fighting in earnest, they would be completely helpless. Ho-jin had mentioned a method, but whether it would actually work…

"Haa… The two of you really are a matching pair of headaches. I'll help just this once, understood?"

"Huh?"

Something slipped free of Choco's collapsed body along with that muttered complaint. It looked like a drift of white mist — a phenomenon Yeon recognized. She had seen it once before, when Tara had been reverse-summoned.

As if to confirm the guess, the mist gathered in on itself, and a white fox popped out into the open.

"Nngh — I really do not want to do this—"

"Y-you're helping? Thank you so much!"

"Hmph. I am not doing this because I like any of you. I am only doing it because Lady Gumiho commanded it."

Tara assumed her human form. She scooped the crossbow and the arrow inscribed with the Array of Spirit Breaking off the ground, and spoke.

"I will say this only once, so listen carefully. This arrow is inscribed with something called the Array of Spirit Breaking. Even if that filthy creature puts up a barrier, this has the power to shatter it — once. I will fire it. After that, you are on your own."

"Uh — huh?"

Yeon could only stammer, her expression gone completely blank under the barrage of words. Tara heaved a long, weary sigh.

"When I give the signal, you charge that mage. Now."

"What?!"

The word now left Tara's mouth in the same instant she raised the loaded crossbow. Yeon startled hard, spun on her heel, and bolted straight at the mage.

A clear, bright ting rang out behind her, followed by the sound of something tearing through the air. She kept her focus on running — and then the arrow was there, flying level with her shoulder.

It streaked toward its target trailing a wake of white, like a tail of light. And the mage it was aimed at watched the whole thing with both eyes wide open.

He cancelled the Ice Lance he had been about to hurl at Ho-jin and Se-jin and wrapped himself in a barrier. The impregnable fortress that had not taken so much as a crack after dozens of hits shimmered into being as a thin, gleaming film.

The instant Yeon saw it, she kicked off the ground and launched herself into the air.

"Yeon?!"

Ho-jin's shocked shout never reached her. She took the arming sword she had been holding in one hand, wrapped both fists around the hilt, and raised it high overhead.

Then, with the full weight of her falling body behind it, she brought the blade down with everything she had.

"Hyaaah—!"

A shriek of metal on magic. The sword, stopped cold by the barrier, threw a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spray of sparks and skidded downward. The kobold mage's face twisted in ugly delight at the uncracked shield.

Right up until the arrow that had been following behind Yeon touched the barrier.

"Kehek?"

The arrow that struck the barrier melted away like cotton candy dropped in water. The shield began to sag and wobble from the point of contact, then burst without a sound, the way a soap bubble pops.

Which meant there was nothing left to stop the falling sword.

The blade met the ground. Yeon landed, straightened from her crouch, and looked down at the kobold mage.

It stood frozen with that same startled expression still locked on its face. The look of a creature that had no idea what had just been done to it was, for a fleeting instant, almost innocent.

Yeon did not finish the swing. She turned instead and sprinted back toward her companions, who were still locked in combat with the last of the royal guard.

Gray ash scattered in the wake of her running figure.

The Kobold King did not so much as twitch, even as the only mage of his race perished. Only after the final royal guard crumpled to the earth did he shift that heavy bulk off the throne.

"KWOOOOAR—!"

The Kobold King brandished his spiked club in a roaring threat. The three adventurers did not flinch. They simply stepped aside, cleared their footing, and set themselves. There was no fear on any of their faces.

With the kobold mage gone, every effect that had been laid upon the kobolds had vanished with him.

Their attacks were no longer sharp. No longer fast.

And if that was the case, there was nothing left to be afraid of. The three adventurers leveled their blades at the Kobold King as he came raging in.

Tara watched it all, gently stroking the small fox in her arms.

When Choco opened her eyes, a pure white space was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠waiting for her.

The place Tara had called the soul room, just the other day. She felt no confusion about waking here. In the instant before she had lost consciousness, a strange certainty had settled over her — that if she opened her eyes again, it would be in this place.

"Spiritual power is the power of the soul. You used it beyond your limits, so your exhausted soul needs to heal."

At the clear, gentle voice, Choco turned her head. It was the same woman she had seen before.

This time, though, there was no trace of the form she had worn when she was a man.

"My soul?"

"It's resting. Don't overwork your soul too much. There will surely come a time you regret it."

A time she would regret? Choco tilted her head, but the woman said nothing more. With her mouth closed, silence settled over the space as if it had been waiting for the chance. The awkwardness of it made Choco scratch her cheek and glance around, looking for something — anything — to rest her eyes on.

But in a space papered over in white like the inside of a hospital ward, there was nothing to see. Nothing, perhaps, except the woman sitting so serenely in the middle of all that white.

The moment that thought landed, Choco's gaze drifted back to her of its own accord.

Golden hair spilled down like a waterfall, scattered carelessly all the way to the floor, and behind her eight tails of the same color fanned out in a lush, abundant spread.

Eight tails. An Eight-Tailed Fox, then. Why a being only a single step from becoming a Gumiho would be here was a mystery she could not begin to unravel.

But what puzzled her even more was the woman's face. The last time she had seen her, she had thought, vaguely, that she was beautiful. Now, looking her over properly from every angle, the familiarity was almost unsettling.

As if this was the form she herself would take if she ever grew into her full potential. Yes — a resemblance that called parent and child to mind.

"You seem to have a great many questions."

Perhaps she had been staring too hard. The woman, who had been meditating with her eyes closed, asked the question in a voice as calm as still water.

"No. I was just thinking we look quite alike."

"Hehe. Alike… that's not such a bad thing to hear. You are quite cute, after all."

"I don't particularly want to be called cute."

She grumbled it out, but the woman only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠laughed that soft little laugh of hers. Choco snuck a glance at her face, then asked, carefully,

"Who are you? Why are you here?"

"Oh my — you do ask rather directly, don't you?"

Something about her personality feels different from last time.

Before, she had seemed gentler. No — she was still gentle now, if you got right down to it. Just a little slyer around the edges, maybe.

"But since you asked, I suppose I ought to answer."

Whether or not she could tell what Choco was thinking, the woman went on in that same soft voice.

"My name is Banya. It's a little embarrassing, but I am called a practitioner closer to divinity than anyone save Lady Gumiho herself. And as for why I am here…"

The woman — Banya — considered for a moment. Then she answered with a bright, easy smile.

"Well. I wonder why I am here?"

"That's what I'm asking you."

The retort slipped out before Choco could stop it, aimed squarely at that serene, completely unhelpful reply.