Chapter 429 – Roaring Zemetas & Mantle of Stardust
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Dogal placed a hand on the broken tag on his chest.
“Of course. However, I had already noticed it during our battle.”
For an instant, Dogal looked at Murasame’s hilt at my waist.
“Back then, huh? Well, I had vaguely sensed it as well.”
“As expected,” Dogal lifted one corner of his mouth into a grin.
Our fight of swords probably made him sense my martial arts. I returned his grin with one of my own, and erased <Thime’s Dark Flames> on my hands. The flames, which had taken the shape of dragons as they covered my fists, were instantly contracted into the Ruby Loop.
――Eh?
Inside those flames I could see many Adombrally’s screaming in Munch’s style as they were drawn into the Ruby Loop and thus getting stretched horizontally. There were quite a lot of those small eyeballs reflected in the flames. They almost looked like Debonchicchi.
I ended up rubbing my eyes, wondering whether some dirt got in there.
Thereupon, Helme alighted from the air while carrying Lynn.
She exclaimed while looking somewhat flustered, “――Your Excellency!Countless sword spirits have attacked her body! As you can see, she’s in a critical state. But, your special healing magic, which contains your dense mana, should be able to heal her!”
Helme released water from her body, sprinkling it on Lynn. I think it does have some effect in healing Lynn’s body, but the recovery speed is much slower than what I know from healing spells.
She gently put Lynn down at Dogal’s feet.
“I’ll heal her.”
“Okay.”
I activated 《Water Cure》 right away. The language magic of water invoked without me chanting its spell. The source of the chantless effect originated from <Instant Wand of Water>. Nowadays it had merged with <Water Goddess Martial Spear Art Style – Revised> and evolved into <Call of the Water Goddess, but the effect of <Instant Wand of Water> still persisted.
And the effect of <Call of the Water Goddess> was…
※ A fraction of Water Goddess Akreshys’s power endows arms or armor. It depends on the affinity with the equipment in question, but it will grant the skill user various effects ※
Or so it said, but although 《Water Cure》 was no arm or armor, it definitely received the skill’s effect.
“Oohh, the blue eye on your shoulder is shining?” Dogal pointed at Hal’Konk’s blue eye while taken aback.
Right afterwards, the water ball above Lynn burst and scattered its healing water across her body. The raw wounds Lynn had suffered on one half of her body regenerated as if the cells in her body had been spurred into activity. The bite marks also disappeared. Even the violet puffs stemming from the blows she had suffered vanished, leaving only her previous, pretty skin behind.
“…Thanks for healing Lynn. It seems to be related to the shining of that blue eye, but not only did you use an Extreme-class healing spell without chanting, but you even applied it on a scale that would require elaborate magic skill. What surprises me even more is how you used such magic in series after healing Azol and me before Lynn.”
Dogal appeared to be surprised after seeing my mana quality and quantity from nearby. Even so, I’ve reconfirmed it once more with this. I believe that I’ve understood the spell I read in the magic scroll to a reasonable extent, but it looks like magic goes far deeper than I expected.
Even if you just look at language magic alone, the chanting itself as well as the chanting speed seem to influence the effect significantly.
Well, I guess it’s all a question of skill level. And if you also include your mana capacity, ability to manipulate mana, willpower, the surrounding environment, and the influence of the gods…there exists a plethora of factors…
“…A first-class’s――”
Dogal was about to praise me, but I lifted a hand, implicitly telling him that I don’t need any further compliments.
“――Rather than talking about that, will Lynn and Azol be alright?”
I pointed a finger and my eyes at the two women. Both were still snoring lightly.
I mean, I have punched Azol fiercely with my fist being clad in <Thime’s Dark Flames>.
“As far as I can tell, they should be alright, but I’ll examine them just in case,” Dogal said with a stiff tone.
He took a tiny container and bottle out of his pouch (I guess it’s an item box). Next, he retrieved a multi-colored pill――the one he had taken himself before――and leaves from his pouch. It seemed to contain a lot more stuff.
Then he quickly broke the pill apart and stuffed it into the container with his thumb. He further ground the leaves and poured the powder into the container. After mixing all of it, he had created a silver powder, which had amassed at the depressed bottom.
Dogal seemed to be very used to doing this.
And then he tilted the bottle while holding it atop the container. A mana-laden liquid poured out of the bottle, dripping into the container.
Once the liquid mixed with the powder, it started to vaporize as if boiling. It’s not like it completely evaporated, but a thin, pea-green smoke was created.
That smoke soon disappeared, leaving behind a faintly glowing, flesh-colored liquid at the bottom. That liquid wasn’t anything shady as it’d be contorted by a witch. Rather, it had a hue making it seem like it’d also have a healing effect based on the light attribute.
Dogal gazed at his own creation, before smiling in satisfaction.
And then he shook the container with the liquid, using swift experienced movements, and sprinkled it on the sleeping women.
I was pretty convinced that he had a swordsman-based combat ability, but maybe I was wrong. He seems to have alchemy-based skills that allow him to create potions like just now.
Going by the way he had introduced himself before, he might have acquired a special combat occupation after receiving the divine protection of God of Order Orimiel-sama as leader of the Holy Guild Alliance.
I guess that’d only be natural…
Come to think of it, Azol had <Thrown> healing potions towards Lynn and him before, but I don’t know whether he was the creator of those potions.
Azol and Dogal are both seal busters of the Holy Guild Alliance. The potions she instantly threw towards him must have been a special, secret medicine.
In addition, the cloths around their necks, the Japanese jackets of the alliance members, and the square tags visible at the chests of the leaders; all of these might possess defensive powers at the level of Legendary-class items.
“…They’re alright,” Dogal declared while looking relieved.
“Then it’s fine,” I replied.
Averting my eyes, I checked the places where my friends were fighting and at the same time I resummoned Baldok into my right hand.
Zemetas and the ancient wolfmen were fighting the huge slug spirit. Adomos, Jody, and a few of the wolfmen confronted the sword spirits. All of them had accumulated live combat experience, trust and training as guards in Cydale. Watching them now fight in teams while employing nifty group strategies looked, to be honest, pretty cool.
I think the alliance members have plenty of experience as well after having worked in the Sea of Trees, but as might be expected, their skill level was too low for them to participate in the battle of my vanguards.
While watching my friends handle the whole situation, the alliance members frequently cheered them on. At the same time, they assisted them with ranged attacks. They hurled stones, arrows, and spells at the huge slug.
I directed my attention to Jody and Adomos. They were surrounded by sword spirits. Those spirits, and their accompanying animals, had materialized. Basically they looked like regular monsters instead of spirits.
Going by number and quality of attacks, this side was definitely a lot more dangerous.
However, Adomos held them down. And in addition to him, Jody lively ravaged the ranks of the sword spirits. She basically used a hit & away tactic while floating up in the sky, cutting down the sword spirits around Adomos.
Her backup was very accurate, too.
“Your Excellency, those sword spirits seem to each have their own traits. I feel thick darkness from them, but they’re different from other spirits.”
“I see. Well, they do make those colorful, illusional animals spawn and surround them in addition to the crooked form of the main body.”
Once again, Jody brandished her scythe. After watching its trajectory, I shifted my eyes back to Helme.
“Helme, you stay here.”
“Okay, I will watch over things here,” Helme answered meaningfully.
And the dripped water from her fingertips at Lynn and Azol. Next, she extended the shining threads from her <Lapis Lazuli Flower>. Those threads gently stroked the cheeks of Lynn and Azol while the flower bulbs on Helme’s fingers emitted a nice smell.
“Hehe,” she laughed playfully.
Her entire conduct, which mixed kindness and strictness at the same time, made her look like a water queen. But, this impression immediately fell apart like a house of cards by Lynn and Azol’s butts shining.
…I don’t know why her stroking their cheeks led to their butts shining, but I won’t point out the contradiction here.
Watching all of this, Dogal looked somewhat uneasy, but in the end he stuck with a mindset of not caring too much about this.
For the time being, I cast a smile at him, and…I think my feelings got through. After nodding then and there, I turned my eyes to the battlefield once more.
The alliance members in the rear had also joined the attack. Magicians with wands were shooting 《Earth Spear》-based attack spells. The small flock of stones slammed into the soft torso of the big slug.
In the meantime, I operated my item box, retrieving a certain item while watching the battle.
Then, as I slowly walked forward, I looked for a place that would require my assistance in a way that wouldn’t disturb the teamwork of my friends.
“――We’re changing from Wolf Set – Six Fangs to Bone Wolf Formation Number Three!”
Daon-san’s vigorous voice echoed across the area. I heard this sort of voice from him for the first time, but it seemed to be different for the other wolfmen and my Burning Knights.
After they switched their tactic, a new being took center stage, whether he wanted it or not, in this battle section ―― Black Burning Knight Zemetas.
Zemetas held up his shield in front and charged. He moved so as to willingly use his own body to cover for two young wolfman warriors.
At that moment, the belly of the slug exploded, tentacles rushing out from within. They immediately turned into a swarm of tentacle spears.
Zemetas blocked the onslaught by moving his big shield in all directions. You could immediately tell the high skill of his defensive abilities as the mighty tentacle spear attacks made his feet sink into the ground as he fended them off.
“――I shall acknowledge you to be a worthy foe, but these semi-transparent tentacles won’t work on me! There exists a wide difference to Helme-sama!” Zemetas shouted.
Apparently acknowledging Zemetas in kind, the slug released a weird screech, and the number of tentacle spears clad in a weird aura increased as they grew out of its soft torso.
The chain attacks by spears continued. The appearance of those spears looked like a gooey mucus for an instant, are they possibly as hard as wax? Their cores do appear to be as durable as steel.
Being on the receiving end, Zemetas groaned and at the same time caused the flames burning in his eye sockets to flicker. The flickering gained in intensity and jet-black steam started to copiously gush out from Zemetas’s chest.
At that moment――
“Who do you think I am!? I am Black Burning Knight Zemetas who had his name granted personally by His Excellency!” Zemetas yelled to rally his spirits.
And this caused his partner Adomos also to react by saying, “Right! And I am Red Burning Knight Adomos! Don’t look down on us who are His Excellency’s Dark Hellbone Knights――”
Adomos agreed with Zemetas. In the meantime, he was blocking attacks of sword spirits surrounded by gorilla-like animal illusions with his big, square shield, while using his bone sword to launch counterattacks. It looks like these two harmonize even if further away from each other.
Zemetas responded to Adomos, yelling, “Aye!”, before holding up his shield and exclaimed, “Nuuuooooo――”
He didn’t stop advancing even while crying out this terrifying soul scream. Commotions and cheers came from the area around the slug.
I fired some <Shining Lances>, worrying that he might be in trouble, but that fear was needless. The light spears themselves easily penetrated the slug’s body, but it didn’t scream.
Zemetas charged while blocking and repelling the tentacle spear attacks. Patterns similar to studded stardust spread in the black smoke and steam coming from Zemetas. This stardust gently settled down on his mantle. He was going at it with an incredible drive.
With his stardust-covered mantle fluttering, he closed the distance to the slug, and then he swung his big, massive bone shield sideways. A fierce shield bash impacted against the slug’s torso. While the slug’s torso caved in alongside a weird sound, Zemetas shifted to his next attack motion after extending his free hand.
He used his bone sword to unleash a powerful thrusting technique you could also call a <Thrust>. His slouching and step-in resembled Quiche’s swordsmanship. The thrust itself was unleashed by him capitalizing on such a strong twist of his waist that it looked like he could have broken his hip bone.
Did he adopt not only Quiche’s sword style, but also Helme’s posing? For Helme’s posing to show some use in this situation here…
Magnificently imitating Helme by twisting his waist must have been the reason why he didn’t go back to the Spirit World on so many occasions. He can’t take Sela’s weapons and armor back to the Spirit World. But, he can take the experience he gathered in Sela with him.
He should be using the same waist movement in his battle in the Spirit World, too.
“Gyaueeeaaaa!” The slug screeched after having a hole opened up in its potbelly.
It was a surprise that it also possessed vocal chords.
Well, it’s clear that it’s painful.
The blade of Zemetas’s bone sword was that of a flamberge. And rugged blades such as rock spikes and dragon fangs grew out of it all over the place. He had used that tricky flamberge for the thrust while rotating his thrust.
It caused the slug’s flesh to be torn apart and gouged out. That must have hurt.
In response to Zemetas’s, the ancient wolfmen apparently got inspired and shifted to a fighting style based on hit-and-run attacks.
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