Vol 2: Chapter 44
「It’s coming!」
Ouroboros recognized that the three newcomers were also enemies. It opened its mouth wide and charged at them.
「Non, Mimino, move back!」
「Yes!」
「Of course!」
Non-san and Mimino-san moved backwards to dodge the attack, but Dante-san took a step forward towards Ouroboros. Right before the mouth snapped close, Dante-san backstepped. Ouroboros, who miscalculated the distance, bit empty air.
Dante-san carried a mace in his right hand. A thick iron rod and steel plates arranged like flower petals at its head. I don’t know when she used it, but Non-san’s【Support Magic】improved Dante-san’s physical ability by several levels. He swung down the mace on the tip of Ouroboros’s nose, destroying the scales that were only shallowly scratched by my short sword. The snake’s head caved in and crashed on the ground.
《KAAAAAAAAA!!》
Blood scattered from the tip of Ouroboros’s nose, as it roared and rolled around. Crashing into the houses on the street, destroying the walls.
Wow. Dante-san stepped into an enormous monster’s range without hesitation, used that as a feint, and delivered a strong blow. The resolution and power behind his attack was clearly stronger than 4 years ago.
Dante-san, you should be about 40 years old, right!? Why are you powering up!? Normally, your physical strength should be going down, right!?
Perhaps Dante-san noticed my shock, as he grinned at me.
「It’s been four years. I’m sure you have gotten considerably stronger too, right?」
「…Yes.」
That’s right. It’s been 4 years for all of us. I’ve grown a lot too.
「Dante-san, I will create an opening, so can you keep it busy?」
「Leave it to me!」
He didn’t ask how or why.
Just nodded and undertook it.
He had absolute trust in me—that made me happy.
「It started moving again!」
Ouroboros was angry at Dante-san.【World Ruler】confirmed that mana was gathering in its eyes.
(I won’t let you have the first move!)
I immediately launched【Fire Magic】with my right hand and added【Wind Magic】with my left hand. Although the flame didn’t have enough power to cause real damage, the size was large. Ouroboros was surprised and pulled its body back.
「…Reiji, now you can cast two magic at the same time—」
「I will join the attack too!」
I ran to the other side of Ouroboros’s head. Since there were 6 eyes, it caught sight of me, as I expected. Lumps of darkness flew at me at high speed. It was【Dark magic】. I dodged around to evade them. The dark lumps exploded when it came into contact with the pavement, resulting in reduced visibility due to flying debris and dust. Ouroboros’ big head charged through the dust cloud.
「I knew you would come!」
Ouroboros is a huge beast. At the same time, it also possesses wisdom; frightened by fire, recognizes its enemies, and uses magic. Given all that, I was positive that it can at least employ tactics.
(【Water magic】!)
I used most of my remaining mana to activate water magic.【Water Magic】is, as the name suggests, magic that manipulates water—on the other hand, it can also reduce temperature, as opposed to【Fire Magic】. It seems that some people call this “Ice Magic”, but there is no skill orb called “Ice Magic”.
Three thick ice walls appeared in front of me when I struck my hands on the ground. Mana rapidly depleted from my body.
…I will stop it with this.
According to【World Ruler】, it should be possible. This will stop Ouroboros.
「A-Are you for real!?」
Ouroboros was still hiding its cards. It activated【Dark Magic】to wrap its giant body. Ouroboros easily broke the first ice wall, broke the second wall while decelerating, and collided with the third wall Cracks appeared in the third wall and crumbled before long.
(Oh crap! It’s gonna hit me head on!)
Right when I was about to dodge out of the way, a small jar flew. The porcelain jar, baked with green glaze, broke when it hit the collapsed ice wall and scattered purple phosphorescence.
「What’s that?」
And as if I was watching a video being rewinded, three ice walls reappeared — surrounding Ouroboros.
《GU, GOGO, AAA …》
With its head surrounded by the ice walls, like a collar, Ouroboros was unable to move.
「Nufufufu, what do you think about my secret potion “Dupe Potion”?」
Mimino-san, who threw the jar from a distant place, had a self-satisfied look on her face, with her arms folded. Amazing. So cute.
Is it an item that reproduces the cast magic attack? I have never heard of something like that.
「Reiji… it seems to have stopped moving.」
「Yes, I don’t know if it applies to Ouroboros, but poikilotherms are vulnerable to changes in body temperature.」
「What does that mean?」Dante-san looked confused.
「Ah, well, I’ll explain it some other time.」
I didn’t know if Ouroboros was a poikilotherm, but judging by the fact that it looks a lot like a snake, it is likely to have inherited the characteristics of a snake. So I thought its weakness would be low temperature.
「For the time being, we should try to restrain it fro–」
「Don’t let your guard down! It can still move!」
I was taken aback by Non-san’s sharp voice. I got careless because the head in front of us became sluggish due to the coldness.
Ouroboros quickly raised its torso, like a big towering tree, and dropped it on us.
Dante-san let go of the mace, slipped in front of me, and held up his great shield with both hands. A loud sound echoed, like the sound of a car crash.
「NUOOOOOO!!」Dante-san roared.
The torso flipped down to the side, and flicked across the ground. The ground shook and clouds of dust rolled up.
「Reiji! The finishing blow!」
「–I’m on it!」
I had already jumped on top of Ouroboros’s head. My mana was almost exhausted and my field of vision was slightly swaying. I gripped the short sword in a backhand grip, and raised it high.
「God’s Divine Blessing!」
Non-san cast【Support Magic】on me. “Mysterious characteristic” magic such as【Healing Magic】and【Support Magic】is most effective when in direct contact with the target, and its efficacy gradually diminishes as the distance increases. I was surprised that the magic reached me even though the distance between me and Non-san was about 15 meters.
As though a messenger of God was descending from the sky, radiant light poured down from the sky enveloping me, filling my body to the brim with power.
(There seems to be another type of magic mixed in!)
I’ve never heard of【Support Magic】having such an effect. It seems like Non-san has also learned some new techniques.
「HAH!!」
I thrusted the sword right between Ouroboros’ six eyes. The blade stopped when it sunk halfway in. So I mobilized all my muscles to the limit to push the blade all the way in.
「HAAAAAAAAAA!!!!」
As the sword slowly cut deeper, at a certain point, I heard the sound of something breaking. Right then, Ouroboros’ body stiffened for a moment, and collapsed powerlessly on the spot.
「Haa…」
I jumped down from Ouroboros’ head and landed right next to Dante-san. The scales of the giant snake rapidly grew pale in colour, and turned into ashes, as it scattered into the sky.
「Eh, is it disappearing?」
The black body fluid that I was covered in also rapidly dried out and turned white.
「Does that mean you defeated it?」
「M-Maybe…」
Even【World Ruler】informed that Oroboros no longer had a life response.
When the wind blew, the breaking down process became much faster—more than half of Ouroboros’ body disappeared, while we watched in a daze.
However, only the enormous skeleton with a black lustre remained. Looking like a fossil specimen, it stretched all the way from where we stood to the 2nd Holy District, like a black railway track.
My sword was still stuck in Ouroboros’ skull, and there was a red jewel, cut in half.
I guess, we can say the threat to the Holy City is now gone…
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