"Master-"
"! Move!"
Before I realized what had happened, Master who was in my body still, pushed me away from himself. This wasn't such a big impact as before, as I just fell onto the ground. But Master-
I felt a whoosh near my ear, as if something invisible had passed through the air quickly.
The attack had connected with Master, as he was blasted a few hundred meters away from me.
BOOM! A small dust cloud formed at the impact area.
"Wh-! Master!"
----------------------------------------
I recovered groggily and stood back up on my feet.
Soma using my body, rushed over quickly despite the bone fractures from earlier.
...Looks like she's not following. Is she confident letting go of a chance to strike like that?
...Regardless, Spatial Awareness is a very convenient passive ability... that attack would've crushed my original body to pieces, I'm glad you're so much of a cheat, lady. Even though you speak too much.
Still, was that how this girl managed to have such quick reflexes against Ru'Ah earlier?
...Speak of the devil...
Ru'Ah suddenly faded into appearance from the surroundings. Her tongue retracted back once it had landed the pre-emptive strike successfully.
"Time's up~... hmm...mm?"
Ru'Ah noticed a gigantic spider corpse cut in half and its guts strewn all over the grass, and that we had recovered a comatose Rien.
I quickly got up and regrouped with Soma who arrived by my side.
Honestly I didn't care about saving anyone at all, I prioritized effectiveness. Although it was a pleasant surprise to see her still alive, there should still be no more hope left for that Rien girl.
Ru'Ah's expression changed, as she squinted her eyes and looked on the top of my head.
"I see."
Those two words were enough as a confirmation to what she was doing at the moment.
Heeh, Status Check as well? Looks like I shouldn't glorify the existence of Status Check too much and just treat it as a general utility tool almost anyone can use in this world.
...Status Check.
Name Eluna (Ru'Ah Harpiv'al) Level 13 Unused SP 2 Rank 2 Race C̸̢̘̪͕̳̽́͛͘ó̶͎̮͚̈́r̷̫͍̼͔̱̹͘p̷̩̂̎̈́̌̀̉̀͒́̿̕͘s̶̥͎̳̙͎̯̣̩̦̪̄̍̓̎̍͐̐͐̇̀̅̓͠e̷̢͔̺͂ Gender Female Occupation Hunter Alignment True Chaos Class Combat Archer Health 10,530 (+10,000) Mana 58 Strength 10,150 (+10,000) Dexterity 10,156 (+10,000) Luck 20 Intelligence 10,141 (+10,000) Defense 10,105 (+10,000) Magic Defense 10,000 (+10,000) Equipment Traits Combat Reflexes, Sadist Titles The weak-minded, The Puppet, Man-hater, Mountain Villager, Love Taboo, Wolf Rider, Schemer, Slave Passive Skills Sword Mastery LV1, Bow Mastery LV1, Poison Resistance LV3, Tracking LV3, Cooking LV2, Hawkeye LV2, Reach Increase LV2 Active Skills Flow Acceleration, Sword Lunge, Sword Slash, Battle Cry, Volleyshot Foreign Elements C̶̛̻̘̘̬̼͇̗͐͌̿̉̎́̇̐̈͂h̷̢̡̨̡̠̥͈͔̼͎̫͙̮̯̒̌̔̑̇͆́̀̍̄̔ą̶͕̣͉̰͚̠̜͉̳̝͈͌͠o̷̧̳͙̣̝̔̄̃̋̋̈́͐̒̕̕͝s̴̢̧̛̥̲̩̘͍̯̤̩̟͍̰̝̘͛̊̍̊̐̓̄̀̇̈́̿́̐ ̴̡̱̎͛͂̓́̋̏̽̃̽͝Ş̷̨̲͙͔̱̤̱̮̘̓̽̂̈́̃̆͘ͅe̸̡̲̻͂̓̆͗̂͗̾̃̍̾̓͠r̴̭̅̂͋̇̓̒̂̏̊̌̊̾̒̕u̶̡̗͓̭̣̻̤̠̜͔̠̘̲̐̎͌͋͛̔͐͛̃͗͋̒̕͜m̶̢̭̜̺̻̬̞̟̼̈́
...Another glitched out status. How surprising.
"Of course, but since it won't be any fun if you just died without knowing why, I'll let you in on my little secret.
I have Status Reveal and Status Protection, the quintissential abilities required for information gathering~ Paired with my Mind Reading and Mind Manipulation, you're just like an open book White! There's nothing you can do that will surprise me any more!!!"
...Truly an unfair advantage. Say, how is she this much of a cheat? Hmm? Can the real Rululu somewhere in this world tell me how to beat this thing?
"My darling may be obnoxious at times, but the fact remains that you've killed him..."
"What, so you're going to come over here and fight us?"
It was an obvious provocation, but I wasn't going to lose anything even if it failed. Since we might actually have a chance against her alone.
Ru'Ah snapped her fingers, her face filled with insidious glee.
"No, I'm not the one doing the work this time~"
A few seconds later, there was some trembling on the ground. The skies seem to be swarming with crows as well.
And then it became even louder.
Until that thunderous momentum became so intense that it shook the earth greatly.
...Ah, no wonder it's been so silent in the forest. I didn't want to think of the worse case scenario, but it looks like it's going to be inevitable now.
"Behold! My magnificent performance! Demonic Beast Puppeteering!"
"Tch...!"
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Ru'Ah disappeared again with her Invisibility Cloak, which made me a little more impatient at the state of things currently.
...We're in a pinch.
In all directions after Ru'Ah's disappearance, the dinosaurs that spat out wind blasts appeared in large numbers. There were some of those pterodactyls I had encountered before as well.
They were all swarming towards me and Soma.
As expected, I can't use the Sword of Bloodwell anymore without Spatial Flow Control, except for one more thing I can do.
I quickly relayed a gap measure for the current situation to Soma inside of my body.
"I see, that's how you managed to use the Sword of Bloodwell that recognizes the soul of its original owner and defeated Har'Lus... I must say, I'd have fallen for that too if not for my Mind Reading~"
An echo of Ru'Ah's voice resounded in the forest, yet there was no sight of her.
Tch... Where is she....
I activated Clear Eyes of a Saint for good measure against her sneak attacks, and held eye contact with Soma who was in my body for a second to signal the start of the plan.
Ru'Ah had immediately camouflaged herself with her invisibility ability at the start of a fight. I anticipated this behaviour too, except the countermeasure to the incoming monsters.
Right now, our chances of victory isn't certain, it all depends on that Soma Suzuhara girl... Tsk, if only I had that Status Reveal or Mind Reading of that parasite as well. It'd be foolproof.
I looked at Soma. She was inside my body, and was trying to brace herself.
I nodded, and exclaimed.
"Now!"
Soma quickly ran over towards the Sword of Bloodwell that was left stabbed onto the ground previously. Keeping my Clear Eyes of a Saint active, I leaped up into the air as hard as I could.
"West! 35! North...21! South, 13!"
I was the watchtower for this plan.
Although I said plan, it was more of using brute force to overcome this predicament.
Now that the Drugworm had relinquished control over to me due to the fear invocation, it no longer bound Soma's body. That was why Har'Lus could not order it with a command any more.
...Insects were insects after all, they obey the most natural of instincts.
The excess mana became a perfect resource pool to abuse large expenditures of mana for Area-of-Effect abilities for this exact moment.
Soma had reached the handle of the Sword of Bloodwell. Catching her breath inside of my frail body for a few seconds, she immediately casted the first spell towards our plan without pulling out the sword.
My body didn't have the physique to do it after all.
But she could still cast Area of Effect (AOE) skills that did not involve the use of the blade.
"Diamond Dust!" Soma shouted out.
Using the same strategy from before except with a different purpose in mind, Ru'Ah noticed.
"My cloak!"
If you're so dependent on cheap tricks like that, then don't bother shouting out the skill name for me to hear you dumbass. A "cloak" implies that it's not a true invisibility skill. Probably something that reflects light or something that utilizes the natural blend of the surroundings to create a pseudo invisibility effect.
...Well, if you show it to me so much, even an idiot would realize what it actually does.
Ru'Ah was currently being revealed. But she did not flinch any longer, she immediately retreated.
She did not have any reason to stay and fight, because her aim was for the monsters that were approaching to whittle us down little by little, before coming in for the kill.
Any elements of surprise is eliminated this way, I got to give credit to her here...she is a surprisingly methodical individual.
"Petrification G-"
"Status Cure!"
"W-"
The next exchange of abilities nullified each other.
...Yes, she will obviously cast another movement-impairing ability before leaving. She wanted to leave it to the monsters, but that didn't mean she couldn't join the fray in a safe distance.
I've seen through her methods... what a disgustingly dirty tactic...
...Although I wouldn't hesitate to use it myself as well... ...I shouldn't be too hypocritical of strategies in combat...
Realizing that she didn't manage to read my plans, she was incredibly confused but she disappeared again immediately as soon as she came out to cast a Petrification Gaze.
She was extremely cautious now.
Now, then... Clear Eyes is still active.
Now that I had successfully fooled her into thinking that my plans could be read on a surface level, and that her invisible attacks would no longer work due to this ability, I decided that it was time to deal with the aggressive horde of monsters coming our way.
How I hid my thoughts was simple actually.
I've realized that Mind Reading had limited range. So all I needed to do, was to step out of Ru'Ah's effective range momentarily and trigger my suspended thought processes then. This was the second reason why I leaped upwards this high. Telepathy was still active too, so there's no issues with relaying my commands to that woman without Ru'Ah interfering and reading my mind.
Soma didn't need a response, she immediately made preparations for her abilities.
Her true profession was a Sword Mage, not a Sword Saint fabricated by Har'Lus. She had not obtained this job by chance either, as she had worked blood and tears for her current accomplishments. Thus Soma knew exactly what she had to do with her vast amounts of mana she could never utilize before under Har'Lus's disposal.
The mana that was a restrictive and torturous constraint had now become her Magnum opus as a Sword Mage.
This is what they call, effective mobbing. Gathering everyone into one place and use your strongest Area-of-Effect (AOE) attack to blow them out all at once.
"Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance! Sword Field! Sword Dance!"
Those words were repeated constantly, as the yellow glow on the sword plunged onto the ground was getting stronger. The Sword Dances were raising the attack of the swords summoned by Sword Fields multiplicatively. Swords were rapidly forming on the ground, all stabbed onto the dirt.
Once I had landed back onto the ground after a quick scout, I landed beside Soma again and held her hands on the handle of the Sword of Bloodwell. It was glowing yellow from all the amount of mana used simultaneously.
There exists something called mana or MP in this world, and my body cannot use any of these skills of hers since they all have terrible consumption rate with my body. That was why we had to join hands and share the flow of mana that way. It seems like the Sword of Bloodwell still registered Soma's original body as a source of mana.
As long as we join hands with the Mana Source and the Soul compatible with the Sword of Bloodwell, we can fight.
I was feeling a little sick from the mana consumption because this was the first time I had experienced using a large number of skills deliberately as a stacking damage combo. But I knew Soma, who was in my inept body which couldn't use mana at all, was far worse off than me.
I bit my lips as the mental strain was attacking my mind repeatedly.
The monsters were coming towards us relentlessly; They were now about 20 meters away from us, their wind blasts were within range. Some of the blasts had already chipped off a large portion of the grasslands.
BOOM! BOOM!
"Is it time yet?!"
I uncharacteristically shouted. We were in a very dangerous situation right now.
"Master, not yet!"
Soma was trying to tally and control all the summoned swords at once. But it was constantly changing, as the wind blasts continued to destroy the swords and updated the number again.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Now?!"
"N-not yettt!!!"
"They're gonna blast us any second now woman! We can't wait already!"
"! Alright I'm ready!
...Now!"
The swords that were generated in a prefixed position of being stabbed onto the ground around the caster of Sword Field, were all lifted up by another Sword Dance, which used an animation of raising swords into the air momentarily to cast an attack buff.
They were all glowing yellow, as that hue condensed around the swords levitating in mid-air.
As if recited and rehearsed saying this phrase a million times before, we called out the skill name unanimously.
"BREAKMOOONNN!"
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The surroundings became a field of white, and a powerful shockwave blinded our eyes for a few seconds.
Our ears experienced a sharp shrill as it happened.
The physical form of absolute annihilation.
A large crater was formed in the middle of the forest, and there were no longer any signs of monsters nearby.