“Hah… hah…”
As he slowly got up from the ground after going down for the third time, Dauma gasped for air as he defended himself once again from the seemingly unbeatable enemy he was facing.
On top of his rapidly depleting strength and stamina, there were even more cuts all over his body now, with a few of them still smoking from the blue fiery burns that had been violently inflicted on him.
He could not heal them at this stage yet, and even just one slight movement by him caused them to open up and ooze blood, resulting in nothing but extreme pain for him. As a result, he was severely exhausted, too hindered by his intense injuries to properly move.
“Come on…”
Next to him, Yuu had almost reached her limit as well. She had already switched to her Reaper form when she had to in order to assist him whenever she could, but despite her powerful soul-cutting scythe, the fact remained that she could not land a hit on their opponent in order for it to work, and that the time was running out for her to do so.
Both of them were now greatly weakened in their fight, having nearly reached the point of being unable to hold their own, but they remained firm, unwilling to go down for good if they could still stand, despite the odds being drastically against them.
“Give it… a rest, worms.”
However, even though they had still failed to hit him, that was not to say that both of their efforts against the devil Lucian had been in vain either.
Contrary to what Anten feared, he did not seem to have the ‘other Particle’ on him, and as such his stamina did not seem to be infinite either. Very slowly, bit by bit, as time went on and the fight continued without end, he was looking to be more unsteady and less confident in his attacks, with his movements gradually slowing down and becoming less sharp as well.
He was still expertly swinging his blade around to strike his opponents with every chance he got, but after a certain point, he had stopped being confrontational.
Slowly but surely, he had kept a sizable distance between him and his opponents, creating a clear boundary with his sword despite the fact that he still did not have a single scratch on him.
Seeing how he was reacting at the moment as compared to earlier, it gave Dauma even more confidence in persisting with the fight, especially considering that his theory as to what his weaknesses were had already been confirmed.
Heh.
The thing that had been bugging him the most about his unbreakable shield, the one that they could not dent even with their most powerful attacks, was something that did not make any sense when he slowed down and thought about it more carefully.
If his shield was truly impenetrable, unable to be broken by any means, the fact that he was able to be choked out by him, by his bare hand to be more specific, did not seem to be possible.
If Lucian could not be hit, how could he touch him? And if he could touch him, why could the parts that could do so not be hit either? It was a paradoxical mystery regarding an unfair advantage, but it could be answered surprisingly easily if he were to analyse the scenario more carefully.
How is it possible? How?
The first and most important question to ask first was whether he was actually hitting him or not. To that, Dauma was quite sure that there was a force intently squeezing his neck as tightly as possible, cutting off the oxygen supply to his brain. He also could not have imagined choking himself out, if the alternative implied so.
In that case, considering that it did happen, then the other question that had to be asked was more complex. If the hand that choked him could not be hit or touched, as there was still an invisible barrier protecting it, then how was it possible that it was actually coming into contact with his neck at all?
After he had learnt the answer to that question, the weakness of the shield would become clear to him, and he would know what he needed to do. As such, the moment that he had tested it out by intercepting Lucian’s advance towards Blake earlier, his suspicions were fully confirmed.
He can’t be hurt by anything I throw at him, that is true, but that doesn’t mean I can’t touch him.
With that revelation, the imminent threat suddenly became less dire, if only by a little. For a start, he could now consider his shield less of an impossible boundary now, and more of an ordinary defensive barrier.
Essentially, what it all boiled down to was a simple suit of armour without any gaps to pierce through, which meant that he could still interact with it as much as he wanted to, even if he could not reach the devil inside.
“Aha.”
“!!!”
Using that knowledge in hand, he was able to grab onto the shield whenever he was able to get close to it, which in turn allowed him to fling the devil around into the surrounding houses and tents, stunning him just long enough to get a few free shots in, and the fight was able to continue.
With that development, the fighting between the three had slowly evolved from being long-ranged and avoidant to a more personal close-quarter skirmish, filled with the destruction of the environment around them and the violent spilling of blood.
Despite the fact that Dauma still ran the risk of getting heavily injured in the process of closing the gap between him and Lucian, he did not care about any of that as long as he got to at least deal something to his opponent.
“Grr…”
At the same time, Lucian had growled angrily as soon as he had caught on to the fact that they already knew his weakness and had changed their tactics, resulting in his whip-like attacks becoming more ferocious and charged.
The sudden departure of the other two enemies he had been tasked to take out was also weighing heavily on his mind, and despite his observation that they were not going after his beloved mistress Hikari at the moment, he knew that they were all up to something.
Like rats moving around in the dark, sneakily doing their best to survive and getting whatever they wanted whenever they had the opportunity to do so, the fact that he could not see them with every second that passed only made him even more suspicious as to what their retaliatory attack would be, and when it would come.
“…”
Because of that, his head was left spinning with doubts, allowing both Dauma and Yuu to take their chances and attack him with everything they had, in an attempt to exhaust him as soon as possible such that his shield powers would wear off, and he would be open for the real counterattack.
“… how dare you, you bastards!” he had yelled out loud once he had realized his grave mistake and mentally returned back to the fight before it was too late, “guess I better take care of you two first!”
And so, here they were in the present, still in their relentless battle of attrition, with both sides still unwilling to give up or lose. As he slowly caught his breath from all the strenuous actions he had to take, Lucian could feel his shield starting to flicker, indicating its greatly drained state to him.
Just a few more hits were left before it would shatter completely, and it would take a long while for him to recuperate enough energy to make it again. Maintaining his weapon would be easy, but actively maintaining his defence was not. Once it was gone, the outcome of the fight would most likely be decided.
“No, this cannot happen!”
To his anger, the vermin were surprisingly durable. If there was one thing he was sure of, it was that he could not lose to a pitiful band of disgusting cockroaches who had not lived as long as he had.
With deep pride, love and authority; under no circumstance would he accept the outcome where they could beat him, even if they were ultimately no match for his companion.
Everyone still had gas left in the tank, and even though Dauma and Yuu were both worse off than he was, it was still anyone’s game to win, and all three of them knew it.
… I have to finish it.
Whichever side that collapses first would lose. The one who made the decisive move would win for the ones they had been supporting from the start. Their very motivations and goals were on the line.
“…”
As they watched Lucian lower his body down to the ground as he continued to swing his blue fire sword around him, Dauma and Yuu did the same, glaring at him with a fiery determination in their eyes as they tensed themselves up to go at it again.
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No matter what happens.
“… devil!”
However, right at the moment when they were about to charge, another player entered the arena, eliciting an immediate sound of displeasure from Lucian who had temporarily paused in response.
“Huh? Blake?” Dauma turned his head to confirm, and sure enough, the young man was there, having suddenly emerged out of a random house right next to him without making a single sound.
“Come on, devil! Surely you don’t want to quit now! Let’s fight the son of a bitch and win!”
For someone who had left the battle earlier, Blake seemed unusually confident, wearing his usual cocky grin on his face as though he had not just soundly lost to the power of a Particle. As he placed his hands on his hips and looked at Dauma, it was pretty obvious that he already had a plan in mind before he had revealed himself.
“… tch, it doesn’t matter.”
Of course, Lucian did not know what he had improvised, but he merely shrugged it off and prepared himself even more to deal with the newcomer. Nothing had changed drastically, and if he could play his attacks right, the plan they had in mind would be ruined and he would win.
“I will simply kill all of you before you can get to do anything!” he declared with fierce conviction, as he pumped himself up to get the maximum output he could reach at his current state before going down to the ground once again, ready to strike them all with his weapon.
Simply put, nothing could change what they had to do.
“Let’s fucking do this!!!”
**********************
“Hoo… alright.”
You got this, Anten. You have one chance. It’s all or nothing. You must NOT screw this up!
In her desperation to ensure everything went as smoothly as possible, Anten kept repeatedly reassuring herself in her head before taking a couple of deep breaths to calm down.
In her trembling hands, she held her bow of light, the thing that was most critical to their counterattack, though she felt that she could drop it at any moment from sheer nervousness.
Somehow, she had managed to sneak both herself and Blake to their respective destinations without Hikari or Lucian noticing, so that was a start. He was placed closest to the fight in order to get their attention, while she was at the edge of the town itself far away from them, waiting for the signal.
“Let’s fucking do this!!!”
And as soon as she heard Blake’s shout, and the loud footfalls indicating an attack charge from both parties, she swiftly made her move as she jumped out from the side of the building and back onto the main street.
Her line of sight was of the four main fighters, and the angel observing them all. She would not miss her shot for sure, but she had to make sure it was as accurate as possible for her ability to work to their full advantage.
I’m sorry, Dauma… Miss Yuu…
Inhaling sharply as she drew her bowstring, she held it for a second to fully make sure the arrow she had loaded was the right one before she swiftly released it and watched it whistle in the air as it moved at high speed towards its targets.
Given that he was facing in the direction of where she was standing, and the fact that she was out in the open, Lucian immediately noticed her and the arrow that was flying directly towards him.
“Y—!!!”
Sensing something was amiss, he abandoned the three opponents that were surrounding him and crouched down before unfurling his bone wings and leaping upwards into the sky, getting away from the arrow’s intended path and openly hoping that it would hit the others instead.
“...”
However, instead of reacting in disappointment as he had thought, Anten merely kept quiet before cracking a large smug smile, causing him to flinch as soon as he had noticed her surprising expression. The feeling that he had made a big mistake was quickly settling in, and he somehow knew that he was about to find out why.
For what she had fired was not her normal arrow of light that he had seen her fire before. Rather, it was another one of her special techniques, something that he had had no prior knowledge of, and one that he was severely unprepared for.
As the arrow carried on going, it soon began to change in the blink of an eye. Initially looking as though it was disintegrating into nothing, what it was actually doing was splitting itself into smaller, and smaller, and smaller arrows.
One became two, two became four, four became eight, going on and on until there were a thousand tiny needle-sharp projectiles, all travelling in a wide area separated from one another, with their range stretching all the way up to him and beyond.
“Aghk!” Lucian could only let out a shocked yell as he was found himself still in danger from the attack, and he quickly attempted to move out of the way once again, or at the very least tank them if he was not fast enough.
However, there were simply way too many of them to dodge completely, and even though they did not look to be very threatening at first glance, having multiple small divine blades piercing or slicing through the body did not sound like a fun time for anyone, almost like the same feeling one would get with ordinary paper cuts.
“…”
Of the 1000 arrows that were released from Anten, 87 of them failed to even reach their destination, having lost momentum before that, and either hitting the ground or the nearby houses, while 128 flew too far off, going ever upwards until they disappeared into the sky.
That left 785 still in the running to hit anyone and anything in their path, including Lucian, Dauma, Yuu, and Blake, who had all been caught unaware by Anten’s attack with the exception of the last person, the young man who had planned the attack together with her.
“!!!”
Luckily, the angle of the initial arrow had been tilted slightly up, meaning that of the numerous racing projectiles, more of them were headed towards Lucian than the other three, although they all still were forced to put up their individual defences as soon as they noticed them, with Blake quickly dashing back into the house he had just exited from to get away.
“Ngh! Ghh!”
180 of the initial 785 soon made contact with Dauma and Yuu, who had both turned around with their backs facing the arrows such that they would do less damage to them, though with Dauma’s weakened state and unhealed injuries, they were still incredibly painful to endure, forcing stifled grunts to come out of his mouth as a result.
“Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!”
At the same time, 156 made contact with and were deflected off of Lucian’s flickering shield, with the others just barely missing him by a few inches and continuing straight on.
The said arrows that struck the devil’s defences had, to his horror, come dangerously close to his body, the small projectiles sinking into his shield bit by ominous bit before subsequently bouncing off, sending him into a slight panic.
“No!!!”
As soon as possible, he hurriedly brushed off the remaining ones that were still coming towards or were already on him, hoping that none of them would actually break through and hit him.
“Hey.”
“!!!”
In the midst of all the chaos, he had not noticed it, but Anten was now in front of him at the same exact height, with her bow loaded and ready to fire once again. She was still understandably keeping her distance after seeing that his shield remained standing, though the expression on her face told him that she would be ready once it was down for good.
“You little…”
There were no more arrows that were approaching him, and so, angered by her open courage and threat, he swung his whip sword to the side before bringing it back, aiming to get her once and for all.
“Die!!!!!”
But before he could finish his backswing, he could hear an ominous cracking sound coming from just behind him, before multiple pinpricks of intense pain suddenly shot from his back and coursed all through his body, causing him to freeze in place.
“Dauma! Now!”
Taking advantage of the moment they had, Anten grabbed the arrow from her bow and turned it into a double-edged blade before loudly calling out for her companion, who had slightly recovered and was still eager to finish the fight.
“Fuck!”
For the very first time during the entire fight, Lucian swore. He did not have the time to defend himself again; rather, he was focused on something else, the source of the cracking noise and the sudden stinging.
Looking behind him, he could see them in full display, the tiny arrows sticking out of his wings and back, having finally broken through his defences. It was not that his shield had failed him either, it was that he could no longer feel its presence protecting him.
His stamina had finally run out, along with his great power, and the layer of protection had been completely shattered by the surprise attack from behind him without him even realizing it.
“Fucking hell!”
But where had the arrows come from? How had they struck him from behind? The answer he dreaded to know was ultimately simple, and it was from the angel mistress he had been protecting all along, though she had nothing to do with it.
There were still 449 arrows left from Anten’s massive area attack. Of those 449, 103 were the ones that had just barely missed him and flew away into the distance, joining the previous 128 that had done the same earlier.
That left 346, the ones that had missed Dauma and Yuu on the ground. The same exact ones that were going straight towards the throne sculpture in the town square, towards Hikari herself, who had not moved from her spot despite everything that had happened.
To end it off, she was still being protected by the Love Particle, the one he was still using on her, and the one that had just backfired on him spectacularly using its attack reflection abilities.
Anten was at the same height as him for a reason. She used an area attack technique that she had never used before for the same reason. And she counted on that reason to win, as he finally figured out.
“Take that!”
“Guh!”
By then, it was too late for him to respond, as with his defences now broken, both Anten and Dauma came at him from two different sides, the fierce fire and determination to win still present in their eyes as they both swung their respective weapons towards him.
Anten struck first, her bladed arrow going past his extended arms and directly towards his neck where it easily went through, causing him to immediately start choking out globs of blood.
Then, Dauma followed it up with a stab into his side, right between his two left arms, letting his sword sink deep inside until it reached the centre of his torso before stopping.
“Aghebh!!!”
Panicking even more at this point from the unexpected excess of pain flooding his system, Lucian quickly attempted to push his two aggressors and the blades away using his four arms.
“Gotcha!”
However, with the limbs that could stop them now occupied with something else, the both of them used that chance to grab onto them tightly, giving him no chances to break free at all.
“Quick! Find the Particle on him, now!”
“I’m trying!”
“Fghjuhjkjbuh!!!”
With all their combined pushing and pulling as they forcefully searched him, the weight soon sent the three of them tumbling back down to the ground, where they swiftly pinned him down, their legs holding his arms in place, before relentlessly continuing.
“There!!!”
After tearing open his pink suit, they saw it. The red orb, sitting where his heart was in what appeared to be an ironic and extremely disturbing sight, as it throbbed and pulsated with each heartbeat, along with the veins surrounding it, presenting something akin to an unwanted tumour or an alien attachment.
“Alright!” Anten shouted as she immediately went in without any hesitation, ignoring any of Lucian’s weak resistance as Dauma pushed him down even harder, nullifying any attempts.
They were just a few inches away from obtaining another Particle, just a few moments away from erasing not just one, but possibly two threats at the same time. She just needed to reach it, and they would even out the playing field and possibly use the confusion to escape at the same time.
“Stop.”
However, all of a sudden, they could no longer get the chance to; not even Yuu or Blake, who had been running towards them to help with the retrieval. All of them could not move an single inch, open their mouths or even slightly blink as soon as they heard it; they were essentially stuck in place.
The simple command, loud and booming inside all of their heads, came from the one they had fully expected to confront yet were ultimately not ready for, the fallen angel who had left her throne and was now currently gliding serenely towards them.
“I must say,” Hikari switched back to her normal voice and remarked as she landed in the middle of the paused scene, right in front of her devil companion, “you lot have proven to be an interesting bunch of rebels, indeed.”
“…”
All of them had expected that it would happen, but experiencing it in person for the first time was still a new thing, as they all struggled to lift their heads or even shift their eyes towards the amused angel, who had bent down to firmly pat Lucian’s head as though she was consoling him in her own way before grabbing onto it and dragging his body towards her direction.
“Interesting… but ultimately foolish.”
“G…”
Anten, her arm stuck in mid-grab, could only watch in silent horror and burning anger as the devil they had tried so hard to beat, and the Particle they had tried to get, was so very easily taken away from them.
“Now…” Hikari lifted her hand up to her chin and continued as soon as she had finished moving her companion away from danger and turned back to face her captive audience, “since we have all done our introductions and warmed ourselves up a bit, shall we finally talk peacefully for once?”