Chapter 274: Aro vs Abyss

274 – Aro vs Abyss

“…”

Aro lowers her stance, her shoulders heaving. There’s no change in the quality of her skin, so she should still have some MP left.

“VEeeeEEhh!”

The abyss she attacked and the others all rush towards us. The two in the back suddenly split left and right, and hide their presences. I follow them with my eyes, but just when I think they’re about to touch a tree, they abruptly disappear.

…Until those two show themselves, I’ll have to leave them be. If they want to eat the grafant, they could be clinging to the it right now. They could also be running away, or they could be aiming for me… For the time being, I’ll keep an eye on the lesser treant and the spiderlings. Their actions aren’t something I can predict.

“VeaaAAaah!”

The abyss runs at me with its eight legs, rapidly closing the distance.

“Earth…ma, gic… [Clay]!”

Aro raises a hand towards it. The ground swells, aiming at the abyss. But it steps back without turning, cleanly dodging the earth before continuing to draw closer.

It really is quite nimble. [Gale] has a larger area of effect, so I feel like it’s easier to hit with.

Aro holds a hand to her face. There’s not much change in her skin, but the faint black light that’s been covering her has grown faint. Is she out of MP? Don’t hold back from absorbing mine, okay?

I signal Aro with my eyes, pointing the tip of my tail up. She gives a small nod and embraces my tail. The black light covering her shifts around as it strengthens.

While she’s restoring her magic power, the abyss has more or less gotten right in front of me. In just a little moment, it’ll be in reach of my tail… It might be better if I gave some physical assistance about now.

Aro immediately returns her line of sight to the abyss and raises both her hands.

“[Gale]!”

The light that fires from each of her hands stirs the wind, forming a pair of tornadoes. They fly away from it, circling around to pincer it from either side. It hastens its legs to leave the two tornadoes diagonally behind it. Aro raises her arms once again.

“[Gale]!”

The two newly appearing tornadoes rush towards it from the front. The four tornadoes have the abyss surrounded. Ooh, this should do some heavy damage, right?

Swaying, Aro supports herself on the bend in my tail. The magic power covering her has grown thin once again. I guess her limit’s about four of them, then. She touches my tail with one hand, raising the other to the abyss.

“[Clay]!”

The abyss bends its legs to try and fly through a gap between the tornadoes. The earth pillar summoned by [Clay] seals its escape route with pinpoint accuracy. Stopping without thinking, the abyss is pinched between the four tornadoes.

With a loud howling noise, the four tornadoes cancel each other out. The strong winds even reach me. I hold my wings out in front of me, protecting Aro from the backlash.

Something that looked like a tree branch is carried by the winds and flies towards my eyes. Dodging would be bothersome and it’s not that large, so I resolve to receive it with my eyelid. It sticks to my eyelids and, strangely, starts contracting and expanding with small movements.

In the next moment, I understand. That long, black, sticky thing is an abyss’ leg.

“Gauah!?”

I instinctively recoil with all my strength, but quickly recover myself, focusing so that Aro doesn’t fall from my tail.

The leg falls to the ground and twitches and wriggles… I didn’t want to see that. If only I’d blocked it with my wings.

Perhaps because I was distracted for a moment, the abyss that Aro was fighting has disappeared. As I turn to check on the spiderlings, I notice an abyss lurking in my blind spot, about leap out at Aro. It’s got seven unbalanced legs… There’s no mistaking it, this is the same one as before.

It’s aiming at Aro rather than me. Perhaps because it’s retaliating for her attack, or because it’s noticed I haven’t helped, it’s judged her to be the bigger threat.

It doesn’t look like she’s noticed it yet. I raise my tail up high. Losing her footing, Aro clings on. The abyss slams its head into the underside of my tail and falls straight down.

Its current status is…

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Species: Abyss

Condition: Enraged (major)

Lv: 24/58

HP: 134/288

MP: 52/58

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

I-it’s finally below half… Aro could do with a rest soon, so should I defeat all the abysses in the area? Thinking that, I look at Aro to see raising a hand to the abyss, still clinging to my tail.

Just when I was thinking I should lower my tail to crush it, it looks like she still wants to fight. This child is pretty motivated about levelling, after all. If the person in question still wants to go, then I guess I’ll wait and see a bit longer.

“[Gale]!”

Her wind magic violently explodes on the defenceless underside of the abyss that had been rolling around belly-up. Perhaps because she activated it so quickly, it doesn’t have the same force as before.

It’s just strong enough to flip it over. Flipped right-side up, the dazed abyss looks around in confusion, raising its head a little.

“[Gale]! [Gale]! [Gale]!”

Aiming for that opening, she fires off three more wind magics. They’re even smaller than before, only keeping their form for about a second. The abyss shrinks down, enduring the wind pressure.

“Ga…kyaaa!”

The wind eddies and bursts at the tip of her outstretched arm. Letting out a high-pitched scream, she crouches down on my tail. Having been dried out by the wind, her arm is covered in cracks. She must’ve been unable to control the [Gale] due to a lack of magic power.

She touches my tail with her other hand once again, absorbing MP with [Mana Drain]. It looks like the most she can do is absorb with one hand and track the target with her other. It doesn’t look like she can fire off repeated shots like a machine gun.

“VeEeah!”

The abyss jumps up for a second time. It’s speed is far greater than hers.

“Ga-…”

Perhaps because it took an longer than she thought to switch skills, her reaction comes far too late. She cuts off the condensing of magic for her [Gale] part way through, as she hardens her stance, holding out her arm. Unrelenting, the abyss stretches out two of its disconcertingly long legs, aiming to strike at her from both sides.

The abyss’ extended forelegs are really are long. Once it’s closed the distance, there’s no time for her to replenish her MP after all. She’s worked hard, so I’m sure she’ll get plenty of experience.

Thinking that, I raise my claw intent on crushing it to death. But in that instant, Aro’s hand swells in size and she grabs its head.

“Gaa…?”

Unthinking, I let out a stupid voice. The abyss floats in the air, its long legs wriggling frantically. I can’t tell what’s happening because my view is blocked from the front.