Chapter 213: Reaching the Heavens Part 19 Part 1

When it comes to facts, for Rust bow is just your ordinary fantasy weapon. Personally, I have no real experience with sniping and any form of archery, but I am more than sure that she chose the bow as her main weapon only because it was a long range weapon.

However, the way she was able to swiftly move throughout the battlefield and shoot at the same time was reflecting countless hours she must have spent doing that in Nephilim Hollow. Also, she was handling the bow like a natural born archer, which was pretty amazing in and out of itself, judging by the fact that she went back to ShanFro only recently, so she did not have all that much time to practice. …… I would not be able to do nearly half as good as Rust was doing right now.

「…… Mold.」

「That is all from me. I’m sorry, Rust, but I won’t be able to cast any more buffs. I have run out of MP.」

「…… Tsk, alright, fine, I get it.」

Now, if you look in the distance, you will be able to see a truly marvelous and fabulous Non Standard War Machine conducting a truly marvelous and spectacular bombardment.

Mechas in ShangriLa Frontier…… Rust was not able to use them herself as of now, but she was definitely going to see to it that she would be able to experience them fully before long.

And if that was the case, then I believe that she would do everything in her power to be of as much use as possible during this battle. All so that she could score some extra points with the owner of not one, not two, but four mechas. That person was of course me.

「…… Fuu……」

Rust told me that at the current moment her magic bow, “Lar Willow”, was approaching the limits of its durability. However, at the current moment it must be durable enough to withstand eight more shots.

Probably the greatest merit of magic bows is that they can shoot out magic attacks as though they were skills…… That is its general merit, but for Rust the ultimate merit was laying somewhere else. It was the fact that you did not needed actual arrows to shoot your projectiles, since the arrows were being made out of magic. This was burdening your body less.

「…… It’s hard for me to aim like that.」

In other words, magic attacks coming from magic bows in this game are very similar to beam attacks in the Sci-Fi games. What’s more, Rust can further amplify that feeling of shooting “beams” by using her own archer skills and Mold’s support skills. Whatever works for her.

Her target was simple: eight jewels that are located behind the Kutanid of the Abyss’s back.

Rust fires her first shot, additionally corrected by her own passive skill “Heavenly Arrow”. An arrow of pure light shoots out of Rust’s bow and travels towards Kutanid’s back, hitting dead in the center of one of the jewels located at the base of one of the eight tentacles.

「…… Next.」

Rust fires a second shot, enhanced with the skill “Stream Arrow”, which results in increased penetration of the arrows that you shoot. The arrow flies towards its mark and hits it just like the first, and just like the first jewel, this one also ends up shattering to glittering pieces.

「…… Next, next, next.」

Next go the skills: “Crane’s Shooting”, “Prancing Horse’s Shot” and “Double Arrow”…… It should also be mentioned that a magic bow did not required that much strength from the shooter. It was easier to handle than the regular bow, mostly because the string that you were pulling in order to shoot the magic arrows was magic as well, not a physical one. Therefore the magical arrows could be all fired in a rapid succession, hitting Kutanid merely seconds after it fell onto the ground.

And Rust’s eyes were clearly not deceiving her. Every time one of the jewels was being crushed to pieces, the tentacle that was corresponding to that jewel was drying up and rotting away, ultimately getting destroyed.

「…… Just two more……!?」

「Rust!」

But it was right here that Kutanid’s behavior became rather unexpected.

As for the remaining two jewels and their respective tentacles, they started to move around violently and bent in a weird ways, lodging themselves into the ground. There was no way for us players to know that at that time, but the tentacles are special objects that under certain conditions can act and move in a way that would normally be impossible for any human or animal limbs.

The tentacles that struck the ground seemed super heavy for us, but for Kutanid they were lighter than a feather. Which means that when the tentacles acted like springs and ejected Kutanid in the air, it was only the mass of its main body that it had to be concerned with. But their strength was still there, and it was more than enough to give Kutanid some truly amazing hang time.

「…… It… jumped……!?」

「Rust, get out of there! Now!」

The moment Rust took notice of that was the moment that Kutanid’s body was starting to fall back towards the ground.

It was not a juggle or being thrown into the air by the enemy. It was a voluntary maneuver that was supposed to secure you an advantage over your enemies, being above them and being able to assess the situation better. This giant would eventually fall down towards the ground, but for the time being the power scales were completely reversed here.

The remaining tentacles take aim and start to swing towards us……

「I won’t…… let you……!」

The rusty knight enters the stage, pushing Rust back and causing her to roll alongside the ground. When Rust regained her composure and stood up, what she saw was the image of Saiga-0 blocking the attack of the tentacles all by herself.

「Kuh, aaah……!!!」

There was no way that Saiga-0 would be able to withstand that kind of attack. Not when her equipment was weakened, and she could not cast any magic or use any skills herself. Of course, she tried to attack the tentacles with her now rusty sword and the sledgehammer that he picked up alongside the way. She put every ounce of her strength into that attack. But it was all to no use. The attack hardly did anything to the tentacles, and it did not shift their position even by a centimeter. The next moment Saiga-0’s body was slammed by the tentacles and bounced off the ground like a rubber toy.

「……!!!」

「I’m… okay…… I can still… fight……!」

No, stop concerning yourself with it. Try to convince yourself that this is a waste of time. Try to be like Rust, who went on the offensive, knowing that it was what she needed to do.

The tentacles raise once more to attack, but Rust also raises her bow high in the air, as to not miss an opportunity to attack.

That’s right. I still have role I must fulfill. I still have my responsibility. I must make sure that Kutanid is going to be stunned for long enough.