CH 33

As Inglis dashed into the oncoming horde all by herself, all the magic stone beasts snarled and tried to attack her at the same time.

GRRR!! GUUU!! GAAA!!

The first three were canine-type magic stone beasts that mutated from either dogs or wolves. They were positioned in front of her, then diagonally to the right and left respectively.

If so…!

Inglis evaded the incoming maw from her front as she swept her foot at the beast on her left.

「Haa!」

Instantly, she delivered a high kick to the monster and hurled its body into its brethren on the right, they got tangled up and rolled along with each other. With this, the second beast’s attack was interrupted.

Not a second later, the third beast attacked but an instant was all Inglis needed to evade with a somersault. The beast’s jaws closed down on thin air and its momentum caused it to slam its mouth into the ground in the process.

This single opening was all Inglis needed to land on its head. She ran along its back and jumped as high as she could. Flying overhead was a swarm of insectoid magic stone beasts. This was her attempt to attract their attention.

Due to the mutation caused by the Prism flow, the arthropods’ legs now resembled lengthy blades. They glided their legs dangerously in the air in an attempt to slice her. Though they might be weapons, for Inglis, they were merely footholds.

With great expertise, Inglis caught the blade’s trajectory and used it as a footing. She leaped further, landing on another blade, then leaped again. Repeating the same action until she found a good spot to stop, then she changed tactics.

「Taaah!」

She leaped from her perch and landed a high jump kick with her heel on another insect’s head, felling it to the ground. The dragonfly crashed, wailing as it collided with a number of beasts below.

The horde had stopped in its tracks, shifting their focus to Inglis alone. Normal weapons were ineffective against magic stone beasts, much less a simple kick or two, so none of the beasts was truly harmed. However, this was perfect as a distraction.

It was entirely possible to defeat them using Ether Strike or Ether Armour but there was still the issue of her endurance. As no one could predict what would happen on a battlefield, she’d rather save her trump card for when it was truly needed.

And, most of all, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge if she did use such techniques. Let’s say, if she had used Ether Armour here, she would be able to nullify all of them without even lifting a single finger whilst standing in the middle of the swarm.

In her current state, Inglis had to move around quite a lot if she wanted to fulfill her role. In other words, this would also serve as training for both her physical prowess and battle tactics. Every battle must be used as an opportunity to temper oneself. 1 Thus, she chose to fight this way to build experiences, little as it might be.

「T- terrific! Those movements are astounding!」 「Tha- that kid’s outrageous…!」 「H- how pretty, it touched something in me…! 」 2

Not only did Inglis capture the attention of the beasts, but she also stole the attention of the knights and mercenaries. They were completely captivated by her dance-like movements while in a horde of magic stone beasts — an otherworldly beauty mixed with impossible maneuvers. Were they dreaming? If so, they never wanted to stop watching. 3 Each and every one of them on the same wavelength as they clenched their fists and cheered with hoarse voices.

Amidst that, Rafinha was the only one who had begun to move towards the horde. She strode forward until she was roughly in between Inglis and the makeshift army. In her hand was her Artifact, a bow of light. She drew its string back to its limit. A rod of light assuming the shape of pure white arrows manifested in her hand, gradually and evidently getting larger and longer. 4

This bow Artifact didn’t need arrows since arrows of light would magically appear when a Knight of suitable grade Rune drew its string. That was the Gift of this High-Grade Artifact, or Flowing Radiance 5 as Rafinha named it.

Additionally, although there was a limit to it, the longer one drew its string, the more powerful the manifested light arrows would be. It also had another ability — one that was about to be demonstrated by Rafinha.

「Okay, you ready Glis!? Here I go!」 「Yeah, Rani! Do it!」 「Yooshi! GOOOoo!!」

Rafinha launched the light arrow way above the flying magic stone beasts and this wasn’t because her aim had gone awry. As the arrow soared through the sky and reached a spot right above Inglis…

「Burst!」

The moment Rafinha gave her command, the thick arrow of light separated into countless small light arrows which left traces of light on their trail as they showered down like rain made of light.

The hail of light brought about death and destruction to the magic stone beasts. It pierced the magic stone beasts like swiss cheese, annihilating them without a shred of mercy. 6 While death shrieks raised endlessly in her vicinity, Inglis was the only one who managed to predict the trajectory of each showering arrows and evaded accordingly. This was a fairly hard exercise to accomplish, which served as a good practice for Inglis. For this reason, she quite liked this tactic.

This was the reason why Inglis had the army on standby at the sideline. There was no other person who could evade this rain of light like Inglis could. This method was the best method to fully utilize Rafinha’s power. It was a strategy they had long trained together, unique only to them.

After the arrow shower let up, Inglis was the only one left standing. She returned to Rafinha, brushing several strands of hair from her shoulder.

「You did it, Rani. You didn’t miss even one! You’re amazing.」 「They’re just low-level beasts after all… But, you’re the amazing one Glis. I can just incorporate you in the attacks without reserves, you’re the best decoy. And you’re as unreasonable as ever, avoiding Flowing Radiance like it’s nothing.」

As the two young girls walked back, they were engulfed with cheers of joy from the small squadron.