CH 94

The Bronze Demon went into a chanting motion of magic.

Souya and Shamil attempted to approach while deploying to the left and right to distract the opponent’s thoughts.

“Open.”

Shamil, with a fearless smile, put his hand into the dimension box, put four throwing knives between his fingers, and threw them at the Bronze Demon. Souya also took a bunch of hand-thrown darts from his inner pocket and threw three of them together. The aim was to fire a feint shot at the Bronze Demon’s face.

After a short burst of wind, the throwing knives and darts rolled to the ground with a clatter. In order to avoid them, the Bronze Demon was forced to make evasive maneuvers, and its stance was slightly broken. The purpose of the feint shot by throwing is to interfere with the chanting. This momentary delay was fatal to the Bronze Demon.

“Get behind him.”

“Understood.”

Souya swung the Mithril Saber from the front toward the body of the Bronze Demon who continued to chant. If the opponent gives priority to chanting, in exchange for the completion of magic, a powerful slash that can be struck with force is possible. 

The Bronze Demon may have decided that it was not a good idea to take the blow, but he interrupted his chanting as he was about to complete it, and just in the nick of time, he caught the slash from the Mithril Saber, with his red sword, and they became locked in a fierce battle. The simple strength of the Bronze Demon, which is called “colored”, is much higher, and Souya is in a position to block the movement by its strength.

It’s all going according to Souya’s plan. By making it look like he’s being overpowered and held back, catching him off guard and creating the perfect opening for Shamil. Shamil prepares his double-bladed dagger, leaps and spins behind the bronze demon, and goes around it. 

The landing was supple. And the continuous sound of wind.

A series of attacks vividly sliced through the Bronze Demon’s back with the double-bladed dagger. Blood splattered from the many scars.

And Shamil dodged the bronze demon’s swing with his acrobatics. 

(…… As expected of cat phantom beast. He has inhuman motor skills and dynamic vision.)

In the meantime, Souya, without a moment’s hesitation, unleashes another slash at the bronze demon that has shown its back.  This time, the bronze skin was slashed with a flourish.

The Bronze Demon’s back was attacked by both Souya and Shamil’s opposing positions, and in less than twenty seconds, the Bronze Demon’s entire body was sliced and diced around its back. This individual seemed to have some regeneration ability, but the recovery from that had not been able to keep up at all.

And then, taking advantage of the momentary gap when it stopped moving, the slash of Souya’s mithril saber cut off the head of the Bronze Demon.

In order to seal the mouth, Shamil jumped on the head that was cut off from the neck and flying in the air, plunged the dagger into the mouth of the Bronze Demon, and then slammed the head down to the ground with great force.

“It’s a complete shutdown. As expected of Master.”

“Not yet. The sword began to react …… Apparently, it’s not triggered by a specific word.”

In the direction that Souya pointed out, the bronze demon lying headless, the red sword in the grip of the bronze demon was beginning to glow and heat up.

“…… This is the Fire Spirit Disintegration [Final Strike].”

“Shamil. You seem to be well versed in both magic and spiritual arts, can you handle it with either? If you can’t do it, I’ll do it. Merylou-kun dealt with it with the Spiritual Art, Pitfall.”

“…… I see. Miss Merylou seems to be a good spirit art user. Then …… I’ll approach it differently.”

Shamil closed his eyes, held out his right hand, and went into a chanting motion of spiritual arts. 

“Angry fire spirits. With my guidance, you may return to the world of fire. Fire Spirit Repatriation [Unsummon Flame].”

Shamil’s chanting was complete, and a red circle floated in the void.

Then, from the heated red sword, a fiery mass continues to be sucked out and disappears into the red circle.

The red sword that the fire spirit was released from lost its shine and turned into a dull colored sword with no discernible difference.

“…… Repatriation magic. I see, that’s one way to do it.”

“The Fire Spirit Disintegration [Final Strike] seals off a small group of compressed fire spirits. The power of each individual is weak, so repatriation is the quickest way. The Wood Elf, Miss Merylou, is probably not very good at dealing with fire spirits, so she must have dealt with them by using the earth pitfall.”

“What do you think are the conditions for activating the Fire Spirit Disintegration [Final Strike]?”

“I can think of a few, but it seems to be linked to the Bronze Demon’s life force. It’s possible that it’s set to start when the life reaction becomes diluted. It’s nasty.”

The ability to analyze and make decisions.

And then there’s hand-to-hand combat, magic, and spiritual arts. All of the technical skills related to combat are of a high standard.

Soya nodded and sheathed the Mithril Saber into the scabbard.

“It’s perfect. If you become an adventurer, you might be able to reach the platinum level.”

While applauding, he turned to the Familiar, and Shamil broke the horns on its head while recovering the dagger that stabbed into the mouth of the Bronze Demon. The “colored” horns have their uses as a material, and Ilstadt could be cashed.

“And shrewd. That’s a quality.”

“…… I don’t mean to be shrewd. If we make it back alive, I’ll cash it in and split it with Master.”

“All right. Once we’ve collected everything, we’ll head to Lingen as quickly as possible.”

Before entering Lingen, I was able to test my coordination with Shamil. If it’s a standard bronze demon, two men could take it out in less than thirty seconds. In the future, it might be better to leave the handling of the red sword to Shamil, who can use the repatriation magic of the fire spirit.

Souya has also begun retrieving the hand thrown darts he fired as a feint shot. The bronze demon brushed it off, but the darts were still intact and ready to be used again.