CH 234

What Rona shot towards the Demon Beast King was the same technique he used during the reunion with Ardis. Although it looks like a blade at first, all of them turned into vision-blocking ink when they hit.

It didn’t get deflected, nor did it start disappearing either, as if it was his aim from the beginning, the blades lost its shape, and stuck onto the barrier spreading thin and wide.

His attack was not for any offensive purpose, it was to blind its vision for a moment by covering its barrier with it.

Did the Demon Beast King see through the nature of the blades that it would be a pain if mistreated, or was it its intuition, the Demon Beast King didn’t shake them off forcibly, but burned them with flames created from magic.

However, it is more than enough for Ardis to have the Demon Beast King’s vision covered for a moment. Creating invisible footholds and running in the air, seven drill-shaped rocks were dropped from above the Demon Beast King.

It would be enough to end normal opponents. However, the Demon Beast King easily defended against it.

With a swipe with its thick tail that can easily break down a city wall, five of them were hit away, and the remaining two shattered on impact at its barrier.

「Hahak! Interesting technique! 」

The Demon Beast King was greatly pleased, as evident in its voice. The thick tail that swung away the rocks although little, suffered wounds as well.

Although each of them would’ve dealt a fatal blow to a human and crushed them into a paste, it could only deal a measly shallow wound to the Demon Beast King’s thick and tough skin.

Ardis and Rona continued on the offense. With the gap shown by the Demon Beast King because of the diversion from above, Rona dived below it.

Along with intelligence, he is a creature that can survive in the harsh world of survival of the fittest. The teeth that was usually used for crushing candy are not for show either.

Rona thrusts his sharp fangs into the shin of the Demon King.

「Hmph! 」

Without pain showing on its expression, the Demon Beast King just shook off Rona. Even though it looked effortless for the Demon Beast King, Rona with his size was blown away.

Without given a chance to ready himself, Rona was slammed into a nearby wall.

「Good teamwork……, however, your attacks are not hard enough. 」

「Mu――. Just when I finally bit it. 」

Rona who was coughing while standing up seemed unsatisfied. Despite so, the leisure acting Demon Beast King was being showered with countless flying swords. Ardis focused all the flying swords in his possession into one point, and shot towards it like arrows.

Opposing that, the Demon Beast King who didn’t move but defended against it with a barrier noticed something amiss.

「As if it would work――, nn? 」

It noticed the few glowing swords among the countless Heavy Iron swords. The glowing swords were sword replicas created by Ardis with mana.

Despite looking like a sword, they are the same as his condensed light arts.

Even if normal swords can’t do anything to the barrier, it couldn’t get by unscathed with the arts mixed in with the volley. With light swords impacting it, the Demon Beast King’s barrier started to form cracks.

「Petty tricks! 」

Showing visible irritation, the Demon Beast King howled. In response to its irritation, a large disk-shaped glow appeared high above its head.

As the glow dimmed, rain of light poured upon the ground, aiming for the countless swords flying in the air. The next moment, all the Heavy Iron swords fell to the ground shattered by the rain, leaving scrap metal pieces behind.

The rain even punctured small holes in the valley. Then, as a countermeasure to the light swords, the Demon Beast King created spears of its own and cancelled them out.

Defending against the ruthless onslaught, Ardis and Rona stood side by side as they reworked the plan facing the Demon Beast King.

「Something like that also exists here huh. 」

「We shouldn’t underestimate this world. Seems like we haven’t seen the bottom of it……」

Leaving aside the world they were born in, it is the first strong opponent that they encountered in this world. No matter humans or demonic beings, Ardis always won without even trying his best.

It has been a while since both his swords and arts dealt minimal damage

「I don’t really have the confidence to break through that defense though. 」

「……It certainly looks difficult. 」

Rona said so deflated, and Ardis agreed after a while of silence as he readied his red sword. Blue, greenish yellow, and white, three swords arranged themselves surrounding Ardis like knights.

Ardis’s eyes reflected his strong will.

「――But if we can’t do this much, we can’t possibly reach that woman. 」

「……Right. That’s true. 」

With Ardis’s words, Rona’s eyes narrowed. His depressed looking expression from just now disappeared. Without any need to convey each other’s plan, at the same time Ardis sprinted forward, Rona ran towards the right.

The Demon Beast King created gusts of winds greeting Ardis from the front who was sprinting forward with a warcry. The intense winds that passed by Ardis shook the mountains behind, cracking the earth.

However, the winds did not stop.

「A hybrid attack huh. 」

Despite already having the power to blow everything apart, there were even sharp invisible blades mixed in it.

Ardis had to defend with a magic barrier but, he couldn’t stop his tracks here, nor could he give up on the offense.

The attacks that can be easily defended by Ardis if he fully focused in defense are now lethal enough on their own to Ardis.

「How pathetic is it to be lacking in power. 」

While controlling the three swords ahead and grumbling at his lacking power, he deflected the invisible blades with them. Ardis put up a three-fold barrier to defend against the blades that passed through but, in the first place, the caster is not just anyone.

Ardis knew more than anyone that a three-fold barrier could never stand against the attacks. The invisible blades easily broke through the barriers, slicing his cheek.

Feeling heat at his cheek, while conscious about the liquid dripping down his cheek, Ardis nonetheless pushed forward. The Demon Beast King slammed its front claws onto the ground towards Ardis who didn’t stop.

The grounds were raised, countless thorns grew around Ardis’s feet, shooting upwards in the same motion.

「What a quick switch……! 」

Even while anxious at the opponent’s next attacks, Ardis didn’t stop running. Creating invisible footholds to escape upwards, he continued running up into the air as the sharp thorns passed by where he was before.

The Demon Beast King did not soften his attacks either, as bluish burning flames manifested. The blue flames that were just created did not stay put but immediately assaulted Ardis in the air.

「Dodging is――! 」

Ardis who judged that dodging is difficult immediately deployed barriers. However, the most he could do in that impromptu situation was five layers.

Thinking about the Demon Beast King’s power, the barriers wouldn’t stand a chance frontally, as Ardis adjusted the angle to divert it.

While melting away the five barriers, the blue flames that was diverted from its path passed beside Ardis.

「Guhk 」

The heat radiated through the air burned Ardis’s arm red. It was at that time, Rona who had circled around the Demon Beast King saw a chance and moved into counterattack.

Creating three gigantic ice spears larger than himself and shooting them towards the Demon Beast King’s abdomen.

「I said it was shallow! 」

However, the Demon Beast King deployed barriers, easily defending against Rona’s ice spears.

「Then what――! 」

Ardis followed up with the spirit of 『What about this』. The technique he saw when he fought the Four Winged, the electrical arts that Ardis came to learn after understanding Nere’s explanation.

However, Ardis’s attempt of shocking with electricity failed. Just as it was activated, the electricity escaped from his control, flying to another direction.

「Hou, understanding the principle of lightning I see! Certainly it’s strong, but it will not work against another knowing subject! 」

Nere reminded that it is easy to be nullified by someone who knows about the logic. One of Ardis’s effective hand was defended against effortlessly.

「Kuh, so you’re not just brawns! 」

Thus, it looks like the battle with the Demon Beast King will be a long fight. Ardis and Rona.

In this world, despite the two that were thought to be undefeatable cooperating, they started to look tired opposing the Demon Beast King that did not lose its leisure even with their best attacks.

Ardis’s swords and Rona’s arts were both ineffective. It’s not like they were lacking in technique, they just lost in raw power.

As the surrounding topography turned upside down, the valley that once had much greenery turned into wasteland. The Demon Beast King fired another yet unseen arts towards Ardis.

The black pebble-like objects flew in a curved trajectory, heading towards Ardis.

「This much! 」

Despite looking fatigued, Ardis cried out and raised his volume. Dispelling the mana foothold he was standing on, Ardis created another few meters below, leaving himself to the gravity as he dropped.

As if laughing at Ardis’s efforts of dodging the black pebbles, they started turning unnaturally after getting avoided.

「It curves!? 」

The black pebbles evidently changed their trajectory chasing after Ardis. Ardis who noticed that it’s a homing attack quickly thought of a solution.

Ardis arranged the three flying swords that survived thanks to being made with Lesha Powder around him, and rushed towards the Demon Beast King while keeping the black pebbles in check.

The flying black pebbles that slipped past the flying swords’ defense hit Ardis’s left shoulder and right flank. He was already not in a condition to create more barriers.

On top of that, aiming for a counter attack, Ardis had no room for defense. While Ardis’s face distorted at the intense pain, the Demon Beast King yelled angrily.

「From the front? So shallow! 」

The Demon Beast King’s coated its claws with mana, and swung with the intentions of slicing Ardis up all together through its own barriers.

At that point, Ardis already had no remaining power to defend.

Even if he tried to jump sideways after stopping his momentum, he cannot dodge the sharp claws. The one layer of physical barrier that was barely deployed was destroyed as he got blown away.

With no gaps in between, Rona expanded his large-scale arts. Three boulders, about the size of the Demon Beast King’s head, hung down from the distant sky.

「That’s your intention huh!? 」

Seeing the scale of that, the Demon Beast King immediately created barriers to protect itself. Rather than cutting through the air, the boulders were better described as crushing the space itself as they impacted the barrier.

With the Demon Beast King as the center, the entire valley shook under the impact. With the shockwave spreading outwards, small rocks and sands were all blown away.

「There’s more to come! 」

Rona followed up with more arts. Intense winds that can even lift an entire house assaulted the Demon Beast King.

「Muu, to think that it’s to this degree! 」

「It’s because you’re not being serious! 」

「Don’t make me laugh! 」

However, the Demon Beast King wouldn’t lose either. Within the winds that can be said as a disaster, blinding white flames appeared.

「Don’t think that you can win against me with that! 」

The Demon Beast King’s white flames were trying to devour the winds, while Rona’s powerful winds were trying to scatter the flames.

With an unrealistic scenery happening between the two, eventually the white flames seemed to gain advantage. As the flames was about to devour the winds, the two immense power exploded into the surroundings.

The impact of the competing magic created a circular depression in the ground, and the peak of a nearby mountain was even blown away.

Rona who created the intense winds suffered the aftereffects, blown away and slammed into a mountain before passing out.

However, the battle hasn’t ended yet.

「Close!? 」

The Demon Beast King seemed surprised. It was because, while it was focusing on handling Rona, a human with the red magic sword appeared behind itself.

「Too late! 」

Aiming at the Demon Beast King who was turning around, Ardis jumped and swung with his final squeeze of power. Transparent spear-like objects appeared around the Demon Beast King.

However, their creation speed was evidently slower. It’s unknown whether it was because of fatigue after using the enormous arts, or was it fatigue of the long battle.

However, what Ardis had to do doesn’t change. Jumping off the invisible mana footholds without blinking, the magic sword that was swung in full force stopped and froze in place just before slicing its neck.

A sudden silence enveloped the surrounding. As if the battle just now was a lie, enormous tension surrounded there instead.

The tens of spear pointed towards Ardis in a spherical radius seemed to move at any moment.

「Still up for more? 」

In the situation that can only be considered life or death from any perspective, Ardis asked challengingly. Certainly, Ardis’s sword was already at the Demon Beast King’s throat.

However, it was also obvious that he could no longer put up any decent magic barriers of his own.

「Fuh, fine. 」

Was it satisfied with the fight with Ardis, or did it favor Ardis’s provocation despite in a dangerous situation, the Demon Beast King laughed and dispelled the spears.

「I guess it can’t be helped to be matched this evenly. I shall recognize your powers. 」

With that, it was the ending declaration of the long battle.