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Volume 3 Chapter 15.2

Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes

「Bro, can ya do somethin’ about Ifrit!?」

「I’ll try！」

　Once Haruna had begun singing the series of sutras, Hiroshi left the evil ifrit (possibly the most annoying one to deal with) to Tatsuya.

「Now I just gotta do one thing.」

　Hiroshi followed up on Tatsuya’s multiplex ice activation magic, changing his weapon from heavy mace to pole axe. This was because he had overused the mace in destroying the tower and it needed time for repairs.

「Come ‘ere！！」

　Hiroshi exerted pressure with Outclass, a strategy he always began with. Sometimes it had no effect, but without it he wouldn’t feel comfortable.

「Take this！！」

　The evil ifrit was attracted to Hiroshi’s pressure, charging at him. At that moment, he sent the ifrit flying back at Barold with a Smash. It directly hit the Barold who was chanting Implosion, but it had little effect. Both Barolds continued to charge their attacks.

「Tiger Claw！」

　Makoto unleashed Tiger Claw, thinking it might have a great enough impact to affect the Barolds. Their defense was quite high due to miasma, and breaking through said defenses would require great cost. Resisting the urge to drop down on her knees, she took out a stamina potion and gulped it down. Makoto only had one stamina potion left before it would begin to poison her. She would have to wait an hour at the very least, otherwise poisoning was all but guaranteed. Then again, these potions completely erased any trace of fatigue, even the kind that immobilized you, so it only made sense that there had to be some sort of side effect to over-consuming these otherwise overpowered potions.

　Makoto, who had suddenly cut through all of her healing resources, seemed to have effectively put a stop to Implosion. The damage dealt was nothing noteworthy, but she was able to halt a powerful move. This made the expenditure worth it, even if this was just the beginning of the battle.

「Freezer Storm！」

　Seeing that Makoto was out of the competition, Tatsuya followed up with a powerful area of effect ice attack, activating yet another one for good measure. Barold himself suffered no damage, but the ifrit suffered a great deal of damage.

　Though imperfect, the evil ifrit was the boss of The Sweltering Tower. Despite how adept Tatsuya’s staff was at amplification, and despite its weakness being struck two times with high level magic, the ifrit would not go down that easily. True, when combined with Makoto’s Tiger Claw, the damage was nothing to be taken lightly, but it wouldn’t be much of a boss if it could be taken down with just those two attacks.

　Tatsuya understood that much, so he went straight to his next move.

「Oxygen Ring！」

　This special offense magic may as well be an alias for Tatsuya by this point. Usually, it had hardly any effect on dungeon bosses, but for monsters like ifrits and flare spirits whose bodies were composed of flames or monsters like darkness candles that took damage when you put out their flames, these attacks were treated the same as regular offensive spells.

「Take that！！」

　Bypassing the ifrit whose movement had been halted with Oxygen Rings, Hiroshi sent Barold flying with Smash, preventing him from continuing the meddlesome chant for Armageddon. Of course no damage was inflicted in the process, but because of Haruna’s song kicking into effect, the miasma had become rather thin, unable to cancel the blowback.

　As a result, the Barold ended up hitting the ifrit and the other Barold, sending the three of them to get smacked into the wall, momentarily stopping the chant.

「Gotcha!」

　Mio used Piercing Snipe on the Barolds as soon as they crumpled into the wall. Just as the name suggested, it was a ranged attack that nullified about half of the defense of all targets in a given area. As it was limited to the defense of the equipment and only half the cost, hitting opponents like the Barolds that had high defense would make the cost comparatively lower.

　This wouldn’t inflict especially high damage on the Barolds, but it had a great effect on the evil ifrit. Right after that, Tatsuya landed two hits of Holy Octo-Cannon, and Haruna, who had been sneakily preparing her move this whole time, bounded to the front lines to put a stop to the evil ent with her magical sword skill, Icicle Dance, before retreating. This was quite impressive, considering how she still had not stopped the heart sutra ballad.

　Hiroshi’s group had relentlessly pushed their opponent into a chess problem, but of course this would not last for long. They had been quite a nuisance to the Barolds, but unfortunately did not manage to cancel Armageddon, and the enemy’s great move was finally unleashed.

「Too bad for you！This will end it！！」

　Great Magic, Armageddon. This magic was devastating, or at least it would have been if one man had not stepped out right away, completely cancelling the attack.

「Defensive Circle, mate！Too bad for you！！」

　Thanks to Hiroshi’s wide range defensive skill, the attack that should have turned the area into ash was completely redirected to Hiroshi, and then…

「Do ya really think usin’ Armageddon again is gonna work after Farlane！！」

　With Hiroshi’s invigorating voice, Armageddon’s power was reduced to below-average power, soon disappearing without even scratching the laser armor.

　If Hiroshi had not grown since Farlane, it probably would have done a bit more damage. But with the growth of his agricultural/engineering skills and all the other activities, he had gained basic mental fortitude and smithing upgrades, in addition to the upgrade of Fortress from getting thoroughly smacked around by the evil ent. Even if Barold used great magic attacks on him, the probability of being able to land a hit on Hiroshi had become exceedingly low.

　Also, one truth that no one had realized yet was that unintentionally so, the tower destruction from earlier had also resulted in the disposal of a large amount of monsters, leading to an extraordinary amount of experience points. As a result, Hiroshi, Haruna, and Mio (not originally very high in level) had risen up two digits in levelling up.

　Azuma Hiroshi didn’t realize this, but since he was already so strong in the first place, now that he had levelled up some more, he had stepped into a realm of defense that not even the gods could break with just one attack. Without attacks that nullified defense, no one could damage Hiroshi. In fact, they were basically expending their own magic and stamina for no reason.

　Barold could not damage Hiroshi enough, therefore he could not defeat him. He wasn’t even a threat.

「Now it’s time to put a stop to ya！！」

「Don’t underestimate me, brat！！」

　Hiroshi tried to swing the pole axe at the Barold with the Armageddon, but was launched off by the other Barold’s Smash.

「It’s true that I cannot defeat you as of this moment, fiend. I admit it.」

「However, there are not two of us just for show！！」

　As they howled, they discarded their physical forms and joined together to form an amalgamation of miasma.

「I kinda feel uneasy about this, y’all.」

「Everyone, get back！！」

　Hiroshi and friends had a bad feeling about staying here. They couldn’t explain their reasoning, but idling here would be fatal. Following this gut feeling, Hiroshi’s group made haste out of the window. And then a few seconds later…

「For serious……」

「That’s crazy……」

　Heat Haze Tower had revived and transformed into a gigantic golem. Of course Hiroshi’s group simply gawked at the sight. Judging by the strange shape the tower transformed into, the top floor would have definitely not been a safe place to reside in during that time.

「Mr. Craftsmaster, what on earth is that……？」

「I’m not sure what it is either, but it seems that the two Barolds fused together into somethin’ weird.」

「Oh dear, what a troublesome situation……」

　And as the two of them gawked at this troublesome situation, the golem’s transformation was at last complete.

「Take that！！」

　Unlike what they had previously thought, the golem was not that much of a threat.

「It’s clumsier than it looks.」

「But it makes up for it with incredible toughness.」

　What Makoto and Mio noted about the golem after landing several hits pretty much summed it up. The only other thing worth mentioning was maybe that if the attacks even grazed anyone other than Hiroshi, they would be in trouble.

「Hiro！Something’s coming！！」

「Got it！」

　About two seconds after Tatsuya’s warning, a beam shot out of the golem’s eye area. However, the attack was magical and therefore vanished upon contact with Hiroshi’s body.

「Heave-ho！！」

　Evading the golem’s punch, Hiroshi smashed the golem’s left ankle with the heavy mace, imitating a series of low kicks. Then again, that was really the only place to hit the golem, but it apparently felt aggravating to get hit in that area. Hiroshi wasn’t even doing much damage but it aimed at him quite frequently.