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Volume 5 Prologue Part 13

However, Asuka had no intentions of allowing that to happen in the slightest. She continued to move forward with the speed and agility you would not normally thought a girl who looked like a sheltered rich lady would have, and yet there she was, manuevering between the tentacles that were slamming themselves into the ground with such an ease as if she was running through an obstacle course at a school sport’s festival, with her long skirt fluttering gracefully with her each and every move.

「Awawa. . . . I, I should go help her as well!」

「You could, but I really advise against it. The way I see it, you would only end up getting in her way. She is someone who can handle an opponent of that caliber all by herself without any issues.」

Lamia told Suzuka to stop it with such reckless behavior, which caused her to become flustered. As much as she did not want to simply sit here in the safety of Alma’s shield while her newly-met friend was out there fighting, she realized that Lamia’s point of view was actually the correct one. Although Asuka was facing off against the monster that possessed more than one hundred deadly tentacles, none of them were able to even graze the hem of her skirt, that is how swiftly and decisively she was avoiding them. When that strategy also failed, Charybdis resorted to yet another one: creating a tornado that reached from the bottom of the lake all the way to its ceiling in an attempt to restrain her and stop her from moving around so much.

(In terms of pure physical ability, she really is like a Demigod and a half, but. .  . is it just my imagination, or does it look like her body and her spirit are not meshing together?)

Lamia’s current impression of Asuka was that the way she was moving around so nimbly, that is to say, her current physical ability was unproportional to her physicality, which was no different in any way from that of an ordinary human girl. It was almost as if she somehow instinctively knew where to set her feet in order to avoid danger from the tentacles which were rampaging all around her, which made Lamia think that it almost look as if some kind of distortion just took place, a distortion as a result of which two different human beings overlapped with each other to give birth to the one who was taking on Charybdis right now.

But even with that superior legwork of hers, it was still not enough to allow her to launch a direct attack against the beast, because the tornado it created made it effectively impossible to get close to it, and if she tried to do that, she would only end up getting swept off her feet and squashed against the cave’s wall due to how fast the tornado’s gusts were spinning around in circles.

In the end, however, even that proved to not be a problem for her, because Asuka took out the same flute that she used earlier when she protected herself from the falling pieces of the stalagmites and blew it once again, but this time, the effect that it caused has changed. This time, it caused the tornado’s wind to dispel when she approached it, allowing it to safely pass through it without getting blown away. Using the opportunity that this gave her, she moved forward at once without a second of delay, and when she got close enough that her ankles have been submerged in the lake’s water, she took out her Gift Card and shouted:

「I am sorry for treating you so roughly, but I really need to drag you out of that lake of yours.  . . come on, Deen, it is your turn now!」

And in the next moment, Charybdis’ giant body has been grabbed by a pair of equally large iron arms extending from the bottom of the underground lake. Lamia was not sure if Asuka placed them there beforehand or if that was simply how they were summoned, but nevertheless, that surprise attack from below made Charybdis scream.

{P u G E E E E E E E E E E Y A A A A A A A A a a a a a a a a a a ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !}

{D E E E E E E E E E E E E E e e e e e e e e e e e e e E E E E E N ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !}

Faced with the reality of being grabbed by a pair of those huge iron arms, Charybdis redirected all of its tentacles to the singular goal of smashing the hands that held her in an iron grip to pieces, but no matter how many times the tentacles were striking them and how many claws ad teeth were trying to dig themselves into it, these hands did not move for even an inch, brushing all of those attacks off as if it was not that big of a deal to them. And with each passing moment the thing that the arms belonged to continued to emerge from under the ground beneath the lake, revealing the massive silhouette of what looked like a crimson-red knight’s armor with the crest of the sun engraved on its chest plate. When the massive armor emerged in all its glory, it roared in a way that made the very ground shatter and sent series of waves and ripples across the Lake’s remaining water.

Lamia, who was looking at that jaw-dropping spectacle from the distance, was so shocked that her eyebrows furrowed so much that they actually made a single line.

(That crest of the sun on this giant’s chest plate is. . . . . . . . .  is the symbol of Old Talos in the Greek Mythology?!!! No way, that cannot be!!!!! What is the iron giant stolen from {Uroboros} doing here of all places?!!! Moreover, it seems that it has been improved with the use of the Red Sacred Ore, making it vastly superior to how its older version was?!!!!!!!)

The word 「Talos」that Lamia thought about referred to a type of automata from Greek Mythology made from materials such as gold, silver or bronze.

Three years ago, during the attack on the {Salamandra} Community on the North Side, the leader of {Grim Grimoire Hamelin}, Demon Lord Black Percher fought against this red iron giant during the Gift Game {Pied Piper of Hamelin} and lost since it was immune to her Gift, {Black Death}, which could kill anything that breathed in the black winds she could generate, which only proved how powerful this construct, build by the {Rattenfänger} Community evolved with the help of the strongest Purebreed Dragons, was, but now that it has been strengthened with the Sacred Red Ore, the same one with which Sun Wukong’s staff was made, it was quite possible that this red iron giant might as well achieve infinite power.  Who would have ever thought that Deen, an automata blessed with the Gift of perpetual motion that survived numerous battles is going to end up as a servant contracted someone like Kudou Asuka?

Grabbing a firm hold of Charybdis, Deen raised her into the air and then smashed her enormous body against the lake’s floor. Putting her hand on the handle of her katana, Asuka looked straight at Charybdis, and the myriad of tentacles, which had now begun to sqirm and writhe unpleasantly until their tips opened, split up and filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth, looking more like snake heads rather than anything else. To all the other people it was nothing but a monster, an abomination which should not even be allowed to live, but even though Asuka was holding her sword firmly, her eyes saw something completely different in it. And now that she finally managed to locate Charybdis’ core, which was glowing with a faint light right in the middle of its enormous jellyfish-like body. . . . . .  her eyes shined as she shouted a short but decisive:

「Fuh. . .  !!!!」

And executed a flawless iaijutsu technique: Quickdraw Slash, that cut straight through Charybdis’ body with a motion that was too fast to follow it with your eyes, for the majority of the people at least.

Seeing her execute such a technique, Lamia’s eyes became wide with shock, but not the one caused by awe or admiration. Rather. . .