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Chapter 284 – All-Heaven Festival Contest Final Stage “Demon King Castle Bloody Field” (6) / Not Giving Up (Part 2)

284 – All-Heaven Festival Contest Final Stage “Demon King Castle Bloody Field” (6) / Not Giving Up (Part 2)

I can’t afford to use any moves that are too bold.

At least not while there’s a chance that Fenix and Aerial could end up being caught up by such moves.

Dad ran in a straight line toward me, who was still a bit far away after being sent flying by his knee strike – and then shifted sideways.

After a moment’s delay, a cone of ice comes flying out.

I had set that up while I was rolling on the ground, but had Dad seen through it?

Should I freeze the ground around me to make his footing worse?

No, if I do that, he’ll just jump into the air.

Dad jumps, landing right in front of me, though he still hadn’t picked up his sword.

His fist comes at a speed that seems to fly through time. This was being accelerated with his Wind Magic as well.

However, there was no way I would take such a hit again.

I raise my blade and cut off Dad’s right arm from the elbow down.

The fog disappeared in an instant after that – Aerial must have done it.

And then… I was punched by Altreed’s right fist…?

Confused, I deployed another water ball in order to reduce the impact caused by me hitting the wall of the field.

Instead of crashing into the wall, I felt as if I had jumped into the ocean from a great height, and I took no damage.

After dispelling the water ball, I finally understood what had happened.

It’s Panacea!

She had completely healed Dad’s right arm the very moment I cut it off, so Dad managed to punch me in the face as he had originally intended to.

But there’s something odd about that.

I can still understand why Panacea’s White Magic was already prepared in advance even though it is impossible to distinguish between allies and enemies based on the kind of magic each of us responds with.

It was probably an application of her Full Resist which carried her incomplete White Magic spell through the fog. That way, the moment the fog was cleared, she would be able to see Altreed and activate the incomplete White Magic spell to heal him.

It’s an application of Magical Energy that was on par with Lem’s, or rather, it was a way to use magic that was possible for anyone with the same class as Lem.

The thing I had a problem with was the timing of it all.

The moment the fog cleared, the moment Dad’s arm was cut by my sword, and the moment Panacea’s Healing Magic was activated…

If those three moments hadn’t occurred at the same time, the previous attack wouldn’t have worked.

Did they actually see through all of that…?

The time it would take Aerial to finish building up enough Wind Magic to clear the fog, as well as the moment he unleashed his spell…

The precision of Panacea’s magic manipulation and the right moment when to unleash her incomplete White Magic spell.

And the possibility that I could have chosen to block his sword throw with my own sword instead of with an Ice Wall…

They had taken into account all the abilities and personalities of all of their allies and enemies and chose to make the moves that would benefit them the most based on that.

「Not giving up means…」

「…To keep thinking, right? I understand.」

Not even thirty seconds had passed since the three of us had initially used our Spirit Magic.

By fighting him directly, I learned the weight of the words of the Unyielding Hero.

Dad’s gaze slips away from me.

「Aerial, looking at you makes me want to go on an adventure.」

「I’m overjoyed you said that!」

With a soft smile, Dad called out his companion’s name.

「Roge!」

「Coming~」

Immediately after I was punched, Fenix and Aerial jumped at Dad.

Although so little time has actually passed, the situation of the battles that are going on everywhere else continues to change at a tremendous speed.

「Go~ Rebapkenz~」

This spell was exclusive to Rogestilla.

A spell of unknown effect.

The moment it was activated, Dad disappeared without a trace.

That spell has a strong gambling element to it, and could end up either misfiring or – even worse – putting her own party in a pinch, but Dad and his companions still take pleasure in having access to it.

Dad had reappeared in the sky.

He was above the Air-like Demon Ipos.

This time, the effect of Rogestilla’s spell had been similar to that of Space Transfer. I can’t understand at all why that spell doesn’t work like any other traditional spell, but I suppose that’s just how it is when it comes to Rogestilla.

「Hey, Ipos…!! I know this is kind of sudden, but I wonder if I can ask you for a duel!」

Surprised at Dad’s sudden appearance on top of him, Ipos stretched out his arms to try to catch him and crush his body.

However, he stopped halfway, as if he realized that the creature he was trying to catch was poisonous.

He sensed danger and stopped moving.

And this was an appropriate reaction.

Altreed’s right arm is swirling with a huge amount of Magical Energy.

「Is that…Storm Wrap?」, Fen mutters.

The ultimate Spirit Magic is Esoteric Spirit Magic, and the ultimate Magic is called Heavenly-Base Magic.

Since Dad had reached the level of Heavenly-Base Magic, it wouldn’t be strange for him to be able to reproduce the powerful Spirit Magic of the Storm Hero, the Storm Wrap.

But there’s no time to worry about that now.

「Both of you! Lem is-」

Arrows approached from the left and right, so I repelled one with an Ice Wall and slashed the other one with my Holy Sword.

The Silver Bow Orion was able to aim at his enemy from multiple angles at the same time by instantly repositioning his warp gates.

「Don’t interrupt me.」

「Hey, hey, not too long ago you were making a lot of noise asking me to “Show me how to fire an arrow”… It breaks my heart, you know.」

My dad’s friends from the Altreed Party know things about my childhood that I don’t want to remember.

But it doesn’t matter now.

「I never asked you to target me.」

「That’s for sure.」

My earlier statement was interrupted by Orion, but the other two Heroes seemed to understand what I was trying to say, and quickly rushed to Lem’s side.

As for Dad, who was still in the sky…

「I’m sorry, Ipos, but I have to be extra flashy about this, for my son’s sake.」

I heard that Ipos can use magic to make his body intangible, as if it could transform into air.

In fact, his body can blur away and diffuse as if merging with the air itself.

This would normally be enough to neutralize most forms of attack directed at him.

However…

「Storm Ocean.」

A strong wind begins to swirl about and the sky becomes very stormy.

The sounds produced by the storm are causing the audience to shiver.

Or rather, that’s just how strong those winds are.

「To be able to transform into air is very nice, huh? But you… aren’t coming back.」

To merge into the air was nothing more than a magical effect.

This allowed Ipos to transform his own body into air, and then regroup itself in order to reassemble his body back to normal.

That was the kind of magic that was in play.

In that case, to prevent him from reconstructing his body, all that needed to be done was to disturb the air itself.

If the one who cast the spell to merge with the air is set to return to normal after a fixed amount of time, disturbing the air itself will interfere with that.

Even if the caster has set other conditions, since the transformation is magical in nature, they won’t be able to keep their air-like form for longer than the amount of Magical Energy they initially put into it would let them.

In either case, with the air being disturbed in such a flashy way, Ipos’ reconstruction cannot happen.

Or at least in theory. How much Magical Energy would anyone need to be able to use in order to do that to a giant’s body?

However, in fact, Ipos’ body could not return to its original giant form.

Before long, something like a cry was heard, and light rain started to fall from the sky.

Ipos’ body had turned into magic particles.

He’s out.

Having put the sky under his control and taken out a giant with a single blow, the Hero looks at the best Black Sorcerer.

「I’ll defeat you, Lem.」

Right now, the battle we’re fighting will be decided by whether the White Sorcerer or the Black Sorcerer is defeated first.