Mistress Of The Evil Forest

Case 41: Joint practical class – Deathblow.

November 3rd of 1834, 7.02 P.M.

Aurora is currently in Skely's cave, waiting for the demon to appear.

Previously, she, in Peln's body, had teleported back here to deliver the Ring of Fortitude. This was, of course, to prevent Luxia from reading her thoughts when she would eventually be fighting the demon.

She and Chloe had even prepared a fake ring for Peln in case somebody noticed something. The real pair of rings has a feature to prevent them from being inspected anyway, nobody will know the difference.

''Hm... It's quite late.'' Aurora mutters. 

''Maybe it's tomorrow?'' Skely scratches his chin, still fascinated that Chloe can predict the future like this.

He, as well as his sister, don't really know how to feel about their world—their reality is a game, but they reckon they can't do anything about it. They have decided to follow Aurora, that is all that matters.

''Mhm, most likely tomorrow.'' Aurora replies.

Regardless, Aurora has been waiting for close to five hours, and the sky has turned dark. She'd even made this body sleep early so she could concentrate better in the fight, but...

Master, the demon has appeared.

''It's there.'' 

Receiving Peln's telepathy, Aurora briskly stands up and grabs her sword on the table, not forgetting to put on her mask as well. The mask, despite having no holes, still allows her to see the world clearly and breathe freely as if there is nothing there in the first place.

''Let us go.'' Skely extends his bony hand, to which Aurora silently catches it.

Skely will teleport them to preserve her MP, of course.

''Be careful~!'' Ariel waves at the two.

Aurora gives her a nod, and their figures disappear.

Aurora and Skely arrive at the forest near the hunting field, where they can observe the whole scene. To prepare for this operation, Skely surveyed this area briefly a few days ago.

''That looks quite terrible.'' The bone mage says.

''Mhm, level 52...'' 

There are several reasons as to why they didn't just teleport directly to the monster and fight it.

Firstly, it would be foolish to do so. Aurora is not in a position where she can comfortably fight head-on with a level 52 demon, not counting its minions.

Secondly, a minor reason, teleporting directly inside would risk Luxia reading Skely's thoughts, if she were to be present there.

And lastly, in the same interview where Chloe learned that Jalk the Lackey's spawn depended on time, she'd also learned that Balnok's purple dome had a boosting effect on its magic skills in exchange for its inability to sense mana outside the dome. This means that Aurora can prepare a surprise strike beforehand and come in when Balnok's weakness is exposed.

'Chloe said that we need to wait for the boss's all-out pattern.'

Apparently, that would be when the player can attack the monster's head. Not the best weakness as in the game, Claudia almost sacrifices herself to pull out Balnok's lower body—its most vulnerable part, but the head is still viable.

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So Aurora waits patiently, hoping for Chloe to be fine. She doesn't want to lose her lifelong friend to something stupid like this. It doesn't help that Chloe was adamant about confronting the demon directly...

[KIEEK—!!!]

Finally, the boss begins to cast the final spell. It is time.

''Please be careful.''

''Thanks.''

Aurora pulls out her long Katana and throws the scabbard on the ground before shooting herself into the sky. She pours around one-third of her MP into her sword as usual, combining ice and light magic. The full robe that she is wearing flutters in the wind of the sky, and in the wind of her own magic swirling.

When she eventually arrives right above Balnok, her sword has extended itself, growing as big as her own body and twice as long as her height. 

''Phew...''

Aurora takes a deep breath before plunging herself down, boosting her speed with [Flight] and aiming her sword at the demon's head. She quickly enters the purple dome, falling like a spear coming down from heaven.

CRACK—!!

[KIEK—?!!]

Her light sword firmly penetrates Balnok's skull, and an icy aura bursts out of the crack before—

BOOM—!!

Golden-white ice that seems to be glowing in the night explodes out, freezing half of Balnok's deer skull together with the entirety of the magic that it is casting. While the monster is still trying to comprehend the situation, Aurora swiftly pulls out her sword and jumps toward the rift where its body is coming out. 

She spins horizontally while airborne like a tornado to gain momentum for her strike. The giant blade rips through the air with an almost screeching-like noise, leaving behind vivid trails of light and ice. 

On her estimated seventh rotation, Aurora finally reaches Balnok's waist. She swings her sword as hard as possible, lining the blade's trajectory to cut the creature's body in half.

[KIEEEK—!!!]

Accompanied by gory sounds of flesh and bones being ripped apart, Balnok's rather slender waist is severed. Its giant body falls helplessly to the ground, causing an earthquake-like vibration, making everyone present snap out of their trance.

They look blankly at the figure who just appeared, now floating near the rift. No one is able to properly discern what the person looks like as if her entire body is blurred out. They can only recognize vividly the beautiful galaxy mask on her face, and somehow comprehend the fact that she is indeed a she.

''What...'' Luxia mutters, she... Can't read this person's thoughts.

''Light element...?'' Claudia is stunned—everyone except Chloe is.

Not only that, they can feel an unknown pressure coming from the figure, as if they are facing a mountain. Many try to inspect her, but—

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: ??              

Race: ??                    Title: ??

Level: ??

HP: ???/???                    MP: ???/???

STR: ??                     INT: ??

AGI: ??                    STA: ??

Skill: ??

State: ??

-------------------------------------------------------------------

They are dumbfounded.

On the other hand. Aurora checks the rift for a second before quickly descending to the ground near the monster, ignoring the stares, her sword once again bursting with ice and light.

Balnok, now reduced to its mere upper body, quivers in pain.

[HP: 104/247]

'This one is quite tough.'

Aurora charges in, determined to end this fight quickly. She uses her legs as springs, propelling herself to the monster with the most momentum her superhuman body can produce.

BOOM—!!

But before she reaches it, a giant protective barrier suddenly appears, blocking everything from making contact with the monster. The purple barrier is unexpectedly thick, blocking even Aurora's light attacks.

Inside the barrier, Balnok is already absorbing the minions' power, squeezing the beasts dry. Its purple skin gradually has tree-like red marks appearing on it, spurting out from the back of the neck quickly to the entire upper body. Following that, ominous back ice is rapidly taking shape at the very bottom of the torso, freezing its otherwise exposed organs completely.

Balnok's eyes flash a bright red.

[HUUU—!!]

It has entered its final form with [Berserk] activated, allowing the monster to sacrifice sanity and HP for increased combat performance. The creature raises its bony arm just as the thick barrier breaks. Numerous signs of mana can be detected on its fingers and even its mouth.

'Tch.'

Aurora silently clicks her tongue. As much as she wants to dodge this area attack like usual, there are people behind her, and the demon seems to know that she wants to protect them, so it chooses an attack like this.

She quickly decides to retaliate. Raising her giant sword high, she then slams it down toward the monster—

BOOM—!!!

BOOM—!!!

The ground shakes violently. The golden-white ice produced from Aurora's strike collides with the black ice cast by Balnok, both of them rising high into the sky, mashing together, both trying to push the other one away. The resulting mess looks like a crystalized mountain, each half having a totally different color than the other.

By this point, Balnok's HP has decreased to 67, and its MP bar is also fairly low. Aurora doesn't have much MP left either though, but she reckons she still can finish this.

She pours everything into her sword, leaving only 10 MP while jumping onto the mountain of ice. With quick and precise jumps, she reaches the top in no time before jumping down straight at Balnok on the other side.

[KIEEK—!]

The demon lets out a screech and slashes its claws infused with black ice at Aurora. 

KENG—!

The two collide again. Aurora presses down the desperate monster with her sword. Her momentum is not weak by any means, but it is exceptionally hard to penetrate a level 52 berserk demon.

Meanwhile, on another corner, a blazing phoenix is slowly taking shape.

By this point, Claudia has finished her preparation for her strongest strike, which she reckons should be enough to kill the demon. She secretly thanks this mysterious figure in her head for stalling since earlier.

But Aurora has a different idea. She has no intention to let anyone take even an ounce of experience from her.

'It's time to use that.'

She releases her right hand from the sword handle and reaches out to the side.

snap—!

The sound of her fingers snapping seems to have been amplified, ringing in everyone's ears. Together with that, they can hear a faint screeching noise from the distance.

SHIING—!!

Before anyone can notice anything, Balnok's head has already been blown off by a giant spear made of light.