Chapter 60: War of Shikigamis
“You guys, hurry and flee! Or call the guards over! Hurry!”
I pulled up the mercenary who was almost killed earlier, and shouted loudly to the rest.
“Yes… Yes! Umm, thank you very much.”
That mercenary thanked me, and then ran towards the direction of the city wall with the rest of the mercenaries.
Along with those who were fleeing, there were regular citizens who were already preparing to enter the city. They quickly ran towards the gate, and pounded their fists onto it continuously.
“It’s best for you to flee as well. You aren’t their match.” I looked towards the little girl beside me and said.
“No… I know, when compared to both you and them, my battle experience is
evidently insufficient, but… if I don’t battle, I will never get stronger, right!?” Lois rejected my suggestion, and then entered a battle stance.
“Well… be careful.”
Well, she will get a portion of the EXP like this. I will let her have her way then. And on the side, Odin, Domitius, Sai, Gabriel, Bai Yueguang, Tai Shixi, Dale, Hei
Luoli and Oyado were all facing different shikigamis. Of course, a single archer is unable to fight with a Shikigami, so Hei Luoli and Bai Yueguang were fighting as a team.
“Un?”
They have a total of nine shikigamis, which means, there’s still one more. As I expected, a figure fiercely leaped out from the top of the last carriage, and was running towards the direction where the mercenaries were fleeing.
I laughed, and then took out my tachi from my ring.
“Accelerate, Extreme Shadow, Elf of the Wind, Strengthen!”
Without using Ice Totems, I’m not able to reach any sort of height as I please, but within the 10 minutes while the Strengthen buff is active, and with my base Strength, my jumping ability is already several times stronger than an average person.
The height the shikigami was currently at after jumping, was basically nothing to speak of at all!
“Why are you in a rush? Bullying the weak isn’t a good thing, you know!!!”
My blue blade immediately slashed towards it, but it actually used its arms to block my attack!
“Oh? As I thought, having a st.u.r.dy body is good, huh. There isn’t even a need to spend on weapons.”
But the Shikigami did not have any sort of reply to my sarcasm. It immediately stretched out one of its arms, and thrust t towards me!
Its fingers pierced into my chest, and I suddenly had a hard time breathing. I then flipped backwards, and landed on the ground.
“Un, it’s attack power is strong as expected. Although it was only a test, it seems I have to dodge it next time.”
I looked at my chest, and my ice armor was actually filled with cracks. I knocked onto it lightly, and the entire armor shattered into pieces and fell onto the ground.
Looks like I have to dispel the ice armor on my body.
“I have only learnt a couple of moves from various games, but, please advise me, Shikigami! Ice Summon!”
A layer of blue glow enveloped the blade of my tachi. Then, with a single charge, I thrust towards it chest.
When the blade was about pierce into its chest, it turned its body, and with a wave of its hand, it pushed the blade aside.
Although I was able to predict its move, when I saw that my attack was blocked just like that, I didn’t feel good at all.
But, this was within my predictions.
And because it was within my predictions, something like this is of no matter. “Bloom, Restrictor of the Frozen Earth.”
A light blue icy mist surrounded us in an instant, and seemingly at the same time, a layer of frost covered the shikigami’s body.
“Even if you’re a Shikigami, like a doll, you can still be frozen, right?”
But, a blue light was suddenly emitted from its eyes, and a mark of a water droplet appeared on its forehead!
When I was about to kick it away, countless of small holes suddenly appeared on its arms, and a weird water mist was released from the holes!
And my icy mist was engulfed by its water mist in an instant, and the layer of frost on its body disappeared at the same time.
Although its entire body was drenched, it was able to escape my binds.
A Water Magic spell capable of overwhelming an intermediate-grade Ice Magic spell? No, this isn’t Magic. Is this Onmyou?
“Berserk – 49 Ice Arrows!”
Since my opponent is able to use spells as well, then I can’t defeat it with normal attacks.
It stretched out its hand, and the surrounding mist quickly gathered together to form a shield. The 49 ice arrows pierced into it at the same time, like a scarecrow being pierced by multiple feathered arrows.
It actually blocked all of them?
The water-formed shield split at its center, and the shikigami walked out of it completely unscathed, and it was even wielding a water sword in its hand!
“Ice Totem!”
A giant ice pole immediately pushed me towards the sky. At the same time, I stretched my hands upwards, and three gigantic icebergs slowly began to form.
“Descend! Ice Fall!”
The first iceberg immediately descended towards the ground! Bang!
A sword wave made out of water sliced the iceberg into half, and from the iceberg’s opening, the Shikigami was running along the sides of the ice totem as it charged towards me!
“Tch!”
You’re not kind at all, huh. In times like this, at least take the hit and let me be happy for a short moment!
“Dance! Ice Flower!”
A chain of ice thorns appeared from the top of the ice totem, and were running down the sides of the ice totem!
But the Shikigami once again pulled out its sword and slashed at the ice thorns. Then, it continuously slashed apart the incoming ice thorns as it continued to rush towards me!
Alright, I can only try again!
I leaped down from the top of the ice totem, and slashed at the Shikigami with my tachi!
While the Shikigami also raised its water sword to take my attack!
As I thought, this guy will only react appropriately to its opponent’s attacks. Then that’s good!
The two blades clashed, and at the same time, the two icebergs above us slowly moved, and began to fall towards the shikigami at high speed!
I put in all my strength into my tachi, and pushed myself away from the Shikigami. At the same time, I tapped on the Instant MP Recovery Potion in my inventory.
“Arcane – Punishment – Tearing Cross!”
With the shikigami’s high speed slashes, the giant icebergs were sliced into pieces. But at the same time, it was slowed down from doing so. Taking this opportunity, I thrust the cross towards it.
“You’re able to slice material objects. But what about formless ones?”
The cross instantly cut across its body, and it fell onto the ground after an explosive bang.
“This is really… Light Steps.”
I slowly landed onto the ground, and the ice totem collapsed beside me as well. The earlier explosion destroyed the bottom half of the ice totem, so I had no choice but to leap off the totem.
“Un, where did it go?”
I looked around and I could not find its figure, but…
Two pieces of paper slowly floated down from the sky. I stretched out my hand and grabbed onto one of the pieces, and I realized it was one of the pieces of the Shikigami I sliced open earlier with the cross.
“Is it dead? Once the talisman is broken, it shouldn’t be able to repair itself, right?” I picked up the other piece, and placed them both into my ring.
“Fir, hurry and help me bring that thing onto the magic crystals.”
The one who called out to me was Dale. Currently, he was standing on the roof of the carriage with the teleportation circle, and he was even fiddling with something in his hands.
“Hah? You already exterminated the Shikigami?”
“That’s of course. After all, our opponents are simply made of paper, and they are existences that can only maintain their forms by borrowing the user’s energy, right? If this many shikigamis were being controlled by a single person, they definitely wouldn’t have any complex attack patterns. Hence, our opponents were probably using a fixed attack pattern, and were automatic shikigamis with installed with external sources of energy.”
“Un, that sounds about right. They only react to their opponents’ movements, so it’s probably a pre-installed function. But, what does that have to do with you beating it?”
“Lightning attacks. After stunning it for a short period of time, I simply absorbed its energy dry.”
“Absorb? What did you use to absorb its energy?” “This.”
He pointed to the thing he had been fiddling with. I looked at it carefully, and finally realized what it was.
“Hey hey! isn’t that my Magic Trap Destroying Device!?”
That’s right, it’s the pot lid I used earlier to remove the magic trap inside the carriage. Dale had brought it onto the roof, and its exterior had already been pried open. Countless messy wires were pulled out from the device, and were stretched into the carriage.
“Connect that connector over there to the magic formation and those empty magic crystals.”
“…Haah, alright then. Remember to rebuild it for me after this.”
I walked over, and connected everything according to his instructions. Pa!
A burst of electricity blew me out of the carriage! “Hey hey! At least give me a heads up!”
“Sorry, it doesn’t have an on-and-off switch.”
But, right at this moment, a ripple of light was emitted by that lid-like object, and the surrounding s.p.a.ce shook. Several objects that I could not make out with my eyes were suddenly being sucked in, and they flew into the pot lid. At the same time, the several empty magic crystals in the carriage all lighted up in an instant!
They were actually charged up in an instant? No wonder that Shikigami did not look fatigued at all after using so many spells.
Exterminated Shikigami – Sky Queen (Dark – 1) EXP Gained: 1,000
Party EXP Gained: 50 x 8 = 400
Total EXP Gained: 1,400
Party Members leveled up. Oyado leveled up!
Current LV: 18 Dale leveled up! Current LV: 20 Dale leveled up!
Current LV: 21
“Dale, you actually took all of the EXP?” “Seems… like it?”
Dale shrugged.
And at this moment, the sky suddenly revealed a thin horizontal line of light. Looks like the sun is about to rise.
And at the same time, the city gate slowly opened. “I’m famished. Let’s get some breakfast.”
“Alright.”