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Five minutes passed after the battle began.

“This barrier has become quite tiresome now..?!”

Crim had spotted an opening to swing her black scythe at the delicate neck of the young female knight Adonis, but it was repelled back barely an instant before it made contact.

It seemed that enemies in dungeons with enough intelligence to speak were poor matches against Crim, who habitually aimed for their necks. The strikes would be intercepted by a red barrier displaying a glowing honeycomb pattern, at which point «Absolute Defense» would activate.

«297862 / 300000»

That was likely the durability of the «Absolute Defense» barrier, and it was a staggeringly large number, probably many times higher than Adonis’ HP, and as long as it remained standing, Crim would be unable to strike a critical hit.

She was still dealing some damage, but it was so minimal that it was almost pitiful and would not be enough to deal a finishing blow, which brought endless annoyance to Crim.

“Why does this girl look so cute when she’s so scary?!”

Adonis had witnessed Crim’s scythe aiming for her throat countless times, pushing her to the brink of tears. Yet, she remained an ancient hero, dodging what she could and striking back at Crim whenever possible.

Crim had avoided all physical hits so far, but Adonis’ dagger was imbued with wind magic too, so that was slowly chipping away at Crim’s HP.

On the other side, Sorleon was skillfully dodging Elohim’s straight sword, which was covered with lightning, the sparks of which were also slowly burning Sorleon.

Once their HP bars went down to a dangerous level, they were shrouded in the faint light of healing magic, and they went back to full health.

“Please don’t hold it against me. My only objective is to get through this dungeon, I have no interest in your little competition.”

Shao was supporting both Crim and Sorleon without any favoritism. But Crim felt grateful from the bottom of her heart that he was helping them, so she reaffirmed her grip on her scythe and continued swinging it at Adonis.

…I’ll never forgive…

She was not dwelling on Sorleon’s provocation. Instead, she thought of herself, for indulging in self-pity as if failure couldn’t be helped, and for permitting herself to remain in that state until Sorleon highlighted it.

She had lost in the tournament, and then to Adnammelech when she ventured into the dungeon alone. These were two consecutive defeats, leading her to start becoming accustomed to losing.

“Hanging Wings..!!”
“Hyaahh?!”

Crim’s magic Hanging Wings, unlocked with 70 Points in Abyss Magic, was a crowd control ability that looked like a pair of wings which would restrain and carry up a target. Said target also let out a rather cute shriek, but Crim ignored it.

Instead, Crim swung her blade with all her might at Adonis who was defenseless.

“Execution..!”

As she shouted loudly, the air itself seemed to shake and tremble as the black scythe was imbued with her rage and fighting spirit, being swung mercilessly.

Execution was obtained with 90 Points in the Scythe Skill. Activating it left the user wide open to attacks, but it was also the best one Crim had available in that situation.

“Khah…hah..?!”

Adonis had no means to protect herself so she took the hit head on, letting out a pained groan as she fell on the ground.

Then Crim took a glance at Sorleon’s side and saw that there too the other knight was on his knees. It had not been a clear victory for her, which she lamented slightly, but being able to fight to her heart’s content had helped her head cool down a lot.

“Eugh…she’s so scary…it hurts…I want to go home…”

Adonis looked completely dispirited, her motivation to fight completely gone as she cried on the ground. Seeing her like that made Crim feel like she had done something evil to her, but it was time to end her suffering, so she readied her scythe for one last swing when…

“Not yet, Adonis!”
“…Huh? Ah, are we doing that?!”
“Yeah, take our power, Knight El Chai!!”

Elohim and Adonis quickly stood up as they began to glow, and then a powerful wind spread out from them which made everyone cover their eyes.

“Good, your power has reached me!! Grahhhhhhh!!”

El Chai let out a loud grunt as his scarlet greatsword drew two slashes which divided the battlefield into an X pattern.

A blue trail lingered where the greatsword struck, dividing the battleground into four regions: one with El Chai and the frontline, Crim with Adonis, Sorleon with Elohim, and the rear guard isolated, as glowing crystals protruded from the ground, preventing movement between regions.

◇◇◇

“Dammit, so that’s their..!” Shao grumbled to himself.

Those walls dividing the battlefield likely activated whenever the enemies’ HP was brought down to a certain level, similar to Adnammelech’s Paradise Lost. Except that this time the glowing barrier showed no signs of fading away.

Not only that, but now that El Chai had the twin’s power, every time he swung his greatsword, further barriers would appear, blocking off more and more parts of the battlefield.

For now there was still room to dodge the attacks, but eventually everything would be filled with that light, cornering them and letting El Chai cut them up with ease.

On top of that, El Chai was still standing strong. Crim and Sorleon had gone a bit too crazy with the twins, forcing them to start the second phase way too early.

Some attempted to attack Elohim and Adonis immediately, but they were already separated by then, rendering them unable to reorganize their formation. The rear lines also tried to employ their magic, but their spells were obstructed by barriers labeled with «Absolute Defense».

The rising glowing crystals also kept piling up, secluding them from the battlefield further, so many could only wait while twiddling their thumbs.

In other words, it was checkmate for them…

It was common for gamers to always focus on defeating the minions of a larger enemy first, but that had been used against them in this fight, making it a sure way to kill first timers.

No one was to blame for that, there was no way for them to know that would happen after all. Now they knew, so their next attempt would go better. That was how fights against raid bosses always went.

Oh well, there’s still some time before we’re all killed, so let’s try to get as much info as we can till then.

Thinking that, Shao turned to look at the battlefield again, but then he saw something else…

“…Hahah, the other two Demon Lords really are insane, huh.”

The other two Demon Lords, Crim and Sorleon, were continuously striking the impenetrable barrier covering the twin knights, Elohim and Adonis. They were not desperate, giving up, or even focused on their competition anymore. They simply hated losing to a ridiculous and stupid degree, and Shao finally understood that.

But as it just happened to be…Shao was rather fond of such stupidity.

“Might as well join in… Maybe I’ll be able to seize a good opportunity.” A mischievous grin spread across his lips as he said this, beginning to cast a new magic spell as he re-entered the fight. “Either way… they might be AI, but I still feel somewhat bad for those twin knights.”

The reaction from the twins genuinely made it seem like they were in agonizing pain, prompting Shao to sigh.

◇◇◇

The threat was not only El Chai’s greatsword, there were also AoE attacks that landed on the battlefield from time to time. They started as enormous crystal spikes that fell on random spots, though their frequency had increased so much that it went past a rain of crystals to a storm, creating a hellish situation.

But rather than focusing on avoiding the red marks telegraphing the incoming attacks, Crim dashed forward hoping she would find a safe spot later. In other words, she was heading straight to Adonis, who was also contributing to cornering them.

“…No way?!”

Seeing Crim move forward without any fear of death made Adonis’ face contort with fear. Instinctively she turned to look at her brother for help…only to see that Sorleon was also going against him.

Watching that seemed to make the last figments of hope vanish from Adonis’ eyes.

If Adnammelech had been in that situation, she wouldn’t have cared and fought back. But Adonis’ mentality had already suffered a lot, so Crim was betting on taking advantage of that. And the bet paid off. Now she just had to properly exploit that.

There was a loud high pitched clink when the scythe collided with the barrier.

Crim used her whole body and momentum to swing her scythe into the «Absolute Defense» barrier around Adonis.

«14543 / 15000»

The number was much smaller than the one that popped up when she tried to strike critical hits, which brought a twisted grin to Crim’s lips as she continued swinging her scythe violently. She felt like she could break through this time.

“Aa…aah…”

Adonis could hardly register what was happening in front of her, sparks flying away as Crim continued breaking through the resistance of «Absolute Defense», and all she could focus on was to continue sharing her power with El Chai.

“…Shadow Light-Weapon!”

Crim conjured a pitch-black dagger in her left hand, holding it in a reverse grip and plunging it into the barrier, causing even more sparks to fly. As she moved faster, the barrier’s resilience became more pronounced, numbing her hands with a sensation akin to a faint electric shock.

“Get…throughhhhhh!!”

Shouting to invigorate herself, she plunged the dagger as deep as it could go before pulling it down to tear the barrier apart.

An ear piercing sound of glass smashing into little pieces rang out everywhere. The barrier finally gave out, shattering into glowing motes of light that glimmered in the air, and then like snow in summer, they vanished.

Adonis watched that in a daze, and then…

“…I’m sorry, but let’s end it alright?”

A katana with a blood-red color appeared, and Crim used its flat side to strike Adonis’ head from behind, who let out a short whimper and was finally taken out of combat.

As the glowing crystal walls lost their source of power, they let out a shrill sound before crumbling down. On the other side of the fallen walls, Sorleon stood with a disappointed look.

His opponent, Elohim, was on the ground covered in black flames, which came from Shao’s magic. Just as Crim and Sorleon’s competition was nearing its end, he had swooped in to steal the finishing blow.

Now the only enemy remaining was El Chai, who no longer was linked to the other two. It did not take much longer after that for the group to continue carrying that momentum to victory…

Afterword:

Adonis sounds so cute and pitiful.