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“You’ll just exhaust yourself trying to keep up with Glis’ antics…! Go crazy, Glis!”
“I will, Rani…! Wait for me!”

Inglis lightly kicked the bow and leaped forward. If she were to use real force, she could combine it with her Ether Armor to produce a strong push, but that might risk causing the Star Princess to capsize.

So, she took a gentle step forward. However, with just that, she risked losing speed and being overtaken by the Star Princess.

In that case, this is it—!

Inglis swiftly turned around and extended her palm toward the horizon.

“Ether Strike!”

Whooossshhhh!

The gushing light of Ether gave Inglis an overwhelming propulsive force.
It pulled her away from the Star Princess and brought her over to the head of the school of Magic Stone Beasts.

“Roaaarrrr!”

One lively Magic Stone Beast reacted quickly and leaped out of the water, opening its large mouth to swallow Inglis.

“Thank you very much…!”

Just as the jaws full of sharp fangs closed, Inglis evaded them with a twist of her body.

“Right when I needed a foothold!”

Using its closed mouth as a foothold, Inglis leaped to a position at the front of the herd. The water was so deep that the bottom was invisible. Inglis should have sunk into the water, but she didn’t.

Crack!

With a sound, the seawater at her feet froze instantly, forming a foothold. The original material of the Dragon Ice Armor is ice sorcery, and the Dragon God Vufailbane, which served as the source of her Dragon Roar, was a dragon of supreme freezing power.

Naturally, the Dragon Ice Armor, combining these elements, carried a potent freezing aura. By focusing a bit on her footing, the freezing aura seeping from the armor froze the space beneath Inglis’ feet.

While Inglis could perform water-surface running in a straight line, that footwork was not suited for sudden stops or intricate changes in direction. Freezing the area beneath her feet immediately upon stepping allowed her to fight with a sensation not much different from fighting on solid ground. Although highly localized, as a secondary effect different from its original function, it proved to be quite effective.

“This makes the fight easier…! Let’s do this!”

Two Magic Stone Beasts suddenly leaped from both sides, launching a swift assault. Inglis created a corridor of ice at her feet and charged toward the Magic Stone Beast on her right.

“Hyaahhh!”

She leaped and closed in on the airborne Magic Stone Beast. It failed to react to Inglis’ movements and could not counterattack.

Sure, it had sighted its target (Inglis) and pounced on it, but if the target moved, it had no means to correct its trajectory. If it were a bird or something with wings, it might control its movements mid-air, but a fish could only leap in a straight line.

Inglis mercilessly thrust a spinning kick into the side of the Magic Stone Beast.

With a thunderous crash, the Magic Stone Beast was sent flying sideways, colliding with another that had been approaching. Their momentum clashed, and they tumbled down, entangled. Inglis pursued them, getting ahead of their landing point.

“Rani! Leone!”

Calling their names, Inglis kicked the Magic Stone Beasts high and far away. They soared much higher and farther than they could on their own, heading towards the Star Princess that was chasing them.

Suddenly, a sharp horn and a large mouth emerged from below. It seemed like an attempt to swallow Inglis whole, but she reacted swiftly, leaping lightly upwards.

Narrowly avoiding the attack, she seized its long horn and dragged the giant body up onto the water’s surface.

“This one’s for Liselotte!”

With a swift punch, she flicked her fist upward. The Magic Stone Beast writhed and continued flying, following the previous two.

Physical attacks have no effect on Magic Stone Beasts. While she could strike them away, it wouldn’t deal a fatal blow.

It was more efficient to leave the killing blow to Rafinha and the others.

“GYAAaaaah?! Something’s flying this way! And it stinks like a fish!”
“They’ll dive deep once they touch the water! We need to kill them in the air…!”
“I shall take care of the one that’s a bit away!”
“I’ll handle the flygear! You three focus on the attack!”

Eris gripped the controls of the Star Princess, while Rafinha and the others assumed a defensive stance against the incoming Magic Stone Beasts.

Amidst the chaos, they unleashed their powerful abilities. A barrage of light arrows rained down from Flowing Radiance, piercing through the air. The long, black blade, accompanied by a phantom dragon, cut through the enemies with precision. Meanwhile, the dragon-shaped halberd transformed, unleashing a fierce blizzard that swept over the Magic Stone Beasts.

“Nice going…! Alright, let’s keep the pace!”

Continuing on, Inglis redirected more and more of the Magic Stone Beasts toward Rafinha and the others.

“HEY GLIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS!! Too fast! Defeat some of them yourselves!”

After kicking away seven or eight in a row, Inglis received complaints from Rafinha.

“Yeah… You’re right…”

She looked down at her feet. Through her previous maneuvers, quite a number of frozen platforms were still available.

“All right, then, I’ll use this one!”

Inglis released the dragon ice armor. She then clenched her hands into fists and brought her left and right fists together in a posture as if she were drawing a sword from her waist.

From this posture, she activated the sorcery that produced an ice sword while completely overlapping the Dragon Roar with the movement of drawing out the sword. By deliberately mixing her mana with Dragon Roar, a mutation in her sorcery occurred.

With the roar of a dragon, a blue sword with a dragon design appeared in her hand.
It is another Dragon Sorcery, the dragon ice sword. She couldn’t activate it at the same time as the dragon ice armor, but she had enough foothold to move around now. She had used this before in a real battle against Jeldegrīva the Duke of War, but it was worth trying out further.

The color of the magic stones embedded in the body of the magic stone beast that just jumped out in front of her was ice blue. Hitting an opponent who is likely to be resistant to her attack sounded fun to her.