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–––Bandit’s viewpoint

“Don’t lose sight of him!”

I carried Queen Titis away as I shouted, Luvias and her group reflexively jumping and scattering away. Their party had been in shock for a moment, their pillar of strength and confidence, Lapis, had been taken out of the battle first. I couldn’t blame them for that, she had always been the strongest of all, so we had never expected her to be the first one out. Still, as worried as we were, none of us thought she was actually dead. Knowing her, she would take a short time to heal herself and then join us again. We simply had to survive and somehow hold Behemoth back until then.

“Why youuuu!!”
“This is for Masterr!”

Karin and Luvias shouted loudly as they charged against Behemoth with all their power. Their bodies, clad in magic, moved swiftly and were hard to follow, but Behemoth was still faster than them. Even if their swords seemed about to hit their mark, Behemoth was able to move his humongous body out of the way and remain unscathed.

“Don’t forget we’re here as well!”
“We won’t let you get away!”

At some point, my sisters Avenis and Epsilon had circled around and stood where Behemoth tried to escape. Their weapons had come at the perfect timing so even Behemoth knew he could not evade them, instead using his tail like a whip to get them out of the way.

“Kyah?!”

As soon as the tail hit Epsilon’s spear, she was sent flying away. But Avenis managed to pull back and duck, then striking with all her weight behind her axe against Behemoth’s leg.

“Grawroahh!!”

Behemoth hollered, the air shaking from it. We had landed a hit! That was enough to give us some hope back, we weren’t fully cornered anymore. As strong as he was, Behemoth was not invincible. If our attacks landed, he’d get hurt, and if he kept moving he’d eventually get tired. There were plenty of heroes assembled here, if we fought with all we had we might actually win!

“Please hide, Queen Titis! I’ll join the fight too!”
“A-alright! Be careful!”

After I let go of her, Queen Titis ran to the pile of rubble where Lapis was buried and began removing rocks one after another. I felt like her efforts were like drops of water in an ocean, but it was still better than if she did nothing. I decided to let her do that while I swiftly unsheathed Xanthus from my back and ran towards Behemoth. Hearing my shout, everyone else also charged with their weapons ready.

“Gwrohhh!”

Behemoth roared menacingly and began moving at a fast pace again. It was the same attack he had used against Lapis earlier, but this time her target was…Karin!

“No good..!”

Even if we could trace his movements with our eyes, our bodies still had a delay in reacting. Karin managed to hold her sword vertically to defend herself, but it was knocked away by Behemoth’s claws. She tried to jump back to escape a follow-up attack, but Behemoth also moved after her, his other arm swinging down from above.

There was no way for Karin to escape anymore, the claws were on a clear path to crush her head, but then Behemoth stopped his attack and jumped high and away from there. A powerful column of water sprouted from the ground right where he had been standing, which would have pierced through his body had he not jumped. Ciel had managed to cast a powerful spell.

“Tch! That was so close!”

Behemoth’s incredible speed made it hard to hit any attacks even for magicians. She had been planning on attacking from a blindspot when he got too busy with us. But still, he was too good and fast at evading everything.

“Sylph, spirit of the wind! Shred his body!”

A half transparent woman, Sylph, the spirit of wind, appeared following Diaria’s call. Powerful gusts formed around her body, which she sent towards Behemoth, but as soon as they touched him they vanished. It was the opposite of blowing on a candle’s flame.

“Ugh, a lower level spirit won’t do anything after all! And we’re so deep underground I don’t have many options anyway!”

Diaria was in a rather unfavorable spot, relegated to only being able to attack with arrows which she shot continuously. Regular arrows would be like toothpicks to Behemoth, but when loaded with magic even he would want to avoid them, constantly rolling his body from one side to another.

“Keep that going!!”

We couldn’t afford to give him an opening to attack. We all knew that if we were pushed to a defensive position, we’d quickly be eradicated. That’s why our frontliners swallowed their fear and kept charging at Behemoth. But then we felt the ground shake and give in beneath us, making all of us fall down.

“Dammit! He’s using spirit magic!”
“He’ll turn the ground to mud to stop us from moving!”
“I won’t let him! Ice Storm!”

Still on the ground, Ciel raised her staff high into the air. An instant later a powerful gale blew against Behemoth, glistening particles of ice mixed in it freezing the ground all around Behemoth and trapping his legs. He had been able to stop Diaria’s spirit magic from the source, but this was magic coming directly from Ciel. While harder to stop, it was still too weak to truly stop Behemoth from moving.

“Growrr!”

Ciel’s magic had annoyed him to the point he jumped back to evade it. Thanks to that his spell was broken though, the ground becoming solid again and only dirtying our clothes a little. If he had kept going, we’d be in a really bad spot.

“Now it’s my turn to- wha-?!”

I tried to charge forward again, but one step later I felt something off and instinctively jumped to the side. A sharp spike sprouted from the ground where I had been standing. That was clearly payback for Ciel’s earlier attack! And all the mud from earlier had masked it off until now!

“Gyah!”
“Woah there!”
“Keep moving! If you stay still he’ll get you!”

More spikes sprung forth from the ground, keeping us constantly jumping to evade them. Like Luvias had said, if any of us stood still we’d make an easy target. But jumping around evading spikes also meant we had no way to retaliate. Behemoth had been waiting for this, charging forward knowing we were too busy.

“Kyahh!”
“Ghahh!”