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–––Freya’s viewpoint

“Grah!”
“Kuh!?”

Ditoner’s and my swords slowly cut each other apart. My armor was already bathed in my own blood, making it hard to find any remaining white spots on it. Ditoner did not seem to know how to use healing magic, or he had no time for it, as he tried to ignore all his wounds and continue fighting against me. But me on the other hand…

“Damn you! Again?”
“Heheh…that’s what happens when you fight with friends!”

Unlike Ditoner, my comrades standing a distance away could heal me even while I was fighting. All of them were well versed in healing magic, and were handpicked to support me while I fought in the frontlines. When I became a hero, I did not wish for warriors that could fight alongside me in the front, or magicians that could cast powerful magic, not even skilled archers that could shoot an arrow through a small hoop, I only asked for priests to heal me.

The heros from other countries had formed parties that could fight against any type of enemy, but I was different. My only enemies were monsters and demons, so I focused all my attention on ways to win against them specifically. That had already shown its usefulness here, as we neutralized a large portion of the enemy army before the fighting had started. If I had regular magicians with me, there would have been a bloodbath for both sides already. This was the beauty and usefulness of holy magic, only our enemies would be affected by it, while all of us would be able to fight without issue. It was a truly handy spell.

But Ditoner’s skill with the sword was much better than mine. If I did not have my party supporting me, I would have turned into a lifeless corpse a long time ago.

“Arghh! There’s no end to this! I’ll start by killing you back there then!”
“!”

Losing his temper seeing me get healed once again, he decided to switch targets to the priests behind me and charged towards them. I had them train some close combat skills just in case before, but having them fight Ditoner was too reckless. He had probably noticed as much and decided he would be able to get at least one kill in the next few seconds if he went there, but…

“What?!”

His attack was stopped entirely by the protective barrier they had cast, one of the many walls protecting them. That was an impenetrable barrier that neutralized most physical, magic, and psychological attacks one could think of. Even if they did not have the power to take down a strong foe, they were skilled in defense and healing so they would never fall themselves.

“What is this s̲h̲i̲t̲! Damn it, damn it all! If all of you want to see me mad, then..!”
“Huh?!”

All of a sudden his body burst into black and red flames which covered his entire body. What was he planning on doing?!

“Gah…ah…aaahhhhh!”

As he screamed, the flames became more intense, and as we all took cover from it, they suddenly vanished, leaving Ditoner transformed into a far more sinister appearance behind.

“What happened…”
“This…is my secret power…Strengthening.”

As he stepped forward, I instinctively took a step back unable to resist the pressure coming from him. That was probably the same power Barbaros from Leble had used before. Still, it had not been used to this extent that time, back then I had not felt so much pressure coming from Barbaros. Was it different because a demon was using it this time?

“My body gets all sore every time I do this, so I try to restrain myself from using it often, but you give me no choice. Get ready now, little hero, you have no way out now.”
“!”

He seemed to have a point with that as he approached me at a much higher speed than before. Even though he was under the effects of holy magic, he moved like he had transformed into a different person. My first reaction was to cast a holy spell to protect myself.

“Holy Wall!”
“Shut up!”

The wall of light that appeared in front of me took Ditoner’s attack for a moment. It was unable to resist it fully and shattered into countless pieces. Those shards of light were all remnants of holy magic, so Ditoner looked pained with them around him, but he pushed forward regardless.

I had no time to cast more magic, so I readied my sword to block whatever attack would follow, and he did just that, hitting my sword with his.

“Wha-!”
“Don’t think this will go the same way as earlier! You’re too weak!”

I was sent flying away by the blow, unable to stand up right away as I rolled on the ground after landing. But without giving me time to react, Ditoner charged in again, ready to deal the finishing blow.

“Lady Freya!”
“We’ll protect you!”
“Stop getting in the way!”

The barriers created by my party to protect me shattered just like my own as Ditoner got closer to me.

“Ghuh?!”

I was able to evade a direct hit by rolling to the side, but my left arm was torn apart which made me cry in pain. I tried to counterattack by slashing at his legs, but he jumped back and evaded it.

“Heal!”

My wounds were instantly healed by my party, but I still felt the pain. Ditoner was at least twice, if not three times stronger than before. I had not even considered the chance of him having this kind of trick up his sleeve.

“This is bad…”