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‘Speaking of which, I do remember seeing a lot of anime characters who have wings use their feathers as weapons. And since this Devil King Idol has feathers, what if… The feathers are all made from Abyssium, even if they all look shockingly realistic. Can they be detached… how about a quick experiment?’

Even though my brain was telling me that this was impossible, that burning in my heart said otherwise. Do it, it said, but my brain clearly thought otherwise. Still, it wasn’t like I had anything left to lose at least. And Ferti’nier did say to act on instincts. So what was the harm in indulging that middle schooler in me once in a while?

Having made up my mind, I willed the Devil King Idol to flap its wings. At the same time, I gave out the command to fire its feathers. Then, it happened. The feathers actually shot out. Rather, it wasn’t just feathers that shot out, these were feathers made of mana!

Feathers of at least a meter in length blanketed the sky like a hail of arrows as they whizzed straight for those three Nightmare Steeds. From the very beginning till now, they had never seen a golem in my army use anything other than a melee attack. Naturally, they came to the conclusion that this Devil King Idol had no long ranged attacks as well. Because of that, they were a lot more lax than they would normally be, seeing as all they really had to do was dodge some punches and wing flaps.

Never in their wildest horse dreams did they expect the Devil King Idol to suddenly fire a hail of mana feathers!

Shade and Warsight were still in good condition, so they managed to react right away to the mana feathers. With a clop of their fiery hooves, they sped off into the distance, completely dodging the hail of feathers.

In contrast, Shadowfall was definitely not so lucky. Because he had expanded too much energy on Mo Na, and then he got smacked by the Devil King Idol once, his condition wasn’t good, to say the least. Despite his best efforts, he still ended up being hit on his upper left leg.

These feathers were made entirely out of mana, funded mostly by the Devil King Idol itself. While this skill did draw some mana from me, it was miniscule, at least for my current level.

The power of the feathers, however, were definitely at the level of an Eight-star. Even though it was only a single feather that struck Shadowfall, that feather immediately exploded upon impact. Once the dust settled, Shadowfall’s silhouette was slowly revealed, collapsed on the floor and noticeably a leg short…

These feathers had the power to kill in one hit. Had that been his head which was hit, Shadowfall most definitely would have died by now -truly monstrous.

The mana that fuelled this skill was drawn automatically from the Gem of Authority. The gem itself was basically a portable storage device and a charger at the same time. As long as this mana reserve held up, I needn’t worry about the Devil King Idol’s operations. All I had to do now was keep firing off feathers at those pesky horses.

“Shadowfall!”

The other two Nightmare Steeds immediately rushed to his aid. Naturally, I wasn’t going to let this golden opportunity pass by at all. I promptly fired a second volley of mana feathers at the three Nightmare Steeds.

The feathers were fast. In just the blink of an eye, they came pressing down on the Nightmare Steeds. But their agility impressed me once more. Before the feathers could hit them, Shade and Warsight managed to pick up their three-legged comrade and speed off into the distance. Through sheer determination and cooperation, they managed to pull Shadowfall out from the jaws of death itself.

With no targets to hit, the mana feathers all exploded on the ground, turning it swiftly into swiss chess.

‘A dud, huh. Shame.’

Shadowfall on her back, Warsight hurriedly galloped away from the scene while Shade stayed behind to cover them.

‘Hah, do you think I’m stupid?! I know exactly who is the best target right now.’

I immediately gave the order to ignore the Nightmare Steed before me, chasing after Warsight who was undoubtedly slowed down by the injured Shadowfall.

Shade initially tried to attract my attention by galloping around the idol, yet I wasn’t about to fall for his plan. I continued running after the pair, waving my hands in the process to keep Shade at bay. Whether or not these managed to hit didn’t matter to me at all. My eyes were fixed on that pair of Nightmare Steeds, Shadowfall and Warsight.

Shade tried to launch an attack at me to halt my progress, but my defenses were just too strong. No matter how many times he attacked, my outer exoskeleton showed no signs of breaking; all he managed to do was slightly slow me down. Could he stop me from chasing them? Clearly not. After all, the difference in power between us was just too big -whether we were speaking in terms of mass or defenses…

As my Devil King Idol continued lumbering forward, I discovered another basic skill built into the idol: Instant Acceleration.

While running in a straight line, the Devil King Idol was capable of frightening speeds. However, it still suffered from the same problem as my other golems, and that was its clear inability to perform a turn well…

In other words, this newfound skill, Instant Acceleration, could only be used in a straight line dash -completely useless against more agile opponents.

If this was a battlefield, I could at least use this skill to perform a devastating charge against the enemy army. At that point, hitting someone wouldn’t be a problem at all. Now however, it was a more complicated situation. Warsight was definitely slowed down by Shadowfall, but whenever I tried to attack them, they would simply make a hard turn, causing my attack to fall flat once more.

In light of that, further pursuit was pointless. After all, there was nothing this lumbering idol could do if they were dead set on running away. But I still need that blasted horn! Even if I can’t capture all three of them, I should at least try to get a horn fragment, or something!

Unfortunately, even if force wasn’t an option, neither was negotiation. In order for that to work, I would first have to cease hostilities. Yet there was no way they would stop running away. In fact, they would probably speed up even more, leaving me no better than if I didn’t stop at all.

In order to at least procure a horn, I tried firing off more mana feathers ahead of them. However, that was in vain as well. No matter what, there would always be gaps between each feather for them to weave into. The Nightmare Steeds knew that as well, and that was precisely what they did!

Shameless Self-promotion

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.