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“It’s been a long time, Hiyuki. Are you doing we一… Woahhh.”

Tengai’s lightning rained down, ignoring whatever Lubbock was saying.

Boulders shattered, the ground collapsed, and ionized air tickled my nose, but Tengai’s assault never wavered for a moment.

To be precise, he was ordered not to show any mercy at any cost. After all, we were dealing with the strongest player, the ‹One Man Army›.

It wasn’t his control over nine swords or parallel thinking that made him dangerous. Nor was it his peak specialization in one area, like my speed or Kagerou’s assassination skills. Instead, he simply had a balanced mix of abilities, which made him particularly formidable.

In short, there were very few gaps to exploit and no apparent weaknesses. He was the most dangerous type of opponent to face.

A single mistake against someone like Lubbock could be fatal. If we had allowed ourselves to engage in conversation, he might have caught us off-guard and attacked.

That’s why, since a fight was inevitable, our only option was to employ brute force and our most powerful attacks.

Despite this relentless onslaught, Lubbock managed to escape, and the long sword ‘Tsuki’ in his hand had unexpectedly transformed into the super rare drop item ‹Aegis›.

Good grief… That’s why no one can afford to let their guard down.

With its dual attributes of ‘Wind’ and ‘Lightning,’ ‹Aegis› also provided significant resistance against Tengai’s lightning strikes.

“Tsk.”

Tengai clicked his tongue as his body began to petrify in places. It was likely the effect of the petrification ray fired by an eyeball embedded in the center of ‹Aegis›. – Isn’t it contradictory for a shield to also have offensive capabilities?

I quickly cast support magic like recovery and ‘resistance up’ to counter the abnormal effects on Tengai.

“I apologize. I’m really ashamed to have to rely on the Princess for assistance…”
“Save the reflection for later. Just focus on your offense! Mikoto, once you’re done healing Kokonoe, join us. Kokonoe, return to the frontline as soon as you’re healed.”
“Understood.”
“I understand, My Liege.”

I glanced over and saw that Kokonoe’s healing was about 80% complete.

It had been a close call. If we hadn’t coincidentally heard about the situation from Eugene’s team on our way to Asmina’s place, we wouldn’t have made it in time.

I had told Kokonoe to retreat if a player attacked unexpectedly, but he hadn’t backed down. The cause was my naïve perspective. I should have deployed several demon commanders at the very least.

“Princess,” Tengai’s urgent voice called out to me as I was regretting my actions.

I looked up to see most of Lubbock’s swords, excluding ‘Zetsu,’ hurtling towards me from various angles.

“I don’t need to defend! Keep up your attacks!”

I immediately stopped Tengai from taking evasive action, readied my sword ‘Gilles de Rais,’ and prepared to intercept the attack.

““““Haaa!””””

But before I could, the four Imperial Guard sisters – Tsubaki, Enoki, Hisagi, and Hiiragi of the principality – who had been waiting in the sky, each knocked down a sword with their spears.

Only four left! The remaining swords spun like drills in the air as they charged towards us.

Here they come!

I lowered my stance and braced myself, but before I could act, the four swords suddenly halted in midair.

“What’s going on!?”

It seemed Lubbock was also caught off guard by this unexpected turn of events, judging by his bewildered exclamation.

“Uryaa~~!!”

With a cheerful shout, the demon general Byakuya – a colossal three-faced, six-armed white monkey adorned with a jeweled crown – descended from the sky and kicked away the remaining swords.

Ah, I see. The sudden stopping of the swords was due to his skill ‹Attack Cancel›.

“Oh-ho, what’s the matter, Master Tengai? You’re still not done? Your skills must be getting rusty!”
“First you’re late, and now you have the nerve to say that! Hurry up and help!”
“Yes, yes.” Byakuya shrugged off Tengai’s angry outburst.

He then turned his attention to Lubbock and narrowed his eyes.

“Oh-ho? Isn’t this brother Lubbock? Are we allowed to kill him?”

“Just do it. The Princess will handle it! And don’t let your guard down. Although Lubbock has always been strong, this level of tenacity is abnormal. He’s still got more than half his vitality left, even after facing four members of the round table.”

I shifted my focus to Lubbock, following Tengai’s words, and saw that he had only lost 40% of his HP. This was despite facing Kokonoe’s shockwave, Mikoto’s consecutive holy strikes from the air, and engaging in a swordfight with Kokuyou.

Indeed, no matter how much he mitigated damage with ‘Aegis’ or tried to avoid taking hits, this amount of remaining HP seemed impossible.

Wait—didn’t that HP value nearly match the 70% I had when in pet unison with Tengai? Could it be the same phenomenon that the mysterious mastermind inflicted upon Animaru’s junior? If my suspicion was correct, this situation might be more dire than fortunate.

If his HP drops into the red zone, there’s a chance he’ll self-destruct. If he’s incinerated, I won’t be able to resurrect him. Even Kokonoe’s dead soul communication wouldn’t work on such a high-level player.

In a sense, the person himself is a hostage… What should we do? But before I could issue the command to “restrain him when his HP borders the red zone,” the demon commanders launched another wave of attacks.