Chapter 383: Battle Part 1
"..." I stare at the heroes taking their positions, I feel their power increasing ridiculously fast, and with that I know the heroes with buffing abilities are using them now.
’Yes...this power is several times greater than before...as I imagined, the strategy boils down to buffing the team, debuffing me, and attacking together.’ So predictable, it’s exactly what I foresaw a long time ago.
Soon I feel my power dropping dramatically, more than 80% of my power was reduced in a single blow, a number so devastating that even I am disturbed.
’Damn, that’s too much...good thing I prepared for this.’ I’m glad I found a way to get rid of debuffs, my body immediately generates a core with my vitality passing all the debuffs to it and expelling the core from my body.
I feel the core in my mouth, I bite it creating a snapping sound that makes some heroes tremble while I feel my power returning, they also seem to feel that I’ve regained my power as some appear troubled.
"Come on heroes, if you don’t attack soon, I’ll attack first." I speak while waiting for the attack as their power stops growing, it seems they’ve reached the limit of what the accumulation of buffs can do.
’I think 10...no, 20, they are 20 times stronger than when they arrived...that means each one is roughly equivalent to 20 to 60 thousand levels...’ It’s really a huge change.
"You’ll regret waiting," Kaito says with an arrogant look as Chinatsu activates her [5-Stage Anti-World Barrier], one of the powers I considered dangerous.
’It seems I’m locked in here.’ I spit out a fragment of the core I chewed, as soon as the tinkling of the fragment hitting the ground happens, the heroes attack with 3 of them advancing with sword strikes while again trying to apply debuffs to me and use magic to trap me.
Crack
The ground cracks when I hold the 3 sword strikes with my hands, spitting out a new core through my mouth, I spin the blades moving the heroes and with a tail strike I throw the 3 back.
Quickly moving to what I consider the weakest, but obstructive, however I immediately go blind, an effect I attribute to Keita’s unique ability [Breath Lock].
But without caring about it, I continue the movement using the ambient mana as if they were my eyes, which gives me a view of everything around me instead of just what’s in front of me.
’Fast!’ I crouch down, dodging a sword strike and hitting with a punch, but a Sakura clone stepped in front, being blown up by my punch while 7 arrows pierce my back with my tail blocking 9 of them.
’Damn, even being predictable there are too many opponents.’ I use the darkness to attack everyone, forcing them to defend, and using [Temporal Speed Blitz] I appear in front of Sakura.
She looks surprised, but before she can react, my hand is already close to her chest above her heart, I form a blade quickly piercing her heart, but unable to continue, I dodge a spear strike while rolling back, evading several arrows.
They quickly start healing Sakura with healing magic that is very effective, quickly closing her wound.
’Even after removing the debuffs, I’m still weak.’ My body doesn’t have time to recover completely every time new debuffs are applied and I try to remove them.
I was also hit at some point by Naoki, who used the [Hidden Force Cut] ability, and because of that I can’t use any really strong magic besides some basic skills.
When I dodge back, I feel a presence, noticing a portal being opened, it’s Aoi’s [Partial Portal] ability, and from inside comes Natsuki, who hits me with an ax on my back, activating her unique ability [Conscious Nerve Burst], causing me severe pain.
While Yume advances with a Katana, using her [Timeless Blade Dance] ability, and hits me before the blow happens, which pierces my eye.
With the extra arms, I hold the ax on my back and kick Natsuki with extreme force, throwing her against the castle walls, while holding Yume’s sword.
Her blow can hit 5 seconds before it’s actually made, but that also means that for 5 seconds I know exactly where her blow will land.
My blood stains my dress, dripping down my body, which increases my wild instincts and aggression.
"T-This...Gyya" I pull Yume’s arm with a pair of hands and bite her neck, while squeezing her wrist, making her drop the sword, my teeth sink deep, tearing off a large piece of her neck.
’10 minutes, in 10 minutes I’ll be able to use magic to evaporate the entire area.’ The problem is the barrier around, I can’t let it reach the 5th stage without being able to defend myself.
Other heroes take the opportunity of me being still, biting Yume, to pierce me with blows, I feel blades go through my body, piercing vital organs, while blood spills to the ground.
With two hands, I thrust directly into Yume’s abdomen area and force my hands apart, tearing her body in two.
’The soul...’ I feel her soul, which means she wasn’t being protected by Ryota’s ability, I capture her soul, sending it to my universe.
"One less." I say, dropping the body and quickly entering the shadows, coming out a little distance away while the heroes advance towards me, my body quickly regenerating the damage, expelling the blades stuck inside.
I see dozens of Sakura clones ready to serve as shields, but since these clones are weak, I use my [Chaotic Madness] ability, making the clones go insane and start killing each other.
’Still fast...’ The heroes reach me quickly, considering the status, they should be slower even with me being debuffed, Shohei’s [Complete Acceleration] ability is really annoying.
I try to use Abyss Reflection, which is a powerful debuff, but I’m hit first by a punch to the face, my regeneration is reduced by the blow, showing it was an artifact.
I try to strike, but suddenly gravity seems absurdly heavy, this being Eri’s unique ability [Material Gravitational Divider], being stopped, I feel an arrow pierce my heart and a lance blade partially cut my throat, barely dodging.
’7 minutes...’ I mentally count the time until I can use magic freely again, with my extra arms I hold the lance and bite, shattering it.
The wound in my neck is extremely difficult to regenerate, this is Hiroki’s unique ability [Scar That Never Heals], to suppress the damage, I use black mud on my body to reconstruct using internal parts of my body, thus converting the injured organs into the new flesh that restores the damage to my neck.
Hiroki seems surprised when the wound closes as I enter the shadows, moving through them.
"Hey Sora, talks about her weakness!!!!" One of the heroes yells to Sora, who has that unique ability to reveal weaknesses.
"A-Ah, she..." Before she can say anything, I emerge from the shadows, splitting her body in two with a sword from top to bottom, the sword meets some resistance but I still manage to tear through the armor, soon capturing her soul, sending it to my universe.
"One less, heroes should get smarter," I say as I hold an arrow and throw it back, the arrow curves and comes back to me, I notice it’s Elliot’s [Psychokinesis] ability while I dodge.
’That hurt...’ I’m hit with extreme force on my back by a baton, I look at the vermin who managed to fracture my spine with that blow, no matter how good my instincts are, having so many strong opponents messes up my sense of defense.
My tail didn’t have time to react to defend me, but I manage to grab the baton with my tail and pull the person, who is Amiya, as I have a deal with the stars, I just gather mana in my fist and punch her, throwing her through the castle walls to the outside, while dodging a sword strike.
Daiki tries to scream to activate his annoying [War Cry] debuff ability again, but using pure explosive speed, I launch myself at him like a torpedo.
Tsubasa tries to use his sword to hit me, but unlike what he expected, I use my hands to grab his sword and change the direction, going behind him and giving 3 punches with the 3 arms on my right side, throwing him with extreme force forward.
At the same time, I use the darkness to force dozens of spikes that keep Daiki immobilized, and using the extra shadows, I grab Yume’s Katana and throw it at Daiki.
A new Sakura clone tries to serve as a shield, but I use [Dematerialization], then run forward, grabbing the Katana I threw, which makes me pass through the clone and continue forward, aiming directly at Daiki’s neck.
Kaito tries to defend him, but I simply go through him, still intangible, going behind Daiki and cutting off his head with the Katana, quickly collecting his soul.
"One less..." I say, noticing the slow pace I’m doing this, there are 5 minutes left until I regain my magic, but considering the damage I’m receiving, I’ll be in trouble if I don’t reduce the number of enemies as much as possible.
’They have to hold back to avoid hitting allies, and I’m forced to hold back to avoid receiving too many wounds.’ We’re at an impasse, because there are many of them, they need to be careful.
And since I’m alone, I don’t need to limit how I attack, but the debuffs are still terrible, I create another core, expelling the new wave of debuffs while chewing the core, spitting out a small fragment.
The heroes advance towards me again, trying to maintain this war of attrition, fortunately the barrier still seems to be at stage 1, so I can still fight at my own pace.