CH 176.2

Chapter 176.2: Shaman vs Pyromancer 1

Now was the time to take a gamble, but I couldn’t do anything but wait for Mei-chan to beat Sugino on the other side of this firewall. Once Sugino was defeated, we should be able to do something about Ooyama.

I felt bad for doing something like gambling for the chance of Mei-chan’s victory, and that wasn’t included in the off chance that she was defeated. Honestly, this wasn’t the best plan and I hated this kind of gambling strategy, but I knew that Mei-chan could do it. Betting my life on her was worth it.

Thus, let’s believe in her victory.

My duty was to buy time as much as possible and prevent Ooyama from helping Sugino. I mean, he could easily send Rem-Dark Knight and Alfa flying with his punch, but our fight was far from over. Rem, who couldn’t feel pain, was tough.

Rem-Dark Knight and Alfa had already recovered, the two of them were glaring at Ooyama’s back as they kept their distance from him. They’re ready to cut as soon as he shows an opening.

「Let’s take our time, the one who has a leeway is me after all.」

「I wonder about that. The other one knows that you’re fighting against me after all――」

Ooyama was starting to move. Arachne I, Rem-Dark Knight, and Alfa rushed as if to protect me.

What the, did he have some sort of fire spell that could negate the effect of my 『Pain Return』? Just what in the world was he trying to do to overturn this situation? And when I was observing him vigilantly, Ooyama suddenly walked away from us.

He was approaching the corpse of the crystal crab, the former king of this room.

「Humph, ORAAAAAAAA!」

Ooyama held onto the pincer of the crab, raised it with his triple-enhanced strength, then threw it towards me!

「UWAAA!?」

Ah, that was close, you’re gonna die too if that giant crab hits me!

The corpse of the giant crab boss crashed right in front of me, sending sprays of some of its blood residue along with a loud crashing sound. It seems he wasn’t serious about using this crab to kill me. I mean, throwing it directly counted as attacking me, so if I got crushed to death, the same would happen to Ooyama.

「Momokawa, I know the way to beat you! Burn till nothing is left, 『Ignis Blast』!」

The moment Ooyama raised his hand, a pillar of fire rose up like a flame dragon. I could perish quickly from the flame radiation.

「UWAA, WHAT’S WITH THIS HEAT!」

But he didn’t unleash that fire on me. The one that Ooyama aimed at was the crab’s corpse.

He unleashed his flame toward the crab’s corpse as if to cremate it right in this place. Ah, the smell of baked crab was really appetizing.

「Uo, feeling hot now, Momokawa?」

「What?」

「I’m asking, are you feeling the heat now?」

""

Of course, I am! Like hell, I didn’t feel the heat when I was standing right in front of a deliciously baked crab.

I mean, I was already drenched in sweat now.

「And thanks to my vocation as a pyromancer, heat means nothing to me. At most, it feels like a warm breeze.」

That’s literally similar to the hidden status of each vocation, just like the poison that I concocted. Thus, it was only natural for pyromancer to have something alongside heat or fire resistance as their hidden status from an early stage.

「That’s why this heat is nothing for me. But you must be starting to feel the heat right?」

When I was literally drenched in sweat almost twice as fast as before, I finally managed to understand what Ooyama was trying to say.

「Yeah, 『Pain Return』 can’t do anything against this heat.」

「HEHEHE, AS EXPECTED OF TAKA! How’s that, Momokawa? feeling helpless now since I only grilled the corpse of the boss. THE LIKES OF YOU CAN’T DO A SH*T AGAINST ME!」

The unleashed flame released heat that couldn’t be countered by 『Pain Return』. Because the 「Heat」 that I felt was coming from something burning in front of me.

「Hey, do you know what the upper limit of body temperature that a living human body can withstand is?」

To maintain a normal life, the limit of the body temperature was around 45 degrees celsius. More than that, humans would normally die.

This was a well-planned trap that made extensive use of flame magic. Ooyama attempted to drain my stamina and kill me by raising the temperature in the area as well as my body temperature. Will I perish as a result of dehydration? Will my heart rate increase? Will my brain be the first to burn? Whatever it was, the increase in air temperature had put my life in jeopardy.

「Kuh, so the countermeasure is the fire itself.」

「If I were you, Momokawa, I wouldn’t move from your current position. 『Ignis Defence』 can be activated much faster than you can make your move. If you try to cross the firewall, you will only end up killing yourself for no reason, and it is not an attack either.」

He may not have used a firewall to surround me because he wasn’t sure whether my 『Pain Return』 would counter it or not. But the same was true for me.

Furthermore, he could consider how using so much fire would affect Sugino, who was fighting Mei-chan on the other side of the firewall. In a nutshell, this was the maximum amount of fire that he could use.

Nevertheless, this amount of heat was more than enough to kill me.

「Fu-haa…」

Even the air I breathed felt like it was burning my lungs. And because the area around me was the firewall that Ooyama erected immediately after the ambush and the corpse of a boss crab that had been baked to the proper temperature, the temperature would only rise with each second.

I wouldn’t be able to survive for too long. Sauna was one of my weaknesses. I mean, 5 minutes was the longest record.

I wonder how long I could persevere in this kind of temperature? 10 minutes? 5 minutes? Even if I didn’t die, it would be the end of me if I fainted. In that situation, how long could Mei-chan handle Sugino’s defense and Ooyama’s firepower…

「Well then, what are you going to do now, Momokawa!?」

A~, what should I do now?… I’m in a pinch…