CH 518

Byune, who was looking at Pree lying on the ground like rags or garbage……was bewildered by the unexpected emotions she was feeling.

Pree was the one who had sacrificed her parents to create gems.

But now, even if Byune hated Pree, she couldn’t help but feel differently. Seeing all the dolls Pree had created destroyed before her eyes, her arms and legs cut off, her body brutally kicked aside, and yet still unable to die, what could Byune do? She felt helpless pity.

Hate and pity could be considered contradictory. But strangely enough, in Byune current state, they matched well together.

But regardless, she didn’t have the time to worry about Pree right now. The transformed Oricule before them was a formidable enemy.

She had already exhausted her stamina and used up all her throwing needles. The only weapons she had left were the two daggers in her hands.

Even so……now that she knew those two gems were created from the sacrifice of her parents, she wanted to destroy and release them from such a disgusting object. To do that, she had to defeat Oricule.

For her own survival. ……And to live to leave this mansion with Vihera and the others.

「Hmm? It looks like you’re all ready. Fortunately, I’ve just gotten used to this body from the fight just now. Let’s enjoy this battle to the fullest.」

「Enjoy the battle? I thought your purpose was to buy time……since when did that change?」

Rei took a step forward in front of Byune as he readied the Death Scythe.

「That is……hmm? Come to think of it, that does seem to have been the case.」

Oricule tilted his head in puzzlement.

(It was the same at the beginning of his fight with Pree. If Oricule had been the same as when he fought me, he wouldn’t have bothered waiting for the number of enemies to increase and would have worked together with Pree to fight against us. Their fight was pointless. Pointlessly seeking fights……is this a side effect of transforming into an abnormal human?)

While thinking to himself……Rei held the Death Scythe with both hands as he turned to look over at Essetus and Nakuto, a little further away.

Nakuto had yet to regain consciousness after being hit by Pree’s lightning magic and was still lying on the floor without any movements.

Seeing their situation, Rei motioned to the door they had come through with his eyes.

Luckily, Essetus understood what Rei was trying to say and decided that he would only get in the way even if he stayed.

After seeing them leave the room, Rei raised his Death Scythe……when Oricule spoke up.

「It’s fine to get rid of those who can’t fight, but wouldn’t it be better for that girl to leave as well then?」

Oricule glance at Byune with his three eyes, including the third eye on his forehead.

「……So you realised.」

「Yeah.」

「It would have been easy to miss. You don’t think that Essetus will return to the surface, inform Vosk, and then retreat from the Marschel residence without further ado?」

Rei said those words in an attempt to provoke Oricule.

However, Oricule just shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn’t a problem.

「In that case, all I have to do is destroy the entirety of Exil, right?」

「You think you can do that?」

「Well, what do you think? ……Since everyone else is out of the way now, why don’t we get started?」

Oricule swung one of the arms that extended from his shoulder blades at a speed that cut through the air itself.

Seeing Oricule’s response, Rei glanced back at the door to confirm that Essetus and Nakuto had left.

(I’m a little worried about Tivia, who’s still inside the magic circle……in that sense, it’s lucky for us that Pree can’t die.)

Anticipating that there was some kind of connection between Pree’s life and the magic circle, Rei checked how she was looking before facing Oricule again.

(Even though I’ve fought Oricule already, I still have a lot of strength to spare. The same goes for Elena and Set, who just arrived. Vihera has healed her injuries with potions, but she’s still not in her best state. As far as Byune in concerned, even her weapons are close to its limits.)

Overall, Rei’s opinion was that they were at about 70-80% strength compared to when they had teamed up in the dungeon.

「Me, Set, and Vihera will form the vanguard, Elena is the middle guard, Byune will support where she can. Magic has no effect on him. Keep that in mind when attacking.」

Elena nodded at Rei’s words.

In the first place, Rei and Elena were the only ones here who could use magic.

In terms of talent, Vihera also possessed a large amount of magic power, but she preferred close combat and didn’t like to use magic.

Her magic power was used exclusively to create the claws and blades at her hands and feet.

However, she barely had any magic power left now.

「Hey, hurry up.」

Ignoring Oricule’s provocation as he gestured with his finger, Rei and the others started their attack.

「Flying Slash-!」

First, Rei threw out a flying slash from the Death Scythe.

Of course, Oricule knew about this attack. He had already been able to deal with them before becoming an abnormal human, so there was no way he wouldn’t be able to deal with them now.

He waved one of his new arms to block the slash flying towards him.

However, if Oricule knew, Rei naturally knew as well. Vihera’s gauntlet, Set’s claws, and Elena’s sword whip shot out from behind, turning into a whip as its tip searched for a gap in Oricule’s actions.

「HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-!」

Oricule move all four of his arms.

Vihera’s punch was blocked with a palm while the her subsequent kicks were received by his other arm.

Perhaps he didn’t want to directly block Set’s attack, he bent his upper body to avoid it instead.

His two new arms were used to repel Elena’s sword whip.

「Mm!」

In the middle of such a series of actions, Byune approached while sprinting close to the ground in an extremely low posture as she tried to stab her dagger into Oricule’s heel. Avoiding the dagger as if he had anticipated it, Oricule moved to kick Byune in the face.

Byune immediately jumped and landed on Oricule’s foot. ……Going with the momentum, or rather, taking advantage of it, Byune opened up some distance from Oricule.

「Magic Shield!」

A voice echoed in Oricule’s ears as he frowned slightly from having his own strength used against him.

Turning to face the voice, he saw Rei approaching with a shield of light floating in mid air as he swung the Death Scythe.

「What!?」

Surprised upon seeing the shield for the first time, he tried to pierce Rei with his new arms from both sides.

The shield would probably stop his attacks, but even so, it wouldn’t be able to block an attack from the right and left at the same time.

However……

「Wind Hand!」

Oricule’s new right arm was stopped as it came in contact with the shield of light while his new left arm was momentarily stopped by something right before it struck Rei.

Wind Hand. The tip of the wind tentacle stretched out from the bottom of the Death Scythe’s shaft as it caught Oricule’s arm for a moment.

「-!?」

Putting aside the fact that the shield of light had blocked one of his attacks, it seemed quite unexpected for him to be blocked by something he didn’t understand. Oricule’s eyes went wide for a moment as he froze.

And, in front of an opponent like Oricule, who had transformed into an abnormal human, Rei wasn’t naive enough to let this decisive opportunity slip by.

「Power Slash!」

Activating the Death Scythe’s skill, Rei swung it down.

The skill, which increased the destructive power behind the attack rather than the Death Scythe’s sharpness, was swung at Oricule second new arm, which had been caught by the Wind Hand.

Dang! Rather than the sound of cutting through flesh, a different sound echoed out as the tip of Oricule’s second arm was knocked away.

Seeing that, Rei spun the Death Scythe around with the momentum left from Power Slash as he thrust the shaft of the Death Scythe at Oricule.

「Penetrate!」

Clad in wind, the Death Scythe shot forward, piercing through Oricule’s leather armoured side.

「GUOH!?」

Stopping the blood from spurting out, Oricule took a few steps back before being struck by a follow up attack.

「Pain Burst!」

Rei swung the Death Scythe again while activating a skill that would increase the pain inflicted.

Slash-!

This was a real slicing attack, different from the Power Slash he had used against Oricule just before. Rei’s attack cut off Oricule’s right arm and sent it flying.

「GAAAAAAAAAAAH!?」

It was only natural to feel excruciating pain from having his arm cut off, but Pain Burst magnified his sense of pain even further.

Although Rei had no idea, level 1 Pain Burst would double the amount of pain felt. Oricule was struck by that level of pain.

Rei himself had just used three skills in a row and was force to stop moving momentarily.

However, Rei wasn’t the only opponent Oricule was dealing with. Oricule noticed a whip like blade flying towards him as it tore through the air.

Elena’s blade wrapped itself around Oricule, stopping his movements.

「Now, let’s do it-!」

As Elena’s shout echoed out, Vihera and Set moved at the same time.

Vihera put all her strength into her fist while Set swung his front claws.

「HAAAAAAAH-!」

「GURURURURURURURURU!」

Vihera’s fist slammed into Oricule’s body while Set’s claws struck his head.d

Vihera’s attack wasn’t strong enough to cause significant injuries, but considering that Oricule’s head wasn’t ripped off after taking a direct hit from Set’s claws, boosted by a Griffon’s natural strength, the Bracelet of Herculean Strength, and Set’s Power Crush skill, it was clear how strange Oricule’s current body was after transforming into an abnormal human.

Even so, receiving such attacks did not leave him unharmed. Oricule was blasted away with his head bent at an angle it should not have been in.

With that momentum, Elena’s sword whip was stretched out, but she poured more magic poured into it as she tried to use the force to slice up Oricule’s body.

Oricule was sent flying as he was cut up, bouncing along the floor several times and rolling about 10m before finally coming to a stop.

「……Did we do it?」

Rei muttered as he looked over at Oricule, who was lying on the ground without a single twitch.

「He was hit by that many attacks in a row. Thinking about it normally, that should have done it, but……」

「Kyu!」

Elena muttered while turning her sword whip back into sword form. Yellow, who had been flying around in the air, landed on Set’s back as he gave a cry in agreement.

「Certainly, if it were an ordinary enemy……or even if it was a monster or something like that, I don’t see why our attacks wouldn’t have killed him.」

「Mm.」

As Vihera responded, Byune voiced her concern as she check Vihera’s back worriedly.

The next moment……

Hearing a creaking sound, everyone turned to face the direction of the sound with weapons at the ready.

However, the sound didn’t come from the transformed Oricule. Their height wasn’t much different to Oricule’s, but they were a human.

The person instinctively readied his claymore, that was as tall as he was.

After all, as soon as he had entered the room, everyone had readied their weapons and taken an offensive stance, so it was no surprise.

「……Vosk?」

Rei murmured the name of the person who had entered while gently lowering the Death Scythe.

At the same time, everyone else also lowered their weapons as they left their offensive stance.

「Why are you alone? What happened to the others?」

「They’re cleaning up the Marschel residence. We were attacked by some kind of doll like enemy. As we were searching the mansion, we found a set of stairs leading to the basement so we went down. ……We met up with Essetus, who said you were in danger, so I came over.」

With a glance, Vosk looked over at the pale-skinned humanoid figure lying at a distance.

「Looks like I didn’t need to worry about it.」

「No, no. Not really.」

As Vosk spoke with a sigh of relief a voice responded.