Chapter 212

Ch . 212 Holy Sword Radim

The hero flew up higher and higher into the sky . Just how far does he plan to go? Glancing down…, Haranae now looks small .

For now, I’ll use [[Autoregeneration]] while I’m flying .

The wound on my face caused by his sword quickly mends itself with light returning to my left eye . It’s as amazing as I thought it would be . With Rest and its related skills, they wouldn’t be able to go this far even with a closed wound .

With the wound on my face healed, I once again focus on flying and immediately increase my speed, closing the distance between me and the hero .

“[[Quick]]! [[Power]]! [[Quick]]!”

Light wraps around the hero’s and the Pegasus’s bodies . The rate at which the Pegasus flies increases dramatically, once again widening the distance between us .

The fact that he’s got a pair of legs separate from his own body means that he can concentrate and use magic, which is his strong point, even while running away . Just how far do you intend to fly, geez . Thank god I’ve got automatic recovery skills, since he probably won’t miss since there are no obstacles around here .

“[[Mirage]]!”

The hero’s body splits into three blurry, shaky versions of himself .

“[[Lucent Luna]]!”

The hero raises his sword to the heavens as numerous orbs of light begin falling down from the sky towards me .

Combined with the hallucination effects of [[Mirage]], nearly thirty orbs of light were created even though the skill was one that, when used normally, only produces close to ten orbs . Furthermore, it’ll be hard to clear all these out because they’re moving at such high speeds . Using a blah skill with blah timing . Blagh!

I immediately drop my speed and cartwheel my body, evading the attack by a wide margin . Somehow, I manage to avoid every single one, including the illusionary ones .

In this momentary gap, our distance once again opens up . I crane my neck up and immediately see the hero descending right upon me .

“Gwwaaaa!”

Hurriedly, I swing my forefoot at the hero with as much strength as I can muster . I feel no response . I realize too late that it was a hallucination created by [[Mirage]] .

I can’t afford to stop just because I’ve lost sight of my enemy . Between ascending and descending, descending is, of course, faster . It’s pretty tough to fly and keep this huge body defended at the same time .

I nosedive while swiveling my head around, looking for the hero .

A jolt of pain shoots down my back . The hero had descended parallel to my own descent . I stretch my tail out from my blind spot, but he avoids it without breaking a sweat . Damn, this guy’s used to aerial combat .

The hero flies around me, stabbing his sword all over my body . That magic enhanced pegasus is too fast . Because the hero is targeting me with numerous shallow attacks without landing any decisive blows while mixing in his [[Mirage]] skill, I’m having a difficult time catching him .

“GwwoooO!”

I breath out a sweeping [[Scorching Breath]] . If I can’t catch him, then I’ll have to keep him at bay with a wide range of techniques . At least, that’s what I based my attack on, but the hero dove directly into the fire . The hero’s sword, which he swung upwards as if he was scooping it up from below him, made contact with my jaw .

“Gwu-!”

My head is knocked upward, exposing my now defenseless body .

The hero didn’t have any fire resistance, but he did have skills like [[Spirit’s Divine Protection]] and [[Fairy King’s Blessing]] and whatnot . It might be because of those . Even if I can see his skills, if I don’t know exactly what they do, then I can’t take appropriate measures against them .

“Even if the attacks were just pin pricks, they didn’t do anything . You’re one tough dragon . ”

At the edge of my vision, I could see the hero preparing his sword for something big . I feel a strong sense of déjà vu coming from that stance .

“This ends here! [[Heaven’s Drop]]!”

Unlike the last time I was hit, this time a serious blow is driven straight into my chest . For a brief moment, it felt like I was having a hallucination in which my vision had become horribly distorted . All of the air inside of my body escaped through my mouth as if it were all squeezed out from inside of me . I couldn’t even scream .

The hero chases after my defenseless, falling body . Even if I try to straighten out my posture, my body isn’t listening too well to what I’m telling it to do . Though it’s light, I think I might have gotten paralyzed . This is not good at all .

At any rate, I hurriedly use [[Autoregeneration]] to mend the injury on my chest . I somehow flip my body around and, at the very least, avoid falling flat on my back . Shortly after that momentary relief, the hero, who had finally caught up to me, takes his sword and strikes me on the back .

“[[Earth Reversion]]!”

The impact’s excessivity causes the surrounding ground to be tossed up into the air, as if something was pushing it up from below . It was as if gravity had decided to reverse itself just here and nowhere else . The nearby buildings, caught in the shockwave of the attack’s aftermath, get swallowed up into the ground and collapse .

My consciousness recedes into the back of my head . My body won’t move . All I know is that blood is gushing forth from my back .

“Haaa… haaa… Right . That should be…”

“Gaa!”

Partner cries . The weight of my body is alleviated . My ability to think returns . I immediately use [[Autoregeneration]] .

“Gwowaa!”

I aim my forefoot to the sky where I could hear the hero’s voice, swing it, and let loose a [[Wind Slash]], raising my head as I do .

“Woah!”

I could see the hero clinging on to the pegasus as it flies up further into the sky to avoid the blade of wind .

Are the hero’s physical abilities weakening? Looks like the hero had to endure the recoil from the two powerful attacks as well . While body strengthening magic is convenient, It is and should be expected to put a burden on one’s body . The large flush faced ape also had the same reaction to using it . If that’s the case, would now be a good opportunity for me to counterattack while he’s still suffering from the physical backlash?

“Wha-? How!? How are you not dead after what I just did to you!? Dammit!”

So this, from the beginning, was the infinite endurance of the Ouroboros as described . About the only thing that could exhaust me at this point would be going and “cooling off” with [[Voice of God]] . That could’ve ended badly if I didn’t squeeze in an [[Autoregeneration]] between his [[Heaven’s Drop]] and [[Earth Reversion]] .

“You’re too annoying for mere small fry!”

The pegasus once again ascends up into the sky and runs away . I want to land a decisive blow on the hero before he recovers from the backlash . I once again chase after the hero and fly up into the sky .

“Gaa!”

Partner uses [[High Rest]] on me . The rest of the damage that had not been recovered disappears . While I do appreciate the restoration that [[Autoregeneration]] does on lost body parts, [[High Rest]] does seem to be fundamentally more efficient . The latter, though, is relegated to the other neck, so I don’t really have any immediate say in using it .

I fire out a [[Wind Slash]] to where it would graze past the hero’s head . I send out a second one with a small delay and aim it at the Pegasus’s leg .

“Hey! It’s going to hit me!”

Upon hearing the hero, the pegasus drops the speed at which it was flying . The first shot, which looked like it was going to hit the hero, instead grazes past the top of his head . After that, the second shot hits the pegasus at the base of their leg .

“Whi-hiIN!”

The pegasus’s white thighs are gouged deeply with blood spraying out . Aiming at both of its wings, I send out a third and forth shot in quick succession .

“M-move! Hey! You useless-! Hurry up and move!”

The pegasus’s wings are torn off by my blades of wind, causing it to start falling towards me as it loses the ability to fly .

“God Dammit!”

The hero readies his sword . His arms are trembling . He probably still has some residual backlash .

I rise just above the hero, who’s riding on the pegasus’ back, bite into his back, and pull him away from the pegasus . The pegasus continues to fall away from me, alone, without the hero .

“L-let go! Let me go!”

I rise up into the sky with my teeth still clenched down on the hero . After that, I change course, steer my head downwards, and immediately descend .

“S-Stooop! I said let me go!! Someone kill this evil dragon!”

“[[Physical Barrier]]! [[Physical Barrier]]! [[Physical Barrier]]!”

My head slams into the ground with a mighty force . Clouds of sand are thrown up in and around the vicinity .

My neck hurts . Did I overdo it a bit just because I have recovery magic?

“Gu- Gaa!”

Thanks to Partner’s [[High Rest]], the damage I received is immediately recovered .
…For some reason, I hear what sounds like pained crying . What’s going on?

If the hero’s gnawed up figure isn’t where I think he is, then he must be lying in a puddle of blood somewhere in the distance . Just when I thought it was over, the hero got up while using his hand to leverage himself on the rubble .

“Ah- ah- guh- shit… Why, what did I do to… huh? What?”

The hero looks confusingly at his hands, then around him, then finally at me before stopping and wrinkling his nose . No… he’s not looking at me, but Partner?

I follow the hero’s line of sight to its destination and see… Partner holding the hero’s sword in her mouth .

[Holy Sword Radim: Value A+]
[Attack: +112]
[A sword that eradicates evil with the power to wipe away darkness . Many demons have met their decaying end before this sword . ]
[For a long time, this sword was kept safe within the confines of Haranae’s basilica . ]

Ooh, this positive correction value is rather attractive… NOT .  Why do you have it?
It seems like she managed to snatch it when I pounded the hero into the ground and sent him flying .

“That’s mine! Re… turn…”

Partner tilts her head back, and when she does, she drops the sword into the back of her throat . And with that, she gulps it down, following it with a deep, satisfied breath .

…Wait, is… is it okay to eat that? What about the darkness wiping? Evil eradication??

The hero looks at Partner with eyes that can’t believe what they were seeing . After that, the hero drops his gaze . Before the hero’s gaze was the pegasus, lying in a pool of its own blood .

“Every one of them, nothing but useless rubbish…”

The hero turns his back to me and starts running .