Reincarnated as a dragon’s egg ～Lets aim to be the strongest～ - Chapter 650

650 – The God of War’s Sole Weakness
I close in on Miia.

While doing so, I fling [Dimension Claw] with my left hand, and ready my greatsword with the other. [Dimension Claw] serves to prevent Miia from moving freely. If she can fire off a barrage of [Shockwaves] via [Afterimage Sword] while moving around freely, it’ll be difficult to deal with it fully.

I’m starting to see the path to defeating Miia.

It’s to make her unable to move freely by forcing her to take actions to deal with [Dimension Claw]. And on top of that, the area she can move in is further restricted by Aro’s threefold area-spanning magic attacks. With the treant’s [Woven Armour] and [Wood Counter], the choice of attacks Miia can take against me is limited.

In this situation, even I should be able to outmanoeuvre Miia and land one blow.　

“[Gale]!”

Aro, who split into three again, generates three tornadoes in Mia’s vicinity. In that moment, Miia slips through in a flash, and sends a double [Shockwave] while closing in on me.

『I’m sorry treant! Please endure it!』

『I-I understand!』

The black [Shockwaves] shatter the [Woven Armour]. The roots snap, letting the attacks through, and my flesh is gouged. I grit my teeth and endure, exerting my strength into a swing.

Miia dodges my blade. I thrust out my [Woven Armour]-wrapped left arm that I had been using to block, aiming to send Miia flying.

Without using her sword to defend, Miia receives the blow with her body. The moment I hit her, I knew. [Hollowed Moon] is coming!

With a terrific speed, her blade hurtles towards my shoulder. The [Woven Armour] shatters easily, my scales and flesh are gouged, and I can feel my bones snap.

I can’t use blunt attacks! I’m unable to deal with Miia’s sword once it’s been strengthened with [Hollowed Moon], as it easily pieces even the [Woven Armour]. If she uses [Hollowed Moon] to stop a slashing attack, she’ll need to use her sword to block and so won’t be able to immediately counterattack.

“You stopped putting strength into it right away, huh. I didn’t have as much force to work with as expected.”

Miia mutters.

However, this time, Miia using [Hollowed Moon] worked in my favour. Whether it was because it didn’t have as much force behind it as she expected, or because she underestimated the toughness of the treant’s [Woven Armour], I’ve managed to stop her [Blackfly Greatsword] with my shoulder.

I tighten my muscles, and focus [Autoregeneration] on my shoulder at once. I want to stop her from pulling out her [Blackfly Greatsword].

『I won’t let you escape!』

The treant’s roots extend out towards Miia’s at a blinding speed via [Wood Counter]. Miia ducks and evades, but one root pierces her flank, and another coils tightly around her foot.

I let go of my greatsword and immediately fling a [Dimension Claw] towards Miia. She blocks with the sword that she manages to extract. However, she fails to block it entirely, and the claw attack slices her left elbow. It bores deeply into her flesh, but it’s not enough to sever it completely.

The next moment, Miia’s body flies backwards at a great speed. She used [Hollowed Moon] to defend against the [Dimension Claw], using the impact to escape to the rear.

“[Gale]!”

Two tornadoes from Aro chase after the escaping Miia. However, Miia bends her body even though she’s midair, and using the weight of [Blackfly Greatsword], corrects her movement on her own and does her best to avoid it. Although it should have been an overwhelmingly advantageous situation from the amount of attacks thrown at her, she manages to deal with it in what can only be said to be a perfect way, taking only minimal damage..

It seems she wants to escape to the wall. While using my right hand to retrieve the greatsword I discarded, I send a [Dimension Claw] with my left towards the wall that she plans to land on. However, she stops short of the wall.

What she stops at instead is much further in front. It’s the spike made from Aro’s [Clay] that was aimed at her earlier.

『Crap…!』

With that trajectory of hers, I didn’t expect Miia to remain within striking distance. She’s definitely going to kick off that needle and come right back at me. In this position, I won’t be able to counter it properly. At any rate, I can only retreat back and protect my head and torso.

In the instant I think that… Aro’s attack from earlier flashes in my mind. Even though there were three of her, there were only two [Gales]. What was the remaining Aro doing…?

I throw away thoughts of defence, swiftly bringing my greatsword to bear, and advance towards Miia.

Miia is unable to kick off from the earthen spike. An arm of clay extends out from the spike and grabs at her foot. Miia dodges it expertly and lands, but is unable to immediately shift into a surprise attack.

It’s Aro’s skill… [Rope of Regret]. If the place has earth around, she can freely extend and manipulate arms of earth. There wasn’t any earth inside the tower, so she used the earth materialised by her own [Clay].

Aro was able to lead Miia’s trajectory to some extent with [Gale]. Within a mere instant, Aro must have predicted that, if she led Miia towards the [Clay] needle, she would use it as a foothold to counterattack and catch me by surprise.

『Well done, Aro!』

I gather magic in my mouth as I advance towards Miia.

A mere sword attack would not only be parried by Miia, but also allow her to activate [Hollowed Moon]. However, if I use gravity magic to attack, she of course shouldn’t be able to stop it with [Hollowed Moon].

She can only deal with [Gravidon] either through evasion, or by using [Exorcising Blade]. Against the wide-area [Gravidon], she won’t be able to avoid it fully in her off-balance state. Miia should be aiming to use [Exorcising Blade].

So, she won’t be ready to use [Hollowed Moon].

I’ve grasped something about Miia’s [Hollowed Moon] after having my sword and punches stopped so again and again. Howgrey used a similar technique too, so I considered my experience against him too. Something becomes clear once I compare both of them.

[Hollowed Moon] doesn’t require a unique stance to activate. It can be used freely no matter what posture the user is in. However, in exchange for that, one has to empty their mind and relax completely during activation.

Consequently, it can’t be used in a moment’s notice without prior preparation. [Hollowed Moon] is a powerful skill, but it’s also the sole weakness of the God of War echelon Miia. When she uses it, in exchange for being invincible to all physical attacks, she becomes defenceless against magical attacks.

Therefore, I bait out [Exorcising Blade] with [Gravidon] as a decoy, and swing my greatsword towards the off-balance Miia. In addition to her being unable to activate [Hollowed Moon] to escape, I can also expect Aro to follow up with support fire.

…Miia should have come to the same conclusion once she saw me activate [Gravidon]. So, I’ll run a counterplay.

Miia is overwhelmingly stronger than even the likes of myself. She’s the Hero of legend. Even though I’m a match for her in terms of stats, her experience, intuition, prediction, and technique far surpass my own.

Exactly because of that, I have zero doubts that she’ll see through me and use [Hollowed Moon] to defend against my approaching sword.

『[Gravidon]!』

I look straight at Miia and release a [Gravidon] at point blank range.