Just as Middray had guessed, Obela could feel the danger as well.
It’s so strange. The pressure from our enemy hasn’t changed at all since the start of this battle…
Obela’s enemy was the vicious Tishorn, capable of cutting through anything by finely vibrating the alionium exoskeleton covering her arms, but she was like a child to Obela. The only reason Obela hadn’t dispatched Tishorn yet was because she had the same concern Middray did.
Many lives were being lost on the battlefield. Thanks to potions keeping damage to a minimum and a strategy where anyone hurt was immediately replaced, there were still no deaths on Obela’s side. However, the insectors were waging an onslaught with no care at all about casualties, and their force had already been reduced to less than half its initial size.
Nonetheless, the enemy force Obela detected with her Super Intuition skill was still just as powerful as before, with no decline whatsoever. It was an uncomfortable feeling at first, but once Frey defeated Torun, she became sure of it. One of the enemy’s greatest fighters was dead, but nothing felt different. It meant not even losing an Insect Master dented the insector force at all—or maybe it meant something even worse. Perhaps losing Insect Masters was even part of the enemy’s strategy…
No way. That’s just preposterous.
But she couldn’t call it impossible. She recalled the time when her colleague Zarario complained about how stubborn those guys were:
“Just beating them isn’t enough. They can be even more of a menace afterward, sometimes, so you gotta choose where you engage them carefully.”
Obela was surprised to hear that from the normally taciturn Zarario. She assumed he must have been tired from work and left it at that, but looking back, what he said now seemed very important to her. She had never asked him for more detail; she didn’t see the insectors as her job, so she didn’t feel like engaging him that much. That was a bad habit that went beyond just Obela—Feldway and the other top mystics tended to be that way—but now she regretted it. They really needed to keep each other abreast of the bigger problems, at least.
But it was too late for that. Obela had no information to work with, so her only choice was to adapt to the situation and feel around for the optimal response. She kept a close eye on the battlefield, even as she engaged Tishorn in combat.
Then, before she could land on anything decisive, the state of the battle began to quickly change. First Torun fell, then Beethop and Abalt were slain. But despite losing these generals, the enemy’s war power didn’t decline one bit. Seeing these results, there was no longer any doubt that this was part of the enemy’s scheme.
This is dangerous. Maybe we should stop defeating Insect Masters.
Those foes needed to be defeated, but Obela and her allies needed to play it safe, first and foremost. If something unanticipated was going on, they had to stay calm and eliminate the source of the issue.
With her mind made up, Obela attempted to speak up about her concerns. She was just a bit too late. Right at that moment, Middray eliminated Sarill.
The remaining Insect Masters were Tishorn, facing off against Obela; Mujika, whom Geld was keeping in check; Piriod, who was still giving Gobta and Ranga a hard time; and finally Zeth, whose battle against Carrera was in another dimension from everyone else. Half the insectors had been defeated, leaving just those four.
A pall crossed Obela’s face for a moment, as if she knew something bad was going to happen. It didn’t escape Tishorn’s attention.
“Ho-ho-ho! I see you’ve noticed,” said Tishorn. “The lower-level Insect Masters are nothing more than the first act. With the power of those such as my master, it doesn’t matter whether they’re here or not.”
Tishorn had the strength to back that statement up. She was a high-level Insect Master, number four on the depth chart, and her EP was over 1.8 million—not much different from Piriod, but her presence near the top of the Twelve Insect Masters over many eons demonstrated just what she was capable of.
“Cross-Dimension Slash.”
The shock wave that shot out from Tishorn’s arms became a cutting edge, ruthlessly slashing through everything it encountered. Its effects reached across dimensions, and while these tears in space-time were instantly repaired by the healing power of the world, nothing else that encountered this blade could withstand it.
Obela, of course, was no exception to this. She had instantly spotted it coming and wasn’t incompetent enough to let it hit her, but now it was clear Tishorn was more of a threat than she’d thought. She had acted to ensure the damage was kept to a minimum, but Obela wasn’t too sure her approach was working.
“Cross-Dimension Slash.”
Tishorn broke it out again. The violent shock wave surged toward Obela.
“Trying the same move?” Obela said. “You know it won’t work twice.”
“Ho-ho-ho…” Tishorn laughed. “What an interesting thing to say. Whether it works is for me to decide, not you.”
Tishorn had a point. No one was foolish enough to take the enemy at their word. If Tishorn thought it wouldn’t work, she wouldn’t have used it again. She thought it’d have its intended effect, and so she launched the same attack twice. And Obela only advised her against it because she didn’t want that to happen. The advice wasn’t taken, of course, which gave Obela a new respect for her foe.
The way she so casually makes the most optimal decision each time proves she’s very used to battle. It’d be easy enough to simply win, but if I want to disable her without taking her life, that’d be tough even for me.
Obela had already seen just how capable Tishorn was. There was a clear difference in strength between them, with Obela firmly at the top—however, that was based on the assumption that she hadn’t been wounded in the battle against Michael. All of Obela’s external wounds had healed; physically, she was in good shape. But she hadn’t fully replenished her energy yet, and it’d be a mistake to say she was in top form. Otherwise, she would have neutralized Tishorn long ago. Now she couldn’t—and that was why she was in this mess.
But either way, there was no time left for indecision.
“Behold, my master!”
The moment Tishorn shouted that, her fighting skills took a great leap. Just like Sarill, she could put herself into overdrive mode at will. But there was one difference from Sarill—unlike him, she had full control of her overdrive mode, letting her make more effective use of its time limit.
“Cross-Dimension Slash…Dance of Conclusions.”
It was an attack like nothing before it. The shock wave sliced its way through tens of thousands of dimensions, a death-dealing rampage that was impossible for anyone to escape—such was the awe-inspiring sight Obela saw.
In response, Obela simply stood where she was, not trying to flee at all. Or so it seemed. Now that she had given up on neutralizing Tishorn, Obela had decided to break out all her force and simply kill her instead.
“Divine nature…release,” she softly stated.
It was the only warning she gave that she was about to give her full effort. The God-class gear she was clad in regained its starlike sparkle—with Obela running her magical force through it, it was back to its original level of performance.
In Obela’s hands was a gigantic double-edged sword. This was the Beast Slayer—Obela’s beloved longsword, evolved into its true form. The cryptids were Obela’s sworn enemy, and against them, she had to abandon any noble aim to go easy. If she was that lenient, there’d be no end to the damage they’d cause. She always worked hard to exterminate them with optimal efficiency—and so, once Obela decided to fight, the only allowable conclusion was to destroy the enemy, no matter what happened to her surroundings.
The true nature of her twenty-million EP rating was about to be demonstrated to the world.
“Ho-ho-ho! A little too late to fight for keeps now!”
Just as Tishorn said, Obela was already trapped in the zone of extinction the Cross-Dimension Slash had just created. This kept Obela from escaping via Spatial Transport, and so there was no way to prevent the incoming blade from slicing her to pieces. Or there shouldn’t have been. But in the end…
“That was nothing more than child’s play,” Obela said.
The dimensional slash hit home, ripping open the space around her. But once it reverted to its original form, Obela’s body was restored as well, like nothing had happened to her.
“N-no…!” Tishorn gasped.
“My body is connected not only to the physical world, but to the spiritual one as well. This much of an attack won’t even touch me.”
Obela blithely explained this as she began to rev up her own magic force, all but declaring it was her turn. The Beast Slayer began to shine. Seeing that ominous light, Tishorn was confused by an emotion she had never felt before in her life.
My body is shaking. I…I can’t be scared, can I? Could it be I’m frightened of her?!
She saw that, but it was too late. There was nothing else Tishorn could do.
“May you be beautiful as you fade to nothing!” Obela shouted. “Planetary Bombing!!”
A ponderous barrage of slashes rained down from the heavens, dealing out death in a merciless but equal fashion. Tishorn, too, was caught up in it, and so she was vaporized, unable even to enjoy the honorable death of the truly strong.
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