Chapter 19 | The Assassin Spectates
“I only needed a little more.” I repeated in my mind what the beetle demon had screamed. Whatever he sought required consuming an entire town’s worth of people.
No matter what he’d been scheming, it couldn’t have been good for humanity. Simply foiling his plot was already a win.
His appearance also confirmed that he was indeed a demon. During the explosion, he had been in the town, yet he didn’t have so much as a scratch on him now. No monster, even one with a healing ability, could have survived that.
“Dia, Tarte, we’ll use this opportunity to kill him for good.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
Our opponent had to have been aware that someone had infiltrated the town. The fact that he’d remained in hiding spoke of a more cautious creature. That had gone out the window in his rage, though. If we were going to assassinate him, it had to be now.
Dia and Tarte charged at the demon from the front. Meanwhile, I concealed my presence and sneaked around to a flank. I’d picked out a number of spots beforehand as suitable for sniping and was heading toward one. My intention was to kill the demon with a special attack I’d been saving.
The incantation for the formula was going to take time, however. I wasn’t able to use it in combat, even with Quick Chant. Thus, my only option was to assassinate the demon from the shadows.
Dia, Tarte, I’m counting on you.
I had to believe in their strength and focus on my job.
Dia and Tarte ran forward, their hearts full of fear.
Thanks to the Tuatha Dé eyes that Lugh had given them, they could both see mana and were aware of the tremendous power dwelling within the beetle demon.
Challenging such a creature was paramount to suicide. To make matters worse, he was incensed.
“Tarte, you understand what’s going to happen, right? No matter what injuries you inflict, he will heal. What we need to do is restrict his movement and buy time,” said Dia.
“Yes, I will keep him still and allow you to hit him with Demonkiller,” replied the maid.
“Perfect. I can only use the spell twice, so we can’t afford to screw up.”
The increase in power Dia had received from My Loyal Knights was what made her capable of using Demonkiller. Fortunately, she’d also completed work on the version that enabled the field to be shot as a projectile.
However, it still consumed an absurd amount of mana. Although Dia’s mana capacity was steadily increasing thanks to Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth, the best she could muster was two uses of the spell. Only being allowed one miss was a lot of pressure.
“YOU FILTHY HUMAAAAAAAANS!” cried the beetle demon when he caught sight of the two girls approaching. His roar became a shock wave that knocked Dia and Tarte off the ground. When they landed, Tarte took the lead, and Dia began a composite incantation using Multi-Chant.
It was Cannon Strike, a spell she’d previously been incapable of using.
She formed a giant gun and fired a tungsten bullet from it. This attack had the highest piercing power of any magic Dia was capable of.
The shot was aimed at the demon’s right thigh, a point she would not have gone for had she intended to kill the creature. It was the right spot to target for limiting his movements, though.
True to her aim, the projectile pierced the beetle demon’s leg. Cannon Strike was powerful enough to penetrate a steel plate, and it managed to break through the demon’s carapace and wedge halfway into his limb.
That meant the creature’s shell was harder than steel. Dia’s and Tarte’s faces twitched a little.
“THAT HURRRRRRT, YOU BIIIIIIIIIITCH!”
Without holding anything, the demon lifted his arms and brought them down as though throwing something. A piece of his carapace came flying at Dia faster than the speed of sound.
Tarte used her spear, the tip of which was enveloped by wind, to strike the bit of shell and deflect it. It landed behind them with a thunderous sound.
If Tarte had blocked that head-on, she undoubtedly would have lost her hands. An ordinary person would not have even been able to react in time. Tarte, however, had improved her vision by pouring mana into her Tuatha Dé eyes.
“Once I find an opening, please use Demonkiller as fast as you can. I don’t think I will last very long.”
“Okay, I won’t make you wait.”
The two of them nodded at each other.
Tarte put a syringe to her neck and injected the drug Lugh had created to remove the limiter on his brain temporarily. The chemical sharpened her senses and raised her mana discharge for a short time, but it would render her unable to continue fighting after only ten minutes. Despite that, Tarte judged that the demon would crush her immediately if she didn’t use it. And that was the correct choice.
Her instantaneous mana discharge increased exponentially, and then she used Beastification, sprouting fox ears and a tail.
“I’ll rip Lord Lugh’s enemy apart!” she proclaimed, a savage smile twisting her face.
When Tarte used Beastification, her personality grew violent. During training, she’d learned a method to surrender herself to it rather than try to repress it.
Tarte let her instincts take over and charged. The beetle demon thrust an arm forward and shot needles out of it to meet her attack. The maneuver caught her off guard, but her highly sharp senses allowed her just barely to twist her neck and dodge it. She then stabbed her spear at the demon, but her strike bounced lightly off his carapace.
“Oh, was that supposed to hurt?” the demon mocked.
“…Goddamn bug.”
Without coming to a stop, Tarte circled around behind him, hoping to deliver a blow to his back. Unfortunately, the beetle demon easily evaded, moving a fair distance away. Tarte laid on the pressure with many swift attacks but couldn’t manage even a scrape.
The demon’s body was extremely tough, and his joints had a special coating that the tip of her spear couldn’t cut through. The creature’s shell was sturdy enough to stop a Cannon Strike shot from tearing clean through. No matter how much Tarte raised her physical strength, she had no chance of puncturing it with a lance. Her speed and rapid flurry of blows still held the demon in check, however.
“You’re so slow, you’re going to make me yawn, you piece of shit!”
Tarte clearly possessed superior speed. The beetle demon couldn’t keep up at all, and the bullet wedged in his leg certainly didn’t help. It getting stuck there turned out to be more helpful than if it had pierced through entirely.
This was not to suggest that Tarte had the upper hand—she couldn’t land a meaningful blow, after all. To make matters worse, her breath was becoming ragged. She needed to keep moving at this speed to avoid the demon’s attacks, but maintaining that pace was draining. If either her legs or her Beastification gave out, she would die.
Unless something changed, the beetle demon would win. He remained unaware of this, however.
“SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! YOU’RE SO ANNOYING!”
He struck the ground with a fist, sending countless stones flying in all directions. Tarte moved to dodge, but one struck her stomach, and she fell to her knees. The direct hit had disrupted her meticulously controlled breathing.
The beetle demon walked up to Tarte and raised a fist. “DIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!” His arm rocketed downward. There should have been no escape, but the corners of Tarte’s mouth curled upward into a grin.
Thanks to her mana-increased defense and the impact-resistant undergarments Lugh had made, she hadn’t taken much damage from the blow to her stomach. It was an act.
Her ploy was meant to give her a moment’s rest while also buying her time for an incantation. You couldn’t cast a spell and strengthen yourself with mana simultaneously. For that reason, Tarte had needed to make the demon think she couldn’t move to gain the time she required.
Tarte completed her spell and enveloped herself in electricity. She and the beetle demon then passed each other by. The girl now moved at the speed of lightning.
“AGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA!”
While Tarte’s attacks had done nothing to the demon before, this one made him writhe in agony and collapse.
Her spear still wasn’t able to pierce his carapace, but electricity passed through it and reached the demon’s insides. The high-voltage current flowed through the beetle demon’s body and rendered him immobile.
That was when Tarte hit her limit. Her fox ears and tail disappeared, and she fell to her knees. Pushing her body so excessively with the drug had caused her strength to wane quicker than normal.
“Lady Dia!” Tarte called out, imploring the other girl to act.
This was the only chance Tarte was able to give Dia. She had nothing left in the tank, and the same trick wouldn’t work again. Dia had to get this right.
“Demonkiller!”
Dia formed a gun with her hands and fired a blast of mana. Even for her, the spell should have taken longer to prepare. This was because she’d been calmly monitoring Tarte’s battle. Confident that Tarte would give her an opening, Dia had started her incantation early.
Had she started the recitation after Tarte had stunned the demon, or if she’d tried to help out by using some different magic, she wouldn’t have completed Demonkiller in time. Dia’s belief in Tarte had enabled her to focus on her job and seize this opportunity.
Dia’s blast of magical power landed. A spherical field emerged upon impact, enveloping the demon.
This was Demonkiller, a spell that nullified the absurd regenerative power demons possessed.
Dia was nervous because this was their first time using it in battle. Yet the stunned look on the beetle demon’s face told her it must have been working to some extent.
In her excitement, she nearly glanced toward Lugh, but she restrained herself. No matter how small the possibility, she didn’t want to increase the odds of the beetle demon noticing his presence. Tarte was refraining, too, so Dia had to stay strong.
The three of them were a team, and cooperation wasn’t born from worrying about each other, but from each person performing their job to perfection. That was a pet saying of Lugh’s, and Dia and Tarte believed it.
All Dia could do now was wait.
Tarte had done well creating the opportunity needed, and Dia had seized upon it and successfully cast the projectile version of Demonkiller. Undoubtedly, Lugh would fulfill his duty and assassinate the demon. There was no doubting it.
After all, if Lugh didn’t kill the beetle demon within a few seconds, she and Tarte would be in mortal danger. Dia smiled.
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