Field Battle (2)

… but it wasn't going to go that smoothly.

Bashu!

In an instant, a Battle Field deployed around us.

"We're under attack!? Luna! Angel Halo! Lyuka!"

Bashu!

I sent Lyuka out front.

"Light's Blessing on Luna! It's five turns. We're getting through this if it kills us!"

"""Yes!"""

The two of them answered me in unison.

"Hehehe… so I really did manage to find you, just as I calculated! My calculations were spot on!"

"Sasaya-kun…"

Ryouzou Sasaya. Of the Shiraki crowd, he was the top student. I hadn't pegged him as the gaming type, but…

"If I beat you, I get to take one of your Garumon for myself! Angel Luna-samaaa! Angel Luna Fan Club member number 000003, Ryouzou Sasayaaaaaa! Luna-sama, Luna-sama! Luna-samaaaa!!

"Now, you lot, hand Luna-sama over to meeeeee!"

Sasaya-kun came at us in a half-crazed frenzy. Member number 3? That was insane! How fast had he signed up to land a number like that!?

He had me a little rattled.

"Number 3, huh… so you were cheering me on that hard. Thank you.

"… But, I'm already… only Naoto-kun's idol now.

"As for the fan club, Naoto-kun is the one and only member, member number 1. And I'll join Naoto-kun's fan club too… we'll start a fan club just for the two of us. The previous fan club is hereby disbanded."

"…"

Sasaya-kun froze solid.

"H-hey, Ryouzou! Give us orders!"

"Luna, Divine Art Balmung, target Suzutani-san! Lyuka, Shining!"

"Divine Art Balmung!"

"Miwa! Aaaah!"

Yugin shielded Suzutani-san without waiting for orders.

Zugaaan!

"Shining!"

Dokaaan!

Yugin went down in a single turn. Suzutani-san and Isshiki-san took heavy damage but stayed standing.

Naturally so. With attacks from two Garumon who hadn't even hit LV50, taking down even one was a good outcome.

"Ngh, Yugin! Damn it! Miwa, Black Howling! Maina, Blood Axel!"

"Luna, first strike, Balmung on Isshiki-san!"

"Divine Art Balmung!"

"Eh, w-wait, my Blood Axel… Kyaaaaaah!"

Zugaaan!

Sorry. I wasn't about to let the opponent show off any of their good sides. That was the only way to win in a game with this kind of balance.

If only the rules were like pro wrestling, where you could win by trading techniques back and forth…

"Wha, ngh… Member change!"

"Lyuka, Shining!"

"Wha! Hey, I just swapped a member i— gwaaaaah!"

Doon!

I mean, swapping members while Lyuka still hadn't moved that turn was on him.

Was he too rattled, or just an idiot?

"Damn iiiiiit! Damn it, damn it, Luna, Luna! How many of your CDs do you think I've bought!? Why don't they come with handshake tickets, vocal-talent-only doesn't sell these days! I bought 1000 CDs! If you won't let me shake hands then at least let me grope your tiiiits!"

The cry of his soul.

"Sorry. That service too is… a special service for Naoto-kun only."

Sasaya-kun froze again.

I wanted to conserve skill uses, but burning too much time was bad too…

"Lyuka, Shining. Luna will…"

"It's all right, I'll time my strike to catch whatever leaks through, won't I."

"Counting on you!"

"Shining!"

"Haaaaaah!"

Zan!

… Astonishingly, the two of us cleaned out all six of his Garumon in under five turns. Honestly, that was too easy.

… Sasaya, no matter how you slice it, he was way too weak.

I could see why he'd been rattled over Luna, but freezing for two whole turns without issuing orders was just sad.

I couldn't believe he'd made it to A-Class like that…

"…"

Thud. Sasaya lost consciousness and collapsed where he stood.

All right, so losing the battle put you in an incapacitated state. Got it.

"Okay, let's keep heading north."

"… We're running away?"

But… no good…

Already, Kishilia's silhouette was floating in the sky above us.

That was all the System told me.

LV51… same level as Ursula's companions.

LV54, huh… if that was monster level, it wasn't much…

"A monster used by a Monster Tamer has its LV matched to the Monster Tamer's LV.

"… So in monster-level terms, that's 108. The strongest monster we've taken down up to now was LV85."

"… Haha."

A dry laugh was all that came out.

"… Please calm down. We have ten minutes. Let's trust our companions to join up with us in that time."

We resigned ourselves, fired off a signal flare, and resumed moving, trusting our companions to close the distance.

Kishilia, mounted on her wyvern, paced us through the air.

She was probably planning to attack ten minutes from now.

"Aren't you going to call your companions?"

"… I have this child too, after all."

Kishilia, atop the wyvern's back, stroked it.

"That's a cool wyvern. What's its name?"

"This is Barlin, a Black Wyvern."

"Heeeh… nice to meet you, Barlin."

"…"

Barlin glared at me with eyes that said what the hell is wrong with this guy.

Basabasaba…

When she swayed atop the wyvern's back, her breasts swayed bru-run, bru-run, an incredible sight… Kishilia, very erotic.

For ten straight minutes I lived through the nightmare of being locked on by a wyvern, but Kishilia's cuteness softened it a bit.

"… Time."

And so the grace period ended.

A Battle Field deployed.

"I can't be sparing skill uses anymore. We have to go all in…! Luna, Angel Halo. Lyuka, Light's Blessing on Luna!"

"Magical Beast Summon. Come, Girolo-chan. Barlin-chan, Dragon Breath."

"Lyuka, Light Shield on yourself! Luna, get through it with Angel Wing!"

"… Angel Wing!"

Shuba!

Luna sliced through the raging flames magnificently with her angel wings.

"… She's strong. And…"

Kishilia summoned one more monster.

"Gi… gigigi, gishuuu…"

Pierrot mask. Hands that were swords. A clown-suited monster, eerily light on its feet, had appeared.

"… Th-that is… that is High Trickster Rodriguez."

"Eh, is that supposed to be funny?"

"… Not in the slightest. High Trickster Rodriguez is currently regarded as one of the strongest among non-unique monsters.

"Even A-Class Masters have lost to it on record. If you could beat it consistently, you'd be S-Class material."

"LV60… so, monster level 120…"

Eh, against a monster like this… eh, this wasn't even the final battle? … Was this just a forced loss event?

"Let's get through five turns. Four more to go."

R-right. If we got through five turns, we'd have another ten minutes of leeway.

If our companions arrived in the meantime, we'd manage somehow!

… No. This was an opponent we could only fight properly once the whole party had assembled. We couldn't afford to take too much damage before then.

"Lyuka, Light Protect, then Shining. Luna, Divine Art Cláu Solas, on Kishilia!"

"Girolo-chan, Nightmare Slash. Barlin-chan, Dragon Breath.

"Add Piercing, Girolo-chan."

She was casually tacking on Piercing!?

We just barely defended against Dragon Breath with Light Protect, but…!

"Kishaaaaa!"

Girolo whirled its scythes sharply and rushed Lyuka.

"Lyuka!"

Luna stepped in front of her.

"Angel Wing!"

But…

Girolo's scythes were too sharp; they slipped through the gaps in her wings and cut through.

"Aaaaah!"

Zan! Even with Angel Halo's defense doubled, her HP was halved and then some in a single blow.

And on top of that…

"Aa, ah, aaah… no, no, nooo… stop, help me, Naoto-kun, no, I don't want this, I don't want this…"

Suddenly Luna cried out as if trapped in a nightmare.

"It's High Trickster Rodriguez's mental contamination! … To affect even an Angel, who's resistant to status ailments…!"

"Luna, snap out of it! It's all right, I'm here!"

"… Ngh!"

My sharp call did the trick. Luna came back to her senses.

"… S-sorry, Naoto-kun. That's right, I have you with me, Naoto-kun… I don't have to do that awful sales work anymore!"

What kind of trauma did she have from her idol days? Honestly, I was starting to feel like Luna shouldn't be sent back to her original world…

"Divine Art Cláu Solas!"

All right, the overwhelming super-effective bonus against Demon-element! With this, we could…

"Gishaaaah!"

But Girolo blocked the radiant blade with its scythes.

Kakiiin!

"Agh…"

No good. It wasn't fully blocked, but the damage was clearly halved. And that was supposed to be a 2x multiplier…

No good. Girolo only took a little over 1/4 of its HP in damage.

"Shining!"

Lyuka's attack. Damage to Girolo came to a touch over 1/3, and to Barlin about 1/4.

Maybe because she was being shielded by the two beasts, Kishilia only took about 1/5.

… No good. They were too strong.

Luna would have a hard time surviving next turn. And if she fell, Lyuka would too…

No good. There was no way we'd last five turns. We were going to lose…!

That was when…

"Demon Art - Cocytus!"

Another fighter dove into the Battle Field, blasting freezing air at the monsters.

"… Maika!"

Aaaaaah… she'd come, she'd come…! I'd thought I was going to die!

"… Ngh!"

But while Kishilia did get frozen, Girolo and Barlin didn't.

How brutally tough were these things? Damage came to under 1/2 for Girolo, under 1/3 for Barlin, about 1/4 for Kishilia…

"… Naoto-kun, are you all right!? They're tough!"

"Ah, yeah…! But it's just three more turns, with you here, Maika, we'll manage somehow!

"Luna, Divine Art Cláu Solas on Girolo, Lyuka, Cure Shine on Luna, Maika, Neue Accel Mirage on Girolo!"

When I issued orders like that, the three of them read exactly what I wanted them to do.

But Girolo moved first. How fast was this thing?

Maika dashed forward as a shield.

"Shadow Step!"

Maika dodged beautifully, but…

Zan!

No good! She thought she'd dodged, but the scythe traced a twist trajectory that shouldn't have been possible and locked back onto Maika.

"!?"

Zan!

The scythe… cut Maika down.

"Au, gh…!"

But it had landed only as a forced strike from an awkward angle. Even so, the damage was… over half her HP.

Way too much attack power…!

And on top of that…

Bo-oooooo!

A tremendous Dragon Breath gusted in.

"Aaah!"

"Angel Halo!"

Luna dodged it splendidly. Maika… took it head-on. After burning Shadow Step and still getting hit, she was in too rough a state to dodge again.

Because Lyuka was behind Maika, the damage she took was minor. That was a saving grace.

… Even so, that minor amount came to 1/3 of her HP.

But it was still minor… If that attack had landed clean, Lyuka would've been dropped in one shot. The hellfire was that bad…

The damage to Maika proved it. Her HP hit zero, and then…

"Neue Accel Mirage!"

A revival via Poison Apple. Forced to play that trump card this early…

A blessing that Luna had dodged. Maika had her Poison Apple, but Luna might've been one-shot.

And the Poison Apple was gone now too… a nail-bitingly thin margin.

But…

"Cure Shine!"

While healing Luna, attack power went up 30%, and…

"Divine Art Cláu Solas!"

Luna swung her sword.

… But Girolo's defensive technique was too high. Luna's attack couldn't slip past those scythes to land full damage.

Still…

"Neue Accel Mirage!"

Maika's kick combo from before, two in a row! Combined with the death-trigger one, that was four attacks total!

With Girolo's level of defensive technique, it would reflexively block those.

And with Kishilia frozen and unable to give orders, no one could call off that reflex!

So while Girolo defended against the four-hit Neue Accel Mirage, the blade that really had to be blocked, Luna's, was…

"Taught directly by Suzanne, Cláu Solas Horizontal Sweep!"

Zan!

Magnificent. She slashed Girolo across the gut.

A perfect strike! Forget halved damage, this might even count as a critical!

"Gueeeeeh…!"

Girolo's HP… dropped to zero! Yeeeesss! Amazing! As expected of Demon-Slayer Divine Art! With a 160% buff stacked on top of the Light-element enchantment powering it up further, plus a critical hit on top of that, this result was practically a given.

"Girolo-chan… how dare you."

Released from her freeze, Kishilia was furious.

"Barlin-chan, Dragon Breath. Monster Summon… Moruna!"

"Lyuka, Light Protect!"

We blocked Barlin's Dragon Breath.

… All right, one more turn. If we could finish Barlin off here too, she wouldn't be able to chase us!

But…

Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle…

What descended in response to her summon was… an impossibly beautiful girl.

Hair of silver-blue radiance, almost translucent, gracefully elegant. Only her too-pale skin marked her as something other than human. Her eyes too… they shouldn't have been, and yet they looked utterly transparent all the way down. Her great pupils peered into me like mirrors.

So the System informed me.

"… Morpho Lunark. So what's a Moruna?"

"… I-I don't know… Most likely, it's a unique monster."

"… Unique monster?"

"The only one of its kind in the world! A monster with strength far surpassing ordinary monsters.

"In bad cases, capable of rivaling even a Demon God. The worst kind of existence…"

Lyuka actually looked frightened.

That smart head of hers must have started spinning. What if I can't protect him?

"… It's all right."

An idiot like me would do. A baseless, thoughtless, off-the-cuff comfort.

… But because of that comfort, the girls could fight.

"One more time. Lyuka, Cure Shine. Maika, Neue Accel Mirage on Barlin.

"Luna, Divine Art Cláu Solas!"

A killing-blow stance. With our firepower buffed up, taking down Barlin in one turn shouldn't be impossible.

But…

Sharara… gyururu…!

What was this…

Silver light radiated from Moruna's hair, taking on physical weight as it clung and coiled around them.

It ate away at the entire Battle Field.

"Au, gh…!"

"Higu…"

"Aah…"

The three of them had their actions sealed, and on top of that took damage… half of all HP. And then, more follow-up damage. Halved plus fixed damage!?

What was that…!

If the same thing happened next turn… we'd be powerless to stop it. It would all be over.

Everything… would be over.

With their actions sealed, there was no way to block Barlin's Dragon Breath.

Maika couldn't revive again either. And neither Luna nor Lyuka…

Just one turn left, and we were going to… end. Get ended.

"… You did your best. But this is as far as you go. Moruna-chan. Demon Art - Death Curse Seal one more time.

"Barlin-chan, Dragon Breath."

Aaaaah… no good. With Kanan's teleport, with Adelia's awakening, aaah, it was over, it was over, we were going to get ended…!

… But the end… didn't come. Moruna… wasn't moving.

"Moruna-chan!? … It's that bad habit of yours again."

Moruna… just stared at me, completely zoned out.

I stared back.

… Even so, what an adorable girl. That a thing like this was a monster, unbelievable.

… Cute. And her breasts were… big and alluring too. So cute…

I'd unconsciously gotten lost looking at her.

… Hold on, no time to space out.

"… It's likely her level is too high for Kishilia to fully control her! Now's our chance!"

"Luna, Divine Art Cláu Solas!"

"I'll… slow Barlin down until Luna can move! Neue Accel Mirage!"

Dogo!

Maika beautifully kicked the wyvern's jaw upward. And then top-down! And then, with her speed boosted, bottom-up again! Top-down!

Dogo! Dogo!

Barlin's head rocked up, down, up, down, leaving him no opening to breathe fire.

Now…!

"Cure Shine!"

"Divine Art Cláu Solas!"

Zugaaan!

Magnificent… she slashed Barlin across the gut. Zuun.

Barlin too went down.

At the end of the turn, Moruna's sparkle, sparkle scales added some follow-up damage, but… nothing bad.

With this… five turns over, w-we survived…

"Barlin-chan…"

Kishilia hung her head dejectedly.

"… Monsters don't actually die, right?"

"Yes. Monsters under a Monster Tamer's protection enter the System's management and are protected by HP. They revive after the battle even if they're incapacitated.

"They don't die."

"Then we're good."

She was probably just crestfallen at her own poor showing, in self-reproach.

"Let's hurry and get out of here. Kishilia's too strong!"

Held in Luna's arms, we fled further north.

Yikes, yikes, that was scary. I never wanted to do that again.

… I was shaking from the depths of my soul. We'd absolutely been losing back there. In that moment, there was no path to survival.

We only made it because Moruna happened to do nothing.

… Ahhh, but, we were alive.

As long as we were alive, anything was fine. We could still dream. We could still… fight.

In which case, the only thing left was to fight until we won.

Kishilia… didn't seem to be pursuing us, for now. Knocking out the wyvern had been a real win.

After this, if we could just link up with Kanan, Adelia, Leone, and Colette…

That moment, bon, bon!

Signal flares went up overhead…

Those were…

The kind I hadn't told Haru about, that I'd shared only with my own party… the signal that meant someone had been incapacitated, used when they knew I was nearby.

One of Kanan, Adelia, Leone, or Colette had been attacked and taken down. The distance was close! But even rushing, it'd still take five minutes more…

Even so, I had to hurry!

We rode Luna's flight toward the signal flares.

 

*

 

"Haa, haa, haa… ngh, ku… Naoto…"

Kanan had fought hard. Using teleport on her own initiative, blocking attacks with Elemental Shield, whittling down her opponent with Dragon Art Blast Storm… she'd put on a brilliant, all-around display.

… Had her opponent been any of the other six knights, Kanan would have splendidly defeated them solo.

However…

"I'm sorry, Kanan-san. But, I went and beat you! Akiho is strong, you see!"

Kazuo Wanda owned the Demon Akiho Yoshii, considered the strongest of the Seven Knights in personal combat.

Akiho boasted with a smug face, but the other five had all already been taken out.

"Hi, hihihih… uhihi… Ohhh… ahihihiiiii! I… I beat Kanan Kazami! That gorgeous Lady Kanan Kazami, I got her, I got herrrrrr!"

Wanda howled.

And on top of that… this was Kanan's third battle since arriving here.

The first had been an encounter with one of Shiraki's allies, a quick win. Probably one of Yumi's Earth-element party.

And the second was…

"… Hmm. To snatch prey I was about to claim, midway through…"

A battle she'd barely escaped with her life. It had drained nearly all her Elemental Shield uses and teleports.

"Hi, you… Lizalind! W-wait, you can't complain! I-I'm the one who took her!"

"… She was a tough opponent. For me, of all people, to once let her slip away… That's not something that should ever happen.

"And to have her snatched away from me like this…"

Crrr, her hand twisted into the shape of a fanged upper jaw.

"Hii…!"

"… But, abusing the loser is the victor's right.

"It can't be helped.

"… Kanan, you were strong, but… not lucky."

With that, Lizalind walked a short distance away, crossed her arms, and leaned her back against a tree.

… Seeing she wouldn't interfere any further, Wanda turned back to Kanan.

"… Hi, hihihi… Kanan… uhihi, what… an erotic body… s-so good… so erotic, so erotic… uhi, uhihi…"

Wanda inched forward, closing in step by step.

"… Stop… it. If you touch me, I won't forgive you!"

"Hi, hihihi, just how exactly won't you forgive meeee!? Right then, time for a comparison-grope with Yumi's tits! I'll be the first man to grope both Yumi Tsuchiya's and Kanan Kazami's tits!"

Wanda lunged at her.

"Stop… noooo!"

Kanan resisted desperately, but with the incapacitated state, all of a Garumon's superhuman strength was gone, leaving nothing but the strength of a powerless woman.

… So no matter how she kicked at his groin or tried anything else, she couldn't fight him off.

"… Oooh, th-that startled me. R-right. She's protected by HP, so I'm fine.

"… Y-you bitch, daring to damage me bare-handed, you actually tried to crush my balls…!

"I won't forgive you anymore! I was going to be gentle, but no more mercy!"

Gashi!

Wanda squeezed Kanan's chest in both hands.

"Ohohoooooh! S-so soft… compared to Yumi… it's hard to call! They're equal! Equaaaal! As expected of Lady Kazami! To have boobs on par with Yumi Tsuchiya, that's amazing! Hihi, hi-hi-hi… Then, next, let's make use of those tits! To check how good your boobs are, gotta sandwich a dick between them…!

Then Wanda dropped his pants and slid his penis between Kanan's breasts.

"… O-oh, oooh… t-this is good, gooooood… feels good, this is amaziiing…!

"Better than… Yumi? N-no way… right? No, but the way these tits squeeze…! Ohi-oooo!"

Dopyu, dopyu, dopyu!

Wanda fired off a massive load of semen, soiling Kanan's face.

"Ohihihiiiiiiih! I, I splattered Kanan Kazami's face with cuuuuum! Uhihihi, the best, the bestttttt!

"Ahi, ahihihihi!"

Wanda was in a state of extreme excitement.

"No, nooooo… stop, please stoooop… help me, Naoto, help meeeee…"

By this point, Kanan could only weep weakly.

The strength that had so utterly filled her limbs was nowhere to be found.

She'd thought she'd grown so much stronger after coming to this world… but with Naoto not at her side, she could do nothing on her own…

It was that helplessness crushing her down.

"Naoto, Naoto…"

"… S-shut up! H-hehehe… a tiny-dick bastard like Naoto, I'll feel way better than him in no time!

"Hihihi… ahhh, if I could just slam this into your pussy…

"… W-wait, hold on? What the hell am I, satisfying myself with just boobs?

"… She's not a virgin, so…

"Oioioi, what am I doing! Sex, I can have sex with Kanan Kazami, can't I!?

"Am I an idiot, ahahaha!

"… Sex, I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna have sex with Kanan Kazami! Ahihihihi!"

He stripped off the Spirit Garb wrapping Kanan's body with ease.

Kanan, with no strength left in her body, had her private parts laid bare for Wanda to see.

"… Hihi, uhihi, soooo good… I can't believe she's not a virgin, what… a beautiful pussy…

"Hi, hi-hihihi…"

Wanda reached out toward Kanan's secret place, when…

"… Hey."

Twitch.

Lizalind's voice made him jerk.

"W-what now!"

"… It's fine to enjoy yourself, but how about you stay alert to your surroundings?"

"Surroundings? The hell—"

Dogooooooo!

He should have been protected by HP, and yet, an explosive shock that gouged the ground swept his consciousness away.

Adelia, charging in from a distance at over 120 km/h, faster than a cheetah, had simultaneously sent Kazuo Wanda flying and raked his face with her claws. The gouging didn't actually take effect, but…

Spin, spin, spin!

He tumbled vertically at tremendous speed and slammed into a nearby tree.

After that, a Battle Field deployed at a leisurely pace. However…

"Nyaaaaaah!"

Dogoooooo!

"Kyuuu."

Akiho Yoshii went down in a single blow from Adelia, plain and simple.

"… Grrrrrr… Kanan… Kanan! Are you all right, nya!?"

"A… Adeliaaa…"

"Niiice… You look like fun too."

Lizalind rose languidly to her feet.

"Are you the one who did Kanan, nya…?"

"The one who finished her off was the guy passed out over there.

"I let her get away with half her HP. My oversight.

"… I'll restore my honor by beating you, Adelia."

"… I won't forgive you, nya!"

Adelia, blazing with anger, leapt at Lizalind.

That was the moment we arrived.

"Maika, Neue Accel Mirage! Lyuka, Light's Blessing on Adelia!"

Reinforcements, immediately. As for me…

"Kanan…!"

I lifted Kanan up.

"… I'm sorry, I let myself get incapacitated…"

"It's fine, damn it… that bastard…"

I wiped the semen off of Kanan and threw the cloth away.

"Let me… Clear."

Sparkle…

Garumon could use minor magic according to their element. As a God-element Garumon, Luna could cast purification magic.

Kanan's body was thoroughly cleansed.

"… Thank you."

"Kanan, just rest now."

"… I thought I'd grown a little stronger… but without you with me, I'm completely useless.

"… But, that's all right. I'll always be with you…

"Aaah, I'm… at peace. Just being beside you, I can believe everything's going to be okay…"

Su…

Kanan slipped into a peaceful sleep. I returned her to her capsule.

"Ngh…! Don't look down on me! Demon Art - Beast-Blood Release, Demon Art - Dark Wolf Howl!"

"Light Shield!"

Gan! Gan! Gan! Gan! Gan! Gan! Gan! Gan!

"Ngh, a turn defense!? Annoying!"

"Eight-hit combo with that destructive power…!? If Kishilia adds Piercing onto this… we absolutely cannot let them link up! We finish her here!"

"Don't underestimate me, I can fight just fine without that gloomy bitch around!

"Boost Aura!"

"Neue Accel Mirage!"

Dogo, dogo!

"Ugh, gah…!"

A 3-vs-1 battle was overwhelmingly in our favor.

Well, naturally so. Someone like Kishilia was the exception.

"Demon Art - Flame Severing Claw!"

Don, doooon!

"Agh…!"

Thud…

Lizalind held out alone for a while, but eventually fell. She'd said she'd already fought Kanan once. That must've drained her too.

The win belonged to Kanan and Adelia. And of course Maika and Lyuka, too.

"Nyaaa! Goshujin-samaaa!"

Adelia ran up to me happily. I hugged her tight.

Aaaah… so reassuring. Yeah, having Kanan and Adelia by my side was what did it…

"After this, if we could just link up with Leone and Colette…"

"… Ngh, you… aren't going to do anything to me? Violating the loser is the victor's right. I… am prepared for it…"

Lizalind lay sprawled, exhausted.

Boobs on par with Leone's were awfully tempting, but…

"You're very attractive, but right now my companions matter more to me.

"If we win this, we'll be friends, so I'll negotiate with you then… To begin with, I prefer it consensual!"

With that, I just gave Lizalind a couple of light pat-pats on the head.

That was when… the System reacted! Enemies!

"Lizalind… my, looks like you lost. It can't be helped. You only show your true worth when fighting alongside Kishilia, and yet.

"… Did you not notice Kishilia was nearby? You should turn that wisdom of yours a little more often."

"…"

The one approaching as she said this was Klara.

Kishilia was right beside her. Instead of Moruna, she had a different skeletal monster at her side.

"…!"

"Griera and Irana seem to have gotten drawn off by your decoy.

"They were so looking forward to fighting you, they must be terribly disappointed."

"Decoy? Who are—"

Wait… could it be Colette? Or maybe she meant an encounter with Leone… but no, that wasn't it. Because…

"As for Irana-san, I took her down on the way. A signal flare went up just nearby, you see…

"I left her there in place… Sorry to keep you waiting, Naoto-san."

Leone had safely linked back up with us.

"No, that you took down Irana, that's wonderful. As expected of you, Leone."

But, in that case, what concerned me was…

"Colette…!?"

Could it be… she'd carried out the merciless plan I myself had come up with…? I'd swallowed it down without ever putting it into words, but had she figured it out on her own?

If she'd drawn Griera off, that work was worth its weight in gold. But… sacrificing herself like that…

A clawing, ripping urgency welled up in my chest.

"We take down Klara and Kishilia, then rush to rescue Colette!"

"Yes…!"

"Nyaaaa!"

"Let's go!"

Even with Kanan down, with Adelia and Leone joining back up, the party was nearly at full strength.

Like this… we could go!

We could go, but… could we really fight that Moruna? Did we have a chance of winning?

I crushed every last bit of unease lurking in my chest, and the battle began!