A finger raised itself, tipped with a claw that should have been over 60 centimeters long. It pointed at Neia.
“As if I’d tell you!”
The great demon calmly responded to the prince’s outburst:
“You don’t have to. Shadow Demons.”
The great demon’s shadow stretched out in a sliding motion.
It swelled up, going from a flat plane to three-dimensional. It looked like the commonly spoken image of a demon, but dyed completely black. And there were two of them.
That was probably why it did not have demihuman guards by its side.
“Kill all the Zern other than the prince. I will seize the prince… Human, if you betray them, I can spare the people in the camps who are valuable to you, up to the number of fingers on two hands.”
The great demon had made the same proposal Shizu had expected it to.
As Neia filled with respect for Shizu’s keen insight, she decided to reply in order to make it careless.
“Really?”
After she carefully asked her question, she could hear joy in the demon’s voice.
“What are you saying!? Are you betraying us!?” the prince shouted from Neia’s back, and so the great demon’s attention was completely focused on Neia.
“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. I’m talking to her… I am a being of my word. Tell me how many people you want to protect and help. If the fingers on two hands are not enough, we can continue discussions―”
The defenseless demon seemed to have forgotten the meaning of caution, and it was full of openings.
Their hidden trump card (Shizu) did not miss that. She leapt out of the shadow of the door and raised her spell gun.
The muzzle spat fire, and the great demon grabbed its shoulder and stumbled back.
Shizu had been waiting alone outside the room for the right timing to launch this surprise attack, and it signalled the start of the hostilities.
The negotiations which had been intended to manipulate their opponent into carelessness were now over. The Zern honor guards sprang at the Shadow Demons. Shizu rushed into the room with fearsome speed, slipped past the the frontliners of both sides with lightning-fast footwork, and closed in on the great demon.
“What! The Sorcerer―”
“…No need to explain.”
Shizu hacked with her dagger, and the great demon parried with its claws.
While she knew that there was little time for such things once the battle started, Neia vented her unhappiness on the prince behind her.
“What do you mean, black hair! Isn’t her hair blonde!?”
“Blonde? How is that blonde! It’s light black, isn’t it?”
“Eh?”
He did not sound like he was lying. Could it be ― Zerns perceived colors differently from human beings?
Neia had once heard that certain species with complete darkvision could not tell colors apart, only black and white. There were also some who could not discern colors in dark places.
The light in the larder was probably so those species could see what color their food was.
“I”ll tell you later! 「Yin — Five Elements — Lightning Claw」!”
“Tch! 「Yang — Five Elements — Lightning Claw」!”
A stroke of electricity hurtled through the air like the swipe of a beast’s talons, but it fizzled out halfway through.
While there were spells like 「Five Elements — Soften Steel」 which decreased defensive strength and spells like 「Five Elements — Harden Steel」 which increased attack power, as well as summoning spells like 「Five Elements — Call The Lightning Lord」, the opposition might not have negated those and instead cast a high tier spell upon Neia and the others.
In order to avoid that, the prince simply cast attack spells, which the enemy could not ignore. In addition, he focused on using electricity-element spells, which the enemy should not have been able to resist, and then he used a special ability called Wood Element Strengthening upon them. While the demon’s elementalism should have been able to protect against it, the prince’s augmented spell could not be fully negated, and so it began to take minor damage.
While the original Grand Mother could have used strengthening techniques just like the prince had, she was now nothing more than an accessory for the great demon. The demon did not possess strengthening techniques of its own and the prince’s spellcasting overpowered it.
Since Shizu was taking the role of frontliner, Neia had to do her job as the rear guard. She could not simply serve as transportation for the prince in the face of such a mighty foe. She loosed an arrow from the Ultimate Shootingstar Super which she held.
While her shot against the main body was highly accurate, the great demon easily batted it away with his hand.
“Out of my way. 「Shock Wave」.”
Kelart’s face ― her lips moved, and she cast a second tier attack spell at Shizu. While Shizu’s body lifted off the ground from an impact that was invisible to the human eye, she did not seem to have taken any damage which could have hampered her movements. Neia had expected nothing less of a difficulty rating 150 maid demon.
“「Yin — Five Elements — Lightning Claw」”
“「Yang — Five Elements — Lightning Claw」”
They cast the same spells at each other again, and a feeble current of electricity surged past the demon’s body.
“「Open Wounds」!”
That counterattack was a spell that would worsen any wounds. Naturally, it was targeted at Shizu, who was being attacked by the demon’s claws.
All she could see was Shizu’s back. However, her dexterity did not seem to have decreased.
Sweat ran down Neia’s back.
Neia was the only one among her allies who could heal. Therefore, she was naturally the healer. However, while she could tell how badly she was hurt, she lacked the combat experience to tell how severe others’ wounds were. In particular, unexpressive people like Shizu might exceed their limits and collapse before she realized something was wrong with them. Therefore, Neia had to pay close attention to what Shizu and the prince were up to. It was just like doing one thing with her right hand while doing another with her left, and she was so busy that she began to get confused.
Still, she had to do this.
The prince kept casting attack spells, while Shizu took minor damage as she swung at the demon with her knife. Both of them were carrying out their tasks to perfection, and she could not simply give up and say that she was the only one who could not do her part.
“「Heavy Recover」.”
Neia judged that Shizu had been badly hurt, so she activated the item the Sorcerer King had lent her and cast a third tier healing spell on Shizu.
“I see!”
Neia’s instincts told her that the attention of the faceless demon was on her.
The great demon’s words implied that it knew the identity of the healer ― who ought to be destroyed first. In fact, the great demon still had enough strength to cast an attack spell on Neia after negating the prince’s spell.
“「Shockwave」.”
An invisible pulse of force hit her like a warhammer.
She could hear sickening cracks from inside her body, and she writhed in agony from the pain which coursed through her.
It hurt more than the spell the Vah Un had used on her. She could not believe Shizu had taken an attack like this with such a straight face. She now knew why Kelart Custodio had been hailed as a genius. It was because of that powerful hit.
“Aieeee!”
Neia grit her teeth, but she could not prevent a choked cry of pain from escaping her.
“Are you alright!?”