Reborn as the Hero's Daughter

Chapter 279: Many-to-Many

The grotesque Devil Zellkarn’s individual attacks weren’t that big of a deal. Speaking of the speed, not just the twin-bladed Devil, they were even slower than Gideon’s attacks.

The weight behind them was also around the level of Mateus’ attacks, so there was no problem as long as I didn’t take them head-on.

From the perspective of I who was currently in genuine equipment and was establishing a combat style of this life, simply dodging its attacks didn’t seem that challenging.

The problem was, the enemy was a Devil with inexhaustible stamina, and the close-quarters combat or traps that I excelled in was not effective against it.

The opponent was basically standing on the same spot and attacking from there. In other words, there was no point setting a trap in front of it. And if I approached it, it would just suck my magic power away.

However, that was the same for the opponent. If it approached me, it would enter my attack range, and at a distance, I could dodge its attacks with composure.

The longer the battle went, the more the summoner was being cornered by Maxwell, so the situation was definitely worsening for the opponent too as time went on.

It was turning into a contest of which would run out first, my stamina or the summoner’s life. The odds at the moment were about even. But if that balance was destroyed, it could become either advantageous or disadvantageous for us.

It might be dangerous to make any careless moves, but doing something before I was unable to move was also a strategy.

“In that case… Yaah!”

As I dodged the tentacle, I took three throwing knives from my shoulder belt and threw them in one go. They flew accurately towards the man’s chest(?), but they were blocked by the tentacles.

The tentacles that were elastic and strong only flinched once after getting stabbed by the knives and pushed the knives out, scattering them near the Devil’s feet.

I followed up by throwing three more knives. And then, two more.

After throwing them three separate times, all of them ended in vain. Seeing that, the summoner man started laughing as if to ridicule me.

“Kahahaha! Don’t think you will be able to pierce Zellkarn’s skin with something like that! If you obediently become the sacrifice, you can avoid too much pai—hyaa!?”

Maxwell mercilessly drove a spell into him while his attention was directed at me. However, perhaps due to the magic circle’s fault, the moment any spell approached him, they lost the majority of their power.

“You… Is that magic circle connected to the otherworld?”

Connecting to the otherworld… That meant an act to summon “something” that existed in that world. That something was a Devil, my traditional rival.

“Exactly! This magic circle that can summon and protect at the same time is the groundbreaking means of summoning Devils safely! The composition was obtained by analyzing an ancient magi—woah?!”

Maxwell threw Fire Javelin at the man who had entered his explanation mode. This spell contained several times the power compared to the one the man used previously, but once it entered the circle, it quickly lost its power and speed, lessening the intensity of the flames it was clad in.

As such, even that unsteady summoner was able to dodge it.

The man stood in the middle of a circle which had four more children stationed around. As such, Maxwell couldn’t use his prided ranged attacks, so he was a little lost on what to do.

Even so, the composure was fading from the man’s face. Like me, he didn’t seem to have a lot of stamina.

If this continued, his stamina would run out faster than mine. It wouldn’t be wrong to come to that conclusion, but doing that would give the opponent time to come up with some countermeasures.

I should instead focus on attacking some more instead.

“Well then—I’ll also take it up a notch!”

This time, I flew my thread instead.

This was a Mythril thread harvested from a carefully-selected Huge Crawler. In terms of the sharpness, they could rival even Lyell’s Holy Sword. However, their power was too light, so I didn’t expect it to be able to sever Zellkarn’s tentacles.

True to my expectations, the slash only reached halfway through the tentacle and stopped. Its scar then instantly disappeared.

It probably used the magic power sucked from Maxwell’s spell and used it for recovery.

My thread also lost its momentum and powerlessly dropped down on the spot.

After throwing the thread, my legs stopped in place, so I was like a perfect target.

Seeing that Zellkarn attempted to barrage me with its attacks. Attacking me also meant that its defenses would lower.

After dodging its tentacle thrust, I manipulated my threads.

My goal was—not Zellkarn, but throwing knives at its feet. I coiled the threads around the grips and lifted them with the power of manipulation.

Mythril threads dangled in the air with knives at their ends, oddly enough, there were eight of them in total.

Zellkarn was at a loss after seeing an attack stance similar to itself for the first time in battle. However, that hesitation only lasted for a moment, and it started attacking back as if in defiance.

Its attacks felt as if it was testing whether I could really utilize this attack method properly.

However, I had used this ability for many years, refining again and again to perfection. Moreover, due to my Adventurer activities where I gathered herbs at the same time I hunted the prey, I was already good at parallel thinking.

As such, manipulating eight knives at once was no trouble… Well, maybe it was, but it wasn’t undoable.

I met the tentacle claws with knives of my own, derailing their trajectories. I stood in one place and exchanged blows, a thread for a tentacle, a knife for a claw.

The battle state changed once again, and this time, to my advantage. Since I was no longer moving, the danger of running out of stamina went away.

After losing its numerical advantage, the Devil seemed to have lost its composure and its attacks were starting to look rougher. I was completely focusing on defense before, but this allowed me to make counterattacks.

The tentacles were swung with even greater force than before to flick my knives away. However, I didn’t receive those head-on but instead used my two remaining threads to fortify my legs and dodged them.

Such strong thrusts required equal effort to retract them back. Zellkarn used its full power for that, so that made him totter a few steps in front.

Taking a few steps means that his body weight was currently leaning towards the front.

I judged this to be the perfect chance to counterattack and pulled out the dagger from my waist. Then I put all the magic power I could muster into the handle and transformed it into a spear, No, something longer—It looked akin to holding a cypress tree instead.

As it kept growing to something beyond a normal spear, it dug itself into the Devil’s abdomen.

Normally, a surprise attack like this would have been defended by its tentacles. But after being agitated from being challenged with its own battle style and breaking its posture due to rash actions, it had no way of defending against it.

I stuck the pommel… Or rather, ferrule into the ground to fix it into place, and the recoil blew him backwards, all while the spear remained embedded into its chest.

Before long, it crashed into the stone wall and lost the ability to move about.

“—Praise the God of Destruction.”

I spoke the keyword and made it oscillate on top of it. That ripped its flesh apart, broke its bones, and damaged the internal organs.

It didn’t end at just that either. The fine vibrations shook the blood itself and spread the shock throughout the entire body.

This was the most frightening part of this dagger, no, spear.

Even if the wound itself was not fatal, the oscillating waves would attack the entire body through blood, continuing to damage it.

The spear had extended to 25 meters, a distance where even its tentacles would no longer reach me. The God of Destruction had bestowed toughness on the spear, so its tentacles would not be able to damage it.

They seemed to be struggling to get the spear out somehow, but as it had been fixed into the ground, it wasn’t so easy to achieve that.

After a vain struggle, the tentacles finally lost their strength and dangled down. Its legs were convulsing for some time, but then went completely motionless.

After it finally died, its body, being a product of magic power, turned into light particles and disappeared.