The cloak fluttered loudly in the wind.
Ryuu ran, moved, her eyes locked onto the Goblin King's every move at all times.
Everyone was the same; they couldn't stop for a single moment.
The [Pale King]'s speed was simply too fast. According to the young man's tactics, everyone had to move simultaneously, constantly keeping out of this guy's line of sight, maintaining distance, paying attention to their teammates' status, and providing support anytime and anywhere.
Their taut nerves couldn't relax for even a second.
More importantly, she was the commander. She had to observe the entire field at all times and make the correct responses, because Isagi needed to actively intercept and face the BOSS head-on, so he naturally couldn't observe the situation of the others on the field at the same time.
"Lefiya, get away! Tiona, pull Heith away!!"
Accompanying the swapping of positions, Ryuu also detonated the green orbs of light orbiting her towards the Goblin King not far away.
"[Star Lustre]!"
But the instant the light orbs exploded, the Goblin King, who was originally contending with Isagi, had already arrived in front of her in the blink of an eye.
"!"
The short sword slashed down, simple and unadorned.
She couldn't block it. Ryuu could only rapidly dodge sideways while the wooden sword in her hand exploded apart in an instant.
"[Stellar Rotation]."
Countless stars lit up around the girl's body. While they twinkled and shone, the deep green estoc erupted with violent crimson firelight.
"Burn brightly!"
"Full Firepower!!"
As the two-stage super-short chant magic ended, the raging fire that originally encircled the weapon climbed up the Elven girl's body, resembling a blooming red lotus.
The firelight temporarily obscured the [Pale King]'s line of sight.
The maiden of [Gale], with extreme speed, had unknowingly arrived behind it, leaping high and swinging the estoc in her hand.
"[Flame Lustre]!"
And also.
"The flower of calamity from the other shore—"
At the same time the crimson firelight exploded, the 'Battoujutsu' or 'Slash Magic' derived from a swordsman of the Far East, executed with the estoc, left several deep bloody trails on the Goblin King's neck in just an instant.
"[Five Lights]!"
But in that very same instant, through the firelight and bloody blade shadows that filled her vision, what Ryuu saw was a sword tip piercing through everything, coming straight for the center of her brow.
A massive force suddenly came from behind her.
Faster than the [Pale King]'s sword was the grappling hook Isagi had fired in anticipation, and his action of violently dragging his Familia senior back.
Like a small kite being rapidly pulled backward, Ryuu noticed a black shadow brushing past her.
That was Isagi.
The boy had already released the grappling hook and simultaneously charged straight towards the [Pale King], using the [Moonlight Greatsword] in his hand to intercept its pursuit path.
And at the same time, further away, accompanying the girl's roar, surging crimson blood erupted, completely submerging the [Pale King]'s upright figure.
Ryuu didn't dare stop for a moment.
Rapidly, she fired the grappling hook in her hand, wrapping it around Tiona who had succeeded in her strike, and pulled the other party back again.
The boy in the distance also immediately switched weapons, taking out the [Thunder Hammer] once more. With a boom, he exploded blinding deep purple lightning beside the Goblin King to cover himself.
Keep moving, keep moving!
Before the lightning could even dissipate, the [Pale King] was already rushing towards Heith in the distance again.
Thus, Ryuu and Tiona split into two paths. The Elven girl arrived in front of the BOSS instantly with extreme speed to intercept it, while the Amazon girl rapidly pulled away, also firing a grappling hook to quickly fling the pink-haired big sister to a place even further away.
"[Immobilize]!"
Accompanying the boy's loud shout, the Goblin King abruptly stagnated in front of Ryuu, allowing the estoc in the girl's hand to bypass the blade it originally intended to raise for a block, leaving another bloody hole in its chest.
But it was only for this instant.
As Ryuu rapidly drew back her sword and retreated, the golden light originally wrapping around the BOSS's body also shattered instantly.
"Lefiya..."
Just as she opened her mouth, the Mage girl in the distance had already fired a grappling hook to pull her away, preventing her from engaging in continuous frontal combat with the [Pale King].
Simultaneously, she let Isagi, who had caught up, take over the position again.
Drinking the 'Pigment Potion'.
This was almost an instinctive action for Ryuu, because in this situation, there wasn't even time to lower her head to check if the pale color was spreading on her body.
Move again.
One cannot rest for a single moment; repeating this cycle for who knows how long...
There wasn't even time to feel fatigue.
All energy had to be focused on the battle before her eyes at all times. Ryuu originally thought that becoming a First-Class Adventurer after leveling up would make the battle somewhat easier, but that wasn't the case at all!
So tired.
Compared to that, why did she always feel that the boy on the other side was incomparably excited instead?
"Lefiya, how is it on your side?"
"Almost there!"
"Good, then I'm going to start..."
The boy's speaking voice carried a sense of intensity, where his whole body trembled from peak pleasure, and even his teeth and breathing moved along with it.
It was seen that while he shouldered the [Thunder Hammer] again to smash down with golden flashes, he suddenly roared violently.
"Change!"
In this tiny instant, Ryuu even saw Isagi store the [Thunder Hammer] into the pitch-black cloak behind him, then grab a handful of something on his head, place it in front of that steel giant wolf's head, and seem to blow gently.
"?"
What is he doing, that guy?
She felt the boy seemed to be performing something, but everything about it felt a bit off.
But in the next instant.
As bursts of azure smoke rose, countless 'Isagis', also holding greatswords and wearing armor like pitch-black beasts, appeared!!
[Body Outside Body]!
After leveling up, a brand-new spell brought by the 'Retaking the Westward Journey' Character Card.
Within a certain period of time, it could create a large number of clones of oneself. The clones possessed a certain amount of attack power and had separate 'Health Bars'. In short, it was obviously a good skill for gang-beating enemies.
Only at this moment, Isagi was mainly using it to pin down the [Pale King]!
With so many clones, even if they were pigs, they would still—
Not to mention, he could hide among the clones and fish in troubled waters!
Borrowing the cover of the clones, Isagi began to launch attacks at the [Pale King] continuously. Simultaneously, Ryuu and Tiona also joined in, instantly plunging the BOSS into the 'Boy's People's War'.
This was enough to delay the Goblin King in place for a period of time. As for how long, no one knew; it could be a few seconds, it could be half a minute.
And this was the opportunity created specifically for Lefiya.
Undoubtedly, engaging in close combat with the [Pale King] was a very dangerous act, so naturally, magic attacks were a relatively safe and stable choice.
It was just that its speed was too fast.
Even though Lefiya had leveled up, she completely couldn't keep up with the BOSS's movements. In the Elf girl's eyes, the tall and robust Goblin King appeared to stutter like 'segment after segment' of fragments.
One second it was beside Isagi, immediately it appeared behind Ryuu-senpai, and right after that, it suddenly slashed towards the side, forcing back Tiona who had just prepared to move forward.
Under these circumstances, wanting to cast magic and hit the opponent was almost impossible. Even Ryuu-senpai's [Luminous Wind], when exploded simultaneously with weapon attacks at such close range, rarely caused effective damage to it.
So what to do?
Having witnessed the power of the [Pale King], Lefiya had been thinking about this problem for a long time.
[For oneself, under what circumstances is it more important to choose what kind of magic to use.]
In this battle, her duty was to be responsible for 'Output', which meant causing damage to the monster.
Although Isagi had previously considered that the white light bloomed by her magic '[Arcs Ray]' could also obscure the [Pale King]'s vision, wanting to precisely control the magic to explode in front of the BOSS at the critical moment required was simply too difficult to coordinate.
And most importantly, that pure white light was indeed blinding and lasted a long time, but it would 'flashbang' the surrounding teammates along with it.
That wouldn't do.
What if the [Pale King] took advantage of that time to change attack targets?
Thus, Lefiya ultimately only needed to be responsible for 'Output', and the girl also thought for a long time, finally confirming the 'Attack Method' she would use in this battle.
"[Ice Hail Crystal Dust]!"
From the start of the battle until now, the girl had also been running continuously.
From time to time, she also had to coordinate with Isagi and the others, using grappling hooks to change her own or her teammates' positions.
And in all the spare time, Lefiya had been continuously repeating the magic she learned from her compatriot, which could condense ice crystals.
"Freezing sky, azure rain of the high heavens, white ice that embellishes the forest, please drive away the shallow barbarians—"
"Freeze them, fetters of winter."
The chant, which wasn't considered long, caused countless fine ice dust particles to condense in the pale space at this moment.
But they were not beside Lefiya.
Instead, under the Elf girl's control, they slowly gathered in the sky above the hall.
Resembling both the sky full of stars embellishing this pale world, and the cold ice clouds that had already condensed into form, blotting out the sky and sun.
Just as the [Pale King] was surrounded by the 'clones' summoned by Isagi, pausing in place for a few short seconds, the magic that had been accumulated for who knows how long finally poured down under Lefiya's control!
"!"
Tiny ice crystals collided with each other, even emitting pleasant 'ding ding dang dang' sounds in this instant.
Subsequently, the [Pale King]'s figure was completely submerged by those incomparably gorgeous cold crystals. The 'falling rain' dropping from above seemed to form a thick pillar of ice.
It smashed down continuously.
Every drop of ice crystal, under the enhancement of magic, was like an incomparably sharp tiny blade, causing the Goblin King to continuously endure 'death by a thousand cuts' in this instant!!!
Even the heavy pressure brought by the simultaneous pouring down of the ice crystals, accumulated for who knows how long, bent the BOSS's waist.
When all the dust settled and it appeared before everyone's eyes again, the [Pale King], who was originally tall and upright with only a rag wrapped around its waist, had now completely turned into a blurred 'blood person'.
[Effective, very effective!]
Then next, continue the cycle.
He had to wait for his mental power to recover while waiting for the cooldown time of the [Body Outside Body] spell!
It was all for this plate of vinegar that the dumplings were made.
Before the battle began, Isagi actually knew that his 'Retaking the Westward Journey' Character Card wasn't actually very useful against a 'Big BOSS' like the [Pale King] whose level was higher than his own right now.
The existing Spirits caused almost no special effects on it;
The Heavy Attack that accumulated 'Focus Points' through dodging and attacking was essentially just a slightly stronger normal attack;
As for Spells...
The most useful [Immobilize] couldn't pin down this kind of Big BOSS at all; the duration was too short. And although after leveling up, he unlocked remaining spells like '[Bronze Head, Iron Arms]', '[Spell Binder]', and '[Cloud Step]'.
But none had any room for use—'[Spell Binder]', which prohibited the use of all spells, spirits, and other skills to comprehensively boost all one's ability stats, might be nice, but he needed to use [Body Outside Body] to coordinate with Lefiya, so he couldn't use it.
And the new skill 'Alchemy' brought by the level increase was also temporarily unusable, because Cecil was still helping him forge the pill furnace. Without even a furnace, how could he refine pills to eat?
However, fortunately, the envisioned combat strategy worked.
The damage caused by Lefiya's burst as a Mage was indeed much higher. Then next, it was waiting for the skill cooldown and then starting the cycle here.
Once, twice, three times...
Whenever this moment came, time became meaningless.
Unknowingly, perhaps a long, long time had passed. When the sky full of ice crystals once again completely submerged the [Pale King] surrounded by clones...
The Dungeon suddenly vibrated again.
This was obviously the sign that Phase Two was about to arrive, and also the moment Isagi and the girls had been waiting for a long time.
In a trance, a blue moon rose in the pale hall.
That incomparably bewitching azure moonlight sprinkled onto the [Pale King]'s blood-bathed body. In a daze, armor and weapons resembling illusions emerged.
"?"
The incomparably magnificent and tall statue standing in the center of the Goblin Kingdom, which everyone had seen before.
At this moment, what it depicted truly appeared before their eyes in the literal sense.
Subsequently, Isagi saw it raise the broken long sword in its hand, which transformed into an incomparably dreamlike and dazzling long sword with the radiance of the blue moon, pointing towards him.
Clearly separated by a long distance.
But in this instant, Isagi discovered that only a field of pale white remained in his eyes.
[Vision has been deprived?!]
The girls, the blue moon, the stars... everything disappeared from Isagi's eyes.
But very quickly, within this pale interior, the figure of the Goblin King slowly walked out from it.
[Holy crap, so it's a forced 1v1?!]
Twitching the corners of his mouth, Isagi had to lament that this guy, the [Pale King], was truly upright and aboveboard to the extreme...
Yeah right!
You guy, your mechanics are so cheap, and you don't even let people gang up on you. In a certain sense, aren't you actually the most despicable and shameless guy!!
____
New Story: ZZZ: Mr. Ethereal Does Not Want to See a Tragedy
🔥We're handing out that '30% bonus' that makes your wallet smile. 😄
✅ Get immediate access to 40 early chapters for all stories.
✅ Enjoy exclusive material and special announcements!
Help us unlock these community rewards:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters across ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnutchan