The Defense of Ireves (6)

'Goddess of Light and Order' Aruru's White Light Power Angel has a well-balanced Skill composition with no wasted abilities. Honestly, even though I am nearly its equal, I would unquestionably be at a disadvantage if I had to fight it head-on one-on-one.

However, I am not alone right now. I have two reliable companions with me. At first, their lack of combat experience made them seem unreliable compared to Jigorou and Genzourou, but after slaughtering a ridiculous number of ants and defeating the superior Troll Knight, their abilities had improved by leaps and bounds. With these two, we should definitely be able to defeat this angel!

"Moss-san, buy us some time."

"Understood."

I began by stacking Agility Boost on Moss-san. Moss-san's Race and Job both specialized in frontline combat, but that did not change the fact that I was sending him against a superior opponent. Although his Vitality had already surpassed mine, he had no armor, so taking even one hit could prove fatal.

My plan was to raise his Agility as high as possible and have him keep dodging the enemy's attacks. In other words, he would be an evasion tank. Moss-san's fighting style was based on evasion to begin with, so this should suit him perfectly.

"Whoa! High-Speed Flight is fun!"

"That's nice... I'd love to fly around like that too."

Moss-san was visibly excited at being able to fly around faster than usual, while Nanako watched him enviously. But this was no time to be saying things like that!

"Nanako, stick to your usual tactics."

"Oops, leave it to me!"

At the same time as his reply, Nanako summoned a large number of crows, sending them all charging toward the White Light Power Angel. But our opponent was no pushover. With a single swing of its sword, it cut about ten crows in half, while the wind pressure alone killed another two or three despite them not being struck directly. That was the tremendous power of an evolved martial Skill.

'Hmph! Those pathetic monsters could never stand up to my angel!'

"Isn't it too strong? There has to be some secret behind it..."

'Of course! This may not be a sacred domain, but it's my temple, isn't it? My angel's stats are enhanced here!'

While I muttered to myself, the goddess on the sidelines answered even though I had not asked her. If there was no lie in her statement, her confidence was understandable. I could even see why she had become overconfident. Still, if I were in her position, I would never reveal that information to my enemy.

"Seriously!? Then do I have to summon something a bit stronger now?"

"Can you?"

"I can, but my magic won't hold out unless we finish this quickly."

"Got it. We should approach this as a boss battle. In that case, I won't hold anything back either."

I had thought our opponent was roughly our equal, but I had now learned that was not the case. Since that was settled, I would have to fight with the intention of using up all my magic in this battle. Next, to support Moss-san, I summoned a servant with 【Summoning】. Moss-san was plainly unsuited to acting as a shield. I was already pushing him too hard, so we needed to summon a substitute meat shield at once.

And it would not be the usual Skeleton-type servants. Anything like that would be instantly killed by 【Holy Magic】 unless it were me, having overcome 【Light Attribute Vulnerability】. So what should I choose?

"Summon Troll, Defense Boost, Defense Boost, Defense Boost, Defense Boost, Defense Boost!"

The answer was Trolls. Because I had encountered them during this event, they had become available as summons. They had 【Fire Attribute Vulnerability】, and even when summoned, they carried no weapons or armor. At first glance, they seemed less reliable than the alternatives.

However, Trolls possessed high Vitality, along with 【Rapid Healing】 and 【Physical Resistance】. If I summoned them after granting them Defense Boost, they would be vastly superior in terms of sheer durability.

I summoned two Trolls with their defenses reinforced to the extreme. This should give Moss-san more freedom to move. My magic had dropped considerably, but I did not care. All I had to do was finish this quickly!

"Go. Pin it down by force if necessary."

"Roaaaaaaaaaar!"

The two Trolls charged at the White Light Power Angel while roaring. Naturally, our opponent had no intention of being caught so easily. The wings on its back were not mere decoration. The angel beat its wings and tried to escape into the sky.

'R-run!'

"I won't let you! Heavy Wing Strike!"

But I had expected as much. Moss-san expanded the muscles in his torso and swung his wing down with all his might, smashing it into the angel's head.

Heavy Wing Strike was the most powerful martial Skill Moss-san could use, and it also knocked back any enemy it struck. Its drawback was that the wind-up motion left him momentarily rigid. He had anticipated that the angel would flee upward and had been waiting in the sky in advance.

"Roooooar!"

The angel, knocked out of the sky by the martial Skill's knockback effect, immediately recovered and tried to take flight again. Before it could, however, the Troll waiting at the landing point grabbed it by both legs. This was no coincidence. Moss-san had deliberately sent it falling in this direction.

'Ah! Hey! Make them stop!'

Oh? She seemed troubled. In that case, let us continue. Why would we stop just because the enemy told us to stop doing something it disliked!?

"How about these guys!?"

This time, Nanako summoned Magi Crows, one stage evolved from his previous Race, and Blood Bats, one stage evolved from Moss-san's previous Race.

Clever. If you want to hide a tree, hide it in a forest; if you want to hide Moss-san, hide him among bats. If you looked closely, the difference in size made it obvious, but the situation changed during a battle where they were flying around at high speed. With bats surrounding it from every direction, clawing and biting, accurately identifying one particular bat would be an incredibly difficult task.

'Over there! Ah, now to the right! Oh, come on! If they keep flitting around like that, I can't give you directions in time!?'

"...That's the whole point, so of course. Here, Wind Lance."

Nanako let out an exasperated mutter as he mixed in with the Magi Crows he had summoned and cast magic from a distance. As a Summoner, his elemental magic was only moderately powerful, but every little bit added up. I would leave the rear support to him and his servants.

In the meantime, I hurriedly enhanced Nanako with Enhancement Magic. I gave him three stacks of Magic Boost and two stacks of Agility Boost. Nanako also relied on evasion, and this would both fulfill his request to fly faster than usual and combine practicality with enjoyment.

That finished enhancing the two of them. Then what kind of enhancement would I apply to myself with Enhancement Magic? It was meant to fulfill my role in this battle.

"...All set. Dexterity Boost, Dexterity Boost, Agility Boost, Agility Boost, Agility Boost!"

I enhanced myself with Dexterity Boost, which increased my critical hit rate, and Agility Boost, which increased my speed. Yes. This time, I intended to fight primarily with my scythe.

This was not because I had given up, nor was I underestimating the enemy. There was an urgent reason I was not using magic as usual. Many of my spells, especially the more powerful ones, had a wide area of effect. That meant there was a high chance I would hit the monsters Nanako had summoned.

Rather than making use of our strength in numbers, I might end up nullifying that advantage myself. And though it was easy to forget, my 'Old Scythe' had the effect 【Dark Attribute Infusion】. With it, I could exploit the angel's one clearly visible weakness, 【Dark Attribute Vulnerability】, ensuring that I had at least a minimum level of offensive power.

"Short Teleport, Slash! And then Dark Lance!"

I used 【Space-Time Magic】 to close the distance in an instant, then slammed a scythe-based martial Skill imbued with the Dark attribute into the angel. Immediately afterward, I cast magic from point-blank range. The ability to do this was one advantage of having grown extra arms.

'Damn it! Take down that arrogant skeleton first!'

The angel had been dealing with the two Trolls, who kept hold of its legs while punching and biting it, but it now seemed to have shifted its target to me in response to its mistress's command. It forcibly shook off the Trolls and charged toward me. But was that wise? If it focused only on me...

"Claw Kick!"

"Storm!"

Naturally, my companions would attack from behind. Moss-san, diving down from overhead once again, tore at the angel's wings with the claws on his feet, while Nanako's 【Storm Magic】 ripped through its entire body. Even if it escaped the spell's range, the Trolls and Nanako's servants were waiting there. The situation had returned to exactly what it had been before.

'Gaaaaah! I won't forgive you anymore!'

Just as the goddess let out a hysterical shriek, her stone statue began to shine more intensely than ever. That radiance extended toward the angel in the form of a single beam of light. Immediately after being bathed in it, the angel's entire body began to glow so intensely that I could not look directly at it. What on earth was happening!?

"Hey! Hasn't this thing gotten bigger!?"

"And it looks like its injuries have healed too. What is going on?"

I shared in their confusion and shock. The angel's body had not merely grown a size larger; the wound in its wing that Moss-san had inflicted just moments ago had disappeared as well. I had a tremendously bad feeling about this...

"What have you done, goddess?"

'Heh-heh! I evolved it with my power! This child is no longer a White Light Power Angel! It has risen one stage above that, becoming a White Light Virtue! It's level 50! Well? This is the power of a goddess!'

Wait, had she forcibly evolved it? Wasn't it cheating to do something like this just because she had been losing ground? It was a cheat—a damn cheat!

"I-Izaam-han...? Could this perhaps be..."

"A defeat event... maybe?"

"No, I wouldn't say that for certain."

I understood what Nanako and Moss-san were getting at. We had seemed to be fighting effectively as a team of three, only to receive this treatment. It was no wonder they thought this might be a situation where we were being forced to lose. But I could state definitively that was not the case. The results of 【Appraisal】 made that clear.

――――――――――

Race: White Light Virtue Lv50

Job: Virtue Lv0

Skill: 【Wing Strike】

【Dual Swordsmanship】

【Armor Technique】

【Vitality Enhancement】

【Strength Enhancement】

【Defense Enhancement】

【Intelligence Enhancement】

【Mental Enhancement】

【Holy Magic】

【Void Magic】

【Healing Magic】

【Flight】

【Light Attribute Resistance】

【Dark Attribute Vulnerability】

【Decaying Body】

――――――――――

Its base stats had certainly increased through evolution, and it had gained a new Skill called 【Mental Enhancement】. But it had gained no other Skills, nor had any of them evolved. On the contrary, 【Light Attribute Immunity】 had devolved into 【Light Attribute Resistance】, which was presumably one stage lower, while 【Dark Attribute Vulnerability】 had not disappeared.

Moreover, it possessed a Skill (?) called 【Decaying Body】 that clearly seemed to be having an adverse effect. I did not know exactly what effect it had, but it was safe to assume that being forcibly evolved was the cause.

"It seems the strain is catching up with it. Don't let its appearance fool you. This is not an opponent we are incapable of defeating."

'N-no, that's not possible!'

"Ah, that sounds about right."

"Indeed."

Mm. The goddess's candid reaction was reassuring. And perhaps the two of them had realized it too, because their fighting spirit was burning anew. It seemed the mood of resignation had been dispelled. That was the most important thing.

"Then, let us begin the second round!"