Black Death Ice Forest (9)

For a while after that, we devoted ourselves to methodically thinning the Spartoi's ranks. We mainly dealt with the Demon Spirits using magic and the Spartoi using physical attacks. With so many of them, a difficult battle was inevitable, but we were still holding our own. There was a reason we had managed to fight this well.

"Hraaah! That's nowhere near enough!"

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

The giant-monster battle unfolding toward the back of the battlefield was one factor. Both Jigoro and Cal were fighting two opponents, so neither battle had reached a conclusion yet. If anything, they seemed to be at a disadvantage.

However, they were not simply taking a beating. Both of them were deliberately causing the Imitation Bone Dragons' attacks to strike the Spartoi, turning them against one another. Claw swipes and sweeping tail strikes occasionally thinned the Spartoi's ranks from behind. That did not work on the Spartoi Leaders, but someone else was somehow keeping them occupied.

"Well, well, well. Your teamwork is still rather immature."

It was Genjuro. He had been keeping the five remaining Spartoi Leaders occupied all by himself. He had already cut down two of them, too. Taking on a full party's worth of higher-level opponents and holding his own against them, if not better, was absurd. Real-life cheats were truly something else.

Conversely, it meant that overcoming this situation would have been impossible without someone extraordinarily powerful. Our levels were sufficient, but apparently not enough people had come to challenge this place. The reason I thought so was obvious just from looking at the condition of our comrades still fighting.

"I've already seen through them!"

"Once you get used to them, they're slow... Take that!"

That was because the reinforcements Macfarlane had added were weak. More precisely, every individual in the reinforcements was level 50, and there were no Demon Spirits, which were immune to physical attacks.

As a result, the number of enemies our front-line fighters could not damage was gradually decreasing. The enemies were becoming weaker and easier to handle, which was a welcome development for us.

"Gah! Damn it!"

"Guh... This is getting tough...!"

However, it looked like everyone was nearing their limits. The prolonged battle was sapping our concentration. Eiji and the others, who had been keeping the enemies occupied on the very front lines, must have been especially exhausted.

There were still many enemies left, and from their perspective, it would not have been strange if they had begun to feel as though their numbers were not decreasing no matter how many they cut down. Unless we changed the course of the battle significantly here, the enemy would keep control of the initiative indefinitely. I would not let that happen!

"They're still hanging on...? What a nuisance."

Macfarlane had raised one hand again. He was probably planning to use the ring to summon more Spartoi. If we were going to attack, now was our only chance!

"Shio! Fire!"

"Right! Rapid Fire!"

As if she had been waiting for this, Shio fired an arrow. The Skill she used shortened the time it took to nock an arrow, making her movement as swift as a Western gunslinger's quick draw.

"How dare you!"

Macfarlane seemed startled when an arrow suddenly came flying toward him. He hurriedly raised his cane and deployed a Sanctuary. It blocked Shio's arrow, but the fragile Sanctuary shattered anyway. Now there was nothing protecting Macfarlane. This was our chance to attack!

"Here goes. Astral Magic Circle, Remote Activation, Acid Mist."

"Huh!? Aaaahhhhhh!!!"

I chose Acid Mist from 【Smoke Magic】 because I had Macfarlane's 【Mechanical Body】 Skill in mind. I had actually learned from Number Eighteen about the weaknesses of Golems and Androids. Apparently, those weaknesses were 【Smoke Magic】 and 【Dust Magic】.

The moisture produced by 【Smoke Magic】 and the fine sand from 【Dust Magic】 apparently made it easy to damage internal mechanisms. I already knew about 【Dust Magic】 because I had used it when fighting a Golem, but I had overlooked the fact that 【Smoke Magic】 was effective as well. Acid Mist could corrode armor and even strip away the 【Anti-Magic Coating】 that nullified Magic Jammer. There was no reason not to try it.

"Aaaagh! My body! My body!!!"

The effect seemed to be immediate, and Macfarlane writhed around while white smoke poured from his entire body. It was only natural, considering that he was being burned inside and out at the same time. I had assumed that being a Cyborg Human meant he was free from pain, but apparently that was not the case.

"Let's reduce the number of enemies as much as we can while we have the chance! Shio, attack that scientist with ranged attacks!"

"Got it!"

"Eeegh!?"

Shio's arrows mercilessly stabbed into Macfarlane as he writhed inside the cloud of acid. His body convulsed every time an arrow struck, making the confident figure he had been moments earlier seem like a lie.

"So there aren't any more reinforcements, huh!? All right, let's do this!"

"Now's our chance. Baa~."

We left Macfarlane to Shio and began dealing with the Undead first. Once our comrades learned there would be no more Spartoi reinforcements, their morale rose, and strength and sharpness returned to their movements. Then something happened that tipped the battle in our favor.

"I've finished them off. I suppose I'll come help you over there."

Genjuro had finally finished off all the Spartoi Leaders. He had come to join us while we were still struggling. His perfectly precise slashes found the joints, which were slightly more fragile than the rest, and methodically dismantled them.

That was the decisive blow. The number of enemies began to drop rapidly, and we started to gain breathing room across the battlefield. It was only a matter of time before we wiped them out.

"Phew! Phew! H-how dare you do this to me, you monsters!"

Oh, it seemed Macfarlane had somehow crawled out of my Acid Mist. He glared at me with a face full of hatred. The acid had melted his artificial skin, exposing the machinery underneath and giving him a terrifying science-fiction horror appearance, but the arrows Shio had stuck all over his body lent him a strangely pathetic air.

Macfarlane was in a truly pitiful state, but he raised the hand not holding his cane with a nasty grin. Apparently, he was trying to use the ring again. But there was no way I could let him. I absolutely did not want to deal with another wave of reinforcements.

"Magic Circle, Remote Activation, Explosion."

"Bwheh!?"

Thanks to Genjuro, I was able to attack, so I unleashed 【Explosion Magic】 on Macfarlane. The blast sent him flying while spinning through the air, and he crashed face-first into the ground. That had to hurt.

"Follow-up shot."

"You think I'll fall for the same trick over and over aga—urk!?"

Macfarlane had landed with a wet smack and dodged the arrow Shio fired as a follow-up. However, it seemed she had anticipated that. The moment he dodged, she swiftly fired a second arrow and drove it into his hand. Wait, wasn't that arrow...?

"Gyaaaah!? My hand! My hand!!!"

Shio had used an arrow imbued with 【Explosion Magic】. I had once made arrows with various attributes, and one of the types I created then was an arrow that exploded through 【Explosion Magic】.

The arrow exploded immediately after piercing Macfarlane's hand. His hand was blown apart. Pieces of it scattered across the area, while a thick, oily-looking liquid oozed from his wrist. Ah, seeing this, I really can't deny that he's a Cyborg Human...

"Oh? What's this... Is this his ring?"

I felt something strike my foot, so I looked down. A purple ring was lying there. Had the ring that had been on his finger flown this far in the explosion? For the moment, I picked it up and put it straight into my inventory. There was no time to leisurely use 【Appraisal】 right now.

"M-my ring!? Where did it go!?"

Macfarlane frantically searched the ground around him. The ring I had picked up must really have been his. It was presumably what he had used to summon the Spartoi earlier, so perhaps he could no longer call in reinforcements. If so, that was a lucky break.

"There."

"Guhhh!"

Macfarlane searched for the ring on all fours like someone looking for a contact lens, but Shio kept firing without the slightest concern. The ruthless way she continued raining arrows down from above was worthy of respect.

"Th-then... I'll use this!"

Perhaps he had realized that searching while being shot by Shio was not worth it, because Macfarlane gave up on looking. Instead, he twisted the grip of his cane and removed it. He raised it to eye level. Looking closely, I could see something resembling a switch at the tip of the grip! It was probably a button for activating some kind of device.

"I shall show you my secret weapon! It would be a waste to use it on mere monsters like you..."

"There."

"Guaaah!?"

Macfarlane had tried to deliver a speech like a scientist villain in a movie, but Shio shot him between the eyebrows without hesitation. Apparently, she had no interest in graciously listening to a villain talk about his secret weapon the way they did in movies and tokusatsu shows.

It was getting more pathetic by the moment, but this was a battle. The one who left himself open was at fault. Still, as an aspiring villain, I would have liked to let him finish his speech. Giving a grand speech like that looked fun...

"Guh... You monsters! I'll kill you! Come forth, my ultimate weapon!"

"Oh?"

"The tree split open!?"

Macfarlane glared hatefully at Shio and pressed the switch. Then the trees growing around the outer edge of the Boss Area split open with a snap, and a huge number of objects resembling mechanical parts flew out from inside!

After the parts were ejected, what had looked like trees turned into metal pillar-like objects. They were probably containers for the parts, disguised as trees and hidden by some kind of optical camouflage.

The parts flew toward Macfarlane and assembled around him in an instant, with him at the center. What they created was a gigantic mechanical Dragon.

'Behold! This is the culmination of our wisdom as Humans! A magical weapon capable of fighting a fully grown Dragon to a standstill! Fwahahahahahaha!'

Macfarlane's triumphant voice came through a microphone from inside the mechanical Dragon. In fact, if what he said was true, this was extremely dangerous. If an enemy as powerful as an adult Dragon—one we might not be able to defeat even at full strength—had appeared, then we could only despair.

However, no one here despaired. That was not because we were overflowing with confidence, but simply because of its appearance.

"Come on, it looks like it'll fall apart any second. Did you even repair it properly?"

As Shiitake said with an exasperated sigh, the Dragon was in terrible condition. The armor covering its torso was riddled with scratches, and there were even places where it had peeled away to expose the circuitry. Its wings were full of holes and did not look capable of moving. On top of that, the tip of its tail and its right foreleg were missing, as if torn off by something, while the portion from its left eye to its left horn and its lower jaw had melted so badly that they no longer retained their original forms. If it had been a living creature, it would unquestionably have been dead.

'Hmph! I can repair it anytime once I break through the barrier! For now, eliminating you with all my strength takes priority! Charge!'

"So you haven't repaired it..."

Iris muttered under her breath, but Macfarlane probably did not hear her. Macfarlane was charging toward us from the point farthest from the battlefield.

In any case, there was no doubt that this boss battle had reached its climax. Fighting Macfarlane while dealing with the remaining enemies would be difficult, but this was the crucial moment! We had to hold on!