Lament of the Undead Master and Servant (4)

'Did you think I'd forgive you for hurting the Princess?'

"Drop dead! You good-for-nothing bastard!"

Claude cleaved my hovering skull cleanly in two, as if swatting away a piece of trash in midair. Enraged, Jigoro charged in at lightning speed and delivered an uppercut that scooped Claude upward.

Claude quickly thrust his halberd while backing away, but Jigoro knocked the shaft aside with a kick. This entire exchange took less than a second. As always, you're a monster!

"Hmm... I got taken out in such a boring way."

I had indeed died once. However, the Skill 【Clinging to Life】 had granted me a one-time resurrection. With the other skull I'd hidden beneath my robe fitted into place, I picked up the mask that had fallen off when I was decapitated and equipped it again.

My health was almost completely gone, but when I casually stood up, I heard Claude click his tongue behind his bone helmet. Perhaps he had never seen someone with a kind of extra life before. Then again, even a body made of ash could apparently click its tongue. What a neat trick.

"You let your guard down, Izaamu."

"Absolutely. I have no excuse."

Genzuro, who had somehow already come over to us, was entirely right. When Claude began changing, I should have immediately regrouped with everyone instead of merely watching. The only reason I had been thinking such pointless thoughts was that I was reflecting on my own carelessness. I've had plenty to reflect on today, and it's getting tiresome.

I healed myself with 【Soul Arts】 while falling back to regroup with Iris and the others. Fighting on the front line really is exhausting. I think I suit the back line better.

"Iris, Shiitake. What did 【Appraisal】 show?"

"The level is still down. Even so, it's 85..."

"Also, there's one more Skill. It's called 【Embrace of the Undead Princess】."

【Embrace of the Undead Princess】 undoubtedly referred to Catherine. At the moment, she was merely hugging Claude with her eyes closed, but there was a high chance that some kind of special effect was in play. I wanted to observe her, but if I let myself fall behind, it might be too late.

However, I couldn't leave Jigoro to keep attacking alone. We had to decide what to do quickly.

"There's only one enemy, and his body is human-sized. Even if we attack from every direction, having everyone pile on at once would only make us get in each other's way. Shio and Nanako, support Jigoro. While you do that, we'll finish healing, reapply our buffs, and decide on a rotation for the front line."

"Yes, sir!"

"You got it, boss!"

No sooner had I spoken than Shio fired an arrow at Claude, while Nanako used 【Summoning Arts】 to create a new summon and send it charging headlong into him. With those three, including Jigoro fighting him head-on, buying us time, we needed to make all our other decisions quickly.

"Genzuro, Ruby, Shifune, and Nenashi, go in when Jigoro gets in danger. Eiji, Toji, Moc-san, and Cal, whose health has been badly depleted, focus on healing. Rotate them in as soon as they recover."

"What should Sei-kun and I do?"

"Take turns charging in from behind. Just be careful not to collide with the other frontliners."

"What about the back line?"

"Of course, we'll begin providing covering fire immediately."

"Is that necessary?"

"It certainly is."

The reason Wool sounded uncertain was that Jigoro was holding his own against Claude. Even now, fists and swords, kicks and halberds were clashing at dizzying speeds, sending sparks flying.

Jigoro was grinning as if he couldn't be happier to fight, but every time his gauntlets collided with Claude's weapons, he took damage. I didn't know whether the fact that his health was being drained through his gauntlets was due to the weapons' properties or a Skill. Either way, if this continued, he looked likely to be worn down and killed before long.

"Genzuro, can the four of you go in?"

"Indeed. Thanks to Mikelo, I'm almost completely healed."

"Then I'm counting on you. Jigoro, switch out!"

"Tch, fine!"

Before his health reached a dangerous level, Jigoro withdrew, and Genzuro and the others took the front line. Genzuro knocked aside Claude's sword and halberd with an odachi and a great spear, while Ruby's knife and Shifune's kicks stabbed through the gaps in his armor from both sides. Nenashi's vines wrapped around him and restrained him.

"Fine technique. No wonder Jigoro is so fired up."

"What is this sensation?"

"There's barely any resistance!"

"Hmm?! This armor is transforming?!"

Unlike Genzuro, who quietly burned with fighting spirit as he crossed blades with Claude, the other three did not seem to be having much success. Ruby and Shifune's attacks had certainly dealt damage, but far less than expected. It was practically zero.

The reason was probably that Claude's body was made of ash. Their attacks could cut through flesh, but since the flesh they were cutting was only a temporary shell for him, they were not very effective.

Getting a blade into the gaps in his armor was extremely difficult. If Claude had twisted his body even slightly, the attacks would have slid across the armor or merely scraped its surface. I had assumed he couldn't dodge their attacks because he was fighting Genzuro, but he had simply allowed them to hit because there was no need to dodge.

As for Nenashi's vines, the armor itself cut through them the instant they wrapped around him. The bones forming Claude's armor had all been sharpened like blades, and he could move them however he pleased, allowing him to escape before the vines could fully restrain him.

I had an idea how to deal Claude a substantial amount of damage. That battered skull that had spewed out a huge amount of ash at the start had to be his core. Unless we did something about it, we had no chance of winning. We had to target the unknown weak point of a master with grotesque, sturdy armor and an immortal body, a master who could cross blades head-on with Genzuro and Jigoro—and we didn't even know where that weak point was... Hahaha! It was enough to make me laugh.

"First, a blow!"

Just as I was despairing inwardly, Kanna, astride Ragaa, used the momentum of her charge to slam her fangtian ji into Claude. However, his bone armor transformed into spikes and blocked the attack without him even looking toward her.

"Ahh, I can feel the healing soaking into me. Brother, did you see that just now?"

"Yes. She was warning him."

I nodded to Jigoro as Mikelo healed him, reinforcing him with magic. Claude couldn't actually see behind himself. Catherine, who was behind him, had warned him.

Catherine's voice could not reach this far. However, just before Kanna attacked, I clearly saw her translucent body glowing faintly as she moved her mouth beside Claude's ear, as if whispering to him. Of course, my avatar doesn't have eyes!

"Could giving him advice from behind be the effect of 【Embrace of the Undead Princess】?"

"That cannot be all. Don't assume the boss's Skill is so puny."

A Skill that let a spirit behind you offer advice. It certainly wasn't a weak Skill, but I couldn't believe that was all it did. We should consider the warning about attacks from behind a secondary effect. More importantly, the fact that she had glowed was bothering me...

"O-oh, oooh?"

"Are you all right!?"

As expected, there seemed to be some kind of trick involved. Ragaa's legs suddenly grew unsteady and began staggering like a drunk. The marker showed the Reverse status ailment. In other words, the sense of front and back, up and down, and left and right had been scrambled.

Ragaa had been running at considerable speed, but managed to withdraw from the fight for a while despite staggering. As the mount gradually slowed down, it finally came to a halt, standing there with its legs trembling.

"Magic Circle, Remote Activation, Dispel."

"Ugh... Huh? I'm cured."

"Ah, thank goodness."

I quickly removed the curse from a distance. The two of them immediately ran away to put some distance between themselves and Claude. Since the effect was removed without issue, we could say for certain that it had been a curse. He had probably cast it when Catherine glowed.

Since Genzuro and the others, who were currently closest to him, had not been cursed, there seemed to be specific conditions both for selecting targets and for activating the curse. To confirm them, we needed someone willing to put themselves on the line. Fortunately, that was easy enough to arrange.

"Nanako."

"Leave it to me!"

As if she had been waiting for this, Nanako sent a summoned crow at Claude. Of course, she took care not to interfere with Genzuro and the others, so it attacked him almost directly from behind.

As expected, Catherine began to glow, and nearly all the crows were cursed simultaneously. The curses were varied: some were paralyzed, some were put to sleep, and some were petrified. None of them had multiple status ailments, but everything within roughly a 120-degree arc behind Claude was definitely cursed.

"Apparently, attacking or approaching from behind causes you to be cursed. Surrounding him and beating him down is going to be difficult."

"So he's nullifying our numerical advantage...?"

"And protective charms don't work either, so that must be it, right?"

"It's a pain, but that's how it is. More importantly, isn't it almost time to switch out?"

While we worked with Nanako to figure out the mechanics of Claude's Skill to some extent, Genzuro and the others continued their fierce exchange of blows. Just as with Jigoro, none of them had been properly slashed, yet their health was decreasing. It seemed there was something gradually draining their health rather than inflicting a status ailment.

Nenashi's vines were the only things being cut, but the vines used for attacks could be regenerated immediately and took negligible damage, so that could be disregarded. Nenashi too seemed to be suffering from the mysterious damage. Damage with an unknown cause was seriously frightening.

"Eiji, Cal. Focus on defense and leave the attacks to Toji and Moc-san. The two of you, don't try to circle around behind him."

"Grrrrrraaaaah!"

"I'll do my best!"

"I don't think I'm a good match for him either..."

"Let's wear him down as much as we can."

Eiji and the others looked ready to go at any time. All right, then. We'd have them rotate in while launching a smooth, effective attack.

"Fall back, Genzuro! Nanako!"

"You got it! Self-destruct!"

'!?'

As Genzuro and the others retreated, Nanako detonated the summons that still had some life left in them. A light-element explosion erupted behind Claude, but I expected it to deal little damage.

However, contrary to my expectations, Claude turned around in alarm and completely blocked the blast with his sword and halberd. The names 【Guardian Sword Arts】 and 【Guardian Halberd Arts】 were clearly not for show.

However, we couldn't afford to relax. That unexpected movement was bad! I had secretly instructed Sei through clan chat to charge him from the front on the assumption that Claude would not turn around.

"Sei!"

"This is bad! That guy isn't stopping!"

Unable to see what was happening through the ash kicked up by the explosion, Sei charged without slowing down. Tess fired spell after spell, and, following that barrage, Sei charged astride Phil. The attack possessed enough breakthrough power to earn the approval of everyone among us—but this was not the time for it!

If things continued like this, Sei would be afflicted with a status ailment by the attack from behind, then be cut to pieces in an instant while defenseless. Eiji and the others wouldn't make it in time. That was what I thought.

'From behind!'

"Tch! He noticed!"

Claude knocked away Tess's barrage with his sword and caught the blow from the club with his halberd. But why had he turned around? Nanako's explosion could have been blocked by his sturdy armor without him bothering to turn, and rather than forcibly blocking Sei's attack, it should have been more efficient to deform his armor as he had against Kanna, block the blow, and inflict a status ailment.

Even so, why had he turned around? That question seemed likely to hold the key to defeating him. In any case, once Sei had disengaged, it was Eiji and the others' turn to fight. I would support them properly while devising an impromptu strategy to break through this situation. That was my role.