Chapter 337 - 337: The Unreachable Eternity

Across all that distance, the longsword in the Monster's hand arrived directly in front of his eyes.

"?"

Isagi, standing at the rear of the formation, went stiff. Ahead of him, Ottar's towering figure had already charged the Monster, greatsword in hand. Allen Fromel had taken the lead, the silver spear in his grip a single step from its target, while Hedin and Hogni had each claimed a different angle of approach.

Thunder rolled and pitch-black flames surged up. Magic power welled with them, and the encirclement of the BOSS was moments from closing.

That included Ryuu-senpai and Heith at his side.

They had begun chanting their spells too. Only he could see the "sword" that had appeared out of nowhere right in front of his face.

No.

Not "see" it. He simply knew it was there, and that it was about to come down.

"!!!"

Back off!

The longsword really had materialized in the empty air before him, as though it had punched a hole through space itself, surfacing in an instant with only a hair's breadth to spare.

"?"

Heith and Ryuu, beside him, could only stare. Neither of them could make sense of what had just happened.

Because at this exact moment, the Monster was still standing far away, perfectly still.

Even facing the attacks of Ottar and Allen Fromel, it never moved from where it stood. Then it swung the longsword in its hand.

In that instant, every one of them felt a bitter killing intent bearing down from a different direction.

Behind them. Above their heads. Beneath their feet. In the blind spot at the edge of their vision — or straight ahead, in the very space their eyes were fixed on!!

All at the same time.

Blood-red longswords burst into existence, forcing every one of them to abort what they were doing and evade on the spot.

And the "SSS"-rank hunter simply kept swinging.

Once more the crimson blades came at all of them from every direction at once, closing in, poised to fall!

And then came a chain of slashes, fast beyond anything reasonable!!

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

The sound of blade meeting blade was strangely muffled, as if the weapon in its hand were coarse and sticky — less a "sword" than a club of some kind.

But nobody dared underestimate what the thing could do.

With each successive clash, Isagi noticed the [Moonlight Greatsword] in his hands taking on a coating of that dark red filth.

And because of it, the blade was gradually turning [Heavy].

No.

It wasn't as simple as "heavier." It was becoming unfamiliar. It felt like he had picked this weapon up for the very first time — his control over it, the instinctive feel of it in his grip, all of it was draining away.

What the hell?!

Still, his own situation counted as manageable. The real problem was the enemy in front of them, this [SSS-Rank Hunter - "The Unreachable Eternity," Nelmos]: its attacks landed on everyone simultaneously.

Every single swing.

Ottar, Allen Fromel, Hedin and Hogni of Freya Familia, and himself, Ryuu-senpai and Miss Heith as well — all of them came under attack at the same instant.

For those comfortable in close combat, it was survivable.

For someone like Heith, or Hedin, whose melee ability ran a little weaker, things were considerably worse.

Hedin's left hand had already been wounded. The eerie part was that no blood came out of it. Instead the entire arm was swelling and reddening, the discoloration creeping slowly outward from the cut. Even after downing an elixir and Airmid's specially prepared antidote, all he managed was to slow the spread. Nothing cured it.

As for Heith, thankfully her reflexes were quick and she had called out [Soul Teardrop]. That "omni-directional slash" of the enemy's, the one that tracked every individual, seemed to have no effect on Teardrop Big Bro, who was formed of pure magic. With [Soul Teardrop] shielding her, Heith was in comparatively little danger.

Beyond those two, everyone else could more or less handle the BOSS's attacks.

Thank the gods Lefiya and Haruhime hadn't come along, Isagi thought. One [Soul Teardrop] could never have covered that many people.

"Hold it down!"

Ottar and the others moved to counter at once.

Golden light flashed as the young boaz with the greatsword invoked his magic.

"Mercy of the silver moon, fields of gold, grant unto me the form of the battling boar. Bearing the will of the goddess, charge forward!"

[Hildis Veni]!!

The golden sword pressure roared out and slammed into the Monster's vast frame in a heartbeat. Yet the spell that had once blasted an "SS"-rank hunter BOSS clean off its feet could not shift this one so much as a fraction.

Still, Ottar had reached Lv. 8. That single blow did pin the enemy down for a few seconds.

And within that golden thunderclap —

Allen Fromel, the fastest of them and the first to reach the BOSS, had fully unleashed his own magic.

"Wheel of gold, collar of silver—"

As the chant completed, the young Cat Person's figure became a streak of silver thread flickering in and out of sight, wrapping the BOSS entirely in its center. Against something that never moved, it might as well have been a training dummy.

Suppress it!

That was the judgment Ottar had drawn from the exchange just now.

If the thing could reach any one of them no matter the distance the moment it swung its sword, then the answer was simple: don't let it swing.

With Allen Fromel's magic active, the longsword in the Monster's hand could no longer move freely. The silver spear, driven at absolute top speed, harried and blocked its every motion — and it was precisely in that narrow window that Ottar and Hogni closed in from separate angles.

The two of them reached the BOSS at the same moment and struck alongside Allen Fromel.

On the other side, wounded left hand and all, Hedin kept pouring out his magic without pause.

Lightning detonated.

A thick golden flash tore forward, trailing countless crackling orbs of thunder, surging at the BOSS by the most direct route imaginable.

And yet, against the combined strike of Freya Familia, the [City's Strongest] —

Something far stranger happened.

Isagi saw it.

The [SSS-Rank Hunter - "The Unreachable Eternity," Nelmos] still had not moved.

It stood exactly where it had stood, the longsword in its grip receiving the silver spear, the tyrannical black greatsword, the Cursed Sword and the golden thunder orbs all at once.

But.

Nothing was touching it.

It was pretending to be pinned. In reality, not one of those attacks had landed on its body at all.

Only now did Allen Fromel and Ottar register, belatedly, that their weapons had never transmitted the impact they should have — their strikes seemed to have stalled permanently in midair.

Nothing there. No feedback of any kind coming back to them.

Hm?

It made no sense.

And at that same moment, Hedin, providing fire from the rear, swung the staff in his hand and was struck by a peculiar sense of unfamiliarity.

A staff counted as a long-hafted weapon. Wielding one required both hands, no matter how you went about it.

But—

He only had one hand. How was he supposed to swing the staff at all?

Hedin stopped short.

Beneath that perpetually composed face, a rare flicker of shock broke through. He realized he had forgotten something important, and yet, no matter how he grasped for it, he could not recall what.

He lifted his right hand.

Then, with puzzled eyes, he looked over at the others, and a thought surfaced in his mind that he himself could not comprehend.

[Why does everyone else have two hands, while I only have one?]

____

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