Vol. 14 - Ch. 759 - Party Battle - Zephyr vs Lacritta’s Party

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I was trapped between a dome-shape barrier from above, and «Flare Stream» bursting from below. 

It was a good combo. Unfortunately, they lacked firepower to bring me down.

"«Lightning Burst»!"

"Huh? Gaaah?!"

"W-what, Kaj?!"

A streak of lightning travelled from within the whirlpool of fire, broke through the barrier, and squarely struck «Barrier Master» Kajmal. Perhaps he didn't expect me to attack while surrounded by fire.

"No way, you kidding me?! It didn't even do anything?!"

"Damn it, no one told me Brave has immortality skill or something."

"Man, I didn't expect to see so  clearly from within the fire. It was an unexpected discovery."

I walked out of the fire unscathed. 

Akemi and Keel looked at me with wide-eyed stares. But from my perspective, it was a pretty natural outcome. A combination of an advanced job with an advanced-grade equipment set? Yeah, good luck trying to pin me down. Even if they're at level cap, that was insignificant much against my advanced job with fifteen more levels to it.

Then throw in my «Damage Reduction LV7» and «All Attribute Resistance LV3», and «Flare Stream» ought to have more than enough to deal with that. 

Their combo barely took out 90 points out of my 756 HP. A bare 10%, and that was by simply tanking it without any defense skill or stance in work. 

Well, personally, I was more astounded at my unexpected discovery. Who would've expected I'd still be able to observe good bit of scenery despite chaos of fire covering it. I noted it down in my mental memopad. Oh, and it wasn't even hot as well, so I could do that badass entrance from middle of fire. Hehe, it was something I'd always wanted to do at least once.

Seeing me unfazed and unscathed, the surrounding promptly became noisy. 

"Whoa, what in the freaking hell? Akemi's hell invested in INT and her spell didn't even scratch?"

"He didn't seem bothered by that either!"

"How do you even survive one without any guard at all?! It's Akemi we're talking about!"

Heh, seems like Akemi is a name around here?

"Immortal? That Keel guy sure knows to pick the words. The scene of Brave emerging out of fire certainly makes for a nice portrait."

"Y-You think so? So immortal Brave defeated «Grim Reaper»... I feel a bit sorry for that «Grim Reaper» guy."

"Brave-kun's equipments are so amazing! And strong! I wonder where they are available to buy? I want one!"

"T-true. Those equipment definitely packs a punch. I doubt it would've been that easy to brush off Akemi's attack without them. The secret is definitely within them."

"Let's goooo! You rock, Brave! Do it again!"

"Do your best, «Grim Reaper»! Show them your resolve!"

Before long, a crowd of onlookers had gathered around to watch our match. 

So many cheers. Thank you very much!

"Uh-huh, but it wouldn't do good to hog all the spotlight when in a party. Time to show what a party can do. —Highwood!"

"Leave it to me! «Metal Weapon Knuckle»!"

"An ambush?! Akemi!"

"!! «Bomber Fla—kyaa!?"

"—! A surprised shot?! «Soul Heal»!"

Bingo. The bullet came from Myu's weapon. 

She had been working together with Ady and Remi to pin down Lacritta from interfering, but perhaps she'd become accustomed to dealing with Lacritta, Myu took the next shot to support us. 

To be precise, that happened because they'd lost one of their members. The fifth guy, a Class-3 student, had tried to jump out of the line to assist Lacritta, but got blown away by Ady, and pushed to retirement. What a pity! To be frank, an instant kill wouldn't have happened had he let Lacritta do her job, but the boy's pride, eh? 

"Highwood, focus on follow-up! I will deal with Keel."

"Roger!"

I instructed my party members our next step, and jumped toward Keel, leaving Akemi to Highwood who'd just punched her out. But—

"You're not going anywhere! —«Grand Barrier»!"

"Tsk!"

Kajmal, getting back to his feet after my attack, jumped in, and protected Akemi by locking Highwood in his barrier. And further bolstering their game up—

"Pon, pon! Unique skill Phantasmal Tower—«The Four Illusionary Tower Shields»!"

Lacritta invoked her unique skill. Her timing and positioning was perfect, cleanly splitting us two parties on either side of the illusionary towers.

Not that breaking through it would be a problem, but the opponent's actions were unclear, hidden from our sight, so I'd thought to take a step back here. 

Ady and Highwood followed me, and similarly distanced themselves from the tower. 

I wonder how our opponents were planning to act next? I waited in excitement as the tower before us gradually turned into nothingness, like a fading reality. 

The other side was still hidden. Should we use an area wide attack? ...Or maybe not. I'd like to see what Lacritta had in her bag for us. 

Ady and Highwood had themselves at high alerts, all tensed up. 

A moment later, my «Intutition» suddenly blared in my head. 

"Dodge, Highwood!"

"Huh?"

"Face it—Instant Death Unique Skill «Soul Chopper»!!"

"Aaaah?!"

It was Keel, having erased his presence with «Soul Compact». He appeared right next to Highwood and activated his instant death skill. Highwood, failing to dodge my warning, got struck by its squarely, and pushed into retirement.

"I-I can do it......"

A split moment later, Lacritta jumped at me from behind the tower, now an illusion in entirety. 

"I-I am your opponent, Zephyr-kun! Pon! The shimmering oasis—«Mirage»!"

"Heh, so you're in charge to stop me, Lacritta?"

That was a nice decision. Neither of her other party members had the chops to stop me after all. Plus, Keel's instant death was strong, so it was better for him to fight others than focusing on one.

«Mirage» distorted the surrounding, making it harder to pinpoint her location. Perhaps a counter against Remi or Myu's sniping. 

Kajmal and Akemi also took cover in the shade of mirage at the back, seemingly planning to target Ady. 

They'd it right, but they really underestimated the Ranger category.

"«Target Lock-On»! «Breakshot»!"

"Charge, Ady! «Light Arrow Rain»!"

"Wha—kyaa?!"

"A-Akemi-san!?"

"! «Jamming»!"

"You let down your guard a bit there, Lacritta."

"Ah!"

Myu's skill had the effect of piercing through the opponent's illusion, and it seemed to have struck Akemi. Meanwhile, Remi made use of her skill to cover blind spots of Ady. 

Flustered, Lacritta activated «Jamming», a skill that obfuscates the opponent's detection. Unfortunately, she should've used it immediately after «Mirage». 

While Lacritta's attention was split, I jumped behind her, and dashed toward Akemi. 

I'd the highest AGI among us, so it was easy to shake off Lacritta from my tail once we'd enough distance.

I timed my skills, «Holy Sword» and «Lightning Vanquish», to match with Ady's action. The instant she destroyed Kajmal's barrier, I launched them, blasting him and pushing him to retirement. Before Akemi could've acted, I also struck her with my unique skill «Brave Slash», and retired her.

"We're not done yet! «Soul Chopper»!"

Keel jumped in to control the situation, and invoked his unique skill—it had a short cooldown, targeting Ady. On the other hand, Lacritta prioritised keeping ranged-attacks from targeting them instead of pursuing me. 

Keel's timing was immaculate, and so was his judgement. Albeit, before he could've done anything, I invoked my new defense skill.

"«Brave Barrier»!"

A wall-like barrier appeared before Ady, just before the attack could've reached her.

"What?! It blocked my unique skill's blade?!"

"Because that barrier nullifies attacks with status ailments."

This was the ability of my new equipment—«Brave Mithril Shield». It didn't matter if it was a unique skill or spell or skill, this barrier invalidates attacks involving status ailments.

"Ady, take care of Lacritta."

"Mhm, thanks, Zephyr."

Once the opponent was put off, I instructed Ady to target Lacritta, while I jumped at Keel next. 

The match after that barely lasted for moments. I bombarded Keel with my consecutive attacks like «Lightning Burst» and «Quick Strike», pushing him to Downed status. As he lay sprawled like an eagle on the ground, I brought my sword near his face. I stopped there since there was no need to go further. Putting the opponent into checkmate was enough to retire them.

"Good work, Keel. But this is the end."

"So it appears. Sheesh, you're really tough to crack."

"Well, yeah. As it stood, you don’t have anything to break my defense. Once your teamwork wobbles, it's really hard, isn't it?"

"Pretty much."

"That's enough! Team Zephyr wins!"

A burst of cheers thundered across the onlookers.

It appeared the last standing member of the opposing team, Lacritta, was finally brought down by Ady, Remi, and Myu's repeated onslaught. It was quite impressive they managed to defeat her—ah, wait. Never mind. 

When I glanced toward Lacritta, she was still standing. She must've surrendered. This was an option when you're the last standing member of your party. 

Both parties gathered together, face-to-face, and bowed, a match ending gesture.

"That was a good match, everyone!"

"Good work!" x4

Afterward, we cheered each other on within the party and shared our thoughts on the match, reflecting on what we could have done better and where we had fumbled. 

It was a novel feeling to work together with fellow students whom you'd never party up with. I think I might've understood why the academy pushed for this exchange class.

Later, the matches were reshuffled once again, and we got to fight a couple times more for the rest of the class duration.

It was fun.