Chapter 239

When Cardina, Nana, and Leah entered through the door they opened, there was only a pure white space spreading out.

And when all other members had entered their assigned sections, the open doors closed by themselves.

Then the pure white space began to shimmer, and eventually transformed into a vast grassland with refreshing winds, where the ceiling was so high it couldn't be seen with the naked eye, and clouds were floating here and there.

And that monster was standing alone about fifty meters ahead, watching them.

"Another strange one has appeared"

"Peewee"

"Indeed"

The monster standing in front of Cardina's group was a quadrupedal creature with a horse-like shape, three meters tall and four meters wide.

However, it wasn't an animal-type but a golem-type monster, and its body was made of some kind of brown mineral.

And its head was a bald oval shape, with three circular holes that looked like they were carelessly drawn like doodles, as if they were eyes and a mouth.

While that alone made it quite a distinctive monster, it had one more special part attached to it.

It was something growing from its back like a mushroom, extending upward about three meters, and at its tip were six curved blades attached like fan blades.

"It seems the object growing from its back and the horse? The Golem below are separate monsters that have merged together. And when the two are in a merged state, the upper monster possesses a skill called [Parasitic Enhancement] that strengthens both of them, like Tatsuro-san and Ai-san"

"Then we should separate the two. Is there anything else?"

"The mineral making up that golem's body is difficult to reshape even for me with Level 12 blacksmithing. That mineral is a mixture of Geschmagmin and an unknown mineral, and its characteristics are not so much hardness as flexibility, but it excels in durability and impact resistance. So half-hearted attacks will be neutralized. Still, that mineral is fascinating. I really want some"

"Peewee!"

"Save that for later! It's coming!"

Cardina warned as she sensed the four legs gathering strength to kick off the ground, and somehow moving fluidly like a beast despite having no visible joints, it took a large step forward and began to run.

"Peewee!"

"Understood. Leah, for now, let's try attacking from our side!"

"Understood!"

Cardina fired magic bullets continuously, while Nana froze the ground where the monster stepped with ice magic while unleashing dragon curse claw attacks mixed with status reduction effects.

And Leah fired four large explosive rounds from her quad rocket launcher.

Each shot had enough power to be fatal to ordinary monsters, but the golem charged forward without concern.

The golem ran through the concentrated fire while receiving tiny shallow wounds all over its body, and eventually reached the frozen ground where it slipped and lost balance.

That's when Nana was about to show a pleased smile — but the six-bladed monster on top started rotating, pulling along the golem below in low-altitude flight.

It quickly regained its balance, and the golem below lightly kicked off the frozen ground to assist.

To make matters worse, from the helicopter-like rotating blades above, numerous spirit force slashes scattered everywhere.

Even a single hit contained considerable power, and it would be dangerous to take them without any countermeasures.

"It can fly, but due to the golem's weight, its flight capability isn't very high. Let's escape upward!"

"Peewee"

"Understood!"

"Whoa"

"Wawa"

"Peewee!"

By the time the suggestion to escape upward was made, the slashes and monster were already closing in, so Cardina, who decided to carry them herself would be fastest, transformed into her [True Form] and grabbed the two with her front legs before rapidly ascending.

Within less than a second, countless slashes and the golem's front legs had embedded themselves in the spot where they had just been.

"Sister. I can fly on my own now, so I'd like you to release me"

"Peewee"

"I'd like to keep hanging if I'm not in the way..."

"Peewee!"

"She says it's not a problem"

"Thank you, Cardina-san"

Nana was released from Cardina's left front leg and flew in the sky with her own wings, while Leah remained hanging, held by the right front leg around her waist.

As for the monster, as Leah had said, its flight capability seemed low.

Unable to chase after Cardina's group who were about seventy meters in the air, it just shot spirit force slashes and earth projectiles at the sky, which weren't difficult to deal with.

"At this rate, we can beat it up from the air!"

"It's easier to attack from above. Here we go~"

While saying this, Leah immediately began dropping hand grenades one after another like a bomber towards the monster below, as Cardina moved while avoiding attacks.

"Peewee!"

"This is fun!"

Following suit, Cardina and Nana also began attacking downward.

The monster apparently couldn't raise its altitude more than ten centimeters, and unable to reach them, it was taking their attacks one-sidedly.

But its endurance was incredible, and even while taking their attacks directly, it managed to endure.

"As expected, due to the skill effect mutually raising their stats, our attacks aren't very effective"

"But it's not completely immune to damage. We still have plenty of time left, so this is easy!"

"Peewee"

"I understand, Sister"

As Nana readily accepted Cardina's admonition that they shouldn't be too careless, the monster, seemingly realizing this situation was bad, made its move.

While Cardina's group watched while dropping attacks, the golem below began vibrating so violently they could hear it from where they were.

"That is—. You two, it looks like the monsters are going to separate! The upper monster alone should have high flight capability, so it will probably fly up here immediately!"

"Peeweeeee"

"—Understood. Leah, Sister says she'll handle the flying one, so we'll destroy the golem below"

"...Since they're separated, their durability should be lower too, so that might be better. Then, please!"

"Peewee!"

"Good luck—"

"Peewee"

While something like tree roots were slithering out from the monster's back, Nana received Leah while casting status-enhancing curse magic and automatic recovery life magic on Cardina before gaining altitude.

"The separation will finish soon... 4, 3, 2, here it comes!"

"Peewee!"

Just as Leah counted down, the separation completed successfully, and spinning its six blades like a bamboo copter, it charged straight at Cardina who was closest.

And Cardina, welcoming the challenge, channeled dragon force into her wings to form dragon wing blades, and further increased their strength by mixing in earth magic to create dragon wing earth blades as she descended.

Gakin! Gagagaga!!

With a tremendous sound like hard metal being caught in a large fan, Cardina's wings clashed with the monster's six rotating curved blades.

Timing that moment perfectly, Nana and the others passed through where Cardina was and dove rapidly towards the golem below.

As they passed by each other, Cardina saw them off while exchanging looks that wished each other good luck.

Then putting more force into her dragon wing blades reinforced with earth, she forcefully pushed the monster diagonally upward to keep it as far from the two as possible.

"Peewee"

The monster retreated into the air further away from Nana and the others as Cardina intended, but as a consequence, her wings were slashed in several places.

However, thanks to the automatic recovery curse magic that Nana had cast on her beforehand, those wounds quickly closed up.

But when she examined the opponent with detection magic, only one blade tip was slightly chipped.

In other words, as blades, theirs were superior.

According to the analysis, if Cardina's dragon wing earth blades were rated 5, theirs would be 4.

At this point, she was winning, but they had six of them.

And those rotated like an electric cutter multiple times in less than a second.

As a result, looking just at blade performance, she had been overwhelmed by them.

While feeling bitter about this, Cardina flapped her healed wings and fired a barrage of mixed magic bullets and earth magic upward like a Gatling gun.

Perhaps deciding it would be bad to take multiple hits in an unenhanced state, it fled while gaining altitude and flying left and right.

But its speed and flight capability weren't on Cardina's level.

So she used that to her advantage to harass it.

"Peewee"

While signaling "I'm here," she kept drawing it in to prevent it from descending.

And moving through the sky at high speed left and right, sometimes chasing and sometimes being chased, they exchanged magic bullets and spirit force slashes.

Cardina's magic bullets landed an average of three hits per attack, while she dodged all of their spirit force slashes with detection magic and mobility.

Looking at just this, Cardina was overwhelmingly winning.

But of course, the monster wouldn't accept this and began its next move.

Kaaan—.

The storm of slashes stopped, and such a sound rang out from the monster.

"Peewee?"

While tilting her head, Cardina remained vigilant, scanning the area with detection.

Ready to move at any moment with the consciousness of her wings, she continued firing magic bullets at the motionless monster.

Then suddenly, the six blades that had been horizontal stood up vertically, and furthermore overlapped to transform into one thick curved sword.

Just as you'd think that the curved state straightened out as if smoothing wrinkles, and what had become a thick blade by overlapping became thin and long.

And finally, a giant ten-meter sword like a Japanese katana floated softly with its tip pointed at Cardina, cutting and erasing the magic bullets as soon as they made contact.

Apparently, this monster could inflict slashes just by touch, without needing to make a cutting motion.

Also from the fact it was floating, it clearly possessed either levitation or a similar skill in addition to being able to fly by rotating like a propeller.

While calmly making such an analysis, Cardina glared at the dangerous sword apparition.

Then its tip pulled back with a guguguu motion, and in that instant it was released like an arrow, charging straight at Cardina at an incredible speed.

"—Peewee!?"

Cardina hurriedly escaped upward to avoid it, but even the wind from its passing seemed to apply slashing effects, leaving her back legs shredded.

But thanks to the automatic recovery that Nana had applied with curse magic, it immediately began regenerating.

Even in that time, she could already see the monster turning back with its tip aimed at her, about to shoot forward again.

This monster had to be dodged with plenty of margin, not just barely.

Although its normal movement speed had dropped to that of a land turtle, its launch speed slightly exceeded Cardina's maximum speed.

While it did have the handicap of only being able to fly straight when launched, it was impossible to completely dodge it with just detection magic and reflexes.

Therefore, Cardina somehow managed to deal with it by flying in completely random paths in all directions to prevent it from taking aim.

But this was only a temporary measure.

The automatic recovery Nana had cast would run out after a few more times.

If she kept getting injured like this, she would eventually run out of the magic power constituting her body and disappear.

But her magic bullets were getting cut, and her dragon wing blades probably couldn't match that thing which had become even sharper as a blade.

Her other options were dispel magic, earth magic, and water magic.

Their attack power was far from enough to destroy that monster.

"...Peewee"

She had strict orders from Tatsuro to return rather than die.

But she didn't want to go back.

Then she thought about regrouping with Nana and the others below for a new strategy— but it seemed they were also in an intense battle, and if she interrupted, the sword ghost would follow and put the two in even more danger.

In this situation, as pathetic as it was, all she could do was pray that the two would finish first and come to help.

Having reached that conclusion, Cardina frustratedly moved her beak around.

—However, even after time passed, the two were still fighting.

At this rate, they would run out of time.

For them to defeat the golem, regroup here, and then defeat this one.

The remaining time had become questionable for completing all that.

Running out of time equals defeat.

Ashamed of her weakness in relying on her struggling sisters, she wracked her brain trying to find a way forward.

Then suddenly, Cardina thought.

If Dragon Power could add magic techniques to martial techniques, could the reverse be possible?

Could she add dragon wing blades to her attack skill, magic bullets?

While thinking this, she looked at her wings.

At that moment, Cardina had another thought.

Dragon wing blade was wrapping her wings in dragon power blades to slash.

But her wings were a collection of these small blade-like individual feathers.

Until now she had channeled dragon force into the wing as a single blade, but what would happen to dragon wing blade if she channeled it into each individual feather as if it were its own wing?

"Peewee!"

Rather than worrying here, time to test it out!

As if saying that, light returned to her darkening eyes as Cardina began putting her idea into form in pursuit of victory.