A Wild Last Boss Appeared! Volume 4, page 10
“Sorry, but I’ve already decided. I’ll do anything for their futures. Even if that means making an enemy of Miss Lufas!”
Sagittarius howled as he drew his bow. He didn’t use a real arrow this time. It was a magic arrow made of burning red flame. Sagittarius’s element was Wood, so he hadn’t originally been a threatening opponent for Libra. But the bow Lufas had given him two hundred years ago was trouble! Its effect was to change the attribute of magic. Its name was “Chaos Media,” and it was a one-of-a-kind bow given to him so he would always be able to strike at his enemy’s weak point.
Basically, that single bow had completely crumbled the absolute advantage Libra was supposed to have had in this fight.
“That’s nothing! Karkinos barrier!”
“Ｗｈａｔ?!”
Libra swiftly grabbed Karkinos, who was nearby, and put him in front of the magic arrow that was shot at her. While Karkinos was useless for anything other than being a shield, he was the strongest shield in the Twelve Heavenly Stars. While it may have been the wrong way to use him, Libra managed to survive Sagittarius’ first strike undamaged thanks to her utilization of Karkinos.
“Hostile intent towards Master: confirmed. Hereby designating Sagittarius as an enemy. Moving to eliminate.”
Libra squeezed the trigger of her machine gun, spraying bullets. But Sagittarius had already hidden himself among the trees, dodging all her bullets. He had probably already expected her to do that.
Libra immediately switched weapons from her machine gun to a rifle, proceeding to chase after Sagittarius with her weapon in one hand and Karkinos clutched in the other.
The combination of Sagittarius and Leon is a slightly troublesome one. If I don’t finish him before they regroup, then they will surely become a hindrance to my master.
Libra continued advancing, heedless of the magic arrows that flew from beyond them which she had to defend against using Karkinos. A ball of fire came barreling down at them from above, so she used Karkinos to deflect it.
“N O?!”
The Water arrow that weaved through the trees at them hit Karkinos as well.
“S T O P!”
Libra jumped off of a spear of earth that sprung out of the ground and threw Karkinos to intercept a steel arrow that was launched at them.
“O H M Y G O D!”
Libra retrieved Karkinos before speeding up. She used him to cover up a wall of fire that appeared. Then, with him on top of it, she broke through the opening.
“H E L P M E!”
Every time he was hit, Karkinos would cry out, but this was a rare chance for him to shine. Libra told him to just suck it up before pointing her gun at Sagittarius. Then she fired. She sprayed a string of tracking bullets that Lufas had made, which chased down Sagittarius. Of course, the bullets didn’t travel straight for their target. Several of the bullets purposefully went off track and ricocheted or busted through trees in front of Sagittarius, blocking his path. But Sagittarius managed to dodge all the bullets and even passed through the busted trees before they fell.
I guess I should have expected that from a centaur. They’re proud of their legs. It’s annoying how fast they are.
I’d like to use Astraia to just mow everything down, but I can’t do that without Lufas’s permission. Meaning that I’ll need to find a way to eliminate Sagittarius on my own, since I can’t contact Lufas at the moment.
Libra handed off her rifle to Karkinos for the moment and released the inner workings of her right arm.
“Skill Selection: Right Arm limiter removed. Release: Zuben El Genubi!” Libra declared as her right arm transformed into a cannon, which she aimed at Sagittarius, who was running away in front of her.
Libra was currently using infrared vision, which basically made Sagittarius’ camouflage robe useless. In her sight, a round marker laid over Sagittarius’ heat signature, and a message popped up signaling that lock-on had been achieved.
“Hit chance: Sixty-two percent... Fire!”
Sparks ran along the barrel of her cannon, and the aftershocks of her cannon firing blew away the vegetation behind Libra. The beam of light launched from her weapon completely blasted through trees and anything else that was in the way as it advanced towards Sagittarius.
But Sagittarius suddenly dodged to the side, avoiding a direct hit. However, that single attack completely cleared the way towards Sagittarius. Libra used her verniers and quickly accelerated, becoming like a bullet herself as she drew near Sagittarius.
Then, using her metal head, she headbutted Sagittarius in the face.
13
Sagittarius ran through the forest, wiping the blood from the nosebleed he’d gained because of Libra’s headbutt before looking off to the side.
Libra was there, flying parallel to him, a few trees in between them. Her right arm was back to normal, and her mechanical eyes were fixated on Sagittarius. Both of them were moving at a speed unreachable by any normal human or even monster, and they were weaving through the trees all the while. No, if one looked closer, they could see that Libra occasionally grazed the trees, but she didn’t pay it any mind.
“Target locked. Fire!”
Libra shouldered her rifle and aimed. The tracking bullets spat out by the rifle avoided the obstacles in the way of their target, rushing Sagittarius while taking trajectories normally unthinkable for a bullet. But Sagittarius unleashed violent winds around him, changing the trajectory of the bullets and firing a magic arrow of his own as a counterattack.
But no arrow fired directly at Libra would work on her. Once again, she used Karkinos as a shield and shot lasers from her eyes. Sagittarius dodged them, but immediately afterward, Libra’s palm opened up, revealing another barrel. It turned out to be a flamethrower.
“You plan to burn down the forest?”
Sagittarius quickly changed his magic to the Water attribute, launching it as an arrow to put out the fire. But that left an opening for Libra to launch her arm as a fist-rocket towards Sagittarius. This was more commonly referred to as a rocket punch.
But Sagittarius was capable of more than just long-range combat. He was still part of the Twelve Heavenly Stars. His base stats were high enough for him to be competent in close combat. Sagittarius slammed his own fist at the rocket punch, canceling out its momentum.
The arm returned to Libra. Libra reattached her arm while muttering in a cold tone. “It seems like that attack just now fractured bone. Will update predictions to consider reduced accuracy.”
“You really are amazingly hard to fight.”
The two had finally made it out of the forest and were currently standing on a rough, rocky mountain. This change in terrain now put Sagittarius at a disadvantage. This area would always put Libra, who could fly, at an advantage, especially since there was no cover.
But Sagittarius simply continued up the mountain. His horse lower-half continued to run at full speed up the almost-vertical, rough mountain rock. Libra continued to give chase, but Sagittarius continuously produced magic arrows, launching them to hinder her pursuit. Libra dodged every single shot and returned fire of her own. But Sagittarius wouldn’t be beaten. He dodged Libra’s bullets with equal agility and continued to attack. Arrows and bullets crossed many times, but their skills showed and neither was hit.
In the midst of all that, Sagittarius was the first to show his hand. He nocked a large arrow and concentrated magic power at the tip of it.
“I see. You’re going to use Al Nassr, the arrow that once fired will never miss?”
“Exactly. Even you won’t be able to dodge this one.”
In Mizgarz, several feared skills existed and were referred to as having absolute accuracy. Some were the type to leave no room for escape, like Libra’s Brachium, while others would simply continue to track the target until it was hit. Lufas’s Shine Blow, which traveled at the speed of light and thus couldn’t be avoided, was also considered to have absolute accuracy.
But Al Nassr fit into none of those categories. As soon as it was fired, it would have already hit its target. In other words, there was no travel time. Far from being possible to intercept or dodge the attack, this skill was on an entirely different plane. Just launching it equaled a hit. Even Libra had no method of avoiding it. Her only recourse was to stop it from being fired in the first place.
Of course, Libra also couldn’t just stop the arrow with Karkinos. Even with his covering ability, he couldn’t get in front of an arrow that didn’t even travel. But Libra still considered this to be opportune.
“I see. But the instant you attack will be my greatest chance.”
In response to Sagittarius’s attack stance, Libra threw away Karkinos and transformed her right arm. Libra was aiming to fire at the same time Sagittarius did, leaving him no room to dodge either. Even Sagittarius would be unguarded at the moment he attacked. Since she wouldn’t be able to avoid the hit anyway, Libra steeled herself and committed to bringing Sagittarius down with her.
Both parties glared at each other without a single twitch, waiting for the moment to unleash their attacks.
“Al Nassr!”
“Zuben El Genubi!”
An arrow of fire shot out from Sagittarius’s bow, and in less than a tenth of a second, a beam of light came out from Libra’s right arm. At the same time that her beam of light was fired at Sagittarius, Libra activated her jet thrusters.
While the damage from Al Nassr would be coming in just a moment, Libra decided not to pay it any mind. She had no idea where it would hit. It could be her torso, her chest, her neck, or even her head. But no matter where it landed, she was confident she could take it. And, as a golem, she knew she could continue to fight, even with some damage. So there was no need to be worried over some damage.
I just need to chase him down and finish him!
But in the next instant, Sagittarius defied Libra’s expectations. The arrow he’d fired didn’t hit Libra. Instead, Sagittarius disappeared.
He hadn’t escaped by running. And he hadn’t flown at high speeds either. Sagittarius had managed to literally disappear in a way that Libra could not detect. That was the only way it could be described, and in a rare turn of events, Libra was truly confused at the situation. She stopped on the spot and looked around the area, searching for her enemy and finding no traces. There was no hide nor hair of him. There was no sound or even any residual heat. He wasn’t hiding. Sagittarius truly was no longer in the area.
Libra immediately switched to attempting to find out what happened, and she played back the visual record of what had just occurred. She observed in great detail what Sagittarius had done just seconds earlier before he’d unleashed the arrow. And she noticed that right after launching his arrow, Sagittarius had grabbed onto it.
“He got me...”
Sagittarius’s target had never been Libra. He had most likely targeted something far away, like a far-off tree or something. Then, Sagittarius had grabbed onto the arrow that exceeded causality to always hit its target and was taken along with the arrow to whatever he targeted.
This was the first time Libra had ever seen an arrow used like that. Sagittarius had used the skill two hundred years ago, but he had never once done that with it. Libra was able to discern the future from past data, and she could do it with better accuracy than any modern computer. But looking at it the other way, that also meant that she would never expect something that she didn’t have in her memory. And that was a hole in her defenses, a secret loophole in her thought processes. By using a trump card that Libra hadn’t seen two hundred years ago, Sagittarius had managed to escape from Libra, a feat that was said to be impossible.
Having gained knowledge of Sagittarius’s trump card was still a large boon. But given how troublesome he and Leon would be combined, though, Libra considered her failure to capture him here too high a price to pay.
＊ ＊
Sei and the others were currently walking up Hnitbjorg’s mountain path in single file. As befitting of a sacred mountain, it was an odd place. Given that it was a mountain, Sei and the others had been expecting a hard climb, but this one wasn’t. There were caves here and there, and passing through each one got them higher and higher.
It’s like a dungeon in an RPG, Sei thought.
The insides of the caves were lit with crystals that gave off purple light, which grew on the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling. Kross, who was designated as the party’s rear guard, was looking every which way, surprised.
“A-Amazing... These are all mana crystals! There’s so much materialized mana... Just how much money would we make if we brought all these crystals back?”
“These go for a lot?”
“They do. Materialized mana is one of the best materials for alchemy. It can also be used as a catalyst for magic. If you attach one to the end of a staff, it can support your magic too. Honestly, if this wasn’t a sacred mountain, I’d want to take as many as I could carry back right now.”
Apparently, this place was like a mountain of treasure to a magic user like Kross. He was rather excited and looking at the crystals really greedily.
If you want some that much, why not just take a few? Sei thought, but the fact that Kross hadn’t yet was a sign of how earnest he was.
Aries could also understand why Kross was so excited, at least a little, since he could remember a time when Lufas had acted the same way when she’d gone to mountains and caves filled with mana. She’d ended up mining the crystals excessively, though.
Still, these crystals should be pretty common wherever mana gathers, so they shouldn’t fetch that high a price...
If I’m remembering right, the conditions for these to grow were a place where mana could gather that also made it hard for the mana to disperse outside afterward as well as a lack of living things that would absorb the mana... I remember Lufas saying, “Basically, we need to go for hollows and caves like this!”
But on top of that, this place had an anti-mana barrier over it, making it impossible for mana to pass through. As a result, the mana that had originally pooled in this mountain could no longer escape. Unable to travel the mountain, it had simply crystallized. It was truly a product of coincidence.
Maybe I should take a couple with me as a present for Miss Lufas... Aries considered the idea before retrieving some crystals at a speed no one else could notice, hiding them within his mantle. Virgo was barely able to register that Aries had done something, but she couldn’t tell what.
“Are you okay, Virgo? A-Are you tired?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Given how difficult the path they were on was to walk, Sei worried about Virgo even while being out of breath himself. But even though Virgo looked weak, she was level 300. She had the second most stamina out of everyone there. She was easily climbing with a nonchalant expression. In fact, Sei was the one who was lagging behind the most. He was even slower than the dog that was energetically running around his legs. The stratification of levels was truly a hard thing.
“By the way, I thought... No, I’ve been thinking... Is that gorilla beastfolk over there all right...?” Aries tripped over the unfamiliar manner of speech, but managed to communicate his worries for the female knight.
This place was enclosed by a monster repellent barrier, and while those of high level like Aries would be fine, the barrier was like poison to low-level beastfolk. So, thinking that this must be extremely painful for the gorilla beastfolk, Aries spoke up, but the female knight froze instead.
“Sshhh! We don’t say that about her! She’s a human, not a beastfolk! It’s true that she looks like a gorilla though!” Jean hurried to come to the rescue, but his attempts turned into a second-strike instead.
The gorilla’s—no, the female knight’s—fist buried itself in Jean’s face, downing him. Then, still grunting in resentment, she continued forward. She was a lady, after all. Even if she knew she resembled a gorilla, the words still hurt.
“By the way, that devilfolk person... Mercurius of the Seven Luminaries? Do you think he’ll attack us?” Nick, who was an adventurer and part of Sei’s party, muttered while still wary of his surroundings.
“Yeah, he’ll definitely come for us. He won’t be able to just let the elixir go,” answer Gantz.
Even if he managed to get in, they should be able to at least fight at an advantage, since this place was enclosed in a barrier. But, not having Friedrich with them was still worrying. The problem was where and when he would strike. Petto had predicted that he’d brainwash a human to do his bidding, but none of them had seen anyone like that so far. Instead, they heard noises of something like flowing water.
“Um... Does anyone else hear that?”
Even though everyone was on guard, Virgo was the first to notice. At first, she thought she was just hearing things but quickly changed that opinion. She wasn’t just hearing things. There actually was flowing water, and the sound was getting louder. Sei and the others should have heard it by now. Kross sunk into thought, wondering what it could be, and his face paled when he realized what the sound was.
“C-Crap! Everyone, gather around me!”
“Huh?”
“There’s no time to explain! Hurry!”
Galvanized by Kross’s shout, Sei and the others gathered, still wondering what was going on. But Kross had no time to explain. He simply set up a barrier around all of them. He was acting as if they were about to get attacked, and that set Sei and the others on edge.
In the end, there was no need for an explanation. And that was because the origin of the sound—a torrent of water that filled the entire passageway—bore down on them.
14
“Grk!”
The barrier Kross set up creaked under the pressure of the flowing water. The dome was five meters in radius. The small space secured by the barrier was the only safe spot in the entire passageway right now.
Sei was reminded of an underwater tunnel he’d traveled through once on vacation back in Japan. I wonder if traveling through a tunnel in rapid waters would look like this? Sei thought, rather inappropriately. It wasn’t as if he were feeling relaxed, like he had the leeway for those thoughts. In fact, it was the opposite. The danger forced upon him was so sudden that all his thoughts were in chaos. But that was only natural.
