The ninety-sixth floor. The moment we walk in, long range attacks start flying.
Hikari uses Projectile Slash, Rurika, Sera, and the beast king throw weapons, Figel uses a bow, and Nene magic.
Kaina is standing in front with a shield.
Mia and I are casting support magic. I’m using the light attribute, and Mia is using holy water as a medium to cast holy support magic, focusing especially on Kaina.
Chris starts chanting spirit magic, and when she’s done, she holds it and waits to see cerberus’ reaction.
It dodges when it’s attacked, and executes attacks of its own.
The right head is breathing fire, the left one is summoning monsters, and the one in the middle is completely still, watching our movements.
“Chris.”
Rurika gives the signal, and Chris uses water spirit magic.
But it’s not really as a counter to Hellfire or Firewall. Chris’ spirit magic flows on its way to swallow the boss and the other cerberus it summoned.
Three of them activate defensive magic, creating a soaring fire wall… But their Firewall isn’t enough to stop the momentum.
But behind this one, there is a dark red wall. And once Chris’ magic hits it, I hear the sound of water evaporating.
Eventually, it turns into steam as both cancel each other out.
“Stay focused! The next one is coming!!”
The moment the magic disappears, I hear the beast king’s sharp voice.
There are red lights beyond the steam that are gradually getting bigger, and then they fly this way.
They’re dark red flames with about a meter in diameter. I’m sure that’s Hellfire.
There are three of them heading here, and when I see that, I speak and Replicate a shield.
“Kaina, take care of one.”
When the shield that appears in my hand touches the flames, it burns.
I let go of it and jump back, and the shield is engulfed by the flames before disappearing completely.
Was it burned to cinders, or did it disappear because of the time limit of Replication… I think it’s the latter.
It seems like I can block Hellfire like this. I look at Kaina, and it looks like she’s not having trouble blocking it either.
However, the elements infused into the shield are gone, even though they were layered.
“What about the others?”
“Thrown weapons don’t work. They hamper their momentum a bit, but won’t stop them. And they explode, like the reference materials said.”
But the range of the explosion isn’t very large, so it’s possible to avoid it by just taking some distance.
And the flames disappear right away.
“I think it’s best to dodge.”
“Yes. And Sora, look after the back row. You too, Kaina.”
Says the beast king, and we nod.
Then we continue to mostly defend. What we’ve learned is that Hellfire is more troubling than Hellwall.
When we’re about to finish one off and it uses this, we can’t finish it. But that spell’s magic energy usage is intense, so while we attack, their attacks slow down. All they can really do is fire one shot as a counterattack.
In the end, it takes time, but we get through the ninety-sixth floor.
The issue is that we were so nervous during the fight, and that took so much out of us, that we all sit down when it’s over.
“That was pretty tough.”
Says the beast king, who is out of breath. Surely being on the front line means he had more on his shoulders.
Still, he looks happy about getting to fight a strong opponent.
“But I think this will work. Their magic is troubling, but they’re not opponents we can’t take down if we just put them down one at a time.”
This will depend on the number of summoned monsters, but even a cerberus goes down relatively quickly if multiple people are attacking it.
We felt this more during the later half of the fight, when we were dispatching them pretty fast, but that also has to do with the fact that their level goes down as they summon. But more importantly, our coordination also went up a lot.
It was like we moved knowing how the others would move. And it was the beast king who kept this under control.
“Well, in my case, if I think about how I want them to move, I’ll know how to move.”
Says the beast king like it’s nothing.
We take a ten minute break, and advance to the ninety-seventh floor.
By using the experience we gained on the previous floor, we stay calm even after it summons more monsters, and take them down one at a time.
This keeps going as their levels decrease, until we’re fully on the offensive.
Again, it takes time to get through this floor, but less than half the time it did to get through the previous one.
We keep going to the ninety-eighth floor, and once again, go through the cerberus.
But when it gets to be time to end it, our attacks are stopped. The cerberus that were fighting on their own until this point, are all of a sudden working together.
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Thanks for the treat.