The most threatening thing about how the beast king fights is the power of his rushes.
He closes the distance between us in one move, and flows right into attacks without any wasted motion. It all feels so fast.
So how about I turn the tables on him by blocking his path with a Fire Wall right when he’s about to move?
I can’t see him behind the Fire Wall, but I have Presence Detection, so that’s fine.
And just as I predicted, he jumps into it without trying to go around.
However, this Fire Wall is thicker compared to one cast by the average sorcerer. That should buy me a little bit of time.
I hold up my sword while getting the next spell ready, and wait for him to appear. And it doesn’t take long for him to break through that thick Fire Wall.
Maybe it’s the magic energy covering his body that saves him from the Fire Wall damaging him.
I can see him grinning when he sees I’m holding up my sword. It looks like he’s having fun.
Right after getting through the Fire Wall, he steps forward, and takes a big jump. He’s going to attack right after landing.
He’s come at me enough times that I can read his movements to a certain extent, so I take half a step back to throw him off.
That means I’m not in range of his hits, but he’s in range of my sword.
But this is the beast king, and he should be able to correct that in no time. That’s what I’m hoping for.
I hold up my sword high, and get his attention. And at the same time, I activate Earth Wall where I think he’s landing. Also, it’s smaller than normal, and less conspicuous.
The idea is to make him stumble a little when he steps to correct his landing. And I’m holding up my sword so he doesn’t look down.
And it works. When he tries to get close, his foot gets caught.
His flow is thrown off, and I don’t miss the chance. I use Swordslash to unleash my swiftest strike to end this.
…But, as I should’ve expected, even in a bad position, the beast king swings his fist against the sword, and they clash.
Then something unexpected happens. He hasn’t been enveloping his limbs with magic energy to attack, but, maybe because this attack caught him off guard, this attack carries magic energy.
As a result, the practice sword shatters in front of me. I wasn’t infusing it with magic energy either.
““…””
We both stop just as I’m swinging down and the beast king is punching up.
“…That’s enough.”
Says Ryuryu.
I figure the beast king won’t be happy with a draw, but…
“That was pretty good. I haven’t worked up a sweat like that in a while!”
He laughs happily, and walks off.
“Where are you going?”
I hear a threatening voice, and see the beast king stop.
I turn to where the voice came from… And my eyes meet Ryuryu’s. She’s smiling, but her eyes aren’t.
“Don’t you think you overdid it too, Sora?”
I look around, and realize the magic did quite a bit of damage.
W-was that wall damaged by the Wind Cutter?
“You too beast king. I knew there would be damage, but this is too much.”
“Ah, no, you didn’t stop us either.”
Says the beast king, and she sighs.
“I knew I couldn’t once you got going. And it’d be dangerous to step in too.”
She says, and people around us nod.
“Let’s leave the lecture to the experts. Please look after the beast king.”
She says, and the beast king is silently surrounded by a group of people wearing armor and taken away.
He’s not resisting, probably because he knows there’s no point.
“Well then Sora, you can fix this, right?”
I nod, and start repairing the training area with Alchemy.
People go somewhere to exercise, so they don’t get in the way, Hikari and the others included. I think it’s less that they’re abandoning me, and more like they’re looking after Elsa and Alto.
They need to get used to that new equipment. They’re not going on the front line, but they still need to be ready.
I go around repairing the damage, and it takes me the whole day.
And when I see the beast king again at dinner time, he’s very quiet and low energy.
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That was good, & thanks for the update 👍😎
Thanks for the treat.