Chapter 110 - Chapter 109: Son of God
The Chimera, which had been writhing on the ground, somehow managed to get back up.
Was it on guard? The Chimera glared at Mika but made no move to close the distance.
And just like when it had threatened earlier, it opened its mouth wide, preparing to roar.
(Does it lack learning ability?)
It seems to have already forgotten being hit in the mouth with a Stone Bullet.
Mika, exasperated, thrust his left hand forward, palm facing up.
He created a Stone Bullet the size of a five-hundred-milliliter plastic bottle and spun it at high speed.
Just as Mika was about to fire the Stone Bullet, the inside of the Chimera's mouth turned red.
"Huh?"
The moment he wondered what that was, flames erupted from the Chimera's large mouth.
Bugoooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
That fire attacked Mika with terrifying momentum.
"W-wait!?"
Mika instinctively threw away the Stone Bullet and thrust out his right hand.
"Ice Breath!!!"
Mika unleashed Ice Breath with all his might, but the momentum of the Chimera's Fire Breath was terrifying.
As if swallowing the Ice Breath whole, Mika was enveloped by the Fire Breath.
"Over there!? Over there! O-ver there-eee!?"
Mika thrust both hands out, spraying Ice Breath with all his strength, but he couldn't fully block the Chimera's Fire Breath.
In terms of time, it was only a few dozen seconds.
But how long those mere moments felt.
Mika was bathed in the hot wind that the Ice Breath couldn't fully cancel out, and the burning pain on his body made his concentration nearly break.
When the Fire Breath ceased, Mika collapsed to his knees right where he stood.
"Haa! Haa! Haa! Haa...!"
He repeated his ragged breathing, biting down on his own life that he had barely held onto.
Parts of his robe were scorched, and Mika himself was covered in burns all over his body.
Sharp, throbbing pain ran through his skin, which had turned bright red.
Did the Chimera feel certain of victory? It slowly walked toward Mika with sluggish movements.
At that moment, the knights stood in front of Mika.
"Miss! Are you alright!?"
The Knight Captain rushed over to Mika, supporting his body.
"You lot! Buy me some time!"
The Captain ordered the knights standing in his way like a shout.
"I'll use a Potion now! Just hang in there a little longer!"
He spoke strongly to Mika, who was muttering something like a delirious ramble, as if to encourage him.
But just as the Captain took out a Potion and was about to use it, Mika's body was enveloped in faint yellow particles of light.
"What!?"
Mika's red skin healed before his eyes, and the pain all over his body vanished.
Hearing the Captain's shocked voice, the knights standing in front turned around.
And seeing Mika slowly stand up while wrapped in particles of light, they opened their eyes wide, unable to speak.
"Phew... That was dangerous. You should run away."
Saying that, Mika started walking toward the Chimera, but the Captain grabbed his shoulder.
"Y-you idiot! What are you saying! Running away is, Miss---!"
Slap!
Mika brushed off the hand grabbing his shoulder.
"Don't get in my way. ...I'm finally getting into the groove."
Mika answered quietly while still glaring at the Chimera.
The knights were speechless at that strange atmosphere.
"Sorry, but I can't do the fancy trick of protecting and fighting for you lot. If you don't mind getting caught up in it, do as you please."
After conveying only that, Mika stepped out in front of the knights.
By doing this, Mika cast the knights out of his head.
He had conveyed what he needed to convey, so he wouldn't be troubled by them anymore.
Thinking that, his heart felt a little lighter.
The Chimera stopped its advance and stared fixedly at Mika.
It seemed wary of Mika, who was still alive after being bathed in Fire Breath.
"Alright, let's start over. Let's continue."
A violent smile floated on Mika's face.
His eyes shone brilliantly, and the corners of his mouth curled up.
He felt his blood boiling more than ever.
Euphoria?
No, rather, this was closer to ecstasy or intoxication.
Mika was drunk on the battle with the magic beast that had been postponed for a week.
Mika knew the knights were still behind him, yet he resumed the battle with the Chimera.
"Stone Bullet!"
He fired a Stone Bullet with added high-speed rotation into the Chimera.
He was gradually getting used to adding rotation, shortening the interval between shots.
The Stone Bullet, with its increased speed, seemed to completely exceed the Chimera's reaction speed; none were dodged, and all hit.
The power was impeccable.
With the Stone Bullets being fired in succession, the Chimera's entire body turned red in an instant.
"It's looking bad for you, isn't it? What are you going to do? You're not going to stay like this, are you?"
Mika spoke to the Chimera while laughing.
While speaking, of course, he didn't loosen his attack.
The fact that he had taken the previous Fire Breath was entirely due to Mika's carelessness.
He nearly died, but the one who didn't deliver the finishing blow was the Chimera's carelessness.
Both sides had let their guard down.
So, let's start over.
Let's get serious from here on.
Both of us.
The Chimera, thinking that staying away would just mean getting beaten one-sidedly, charged forward.
It's huge, so it's quite troublesome, but it's not hard to dodge if you aren't caught off guard.
When Mika dodged the Chimera's charge, the knights behind him scattered and somehow managed to dodge as well.
(I gave you a warning, and you're still wandering around? ...Oh, concentrate, concentrate.)
After that, the Chimera pursued Mika, launching consecutive attacks: a body check, the claws of its front legs, the lion's bite, and the snake's bite.
With this, since adding rotation takes effort, Mika didn't have many chances to attack either.
An offensive and defensive struggle of advancing and retreating.
A stalemate had set in.
Mika dodged the Chimera's attacks and tried using the Fireball, Ice Javelin, and Air Cutter, which didn't require much effort, but he still couldn't deal significant damage.
Neither side could land a decisive blow.
At that moment, the Chimera grew impatient first.
It quickly created distance and opened its mouth wide.
"You idiot! Take this!"
Mika thrust out both hands.
"Blast!"
Mika generated a Blast from his right hand.
And just as the Chimera was about to spew Fire Breath, he shouted.
"Ice Breath!"
The Ice Breath spewing from his left hand, riding on the momentum of the Blast from his right hand, became more powerful than when he used the Ice Breath alone before.
What is an effective way to block Fire Breath?
Strengthen the cold?
There isn't much meaning in that.
Because no matter how much you lower the temperature, it won't go below minus two hundred seventy-three degrees, absolute zero.
Even if you lower a thousand-degree flame by a few hundred degrees, if you get hit, you'll still die.
The reason I survived last time was largely because I avoided a direct hit from the Fire Breath by spraying Ice Breath.
The hot wind Mika received wasn't the Fire Breath itself.
It was his own Ice Breath, whose temperature had risen due to the Fire Breath.
So, just don't get hit.
You just need to make the Ice Breath stronger and push back without losing ground.
When I first took the Fire Breath, I was completely overwhelmed by momentum, but now it's a standoff.
"Uoooooooooooooo!"
Mika let out a roar, concentrating magic into the Ice Breath and Blast, pushing back the Chimera's Fire Breath.
The momentum of the Ice Breath and Blast pushed Mika's body back with recoil, but he managed to hold on.
"Oooooooooooooooooooooo!!!"
As he poured more and more magic in, the momentum was completely in Mika's favor.
Pushing back the Fire Breath, the Ice Breath approached the Chimera.
At that moment, the snake tail of the Chimera arched backward and swelled.
Then, with a forceful downward shake of its head, it opened its mouth wide and spat out Ice Breath.
Ice Breath from a different angle, higher up than the Fire Breath spewed from the lion's mouth.
"Oh ho ho! Fire Breath!"
Mika kept the Ice Breath from his left hand as is, and hurriedly changed the direction of only his right hand to spray Fire Breath.
Mika's Ice Breath versus the lion's Fire Breath.
Mika's Fire Breath versus the snake's Ice Breath.
However, the Ice Breath, having lost the support of the Blast, lost its momentum, and the Fire Breath approached Mika again.
Losing to the momentum of the Ice Breath spewed by the snake, the Chimera's Fire Breath and Ice Breath approached Mika from two directions.
"Blast! Oooooooooooooo!!!"
With Mika's shout, the Ice Breath and Fire Breath that had been pushed back regained their momentum.
Blast can be sprayed from places away from Mika's body.
This allowed him to achieve stable flight.
Mika sprayed the Blast not from his hands, but from around his hands.
From his left hand, he released Ice Breath, and from around his left hand, he released Blast.
From his right hand, he released Fire Breath, and from around his right hand, he released Blast.
"Goeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Mika desperately braced his feet so his body wouldn't be blown away.
The Ice Breath and Fire Breath pushed back the Chimera's two Breaths.
But here, for the first time, Mika realized the limit of his magic.
The magic he consumed exceeded the amount of magic absorbed by Absorb.
He could feel magic seeping into his body from all over.
Even so, the amount of magic inside Mika was decreasing.
(Don't slack off! Work harder, Absorb!)
It's natural that there is a limit to how much magic can be absorbed at once.
He had used various magics simultaneously before, but never had he gone all-out like this.
His heart grew anxious as the magic inside him decreased.
But the one who reached their limit first was the Chimera.
The lion's Fire Breath and the snake's Ice Breath stopped simultaneously.
In that instant, Mika's Ice Breath and Fire Breath attacked the Chimera.
Gyaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
The Chimera screamed, and soon its scream stopped too.
Stopping the magic just as it was about to run out of magic, the lion's face froze with its mouth wide open, and the snake tail on its tail turned into charcoal.
Mika looked up at the sky and relaxed his shoulders.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaa..."
He exhaled deeply.
That was pretty dangerous.
He never thought he would see the limit of Absorb.
"So, this is the limit against this class. ...For now."
The limit of usable magic equaled Mika's limit for fighting.
He was able to know his own limit, which he hadn't felt even when fighting the Agu Bear.
In that sense, this battle with the Chimera had great significance.
"It was fun. Thanks."
Muttering that, Mika pointed his left hand at the Chimera.
Most of his magic had already recovered via Absorb.
He created a Stone Bullet, spun it at high speed, and fired it.
Goshah! Galaragaragaraga...
The Stone Bullet hit the frozen Chimera's head, and more than half of its body shattered into pieces and collapsed.
Mika exhaled deeply once more, and the knights came over.
"A-are you alright?"
The Knight Captain spoke with an expression that looked exhausted about something.
"Are you injured? I have a Potion."
"...No, I'm fine."
(Are these guys still here? I'm kind of depressed.)
As he sighed and thought that, the Captain spoke without caring.
"Miss, who exactly are you? A Chimera... taking down such a huge monster all by yourself."
"............"
Given the situation, he wouldn't just say "Well, good work" and let me go.
As I was thinking about how to escape, a group of knights that looked like there were dozens of them arrived.
"Captain!"
"Captain Shesbarno!"
Probably the knights who had gone outside the forest.
(They've all come crawling. What am I supposed to do with this?)
The situation was becoming more and more troublesome.
I was starting to feel resigned, thinking, "Maybe I should just fly away right here."
"Captain! Where is the Chimera!?"
"Is everyone safe!?"
The knights who rushed over called out to a captain named Shesbarno.
"A, ah, that is---"
"Eh? No, no. You shouldn't mess with it on your own. We just swapped this one out, you know."
Just as Shesbarno was about to answer the knights, a carefree voice was heard.
A young man walked over from the direction opposite to where the knights had arrived.
Reddish-brown hair. Dressed in ordinary, common clothing one would see in the city.
But it felt slightly off.
It was too lightly dressed to come this deep into the forest.
The young man walked with light steps to the area paved with ruins stones and crouched down there.
"Ahhh! See, I told you! It hasn't accumulated much yet!"
He was complaining to himself about something.
"Last time too, you messed around and fiddled with it. No, no. Don't play pranks."
The young man said that, stood up, and looked at the two Chimera rolling on the ground.
"Ahh, I just got this from U-chan, you know."
The young man scratched his head.
"Well, you did your job as a decoy, so it's okay."
Muttering that, he crossed his arms and tilted his head, starting to ponder something.
Mika heard that mutter, and his chest began to tremble violently.
(...Decoy? Just got it? ...The Chimera?)
A chill ran all over his body.
What is this guy!?
Mika lowered his waist and assumed a fighting stance.
The young man before his eyes was too incomprehensible.
He prepared his mind to be able to leave this place at any moment.
But the knights around him seemed not to care about the young man's words, just looking at each other.
"If it's only this little bit, Ru-chan might get mad. But, I'm not the bad guy, right?"
The young man swayed his body restlessly.
"You think so too, right?"
And thus, he spoke to Mika.
The young man seemed not to care that Mika was on guard, staring at him...
Then, he clapped his hands.
"Eh? Maybe you're a comrade?"
The young man smiled brightly.
"You, maybe you're the new Filius Dei?"
............What is he saying?
Filius Dei?
Mika made a suspicious face, but the young man seemed not to care at all.
"Te-chan wasn't it, was he? Oh, so you are it, huh?"
The conversation made no sense at all.
Or rather, Mika hadn't said a single word, yet the conversation was proceeding on its own.
What is this guy?
"Eh... Is she an acquaintance of yours, Miss?"
The captain named Shesbarno asked such a thing.
There's no way!
Look and tell!
"Hmm? Maybe it's not?"
Perhaps because Mika didn't relax his guard, the young man tilted his head.
"Filius Dei, Filius Dei. Ask Ru-chan, okay? The Son of God."
"Son of God"?
What is that?
I became even more confused, and the feeling of danger grew stronger and stronger.
"Eh? So it's not?"
It seemed the young man understood that Mika's guard had reached its maximum, so he tilted his head to the other side.
"Then, you're not the Son of God, are you?"
The air around the young man suddenly grew cold.
"It's okay to kill you, right?"
Pursing his lips as if angry, the young man started walking toward Mika.