In the background, I could see Cecilia lunging toward Hades, but she wouldn't make it in time. She was far too slow. Alicia was still firing her guns, but her low-caliber rounds seemed to be completely ineffective against the monster's ironbound hide.
Basically I was screwed if I decided to wait and rely on other people to save me.
"Orion!"
I hastily summoned a bow and let loose Orion's Belt. Despite me fumbling around as I struggled to my feet, Hades was too large a target for me to miss. However, even as the triple arrows slammed into Hades, they dissipated with little effect, leaving little more than smoke.
Just as ineffective as Alicia's guns, huh?
"No way…! They have no effect?!"
Alicia was exclaiming in shock when she saw that both my arrows and her magic bullets did absolutely nothing against the iron goliath. However, I continued to fire another volley of arrows, more out of sheer desperation than because I believed they would work.
The giant actually paused for a moment as he was riddled with arrows. By now I had infused more of my magical energy into my arrows and they were hitting with the force of a tank round. Projectiles that had the power to raze entire houses to debris struck Hades with greater effect, rocking him backward and causing him to stagger for a second.
Only a second.
With a bellow, Hades began to shrug my arrows off and advanced slowly but surely toward me, not even bothering to defend himself from them. It was as if he didn't consider them as anything more than minor annoyances.
Hades was more focused on finishing me off.
However, my ceaseless volley of Orion's Belt had bought me a precious few seconds to complete my summoning spells that I had begun ever since I had first seen Selina and her iron giant.
"Taurus! Aries! Capricorn!"
Three gigantic Constellation spirits materialized and descended from the heavens to slam into Hades just as he lunged at me, knocking him off his trajectory and throwing him into the dirt. Hades slammed into the ground and rolled about before leaping to his feet with an agility that belied his massive frame and leaving a massive crater. Growling fiercely, the berserk spirit straightened and faced the charging Constellation spirits, and swung his scythe, cleaving Taurus cleanly in half.
Aries and Capricorn had wisely attacked Hades from the flanks, but he merely endured the hits without taking any visible damage. Grabbing Aries by the horns with his left hand, he smashed the ram's head into the ground, burying the braying Constellation spirit underground. Kicking Capricorn aside, he sliced the goat's belly with his scythe, disposing of him in one attack. While Aries struggled to pull his head out of the ground, Hades viciously stomped on his neck, breaking it and causing the ram to disperse into magical energy.
"You've got to be kidding me."
In less than thirty seconds, Hades had eliminated three of my more powerful Constellation spirits. Powerful summoned beasts that took me minutes to cast.
Growling triumphantly, Hades turned to me, ready to finish me off before I could summon anything else.
"Your opponent is me."
The goliath was forced to turn around and deflect Cecilia's thrust. Cecilia whirled around gracefully before slashing at Hades with her sword, but the giant quickly dodged the glowing blade, and lashed out with a muscular forearm to force her back.
"Alicia! Richard! Support!"
"I understand!"
"Got it."
Even though our shots were ineffective, they could at least faze Hades and force him to pause for a second or two. In a battle of life and death between two highly skilled combatants, even a single second could spell the difference between victory and defeat. Both Alicia and I knew that we didn't necessarily need to hurt Hades, but our shots could at least create an opening or two for Cecilia to exploit.
Damn it!
Despite knowing my role, I still felt a wave of frustration sweep over me.
Alicia didn't seem affected, but I was reluctant to leave the physical close combat maneuvers to a girl. However, I was also highly aware that Cecilia's physical strength, speed and swordsmanship were light years ahead of mine, and from the earlier exchange I knew I was completely no match for Hades' brute strength. This was no time to be dwelling upon masculine pride and all that gender nonsense.
Opening up the distance between the two dueling combatants, I began gathering more magical energy into my hand.
"Orion!"
Channeling magical energy into the black and brown bow in my left hand, I took aim and readied my shots. Opposite me, Alicia did the same, increasing the power of her shots. We both pointed out weapons at Hades.
While Cecilia dueled with Hades, the two of them clashing under a shower of sparks that rained from their colliding weapons, I unleashed volleys of triple arrows.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
My glowing projectiles struck Hades' skin with little effect. Despite possessing enough firepower to blow up a house, they posed no threat to the iron goliath, achieving little more than angering him.
"Even this many Orion's Belts have no effect, huh?"
Alicia was having a similar problem. Despite her unceasing bombardment, her bullets clanged off Hades' iron-hard flesh harmlessly, dissipating into sparks that joined the pyrotechnic display produced by Cecilia and Hades' constantly clashing weapons.
Gritting my teeth, I slowed down my shots, took aim at what I was sure would be a weak point, and fired with uncanny precision.
Whoom!
Even as my latest batch of Orion's Belt slammed into Hades' temple, the three arrows stunning the goliath temporarily as they struck what would otherwise be a fatal vulnerability in any other enemy with the force of a tank round. However, to my utter disbelief, Hades recovered a second later, shrugging the damage off and continued to bear down on Cecilia.
"Guu!"
Cecilia gritted her teeth as Hades knocked her back with a forceful swing of his scythe. She tried to parry his strikes with her sword, but as expected she was slowly being overpowered. Hades, as if sensing that her defense was about to crumble, slammed her back with another jab from his scythe, sending her flying. As Cecilia gasped, trying to recover, Hades jumped, swinging his scythe down on her.
"Damn it!"
I raced forward, raising Orion. Abandoning the triple arrow Orion's Belt, I condensed all my energy into a single arrow and fired it off. The more powerful projectile actually succeeded in fazing Hades for a second, causing him to stagger.
Buoyed by my success, I unleashed a second arrow, but Hades merely bellowed and smacked it away with his scythe. He turned to glare at me, but his vision was obscured by a cloud of magic bullets that Alicia fired right into his face. Though far from hurt, Hades was temporarily blinded and he couldn't see where I was.
That was all I needed.
By the time he cleared his vision, I was already high above him. Azure magical energy began swirling around me as I switched arrow techniques again.
"Betelgeuse!"
A shower of countless arrows rained down from my bow, slamming into Hades with such force that he fell to his knees. I didn't care that the enemy was already down. With a determined yell, I continued to unceasingly unleash a bombardment of seemingly infinite arrows, the meteoric rain of magic missiles crashing into the currently immobile Hades and exploding while carving hundreds of pockmarked craters in the earth from the numerous tremendous impacts.
While Hades was engulfed and overwhelmed by the shower of meteoric arrows, Cecilia seized the chance to withdraw and catch her breath.
"Thank you…"
Before she could finish her sentence, however, a scythe swung out of the azure flames and scattered the remaining arrows. A smoking Hades tumbled out, persistently pursuing her.
…only for a single arrow to slam into his head. The explosion engulfed the gargantuan warrior, concealing him from view. Cecilia wheezed as she retreated to a safe distance. Meanwhile, I lowered my smoking bow, panting.
"That should do it," Alicia muttered as she joined us, refueling her two guns with her magical energy and watching the smoke billow around Hades with grim satisfaction. I grimaced at her cliché words.
"Oi, you shouldn't be tempting fate."
No sooner were the words out of my mouth when Hades exploded out of the smoke with a thunderous roar. Alicia and I instinctively jumped back, shielding ourselves from the flying debris and shrapnel, while Cecilia merely cut through them with a single swing of her sword. To our amazement, we watched as Hades staggered out, his pockmarked and ravaged skin – which was both torn apart by broken concrete and charred by my arrow – began regenerating right before our eyes.
"Is that thing immortal?" I demanded angrily, raising my bow in frustration.
Cecilia shook her head as she took a step forward, remaining calm as she leveled her sword at our enemy. "I don't think so. If we deal enough damage to him, we should be able to overwhelm his healing ability."
"That's right…"
Healing depended on one's magical energy. As long as we exhausted our opponent's energy, he wouldn't be able to regenerate any further.
"There is still that girl," Alicia muttered darkly, casting a glare in Selina's direction. That was right. In the fierce battle against Hades, I had almost forgotten about her
I cast a nervous glance at a carefree Selina, who up till now she hadn't lifted even a single finger to help her comrade. That alone showed how confident she was in Hades' strength.
"…if we defeat the summoner, the summoned spirit will also be vanquished," I whispered, remembering one of the most important rules I was taught as a summoner.
"Do you think she is that easy to defeat? She's an assassin. I'm sure she has countermeasures of her own." Cecilia frowned.
Unfortunately, we weren't given any time to debate the topic. By now Hades had fully recovered and was charging at Cecilia, who met him squarely with her raised sword. The two weapons collided, sparks brilliantly flying as they exchanged powerful blows with each other. Cecilia met Hades blow for blow, her steely eyes following his every movement and allowing her to counter each time.
Alicia and I continued to fire with our ranged weapons from the flanks in hopes of stunning Hades or creating openings for Cecilia, but as with earlier, the berserk giant ignored them totally, his skin merely smoking slightly from the impact.
"We need more effective spells," I muttered under my breath.
"Is it my imagination, or is that giant spirit getting stronger?" Alicia asked, her voice dripping in disbelief. "Our attacks appear to be less effective than before."
"…you're right!" I couldn't believe I missed that. Before I could think further on it, Cecilia was blown back by a particularly powerful blow, but she steadied herself and readjusted her stance.
"This summoned spirit must originate from a legendary hero of unparalleled renown. His combat techniques are flawless."
I gulped at that. "So how do we defeat him?"
Cecilia spared me a millisecond's glance, her eyes cold and resigned. Her words, if possible, were even more chilling.
"…I don't know if we can."