With a reliable shield behind them, Bony and the black and gold skeleton were prepared to go all out to stop the black beast.
The black and gold skeleton used ultimate Dark Magic, Demon's Temptation. With it, normally the skin would darken, the hair would become white and eyes would be red, but as a skeleton all it got was a pair of strange, white bat wings. Furthermore, with every clash it would lose mana so the skeleton didn't plan on using this power, but since they were approaching the finale it decided to be a little more flashy.
"Ha!"
Demon's Temptation was the ultimate spell of Dark Magic that boosted both the user's physical and magical capabilities. It couldn't allow the skeleton to surpass the limit, but it did provide enough extra power to make fighting the black beast easier.
While the black and gold skeleton rushed towards the black beast, Bony carried out its own power-up. It focused on the big muscles created via the Hulk skill, and then compressed them until he was only as big as the average human.
Bony looked less intimidating, but it was sure that it had gotten stronger. The only problem was that keeping this form took up a lot of energy, but it was suitable for the current situation.
If it had stuck to its previous body then it would only be able to watch the fight in longing, but in this slender Hulk form it was able to keep up.
Just like before, the two cooperated beautifully to face the black beast. However, the black beast's attacks were much stronger now that it had sensed a threat. The two skeletons were barely able to stand on even ground with it, but the fact that they were being drained of their magic with every strike was still true.
If nothing changed the black beast's victory was already assured, but it was much anxious than they were.
"Gerrr!!!"
In sync with its desperate roar, the range of its magic-eating power expanded, capturing the two skeletons inside and severely weakening them.
"Shit!"
Without their magic, the two were easily knocked away by a swing of the black beast's claw. Jeanne immediately opened her barrier to protect them from any further attacks, but now her barrier was the only thing stopping the black beast.
"Kuh, sorry Missy. I guess I made a fool of myself there."
"Yes, you did. But it's fine. You've bought enough time."
Soon after the skeletons were knocked back, Kaili opened her eyes and at the same time, a massive figure appeared behind her. It was a faint image of the extremely muscular upper body of a man outlined by clear green, and hovering near his ear was the baby sylph that Kaili had summoned before.
Jeanne was surprised when she saw the firm resolve in Kaili's eyes, proud yet also sad.
'Well done. Thank you, Kaili.'
The black beast released a low growl when the intangible green man appeared, but it quickly shook off its fear and pounced. In response, Kaili and the green man slowly raised their right hands.
"That's enough."
Then, an emerald spear shot through the black beast and the castle.
***
Unaware of the damages that my castle was incurring, I focused on my battle against this fallen angel. It sounded like a joke but it felt very suitable for my opponent, especially when I got a quick peek at their status.
[Ryan Celeste
Race: False Nightwalker
Strength: 999
Agility: 999
Dexterity: 999
Defence: 999
Skills: Light Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Swordsmanship (level 7) (Rare) | Etiquette (Common) | Wind Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Lightning Magic (level 9) (Special)...
Titles: Holy Knight | Summit of Dexterity | Demon Slayer...]
Seriously, isn't it unfair to have a title like Holy Knight when you're a vampire? Well, since there's that 'false' part he probably has his own story.
At first I wondered how Lia missed a bigshot like this, but after checking his status I could understand why and who he was.
'A demon that specializes in killing demons, I didn't think that rumour would be true to this extent.'
I wasn't actually a demon so he shouldn't have been effective against me, but the description of the Demon Slayer title allowed him to seal that loophole.
[Demon Slayer
An expert in handling demonkind. All demons feel fear when confronting those with this title.
All stats +20 against demons.
Demons and those affiliated with them will be suppressed when facing the holder of this title.]
Thankfully the Holy Knight title didn't help much in combat, but the fact that I did indeed feel a little weaker was terrifying since this wasn't an enemy I could go easy on.
'And he's not making it easy for me to escape either.'
While he rained down spears of light, I evaded or punched them away with my dark-skinned fists. When I found an opportunity, I used Blink to kick him, but he did the same to escape. This continued to happen so we were stuck in a stalemate. I thought he would be more aggressive since there was a chance that the next curse could kill us, but he seemed to be planning on a long fight.
Our magic capacities were similar so this shouldn't have been a good idea, but not only was he using less mana to resist the curses, the suppression I felt put me at a disadvantage.
I didn't like revealing my card first, but in this case I had no choice. I dispelled my ultimate Dark Magic spell and instead drew upon the power of my bloodline to use nature magic.
"Go."
Without lifting a finger, I watched as tree roots and branches stretched to strike him. With his speed, it was simple for him to evade but I wasn't blindly attacking either. With every motion that he was forced to make, my cage came closer to completion.
Naturally he tried to attack me as I cornered him, but under my control the trees became an impenetrable defence. He might be able to sever the roots that tried to restrict his limbs, but these trunks would instantly heal any scratches he managed to land on them.
'Kukuku, I could get used to a fight like this.'
Tired of being chased by the forest itself, he flew higher. I doubted that he was able to fly high enough to escape the effect of the curses, but perhaps he thought that he would be able to use his height advantage to overcome my power as a kin of a forest dragon.
'Well, it works for me.'
"Bloom."
Suddenly, thick white threads appeared above him and joined to form a dome-shaped prison that sealed a mile radius around us. His first response was to fire two spears of light at the white threads, but the spears shattered instantly.
Before he could attack again, blue petals rose from the ground and filled the air. The shining assassin didn't take any action against these petals despite how suspicious they looked. He likely thought that no poison could affect him in his angel form, and I was glad for that.
This would have been much easier if I could cast the ultimate spell of Nature Magic, but that would only work if I had complete control of the forest, and if it wasn't for my race I doubted that I would even be able to control it to this extent.
Even so, the power I could draw out from the forest was enough. This I confirmed when the assassin's light flickered and he clumsily lowered in altitude. He held his head and exuded a stronger light, but that only lasted for a few moments.
Thanks to the petals that absorbed mana like sunlight and the white thread dome that concentrated the power of the curses in this area, he eventually fell powerlessly to the ground. However, just because I caused this didn't mean I was immune to the effects, I was only safe due to the red petal that I was clutching in my hand.
With nature magic I could mix and match the unique traits of plants to create flowers that could cause genocide, so naturally I had to have countermeasures for all of my combinations.
"Checkmate."
On his knees in front of me, this assassin was no different from the others now that he had lost his light. Well, I suppose his face was just, a lot better than theirs but his handsomeness wouldn't shake my heart.
I raised my left hand and signalled a massive root to slam down on him. I wanted this to be the end but at the last minute he summoned a barrier so the root only knocked him away instead.
I watched him roll towards the oddly normal tree with a sigh while I prepared for the next attack. However, my plans were thrown to the garbage bin when I saw him roll into the tree. Yes, into.
"...Huh?"