Doran hurried onto the ship. His back disappearing into a doorway on the side of the ship,
The moment his back entered the monstrous ship Kotori heard a large thud next to them.
Hatake had finally caught up to them.
"Why can't we get on this ship!" Kotori said
"It's not my ship" Fawks said
"For now, hold off Hatake until they arrive," He said.
[Hold off! This guy?]
Kotori still had quite a bit of time before her stat buff would run out. The problem was making sure not to get rolled by Hatake.
Umi shot out some water blades that harmlessly bounced off Hatake's metal armor.
[Manatanium?] Kotori thought. It seemed like the metal that comprised Hatake's armor was strong than normal Magic Steel.
Amelie walked forward. As their two forward combatants, she would be the one to take on Hatake's blows.
Hatake seemed bored. As if he was playing with them.
"Mou, you guys are so boring." He said flicking his eyes between the members of Kotori's party.
Hatake's pulled out the large shield that hung on his back. It was a kite shaped shield that was 2/3rds as tall as Hatake was. Despite, the size of the shield he was able to hold it with just his left arm. He pulled a small mace that hung on the right of his belt and adopted a defensive stance.
Kotori and her group could no longer retreat. The other end of the docks was the ocean after all.
"Stand behind us" She told Fawk and Yukio.
Hatake swung his mace toward Amelie who wisely moved out of the way. She was unlikely to block it with just her sword.
In the small gap in his defense, Layla lunged into the punch him, her fists ablaze with mana.
Amelie seemed to sense something
"Layla no!" She yelled out
Just before Layla was about to lunge in she backed off and the large kite shield came crashing down like a guillotine in the place where Layla's neck would've been. Layla paled in response to nearly being decapitated.
Hatake was grinning.
"Aww, almost had the fox girl!"
[He's strong] Kotor thought. Not only, was Hatake a strong fighter he also had an excellent sense of fighting. He was a grizzled adventuring veteran, after all, no one could get strong unless they were smart, and knew how to fight.
Hatake was creating fake gaps in his defense to bait Kotori's party in. It was difficult, they had to assess whether a hole in his guard was created intentionally or rather a bait for them to attack into.
[This is going to be difficult to deal with] Kotori thought.
Hatake was like a crumbling brick wall. Even if they manage to break down the wall they weren't sure if the wall would come crashing down on them.
[For now, we have to stall] Kotori thought.
A long drawn-out fight began. Hatake was unable to land a hit on either of them but they could only desperately fight. The few blows that landed only glanced off Hatake.
Hatake seemed to be enjoying himself, a manic smile was creeping upon his face.
"BWAHAHA! HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN, COME! SPLINTER YOUR BONES AGAINST THE ROOK OF THE KING!" He suddenly shouted
Hatake fought with a renewed vigor pushing back all of Kotori's party.
It was still impossible to land a blow on him. Although Hatake was "slow" with a low agility stat he had an amazing perception. Hatake may not be able to ward off a sudden strike but he was able to correctly predict what movements Kotori's party was about to do. Despite being surround by 5 people he had no trouble dealing with any of them, and was still able to occasionally parry a blow, while still pushing them back.
[A perfect tank player] Kotori thought in bemused frustration. Hatake was able to make up slow speed with perfect control and understanding of the battlefield.
[We have to switch strategies.] Kotori thought as Hatake push away Shu with his shield while nearly braining Amelie with his mace.
"Move back!" Kotori shouted.
Everybody from Kotori's party instantly leaped behind her.
[Hikari-Chan I need some help] Kotori could feel the tiara grumble as if it was annoyed at being disturbed.
Two pieces of metal popped out from the Tiara and morphed into 2 MP5s in Kotori's hands.
She pulled the trigger shooting a storm of bullets onto Hatake.
Hatake raised his shield in response to the heavy downpour bullets.
The loud sound of manatanium bullets echoing against the shield filled the dockyard.
The bullets would automatically fly up and return to the weapon in Kotori's hand once they shot out and hit their target.
Kotori could feel the mana in Hikaru getting lower. She could only put so much mana in Hikari and shooting this much manatanium in rapid-fire would make it difficult to maintain.
By her calculations, she could only suppress Hatake for another 10 minutes before Hikari ran out of bullets.