'B-Blazing Fates!'
Nico tiredly thought. He gasped for air, his lungs working in overdrive.
The boy plunged his spear into the ground to steady himself.
Shifting his gaze slowly to his surroundings, a small smile of relief graced his face.
After reaching a certain point in his ascent, the steepness of the mountain levelled off dramatically. No longer was it as hard to climb as it had been before.
However, as if to create some sort of balance in the world, the terrain became much more rocky. So much so that Nico's progress had slowed to a crawl, carefully paying attention to the placement of his feet lest he fall.
The last stretch to the summit had been taxing, but, he had made it to successfully to the top in the end.
Now, all he had to do was find the location of the flag.
'Easier said than done,' the boy thought to himself surveying the flat summit.
For a mountain peak, it was certainly spacious, with several large boulders covering most of its expanse.
He would have to search through every one of them if he had any hopes of locating the elusive object. Nico allowed himself a moment of rest, before gritting his teeth and spurring forward.
There would be time to relax after he had won.
Methodically, the boy scanned in and around the area of each natural gibber. A storm continued to rage in the heavens above, with arcs of lightning and the furious rumble of thunder illuminating the entire world.
Droplets of rain fell intermittently from the sky, in addition to the persistent howl of the wind. Not to be discouraged by the grim weather, Nico kept up his search, his movements growing more frantic and urgent by the minute.
He idly noted that the opposite side of the summit fell sharply at one point, as if leading to the next peak, and the one after that… in a never-ending cycle of ascents.
'Where is this damn flag…'
Just as Nico's desperation peaked, his shoulders relaxed. Near the centre of the gibber plain, atop three boulders stacked on top of each other, a red flag fluttered strongly in the wind.
The maroon-eyed youth heaved a relieved sigh. A second later, however, he stiffened.
The subtle sound of snoring reached his ears.
Like a deer caught in headlights, Nico froze, alarm bells ringing loudly in his mind. He shifted stiffly, searching for the source of the noise.
And once he did, his face lost all its colour.
'That… that…' Nico stuttered to himself, unable to form a coherent thought.
Indeed, his reaction was justified, for the abomination reflected in his eyes was nothing to scoff at.
Three giant heads. A herculean body that screamed power, with striking muscles that accentuated its bulky frame. A rotting smell so potent that Nico felt he would drown in the rancid smell just from being in its vicinity.
Currently, each of the abomination's three heads had their eyes closed, seemingly in a state of slumber.
Suddenly, to Nico, the rocky plain beneath his feet transformed into a perilous minefield. One wrong step, and he would be well and truly doomed.
'Blasted Fates! Why did they have to make the end so much more difficult? As if we didn't already pour our hearts out trying to climb this damn hill!'
Turning his thoughts to the flag, Nico silently raised his head. His features knitted into a frown.
With the occasional flash from the heavens providing some illumination, he thought he witnessed a vague silhouette slowly climbing the boulder.
His suspicions turned out to be correct as he got a clearer view with the next flicker of light.
A stunned expression formed on Nico's face.
'She's crazy! She has to be!'
Nico gritted his teeth as he watched Toni slowly inch towards the flag.
An equally desperate and radical idea formed in his mind.
'Since it's come to this, none of us will get the flag!'
Using his largely drained mana reserves, Nico's body abruptly lit up like a star. His radiance was so bright, that the sleeping abomination instantly jolted awake and roared in pain.
Toni, who was in the midst of raising her hand to grab another small crevice on the boulder above her, snapped her head towards the source of light and paled.
"You FOOL!" she screamed.
The yell, however, died in her throat, for in the next moment an intense vibration forced her to hold on for dear life.
As a result of it being blinded, the towering monstrosity thrashed around with its three heads, one of which ended up striking the rock she was on. Cursing the brown-haired boy a million times, the lady let go of the large gibber and began circulating her mana.
A pale blue vapour cloud manifested beneath her feet, cushioning her fall.
As he watched Toni's dire plight, Nico smirked.
"Take that!" Nico's smug laughter echoed across the summit.
"This fool. I'm a Shaman, I can't fight that thing head-on," Toni ground her teeth, dashing to the side to escape one of the abomination's gigantic paws.
Her figure suddenly glowed with an azure hue. "Aqua videte mea mandatum!"
In response to her incantation, the falling raindrops swirled around her figure, gaining speed with each spin. Eventually a vortex of spinning water formed around the lady wearing a pointed hat.
"Prodio!"
Toni waved her wand toward the three-headed monstrosity. Under her command, the spinning droplets rushed forward with greater speed, seeking to drown the Cerberus.
Nico's laughter abruptly faded, watching in quiet awe at the woman's impressive display of power. As thunder boomed in the background, he saw the water morph into the shape of one massive bubble, completely encasing the abomination.
The Cerberus issued a deafening snarl, causing the barrier to shake intensely, as if on the verge of collapse. Toni groaned, investing more mana to keep the magic construct stable.
"Attack it, you fool!" she hissed through clenched teeth.
'Huh? Oh!'
Realising his huge error, Nico quickly moved into stance and allowed the radiance to converge along his spear. Inhaling a lungful of air, he roared:
"First Form - Horizon's Dash!"
The boy's lustrous body flickered like a mirage. Having invested a sizable portion of his remaining mana, Nico's speed doubled. Just as he reached the towering abomination, the liquid bubble surrounding it abruptly burst.
Toni's groan streamed into his ears from afar.
Setting his face in a mask of steely determination, he thrust forward, the holy power concentrated at the very tip of his golden armament. The Cerberus, recognising the plate-armoured individual as the source of its pain, bellowed, its three heads snapping forward to devour the ant.
An explosion rocked the summit, shards of rock and gusts of wind flying in all directions.
Nico cried as he felt an unstoppable force slap his body away. He flew into the air for a second, before crashing into a boulder with a violent crunch.
The brown-haired boy groaned, his vision spinning. Hazily, he noticed he had virtually lost all his remaining health. His health bar now blinked a deep, urgent red on the verge of being snuffed out.
With another groan, Nico attempted to stand through the crushing pain. It felt as if someone had sucker punched him in the gut, only multiplied fifty times over.
Breathing raggedly, he staggered, escaping the unnatural depression his body had formed.
His ears registered the fierce sound of clashing. That was good. It meant that Toni had not yet fallen.
'I-I h-have to get back there…'
Nico knew the lady couldn't last long in a direct confrontation.
Gritting his teeth as he ignored the pain, he rose to his full height and wiped the blood from his face. He could tell his body was in a sorry state.
The dented parts of his armour from the previous fights had all but been crushed now, pressing into his body and increasing the pressure on his internal injuries. Nico coughed painfully, holding his ribs.
'Blasted creature!'
Dashing toward the source of the commotion, he gripped his spear tightly and whizzed forward; the radiance which covered his figure was now very dim.
Ahead, blades of water launched from Toni's wand and peppered the unsightly behemoth, only serving to further incense it. The Demon constantly tried to close the distance between it and the shaman.
Unfortunately, the lady was just too elusive.
That didn't mean the Cerberus did not get very close. In fact, on more than one occasion, the sister of the Saintess had come incredibly close to meeting her end.
"When is that kid going to come back? Surely this isn't all he amounts to…" the lady wearing the wizard hat muttered to herself, while she shaped the surrounding water to restrict the approaching monstrosity.
Just then, a dim streak crashed into the Demon, slowing it momentarily. A smirk unconsciously bloomed on Toni's face.
Taking advantage of the opportunity given to her, she bellowed, "Aqua lancea!"
The water she had used to restrict the Cerberus suddenly morphed into a large spear, instantly impaling it.
The giant monster roared in pain, the noise shaking the whole summit, displacing quite a few rocks.
Nico stabbed his spear into the ground as he skidded to a stop. He refused to let despair claw at his mind.
Just as he resolved himself to attempt the third form, he saw a pitch-black conflagration of ghostly flames erupt from the Demon's central maw, aimed at the area where Toni stood.
It was too fast.
Too quick, too swift, too… powerful.
There was no way she could have survived that attack.
Nico's expression turned grim. With the disappearance of her shamanic powers, he was now all but dead meat.
Turning his head, he stared at what he thought to be the lady's remains. A puddle of sizzling water was all that was left.
'Huh? Shouldn't she have been burnt to a crisp?'
Nico frowned.
Following his intuition, he shifted his gaze toward the red flag.
…And sure enough, Toni stood there with an expression of smug, victorious triumph, holding the crimson banner aloft.
'H-How?!'
Just as he was about to yell at the unruly shaman, the brown-haired boy staggered.
In the next moment, his vision went dark.