“Lord Noah, is there a problem?”
“Uh, y-yes…?! N-no—! Hu-heeek…”
I made a weird noise at Ser’s sudden call…
“Lady Noah, since we’re in the front line, it’s best to ask if you don’t understand something. Got it?”
“Ugh… y-yes, yes…”
I hate Ser… always so observant for no reason…
“Next, we’ll be practicing projectile shooting, and with Lady Rubia and Ser here, there shouldn’t be any problems. You two should handle it easily.”
Hermila’s branches gracefully swished swish-swish, drawing a picture.
A horse’s head, leaves, the sun, the Great Sword, a fist.
“I was thinking earlier, Lady Hermila fights barehanded without any weapons, right?”
“Yes, after going through various events, I realized my body is the only thing I can trust. Hehe.”
Then, arrows were drawn in every direction swoosh-swoosh.
“After we enter and take a hit, that will be our position. The most important role here is definitely Lady Rubia. Please keep an eye on the front line’s condition.”
A Y-shaped position.
Left side is Great Sword, right side is fist, center is the sun, and the tip is leaves.
“With this formation, we’ll gradually retreat, luring Valoran out of the mainland. If we keep fighting in a tight spot, there will be too many variables due to the terrain, so we need to get to the widest central plaza in Cartia.”
Swish-swish
The cute drawings became all wobbly.
“That’s 20 minutes in. If we come out without any trouble by then… we’ll have to rely on each other’s senses. There are lots of variables—”
Hermila trailed off, glancing at me.
“We’ve never conducted a subjugation with this group.”
Then Ser’s gaze was fixed on me.
Rubia’s gaze followed suit.
“Hic—”
“Pffft… Did I surprise you?”
Rubia, trying hard to hold back laughter, patted my back.
“Ah, n-no, hic… I’m not surprised… sniff… Ugh…”
Not stopping at all, I took a deep breath.
“Haaah!…”
I started to hold it in.
This should stop soon, right…?
“Uh-hum… Yes, I said we should do our best from here on out, but let me point out a few attacks to be careful of.”
Hermila quickly erased her smile and started to draw lines on the horse head.
“Based on the abilities I’ve seen, these aren’t guarantees. They could be entirely different when experienced in reality, so just keep it in mind.”
“Has there been no subjugation of Valoran in the future you’ve seen, Lady Hermila?”
“There has been.”
“And yet you’re not sure?”
“Yes.”
Hermila’s voice sank.
“I had hundreds of comrades who ‘accidentally’ died because I believed too blindly in my foresight. Thousands betrayed me out of suspicion that I deceived them. So, I hope you all just take this as reference.”
A heavy silence permeated the air.
“Hic—”
Through all this, my hiccups never stopped.
So embarrassing…
“Pffft… Aha! Thanks to you, Lady Noah, the heavy atmosphere almost lifted. Thank you.”
“D-don’t tease me, hic… Euw…!”
“I’m not teasing. Before a tough battle, we must try to be as cheerful as possible. Adventurers don’t drown themselves in alcohol for no reason!”
With the same gentle smile as before, Hermila reached out to my head, let out a small sigh, then pulled her hand back.
“Uh-hum… Shall we start again?”
With a business-like smile, she picked up a branch.
“You all need to memorize the attacks I’ll be discussing from now on. If we had more people, we could have responded right away, but there’s only the four of us now. Especially you, Lady Noah. You must memorize everything, got it?”
“Yes, ma’am…!”
I’m totally confident.
Even if I can’t remember much, I can handle the boss patterns easily.
And… I don’t even know yet, but it could be just like the game.
“Alright. Here, the newly drawn circle is the central plaza. Have you ever been to the central plaza?”
“I think I went once about four years ago.”
“I’ve passed by a lot on the way with Noah.”
…Did I?
“Well, that’s good to hear. Now, can you recognize this?”
Hermila pointed to her drawing with a proud expression.
But… um…
“It looks like a drawing done by someone with shaking hands.”
“Does it look strange, Lady Hermila?”
“U-uh, do you… think so?”
“W-well… let’s see…”
Cautiously pointing to the somewhat neat drawing, I cautiously opened my mouth.
“T-this… this is a magical explosion, right…? Ah, I can recognize it…”
“That was a footprint from earlier…”
“…Gasp.”
“Since I already drew it… let’s just leave it be, everyone. First of all, the swirling shape—“
Sighing softly, Hermila continued to explain with her drawings.
As she did,
The explanations coming from Hermila began to make me uneasy.
Everything about phase one Valoran I knew from the game was exactly the same.
Of course, it wouldn’t move mechanically like it did in the game, but the patterns of those murderous attacks were all the same.
Was Carpen like that too…?
Hmm… For now, the distinction between phase one and two was clear.
The movements of the main body had some premonitory actions similar to those in the game.
But I didn’t get the same feeling as the game.
It felt a bit more alive… that kind of feeling.
“If it hits, that’s when Valoran will dismount from the horse… Noah?”
Then what about Kalt?
Looking back now, Kalt resembled the game a lot.
At least phase one… but phase two was almost identical.
The way to kill him felt identical to the game too.
I would’ve felt more confident if I knew how Tylant was, but I had no recollection of Tylant…
“Lady Noah, are you listening properly?”
It’s still too early to be sure.
Phase two can still be entirely different.
So, let’s focus again…
Thwap!
“Hah?!”
I immediately gripped the hilt of the Great Sword.
Then, Hermila’s finger, which had been extended toward my head, was drawn taut.
“Ow… that hurts… Rubia… can you make it less painful… it’s not, it’s not bleeding, right…?”
“Does it hurt a lot? Thankfully, it’s not bleeding… Wait, Hermila! Why are you hitting so hard? You hit it so hard it sounds like a watermelon cracking open. Don’t you think that’s enough? I mean, come on, we could do without hitting the head…”
“Uuuh…? Um…”
Rubia got mad for me, but…
Why do I feel so bad…?
“I-I didn’t mean to hit that hard… Um, I’m sorry. So, Lady Noah, how much did you hear?”
“I-I heard it all…”
Hermila squinted in confusion and tilted her head.
“Then, what attack is this?”
“A whirlpool made of magical energy…”
“What about this?”
“A magical explosion…”
“Really… You were listening to everything?”
Nods—
“That’s strange… but it seems you know everything, so let’s move on. The verification… can be done at the end.”
Hermila, still wearing a sour face, erased all her drawings and began a new one.
This time, it was a horse holding a Great Sword.
“As we inflict damage with our attacks, a horse will be absorbed into Valoran’s body, creating a massive shockwave. The area around the central plaza will be obliterated, but we don’t care. Because we have Lady Rubia and Sir Ser with us.”
O… oh… this is phase two.
Actually, it’s Valoran screaming rather than a shockwave.
But in reality, it could feel like a shockwave.
“When Valoran absorbs the horse, although his movement speed decreases, he will aggressively use magic. The most annoying spell is… teleportation.”
Swish-swish
The Great Sword moved next to the sun.
The fist moved next to the leaves.
“From this point, we’ll stick close to Lady Rubia and Sir Ser. You’ll stick with Lady Rubia, and I’ll go with Sir Ser.”
O… right.
The video guide I had seen also suggested that the close-range fighters should retreat to protect the long-range fighters, just like Hermila mentioned.
“Oh, is that why you told me to create a barrier? Because of teleportation?”
“Well, sort of, but… the thing is, it’s a bit ambiguous to call it teleportation. I don’t know if it’s what Valoran intends, but in the scenes I saw… he always moved next to a person.”
Hermila’s words were true.
Valoran’s teleportation technique was a randomness mechanic that targeted a random player.
That’s why I found phase two of Valoran the easiest.
I was always alone…
“But it’s best to prepare just in case. Anyway, Valoran’s teleportation doesn’t have a warning. As soon as you lose sight of him, you must evade immediately. But also, if everyone suddenly runs away in the opposite direction, it could complicate things, so we need to match our steps.”
“Isn’t it okay to take the hit instead of dodging?”
“That would be better, but the risk becomes too great. Normally, I would have responded by taking the hit, but since we’re short on numbers, we must endure as much as possible. The subjugation team we stationed in Ursphere will be on their way.”
“I understand.”
Ser nodded, tipping his coffee cup.
“Alright… this brings us to the fifth hour of my plan. If we fight for about three to five more hours without incident, accumulating damage…”
Hermila paused, erasing the circle drawn on the ground.
“Valoran will unfurl its wings behind him. From this point, we will head outside the central plaza and engage in urban combat.”
Clack— Ser set his coffee cup down, making a peculiar expression.
“From this point on, we will be utilizing Lady Rubia’s fame and Sir Ser’s authority.”
Rubia’s face contorted.
“We need a decoy.”
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