I tried blasting it with magic, but the armor’s Magic Resistance dissipated my spells into nothing. Together with Gaudartha’s high physical resistance, his armor made him a mobile fortress.
“Haaa! Wave Blast!”
Gaudartha used his Class Skill up close this time. It produced a powerful burst of energy, inflicting damage to everything in his vicinity. This simple and terrifying move allowed him to knock his enemies off-balance and deal a significant amount of damage. At a longer range, it could even be used as an emergency barrier. Physical Immunity didn’t completely block it, either, since it was a mixture of physical and magical damage.
I managed to get a barrier up in time, but we didn’t escape unscathed. Gaudartha was waiting for this kind of deadlock to chip away at Fran’s health. He knew that even if she healed the damage, she would suffer a stamina deficit. A battle of attrition was in his favor.
It was said that a lion uses all its power to hunt a rabbit, and that was how Gaudartha was handling this battle. Although aware of his advantage over Fran, he handled her with the seriousness of an enemy at war, and we were definitely losing more health and mana than him. If we let Gaudartha have his way, it was only a matter of time before Fran made a mistake.
Time to turn this around!
Jet!
“Grrr!”
“Harumph! So you can use summons, as well! Don’t assume a helping hand will be enough to overcome my defenses!”
I knew that. Jet was strong, but his attacks were of the fast and stealthy kind. We had another reason for bringing him out.
Now’s our chance, Fran! It’s time to drain his mana, just like we planned!
Hm!
Mana Drain was the skill I had just leveled up. I only had enough to get it to Level 9, but it was more than enough to make a difference. Our fight with Colbert made it clear that Physical Immunity didn’t make us invincible. It couldn’t nullify magical attacks, and the resource drain was almost unbearable. Mana Drain was our solution to this problem. Draining mana from our opponent helped us recover our own, while taking away his attack power at the same time.
We didn’t level it up during the match with Colbert because we didn’t know how much of a difference it would make. It was only at Level 3 then, and I couldn’t risk putting points into a skill that could be a dead end. After all, we still had another trick up our sleeve. Our doubts were cleared after consulting Dias and Lumina. Both confirmed that Mana Drain was a dangerous skill, given a high enough level. Dangerous enough to cause Lumina concern, and to give Dias shivers as he recounted an episode from his early years. Very good signs, indeed.
Gaudartha’s mana was already being drained. He was spending more on recovery to deal with Jet’s flurry of attacks. I had switched my Elemental Blade to Shadow to stack up the drain effect. We weren’t dealing much damage, but that was all right. Our immediate goal was to dry up his mana. We were already draining it fast enough to outpace his armor’s Mana Regeneration. Eventually, Gaudartha felt the effects.
Reduce his mana pool enough, and the skill which kept him Awakened should deactivate. At that point, we could go in for the kill.
“Hm? What the…?!” It didn’t seem like he realized I was the source of his disappearing mana. Even so, the large man kept his cool and changed his strategy accordingly. “Rooooargh!”
Gaudartha took a sudden leap forward, seemingly in desperation. He abandoned his defensive posture and made a wild attempt to squash Fran with the weight of his body. A direct hit would leave her smeared on the floor, but the attack was far too predictable.
However, Gaudartha wasn’t targeting Fran to begin with.
“Ground Shaker!”
He was targeting the ring itself.
Boooom!
Gaudartha slammed his axe into the center of the ring, creating a fissure which spiderwebbed out to its edges. A miniature earthquake followed, and the tremors threw Fran and Jet off balance.
“Hrmph!”
“Arf?”
The quake must’ve been about a seven on the Richter Scale. As agile as Fran was, she was having trouble holding her ground.
He was targeting the arena?!
Before I could finish my thought, the greataxe—which had been lodged in the ground mere moments ago—almost made contact with Fran’s midsection. I didn’t think Gaudartha could move that fast. He must’ve used one of his other skills along with Heightened Reflexes. I accelerated myself with Timespace Magic and took over. Fran was still caught up in the aftershocks of the earthquake.
Short Jump!
I got us out of there as fast as I could.
“Urgh…”
Greater Heal! Greater Heal! Greater Heal!
The end of the fight with Colbert was coming back to haunt us. Fran’s stomach was slashed open, blood and guts pouring out of the gaping wound. She coughed up blood and bile, and I was amazed that she hadn’t died of shock.
Fran!
“I-I’m fine…ack.”
She managed to recover just before Cradle of Time could activate. She spat out the remaining blood and staggered to her feet, but her opponent was faster than her.
“Urraaaagh!”
We almost cut your head off, how are you still okay?!
Gaudartha advanced toward us. His large body showed no signs of slowing down.
It’s our turn now!
Fran was doing pretty well after her near-evisceration. In fact, her near-death experience seemed to have motivated her further. Gaudartha took his greataxe and slammed it to the ground.
“Ground Shaker!”
Again?! But we had seen this trick before. Gaudartha’s follow-up attack was fast, but Ground Shaker itself had a long startup. It gave us enough time to use Physical Immunity.
“Hrngh!”
Gaudartha followed up Ground Shaker with another horizontal slash. He pulled it off smoothly, like he had rehearsed this combo a
