Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 191

Chapter 191: The Final Showdown with the Battle Axe Wielder

 

As Arisa and Ritter’s battle comes to an end, another fight is reaching its climax.

 

With Kuro unable to fight effectively, she’s moved back to Laura’s position, while Sora takes the frontline, supported by Inori and the slime, Sue-chan, providing cover fire.

 

However, the enemy is armored, making it hard to inflict real damage with arrows or acid attacks.

 

The key will be close-combat attacks using armor-piercing skills.

 

With attack power, defense, and speed buffs active, Sora, surrounded by particles of light in three colors, closes in on Philly.

 

“Haah!”

 

Philly’s double strike with his battle axe clashes with Sora’s dual horizontal slash, ?Dual Nail?, from her one-handed sword, a moment later.

 

The skill buffs boost Sora’s power, but Philly’s combined Level 150 stats and skill make his attack both strong and heavy.

 

By timing her skill slightly late, Sora barely manages to alter Philly’s attack trajectory, repeating this maneuver.

 

“Haha! You’re holding out with little tricks, but how long can you keep this up?” Philly taunts.

 

Philly’s observation is accurate.

 

This approach will only wear Sora down, no matter how many times she swings her sword.

 

Time passing works against her.

 

However, that’s only if it’s a one-on-one fight between Sora and Philly.

 

Clutching her ?Silver Magic Sword? tightly and skillfully blocking Philly’s oncoming battle axe, Sora times her approach and shouts sharply, “Inori!”

 

“Against a strong foe like you, allow me to show off our alchemy and bow combo!”

 

“What!?”

 

Inori unleashes her swiftest attack, ?Sonic Arrow?. Philly reflexively takes it on his armor, only to be blasted back by the explosion on impact.

 

Thanks to his armor, his HP takes no visible damage despite the close-range blast.

 

Sora rushes in with a dash skill, twisting her body and activating the armor-piercing thrust skill, ?Disable Thrust?.

 

“Guh!?”

 

Philly’s HP drops by about 30% as Sora’s sharp thrust hits her side.

 

Resisting the urge to press her advantage, Sora pulls back with a backstep to get out of range, but Philly immediately retaliates, charging after her with ?Sonic Axe?.

 

Sue-chan, following Laura’s instructions, intercepts Philly, targeting the side of the battle axe with her acid shot, forcefully diverting its swing.

 

Dodging the battle axe with a simple step, Sora plants her foot firmly, activating ?Skill United?.

 

Combining the defense-nullifying ?Guard Break? and the single strong attack ?Vertical Slash?, she launches a sharp upward strike from below, carving a vertical line across Philly’s body.

 

“No way… This one ignores my armor’s defense too?”

 

With the total damage now at 60%, Philly’s HP is down to the remaining 40%.

 

Realizing the danger, Philly activates a dash skill to regain his stance, leaping back to create distance.

 

If Sora were to chase Philly down here, there would be a risk of losing support from the rear.

 

She suppresses her urge to charge forward, staying firmly in place. Holding her sword with caution, she remains prepared for any move the enemy might make.

 

Philly glances at the defeated captain lying on the ground, then grins, seemingly enjoying the fact that his ally has lost.

 

“Strong! Fighting adventurers like you is indeed exhilarating!”

 

Golden particles of light explode from Philly’s body as he readies his battle axe.

 

Sora identifies the skill through ?Insight? and focuses on the displayed skill name: ?Overdrive?.

 

A skill from the knight category, ?Overdrive? temporarily boosts all stats but, once the effect wears off, leaves the user with all stats halved and in a forced stun.

 

So, it’s Philly’s trump card. With Arisa’s partner down, he must be aiming to finish this fight quickly before she recovers.

 

Sora warns her teammates of the change and stays on high alert.

 

Philly’s body tenses as he presses down with his legs and, in the next moment, disappears from view.

 

“What—?!”

 

“Wh-Where did he go?!”

 

“Inori, above!”

 

Sora, the only one with a ?Perception? skill, keeps track of Philly’s location and alerts his team.

 

Looking up, they spot the large knight with his battle axe descending on them.

 

“I’ll shoot him down!”

 

Inori draws her bow. She uses ?Blast Arrow?, a powerful skill from the bow category.

 

The arrow, a brilliant blue flash, is drawn to its limit and released, hitting the falling enemy precisely, generating a shockwave on impact.

 

The arrow’s special effects trigger a much larger explosion than usual, engulfing Philly.

 

It would be a relief if this were enough to finish him off, but unfortunately, Sora’s ?Perception? confirms that the enemy is still standing.

 

From the explosion, a flying slash attack, ?Angriff Fliegen?, streaks toward Inori, hitting her directly.

 

“Gah—!”

 

“Inori-sama!”

 

Thanks to the potion she drank beforehand, which fortified her defenses, her HP drops to only 20% before stabilizing.

 

However, the heavy damage temporarily stuns her.

 

As Laura catches the falling Inori, the enemy emerges from the explosion, barely injured, his HP slightly reduced.

 

Sora’s ?Insight? skill detects the reason behind this surprising resilience.

 

—Ah, I see. Just before taking the arrow, he must have used the knight’s unique defense skill, ?Phalanx?, to reduce incoming damage by half.

 

However, ?Phalanx? is a powerful skill with a long cooldown. He won’t be able to use it again in this battle.

 

Realizing this was her chance, Sora readied her sword and ran toward the enemy, aiming for the moment Philly landed.

 

“Haha, I knew you’d come for me!”

 

Seeing the silver swordswoman approach, Philly laughed and raised his battle axe high, bringing it down toward the ground with force.

 

It was ?Earthquake Axe?, a special battle axe skill that causes a shockwave from the point of impact, inflicting a brief stun on all players and monsters nearby.

 

Sora shouted, “A stun attack is coming! Jump at the right moment!”

 

Arisa, Kuro, and Sue managed to react, but Laura, who was supporting Inori, was too slow and was hit by the shockwave.

 

Philly seized the moment Sora landed, charging forward with a rush skill.

 

“I’ve got you now, silver enchanter!”

 

At that moment, Sora activated her hidden skill, ?Perfect Protect Call?, blocking the descending battle axe with her left arm.

 

A clash ensued as the heaviest attack skill met the one-time invincibility skill head-on.

 

Philly’s eyes widened in shock.

 

“A higher-tier invincibility skill than ?Phalanx?, huh? But it was foolish to block barehanded!”

 

“What?!”

 

Despite the invincibility, Philly pushed forward, undeterred. Sora noticed her HP decreasing, even with the invincibility skill in place.

 

“My axe has a hidden effect that inflicts a bleeding debuff with every strike. It’s an extra skill even ?Insight? can’t reveal!”

 

“No way…”

 

Even an invincibility skill couldn’t prevent debuff damage. Sora realized she’d be worn down and defeated at this rate. Just then, Sue sprayed a fast-dissolving liquid at the enemy’s head.

 

“You think a little trick like that will slow my attack—”

 

“You totally forgot about me.”

 

Using the movement skill ?Blink Step?, Kuro appeared beside Philly and activated ?Dragon Palm?, a martial artist skill that bypasses armor.

 

She delivered a powerful blow to his armored side.

 

“Gah!”

 

Philly, however, managed to withstand the hit by activating his superior skill, ?Guts?, withstanding it just before his HP dropped to 10%. He countered with a sharp kick, which Kuro blocked by crossing her arms, sliding back a few meters.

 

All of this happened in a fraction of a second.

 

Taking advantage of the brief pause, Sora freed herself from the battle axe. Seeing this as her last chance, she prepared her sword.

 

Her best partner had given her this opportunity, and she wouldn’t let it slip away.

 

“This is the end!”

 

With her paralyzed left arm hanging limp, Sora held her sword in her right. It responded to her will, emitting a bright golden skill effect.

 

The cooldown on her armor-piercing skill hadn’t yet ended, so she chose the powerful skill ?Rage Slant?, combined with ?Burst Charge? to amplify the attack after a brief charge.

 

—?Burst Slant?.

 

Even with one arm immobile, Sora’s right side was enough. With a large step forward, she swung her gleaming sword in an arc from lower right to upper left.

 

A golden slash carved through Philly, and his remaining HP dropped to zero.