Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 96

Chapter 31: Countdown 1

“Uru!”

Along the way, I heard the sound of explosion and saw a pillar of fire twice, I knew in my head that it must be the effect of the holy flame arrow, but I couldn’t help but feel worried.
While Uru’s safety and the time limit making my heart almost burn out, I managed to knock down the monsters, and Regulus and I finally reach the front of the church where Zephyrus is.
Then I saw Zephyrus, who flew in the sky and fired intermittent wind magic while his whole body was rotting and burned??the burns were probably caused by Uru?? like an undead due to being affected by a very thick miasma, and Uru, who was facing him below.
Uru’s clothes are a little tattered, but her movements still are sharp. It looks like she didn’t have any serious injuries… Thank goodness. I was so relieved that I almost lost strength in my knees, but the actual battle was just beginning. I can’t relax now.
I call out Uru when the duel between a person and a dragon was interrupted.

“Rion! Is Regulus safe as well?”

While focusing her attention to above, Uru glanced at me and responded. She doesn’t seem to be tired and still have room to spare. As expected.

“It doesn’t seem that it’s a battle that I can butt in. Rion, please go to nee-san’s side. I’ll take down the monsters that are left around.”

“… Yeah, please. And be careful of the wind.”

“Ahh.”

Zephyrus looks like he’s covered in wounds and dizzy, but he’s still in the air. Regulus wouldn’t be able to do anything about him like that. Judging that by himself, he volunteered to exterminate the monsters that remained on the ground so that we could concentrate on Zephyrus.
Even though we’ve taken countermeasures, it’s a little worrisome to let him act alone in a place full of miasma… But considering his spirit and above all, the lack of time, I decided to leave it to him.

I slowly approached Uru… And stopped a little short of her so as not to get too close.
Zephyrus is clearly aware of me, but he is most wary of Uru. If I got too close, at best I might just get caught up his attacks, and at worst I might drag Uru’s feet.

“Uru, what’s the situation?”

“I made him eat two holy flames and shaved off about half of his miasma. Other than that, I made him use a bit of his strength and mana.”

Zephyrus is still wrapped in a dense miasma. And that’s just half…!?

“He flew into the sky and I couldn’t get to the point of finishing him off… I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no, that’s more than enough!”

It seems that my shivering and frowning was taken in a different sense. I immediately denied that.
Rather, if Uru hadn’t gone ahead and reduced the miasma, it would surely have been too late. When I think about it, I can’t thank her enough.

While offsetting the basic wind bullets and wind arrows that are good at breaking through one point with throwing stones??…… She really can be offset them with just stones, as always her strength is amazing …… No, is it the control that can accurately hit the center point of the magic that is amazing? Either way, I can only say that it’s amazing?? The stones are being cut by the wind blades with high damage power that are suddenly mixed in the normal wind bullets, but she moves her body slightly to avoid them with minimal movements, and this time Uru asks me.

“So, as you can see, he’s on the verge of death… But letting him die like this… It’s a bad idea, right?”

“… Yeah, it’s no good.”

It’s true that Zephyrus took too much miasma damage and too much burn damage from the holy flames, and it looks like he’ll die within an hour even if we don’t do anything.
But… That’s no good. The erosion by the miasma will end before he dies.
The reason Zephyrus doesn’t attack aggressively now is probably to buy time to prolong his life until ‘that time’.

…… I still don’t know what exactly is being eroded. But something vital is definitely being eroded.

I can perceive that with my senses as a miko, but I guess Uru can also perceive that with something else. I don’t think it’s strange anymore because she is child with an abnormally sharp intuition.
In any case, we have to purify the source of the miasma right now… Zephyrus probably has something like a dungeon core. The way that miasma is being gathered was too abnormal.
So we can’t just ignore Zephyrus, we have to defeat him as soon as possible. Even if Zephyrus isn’t the source, we can’t even search for it without defeating him first.

First, I shot a holy flame arrow immediately after Zephyrus used magic, but…… Zephyrus, whether he had spare strength or pushed himself beyond his limits, quickly used his magic again and blown himself away.
Gunuu, even though it’s the weakest of the four wind dragons, as expected still has a performance of a dragon. Continuous use of magic, how enviable…! No, in a sense a Miko can also use it continuously, so if you say that’s a unique ability, it’s up to that point.

“… I’m sorry. Because of me, it seems that his vigilance against arrows has become the top priority.”

“That can’t be helped.”

If it weren’t for the holy flame arrow, it wouldn’t have been possible to cut down the miasma so much. It must have been a necessity.
In that case, I should just launch an unavoidable attack.

“Uru, how many holy flame arrows you still have?”

“Two. I wasted one.”

“Then I’ll give you some normal arrows, so throw it at him. When Zephyrus can’t defend with magic, shot the holy flame arrow. I’ll shoot mine at the same time.”

“… I understand.”

Even Zephyrus can’t use magic infinitely… Should be. The plan is to intentionally create a gap. When I quickly handed over the arrows, Uru immediately started throwing them. Like that Zephyrus have to constantly use magic to block them.
Zephyrus is also desperate. If the holy flame arrow hits, it will definitely do a lot of damage, and depending on the situation, it will be his end. In other words, the only way is to shoot them all down. In the first place, Zephyrus probably doesn’t realize that the arrows Uru is throwing are just normal arrows.
And so, the offense and defense unfolded for a little while… And the perfect opportunity came.

“Rion!”

“OK!”

The moment the wind stopped. Uru and I shot out the deadly arrow at the same time.
However, Zephyrus has no intention of meekly accepting death. Harnessing his strength to make the wind blow again.
It seemed that our arrows would only cut through the sky in vain, but that’s not the case.
The arrow I shot was the sparkfield arrow… It was an area attack. The effect is exhibited even if the arrow does not make contact!

??Crackle!!

Guaaaaaaa! ?

Without mistaking my aim, Zephyrus got caught up in the area of effect of the sparkfield and I celebrated with an “Alright!”.
All that’s left now is to wait for the paralyzing debuff to drop him down.

…… I thought so, but…… I was too naive.

Although Zephyrus was struck by lightning, he didn’t show any sign of numbness, and by shifting his flight position, he went out of the area of effect.
He didn’t fall.

“… It didn’t work…”

“What?”

The thing that I felt when I created the sparkfield magic stone.

“Something is missing”

I should have thought more about that.

Sparkfield is a ranged magic, so it’s easy to hit.
However, in this fight against Zephyrus, it didn’t make much effect.
Because no matter what I do, it’s nothing but a lightning attribute attack.
If it was the first time we encountered it, it might still have had an effect.
However… By being wrapped in an even denser miasma, even if the damage that the holy attribute can do to him have increased, in exchange for that, all the non-holy attribute damage sources has been greatly attenuated.
Because I had completely forgotten about that possibility and thought it was a sure-win plan… I was stunned by this failure.

What I should do? There’s still a lot of normal arrows, right?
Using the same tactics, this time, should I use the holy flame arrow at an unavoidable timing???

I was in a hurry, trying to organize my thoughts that seemed to spin around in circles.
But Zephyrus didn’t allow it-

“Rion!”

By carefully separating Uru and me with a wall of wind, then firing a wind blade at me.
Uru’s warning brought my thoughts back to reality, but my chaotic head couldn’t work normally.
And I, who had pathetically exposed a big gap, let alone avoiding it, I couldn’t even protect myself with stone blocks??