Abnormal Strength

"Ow!"

Azu grimaced at the pain of having her leg grabbed.

It felt like being crushed in a vise.

The Ent, who had been folded over and facing down, looked up at Azu and smiled.

Then she wound up with all her might, and Azu's body lifted into the air.

The force was so violent her clothes flipped up and her hair went wild.

This wasn't just being swung overhead. The Ent's arm had transformed into a rose stalk and was extending.

A chill ran down Azu's spine, like insects crawling.

Her adventurer's instincts told her: if she was slammed into the ground at this speed, she would die.

The wind pressure and momentum made her vision shift chaotically, but she gripped her sword with both hands and swung it toward the arm holding her.

With only her arms, she couldn't put much force behind it, so she poured in extra mana instead.

She'd been dodged before, but as long as the Ent was still holding on, there was no worry of that.

The blade touched the Ent's dress and paused for an instant against its hardness.

As if to push through, the Sealed Sword Grungaus's effect activated, consuming mana to sever the Ent's arm.

Fresh blood sprayed violently.

Flung with tremendous force, Azu arced through the air, spun once, and landed on her feet.

The severed hand was still attached to her leg.

She struggled to pry the fingers open and finally got it off.

Where she'd been gripped, a clear handprint had formed in bruises.

The hand withered and disappeared.

"I knew it was dangerous but instinctively grabbed anyway. My mistake."

"Are you still going to continue? You've lost your left hand, so can't we leave it at this…?"

"Heh. How cute. Let me tell you: at my level, losing a limb or two doesn't matter much."

The Ent raised her handless arm.

The bleeding stopped abruptly, and vines began winding around the wound until they formed a new hand.

So those vines could be used for healing, not just defense.

"What a cheat!"

Alexia's protest was met with an elegant wave of dismissal.

Just when they'd finally dealt damage, they were back to square one.

If cutting off a hand didn't faze her, the only options were beheading her or pinning her down completely.

And she wasn't an opponent they could afford to hold back against.

One moment of that thinking would cost them their lives.

Azu and the others readied their weapons and watched for another opening.

But attacking carelessly meant the Ent could trade a limb for a devastating counter at almost no risk to herself, and that alone would be enough to take them down.

Neither physical nor magical attacks seemed capable of finishing her.

The Sun God's Apostle they'd encountered in the catacombs had been terrifying too, but now they could probably beat it.

Against the Ent, however, Azu couldn't picture winning.

Her feet stopped.

The Ent seized on that hesitation.

Each sword strike was unbearably heavy.

Even with the Apostle's power released, Azu's stance crumbled when she blocked head-on.

She managed to deflect three blows before her sword arm was knocked wide.

She tried to return to the Ash King's stance, but the Ent's blade was faster.

The Ent's beautiful smile filled Azu's vision.

Azu thought frantically about what to do.

Few options remained. Hoping to at least keep the blow from hitting a vital organ, she felt a reaction in her right eye.

The Water Elemental lent its power.

Multiple shields of water layered themselves, blocking the Ent's sword.

Even so, the momentum wasn't fully absorbed; the impact hit her stomach, and Azu dropped to her knees.

But she immediately used her sword as a crutch and forced herself upright.

"You're on good terms with the Water Elemental, I see. I'd like to get along with it myself… Maybe I'll kill you and peel it away."

"I have no intention of dying here."

Azu assumed the Ash King's stance.

The only things that had held up against the Ent's inhuman strength were the power of the Apostle and the Ash King's sword techniques she'd copied.

The Water Elemental's response was stronger now, and she could draw out more of the Apostle's power.

It still wasn't enough, but she had no choice.

Yet Azu and the others didn't close in. They backed away.

Sensing something, the Ent looked away from Azu and glanced behind her.

An explosion went off.

Finn had returned from being flung away and was hurling explosives.

The explosives had fine iron shrapnel mixed in, scattering with each blast.

A vicious trick against living targets, but against the Ent, it was ineffective.

The wall of vines absorbed almost everything.

"Little black-clad shorty. So far, you're the least scary one here."

"Shut up! I know that without you telling me!"

Finn's combat skills were specialized for fighting humans.

And biased toward ambush and quick resolution.

She wasn't built to fight monsters or adventurers who'd grown strong from killing many monsters.

Still, she'd adapted her techniques and improvised with her equipment to avoid dragging the group down.

But finally, an opponent had appeared who rendered all of that useless.

Even so, she had one trump card left.

The hyper-accelerated strike she'd devised would reach even the Ent.

But it put tremendous strain on her legs; once used, she'd be unable to move for a while.

It had to be saved for the critical moment.

That was why she was focused on stalling for now.

The wall of vines was occupied with Finn's explosives.

That left the Ent defenseless against Alexia's magic.

Alexia had been charging mana and chanting since they'd pulled back.

Half-hearted power wouldn't pierce the Ent's magical defenses.

She combined shockwave magic with fire magic, then layered wind magic on top.

It became a massive firestorm, then compressed.

Specialized for piercing, it took on a spear-like shape.

Alexia gripped the spear, raised her leg high, and wound up.

Her leg swung down forcefully, her dress fluttering.

At the same moment, the fire spear was launched.