Trails with Cuddle-Cuddle Osbon
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Helen
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 051 – Fufufu, Son. It’s the June Field Study⑨ [B]
Thanks to that, they were able to react immediately to what Celine said.
Rean instantly dodged something that was reaching out from the void, while holding Celine.
“Wha……?!”
On the other hand, Duvalie tried to slash it away with her sword, but the tip of her sword was chipped as if it had been chopped off.
“Duvalie-san!”
“That’s nothing to worry about! It only shortened a little of my range of attack! But I can’t forgive the one that did it……!”
Saying this, Duvalie looked at her new sworn enemy who had cut her sword.
It was a humanoid dragon that reminded one of Loa Valimar.
Perhaps the only difference between them was that this thing had wings?
The forked wings, reminiscent of crustacean pincers, wriggled as if they had a will of their own, and the glowing blade at the tip looked like the scythe of the grim reaper slicing its opponent in half. That was what probably cut off the tip of Duvalie’s sword.
Furthermore——
“This isn’t good! Both of you, jump!”
Rean followed Celine’s instructions out of trust, while Duvalie followed them out of her instincts against the enemy before them.
At the same time, Celine chanted magic, and as they landed, a magic platform appeared under their feet.
“You, what are——”
“Duvalie-san, please look at that.”
When Duvalie asked Celine why she built the foothold, Rean pointed at it with his tachi.
Duvalie casted a glance at the direction the tip of Rean’s tachi pointed and she swallowed her breath.
Beyond their gazes, the floor beneath the mysterious monster’s feet collapsed, revealing the ocean—— nay, the monster had transformed the floor beneath its feet into water.
As water overflowed from the monster, the ground available for them to step on gradually disappeared.
The reason this temple was surrounded by sea was due to the peculiarities of this phenomenon.
[“Fufufu, son. You should refrain from melee attacks until you spot its weakness or a spot where you can slash directly.”]
“Duvalie-san, I’ll attack from a distance, but……”
“Even if you don’t tell me, I’ll act as a decoy and keep its attention on me. However,”
“You won’t let me have the finishing blow, right?”
“Obviously.”
“Celine, do you think you can create footholds to match Duvalie-san’s movements?”
“I think it would be difficult to prepare it each time before she moves. So……”
Celine chanted magic once more and footholds began to appear in various places around the square.
She seemed to have given up on fine control and substituted it by providing numerous amounts of them.
“Not bad. This is enough.”
“I agree. Celine, hide in my hoodie.”
“Now, leave the follow-up to me.”
“Well then, let’s go——”
Just as Duvalie was about to move with enthusiasm, the monster’s wings stretched out.
Duvalie easily avoided the grim reaper’s scythe, which approached like a tentacle.
“Storm Brand!”
As a counterattack, lightning erupted from Duvalie’s sword, which was now missing its tip.
The sword, imbued with lightning, pierced the monster with greater speed than Sara could have, but the blade felt blocked as if it had been thrust into water.
When she pulled the sword back, Duvalie’s sword had broken in half, making it virtually useless.
“Gh…… how troublesome……!”
“Crimson Slash!”
As if to replace Duvalie, who had stepped back, Crimson Slash, strengthened by the power of ogre, approached the monster.
The flying slash that Rean unleashed, wrapped in flames, dug a hole in the spot where Duvalie had stabbed the monster earlier, but the monster’s shell just bubbled and there was no visible wound.
[“It looks like its body is inside the armor of water. Or rather, just like it uses the sea as its foothold, it seems that it has some kind of transformation ability that functions as an armor as well.”]
So, does that mean the attack was ineffective?
[“No, your Crimson Slash caused the surface of the armor to bubble. That means the water evaporated. In other words, it’s purely because the attack power is insufficient.”]
“In that case…… Duvalie-san, can you copy my attack?”
“?…………I see, I understand.”
Although they weren’t linked, Duvalie was able to read Rean’s intention as a fellow swordsman and approached the monster.
As Duvalie approached, avoiding contact with the extending blade and the transformed body of water, Rean unleashed his Crimson Slash again.
“Flame Brand!”
Duvalie matched Rean’s slash with flames on her own sword.
The flaming blade crossed and overlapped with Rean’s Crimson Slash, then slammed into the monster’s body.
“Combined, it’s Crimson Flame Slash!”
“Don’t name it…… arbitrarily!”
Despite her complaints, the swordsmen’s Combo Craft stripped the monster of its water garment—— or so it seemed, but the monster’s body actually sank back into the ocean it had created.
A column of water rose from it.
They avoided it instantly, but the numerous water pillars that rose up from holes in the ceiling meant that they no longer had enough footholds to avoid them.
Rean approached Duvalie and immediately summoned Loa Valimar to collapse the ceiling of the temple, as the water pillar from earlier was too great a disadvantage for them to defend against the monster in such an enclosed space.
He also wanted to bury the monster alive with the collapsed building…… but the monster appeared and held up its hands, then all the falling rubble turned into water and was washed away into the sea.
The monster reappeared on the sea, repairing the damage that it had received earlier thanks to Rean and Duvalie’s combined efforts.
Apparently, it also had the ability to heal itself.
“This is…… It seems like we’re out of options.”
“Is this the time to give up! …………Schwarzer, can you unleash that power that surpassed my speed one more time?”
“Duvalie-san?”
“I’ll use the Sparkling Star Formation. I’ll combine it with that and we’ll try it again.”
“Indeed, we have to try everything we can.”
“That’s how it is!”
As Duvalie roared, her body was enveloped in light.
It worked in conjunction with ARCUS, which had been prepared in advance, and established a link between her and Rean.
“Let’s go…… Lightning Sword!”
Although she didn’t seem to understand Brave Order, Duvalie still exerted the blessing that combined the power of Sparkling Star Formation and Power of Ashen.
Meanwhile, Rean unlocked the depths of his power of ogre.
“OOooooooohhh…… SSHAAAAAAAA!!”
Rean’s eyes turned fiery black, and black aura clung to Rean’s body.
As Duvalie rushed toward the monster, Rean transformed his power of ogre into flames and sent a supporting slash.
Duvalie combined her flaming sword with Rean’s demonic blade, unleashing a perfectly timed coordinated slash.
“Union Slash – Bottomless Demonic Flame!” 1
It was like a meteor strike.
A flaming strike from high altitude, reminiscent of a falling meteorite, cut the monster across its shoulder.
The monster’s body slumped and collapsed, sending up a huge splash as it went down.
“You did it!”
Celine screamed with joy.
Rean also smiled and took a sigh of relief.
Duvalie, the main contributor, was sprawled out on the footholds Celine had made, but she thrust up her sword, which had shrunk to the size of a knife, in a show of victory.
With a wry smile at the smug look on her face that he could see even from a distance, Rean was about to retrieve Duvalie—— but he realized that the battle wasn’t over yet.
“Duvalie-san!”
“Hoeh? ……Kyaah!”
The sea water rose and Duvalie was thrown into the sky along with the foothold she was on.
Rean deployed his clones and had them each unleash Crimson Slash to keep it at bay, while he had Loa Valimar throw him towards Duvalie to retrieve her.
Rean picked up Duvalie in the air, then he immediately summoned Loa Valimar again and left the scene.
“Damn it, even that doesn’t work. Its weakness is an attack that involves flames, but we won’t be able to kill it by ourselves…… Celine, do you have any offensive magic?”
“I do, but it’s like trying to put out a fire with a cup of water. Even if we manage to half-destroy it, there’s nothing we can do if it dives into the surrounding sea.”
[“Fufufu, son. If you’re going to do it, you’ll need to finish it with one blow.”]
{“Then I will-”}
“No, now that the temple has collapsed, there’s a limit to how many footholds Celine can create for us. We need Valimar to become our foothold. Besides…… I hate to say it, but our teamwork just now is stronger than the attacks the current Valimar can muster.”
“Muu…………”
“S-Schwarzer! Let me go before you get lost in thought!”
“Oops, sorry.”
As Rean put down Duvalie, who was yelling with a flushed face, he grimaced at the monster that their combined attack had been unable to defeat.
“……rry, it’s my first time experiencing that……” 2
“Did you say something?”
“It’s! Nothing! Seriously, how insensitive are you……………?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Schwarzer, if I remember correctly, we were able to see the isolated island when we first arrived, right?”
“Yes. It’s about a thousand arge away, but we are still too far away to see it……”
It was then that Rean realized for the first time that there was no land around them.
No matter how much Rean turned his head or squinted his eyes, all he could see was the sea.
Not only could he not see the temple, he couldn’t even see the land where the village was located.
“This is……?!”
[“It’s the monster behind it. Perhaps he replenished the damage he suffered from elsewhere.”]
Replenish……?
[“I don’t know why the spiriting away was happening, but if they were being kept as bait…… then it all makes sense.”]
“No way! Does that mean the people of that village got absorbed?!”
“Eh…………”
Rean spoke Osbon’s reasoning out loud.
If that was true, it would mean that they had needlessly sacrificed the people who had been spirited away.
“Schwarzer, what do you mean——”
“Both of you, run!”
Celine’s warning came too late.
Both Rean, who was distracted, and Duvalie, whose attention was on Rean, were slow to notice what was happening.
A shadow fell on the two people and the cat.
Rean raised his head while dumbfounded, unable to process what was happening.
A tsunami that was large enough to swallow Loa Valimar approached —— and before they had time to resist, they were swallowed by it.
＊
They felt like they were sinking.
Perhaps because the water surrounding them felt different from normal, their bodies felt heavy.
Their consciousness was also starting to fade away.
It was as if both their body and mind were melting away and they couldn’t think about anything.
Perhaps she got hit in a bad spot, Duvalie was knocked unconscious, though Rean managed to instinctively grab her hand which prevented them from being separated.
The same could be said to Celine, who somehow managed to avoid being thrown out of Rean’s hood, but there was no response from her.
A strange pair of eyes shone in the seawater.
As if already confident of its victory, the monster slowly stretched its wings out and advanced toward Rean’s group.
If they showed no resistance, they would surely be chopped to pieces.
Realizing that he was the only one who could move, Rean desperately tried to regain consciousness and move.
Loa Valimar!
Rean attempted to resummon Loa Valimar and bring everyone back up to the surface of the sea.
But at that moment, something strange happened.
Displaying movements that were unimaginable actually done on the sea, the monster slashed Loa Valimar to shreds.
Although it was quickly repaired, Loa Valimar was repeatedly destroyed instantly, eventually resulting in its movements becoming rigid.
Rean began to have difficulty breathing and tried to swim up to the surface, picking Duvalie up with him.
Suddenly, instead of shredding Loa Valimar with its wings, the monster engulfed Loa Valimar in an attempt to annihilate it.
Valimar!
The voice sounded distant, and Loa Valimar’s body was transformed into water by the monster and exploded into flames.
The sudden overflow of mass sent Rean’s group and the other into a further shockwave under the ocean.
Valimar!
There was no response answering to Rean’s call.
Ever since it took residence in his heart, Valimar’s voice had always responded whenever Rean called out to it, but it didn’t respond this time.
Rean took a big gulp.
His power of ogre stopped.
No matter how much it strengthened his body, if one couldn’t continue breathing, they would naturally weaken, and Rean’s ashen hair turned back to black, his strength draining from his entire body.
Faced with the slowly approaching monster, Rean lost the strength to resist and closed his eyes—— his limp hand powerlessly reached out to touch his ARCUS.
[“………n……e…………”]
[“………Re……n…………”]
[“Re………a…………n!”]
——I can hear a voice.
I can hear voices calling out for me.
Then, Rean regained consciousness.
As Rean was enveloped in the light of ARCUS, he saw someone pointing their hand towards him—— they were Fie, Elliot, and Machias.
The light expanded further, revealing Sara and Toval’s faces.
They were all saying something, but Rean couldn’t hear them.
He couldn’t even read the words.
The light that spread from Rean’s ARCUS reached Duvalie.
The faint(sparkling) light came on the link that connected the two, and the two members of Stahlritter were projected onto the screen.
The Sparkling Star Formation’s spiritual link used ARCUS as a vessel, allowing the remnant of the ashen to reach across dimensions.
[“The singularity and reality have been connected through ARCUS. Now is the time.”]
What do you……
[“As the Awakener—— as a friend whom you have formed a bond with, call out his name, Rean.”]
Osbon’s words sank in.
Rean didn’t understand what Osbon meant.
But the bond that tied them together allowed him to think of the name, at the bottom of the deep sea.
“Gome! De Azen Nait…… BARRIIIIIMAAAAARR!” 3
{“——————————OH!”}
Author Note:
Readers with good intuition skills might have noticed that the clothes that Rean gave Duvalie-chan were designed to match Lianne-san’s casual clothes.
With her hair down, you can call Duvalie in Lianne-san mode with a different hair color.
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