The Noble Lady of Lust

Chapter 447: Naval Battle (2)

The curious thing is that, when I finished setting everything up, my main self was right in the center.

Since she couldn't use magic now, she was thinking of taking on the role of a warrior and standing at the edge of that second ring, but the girls pressured her with their looks and put her right there, so she'd just be in charge of casting purification spells.

My main self, knowing it was best not to resist, stayed there. Only when she saw someone affected by poisons or curses would she create a small arrow made of white fire that flew toward that person.

It was the concept of pure purification and didn't use any mana, so she could cast it without worrying.

The people hit by it saw their bodies briefly engulfed in flames, but since the flames didn't actually burn them or anything—they just quickly freed them from their problems—they stopped being afraid.

In any case, more demons kept arriving and invading. I watched as the battle unfolded.

The senior were doing an excellent job, and the demons weren't reaching us; they were also eliminating many of the demons.

But despite the help and support we're giving them, some of the seniors were also falling in battle.

Perhaps just seriously wounded, perhaps dead. It wasn't a pleasant sight to behold, but if anything, those of my generation should start getting used to seeing it.

And finally, after a while, there came a point when, under pressure from the demons, the defensive formation finally broke on one side, and they reached our secondary defensive line.

Coincidence or not, it was the side where William was positioned that broke.

The guy was obviously stronger, but William wasn't alone. There were other teammates nearby, including Mike, Cordelia, and Astrid, as well as Ivan and others who weren't too far away.

And they just needed to hold him off for a moment, until the seniors ones regained control of the formation.

I thought he'd be able to hold out.

Clank!

And, in fact, he did.There was an initial confrontation that William could barely endure, but obviously it wasn't going to end there.

The intruder was bringing his heavy mace down for a second attack.

But suddenly, his movement changed in a strange way, and his attack was directed at Iván, who was standing next to William.

Because of his position, the attack was a bit awkward and left the man in a strange stance.

Bang!Bomm!

It was an opening the others didn't let go to waste. Mike, who was right behind him, cast a fire spell, and Astrid also cast her own fire spell.

Even so, I felt it wasn't enough. The guy was wearing armor and probably had defensive effects helping to protect him.

Any moment now he'd recover, and William would have to face him again—or so I thought.

But what became clear once the fire had died down was that the guy had collapsed and was dead.

The reason: a black arrow had pierced one of his eyes.

"Whoa, damn! I didn't even notice when she shot it."

If it was Alice—if I'm not mistaken—she must have used one of the arrows with a stealth function.

Alice was the most versatile among us because of the number of arrows Ciel and I had created for her over time. She had many, each with different uses.

That one was even more lethal than I thought and the most suitable for use in this chaotic situation, where people's senses were focused on so many other things.

And, combined with the fact that it was made with Elena's blessing, it was no joke.

I should make more of those. At the very least, every girl should have a set of throwing weapons with that effect.

'Ugh, and speaking of arrows…'

Clack!

it was heading toward me, but even though I was paying attention to that side, I didn't lose sight of what was happening around me, so I easily put my halberd in its path and blocked it.

It was an ice arrow, but it was a heavy blow that sent me stumbling back a bit.

However, just as I thought I'd handled that attack, suddenly, without any warning, another ice arrow appeared out of nowhere.

This one, though, flew right past me, aimed at what was behind me.

I channeled my art, and my hand moved swiftly. I swung my halberd and, in a quick backward motion, struck the arrow hard, preventing it from hitting Silvia, who was behind me.

"Phew. That was close. Where did that second arrow come from? Did it have concealment too?"

"No… It was created out of thin air. It's identical to the one you blocked first."

I thought it was hidden, but Silvia calmly told me that wasn't the case.

"Huh? Oh, it must be some kind of ability or blessing. No, that doesn't matter. Hey, Silvia, you have barriers set up around you, right?"

"Yes… Even if you hadn't stopped it, it wouldn't have hurt me."

"Phew… That's good. It really doesn't do any good to earn favor points with you. Hmm… Why don't you switch places with Aurora? Maybe I can earn some points with her if something like this happens again."

"(≖_≖ )~. Cut the nonsense. More attacks are coming right now. They're from an ice mage and have the same mana pattern as the arrow."

"Ice mage? Oh, I know what's going on. I know who it is. It's that duplicating bastard. Well, once you know his tricks, it's no big deal. Hmm… More and more attacks are coming. Tell me which ones are from that duplicator."

Well, I would've preferred to have one of the girls behind me, but Silvia wasn't such a bad choice. She was like a radar and an identifier; she helped me better understand everything that was happening.

"…Yeah."

All right. Those attacks were coming because the seniors, who had previously been maintaining barriers to protect us, were now busy with other things and no longer had the capacity to shield us.

But I didn't just stand there doing nothing—my main self was already coordinating with Aurora, Eira, Astrid, and other mages in the center of the formation to create a barrier powerful enough to block the attacks from the Ninth Metamorphosis.

Boom, boom!

At that moment, I heard loud impact sounds coming directly from in front of me. Then I saw a huge guy—Nearly eight feet in height—wearing heavy armor, running toward me.

The problem was that the formation in front of me still had the seniors in it, but that didn't seem to bother this guy.

He kept charging straight toward us, like a wrecking ball.

And, sure enough, he was blazing his own trail right toward me.

Hmm… I noticed that the heavy armor had some kind of counterattack function.

Doing something so reckless, without caring about anything, meant he was confident in his ability to get out of there. So he was probably focused on his defense and relying on the armor itself as a method of attack.

Seeing that huge, fully armored guy coming at me like a wrecking ball gave me an idea.

"Hey, Silvia, give me a good buff."

"Okay."

Thanks to Silvia, I avoided wasting mana on enhancement spells and focused all my mana on channeling my art.

Art of Lust, Second Stance: Ardent Pulse of Desire.

I waited for the guy to charge through the seniors in front of me, and once he did, I raised my halberd high and unleashed a powerful downward blow imbued with the power of the Art of Lust, capable of piercing even the densest defenses.

Crack!

I heard a sharp crack and felt that the counterattack effect didn't affect me, but my blow wasn't strong enough to stop his momentum.

So, in the next instant, I dropped my halberd and used both hands to try to halt his charge.

Art of Lust, Fourth Stance: Erupting Embrace.

The guy muttered a "Hmph!" under his breath, as if he thought my actions were pointless.

It was clear he appeared to be one of the elite from the previous generation.

It's curious, since, as far as I know, elites like Max or Professor Graham have kept the demonic elites at bay.

However, this guy managed to slip through; his intention was obviously to annihilate my entire generation—a despicable but effective move.

It's always easier to nip a small sprout in the bud than to uproot a sturdy tree.

Bang!

The impact occurred, and I managed to largely halt his charge.

"Huh?"

He seemed surprised by that, since not even my elders had been able to stop him, but it didn't end there.

In fact, I hadn't absorbed the full force of his charge, and I was starting to be pushed back, so I leaned slightly to one side while grabbing hold of him wherever I could.

I channeled my energy throughout my body, giving me just enough strength to redirect his momentum.

I used his own momentum to curve his trajectory around me. Then I let go.

Like a wrecking ball, he shot straight back toward his own ship and crashed into it.

"Phew… That guy should go on a diet.."

"Hmm, sometimes you do things that are almost impossible, as if it were the most normal thing in the world."

"Huh? What's the problem now? You cast some really powerful buffs on me, and I applied the techniques of my art correctly; what's so impossible about that?"

"Haaah~your common sense, when it comes to certain things, is totally warped. Anyway, were you planning to take down his ship?"

"Nope. I just wanted to do as much damage as possible. To take down the ship, you have to attack its power source."

Yes, to win this as quickly as possible, the best tactic was to sink the opposing ship.

But to achieve that, my plan was something completely different. If I'm not mistaken, it wouldn't take long to…

Brrrrrromm.

Suddenly, a strange sound rang out, and I felt a sensation of weightlessness. Our ship began to fall.

"Ah… They infiltrated our power source and destroyed it."

At that moment, I looked at Silvia. She was staring at the wooden floor, but I knew she was looking through it, so what she said wasn't a hypothesis—it was a description of what had happened.

"Damn it! I can't believe they had the same idea as me!"

Brrromm!

Another loud crash rang out, and along with our ship, the demons' ship began to fall.