Just as Igni raised her head, the rain of arrows was already right before her face.
“…!”
Igni froze from a mix of lightheadedness and shock, causing her to simply watch as the attack approached her in slow motion from her perspective.
“Rainbow Prismatic Barrier!”
At the last second, a voice echoed from afar. Around Igni, a barrier made of hexagonal lattices creating a dome shape appeared, protecting her from the incoming arrows.
Igni, Ember, and Fang all looked at the source of the voice, feeling relieved upon seeing a familiar face.
“Goddess Blanc!”
Smiles crossed the three’s faces, while the two members of the Twelve Zodiacs frowned deeply on the other hand. After all, even though their power was raised to a demigod level, they’re still below an actual god-tamer like Blanc.
The first thing that crossed their minds as soon as Goddess Blanc appeared was to escape.
“Where are you going?”
Right after sending a shower of healing light at Igni, she turned to the two, who turned into something monstrous, covered in black mist. Her eyes narrowed, seeing them lose their fighting spirit.
“I haven’t permitted you to leave!”
A resounding clap was followed by a large barrier about a kilometer wide, covering everyone. As soon as that was in place, the two zodiacs who were trying to escape were completely locked in.
The barrier she just set was not only limiting their entry and exit, but was even preventing them from using any teleportation or space manipulation skills to escape.
“Dammit, you old hag!!!”
The fat man quickly panicked, rushing toward Blanc while waving the hammer in his hand. However, the goddess didn’t even flinch, simply lifting her arm and catching the hammer, stopping it with only her left hand.
*BAM!*
The impact from the strike was enough to rustle the leaves around, creating a small clearing around the goddess. However, the cynical smile on her face didn’t even twitch, proof that she couldn’t even feel his attack.
“S-Strong…!”
Igni, who finally recovered, stood up and watched.
Blanc, who was usually at the back and providing support, was actually fighting mano-a-mano! It was the first time they had seen her fight like that. Furthermore, the hammer strike that incapacitated Igni was actually stopped by her casually lifting a single hand!
Feeling the disparity between their strengths, the fat man quickly moved back, sweat pouring down from his forehead like a waterfall.
“Hey, Sagittarius! Help me out here! This old hag is tougher than she seems!”
“Don’t order me around, fatty!”
The two bickered while sending a rain of arrows toward Goddess Blanc. The arrows were scattered around but were swerving toward their target like guided missiles.
As if matching it, the fat man dashed forward, each step causing the ground to shake as he activated some sort of skill, increasing his body weight and even his weapon’s weight.
“Die, you old hag!”
As he waved his hammer one more time, aiming to flatten Blanc at once, something unbelievable happened.
*TING!*
The hammer, instead of smashing to the ground, was sent flying high into the sky, vanishing like a twinkling star in the sky. Blanc’s face was still the same, with a thin, cynical smile, but the emotion hidden behind her expression was already different.
“That’s the third time… It’s strike three, you brat.”
She took a single step in, invading the vicinity of the fat man, before sending an uppercut to his solar plexus, sending his fat stomach flying up along with the impact.
“UGGHHH!”
The punch’s force was concentrated enough that his body didn’t even leave the ground. However, the fat man could tell that most of his internal organs were destroyed by that attack alone.
‘This is a support-focused god tamer? Who are you f*cking kidding?!’
Just as he was fearing another punch, the arrows that the female zodiac fired finally reached Blanc’s position. However, she didn’t even blink as she caught each and every single arrow with her hands, snatching them from the air as if they weren’t moving at the speed that Ember and the others couldn’t even see.
Everything happened in a literal blink of an eye. Igni, who was the closest to their level, could only glimpse a little of the exchange, but Ember and Fang were completely unable to follow it with their eyes. All they knew was that the fat man vanished, then reappeared kneeling and vomiting blood before Blanc, who was holding dozens of black arrows in her hands.
“W-What happened…?”
Ember was flabbergasted, unable to follow the situation at all; however, she did realize one thing: it’s their chance to attack! Raising the power output of her exoskeleton, despite having its left arm destroyed, she rushed forward, aiming a punch at the woman in black.
Seeing Ember’s approach, Sagittarius immediately fired a wall of arrows, creating a situation where Ember had nowhere to dodge. However, she didn’t panic. After fighting for a while, she already had a grasp of the strength of each arrow individually.
With fluid movements, Ember weaved between the gaps while letting the ones she couldn’t avoid hit the exoskeleton’s armor and other unimportant parts.
Not expecting her to survive the attack, Sagittarius was surprised. Ember dashed forward, letting the exoskeleton’s engine go past its limit, and appeared before the enemy in a single step.
“Shi-!”
Before she could even curse, Ember’s large fist smashed her face, sending her flying for a few dozen meters.
Ember’s attack hit! However, it was simply due to the enemy lowering its guard, underestimating her, and also overworking her equipment. The exoskeleton, overheating, was now unable to move until the engine cooled down to reasonable levels.
“B*TCH! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY BEAUTIFUL FACE?!”
However, the damage she dealt with was nothing more than causing her enemy’s nose to bleed. It was insignificant compared to how much energy she expended.
“But I guess that’s more than enough…”
Ember, instead of feeling scared now that her exoskeleton couldn’t move, was smiling in relief. After all, from the shadow right behind Sagittarius, who was so angry she was losing sight of her surroundings, Fang’s figure popped up without warning.
However, this time, she wasn’t simply using her claws anymore. Instead, a pair of daggers as red as fresh blood was held in each of her hands, with the blade’s edge covered in a green liquid.
Still, the enemy was at the level of a demigod, albeit artificially, so she quickly detected Fang’s bloodlust. With haste, she took a step forward, trying to avoid it, but even with that, Fang’s right-hand dagger managed to land a scratch against the side of her neck.
“…”
Sagittarius quickly held her neck, applying pressure, but realized that the wound wasn’t even that deep. The bleeding would stop immediately, even if she left it alone.
However, when she turned around completely, Fang was already nowhere behind her. Instead, she was right beside the fat man, Cancer, and was swinging both daggers down. The daggers couldn’t cut through his muscles, as expected, but the dagger still managed to wound him more than skin deep.
After confirming that she managed to injure the two, Fang moved behind Blanc, where it should be the safest.
Seeing what she did, Blanc was actually surprised. After all, the enemies were at the half-step god level. It was a wonder how she could even damage them. But rather than that, Blanc was more concerned about the green liquid dripping down the edge of Fang’s daggers. She was familiar with it, after all.
“That’s the Nine Roots poison, right?”
Knowing what it was, Blanc lowered her guard immediately. However, her words made the two members of the zodiac stiffen.
Nine Roots Poison was a deadly poison with literally no antidote discovered yet. Furthermore, it was fast-acting and could even disturb energy flows, making it extremely difficult to fight against.
“As expected of Goddess Blanc, you even know about this.”
Fang smiled, her tail wagging in excitement.
“This poison is something that I received from Judy, with Fina and Yorm’s help, as a present!”
Unable to participate in the battle, it was the only thing that Fina and the rest could do. So, the three did their best to create the poison for Fang to use.
Just a single drop of it was enough to exhaust Judy, and she gave Fang a vial filled with roughly fifty drops of it just before they set out. For the three who shared energy with each other, exhaustion should be obvious. Still, they had satisfied smiles while seeing off Fang and the rest before.
“Great work.”
Blanc praised Fang one more time before holding the fatty’s head. Her eyes glowed an eerie white as the enemy’s body twitched. In just a few seconds, his body stopped moving altogether. Blanc mindlessly threw him away, dying from the poison, like he was garbage of some sort.
“I see… So that was their plan.”
Just as she was about to finish the other one, suffering from and unable to move due to the poison, Igni’s flaming sword swung. Sagittarius’ head fell, rolling on the ground, as the wound on her body’s neck burned brightly.
Just as they were about to turn to where the other Skeleton General was, fighting against Goddess Blanc’s two tamed beasts, the beasts in question suddenly landed behind Blanc and bowed.
“(Master, we’ve successfully slain the Skeleton General.)” 𝑙𝑖𝓇𝒶.𝑐ℴ𝑚
As if representing the two, Kalib sent a telepathic message to Blanc. Hearing the good news, she smiled and petted his large head lightly.
“Good job, you two. However, we’re not done yet.”
Goddess Blanc raised her finger, pointing to where the battlefield of the North was and where Vermeil should be defending.
“We need to provide Vermeil with some backup. Kalib and Aerial, you two should go ahead of me.”
Hearing her orders, the two obedient god-level beasts quickly moved at breakneck speed, vanishing from sight almost immediately. Seeing that they were already on their way, Blanc then turned to the three girls, who gathered beside her while she was giving out her orders.
“Ember, Fang, Igni. I can’t thank you three enough. However, time is of the essence, and I need to go to the next battlefield… You three should rest.”
They were all battered, after all, after a single battle. Thinking that the other Zodiacs possess the same level of trump cards, it would be reckless of them if they followed her any further.
Taking their silence as a yes, Goddess Blanc then opened a crack in space and vanished. Ember did the same, opening a portal where the four of them entered… And welcomed another battlefield that was covered in flames.