Ch.421Chapter 421 – Shadow Warrior Party (1)

The shadows were rising.

Some took the form of robed wizards.

Some appeared as clerics wielding maces.

Some resembled elves with bows.

As the shadows gradually took on their distinct forms, Sia quietly spoke.

“Dwarf blacksmith, Dvel. Elven bow, Abies. Beast King, Springheart.”

Sia slowly named the archer with a bow, the short dwarf, and the cat beastkin with two claws.

“First Archmage Lumen, First Saint Roxanna.”

Beatrice spoke softly as she observed the shadows of the cleric and wizard who had taken form and prepared for battle.

“…Those two must be Tiamat, daughter of the Dragon Lord, and the Star-Gazing Priestess.”

Eve quietly remarked, looking at a woman in a dress and another woman holding a long staff similar to Noah’s.

And the remaining man.

By process of elimination, his identity was already determined.

“…The Hero.”

Since they appeared as if shadows had simply risen up, his facial features weren’t clearly visible.

All I could tell was that he wore armor and carried a large sword.

He might have been slightly shorter than me.

But.

Among them all, he had the strongest presence.

Then the voice was heard again.

[Those are merely shadows of the past. They’ve long since surpassed these forms.]

Was it dancing?

The voice sounded almost like singing.

[Honestly, my past self was quite weak, so it’s embarrassing.]

The singing-like voice paused slightly.

Then, as if telling us to listen carefully,

the voice slowly resonated.

[I do hope you’ll be pleased?]

Just as the voice ended, Sia kicked off the ground.

In an instant, the Hero was swinging his sword at her as she thrust her weapon forward.

Realizing my reaction was slightly delayed, perhaps due to focusing on the voice, I quickly swung my halberd.

The Star-Gazing Priestess’s shadow immediately leaped to the Hero’s side, as if protecting his neck.

“Kay, duck your head!”

At Sia’s urgent call, I quickly lowered my head, and I saw my halberd, which had clearly been aimed at a neck, deflect off in an odd trajectory.

And I felt something brush past where my head had just been.

‘I didn’t see it!’

If Sia hadn’t warned me, I would have been hit.

The Star-Gazing Priestess’s blade was invisible to my eyes.

If it had been a simple trick, that would be one thing, but I could clearly see her arm moving, so I realized this was pure physical ability, not deception.

I was on the verge of admiring such pure skill, but the problem was that admiration wouldn’t resolve our current situation.

“Helmet!”

As soon as Beatrice’s voice was heard, Sia and I roughly swung our weapons to distance ourselves from the two shadows that were trying to continue their attacks.

And timed with our retreat, ice spears summoned by Beatrice erupted from the ground.

The two shadows easily shattered the ice spears as if mocking such a simple attack.

“Scatter!”

Beatrice must have already employed another tactic, because when she shouted, the ice spears began to shatter all at once.

Soon, ice fragments flew in all directions, engulfing the two shadows, and I saw them reluctantly retreat.

Beatrice, determined not to let them escape, immediately created a fireball and threw it at the enemies. The retreating shadows appeared to have difficulty cleanly deflecting this attack.

Then a laughing voice was heard.

[But we have a mage on our side too, you know?]

Immediately, magical energy began to swirl in the air.

The vortex absorbed Beatrice’s fireball, and behind it stood the wizard’s shadow.

As the wizard moved his hand again, the vortex began to spin in reverse.

The fireball Beatrice had just launched came flying back toward us.

Beatrice quickly chanted something at the fireball, then shouted in dismay.

“Damn, they’ve embedded a unique formula so I can’t dispel it…! Sister!”

“‘Protect the young lambs!'”

Chris’s golden shield appeared once more to protect us.

Beatrice’s redirected flames collided with the shield and dissipated with a blast of hot air.

Through the heat wave, I saw the beastkin’s shadow and the cleric’s shadow leaping toward us.

The shadows of claws and mace moved in their hands.

The mace in particular seemed to be imbued with light that looked ready to explode.

I quickly changed my weapon to a shield and blocked upward, wedging it under the mace.

An enormous hammer made of unknown divine power appeared at the end of the mace, but since I had already lifted it upward, it didn’t reach us.

Then the beastkin’s shadow tried to swing its claws at my neck, but.

“Not a chance!”

Eve immediately stabbed at the beastkin’s shadow with her sword, causing the attack to fail.

But the beastkin, despite being attacked in mid-air, twisted its body to avoid Eve’s sword and retreated backward with an aerial flip.

Covering their retreat, arrows began to fly toward us, and simultaneously, boulders the size of our bodies started hurtling our way.

“‘Protect us from countless evils!'”

Chris quickly created a barrier surrounding all of us to block the arrows and boulders.

The arrows were shot by the elven shadow, and the boulders were thrown by the dwarven shadow.

Each time the attacks hit, Chris’s barrier seemed to waver.

“Why are these attacks so heavy?!”

“Are those even arrows?!”

While we were slightly dumbfounded by the dwarf’s strength, I saw the woman in the dress making a motion as if taking a deep breath.

“Miss Beatrice!”

With Eve’s cry, the next moment, flames erupted from the woman’s mouth.

Simultaneously, Beatrice raised a wall of ice upward.

The barrier, depleted from blocking arrows and boulders, shattered as it met the ice wall.

The flames slowly melted the ice as Beatrice concentrated on reinforcing the ice wall.

After quite some time, the woman’s flames stopped, and Beatrice lowered the ice wall, quietly muttering.

“…A breath attack.”

“That firepower is no joke.”

At Sera’s words, I looked at the enemies again.

I could see the eight shadows taking battle positions against us once more.

[Hmm, if you’re struggling and surprised by just this much, that’s a bit concerning.]

The woman’s voice spoke with a slight laugh.

[Our hero’s party was much more impressive in their prime, you know?]

As if to say it would be truly troublesome if we couldn’t overcome this level.

[Cool your heads. If you can’t win against this much… well, that would be quite problematic.]

The woman’s laughter echoed.

‘It seems like she’s mocking us.’

While slightly annoyed at the woman’s tone, I also thought she had a point.

From the perspective of the hero’s party, it would certainly be a problem if we couldn’t surpass their past selves.

‘Let’s calm down.’

I had lost some composure after being startled by the nearly invisible slash at the beginning.

The momentum had shifted to their side because I was caught off guard by their unexpectedly superior skills.

We couldn’t afford to let the flow of battle favor the enemy any further.

I cleared my mind and focused.

To regain my composure, I emptied my thoughts, took a small deep breath, and observed the opponents.

Meanwhile, starting with blocking the attacks that came flying at us again with Sia, we focused primarily on defending against the enemy’s attacks.

While blocking the enemies’ attacks in coordination with my other companions,

I carefully observed the characteristics of our opponents.

‘…They’re not all exceptionally strong individually.’

Of course, their skills were considerably above the level we had seen so far.

Some were even difficult for me to handle in my current state.

But what was certain was:

Not all of them were equally strong.

‘Dvel is definitely non-combat oriented.’

The shadow dwarf had an axe and armor, but rather than charging in directly, he was attacking somewhat passively by throwing rocks.

‘Roxanna isn’t using as many divine spells as I expected.’

The shadow saint occasionally summoned shields like Chris did, but mainly rushed in with her mace or created weapons of light.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know many spells, but probably a matter of personality.

She was completely opposite to Chris, who used most of her divine magic to support allies.

Since she charged in more often than supporting her companions with divine magic, she wasn’t displaying a variety of divine spells.

‘Lumen is about equal in skill to Beatrice.’

Perhaps even slightly below her.

The shadow wizard’s skills were impressive.

He showed defensive tactics like countering or reversing Beatrice’s attacks.

At a glance, he seemed to be deflecting attacks with ease, but looking closely, he was fighting to block as efficiently as possible against Beatrice, who was casting two or three spells simultaneously, rather than attempting to cast spells first.

In reality, Beatrice probably had more options available and was holding back.

‘Abies’s trajectories are easy to read, and Springheart is agile but physically weak.’

Perhaps it was their personality.

The shadow elf’s arrows flew accurately and were powerful, but conversely, they were too straightforward, making their trajectories easy to read.

The shadow beastkin definitely charged in with nimble movements, but always avoided direct contests of strength.

While their individual skills were by no means low, upon closer inspection, each had certain deficiencies.

‘And they were covering each other’s weaknesses through coordination.’

I had overestimated their abilities because I was distracted by the first two who charged at us.

‘In reality, there are three we need to be cautious of.’

The dragon in human form, the priestess, and the hero.

These three were not forces that even our current group could easily handle.

Therefore, they took on the role of delivering decisive blows or diverting our attention, while the remaining five provided solid support.

They were a party specialized in taking down powerful opponents by covering each other’s slight deficiencies through coordination.

Thanks to this realization, I could see a way to win.

“…Beatrice, Chris!”

They didn’t answer, but I knew they had turned their attention to me.

I immediately called out to them.

“Split them up!”

If their strength lies in coordination, we just need to forcibly separate them.

Having reached a similar conclusion, Beatrice’s eyes flashed as she raised a large chain and brought it down.

The chain split into multiple ends as it tore through the ground, and soon I could see the shadows gathering to counter it.

And right in the center where they were gathering.

“‘Protect the young lambs!'”

Chris’s golden shield appeared as a wall.

The shadows that were about to gather immediately spread out, and soon began preparing to respond to Beatrice’s chains in another way.

And just as the shadow wizard raised his arm, having found a method.

The chain wrapped around the wizard’s arm.

“You, fight with me!”

Beatrice flew into the air, grabbing the wizard and beginning to grapple.

The chain extended further as if trying to pull in the shadow elf as well, but the shadow dragon and shadow saint moved to block the chain, and then I saw them crouch as if to pursue Beatrice.

“You’ll be dealing with us.”

“Yes, please do!”

Sia, who had somehow rushed into enemy lines with Chris tucked under her arm, was seen kicking the dragon.

Sia then released Chris and drew her sword, beginning to attack the shadow saint as well, and soon the two shadows surrounded Sia and started attacking.

As if supporting the two, Chris blocked the shadow dwarf’s axe with divine magic while gradually approaching Sia.

And the shadow beastkin that had rushed in.

“Sonya, it seems like it’s finally time for us to earn our keep.”

“Me too?!”

Noah laughed as he threw Sonya, then started running toward the opposite side of the temple.

As everyone began dragging away enemies to start their individual battles, I could hear the sounds of Beatrice and the shadow wizard attacking each other with magic.

And the remaining personnel were three on each side.

“…The priestess, the hero, and the elf.”

The elf that Beatrice had failed to drag away earlier, plus the priestess and the hero.

When we attempted to split them up, the priestess immediately paired with the hero and escaped, so no one could drag these two away.

And on our side remained:

Myself, Eve, and Sera.

“Sera, tools?”

“As many as needed.”

“Eve?”

“Ready.”

Sera had already taken out her book, and Eve had raised the sword she had shown in Florence or the kingdom.

Looking at the two, I quietly said:

“You two stay behind me…”

“Don’t worry, Kay.”

“We’ll protect you.”

Instead, I saw the two standing side by side with me.

Seeing them smiling gently, I nodded slightly.

I changed my halberd to a shield and created a sword using Chris’s divine power stored in my weapon.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been assigned the tough opponents, so let’s stay sharp.”

Eve said as she raised her sword.

“As always, let’s get through this together.”

I quietly nodded in response to Eve’s words.

I stepped forward to protect my companions, preparing for the enemy’s attack.

And I saw the three shadows, who seemed to have exchanged similar dialogue, charging toward us.