Ch.60Crossing Fatal Strikes

“Mina!”

Mina, who had protected Phyllis from Demon Rose’s magical attack, was clutching her left arm with a pained expression, crouched down.

Though she had avoided the worst-case scenario of losing her arm as the shield was cut and reduced the water jet’s power, the wound was serious enough that I could see torn flesh and flowing blood even from where I stood.

“Stone Bullet!”

Jessica, now desperate, launched a Stone Bullet toward the Demon Rose, but it countered by shooting a water jet that deflected the stone projectile far away.

Riding that momentum, the Demon Rose swung its water jet horizontally, which we barely avoided by throwing ourselves to the ground. When we regained our posture to counterattack, the Demon Rose’s petals had already closed.

It seems the petals only open while firing the water jet.

“Jessica, can you go treat Mina?”

“Not unless we do something about that water stream. Even if I get to Mina, we’ll both be attacked while I’m using Heal Touch.”

“Damn, this isn’t good.”

To treat Mina’s wound, we needed cover from Demon Rose’s attacks.

But the withered trees nearby weren’t thick enough to serve as cover, and more importantly, they couldn’t withstand the cutting power of the water jet.

‘Is quickly defeating the Demon Rose our best option? That won’t be easy either…’

The Demon Rose’s water stream was powerful enough to deflect Stone Bullets. Even the fire-attribute Flame Lance probably wouldn’t yield good results.

That meant we had to rely on Phyllis’s sniping, but for her to hit the Demon Rose’s center, she would be exposed directly in front of the water jet when it fired.

If she took that powerful water jet head-on—strong enough to split a shield and cause severe injury—I couldn’t guarantee Phyllis’s survival.

‘Isn’t there a large rock somewhere?’

I looked around with that thought, but the rocks in this area were all modest in size, barely reaching knee height.

However, one wet rock caught my eye.

The pointed rock, with distinct horizontal water lines, showed no signs of being cut or gouged.

This meant the water jet’s cutting power was limited to slicing through wood and couldn’t penetrate the hardness of stone or metal.

“…Alright, let’s try this!”

‘Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tang!’

Having made up my mind, I fired six magic bullets into the Demon Rose’s bud where light was leaking through, then turned and started running toward Phyllis.

“Will!?”

“Don’t follow me! I’ll draw its attention!”

By attacking just before the petals opened and drawing aggro, then running away with my back turned, I made myself an easy target.

And by running in a straight line toward the sniper, I presented an opportunity to take us both out at once.

It wouldn’t target Jessica or Seti with such an attractive target available.

“Phyllis! Ready to fire!”

As Phyllis heard my shout and adjusted her position to aim her rifle, my Danger Sense skill activated, and time around me seemed to slow.

‘Here it comes!’

The Demon Rose was about to fire a water jet along a trajectory that would pierce through both me and Phyllis.

Meanwhile, Phyllis was aiming at the Demon Rose’s flower visible over my shoulder, her expression grave.

I stopped running and quickly turned around as the high-pressure water stream flew toward my chest.

Normally, this stream would have pierced through me and inflicted fatal wounds on Phyllis sitting behind me, but my special metal single-action revolver intercepted the stream before it could touch my body.

‘Fwaaack-!!’

“Ngggh!?”

I caught the attack at an angle with the bottom of the revolver’s grip in my right hand, while my left hand held the barrel to keep the revolver steady.

Pistol grips are usually made of wood or plastic, but they have metal plates running along the center.

With my Danger Sense skill, I could precisely track the water jet’s trajectory and deflect it by catching it at an angle with the narrow metal plate section.

The high-pressure water jet, deflected by the metal incline, passed by my face, spraying fine droplets.

Even though the water jet’s cutting power couldn’t slice through metal, I couldn’t maintain this position forever.

I could hold out for barely a second. But I believed that brief moment would bring us victory.

“Lightning Bolt {Accelerated Thunder Bullet}!!”

The beautiful elven sniper who had been waiting for this one chance wouldn’t miss the exposed weak point of the Demon Rose.

‘Crackle!’

As the silver-white lightning pierced through the center of the Demon Rose, the fierce water stream broke off, and its widely spread thorny stems began to wither and crumble instantly.

Where the Demon Rose had bloomed, a fist-sized magic stone now sat atop a small pile of ash.

“How’s your wound?”

“Owww… Thanks to Jessica it’s healed, but it still feels tingly.”

“Thank goodness it ended like that. Even Heal Touch, which specializes in external wounds, can’t reattach severed parts.”

Mina’s left arm, which had been torn by the water jet, fortunately recovered completely without any aftereffects or even scars.

Without Mina’s heroic act of protecting Phyllis from the first strike, today’s victory wouldn’t have been possible.

The person who understood this best was Phyllis, the MVP of this battle.

“I’m sorry. You almost suffered an irreversible injury protecting me. And your precious shield was destroyed…”

“Oh, that? Don’t worry about it. I can make another one anytime as long as I have the materials. I just never imagined it would break from a water gun, you know.”

“I’ve heard high-pressure water streams can cut through rock and metal depending on their power. Demon Rose’s magic wasn’t quite that strong, though.”

“Hmm~ Water pressure metal cutting… I should research that.”

Mina’s mentality was admirable—prioritizing her researcher’s curiosity despite nearly having her arm severed by that water cutter.

While Phyllis was awkwardly trying to figure out how to respond to Mina’s attitude, Seti, who had retrieved the Demon Rose’s magic stone, held it out to Jessica.

“Jessica, look at this. The magic stone is glowing.”

“Huh? Really?”

The Demon Rose’s magic stone in Seti’s hand was emitting a soft blue light.

“This is… a magic formula! The magical elements in the magic stone have formed a complete formula!”

“Wow, really!? Amazing!!”

Hearing Jessica’s words, Mina tossed aside the shield fragments she was holding and rushed over.

“Is it good for a magic stone to contain a formula?”

“It’s not just good! For mages, objects containing magical elements represent opportunities to learn new magic!”

“Ah… so that means?”

“Most likely, that magic stone contains the water-attribute magic that Demon Rose used. For Jessica, a mage, this is an invaluable opportunity for growth.”

Phyllis calmly explained while watching Jessica, who couldn’t hide her excitement.

But even Phyllis herself was occasionally glancing at the Demon Rose’s magic stone, showing interest as a magic user.

“If you’re interested, Phyllis, why don’t you take a closer look too?”

“No, I cannot. Each magical element extracted from that can be transferred to only one person. It’s not my place to interfere when I haven’t even studied human magic.”

“Wouldn’t it be okay just to look?”

“Human desire is like fragrant wine. Once you open the bottle, you want to pour it into a glass; once it’s in a glass, you want to drink it. An elven guardian is not so shameless as to covet another’s wine.”

So-called “seeing leads to coveting,” I suppose.

Despite saying that, her gaze kept drifting toward the magic stone, but I decided to let it slide.

“Mina, are you interested in the magic stone too?”

“Ah~ I just have academic curiosity. Since I’m not a mage, I don’t need to receive the transfer—I just want to see how the formula is structured.”

“Then how about Jessica receives the magical elements from the stone here, and Mina observes? The three of us can clean up the area in the meantime.”

“No, we should do that together.”

Jessica said that, but she couldn’t take her mind off the Demon Rose’s magic stone.

Phyllis, watching Jessica, smiled gently and made an offer that couldn’t be refused.

“Since we’ve defeated the Giant Bees, I’d like to collect their stingers. If you don’t know how to extract them, having more people won’t help—it would be more efficient for you to focus on learning the magic.”

“R-really? Then I won’t hold back…”

“Let’s go over there, Jessica. We’ll be in the way if we stay here.”

While Jessica and Mina sat in a corner examining the Demon Rose’s magic stone, Seti, Phyllis, and I began processing the Giant Bee carcasses.

“I’ll extract the Giant Bee stingers, so one person should hold the body and the other dig holes.”

“I’ll dig the holes.”

“Then I’m in charge of the bodies… Should I hold them like this?”

“Yes, that’s good. Let’s begin.”

Phyllis skillfully separated the Giant Bee stingers along with their venom sacs.

Unfortunately, we had to give up on the bodies where my revolver bullets had burst the venom sacs, but except for two or three, we were able to recover the stingers and venom sacs intact.

By the time we finished collecting stingers from about thirty bees, Jessica and Mina had also finished their work and were cleaning up the area.

The Demon Rose’s magic stone in Jessica’s hand no longer glowed, suggesting it had reverted to an ordinary magic stone.

“Oh, are you done?”

“Yes. When we get back to the Third Western City, I’ll need to edit my grimoire again.”

“I’ve also figured out how to complete Will’s revolver! If I combine the formula I learned today with elven magical theory… hehehe.”

Seeing how happy the two were, it seemed the Demon Rose subjugation mission had yielded better results than expected.

We set out on our return journey to the Willow Sanctuary, gazing at the morning sun rising high in the eastern sky.