Hellmode ~Gamer Who Likes to Speedrun Becomes Peerless in a Parallel World with Obsolete Setting~-Chapter 698Vol. 12 - - Grand Battle against Soul Beast Nestirad (6)

Allen and Merle blitz toward the Nestirad in a cross-slash fashion, an attempt to cut its neck for all purpose and intent.

With Luck's debuff still acting on it, Allen's sword deeply cut through the neck.

"Whoa!?"

In their long fight, at last, Nestirad bent backward, and took one step backward, then another.

Kurena had been releasing her onslaught from behind the Nestirad, and not expecting the changes, let out a startled cry and hurried to open the gap from looming Nestirad's back.

Blood sprayed like water-fountain from the slashed wound, and pushed him to retreat backward, however Nestirad had yet to go down.

«Concentrated fire, everyone!! The victory is just within our sight!!»

"Go-go! My debuffs aren't going anywhere for sure!!"

"I'm in! Let's take down the big guy!!"

Luck, Kurena, and the rest of his comrades let out a spirited shout in response to Allen's inspiring tagline, transmitted via Bird F.

(Hmm? These movements sound...!! We're not falling again into your trick, Nestirad!!)

«Vanguard, fall back right now!!»

With Allen's intelligence and Bird E's «Hawk Vision», it was child's play for him to figure out what was the next course of action for Nestirad, or whom it would target next, and he would then accordingly take action.

Right now, Nestirad was in an attempt to recover himself.

(Idiot. In panic, he forgot he already used that move. With how long it takes to use it, he ain't hitting anyone.)

Nestirad's skill was required to go through multiple phases; charge, activate and then cooldown. At the same time, its body movement—Nestirad would sink its waist to assume a punching stance, and would be facing the direction of its target—sold out whoever it was aiming for.

«Retreat, Dogora!!»

«Absorption Explosive Punch!!»

"Whoops! You're not hitting me again!!"

Receiving Allen's instruction, Dogora promptly fall behind, evading Nestirad's fist with a paper-thin margin. Then, once Nestirad had its punch wasted, Dogora once again slipped in the defence pocket of it while it still had yet to retract the fist, and slash at it.

«Y-You think you have me locked by surrounding me?! Whirling Edge!!»

Moving onward, Nestirad activated its strongest technique with its right hand. However Allen had already seen it would use that technique.

«Freez Canonnnn!!»

On the other hand, Macris had already brought his mana in order to activate his special skill, and was just waiting for the moment. And that moment was present for him when Nestirad once again deployed its «Whirling Edge», and was just in the phase of transitioning from using the gathered spiritual force to start spinning.

In that split moment, Macris activated his skill, and a cone shaped ice structure crashed onto the face of Nestirad, darkening its vision for a moment. It caused Nestirad to lose its target, and consequently gave them ample time to get out of the range.

From the distance, everyone then showered Nestirad with their long-distance attacks.

(All the struggles at this moment are useless! Just drop dead for me!! You're not healing again!!)

«Keep the formation ongoing, everyone. We're just this close to taking it down!!»

As the battle against Nestirad reached its peak, everyone's initial excitement had started to calm down. For what it matters, they know they must not deviate from their strategy until the target has completely gone down, no matter the drastic change it causes.

(Hmm...? It seems like the second debuff has expired. I guess it would be too much to hope for a third debuff proc. But atleast, it appeared «Absorption Explosive Punch» was Nestirad's sole skill to recover itself considering.)

The skeleton on Nestirad's back had started to scratch its neck with a bony hand, and showed an anguished expression as if it was suffocating.

Well, debuffs could always be casted so they're not a problem.

«No, this isn't the place. I can't lose. Is it to say my judgement was wrong?»

Nestirad muttered in soliloquy to no one.

(Huh? What's it talking about?)

The rain of attacks continued to strike down Nestirad, with its blood gushing out like a broken faucet, and bits and pieces of flesh scattering around. Nestirad was certainly reaching the death's door, yet its gaze was locked on the empty space.

Then, it slowly thrusted out its left hand forward.

«It's setting for something!! Keep the concentrated fire, but have your vigilance on!»

On the other hand, a sphere of radiance had started to manifest at the end of Nestirad's left hand fist, helding a brilliant shine to it.

(Huh, this is... divine element?)

The orb of radiance held a sublimeness to it, yet, when it appeared in the hand of Nestirad, a being with asymmetrical structure, it instead appeared like an poor attempt to salvage a mistake.

The sublimeness reminiscent of the Creation God, overflowing with his love for Nestirad, however all that reverence would scatter apart when gaze captured that right hand, and the uneven body.

Nestirad had raised its right hand overhead, and from its tightly clenched fist spilled out a jet black spiritual aura.

«Vanguard, retreated to midguard now!!»

The voice of Allen transmitting through Bird F was grave, and conveyed an urgency never liked before.

Having his comrades distanced from the Nestirad, including Kurena or Shea who had been at its back, Allen vigilantly eyed the movement of Nestirad with Merle. With his intelligence surpassing 40,000, there was no doubt he could put up an appropriate measure against whatever the kind of move it was.

At the same time, it felt strange. Nestirad had used quite a few skills until now with each hand respectively, yet there wasn't a skill that required it to use two hands.

For what it's worth, the level of caution reached a peak in the mind of his comrades. The midguard, and even rearguard had stepped back slightly as they eyed any changes in the battlefield.

Meanwhile, Formar and Sophie laid a siege with Nestirad at the centre. They're determined to protect their armor no matter what it takes, even forfeiting their life.

«—Twin-Fang Convergence!»

Nestirad shouted the name of skill, and dropped its right fist, clad in jet black spiritual aura, straight above the orb of radiance on left hand.

*Fissure*

The right hand pulverised the orb of radiance, giving rise to a sharp cracking sound akin to mirror shattering.

"Huh, space?"

A doubtful murmur escaped from Allen suddenly. Because he noticed the right hand hadn't plunged into the ground. But that's where the doubt arises; if the right hand hadn't plunged completely, then where'd that scattering sound come from.

He promptly found the answer. The cracks had started to emerge in the space where the orb of radiance was. The space collapses, and takes the shape of a void. The cracks expand and hide the stomach of Nestirad behind it.

While he had everyone retreat, Allen himself had left behind at the forefront to perceive the changes. But he couldn't tell what had changed. He didn't receive any damage, nor has there been any change in his status.

**Gogogogogo!**

"Kyah!?"

"Lady Sofiarone!!"

Formar shouted when Sofia's scream echoed.

It felt as though everything was being pulled into the void that had appeared before Nestirad. The void exhibited a suction power so strong that it drew everyone—vanguard, midguard, and rearguard—toward Nestirad.

"Huh? Waaaaah!!"

«Hm? Woah!?»"

The attraction force couldn't be battled by even Kurea, who had attained new strength with job change, or Shea, who had been in Beast-ification made.

More and more cracks started to appear, but once the hole had grown big enough to swallow even a human sized object inside, it instead started to close itself. The tremendous suction force had finally stopped, but it had managed to break their formation.

With his staff deeply embedded into the ground, Keel desperately resisted, and when the suction force finally stopped, he found himself only an arms length away from Nestirad.

"Ahh!?"

Keel, holding the staff with both hands, could not help but yell and almost fell over from the recoil.

Meanwhile, Nestirad channeled spiritual force in the left hand to deliver a follow up strike, bringing a sense of despair to the team members.

Nestilad, intending to launch further attacks against his despairing allies, began gathering spiritual power into his left arm.

In the face of this ominous force, Allen quickly issued the next command.

«Everyone, fall back and reform the formation!!»

"Haaaa!!"

«Listen to me, Dogora! ......Not you too, Formar!»

In his time in the academy, Dogora had fostered a pride to protect midguard and rearguard as a vanguard. Hence, Allen command had yet to be issued when Dogora jumped at Nestirad and swung down the sacred artifact Kagutsuchi.

It wasn't him alone. Formar didn't allow himself to take shelter either.

"Sheesh, both of you're insufferable!!"

Meanwhile, Rosalina grumbled in dissatisfaction and ran off like a startled rabbit, not even once glancing behind.

The desperate situation breeds confusion among Allen's comrade, and turned into a wall to cut off from his commands. And just as he had worked his brain to think of an idea on how to bring together members as one mind, Nestirad used another skill.

«Chaotic Palm Strike!!»

Clad in spiritual force, Nestirad slammed its palm heel, causing a ripple to appear and spread far and wide.

The next moment, Allen felt a languidness washing over him.

"H-How could it be?!"

He hadn't even needed to open Grimoire and see that the buffs had been undone. To be precise, it had been all buffs that're removed, bringing down his status by more than half.

(No wait, it was a ripple effect?)

Now having to make-do with lowered intelligence, several strategies vied inside his mind to select from.

If it was ripple effect, it meant even the buffs on his comrades had been lost. But what was its range? Had there any comrade left behind who escaped from being caught up in it? What about flying summon beasts? Could he afford to check out Grimoire instead of the current situation? The vanguard were in danger of being wiped out.

He noticed a spiritual force gathering in Nestirad's right arm. And from that stance, it would be using Whirling Edge no doubt. Would Macris buff make it in time?

"Lightning Clap!"

*Clang*

Formar activated his divine skill «Lightning Clap» in a desperate attempt to provide even a split second more to escape from range of Nestirad. But with no buffs, it was always an impossible matter to hold off Nestirad for even a fraction of a split second. And sure enough, the attack collided against the palm, but was swatted away like a fly and scattered away.

«—Symphony Synchronisation Release! Absolute Defense!!»

However, Merle activated Angel C's awakened skill «Absolute Defense» at an urgent notice and leaped in front of Allen etc to shield them away.

"Merle! Did you release the connection!?"

Allen promptly fell when Merle removed the Symphony Synchronisation without his permission.

«Just run away!! Grrgh!»

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Caught squarely in the «Whirling Edge», Merle's armor got completely pulverized and his body was bounced back like a cannonball, even overtaking Rosalina who had barely managed to escape.

Ultimately, without the buffs, not even the «Absolute Defense» could make any effect, and Merle was knocked out promptly. And had Allen been in synchronised state, he would have followed the site without buffs.

«Is there really no way!?»

Shea, who's often fixated on winning than how to win, groaned at the situation. Meanwhile, spiritual force had started to converge into Nestirad's left hand.

Arriving at this juncture, the outcome of the battle was all but decided.

On the other hand, Merle couldn't use any sort of technique or awakened skill if he didn't undone Absolute Defense first. But if he does that, Allen would be caught in Nestirad's onslaught.

There was no saying how many comrades would drop down, including himself, by the end they turned the tables.

"......Tsubamen. Homing Instinct!"

«Peeee!!»

As the party's leader, Allen prompted retreat.

Everyone disappeared from the battlefield in a blink of an eye. Nestirad stood stumped at his position, baffled at what just happened.

«What was I... oh, right. I was... searching for something.»

However in the next second, Nestirad shook the matter off its mind without a care, and resumed the exploration of Spiritual Disturbance.

T/N - This is three chapters update, just in case if anyone miss out. Also, if you're in discord server, you may see more than a few notifications, and that're due to updating the previous chapters (any changes are pinged apparently for now, and there's no way to turn it off.) For now, I have only updated ch 692 - 695. I will keep updating about previous chapters.