The Extra's Reincarnation-Chapter 69: Arborax (2)

[Divine Eyes Of Convergence Has Activated!]

His eyes glowed, and he saw the trajectory of where the branches were landing. Julian counted exactly 15 wooden hands.

-Oh, no... he’s going to get us both eliminated! What is he thinking trying to block those branches with just mana? He’s a support, not a tank!

Kyra’s eyes lost hope the moment their vision was covered in wood. In that split second, Julian made a decision.

He couldn’t reveal the full extent of his abilities, but he couldn’t let Kyra get hurt, either.

Pointing his fingers like a gun, he used his skill mana bullet, and the mana rushed forth to the tip of his finger like a waterfall.

"Bang..."

With shining rays of blue light, Julian rapidly shot bullets through all the branches.

BAM...BAM...BAM...

Like a sheriff in a standoff, Julian’s attacks destroyed any form of wood that tried to reach his Frontcaster.

"What the… Uh… Nice!"

Kyra fell into a shock seeing how he had taken care of things so easily, it wasn’t something she thought Julian could do.

At first glance back in the hall, Kyra immediately noticed how devoid of energy his body seemed. She couldn’t determine whether this emptiness stemmed from a deficiency in mana or if that was simply the nature of his presence. Regardless, she sensed there was something unusual about his mana core.

-Did I underestimate him? No, that can’t be right. He was just... lucky. Or perhaps he had a contract with a spirit that could do that...

Even with the information shown from Julian she continued to ponder on the nature of his skill, usually monster bosses have higher resistance to mana focused attacks, however with Julian he not only used a technique that focused on mana but it lacked a common variation of spell arts.

Although Kyra seemed very confused about how Julian managed to inflict damage on the Arborax with such an unorthodox technique, she couldn’t deny its effectiveness.

But right now, she needed to focus on dealing damage to Arborax to weaken its state.

That was her job as a Frontcaster.

Deal damage and deal even more.

As she gazed upon the colossal monster, her hands began to glow with a soft green light as she channeled her magic.

HWAM…

"Wind Beam!" Kyra called out with strong voice.

WHOOOSH!

A concentrated blast of wind shot from her palms, striking Arborax’s main body with surprising force.

GYAKK!!

The monster let out a creaking roar of pain.

Meanwhile, at the front lines, Jake was struggling to maintain his wind barrier against the relentless assault of branches.

With each time he had dodged a streak of hands, another barrage of them would come down swinging at a rapid speed of force, like a windmill completing it’s spin after it’s rotation.

-It’s too exhausting… haah… If they don’t find it’s weakness now, I think I’ll be done before it happens.

Sweat poured down his face as he gritted his teeth, pushing himself to the limit.

BASH!

A wooden hand in the shape of a hammer struck the wind barrier and another in the shape of a drill spun ferociously towards Jake’s lower hip.

Jake’s eyes widened in panic as he saw the drill-shaped branch spiraling towards him.

He knew his wind barrier wouldn’t hold against such a concentrated attack.

"Watch out!" Marcus shouted, leaping towards Jake with his wind blade raised.

SLASH!

Marcus’s blade sliced through the air, severing the drill-branch just inches from Jake’s body. The arm of the wooden head fell to the ground, however… The drill did not stop spinning.

BANG!

Jake was struck with the wooden drill, and he was sent flying in the other direction. His body slammed against a massive tree.

"Damn it… I’m so… weak…"

Golden pixels surrounded Jake, and he closed his eyes as he disappeared into the air.

[Jake Banter #2,451 - Has Been Eliminated.]

The loss of their tank sent a ripple of panic through the group. Without Jake’s wind barrier, they were suddenly much more vulnerable to the Arborax’s relentless attacks, there wasn’t anyone good enough to keep dragging out the monsters attacks.

"No!"

Kyra cried out, her eyes widening in shock as Jake vanished.

With a creaking roar, it redoubled its assault, wooden limbs lashing out in all directions.

Marcus barely managed to dodge a swipe that would have taken his head off, rolling to the side and coming up in a defensive stance.

"We need a new plan, now!" he shouted, his wind blade slashing the incoming branches.

And just as another massive attack from Arborax was about to rain down from above, a massive shield made of flames rose to not only protect Marcus but also Julian and Kyra.

SHAAWWW!

Once everyone was under Faustino’s shield, he set up a barrier of flames.

"What do we do?!"

Kyra began to panic as everything was now falling apart. Even Faustino’s expression was concerned at the situation at hand. The monster was indeed more difficult than most low-high grade bosses. Even a regular adventurer would struggle to fight it on their own without prep time.

"Without a tank, our Frontcaster will be more vulnerable to surprise attacks,"

Faustino, holding both his hands close to the barrier, spoke up. He had managed to cover everyone while using half of his mana, but he wouldn’t let up knowing that mentioning his mana reserves would become a weakness.

As the flaming barrier crackled around them, everyone was in distress.

However… Julian remained calm under the loss of their comrade.

He already knew the answer to the problem, but it was all a matter of time until Marcus would figure it out. After all, he was destined to be the one to win this competition according to the story, so it wouldn’t have mattered if he stepped in.

But just then, Julian had a notification within the system.

FWANG

[Hidden Archives Database Has Been Activated!]

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

[Volume 0: Regressor’s Knowledge]

[Description: In the original event of the Royal 8 Challenge, the team known as Group 7 originally had the following characters: Marcus Renfield, Faustino Skye, Kyra Devereaux, Tiberus Ashworth, and Extra Character. Marcus Renfield would be the key to defeating Arborax during the 6th Challenge, however, he struggled to find the weakness. The only person who knew of the monster’s vulnerability was the key character: Tiberus Ashworth… (Hidden Information will be revealed after combat).]

As the information of the system stared back into the eyes of Julian, he realized that him and Tiberus were interchangeable factors to the boss fights. Which was what most likely led him to become one of the team members, and if that was the case then he had no choice but to give Marcus a hand.

"We need to target its head. I’ve noticed it’s been protecting that spot the entire time."

Julian said with a steady despite all the chaos happening.

Marcus eyed Julian suspiciously. If Julian had the time to focus his eyes on their fight, why hadn’t he spoken up about the crucial information that could have saved their teammate?

Marcus was having trouble understanding how he knew this information, his goal as a support should only have eyes and care for his Frontcaster.

And since he didn’t have any natural talent in using support spells, he had to be busy keeping an eye out for the branches on the lower ground.

Still, Marcus couldn’t just blame him for a simple mistake; perhaps Julian had only realized it after Jake had been eliminated.

"Of course… that means the core must be there. But how do we reach it? It’s too high up, and those branches will tear us apart if we try to climb."

Julian’s eyes darted between Marcus and Kyra.

He knew he couldn’t be the one to deliver the final blow, but he could set the stage for Marcus to succeed.

With a calm voice Julian spoke again.

"Kyra, you can create wind platforms, right? And Faustino, you can clear a path through the branches with your flames."

Kyra’s eyes lit up with understanding. "Yes! I can boost Marcus up towards the tree’s head!"

Faustino nodded grimly, his hands still raised to maintain the fiery barrier.

"I can create a corridor of fire to keep the branches at bay, but it won’t last long. We’ll only have one shot at this."

Marcus gripped his wind blade tighter, a determined gleam in his eye.

"Sounds good, then I’m ready whenever. Just tell me when."

Before finalizing his plan Julian did a quick run through in his head of how it should turn out.

-Naturally a woods weakness is flames and if a corridor of fire were to ascend upwards to the core, it would be impossible to sustain it until it reached the top. However, if I could have Faustino watching the ground on duty, it would mean easier work for me to snipe the armed branches out of the air which would lessen the workload and stamina Marcus would have to use getting there. So in a sense the roles have changed from having a Frontcaster to having 2 supports.