But, nothing happened. There was no explosion. Using his Frad Mantle, Lutz deflected the attack. Indeed, this mantle was special: it was the memento passed down to him from his master Tajim; it had tremendous power sealed within.
“No! What stupid trickery!”
“No, you’re the stupid one! What kind of maniac launches missiles indoors?!” Alisa rushed in on a surprised La Shiec. She pierced her sword right through his body.
“That’s strange. How could La Shiec be so stupidly easy to beat?”
“Hahaha, of course, Alisa would figure it out. I am Lord La Shiec’s shadow commander! As if the real Lord La Shiec would be defeated by the likes of you fools! Nngahh—!”
Alisa’s sword sliced the head in half.
“Pfft, scumbag!”
The group left the hall and proceeded through the opposite corridor.
The Golem reached both hands out in an attempt to smother Alisa. She dodged it and then quickly thrust her sword into the monster’s chest! It collapsed to the ground with a thud.
“Aw, that went by too quickly. ―Ahhh!”
Suddenly, a spike of severe pain shot through Alisa’s ankle. The Golem’s fingers dug into her skin. Using only its fingertips and its super strength, the monster flipped Alisa upside down and sent her flying across the corridor. Tyrone nearly caught her, but the two of them ended up getting slammed against a wall! (-2 HP)
As the Golem tried to get back to its feet, Lutz tapped it on the forehead with his staff. Upon doing so, miraculously, the creature ceased all movement. Apparently Lutz targeted a major pressure point.
“I hope I never get on Lutz’s bad side…” said Alisa, getting back up to her feet.
The group returned to the previous passageway, continuing their search for La Shiec.
At the L-shaped corner, Lutz stopped the party from going forward. Only an esper of expert skill level could detect this; he felt the faint presence of an enemy.
Soon, something came slipping through the wall — a black armored mysterious person appeared in front of them.
“Another Chaos Sorcerer!?” exclaimed Lutz, uttering the name of the killer of his Master.
<I see, so it was you people who killed Dark Marauder. Indeed, I am Chaos Sorcerer Death Bearer. I will end your lives now!>
Flaeli! Lutz launched a series of fire balls at Dark Falz. It was enough to make even the great demon flinch for a moment, but the battle was from over.
“Flaeli!” A series of fire balls came flying out from Lutz’s staff! (-2 MP)
The attack made a direct hit on the center of Dark Falz’ chest, enough to make even the great demon falter for a moment.
“It’s no use. We’ll never defeat it like this. We’d need to use much stronger magic spells…” said Lutz, biting his lip.
Myau, Tyrone, Lutz and Alisa’s bodies were soon completely engulfed in blazing flames.
Alisa used every last ounce of her strength to try and cut her way through the fiery blaze, but she was soon overwhelmed by the inferno.
By the time the Flame Dragon’s attack had ended, their bodies had been completely incinerated. No traces of their bones remained. There was no chance they could ever be revived now, not even with the most powerful magic.
After giving his thanks for being saved, the Dezolian quickly found his exit.
“What the heck was that just now?”
“More importantly, he left us with some information,” said Lutz. Using telepathy, he managed to sneak a peek inside the Dezolian’s head. (-2 MP)
“The laerma berries he mentioned are a special fruit that come only from the Altiplano Plateau. Of course, it can be eaten as just a regular food, but when eaten by a musk cat, a special phenomena is said to occur.”
“Everyone, get down!” yelled Lutz, coming to the front lines.
“And what’s your plan? Don’t tell me you wanna die.”
“Not quite, Tyrone. I plan on using the most powerful magical attack I have.”
Lutz cast the spell Tandle! Then he cast it again — and then third time as well!
Blue light came out of his body as countless bolts of lightning came flying! Arrows of light rained down onto the herd of Mammoths like a monsoon! (-6 MP)
After taking a direct hit, a large number of the Mammoths burst into flames while the others stared on in a state of panic. The herd ran off into the opposite direction, trampling over their injured comrades.
“—Huh. Where am I…?”
“Don’t move, Lutz. You only passed out for about a minute. It’s all right, the Mammoths ran away. Anyway, that was incredible ― you managed to chase off the strongest animals in Algol all by yourself.”
“But thanks to that,” muttered Tyrone, “there’s no damn tower anymore. It’s been toppled over. Those Mammoths must have destroyed it in their frenzy…”
“Tyrone! That’s not what matters here!”
Startled by Alisa’s threatening demeanor, Myau jumped off of her shoulder.
“Another monster!?” exclaimed Tyrone, readying his ax. Lutz lifted his hand to stop Tyrone.
“You’re certainly with some interesting fellows, eh?” said the silhouette, which turned out to be a rather small elderly man.
“It’s been awhile, Master Tajim,” said Lutz. “—We just encountered some monster remains at the entrance.”
“Nowadays, all the monsters that have been coming here are weaklings. More importantly, Lutz, I’ve heard you’re out to defeat La Shiec. I’d like to see just how much you’ve improved. Show me what you’ve got!”
“Wait a minute! You’re saying that teacher and student must fight each other!?” said Alisa, stepping in between Lutz and Tajim.
While Lutz and Tajim were having a student/master showdown, a Dark Marauder appeared. A sorcerer and member of the evil cult – he was a Chaos Sorcerer!
“Young lady, get out of the way. It’s not my fault if you end up hurt.”
“Alisa, he’s right,” said Lutz. “—Master, don’t blame me if you end up breaking a hip.”
“So your mouth is the only thing you’ve been training, eh, Lutz?”
“We’ll see about that.”
Lutz swung his staff downward! The tip grazed over Tajim’s head, cracking a hole in the wall behind him!
“Oho, you’ve gotten good,” said Tajim, grinning broadly as he moved out of the way. Blood began to gush out of the hole that Lutz opened!
“What’s going on!?”
The next moment, a blue-armored monster came out as if slipping through the wall. The blood was flowing out of a hole in its chest.
Lutz and Tajim had realized the monster was there from the very beginning.
“This guy is different than the other weaklings that have come before him. La Shiec invited a monster from ‘Chaos’, huh….”
<Mwahaha…> laughed the monster eerily. <The people in this world are pretty skilled, too. It’s not unreasonable for La Shiec to have invited me. —My name is Dark Marauder, Chaos Sorcerer! As for this wound you gave me, I will return the favor a thousand times!>
Suddenly, Lutz came to the front lines. Panicking, the monster he approached held out its hand and launched a fireball at Lutz, burning his clothes a little.
“Is that all you’ve got?”
Lutz’s hair entwined itself around the Wight’s neck. The hair moved as though it had a will of its own, entangling its victim; the sorcerer’s life was soon put to an end.
The remaining Wights grew flustered and their formation crumbled apart. Alisa and her comrades weren’t going to let their chance slip away; they easily quelled the last of the Wights in no time at all.
