Chapter 96: Fiss’s Growth
“Is this around where the Twilight Zone starts?”
“That’s right. Though, it’s not like there’s a clear boundary.”
I carry Fiss as we dash through the rugged rocky mountains, making sure to move horizontally so she doesn’t get motion sickness.
“I’ve found a group. But there are quite a few of them.”
I hide in the shadow of a rock so the Demon Beasts won’t spot us, and relay the information.
What I found was a group of Steel Ants. There are five in total, two Greater Beasts and three Lesser Beasts.
They’re crawling along the valley floor.
“What do we do? Fight them?”
“If you’ll back me up.”
“Of course. I won’t let you die, so go all out.”
Fiss leaps out from the rock’s shadow.
The Steel Ants, hearing the sound of her armor, turn around and begin to form a battle formation.
The three Lesser Beasts are in front, with the two Greater Beasts holding the rear.
“(Are they training their successors too?)”
I think about useless things like that as I watch Fiss’s battle.
It seems the Lesser Beasts can launch acid, as they all have their tail needles pointed forward.
“〖Physical Keen Sight〗”
The moment her sensory enhancement activates, the first acid shot is fired.
Fiss hasn’t used her Physical Boost magic yet—no, she doesn’t need to.
“Shhh.”
She exhales softly and slightly lowers her body. That’s all it takes for her to slip under the first acid shot.
The second shot comes a beat later. She sidesteps the acid fired by the one on the right.
The third Lesser Beast’s acid doesn’t even come close to hitting Fiss, flying off in a completely different direction.
“〖Physical Boost Leg〗”
The moment the three are preparing their next attack, her Physical Boost magic activates.
With this magic, which concentrates on enhancing only her leg strength, Fiss accelerates rapidly.
She takes advantage of the sudden change in pace to catch them off guard, closing in on the Lesser Beasts before they can react.
“First, the stronger ones.”
But she passes right by them without doing anything.
In a one-versus-many situation, the standard tactic is to target the weaker enemies first to eliminate the numerical disadvantage, but Fiss, with her Feral Beast weapon, has an attack power that’s beyond the norm.
“〖Physical Boost〗”
The Greater Beast of the Steel Ants is left behind by the sudden acceleration.
A blow from her battle axe slams into its head.
The speed she gained from the sufficient run-up, combined with the enhancements she applied to parts other than her legs just before,
resulted in the axe blade splitting the carapace-covered head in two, from top to bottom.
“Gijijii!”
The other Greater Beast bares its Fangs, trying to exploit the opening after the attack.
Fiss is trying to pull her axe back, but she won’t make it in time.
Her legs, which she focused on enhancing, can’t keep up with the Greater Beast’s movements.
—But Fiss herself, who is fighting, probably understands that best.
“Haah!”
“(Oh)”
She uses a unique body maneuver, swinging her entire body around her leg as an axis.
This forcefully increases her movement speed.
Fangs and axe clash head-on. After a moment of stalemate, the axe wins out.
It slices off one of the jaws and, with a return swing, slashes the face diagonally. The ant’s body falls to the ground with a thud.
Once it’s like that, it’s just a formality.
Fiss easily wipes out the three panicked Lesser Beasts, winning the battle.
“It’s over.”
“Good job. I didn’t think you’d take them all out by yourself, even with the Greater Beasts. I was thinking of jumping in to help, but it was a needless worry.”
“You could have helped… it would have been easier that way.”
“No, no, your Experience Points would have decreased. It’s better to defeat them alone if you can.”
I don’t know how it’s allocated, but I understand intuitively that you get more Experience Points the more you contribute in battle.
“By the way, is your Mana level okay?”
“Yeah, it’s still over 90%. The usage time was short, and my Level went up to 18.”
“…Oh! It went up a lot at once.”
It’s a bit stingy that she’s only Level 18 even after defeating two Greater Beasts, but that’s probably normal.
Leveling up is something you do over a lifetime, after all.
“Let’s keep hunting Greater Beasts at this rate.”
“If we can find them.”
I start moving again with Fiss on my back.
“Still, your fighting just now was amazing. I heard that partial enhancements throw off your senses, but you’ve mastered it so well. Especially that thing you did when you defeated the second Greater Beast, how did you manage to do that on the fly?”
“? I just fought normally. More importantly, it was easier because you told me that suddenly getting faster can catch them off guard.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t have thought of concentrated enhancements myself.”
“Oh, speaking of magic, I just thought of another idea.”
Actually, I was planning to teach her later because I thought, “Teaching her too many things at once might confuse her.”
However, she mastered concentrated enhancements sooner than I expected, so I decided to teach her the second idea as well.
“—Manipulating my body?”
“That’s right. Mages can manipulate things around them, right?”
“Certainly. It’s the job of water mages to drain the water that accumulates in the tunnels.”
“Is that so…”
I was imagining Paula, who can bend and expand space.
“Well, that’s why I think Fiss might be able to do something similar with her own body. For example, maybe… she could extend and manipulate her hair, or something.”
“I see.”
Fiss starts meditating on my back.
After a while, her roughly cut white hair begins to sway.
It’s clear that it’s not just being swayed by my movements, as it’s defying gravity and standing straight up.
“…It feels strange.”
Fiss, with her Super Saiyan-like hairstyle, mutters.
“How is it? Can you control it?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty easy.”
Fiss’s head isn’t moving, but her hair is spinning like a propeller.
It’s quite fast.
“I can extend it too, it seems.”
The propeller blades have widened.
It’s kind of surreal.
“Thanks, that’s enough.”
When I say that, the propeller stops spinning.
Then, her hair returns to normal. The length is back to her usual semi-long style.
“Incredible. I could extend my hair with 〖Physical Recovery〗, which heals my body, but it stayed extended even after I canceled the magic.”
“This magic has different specifications, huh?”
Hmm, when you cancel the magic, the state returns to normal… got it.
If that’s the case, then I can probably do that too.
“Then next, how about trying to extend your arm?”
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Thank you very much for your continued support of my work.
Until now, I have been updating every other day, but from now on, due to personal reasons, I will be updating every three days.
Thank you for your understanding.