"What do you think of this fight, Big Sis?"
"…If it's just this fight, then it's Levia's win. However…" I replied with my own prediction to Haruka's question.
At the moment, Levia had the advantage.
The relationship of their elements was really big. Unfortunately, I couldn't see Fiona's HP or SP thanks to her level of 800, but I could tell that she was taking damage. I did give Fiona a recovery skill just in case, but most likely, it wasn't catching up.
That's why, if this fight were to continue, Levia would win.
…However…
[Guardian Deity Levia]
[Level]: 500
[Race]: Artificial Life Form
[HP]: 103567/103567
"But in the end, Levia is the one who'll lose." Levia's max HP itself was getting shaved away.
That Fiona, what a thing to do. She was evaporating the water that made up Levia's body to weaken it so that she could have the advantage later. In other words, it wasn't a strategy to win in the moment, but one that looked forward to battles later on! She was allowing her opponent to win right now in order to certainly take victory later.
At a glance, Fiona looks like she's in the depths of madness, but… She's actually pretty calm, isn't she?
"I see… In other words…"
"Yeah. Fiona never intended to win this fight from the start. She forced Levia to move by making it seem like the final battle and planned to weaken it."
I thought it was strange. Even though power levels were supposed to have weakened in these past one thousand years, the monsters were still clearly too weak.
However, I understood after watching Fiona fight. They were expendable bait, ready to be exterminated. They were just there to lure out Levia. It was all Fiona's plan after having decided that it would be impossible to defeat Levia in just one fight.
"Fiona should already be fighting while planning her escape. And neither Juvia nor Levia will chase too far."
"They're the guardians of this country, after all… They're pretty smart, so I bet Juvia is thinking, 'This could be a trap, and more monsters will come while we're away.' So there's no way she'll give chase."
"…That Fiona, she's gotten quite cunning over the years."
"You were the one who taught her to fight that way in the first place, Big Sis."
As Haruka pointed out, I was probably the one who taught Fiona all those tricks. In truth, I did make her fight real sneaky like that in the game in order to help make up for her low stats. But… Even I don't remember teaching her anything like how to jump in such a huge body. She probably just grew. I don't know if I should be happy about it or not, though.
Anyway, it's finally reached the point where I can't just sit and watch any longer. I couldn't expose myself to so many people either, though, so I couldn't appear in front of Fiona as "Lunaru Fenris" just yet. Or rather, if I did, in the worst case, I'd get attacked by Levia from behind. However, I can force Fiona to retreat easily enough.
"We're going, Haruka. Hang on tight."
"Huh? No way. Are you going to jump down from here?"
"What else is there to do?"
As soon as I said that, I jumped off. My wings were still stuffed inside my robe, so of course, I wasn't able to fly, but I wasn't planning to anyway. I allowed gravity to accelerate me and added ESP on top of that to turn myself into a cannonball.
My target was Fiona, who was clashing with Levia! Specifically, her head!
"HYOWHAAAAAAAHHHH?!"
"We don't enjoy the idea of kicking a loyal subject, but… Apologies, Fiona! Unfortunately, We don't wish for anything like revenge, and We have no recollection of asking you to do this, either! Cool your jets, you foolish sheep!"
Ignoring Haruka, who was clinging onto me while screaming, I charged at Fiona.
I didn't use any skills whatsoever. In the first place, since I had gotten to level 100 in both the Grappler and Champion classes, my barehanded attacks were now permanently damage-boosted. In other words, I had passives. That's why I didn't need any half-baked attack skills right now. My physical attacks that I've leveled up-in other words, my regular attacks—would work just fine.
…No, just in case, I should activate the Warrior skill "Blunted-Sword Strike." It's a mercy skill that forces the next attack made after the skill is used to never reduce the opponent's HP to 0. The fun thing about this skill is that even though the skill is named "Blunted-Sword Strike," it still works with weapons that don't have a blade or even with one's bare hands.
It makes you think, wouldn't the name "Hold Back" or something be more appropriate?
"—?!"
Fiona noticed me, but it was already too late. Having accelerated more than enough, my kicked connected, burying my feet in Fiona's head, blowing her and her giant over—100-meter—tall body back.
After crushing several mountains, rolling over several times, and then crushing several more mountains in her way, Fiona finally stopped, having been blasted back around a kilometer.
And I noticed Juvia and the others turn their shocked gazes towards Haruka and I as we landed.
"Looks like you're having a hard time, Witch Princess. It must be some sort of fate that We visited at this time… We shall lend you a hand."
"Y-you're… Haruka and Naruko?!"
"Ohh, Teuchi. It's great to see you alive."
"Hawmowkneefree…"
"…The girl's not looking okay back there, you know?"
For now, I breathed a sigh of relief, having been able to confirm Teuchi safety up close. I already knew since I was watching from afar, though. He had wounds on his shoulder and leg, but at that level they'd probably heal without a scratch.
Juvia was… looking at us suspiciously.
Well, that's a matter of course, I guess. Someone as suspicious as me wearing a mantle just suddenly fell out of the sky and kicked away one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians. She almost certainly knows I'm someone from one thousand years ago. But it's not too much of a problem right now. I already planned to show myself to Juvia anyway, so the important thing was just to not expose myself too much to anyone else.
"That power… Just what are you…?"
"We shall answer that question at a later date, Witch Princess. However, there are too many eyes upon us now… We have our own circumstances as well. Understand that We cannot reveal that just yet."
"—?! That way of speaking… And that voice… No, it can't be… There's no way…!"
Oh? Just what I'd expect out of Juvia; she figured it out just from that. As for my way of speaking, well, I'd prefer it if you didn't pay so much attention to that. No matter how much I try to fix it, this pattern just comes out like I've been using it for years and years. I've given up on doing something about it already. If I concentrate, I can loosen up my speech a little but really only a little.
Leaving Juvia where she was, I lightly kicked off the ground, closing the distance with Fiona. I used a Strider skill to instantly reduce my distance from my opponent to 0, "Blink." The class comboed really well with Grapplers, so there were a lot of players who took both the Grappler and Strider classes. I was one of those.
"Ghh, urgh… Just what are you…!"
Ah, she spoke. What the hell, Fiona? You can totally speak! You've only been going "Meehh" for a while now, so I totally thought you couldn't speak.
But man, seeing you like this is as awesome as always. Even though you were smaller than me when we first met, you've grown a lot.
"Sorry, but We can't answer that question for you now. There are elves among those soldiers… If We say something We shouldn't, it'll spread among them immediately. So, I will simply give you a single 'order' for now… Turn back."
I turned back on my Pressure, which I'd kept off this whole time. Of course, it wouldn't render Fiona immobile, but it should go some way to revealing my identity to her. Even if she doesn't figure it out, it should at least get her to figure out that I'm not someone she can win against with how wounded she is right now.
"—! Th-this pressure…! It can't be, you… No, you're…?!"
"Now is not the time to answer that. However, We will say this: We will surely give you the answer you desire."
"…!"
The madness disappeared from Fiona's eyes.
It seems she did realize my identity. However, from what I can tell, she's still half in doubt and half wanting to believe.
She turned her back to me and slowly started to leave while causing the ground to shake. Every once in a while she'd turn back to look at me, which was so like Fiona in the past I couldn't help but laugh.
…Hm? Fiona? The past? Did I just start thinking like Naru instead of me…? Well, whatever.