-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bonita instinctively drew her sword, and Latia immediately prepared to unleash her mana.
A steel door that appeared to be 5 meters wide and 5 meters tall was completely opened.
One by one, huge heads began to emerge from the opened steel door.
Soon, four enormous heads were stuck in the entrance, shaking their heads violently to try to get out.
After struggling for a while, as if their shoulders were caught, an arm finally emerged.
The arm was holding an axe with a completely worn-out blade, far from sharp.
However, it felt extremely threatening to those watching.
This was because the length of the axe blade was longer than an adult man.
The thick arm flailing outside the steel door seemed to be 3 meters long.
"...It's an Ettin!"
The Gray Bear Exploration Team turned their heads towards Liber.
"What?"
"Ettin? What's that?"
"It's a monster we captured near the northern ice region a few years ago. A giant monster with two heads. I never thought we'd use them today..."
Ettin.
A giant monster reaching 10 meters in height.
On its massive shoulders are two heads.
The two heads constantly bicker and fight with each other, but when they enter combat, they move busily in different directions, eliminating blind spots.
Its long, thick arms are over 5 meters long.
One hand holds an axe with a worn-out blade, and the other hand holds nothing.
The bare hand is mainly used to crush or smash humans.
Its thick, wide palm is also used as a shield.
The palm is made of particularly thick leather.
Bellum raised his fingers and counted the number of heads struggling to get out of the steel door.
"One, two, three, four... So that means there are two monsters?"
"Yeah. I heard they captured two back then."
An announcement echoed throughout the arena.
Ah, the monsters have been confined in a narrow space for too long, so they are a bit impatient and it will take some time for them to come out. In the meantime, we will explain the competition rules.
In the meantime, another arm emerged.
Thud!
It slammed down on the ground, seemingly enraged.
Vibrations echoed throughout the entire stadium.
The first match is a competition where the team that defeats the two-headed monster, the Ettin, first wins. There are two Ettins prepared. Once the Ettins have emerged from the steel door, two members from each team must come out and defeat them.
Crack.
Tear... Tear.
Cracks began to appear around the steel door made of thick stone walls.
Thud!
A part of the stone wall collapsed, and one of the Ettin's massive shoulders emerged.
One Ettin, using its axe as a cane, barely raised its upper body and completely came out into the arena.
"Kuaaa!"
The Ettin roared, seemingly enraged.
In preparation for any unforeseen circumstances, numerous archers and mages were positioned around the audience seats.
As one of them came out, the other one soon followed.
The Ettins' heads, filled with anger, looked around in all directions.
"Davian! Now we need to decide who will go out? Who can defeat that monster?"
The Ettin was a monster that Davian was seeing for the first time as well.
Davian turned his head and looked at Liber.
"Liber, what are the Ettin's characteristics? Any weaknesses?"
Liber, looking up to the upper left with his eyes, hesitated for a moment before shouting.
"Fire! They live in cold regions, so they hate hot things. Other than that, I don't know much. Their leather is so thick that you can't defeat them with ordinary swords."
"Fire? Davian is good with fire. I heard you defeated a famous fire mage from the Marino Empire with fire elemental magic!"
Nubes, startled, extended his index finger and placed it vertically on his lips.
"Hey, Bellum! Weren't we supposed to keep that a secret? We were supposed to say a detective killed him."
"Who cares? It's just us."
At that moment, Latia stepped forward.
"Davian can't go. We don't know what kind of matches will be held later. We need to save him for the final moment. I'll go out for this match. Anyone want to join me?"
Just as Bonita was about to step forward.
A thick forearm blocked her way.
"I'll go, Bonita. There might be matches that require swordsmanship, so you should save yourself for now."
Bonita looked up at Nubes.
"Nubes..."
"What? Are you touched?"
"Touched? Don't make me laugh. You just want to go out with Latia, don't you?"
"W-What? What are you talking about..."
Bonita slapped Nubes on the back.
"Do your best, big guy. Protect Latia with all your might. Then who knows? You might score some points."
"That's not it! For our ultimate victory, I'm making careful calculations..."
"Okay, okay, you go. But you have to make sure that monster doesn't touch a single hair on Latia's head."
Bonita pushed Nubes on the back.
Nubes naturally got pushed and stood next to Latia.
Of course, Nubes wasn't someone who would be pushed by Bonita if he didn't want to be.
"Let's go! Latia."
"Okay, Nubes. Please take care of me."
"Huh? Uh. Okay!"
Nubes took out a large shield and ran towards the center of the arena.
Latia followed behind him.
"Will they be okay?"
"Latia went, so it's fine. She can definitely handle one monster like that. The problem is which team can catch it faster."
Boom!
A fireball fired by Latia hit one of the Ettin's heads.
"Kuaaa!"
The enraged Ettin began to charge towards Latia and Nubes.
Davian turned his head and looked at the Leonel camp.
Two people from that side had already been selected and had begun fighting an Ettin.
However, both of their movements were not those of ordinary people.
Moreover, both of them were holding swords.
Swordsmen who had practiced inner force.
Davian asked Liber.
"You said you can't defeat the Ettin with ordinary sword attacks?"
"Huh? That's right. Unless it's a decent aura, you won't be able to pierce that thick leather."
"Two swordsmen came out from your older brother's team?"
"Huh? That's right. Wait! Those swordsmen are?"
"People you know?"
"Yeah. Ah...! So that's the strategy!"
"What strategy?"
"Fire attribute aura!"
At that moment.
Whoosh.
A fire-attributed aura was created on the sword of the swordsman on Leonel's side.
"Both of them are swordsmen who have intensively trained in fire-attributed aura!"
Seeing the fire, the Ettin hesitated for a moment.
The two swordsmen, wielding swords imbued with fire-attributed aura, moved quickly and reached the Ettin's feet.
Bonita frowned.
"That movement and aura. They look like 5-star swordsmen at a glance."
Bellum asked in surprise.
"What? 5-star swordsmen? We're just 1st graders. Isn't that too much?"
Davian shook his head.
"We didn't come here as mere 1st graders. We came here as the Gray Bear Exploration Team representing Elton Academy."
"Ah... that's true."
The two swordsmen from the Leonel team moved quickly, dodging the Ettin's attacks.
While doing so, they continued to attack the Ettin's legs with swords imbued with fire-attributed aura.
The Ettin's face grimaced whenever it was cut by the sword, as if the places touched by fire were painful.
The strange thing was that if the left leg was cut, the right face would grimace, and if the right leg was cut, the left face would grimace.
In the meantime.
Boom!
Nubes, who had blocked the Ettin's axe blade with his shield, was pushed sideways for a long time.
Without missing that moment, Latia's fire elemental magic poured down.
"Kuaaa!"
The Ettin, facing Latia's pillar of fire, waved its arms wildly as if it was hot.
It was clearly suffering whenever it was hit by fire attacks, but that didn't mean its thick leather was burning away.
Nubes quickly returned and stood next to Latia.
Davian nudged Liber.
"Is fire really that monster's weakness? I know they hate hot things, but this is nothing. It's just making them angrier."
"Um..., I guess so. Ettin isn't a very well-known monster. That's why our family captured it and brought it all the way here."
Davian turned his head and looked at the Leonel team's contestants.
Still the same method.
The two swordsmen imbued with fire-attributed aura were evading the Ettin's attacks and continuing to inflict wounds on its legs.
Unlike Latia's fire elemental magic, which couldn't burn the Ettin's thick leather, the swords of the two swordsmen imbued with fire-attributed aura were accumulating wounds on the Ettin's legs.
Bonita, who was watching this, slowly nodded her head.
"You have to unleash fire attacks and physical attacks at the same time to barely leave a wound, it seems. It seems they already researched how to defeat it."
Liber lowered his head.
"It seems so... It's a match prepared by my older brother. It may look fair on the surface, but it will never be."
Luna stamped her feet.
"What should we do then? Latia's attacks aren't working at all."
"We have to find a way."
A little later.
The Ettin's movements on Leonel's team's side were clearly slowing down.
The effect of accumulated lower body damage.
On the other hand, the situation was not good for Latia and Nubes.
Conversely, Nubes' movements were gradually becoming sluggish.
No matter how hard he trained his outer force, there was a limit to how much he could keep taking the attacks of that giant monster.
Since Latia, who had formed a party with him, was moving slowly, it was entirely up to Nubes to take the Ettin's strong attacks.
Davian silently watched Nubes, who was gritting his teeth and blocking the Ettin's attacks.
'He's definitely changed from the previous rounds. He's gotten stronger. Nubes.'
Nubes' remarkable growth.
But now was not the time to be impressed by Nubes' growth.
They had to find a way to defeat the Ettin.
At this rate, they would have no choice but to give up the first match to Leonel.
'A monster whose leather is so thick that magic doesn't work and swords can't pierce it...'
Taking advantage of the fact that it was slightly weak to fire, the Leonel team was succeeding in continuing to injure its legs.
But it was a method that the Latia and Nubes combination couldn't use.
The only good thing was that while Latia was firing fire elemental magic, the Ettin was running around in all directions to avoid the fire, so it couldn't launch accurate attacks.
Then, when Latia's fire elemental magic stopped, it would immediately swing its huge axe.
Each time, Nubes barely managed to block the axe attack with his shield.
'We have to find its weakness.'
The Ettin, dodging Latia's pillar of fire, was seen running around.
Despite the relatively high temperature of the fire elemental magic, the fire didn't spread to its leather and only continued to create soot.
Latia tried to concentrate her magic attacks on one place, but it wasn't easy because the Ettin was running around in all directions.
'It's not just that it hates hot things.'
Looking at it now, it didn't seem like it was just running around like that because it hated hot things.
'It felt that Latia's fire elemental magic was dangerous, so it was running around like that to prevent the fire from touching the same spot for a long time. Latia's fire elemental magic is by no means weak.'
As if something had come to mind, Davian shouted.
"Latia! Lay down ice on the floor!"
Comments
Post a Comment