Chapter 218: The Thing That Devours Magic

✦Mina ✦

“It finally showed its face!”

Jairo leaped out towards the monster boss that had finally appeared.

“Hey! Don’t rush out alone!”

“What are you talking about! If we defeat that guy, there won’t be a head to manipulate these guys! ‘When fighting numerous enemies, aim for the boss’, that’s Bro’s teaching, isn’t it!”

“That doesn’t mean you should just charge in recklessly! Think a bit more before you act!”

“I am thinking! Eat this! UNBURNABLE MELT SLAASH!!”

Spewing high-output flames from the soles of his feet, Jairo executed a super-high-speed dive attack towards the boss.

The certain-kill attack that earned Jairo the alias of ‘Azure Flame’ in the tournament held in Dragonia would split any enemy’s armor in two like butter.

And fortunately, perhaps due to its giant body being a curse, the monster boss couldn’t react to Jairo‘s attack.

“Could it be… he’ll pull it off?”

“Eat thiiiissss!!”

Jairo‘s single blow cleanly sliced the seemingly hard shell of the monster boss in tw—

CLAAANG!!

“Eh?”

The blow that was supposed to slice the boss’s body in two was repelled with a hard sound.

And Jairo crashed into the monster boss’s body with tremendous momentum.

“Mobaah!?”

With a weird scream, Jairo‘s body flattened against the monster boss’s shell.

It was a sight just like a mosquito that came to suck blood in summer getting squashed.

“Oga… ga…”

Jairo‘s body slid down towards the ground with a slithering sound.

“Wait, this isn’t the time to be watching!? Meguri! Hurry and retrieve him!”

“Nn, got it!”

I hurriedly gave the instruction, and then supported Meguri by disrupting the monster boss with homing-type magic.

During that time, Meguri approached the monster boss, tried to retrieve Jairo, and then… suddenly fell.

“Eh!?”

“!”

By a hair’s breadth, Meguri clung to the monster boss’s body, retrieved Jairo, and retreated.

And for some reason, she ran for a while dragging Jairo along, and then, as if suddenly remembering, she used flight magic to escape.

“Norb! Heal Jairo!”

“Y-Yes!”

Norb, having received Jairo from Meguri, hurriedly cast recovery magic on him.

“Thanks, Meguri.”

When I offered words of appreciation to Meguri, she spoke an astonishing piece of information to me with a serious face.

“Be careful. When I got close to that monster, I couldn’t use magic.”

“Magic!? What do you mean!?”

“I don’t know. I suddenly became unable to use it.”

What does it mean that she couldn’t use magic? Was that the reason Jairo‘s attack didn’t get through?

“But when I got away from that monster, I could use magic again.”

I see, so that’s why she ran away dragging Jairo halfway.

“Does that mean there’s something around that monster that nullifies magic?”

If so, that’s bad. Doesn’t that mean magical support is hopeless?

No, first let’s try it and see.

“FLOAT CONTROL!”

I use levitation magic to float up the rocks and trees dug up during the battle with the monsters.

Then, I moved them high into the sky above the monster boss and dispelled the magic.

Naturally, those things that had been floating by magic began to fall towards the ground.

“This is the method for defeating monsters with magic resistance taught directly by Rex!”

An effective attack method a mage can perform against enemies with high magic defense is to smash them with phenomena released from the influence of magic power.

Rex taught me that magic manipulating large amounts of pre-existing water, earth, and rocks is particularly effective.

“How about this!?”

A dull boom boom sound echoed as it crushed the monster boss.

“Gyugagagaga.”

However, the monster boss approached us completely ignoring the massive mass raining down from above.

“No way…”

It’s not working at aaalll!!

This is bad, I never thought it wouldn’t work to this extent.

“This isn’t looking good. If it’s like that, just getting close could cause physical enhancement magic to wear off and lead to a fatal wound.”

Liliera, who had been supporting the Elves, regrouped with a troubled face.

“In that case, please leave it to us! Thanks to Master Rex, we are used to fighting on the brink of death!”

“Ah, wai-!?”

But before I could stop them, the Elves dashed out.

“Hahhahhahhaa! Eat a blow from us, chief of the monsters!”

Snap!

“What the—guboooah!”

Wham!

“Th-The Elixir… wait, why isn’t the Elixir working!?”

“I-Impossible! The wounds aren’t healing even after drinking the Elixir!?”

Voices of agitation rose from the Elves at the fact that the Elixirs had no effect.

“Gwaah!”

“Ugyaah!”

“Mogaah!”

Every time the monster boss swung its arms or legs, the Elves were spectacularly blown away.

“U-Umm, Liliera, Meguri, please retrieve the Elves so they don’t get too close to the monster boss.”

“Got it.”

“Nn. Leave it to me.”

Fortunately, the monster boss was heading straight towards here, so retrieving the Elves was easy.

“But the injuries are terrible. We have to treat them immediately.”

“…Liliera, give the Elves some Elixir to drink.”

“Eh? But they said the Elixir didn’t have an effect.”

“I want to test something.”

“…Understood.”

I also received some Elixir from the Elves who had been on standby near the fort and gave it to the injured Elves to drink.

Then, the Elves’ injuries healed in the blink of an eye.

“Eh, why?”

Seeing the injuries of the Elf who drank the Elixir heal in the same way, Liliera raised a voice of surprise.

“Probably because an Elixir isn’t just a regular medicine, but a magical medicine.”

“Does that mean… could it be!?”

“Yes, exactly what you’re thinking.”

Even though Elixirs use several precious herbs, their true nature is a magical medicine.

Which means the monster boss’s characteristic of nullifying magic is undoubtedly applied to ‘magical’ medicines as well.

“What a troublesome monster.”

Liliera cursed at the monster boss’s extremely troublesome characteristic.

Well, I can understand how she feels.

“But why only that monster…”

“I don’t know. Whether it’s because that monster is the boss, or if the other monsters are its children…”

“Or perhaps, it might be a mutant…”

“!!”

At Liliera‘s words, I reflexively tensed my body.

Mutant: it’s a special individual that very rarely occurs among monsters.

They possess high abilities that set them apart from monsters of the same species, and some individuals supposedly possess unique and special powers.

“If that’s the case, ‘troublesome’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

If that is a mutant, its strength won’t be just double that of the monsters that have attacked so far.

Of course it would nullify magic. Or rather, I wish it didn’t.

“In the worst-case scenario, we might have no choice but to abandon the World Tree and put all our effort into letting the residents of the village escape.”

They would probably get angry if we did that, but it would still be better than being annihilated.

After all, right now they are prioritizing the World Tree’s fruit, but once they finish eating that fruit, who knows what they’ll target next.

“Everyone, fall back to the fort!”

Carrying the Elves who were still unable to stand up, we retreated to the fort.

Although we treated them with Elixirs, there are quite a few Elves who remain unconscious.

The Elves and Dwarves standing by at the fort attacked the monsters with bows and arrows, throwing spears, and spirit magic, but it didn’t look like it had any effect on the monster boss at all.

And when the outer wall Norb created was smashed by the monster boss, the monsters flooded in, each trying to be first.

However, the boss blew away such impudent underlings with a single swing of its arm, and entered the inside of the outer wall with a leisurely attitude.

The fort we’re in is right under its nose.

And the World Tree is right behind it.

It seems I have no choice but to make a decision now.

And just as I was about to raise my voice telling everyone to abandon the World Tree and run…

KABOOOOOOOM!!

With an intense sound, the earth blew away.

” ” ” ” “Eh?” ” ” ” “

The monster boss was also caught in that impact and dancing in the air.

And then, along with the earth, the monster boss was slammed into the ground.

What remained was a giant hole with no visible bottom.

“Hup.”

From there, something revealed its figure.

“That is!?”

“Thank goodness. The World Tree is still safe, it seems.”

The one who crawled out of the giant hole was the person we had been eagerly awaiting.

” “Rex!!”-san! ” Bro!!” “

Yes, the Joker who could overturn this situation had returned!