The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
“That is…”
What did she mean by that?
Before I could even ask, both Altera and Reez moved at the same time.
Altera unleashed flames.
Reez used magic, each launching their own attack.
“Nina-san, Finia-san, here we go!”
“Mm.”
“O-okay!”
The ones who moved to intercept were the three in the rear guard.
Nina opened a door connected to a subspace, and Iris and Finia slammed their attacks into it.
“Tch… how annoying! Reez-chan!”
“Yes, understood.”
At Altera’s signal, Reez… vanished.
I was being careful never to lose sight of her, keeping her constantly within my field of vision—but even so, I couldn’t catch the moment she moved, and I lost her.
“Mischievous children need to be punished.”
“Ah…!?”
“Nina!?”
Reez had moved behind Nina.
There should have been a fair amount of distance between them—what kind of trick was that?
I don’t know the secret behind it, but it’s probably an extremely troublesome ability.
That must be why Reez now wore a smile, convinced of her victory.
Right now, the linchpin of our attacks was Nina.
Thanks to her tricky abilities, we had caught Altera and the others off guard time and time again.
If Nina were taken out, the entire battle line would collapse at once.
That’s why Reez targeted Nina.
But we had read that move.
We had deliberately guided Altera and Reez’s actions, fully expecting that they would come for Nina.
“Tina!”
“Leave it to me!”
From behind Nina’s back, Tina sprang out.
Her own fight had settled down, so we had called her over as reinforcements.
We’d had her stay hidden until now so she could shine at just the right moment.
“What!?”
This was clearly unexpected—Reez’s eyes widened.
“What do you think you’re doin’ to our cute little sister, huh!? Take this, you bastard!”
Tina formed a bat and a ball out of magic power.
Then, from point-blank range, she swung with a crushing blow straight at Reez.
“Guh!? You’ve got some nerve. In that case, I’ll just retreat for now—”
“Heehee, we won’t let you retreat.”
“P-please keep us company!”
“Come now, let’s dance?”
Iris and Finia unleashed a torrential barrage of attacks.
From our observations so far, Reez’s mysterious teleportation ability can’t be used consecutively.
She needs to concentrate for a certain amount of time before using it.
We had managed to figure out those two points.
Well, it’s possible that’s just a bluff—but if we think that far ahead, there’s no end to it, so we’ll ignore that for now.
Trusting that our observations were correct, I had given everyone instructions in advance.
Once Tina’s surprise attack threw Reez off balance, they were to pour on the attacks all at once—to pin her down.
And during that time—
“Yuki!”
“Yeah.”
“Nina, Sakura!”
“I’ll do my best.”
“On!”
“Let’s do this!!!”
We strike the real target—Altera!
Yuki and I ran side by side.
Nina rode on Sakura’s back, charging forward even faster than us.
“Just die already! You’re so annoying, annoying, annoying—just drop dead!”
Altera swung her right hand sideways.
Along that arc, a massive wave of flames was born—
like a tsunami of fire.
Normally, it would be impossible to dodge—but too bad.
We have Nina.
“Mm.”
Nina lightly twirled her fingertip.
A door to subspace opened and swallowed the wave of flames whole.
When it comes to defense and evasion, no one surpasses Nina.
Lately, she’s been refining her abilities more and more…
At this rate, if she keeps growing, she might turn into something truly monstrous someday.
Well, some might say she already has—but that’s beside the point.
“Grrrr… GRAAH!!”
A ferocious growl that didn’t suit Sakura at all.
With surprising dexterity, Sakura clamped a fist-sized stone in her mouth, swung her head, and hurled it at incredible speed.
It was just a throw—but what was flying at her was a fist-sized rock.
And on top of that, it had been thrown by a top-tier species, giving it tremendous velocity.
“That kind of thing—! …tch.”
Physical attacks don’t work on Altera while she’s in her flame form.
They don’t—but what happens if a fist-sized rock comes flying straight at your face?
Even if you know it won’t work, it’s only natural to flinch or close your eyes.
Altera was no exception—she froze for just an instant.
“First Sword… Snow, Moon, Flower!!!”
Yuki was the first to leap in.
As if blowing away Altera’s flames with sheer pressure, he unleashed a wild dance of twin blades.
“Gah—ngh… I won’t… fall to something like this!!”
“Guh!?”
Altera’s counterattack exploded, sending Yuki flying.
Still, as if to say he’d done his job, he sent a smile our way.
That smile was probably meant to keep me from worrying.
Honestly.
He really is reliable—and kind.
“Yuki, everyone… you’re the best!”
And then, I move in to decide the fight.
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