Chapter 53: Black Explosive Flames

“Grrrrrrrrr…!!”

“Ugh…!”

The moment Rain shouted, the Abystortas roared for the first time.

The earth shook beneath the sheer force of the deafening roar. A violent headache struck me, and I instinctively clapped both hands over my ears.

BOOOOOOM!

“What!?”

A tremendous explosion followed the roar, and the view through my binoculars turned pitch-black.

Unable to understand what had happened, I lowered the binoculars and stared with my naked eyes at the distant Abystortas. With a thunderous detonation, a hemispherical mass of black explosive flames swelled outward around it and swallowed the entire area.

“Both of you, do not move!”

Something black flashed into view in front of me. An instant later, everything ahead turned brown.

Only after a brief delay did I realize that Gustav-san, clad in his black coat, had stepped between Rain and me and raised a barrier with a magic tool. Dirt and stones hurled by the blast hammered violently against it.

The impact might have lasted only an instant, or perhaps more than ten minutes. At last, it subsided.

“Yuuka! Aoi!”

The moment the shock passed, I thought of them. I called through the radio, but only a hiss of static answered. There was no response from either woman.

No. Had that attack from the Abystortas…?

“Yuuka, Aoi, answer me!”

I called again and again.

“—ru… Kakeru, can you hear me?”

“—sama, can you hear me?”

“Yuuka! Aoi! I can hear you! Thank goodness—you’re safe!”

The blast seemed to have disrupted the radio signal, but after I kept calling for several dozen seconds, their voices finally came through. Relief flooded me from the bottom of my heart.

The Abystortas still appeared to be there, but the impact had filled the air with dust and made it impossible to see clearly. I asked the two of them to return to us and regroup.

“That certainly surprised me. I might have been in real danger if Rain hadn’t warned us. Thank you.”

“Your warning saved me too. You have my gratitude.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

Yuuka and Aoi thanked Rain. Thanks to his Hostility Detection, they had somehow managed to evade the attack.

However, Yuuka, who had been fighting near the Abystortas, had not escaped completely unharmed. The black explosion’s scale and power were tremendous. Even with her speed, she had not evaded it entirely, and her left arm had been caught in the blast.

She had already treated herself with a high potion, so not a single wound remained on her arm. But part of her armor and her gauntlet had been completely blown away. The fact that she had needed a high potion rather than an ordinary one meant the damage must have been severe. If Rain’s warning had come even slightly later, she might have been in grave danger.

“Kakeru-sama, I’m so glad you’re unharmed!”

“Gustav-san protected me. Thank you again.”

“I am pleased that I could be of some small assistance to all of you.”

I thanked Gustav-san once more.

Yuuka had entrusted me with a powerful barrier magic tool, but everything had happened so suddenly that I had not reacted at all. That was probably the difference experience made.

“You saved me too. For now, I’m simply glad everyone is safe. …But what should we do next?”

“The blast was so powerful that I thought it had self-destructed to take us with it. But it still seems to be alive…”

Once the dust cleared, I examined the Abystortas through the binoculars. It was still breathing and moving faintly.

However, it had stopped advancing completely. Its eyes were closed, and it made no attempt to move.

“It may be healing its injuries, or perhaps the recoil from that attack left it unable to move. But it could also be preparing to use the same attack again.”

“Now might be our chance, but the thought of it doing that again is frightening… No record ever mentioned it roaring and attacking like that. We must have pushed it into a corner, though…”

Aoi and Rain were probably right that this might be our best opportunity, but the possibility of another black explosion terrified me. We could have Aoi launch one final, full-power spell from a greater distance, but repeatedly drinking mana potions strained the body. We needed to stop here.

“We’ll retreat as planned. We’ve learned that making it lose blood in a prolonged battle is effective, and we’ve also learned how dangerous it is to approach. That information will help in any future battle. Besides, this may have made it change its target from Soraval. That’s enough.”

The three of them fell silent.

Yuuka had been injured, and the Abystortas had behaved in a completely unexpected way. Two of our predetermined retreat conditions had already been met. It was time to withdraw.

We had gained new information about the Abystortas, which was a sufficient achievement. It was already facing away from Soraval. Perhaps it had abandoned the town as its target, or it might remain motionless for some time. I could not send Yuuka and Aoi back into danger after this.

All three looked dissatisfied, but their safety came first.

“…All right, Kakeru. But let us try just one last thing!”

“There is one final thing I want us to try!”

Yuuka and Aoi spoke at exactly the same time.