Chapter 60: This is my escape route!
The swirling tempest tore through the rising smoke and flames, while torrential rain battered the scorched ground. Suna stood unscathed in the molten crater, not a thread of her robe damaged.
As the translucent hexagonal golden shield protecting her from the explosion faded, the relentless rain within it ceased.
“You dodged the arrows’ direct hits and blocked the blast with just your gear’s defensive magic? Is this all you’ve got to kill me?” the mimic beast taunted, its bone-plate armor riddled with holes, limbs pocked with uniform dents. Its writhing flesh rapidly filled the wounds, and, adapting to Suna’s combat style, scales and bone plates spread across its body.
Unfazed by the mimic beast’s reinforcement, Suna muttered, “As expected, Radiant Rainscape’s attack isn’t as effective against creatures without ancient god powers and with strong defensive awareness. Normal combat won’t subdue you. But judging by your strength, you’re likely second-generation, or a top-tier third-generation.”
Holding her exorcism water gun, Suna paused, then unleashed her suppressed mana, maintaining only the minimal output for [Veil of Truth] to disguise her appearance. She channeled ninety percent of her mana into [Radiant Rainscape] and a half-new, half-old spell she’d recently constructed in her mind.
“So, the question is: who’s your predecessor? [Hundred-Hand Rainbound Armor].”
Two pairs of massive armored arms formed from suspended raindrops, grabbing an axe-spear, flail, exorcism water gun, and lizard-hunter gun from her storage pouch and hands.
“Don’t say I’m bullying you—six arms against six arms!”
As Suna spoke, radiant golden raindrops formed a wall-like curtain around the crater’s edge.
Her momentum surging, Suna drew her double-handed sword.
The seemingly ordinary blade shimmered with flowing light, its golden glow rippling like a river across the blade.
“Who the hell are you?” the mimic beast demanded again, its compound eyes narrowing at the massive rainbound armored arms wielding various weapons.
Suna didn’t answer, charging forward with a fierce step.
“Rockfall Greatsword.”
A stone greatsword erupted from the ground, but Suna didn’t dodge. Her flail-wielding rainbound arm smashed it from above, shattering the blade.
Her axe-spear followed with a horizontal slash.
A golden radiant slash infused with Corona magic sliced through the broken greatsword, aiming for the mimic beast.
But the beast’s bronze-colored arms crossed defensively, pausing briefly as the slashed area turned metallic gray.
Suna’s attack left only shallow marks before the mimic beast’s bone chain blades enveloped her again, aiming to ensnare and kill.
With swift slashes of her double-handed sword, Suna severed the rock-cutting bone chains.
But a dense barrage replaced them, launched from the mouths on the beast’s pale arms.
“Tempest Swallows.”
Countless swallows formed from midair gales, their razor-sharp wings slicing toward Suna. Her exorcism water gun fired raindrop scattershots, shattering half the swallows into fragments.
The remaining swallows arced erratically from all directions.
Suna merely repositioned her rainbound arms to block, ignoring the distracting swallows and focusing on the beast’s glowing, fanged maw.
“Flame-Melt Lance.”
Without hesitation, Suna infused Corona magic into her axe-spear, hurling it with a rainbound arm.
Forced to act early, the mimic beast cast, “Void Black Devour.”
A black flash glimmered, and the axe-spear, carrying enough magic to level a city block, vanished into a shattered space with a crack.
Having anticipated the spatial attack’s trajectory, Suna sidestepped deftly, dodging the lethal space-cutting magic.
Her lizard-hunter gun-wielding rainbound arm fired at four points with blistering speed, flames bursting from the muzzle.
The bone-and-scale-armored mimic beast intended to tank the shots but noticed the bullets grazing past, heading for the rain curtain.
In the split second of its confusion, the bullets hit the curtain and ricocheted at high speed.
Within the shrinking curtain, the bullets became near-invisible streaks of light.
Suna’s four rainbound arms disintegrated into layered armor plates, shielding her while serving as springboards for the ricocheting bullets.
Realizing the bullets’ Corona magic amplified with each bounce, the mimic beast reinforced its defenses and tried escaping underground.
“Earth Burrow.”
As its body sank into the ground like water, Suna directed a bullet to its escape point.
An explosive roar followed as the bullet melted through earth and rock, blasting the mimic beast back into the air with shattered soil.
Seizing its midair vulnerability, three more bullets converged from different angles.
Despite lacking footing, the mimic beast twisted its body with raw muscle power, dodging two bullets like a spinning tornado. It hardened its bronze arms, barely blocking the final bullet.
Using the explosion’s force, it crashed through the rain curtain wall.
[That’s my escape route!]