Chapter 32

Now it was four against two, so they might have a chance.

“Neila, jump off then Imperial-” Kakashi looked at Neila’s mana. It hadn’t been restored. Kakashi had completely forgotten about it.

“Neila, mana potion.”

Neila drank a mana potion, restoring her mana but moving her turn to last. Considering that the soldiers were equal when the girls had Neila’s buff, it’s hard to imagine what the effect would be if they fought without the buffs. But there was no time to think.

“Four, Dark Slash!”

Four shot forward, meeting the soldier’s sword. The two traded blows, but without the buff,

“Akh!” she jumped back. The soldier had managed to do a counterattack, hitting her on her shoulders.

“Astill, Flamethrower!”

Astill held up her staff, and a burst of flames originated from it. The two stabbed their swords into the ground, creating a shield that deflected the flames.

They didn’t use that shield before?

It was the first time they used the move.

Ah!

Before, the girls couldn’t hit them. They didn’t do any damage. Flamethrower’s intense strike could very well burn them down, and they didn’t have a lot of space to dodge, so they activated the shield. Otherwise, they would try to counterattack to deal extra damage.

This meant Kakashi couldn’t let Syorin near them, or else they might counterattack and hurt her.

“Syorin, Heal Four!”

Not sure what else to do, Kakashi told Syorin to use Heal. It’s the least powerful of her healing spells, but it also took the least amount of mana.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

The second she finished, the soldiers shot forward, eager to fight. The first shoulder tried to attack both Syorin and Four. Syorin dodged to the side before clenching her fist and punching from the side. The soldier dodged, and Four followed up with a strike. Neither of their attacks landed, but they prevented the soldier from doing any damage.

The second soldier shot forward, targeting Neila. Neila brandished her sword, and the two blades met. The soldier’s movements were fast, however. He continued swinging before stabbing Neila in the stomach.

“Ugh!” The stab was powerful enough to send Neila flying straight to the rear. This time, it didn’t knock out all of her HP at once, but she had barely any left. It also applied paralysis to her, which knocked her turn down to the bottom.

Healing her would mean wasting one of Syorin’s turns, which wasn’t ideal. Not healing her would guarantee the enemy going after her on their turn, which meant knocking her out of the battle. None of them could deal any damage, either. He rechecked their stats, looking for any clue on how to win this battle. There were no restarts, no pauses. No way of looking up a manual online. But he believed if he paid enough attention, then there was something, something, in the girls’ abilities that would allow them to win.

Four had a lot of powerful abilities, but her most powerful one, Dark Slash, was handled by the enemy without issue. There was one other spell, which was more powerful, but that needed a ridiculously long charge time. Three entire turns.

Astill had a lot of dark spells in her arsenal, but while Dark Miasma could inflict a lot of damage over time, it meant nothing if the enemies weren’t affected in the first place. None of the spells had enough damage output to defeat the enemies’ shield, either, and she lacked many physical abilities.

Neila’s magical ability wasn’t as strong as Astill's, nor could her physical strength rival Syorin's. Her sword was more of a support weapon, and while it carried heavy weight as the weapon used by the empire’s rulers, it wasn’t better compared to Four’s scythe. And unfortunately, Neila herself didn’t have a lot of sword moves under her belt.

Last was Syorin, and nothing changed from when he checked her abilities for the first time. She had good physical abilities, hence the majority of her abilities had something to do with punching. Even Deep Punch couldn’t do damage, though, and the others were spells with lower damage. Since she needed to get close, she’s practically guaranteed to be hit with counterattacks.

No, wait.

Syorin’s magical stats were low, but there was a significant lack of strong magic spells in her arsenal. The thing is, she should have at least a couple more. Kakashi rechecked her stats. Tapping on her magic stat would bring up more detailed numbers, including her strengths in each of the elements.

Kakashi gasped. Her strength was concentrated on light magic, which didn’t make sense considering her lineup of spells. Healing spells were light magic, yes, but Syorin’s spells were weak when considering how much time she put into light magic. She’s practically the opposite of Astill.

Where are all the other spells? Do they need a weapon as well? Is she not equipping one?

Just as he was about to ask, he heard the echo of footsteps.

“Kakashi, quick!” Astill shouted. Kakashi looked back. In the distance, two figures emerged from the tunnel. They hadn’t knocked out the other two; they had just slowed them down, and they have returned. They crashed into the barrier, then used their swords to chip away at its HP. They couldn’t win against two; there was no way they would be winning against four.

Kakashi checked Syorin’s ability list, going through it over and over again.

“Come on, come on…”

He found no good abilities. The girls also looked around, looking for solutions.

Kakashi was suddenly reminded of something.

“... Do any of you have any drinks?”

Kakashi saw Neila visibly tensed up. She was looking up to him while slumped on the barrier.

“Neila?”

“... Yes?”

“You have a bottle, don’t you?”

“... I thought you couldn’t see that deep into my bag?”

Everyone glared at Neila, disappointed that she hid it from them.

“I mean… Vodka is delicious?”

“You have vodka!?”

“Are you crazy!?”

The drink that Neila usually drinks was beer, or rather, this world’s equivalent of beer. Kakashi wasn’t sure if the vodka here was a different drink or the same, but if it’s the same, then it’s a risky move. One he must do, however.

“Everyone, I will deactivate the ability. Once I do, try your best to defend Neila. Neila, drink that bottle.”

“The whole bottle?”

“Are you crazy!?”

“I’ve been wanting to…” Neila murmured.

“No, don’t! Don’t!”

“There are other ways! Kakashi, don’t do this!”

“I personally suggest against doing that.”

“Three, two, one.” Kakashi ignored the girls’ pleas and pressed the button. Everyone was released. Or four soldiers headed straight for Neila, probably realizing that something wasn’t right. The girls tried their best to slow them down.

“Akh!”

“Ugh!”

“Ouch!”

They couldn’t stop the soldiers and were thrown to the side, this time suffering real pain. The soldiers headed straight toward Neila, but,

Clang!

A loud ringing sound echoed through the tunnel as the soldiers’ swords met with Neila’s.

“Ahhh!”

“Eeeep!”

The two soldiers, who had remained silent so far, screamed in great pain as they were thrown several meters away. They tumbled through the tunnel before lying to rest. The attack caused everyone to freeze. The remaining soldiers stared at Neila, not sure what had just happened.

Neila aimed the blunt side of her sword toward them.

“Hic… heheheHIC! … Hehehehahahahaha!” She let out a laugh unbefitting of a princess. For the first time, Kakashi saw the two soldiers shivering. They took a step back, aiming their swords at Neila, but Neila fearlessly looked at them.

“How rude! RUDE! I’m your princess! NO, EMPEROR! I’M YOU’RE EMPEROR! HIC! EMPRESS! I RULE THIS COUNTRY! I DO WHATEVER I WANT! BOW BEFORE ME, WEAKLINGS! Die.”

Neila shot forward, leaving a turbulence in her wake. With a single horizontal strike, she sent the two soldiers flying far deep into the tunnel. They were thrown so far that Kakashi couldn’t tell whether or not they actually died from that attack. Some broken bones were guaranteed, though.

That was using the sword’s hilt. It’s pretty much a punch at that point.

“MORE! MORE!”

She turned toward the door. Kakashi quickly jumped out of the way. Without thinking much, without thinking at all, probably, Neila smashed the door. The thick metal door, into tiny pieces, opening up a route into the palace. They arrived at the palace's front garden, exiting from a small shed.

The large, light brown building stood proudly. Battered, but proud. It was massive, reminding Kakashi of some malls on Earth. At its four corners were tall towers that rose up to the sky. Its once clean walls had been dirtied with the fighting, and there were some cracks in its walls. But, the large building was relatively unharmed.

Until now, at least.

“After her!” Kakashi shouted, and the party struggled to catch up to Neila.