The Final Battle (Part 1)

<TAI’S POV>

What on earth is going on?!

This injured guy is scaring me, if I’m being honest. If stares could kill a man, then this injured guy’s gaze could wipe out a whole army.

With his sword in his good arm, the injured guy lowered his sword after pointing at King and rushed straight towards him.

Really? A head-on attack?!

But this guy doesn’t seem to have any affinity for magic or possess mana. How was he going to beat King?

He wouldn’t be able to touch him, especially since he has that spell that turns his body into a dark cloud.

And with his injuries, there’s a good chance he’ll die.

Lucky for him, the shadow humanoid leaped at him and stopped his charge at King.

The shadow creature swung an onslaught of fluid punches and kicks, but the injured man was able to defend himself quite well.

When the shadow creature went for a kick, the injured man almost managed to slice its leg off.

If any of us joined in to help, that shadow creature would be done for!

But then I saw King in the background. He pulled the arrow out of his forehead and glared at the archer guy.

Oh, no, if King attacks now, then I don’t know what we’re going to do about that invincible spell of his.

But that’s the thing too.

There’s a weakness to that spell. That archer was able to shoot at King even though he had already cast that invincible spell.

Was there a short time limit on it? That was possible.

Or…

“Hey, armor guy!” I yelled.

He ran to our side along with the archer boy.

“What is it?” The armor guy asked.

“If King attacks, he’ll use this one spell where attacks will go straight through him.”

The armor guy nodded.

“I know that already. I saw it happen by the southern gate.”

“Oh, did you? Actually, that makes a lot of sense.”

Even though this wasn’t the time to laugh, I laughed, though it was an awkward one and not a laugh of joy or anything like that.

Then, I cleared my throat after sensing everyone’s gaze at me weirdly.

“Anyway,” I said. “It’s just a hunch, but I think I know how it works.”

I told everyone about it.

“Hm. That could be it,” the archer boy said. He was around Ophelia’s height and kept his body low to the ground. “I’ll use my arrows to see if it’s true or not.”

I smiled.

“Please do. In the meantime…”

I stared at everyone here. They all stared back.

“Please protect Ophelia.”

With my whole hand, I hovered it in front of Ophelia to introduce her to the two new guys.

“She’s gonna try to break the magic circle.”

The new guy’s eyes widened as Cici and Mia nodded in an understanding gesture.

“Got it,” Mia said. “I don’t want anyone touching my girl anyway.”

Ophelia fidgeted with her fingers.

“T-thank you,” she said.

Mia and I cracked a smile.

She’s so cute.

“So,” the archer guy said, bringing me back to the present, “how is she going to break the circle?”

Ophelia continued to fidget with her fingers and turned her gaze to the stone floor before speaking.

“I-I was thinking of casting a huge spell that’ll break off a large amount of stone that is part of the circle and use it to fire it back at other parts of the circle.”

So that’s what she wants to do.

It was a solid plan.

The archer boy nodded in understanding. So did the armored guy.

“I see,” they said, even me.

“If that’s the case, then I’ll do my best,” the armored guy said.

The archer boy nodded along.

I turned to Ophelia.

“If you’re going to fire down on the circle, then you’re going to need to hit it from higher ground.”

I raised my head to the building just a few feet away from us.

Ophelia nodded.

“T-that’s right,” she said. “Will you help me get on top of the roof, Tai?”

With those soft puppy-dog eyes, there’s no way for me to say no to her.

“Of course,” I said, smiling.

We then turned to the direction of the house beside us. If we were going to get on top of it, we needed to climb on top of the market stall first.

Alright, I told myself.

“Let’s do this.”