691 – Corrosive Bombardment

I have succeeded in damaging Jornes.
I know how to get past her counter skills.
I need to take advantage of my speed to control the tempo while efficiently bombarding her with magic attacks.
As long as I can manage that and keep the damage I take to a minimum, I should be able to win this battle of attrition.

The crack in Jornes’ surface is rapidly closing.
She has [Automatic HP Recovery], [Ultraregeneration], and [Autoregeneration] after all.
But, this should be draining her MP reserves.
I’ll keep on wearing her down!

『[Chant Return]… [Curse Knight].』

Pale light shines from Jornes, which forms into the figure of a horseback knight.

[Chant Return] allows her temporarily acquire any magic skill she sees.
She chose to copy my [Curse Knight] right away, but…

『Sorry, but I have confidence in my speed!』

Keeping my distance, I fly in a circle to avoid the [Curse Knight].

After having flown away for a while, it becomes easy to read the [Curse Knight’s] trajectory.
To catch up with me, it can’t afford to take any detours.
It’ll come by the shortest route.
In other words, it’s directly behind me.

I release a backwards [Wind Slash].
It slices the [Curse Knight’s] body in two, dispersing it into motes of white light.

The [Curse Knight’s] strength is in its tracking ability, but its lack of speed is a serious drawback.
It’s effective against the slow Jornes, but easy for me to deal with.
Rather than her copying it with [Chant Return], it would have been much more troublesome if she continued to use [Ruin].

『I’ll set this up too! [Wormhole]!』

Next to me, and next to Jornes, an area of black light appears.

Now that I know her weakness, I’m going to thoroughly exploit it.

【Normal Skill [Wormhole]】
【By distorting space to connect to a separate location, teleportation without regard for physical distance becomes possible.】
【The range of movement is proportional to the user’s body span, and is at most ten times that size.】
【The MP consumption is extreme, and there is a slight delay before activation, so it is difficult to use.】

It’s one of the skills I learnt as an oneiros… Moving normally is faster, so I’d considered it useless, but the origin matter showed me how to use it.

By firing an attack through the wormhole, it becomes possible to single-handedly perform a pincer attack.
The origin matter used it to drive [Dark Rays] into me from multiple angles.

[Wormhole] takes time to activate, and the destination point is fixed, but it’s not a problem even if she moves away.
That’s because, against Jornes, just being able to attack from multiple angles is a huge advantage.
If I can time it well, it should be impossible for her to deal with it through [Resist] and [Mirror Counter] alone.
Jornes is fatally slow in that form, so it should be effective.

『[Ruin].』

In front of me, an iridescent ball of light floats.
She’s trying to force me away from the [Wormhole] entrance point.

Rather than using [Ruin] to attack, Jornes is using it to keep me in check.
As as result, if I continue to allow her to push me around, I’ll gradually lose out.
Her strategy is effective, but it also has a glaring weakness.

『I’m the one who decides whether or not to receive that attack!』

The iridescent light bursts at point-blank range.
I take the hit without dodging.
Burning pain engulfs my entire body.

I clench my teeth and endure the pain.
I was prepared for this, so [Autoregeneration] is already circulating in my wings.

Rather than moving away, I judged it was worth it to take the [Ruin] hit.
Fortunately, this [Ruin] wasn’t boosted with [Magic Scale Magnification].

Jornes probably wanted to use [Magic Scale Magnification] to force me away.
But, since she has yet to move away from the [Wormhole] herself, a magnified [Ruin] would have travelled through the [Wormhole] to hit her too.

Jornes’ base magical strength is at most decent for her rank… An unenhanced [Ruin] hurts, but it’s a cheap price to pay to ensure my [Wormhole] will work.

『[Curse Knight]! And then [Holy Sphere]!』

The knight gallops away from me, followed by a sphere of white light.
To begin, these two skills will fly straight for Jornes.

『[Mirror Counter].』

A giant wall of light appears in front of Jornes.
She amplified it with [Magic Scale Magnification], apparently intent on stopping both the attacks with it.

『[Curse Knight]!』

I shoot a [Curse Knight] into the [Wormhole].
This one should reach her at the same time as the first two attacks.

『[Mirror Counter].』

Jornes produces a second wall of light behind her.
I might have distanced myself too much to set up the [Wormhole].
Her second [Mirror Counter] has made it in time.
She’s managed to block the path of all my attacks.

『But this much is within expectations!』

I dive through the [Wormhole] myself, appearing next to Jornes.
The moment I arrive, I unleash the magic I had prepared.

『[Gravity]!』

A cylindrical area around me is bathed in black light.
Pulled by gravity, Jornes’ body drops down.
She falls below the protective barriers of the [Mirror Counters].

The [Curse Knights] continue to track her, adjusting to her lower altitude.
The two [Curse Knights] raise their lances and charge at the exposed Jornes.

『[Resist].』

The black light disperses from around Jornes.
Freed from the restraints of gravity, she tries to fly back up to the safety of her [Mirror Counters].
But she’s too slow.

The first [Curse Knight] impacts Jornes, exploding in a burst of pale light.
A part of her cracks away, and she’s thrown off balance.

Before she can recover, the second [Curse Knight] makes contact.
The force of the explosion knocks her downwards.
Perhaps because Jornes has become unable to maintain them, the [Mirror Counters] break apart.

『And then also… [Gravidon]!』

The sphere of black light plunges down from directly above onto the defenceless Jornes.
It hits her head-on.
A huge crevice opens through her head and wing, and she plummets down.

Her body slams into the ground.
The thunderous crash sends tremors into the surroundings, raising a cloud of dust.

That felt like it did a lot of damage.

This can work… I can win, provided I keep this up.
Her counter skills are seriously annoying.
But, in the end, it’s easy to work around any opponent with less stats than me.

I don’t have skills specialised for going on the defensive like she can, but I have quite a few options for attack, so it’s easy for me to be adaptable.
Because of my stat advantage, I can also force my attacks through.

In that regard, as Jornes is skill-reliant and lacking in stats, so unless she’s able to perfectly counter my strategy, she’ll keep take damage unilaterally like this.
I had thought her ability to completely counteract any physical damage would beat out my attack specialisation as an apocalypse, but if anything, I have the advantage thanks to my many options for attack.
I’ll keep this up and force her out…!