Level Eater

Chapter 111: Ominous Magical Beasts

After successfully enchanting their weapons and Ai gathered her composure, Tatsuro cleared away the earth wall. Gregory, on the other hand, was avidly observing a battle that could be described as a giant Paralaceus with a mammoth's face versus Jeanne, resembling something out of a special effects show.

He seemed more engrossed in that fight than his own, completely unaware that Tatsuro and the others were watching the collapsed wall. Meanwhile, the lord's son, Bertram, cowered behind Gregory, trembling.

"No need to bother with pleasantries. Just go for it!" (Ai)

"Wind—Slash!" (Tatsuro)

With these words, Tatsuro swung a whip imbued with wind magic towards Gregory. The slime instinctively moved to shield him, but upon contact, a small tornado erupted from the whip. Part of the slime's body was blown away upon touching it, and the whip's tip struck Gregory's abdomen, sucking it in as if vacuumed.

"Guboo!? …Don't get cocky, and that won't happen!" (Gregory)

It seemed a broken rib had punctured his internal organs, as Gregory spat blood and glared at the scattered slime, annoyed.

"All of you… are nothing but useless. Damn it, I didn't want to resort to this, but… Sitomen, come out." (Gregory)

"What?" (Tatsuro)

From behind Gregory, a pair of gray wings emerged, and something shaped like a human crawled out, landing on the ground with a thud. Resembling a newborn foal, it struggled to stand, then wobbled forward to show its face to the two.

"Is that… a magical beast?" (Ai)

"Invisible to humans, though…" (Tatsuro)

The face resembled a goat with impressive horns, while the body was human-like, sporting large gray wings on its back. As they stared in astonishment at the grotesque figure, it turned its head unnaturally towards Gregory, emitted an eerie "Meeeh," and healed his wounds.

"Is that magical healing?" (Tatsuro)

"Yeah, and its neck is twisted in a weird direction. Creepy, creepy." (Ai)

As they exchanged these impressions, Sitomen, the creature, turned its head again to face Tatsuro and the others. Flapping its wings, it flew up and released a black magical energy mass, roughly the size of a soccer ball, towards them. Sensing the danger, the two hastily moved away from the impact point. Upon landing, the energy created a crater with a three-meter diameter, seemingly gouging out the ground.

"So, that's Gregory's trump card, huh?" (Ai)

"Yeah, definitely stronger than that elephant over there." (Tatsuro)

"Meh-meh-meh-meeeh!"

While Tatsuro and the others prepared for the impending battle, Sitomen, the goat-faced creature, smirked unpleasantly, laughing like a human.

"We can defeat that thing. Let's go all out." (Ai)

"Yeah." (Tatsuro)

Ai switched the whip to her left hand and held a gem sword in her right. Confirming this, Tatsuro fired several lasers. Sitomen, with its limbs dangling, skillfully dodged while flapping its wings, creating several black magical energy projectiles that scattered in the surroundings.

"Gaah!?" (Gregory)

"What?" (Bertram)

"Eeh!?"

The projectile range included the area where Gregory and Paralaceus were located. The latter managed to dodge by contorting its body, but Gregory, not being a combatant like Paralaceus, couldn't avoid it completely and had his right leg grazed, nearly torn apart.

Bertram seemed to be lucky, as he was just outside the attack range and remained unharmed. Witnessing Gregory's nearly severed leg, he gasped heavily.

Tatsuro and Ai, utilizing magic and agility, successfully dodged the attack and remained unscathed. However, they couldn't help but be surprised that even the lord got caught in the crossfire.

"If we leave him alone, he might self-destruct." (Tatsuro)

"But before that happens, the entire place will be riddled with holes." (Ai)

As Tatsuro and Ai observed Sitomen, it landed beside Gregory, took the almost-severed leg, and began devouring it.

"You scummm!" (Gregory)

"Meeeee."

Listening to Gregory's pained and angry cries, Sitomen consumed the leg with apparent satisfaction. Witnessing this, Bertram, feeling nauseated again, crawled away from Sitomen.

After finishing one leg, Sitomen, sweating, applied magic to heal Gregory's injuries, restoring the leg to its original state. It then sported a creepy smile.

"What is that thing…" (Ai)

"It seems it can't be controlled well. Ai, it's time to use ‘Level Eater.' Can you help?" (Tatsuro)

"Of course. What do I need to do?" (Ai)

While holding hands with Ai, Tatsuro recovered the magical energy continually consumed by maintaining the wind magic barrier that prevented the entry of bee-like magical creatures called Depris. Despite being futile, he attempted to shoot a laser at Sitomen's head while its attention was diverted.

The downside of "Level Eater" was its slow projectile speed. Unless the target was stationary or skillfully guided into the projectile's path, it was challenging to hit even if the target couldn't see it.

This time, to corner Sitomen, Tatsuro enchanted the whip with wind magic and used telepathy to convey detailed instructions to Ai, incorporating images through mental communication.

"That sounds interesting." (Ai)

"Yeah, I'm counting on you. Until Cardina stops the Depris proliferation, I can't use much magic due to the barrier. So, I'm relying on you this time." (Tatsuro)

"Leave it to me." (Ai)

As soon as the strategy meeting ended, Ai swung the whip like a fishing line, taking a trajectory to smack the tip onto Sitomen.

Sitomen, lazily hanging its limbs, moved only its wings to dodge.

"Not yet!" (Ai)

However, Ai tracked its movements, swinging her arm to follow Sitomen persistently. For the first time, Sitomen showed a displeased expression and tried to escape upwards, but Ai continued to chase it with her hand movements.

As Sitomen continues to run in random directions. Ai also swings her whips in all directions and chases after it. Sitomen had the strength to prolong the confrontation but it decided that it would take too long and it would probably end in its loss.

Ai persistently changed the trajectories of her whip to prevent Sitomen from learning it.

However Sitomen eventually learned her whip trajectories and the moment its facial expression changed from annoyed to tired, Ai activated the second phase of her plan.

"Meee!?"

"Take this!" (Ai)

Thanks to Tatsuro's wind magic, the whip was forcefully moved in an unnatural direction, coiling around Sitomen from its right shoulder to its left side like a diagonal sash. Ai then quickly pulled it towards her, slamming Sitomen in front of Tatsuro.

"There we go." (Ai)

At the perfect moment, Tatsuro hit Sitomen's face with the "Level Eater" black sphere, followed by burning its wings with lasers and burying it in the ground using earth magic.

——————————–

Level: 37

Skills: [Astral Body], [Levitation Lv.8], [Healing Magic Lv.10]

[Dark Sphere Lv.8], [Life Drain Lv.3]

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(Despite being level 37, the skills are quite impressive… This should be more than enough to contend with stronger opponents. What caught my attention is "Astral Body." It's not a typical magical creature; perhaps it's closer to a ghost?) He thought.

With these thoughts, Tatsuro absorbed all the skill levels, considering the threat to be low once the skills were nullified. He left his level for Ai's leveling.

——————————–

Level: 37

Skills: [Astral Body], [Levitation Lv.0], [Healing Magic Lv.0]

[Dark Sphere Lv.0], [Life Drain Lv.0]

——————————–

"Love, I need you to stop. It can't use healing magic anymore!" (Tatsuro)

"Alright!" (Ai)

Ai charged her gem sword with energy, creating a sparkling residue as she slashed. However, the divided Sitomen escaped while trying to reach Gregory. It attached itself to the slime that protected Gregory, attempting to use the "Life Drain" to replenish the cut parts.

However, the skill was currently unusable at level 0.

"Meeeh?"

"What's wrong, Sitomen? Recover quickly! Stop, what are you doing! Stop it!" (Gregory)

"Meeeee… Meeehhh."

Failing to attach to the slime or replenish itself, Sitomen was forcibly detached using the power of the contract.

Blocked from sight, Gregory noticed that only one person was left in his line of sight. Panicking, he quickly searched the area but couldn't find Ai, who had always been by Tatsuro's side.

Sensing Tatsuro's attempt to conceal Ai's location, Tatsuro urgently used his wind magic to save energy, creating a dust cloud to obscure the surroundings.

"Damn it! Protect me, all of you!" (Gregory)

"Meeeh…"

With the view obstructed, Gregory gave up finding Ai, and all his subordinates, including the slime, entered a defensive stance. However, Sitomen, ignoring the command, tried to move away.

(As expected, that goat man seems uncontrollable.)

Ai was observing Sitomen's futile attempts, the moment it lost its connection with Gregory due to its attachment failure, she used [Body Strengthening] to the maximum and jumped into the air. Holding a giant axe in her hand, she gathered energy.

What she envisioned was the area-of-effect technique that Iyaruki had used, creating a massive crater. She had repeatedly observed it during her free time, recalling and practicing the image.

And now, her efforts were bearing fruit.

(I think it was a compressed feeling, then a booming sensation… like this!)

Ai, using [Air walk] to catch up to Sitomen, descended rapidly on her second step towards it. With her current durability, this speed posed no problem. She then compressed her energy to the limit at the central point of the axe's blade and intentionally triggered an explosion just before making contact with Sitomen.

With a thunderous sound, Sitomen was engulfed in the explosion caused by Ai's axe, leaving no fragments behind. It vanished from this world.

|Acquired Skill: Axe Mastery Lv.1|

|Level has increased to 34.|