From the looks of it, the woman's left arm measured roughly twenty meters or so from the shoulder to the tip of the longest branch. Even accounting for some slack, it was nowhere near twenty-five meters.
Given that I was over fifty meters away from her, if my estimate was correct, the sickles should have cut through the air somewhere in the space between us...
"They extended!"
All the arms grew to more than double their length, reaching all the way to where I stood.
Thanks to the distance, I managed to dodge the woman's attack with room to spare. However, in the gouged ground where the ten scythes had struck air, holes over ten meters deep had appeared in an instant.
(What kind of power is that! It's deeper and wider than the moat I made in the Royal Capital!)
If something like that hit me directly, my body would be turned into minced meat in a heartbeat. Even a graze would likely be fatal.
(Wyverns aren't a threat to me now, even a hundred of them, but if you extract only the usable parts and rebuild it, it becomes this troublesome?)
Of course, the fact that it was a monster that had done this added to the trouble, but this was with just the left arm. The thickened right arm might be concealing something as well, and the dragon-like torso beneath the woman's lower body was, without question, deeply suspicious.
Her lower body... rather, it looked like the upper half of a woman was attached to the tip of a dragon's neck. That dragon part was covered in scales and looked extremely hard at first glance, unlike the dragon body one typically imagines—overall, it was slender... no, too slender.
That physique, as if muscles and sinew had been wrapped around a central bone, seemed to suggest that nothing unnecessary existed. This was most evident in the abdominal area.
The thoracic part of the torso had some thickness, and the shape of ribs could be discerned, but the abdomen below it was completely flattened. Perhaps something was inside, but in that state, even if internal organs existed, they would only contain something resembling their proper shape, unable to fulfill any function. More importantly—
(If that entire torso was made of the same stuff as the left arm...)
It would possess the same elasticity as the left arm, and the destructive power generated from it would be on another level entirely. If hit head-on, I would stand no chance, given the weight disadvantage. On top of that, the woman's transformation had occurred down to the minutest details.
(The scythe's blade grew serrated... If I try to block with Kogarumaru carelessly, I'll get ensnared.)
Looking closely, I could see that a saw-like blade had emerged on the woman's great scythe. Because of that, I couldn't block the scythe with Kogarumaru.
(Should I cut the arms off one by one? Or aim for the woman's neck?)
However, even if I severed the first arm, there was no guarantee it wouldn't regenerate while I worked on the second. The same applied to the neck. Even if I cut the woman's head off, I didn't think that would kill her. As for destroying the magic core—a known weak point of monsters—the woman's head, her chest, and the dragon's chest were all plausible locations, and knowing her, she might have moved it elsewhere entirely.
To assess the situation, I tried to increase the distance further...
"GRAAAAAAAA!"
The woman took one step back, then suddenly let out a thunderous roar. An explosion rang out—and in the next instant, her great scythe was bearing down right in front of me.
Even granting that the roar had thrown me off, that interval couldn't have lasted a full second. And I was already trying to create more distance in response to the explosion. The woman was simply faster. Between the moment I heard the explosion and the moment I started moving to back away, she had closed nearly a hundred meters and swung her arm.
Which meant it might have been a miracle that I dodged her attack at all. The arm aimed at me just happened to be slower than the others, and that fractional delay was enough for me to pull back. Still, while I managed to avoid the scythe itself, I couldn't evade the vacuum blade it created, and it tore across my chest.
(It's fine—only flesh was cut. This wasn't an attack laced with Magic Power, so it'll heal faster than the wound on my side.)
The gash on my chest was fairly deep and bleeding heavily, but healing magic had already started sealing it shut.
(Damn it! My abilities had finally caught up to hers, but then she forcibly enhanced her body and widened the gap again!)
Once I grew accustomed to the demigod's power, our strength should have reversed—and I had been so close to that point. But her borderline-cheat ability had pushed us apart instead. Even if I eventually mastered my full power, she had become so overwhelmingly strong that victory was no longer certain.
(I have to prioritize evasion for now. At least until I've gotten used to this power—even then the odds are slim, but if I keep fighting like this, I'll definitely lose.)
I turned my back on the woman and ran. If she decided to ignore me and flee somewhere, everything I had done up to this point would be for nothing. But I was certain she wouldn't make that choice.
She had been burned by that exact tactic too many times already, and now that she was starting to learn how to fight, she wouldn't let me escape while she was vastly stronger and held an absolutely advantageous position. And I was right.
The woman swung her arms at my retreating form, and when she saw they wouldn't reach, she chased after me, detonating the ground with each step. The first explosion had been the sound of her kicking off the earth.
She wasn't running like a horse using her dragon-shaped legs—she was crouching like a frog, building up force, then launching off the ground, which was how she closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye.
That speed was certainly terrifying—if you looked away for even a fraction of a second, you'd become fodder for her next attack. But her movement was linear, and the charge-up involved a telltale telegraph. As long as you watched for that, dodging was possible. The follow-up arm strikes, however, were nearly impossible to predict, so my only option was to feint, guess at her attack range, and then flee with everything I had to somewhere outside it. So far it was working. Still, I couldn't rely on the same feint too many times since she might catch on—though after dodging the third attack, I managed to plunge into the Great Old Forest.
Inside the forest, the obstacles slowed my escape, but thanks to Concealment, the woman couldn't see me, so she had to attack on instinct and guesswork alone, which forced her to slow down as well.
(I'm getting used to the demigod's power… but it's still not enough.)
Fleeing through the forest, I was gradually learning to use the demigod's abilities, but it still wasn't enough to defeat that woman. If she had remained in her original state, my current strength would have been sufficient—
Just as my frustration with my own inadequacy mounted, the woman seemed equally frustrated by her inability to land a hit on me. Beyond the left scythe strikes, she now started launching magic from her right hand as well.
Perhaps it was the frustration, but her attacks became wild and erratic—anywhere that even seemed remotely suspicious got bombarded indiscriminately.
She swung her left scythe over and over until the trees were reduced to splinters, then fired magic from her right hand to set trees ablaze and blow craters in the ground, charging along while stomping the earth as if trying to level it. There was no pattern to her attacks whatsoever, and I nearly got hit by her magic several times.
However, because her attacks had become so disorganized, the gaps in her defense grew larger as well, and I was able to widen the distance to the point where at least the scythe strikes wouldn't reach me.
Just as I thought, "This might give me a chance to regroup a little," the scenery before my eyes suddenly changed.
"Is this... the place where we fought the Dragon Zombie?"
Even though a considerable number of years had passed, I recognized it immediately thanks to the swirling, carved marks on the ground.
(Not even weeds are growing here... Is that just how polluted the Dragon Zombie was?)
It had been nearly a decade since this clearing in the forest had been left completely untended, yet aside from the particularly hardy weeds, not even sapling-sized trees had managed to take root, let alone full-grown ones.
The areas we had ravaged to fight other zombies or for defensive purposes were already overgrown with trees and grass, returning to their original state or even more so, which made it clear how abnormal this place was, and thus how unique a being the Dragon Zombie had been.
"This is bad!"
I'd been so caught up in the strange nostalgia and abnormality of this place that I momentarily forgot I was running away and stopped in my tracks. Just then, magic rained down from above, as if to block my path.
The timing was so perfect that a suspicion arose in my mind—had the woman pretended to be frustrated just to drive me here? If I hadn't stopped, that magic could very well have scored a direct hit.
In that sense, it was proof of my luck... but perhaps it was more likely that dodging that magic would have been the better bet. So maybe it wasn't good luck, but bad.
"This is the end of the line for running... I have no choice but to fight!"
As I turned around, ten massive scythes were already hurtling toward my position. Having grown somewhat accustomed to the force, it was easier to dodge them, but even if their power had increased, my body's durability hadn't changed much—just a graze would be a fatal wound.
Even Kogarumaru, which I always relied on, was poorly matched against that woman's weapon. At least until I dealt with those giant scyches, it would be better to fight with magic rather than my sword.
(Though whether my magic is actually effective against her is a bit iffy.)
In theory, if I hit one scythe with a few shots of magic, I could destroy it. However, while I was targeting the next one, the scythe I'd supposedly destroyed would regenerate more than half its form. It was like a game of whack-a-mole. And worst of all, that was the scenario where things were going well.
In reality, while I tried to destroy the first scythe, the remaining nine got in the way, making it difficult to even land consecutive magic blasts on the same arm. Besides, in addition to her ten left arms, the woman still had her right arm, which she was saving for magic. At best, it was a stalemate; normally, I'd be slowly worn down; at worst, it would be a one-sided beating.
For now, thanks to the woman's lack of pressure, things hadn't turned into a one-sided beatdown for long, but considering she was also growing and adapting, her current laxness could disappear at any moment.
(Do I have to change how I'm fighting?)
"Stone Bullet!"
I fired a stone bullet at the woman's dragon torso, but it only left a small scratch at the point of impact — it couldn't deal any meaningful damage to speak of.
(I mean, it should have had enough power to punch straight through a wyvern or so… but well, I guess this is within expectations.)
The fact that even that level of power could wound her meant her torso was less durable than her left arm. Granted, the difference wasn't huge — but compared to a slender arm, the torso was a far easier target to hit. I should definitely switch my aim.
To deal as much damage as possible, I deliberately kept casting weakened magic at the woman. From her perspective, it must have looked like the same old attacks aimed at destroying her arm, or feints to dodge her strikes. She showed no sign of doing anything differently.
"Now!"
The haphazard spell I'd flung hit her square in the face, stealing a fraction of her vision, and in that instant I drew a weapon from the Magic Bag the god had given me, channeled Magic Power into it, and hurled it.
Six spinning projectiles streaked toward the woman, and just as planned, they struck the dragon's torso — four of them embedded themselves completely, while the remaining two punched clean through.
"Gyaaaaaah—!"
Among the weapons I had on me, I'd expected the shuriken carved from Tanikaze's body to deal at least some decent damage. But I was surprised that every single one exceeded even my expectations.
(Well, either way — a pleasant miscalculation.)
I called back the shuriken that had pierced through and gone flying off somewhere, drew three more, and hurled them at the woman again. This time, too, every shuriken either embedded or penetrated, confirming that the first volley's success was no fluke.
I wasn't entirely sure why they worked so well, but there was a good chance it was because they were forged from materials superior to magisteel. That said, while I owned plenty of weapons made from magisteel-grade or better materials, the only ones suited for throwing were these shuriken — so for the time being, my fighting style would revolve around them.
(I only brought a dozen or so, but thanks to the enchantment from the Marquis Samons household, I can call them back as long as they aren't destroyed. That's a lifesaver.)
Compared to the woman's massive size, the shuriken were tiny weapons — but even so, with enough repetitions, I could expect to deal a meaningful amount of damage.
(She'll probably regenerate as soon as I hit her, but the pain at the extremities versus near the center would feel different. More importantly, I've simply added another option to my arsenal — so the situation should be better than it was a moment ago.)
The woman, too, clearly hadn't expected such a small weapon to deal her this much damage, because the speed and accuracy of her great scythe swings had dropped considerably.
I'd thought the sloppier scythe attacks would make things easier for me… but the woman — whether driven by frustration again or because she'd decided this was the most effective approach, I couldn't tell — began spinning in place, swinging her left arm wildly while her right hand fired magic indiscriminately in all directions. It seemed she intended to eliminate both the incoming shuriken and me at the same time.
(As annoying as it is, the fact that it actually works is what makes it so troublesome.)
Having an opponent whose raw strength eclipsed mine by orders of magnitude was bad enough when she was charging straight at me. Now, with the centrifugal force from her spinning added on top, her destructive power had increased even further.
(And to make things worse, she's firing off spells from memory like it's nothing, which makes it nearly impossible to find an opening to jump out…)
If I could just hide here and weather the woman's attacks, that would be ideal—but I had no idea when she might change course and come after me, so I wanted to put more distance between us. The problem was, with the occasional spell flying my way, I couldn't find the right moment to move.
(If I'm going to hit her with a spell, anything half-hearted probably won't have much effect. But if I go for something big, she'll have her scythes on me before I can charge it with magic power.)
Either way, hiding here wasn't going to improve my situation, so—knowing full well it was a gamble—I had no choice but to break cover. As long as I didn't have exceptionally bad luck, a direct magical hit was unlikely, and once she spotted me, the woman should stop spinning. That was exactly what I was thinking when, right on cue, a barrage of rocks came raining down toward my hiding spot.
They were debris that had gotten caught up when the woman's great scythe gouged the ground—not aimed at me specifically. But to dodge them, I reflexively burst out from where I'd been hiding, leaving myself completely exposed to the woman...
"No—! 'Gigant!'"
I realized my mistake the instant I leaped out, but by then the woman's arm was already swinging toward me.
In a panic, I summoned a Guardian Gigant and raised it as a shield—but the Gigant, already worn down from the fight against the lich, couldn't withstand ten great scythes charging at full momentum. I was sent flying along with the shattered fragments.
"Ggh—!"
The Gigant may have been pulverized, but it served its role as a shield—I at least avoided a direct hit from the scythes. Still, carried by the force of the blow, I slammed into the forest, my entire body crashing through trees over a hundred meters deep.
If I hadn't become a Demigod, I would have died the moment the Gigant was destroyed or when I crashed into the forest. But even with a Demigod's body, the damage I'd just taken wasn't something I could walk off easily. If the woman followed up with another attack, death was virtually certain... or so it should have been.
(Why the hell did she give me time to recover?)
Desperate, I cast a healing spell on myself on the off chance it might help. But even after spending enough magic power to not just move again but actually fight, the woman still didn't attack.
(Is she plotting something? No... but I can't figure out why she'd wait for me to recover.)
It had been less than a minute since I'd been able to move. From there, I spent another two minutes or so on healing magic... I had no idea what she was planning, but I couldn't imagine it made any sense for her to leave me alone for two full minutes when she had the perfect opportunity to kill me.
"Taking damage just put me at even more of a disadvantage... but I have no choice but to grit my teeth and go for it."
Deciding that hiding and running would only put me further behind, I made my choice and burst up out of the forest. What I saw was...
"What... are you doing?"
The woman, stamping her feet in what looked like pure frustration.