Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai

「That white head looks more fragile than the normal one. We can take it easy.」

Yuuto and Ryuuichi dashed forward to intercept the heads that came from the sides of the rocky mountain.

Naturally, there was no way the heads would miss the small figure of the two humans that made a beeline toward them―― Or so it was supposed to be, yet they ignored them for some reason.

「What the… Where are they aiming to?」

As if to say where the biggest threat was, the white head looked up while raising a roar.

Yamata no Orochi's combat pattern was pretty simple.

It just attacked opponents on sight, searching for the opponent that went into hiding, targeting the weak, and luring them in.

It would target the opponent that hit it last.

It would keep dishing out one attack after another without a moment of delay to the opponent before them.

It used powerful attacks including breath, but all of those were simple attack patterns.

That's why both Yuuto and Ryuuichi had a bad premonition upon seeing Orochi's mysterious pattern at such a time.

Rather, it wasn't a mere premonition, it had almost become a reality.

「OH NO!」

Yuuto followed his instinct and retreated at once.

He turned around and got away from the white head as fast as he could.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

It wasn't just its mouth, Orochi's head fired a breath attack as its entire body glowed.

The breath that fired from its mouth toward the sky was in the shape of a shining pale sphere.

The spherical breath broke the cloud in the sky, stopped for a moment―― Then sent down countless rain of light like incessant downpour.

「Tch, AOE attack huh!?」

That attack was akin to vast number of 『Lux Sagita』 bombardment.

And that attack didn't just aim at Yuuto and Co. The downpour of lux sagita bombarded over a vast area.

The area that received the most lux sagita was right below the light sphere, and the number decreased the further away from the sphere.

Had Yuuto kept charging forward a moment ago, he would have been bombarded with countless lux sagita and might have been incapacitated immediately.

「The number is too overwhelming――『Lux Shield』」

He wasn't directly under the sphere of light, but even with that Yuuto couldn't fully dodge the downpour of the light arrow.

He tried to get away as far as possible while using the defensive skill that he rarely used in normal situations to protect him from the downpour of light arrow, and taking down the rest of the arrow in the gap.

「――Sup Yuuto, you managed to get away too eh?」

「It used an attack that we have never seen before. Maybe this is what happens when all the eight heads are present.」

The sphere of light kept firing light arrows.

This new skill prevented Ryuuichi from slipping through the gap between the light arrow that came down like a downpour to decapitate the head..

Naturally, Orochi's head that fired the light arrow was also exposed to the downpour, but there wasn't even a scratch on its scales since the light arrow was weaker than its scale.

But the same couldn't be said for the human with vocation, the light arrow could still wound him. Unless the other party was a 『Heavy Warrior』 who specialized in defence, normal humans wouldn't get away unscathed if they took an attack from light arrow with their flesh.

And no one present was a 『Heavy Warrior』.

「Dammit, at this rate everyone is going to――」

「AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!」

A grief filled scream resounded for the first time since the battle began.

When Yuuto looked at the source of the scream, he saw Ueda collapse on the ground

「GO YUUTO! LEAVE THEM TO ME!」

Being told to take care of the rear by Ryuuichi, Yuuto ran toward his fallen comrade.

「UEDA! HANG IN THERE!」

「N-Nakai… Guh, this hurts like hell…」

Nakai, who arrived faster than Yuuto, called out to Ueda.

Orochi's head approaching from behind although covered in wounds was filled with fighting spirit.

「NAKAI BRING UEDA BACK TO THE BUNKER! HIMENO-SAN WILL HEAL HIM!」

「M-My bad―― Let's move on, Ueda! Can you walk on your own!?」

「It's so damn… Painful…」

Yuuto saw that Ueda had been hit by a light arrow on his leg and shoulder.

It was a small wound that could be healed with a potion or healing magic, but serious enough to incapacitate him for the rest of the battle.

Simply put, Ueda should be skilled enough to dodge the light arrow at this distance.

Yet he couldn't dodge the arrow, he had a hard time coping with the attack of Orochi's head.

He had been able to dodge Orochi's head, but couldn't dodge the incoming light arrow.

「Dammit――」

Not to mention that even Yuuto himself had a hard time dodging the downpour of rain.

Nakai, who escorted Ueda to retreat, wouldn't be able to return immediately.

Before he noticed, he was already facing two Orochi's heads at once.

The head that he crushed back then revived immediately.

「N-Not good, can't let them attack…」

Two aside, even one of them was already troublesome. But he wouldn't let them attack at all cost.

As if it had tracking ability, the light arrow chased after him, grazing his uniform. Rather, he had already forgotten how much light arrow had grazed his school uniform.

He was forced to focus solely on defense.

But his buddy, Ryuuichi had already been suffering under a much fiercer attack.

「You guys can't fight anymore. Back down.」

「D-Don't worry, we can still fight!」

「Yes, we're not do――」

「You're just a hindrance. BACK DOWN!」

Ryuuichi shouted as he stopped the charge of Orochi's head from the front.

Behind him was the figure of the duo Julia-Maria injured by a light arrow just like Ueda.

They kept wielding their weapons and had yet to give up, but they were obviously forcing themselves, they were out of commission too.

「UWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

+++

Ryuuichi unleashed a fierce attack toward another head as he raised a warcry, distracting the two heads by himself.

Julia and Maria held back their tears as they retreated until the trench.

「With this, only Ryuuichi, I and――」

「――Kenzaki style, 『Wild Cleaving・Camellia』」

And another person, Kenzaki Asuna who kept fighting Orochi even under such a situation.

She had trained in swordsmanship since her childhood wasn't just for a show. Four people were already too exhausted to continue the fight, and as expected, one head was already too much for them.

But, that wasn't the case for Yuuto and Ryuuichi.

Even though both of them could singlehandedly surpress the head without the assistance of their comrades, their stamina was about to reach its limit.

「Kenzaki style――」

She boldly closed in even when an arrow of light grazed her skin.

But, maybe because her focus was disturbed for a moment, or because she hit her limit, or maybe because the accumulation of small damage finally bore its fangs―― Asuna's martial art failed to execute perfectly.

「WA!?」

To be exact, her slash could only manage to graze the scale instead of decapitating the head.

Such fatal blunder was the perfect chance for a counter.

「ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!」

A body blow, or headbutt to be exact. Yamata no Orochi shook its giant head, sending Asuna flying in the air.

Asuna's body was blown in the air by a super heavy, almost impossible to dodge ramming attack then rolled on the ground.

「U… GUH…」

Asuna shook her head, trying to stand up immediately; fortunately, no light arrow hit them.

But, even after she managed to slip through the indiscriminate attack, she was by no means safe from a direct attack that was directly targeting her.

Asuna raised her face again, only to see one of Orochi's head was already staring before her with a lump of crimson light in its mouth.

「ASUNA, RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!」

Yuuto shouted as he rushed toward Asuna who was just standing dumbfoundedly in her place.

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