Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

The letter delivery to the Imperial Palace was completed. Whether it could be considered successful would be up for debate. Surely, when the recipient received the content intended for them, the delivery was considered successful, right?

Anyway, afterwards, I returned to Rotask to see how things were faring.

The situation had certainly improved in a way, in that only one fey beast remained standing. However, this was a calamity level fey beast that completely wrecked havoc with every footstep it took.

Of all the heroes that were here just this morning, less than half survived till now for some odd reason. I really thought they were a bit more capable. And of those survivors, two had escaped from the city. If any heroes were near death and buried under rubbles, I couldn't sense them.

Noted. I'll strip them of their trait later. You can run, you can hide, but I'll find you. Wait... I guess escorting refugees is heroic? Maybe?

However, the good news was that new heroes were born. Three courageous individuals who stood their ground and defended their fellow countrymen, they were granted the |hero| trait. Though, very unfortunately, one of them had already died an honorable death before I arrived on the scene.

Seven heroes stood strong against the gigantic troll before them.

One of them was Jaco Spiriard, the Hero King. He wielded the sword I bestowed  him just days ago in exchange for the cursed sword, Lightsplitter.

Gabriel, the Crimson Hero, was also there. His clothes were battered and blood was dripping from his chin. It seemed the enhancements that I had granted him had worn off already. Even though he should be in severe pain, his expression did not show it.

Now that's what I call a cool hero! I should advocate him to Kanoko.

The third hero I noticed was Ruudra, the one I had chatted with back at the inn. He had somehow obtained a magitech sword, probably from a fallen hero, while wielding a pistol on his offhand. For some reason, he and the Hero King were acquainted but not particularly on friendly terms. Anyway, I personally doubted those weapons in his hands could harm the colossal fey beast. At best his pistol could act as a distraction.

Ruudra the useless, why do you even bother showing up? Well, it's a different story if you have some cool abilities. It's now or never.

In the distance was a heroine with a sniper rifle. That black female hero, Mae, seemed to have survived the onslaught of fey beasts. Though, I doubted her weapon of choice. Perhaps if the ammunitions were loaded with lethal toxin, she might be able to whittle down just a bit of its health. Regardless, I would applaud her for not abandoning her post as a hero.

One hero wielded a magitech spear that emanated an eerie glow from the tip. He was one of the three who gained the |hero| trait today. From the looks of it, he had suffered tremendous internal damages without receiving healing. If he kept up, I felt like he might end up dying before the boss fight ended. But, it seemed that he had a trait made him stronger the longer he remained in combat. His movements were becoming more and more refined and quicker as he zipped around with astounding speed while leaving wounds on the fey beast.

The last two heroes were positioned in the backline.

A female hero, one of the three newest members, was wielding a crystalline magic bow that generated magic ice and light arrows. In this world, magic bows were really no different than fey bows. Regardless it being a fey object or not, it was a powerful bow that was likely crafted by the previous mediator. Thankfully this weapon didn't have any dangerous quirks.

Finally, at the very back stood the seventh hero, an elderly mage wielding an arcane staff. His task was to cast barriers on his allies and prepare a tactical strike to obliterate his opponent in one burst of light.

As for their opponent, the status was as followed.

[Level 80 Fey;
Species: Groltozanix;
Physical: 723/899;
Spiritual: 352/498;
Traits: Extreme Regeneration, Tyrannical One, Behemoth, Warlord, Entrenched, Enhanced Resistances, Enhanced Physical, Limit Breaker;
Abilities: Undying Breath, Titan's Descent, Thunderous Roar, Unity of Wills;
Blessings: Earthen Lord of Tenacity;
Description: A champion of earth dwelling fey beasts.]

That's maybe a troll general or troll king? Like... What did you humans do to set it on war path?

Standing over twenty meters tall with six beefy arms, this colossal troll was biggest fey beast I had ever seen in my life. Two if its arms were holding war hammers, and two were holding gigantic blades like machetes. Its chest was covered in thick monster hides of ancient beasts. Even without such hides, this monster's skin was nearly imperious to both physical attacks and magical attacks. Any wounds it received would instantly heal as if no damages were taken.

Raawwwrrrr!!

A flash of lightning followed by the shaking of the ground.

Booom!!

The nimble spearman hero barely evaded that lightning strike that came from above.

Each time it swung its weapon, chunks of earth were gorged out of the ground.

"Now this is what I call a last boss! Man, this is like something out of ancient myths!" I said while watching from above. Now, even though I should be watching over Mera, I figured she wouldn't summon me any time soon.

Something as exciting as this? I couldn't miss it for the world.

The Hero King and the Crimson Hero were the vanguards, dishing out huge damages. Yet, even with corrosive effect, the fey beast was unfazed. Due to a combination of its traits, it seemed that as long as its feet were planted on the ground, it could regenerate indefinitely both mana and health.

Smash!

The earth trembled as one hammer pummeled the ground.

The fey beast, although had extremely high stats, it wasn't the quickest. That was probably a saving grace for the heroes dashing around evading the continuous strikes.

Unfortunately, none of the vanguards' weapons had long enough reach to sever an arm.

Suddenly a streak of light penetrated the head of the fey beast. A hole opened up on its head.

The fey beast kneeled for a brief moment, one arm touched the ground. As if it had just seemingly suffered irreparable damage, its hand grabbed a chunk of earth at its feet.

Just then, as Gabriel tried to slice its head using this opportunity, a giant hand swatted him aside like a fly, and having him skit across the devastated land.

Oof... That's got to hurt no matter what stats you have.  

With a huge lumps of soil and rocks in its hand like a compressed snowball, then it rose up and hurled that mass straight at Mae who was on her way to her next sniping position.

Jaco, seeing that Mae was in danger, dashed and jumped, and sliced at its right knee to unbalance it. However, he was a bit late.

Plomp!

When the dusts settled, Mae was already buried under rubbles, barely alive thanks to the last second physical barrier casted by the elderly mage.

Having immensely boosted stats didn't mean the heroes were capable of properly using them. Coordination was also an issue. Moreover, they probably lacked advanced abilities and traits that normally came with evolution, growth, and experience. If a guardian like Vorte was here, he'd be able to defeat it singlehandedly.

"Alright, maybe I should lend a hand. I don't want to see them all perish. Honestly, is it just a bad matchup or what? Maybe I should lend a hand... but how do I make it fair?"

The most useless hero here was that Ruudra guy. Occasionally, he would shoot a few rounds at the fey beasts eyes. It could only count as harassment at best. He seemed to be out of his element.

"Alright, he's worse than useless. I should just ask if he's holding back..."

I hopped over next to him.

"Hey Ruudra, when are you getting serious? You can't be this weak as a hero, right?"

"It's you again!"

He didn't seem too happy to see me. On the other hand, the Hero King understood why I came so he refocused his entirety on grabbing the fey beast's attention.

While keeping track of the battle around us, I said, "My name is Berry. You know, from afar, you look completely useless. Even that archer girl seems more useful... Are you afraid to reveal your trump card or something?"

"Kuhh... I'm doing my best! I really don't know who you are!"

"Look here, if you need some magitech equipment, now's the chance. Name it."

"Bring me a Drifter."

"What's this... Drifter? Do you know where I can find one?"

He gave a brief description of it, albeit with a cranky attitude at that. Cranky was probably an understatement.

A Drifter was one of those single seated magitech ship used by military for combat. There was a prototype docked offsite near the underground facility. Thankfully, it was far enough from the blast and protected by a durable hangar. Preliminary inspection showed that it still functioned so I teleported the craft some distance away from the battle.

Who would have thought he could pilot something like that?  

"Hop in, and it's yours. Best of luck!" I said before taking the observer seat once again.

Let's see... Who's next? With a little help from me, maybe they'll come to owe me favors.

While I was pondering, a beam of white light descended from above and enveloped the fey beast. This was a tactical magic from the old man that was supposed to vaporize its target. It was his strongest spell from his arsenal.

The result? The fey beast was charred black and its head crumbled away.

Before anyone could relax, a new head regenerated, and at the same time, damaged skin and flesh shed away revealing healthy new growth. The end result was no result.

The Hero King cursed under his breath, "What a fucking abomination! How are we supposed to kill this bastard?!"

Oh yeah, if they could shatter the fey core, it might just work! Except, only two weapons are capable of that and neither could reach the fey core.

There were only three people who had the reach to penetrate into its fey core in one attack. The spear guy was one but I was reluctant to grant another powerful weapon to the mortal race so he wasn't an option. As for the mage, he relied on magic hence he wasn't an option either.  

Mae was the least risky option. Since she already knew me, and I knew her, despite some differences, we bore no grudges against one another, hopefully. Approaching her should be fairly simple. Furthermore, since she used a magitech rifle, I didn't need to create a weapon for her thereby eliminating any possible misuse of powerful weapons in the future.

A single bullet should be enough for the task.

Truthfully, if the Hero King had the Lightsplitter, this fey beast would have been an easy kill. But! There was no chance I would return such a dangerous artifact to him. With that being said, I decided to stick with the plan in mind.

Next to where Mae was buried, far away from the main battlefield, I carefully removed a heap of rubbles. The barrier that protected her had since shattered.

"Hey!" I greeted her with a cheerful smile.

"It's you... What do you want this time?" She said with a groan. Her hair was all messy and covered in dust, and her clothes were a bit on the tattered side.

An unhappy camper we have here.

"Well, would you like some help defeating that fey beast?"

I offered my hands to which she reluctantly grabbed onto so I could pull her out.

"Our beautiful city is gone already... Ugh... Do you usually have wings?"

"Yes, this is my celestial form. So just to be clear, I had nothing to do with those demon underlings doing the summons or your internal politics."

"Haah..." She sighed, "Figures... It could only be a bad omen when a god came for a visit out of nowhere..."

"Right, don't blame me. You had it coming. Anyway, as a service, I removed several demons behind this attack. The remaining task for the heroes is to defeat that fey beast. Nn... I can't fight it directly but I can offer some support like healing and weapon upgrade and advices. Oh, and I can't revive dead people. So, on that note, would you like to receive my help?"

"Yes."