<h4>Chapter 309 - A New Shadow</h4>


    Trantor: Makisima


    The battle between Fran and the Evil Being Army has taken on a new meaning


    On one side is Fran, who wants to quickly destroy the Evil Beings and rescue the ck Cat refugees, and on the other, Valkyrie, who wants to obstruct Fran.


    「Beat it!」


    「Gyagya!」


    「Gyoaa!」


    Fran, who has Sword God’s Grace, ughters Evil Beings with surprising speed while maintaining her course directly towards Valkyrie. With the simultaneous use of Teleportation and Brilliant Lightning Rush, Fran is now much faster than Valkyrie and on several asions, she got very close.


    Although Fran’s attacks are usuallyrge-scale and powerful, the Duhan is sessfully blocking most of them. Worse still, as the Duhan is shielding her, Valkyrie seizes the opportunity to pull away from Fran.


    This situation makes Fran even more anxious. To make matters worse, gaining distance give Valkyrie an opportunity to attack. Fran is managing to dodge all Valkyrie’s lethal arrows, but the rate is clearly increasing.


    「Grr! Bastards!」


    『Fran, calm down!』


    （Sorry……But!）


    If Valkyrie hadn’t used Damage Transfer, this would have been a quick fight…


    I still haven’t figured out the mechanism of Valkyrie’s Damage Transfer. It seems to be triggered whenever Valkyrie takes damage. This mysterious phenomenon may be rted to their Shield Techniques.


    When appraising Valkyrie, I didn’t discern any items or skills to transfer damage, so it must be an effect of her title, or some kind of martial art. If it’s a skill that needs mana, it should have shown up during Appraisal.


    As far as the current situation is concerned, the Shield Techniques and Divine Shield Techniques are the most suspicious ones. So far, in Valkyrie’s forces, Minotaur Dark Pdins using Divine Shield Techniques and High Orc Shielders using Shield Techniques have always been the ones taking damage. Since shield skills can protect thepanion, it’s little wonder that it can shoulder thepanion’s damage.


    And in fact, Minotaur High Swordsman and High Orc Warrior, who had died from shouldering Duhan’s fatal damage, also held Shield Techniques.


    But once the conjecture (about the link between damage-shouldering and Shield Techniques) stands, the battle waiting for Fran will be bound to be a tough long haul. After all, half of the remaining Evil Beings hold Shield Techniques. For them, I don’t know what level they need to be able to use Shield Techniques to shoulder the damage, but shouldn’t the rest of them can all shoulder the damage? If it’s really so, for how many rounds of attacks on earth can we defeat Valkyrie?


    Let me put aside the case that depending on ordinary Word Techniques, Fran can kill dozens of Evil Beings at the same time. But it shouldn’t have been so absurd that only one or two enemies who shoulder Sword Techniques damage could be killed as it is now.


    Although I had intended to eliminate all Evil Beings, Valkyrie and Duhan would never allow me to do that. And Valkyrie took every moment we take eyes off them andunched continuous devastating attacks.


    We’re really being chased by them. And even though Fran has been using Life Thief Skill and Heal to the best of her ability, her HP Recovery is far less than the damage she suffers. Even if giving up using Brilliant Lightning Rush can save her a lot of magic, but it’s very likely that the bnce between Fran and Valkyrie will be broken once Brilliant Lightning Rush is dismissed now. Overtaxing though, the use of Brilliant Lightning Rush has to be kept.


    However, Valkyrie’s dad-sted attacks are bing more and more violent. Damn, and Duhan also unfolds his attack to Fran. Worse yet, Duhan’s damage is constantly being transferred to other Evil Beings. But Fran now has been affected by the big explosion caused by Valkyrie’s arrows, badly beaten.


    From a distance, Valkyrie conqueringly watched Fran, who stands up and square off in a sh.


    「Ahahahaha! You are irritated, aren’t you? And it’s likely that yourpanions have been killed while you are fighting against heavy odds!」


    『Fran, it’s a provocation! Don’t listen to her!』


    「……Gu」


    Gnashing the teeth in anger, Fran scowls at Valkyrie, I could even hear the crunch. If it goes on like this, Fran will really go berserk.


    No way out now, I have to resort to my trump card, Skill Taker. Directly deprive their skills. But what confused me is that of which skill I should deprive. After all, the basic specs and skill bnce of Valkyrie and Duhan are terrific. To be frank, no matter what skills I deprive them of, it can’t disable them.


    Even so, it might Valkyrie’s Divine Bow Techniques and Duhan’s Divine Shield Techniques can still be on the shortlist. Skill Taker can’t disable them though, it should be able to weaken them to arge extent. And then Fran can make a final bid for victory in the chaos in which their skills are deprived. As for those Evil Beings who shoulder the damage, we will attack them until they can’t do it anymore.


    『The problem is… whose skills should I deprive?』


    Just as Fran and I were discussing which skills to deprive…


    (Shishou, something’sing!)


    『Yeah, I can feel it, too!』


    At this moment, from the southwest, a shadow with great mana is approaching at a high speed, which seems much faster than Urushi’s Sky Leap. Could it be Valkyrie’s reinforcements? However, it does note from the north but from the southwest.


    Valkyrie and the others seem to be waiting and seeing, and since the powerful magic captured their attention, they began to grow restless as well. In some way, the shadow doesn’t look like her reinforcements.


    「Here ites!」


    『Overhead!』


    As the two sides paused to attack and assumed a defensive posture, the shadow alights from the sky.


    「Kuooo~o~o~on’n!」


    「Wyvern… No, it’s not. Could it be a Dragon?」


    As Valkyrie muttered, that shadow is a Dragon with red scales. Its height is almost 2 meters, and its wing length is about 7 or 8 meters.


    In the air, the Scarlet Dragon flutters its wings, looking down on the whole battlefield. Its golden pupils gleams with a sharp light as if it is hunting prey.


    At the sound of the dragon’s roar, Magic Beasts shrink timidly. And Evil Beings are also caught up in a riot and stops the previous offensive. But even so, they quickly regain their morale ande out with a ground-to-air formation.


    The Scarlet Dragon is a little smaller than an adult dragon. And for the status, its threat level is only C. However, its sense of existence is extremely strong. But now, there is something more threatening than it that must be kept on the lookout — Duhan, and Valkyrie.


    However, neither I nor Fran is overly wary of the dragon. Instead, Fran wears a smile on her face.


    Because…


    「Reduce them to ashes! Llinde!」


    「KuOOOOoo!」


    The Scarlet dragon spraying mes at Evil Beings and people riding on it seem familiar to me.


    「You seem to have a tough fight, Fran! Are there any reinforcements?」


    「Mare!」