<h4>Chapter 312 - Mare & Fran</h4>


    「ToAhaaa!」


    「Haa!」


    「Ku!」


    Raising their swords aloft, Mare and Fran charged towards Valkyrie. Defending with her spear, Valkyrie frowned and retreated, giving ground. Although Valkyrie’s spear technique was excellent, she couldn’t hold back the simultaneous charge of both Mare and Fran.


    Gradually, the damage Valkyrie suffered became more and more serious.


    Meanwhile, the other Evil Beings that had, thus far, been suppressed by Llinde, and Duhan, who had been tied down by Kuina, also attracted my attention.


    From my vantage point, I could also clearly see Llinde’sbat abilities, it certainly was fortunate for us that he was on our side. His airbornebat speed was amazing, not produced by his wings but rather his mana and skills. Thus, as he was flying through the Evil Beings, his eleration and deceleration totally ignored thews of physics.


    After flying at top-speed for a time, Llinde suddenly halted, then produced another sudden burst of eleration, seemingly with no warning whatsoever. The ability initially appeared to be performed using me Magic as a propent, but it was more than that, the key to it seemed to be that the magic was released from his wings.


    Also, due to Llinde’s substantial intellect, his actions were nned out strategically. He never stepped into the attack range of an Evil Beings’ pike, instead just sneaking up on them and only breathing low-level mes to provoke them. In addition, in order to avoid being targeted by arrows, he never stayed in one ce and was always moving unpredictably to avoid being surrounded and bing a sitting duck. Not just this, but whenever the Evil Beings and Magic Beasts tried to recover, he would roar and sow chaos in their ranks.


    Despite the rtive infrequency of his attacks, the gueri tactics he was employing were excellent. His objective wasn’t to kill enemies, just to support his allies and allow Mare and Kuina to be the main force.


    Now, thanks to Llinde’s support, Fran and Mare could focus on Valkyrie without being bothered by the Evil Beings.


    「me Sword!」- Mare


    「Quartet sh!」- Fran


    「You damn little girls!」- Valkyrie


    「Fine, I’ll show you true fear, War Maiden!」- Mare


    「Fuck!」- Valkyrie


    「Humph, toote!」- Fran


    「Damn it…!」- Valkyrie


    Little by little, the converging attacks of Mare and Fran had cornered Valkyrie. Although most of the damage Valkyrie had initially suffered had been transferred to the Evil Beings, it was gradually being transferred less and less frequently. This was because Valkyrie was constantly taking damage during the battle. This, in turn, caused the damage she could transfer to be far outstripped by the damage she was taking, causing the wounds she suffered to be more and more serious.


    「Haha. I was thrown off by her wound recovery before, but it looks like she was just using a strategy based on Shield Techniques.」- Fran


    「What do you mean?」- Mare


    「Shield Techniques is a skill which allows the user to assume a portion of the damage that is suffered by allies. However Divine Shield Techniques is a skill which can transfer the damage the user suffers to their allies.」- Fran


    「Oh, I get it.」 — Mare


    As we had reasoned out, Valkyrie had indeed been using Divine Shield Techniques. But now that her allies, Duhan, and the Evil Beings, were caught up in the fierce battle, she could no longer use the skill to its full potential.


    For now, we decided to give up on using Skill Taker. This was because in future battles we would likely need the skill to deal with the mysterious figure pulling the strings behind the scenes, that of Valkyrie’s boss, Murellia, so we had to conserve skill usage as much as possible.


    What’s more, Valkyrie’s arrow had already proven it couldn’t pose any threat to Fran and Mare and Duhan’s Divine Shield Techniques had also beenpletely blocked by Kuina. So, in circumstances like these, there really was no need to use Skill Taker.


    During the continuous offensive, I found that,pared to Fran’s thunder skill, Valkyrie suffered more from Mare’s me skill.


    「It looks like,pared to your powerful but fleeting thunder, Valkyrie is more afraid of my relentless, destructive mes.」- Mare


    「Oh I see!」- Fran


    「You even have the time to chat!?」- Valkyrie


    「Of course, we have!」- Mare


    「Indeed, we do!」- Fran


    「Damn!」- Valkyrie


    Valkyrie couldn’t hold back her anger anymore when she saw Fran and Mare were even chatting while avoiding her attacks. What she didn’t know was this was also a part of Fran and Mare’s tactics.


    It seemed as though the two were nning to repay all the damage Valkyrie had inflicted on them, with interest. Moreover, because of their provocations, Valkyrie’s attacks had be rushed and messy out of anger, presenting easy openings for Fran and Mare to avoid them. Because of this, neither of them had any intention of stopping the provocation.


    「Hora Hora! Weren’t you oh so confident before? Why have you gone all quiet!?」- Mare


    「If you’re having a hard time, just let me know!」- Mare


    「Fuck, shut up!」- Valkyrie


    Now that the tables had turned in our favor, we could afford to talk amongst ourselves. Valkyrie, however, had been pushed to the extent where she couldn’t even stop to talk.


    「It’s time! Go in now!」- Fran


    「Gaaaaa!」- Valkyrie


    Finally, one of Fran’s shes broke through and cut off Valkyrie’s left arm. This time, the wound made by the sh didn’t recover and the detached arm flew through the air.


    「I did it!」- Fran


    「KuA-Ga!」- Valkyrie


    Then, with a lunge of her me Sword, Mare cut at Valkyrie’s body. The fire wrapped around the sword and charred the wound, instantly turning it ck.


    「Well, now! Changed your mind?　If you tell me what I want to know, I’ll give you a painless death!」- Mare


    「…」- Valkyrie


    Valkyrie knew very well that she couldn’t turn things around. Disarming herself, she got up slowly. Even though she didn’t have a skill like dimensional storage, it seemed as though she could still use some sort of ability to arm and disarm herself.


    「So d’you feel like talking now?」- Mare


    「AhAh, I give up, I will tell you everything I know ——」- Valkyrie


    Muttering, Valkyrie began to pull out an object, it was a ck spear from which waves of ck magic arose. I had seen the same kind of magic wave long ago, it was the same sort of magic used by the Master of Evil Arts Rynford and the Half Evil Being Zerrosreed. After using Appraisal, Valkyrie’s spear was disyed as [Evil Stone Imbued Spear].


    「—— Impossible! I’ll never tell you anything!」-Valkyrie


    Still being forced back by Fran and Mare, Valkyrie suddenly lost all semnce of control. She roared and veins throbbed on her forehead.


    「UGaaaaa! Unforgivable! I will kill you all right here, right now!」- Valkyrie


    Then, from the spear in her hand, an evil specter burst forth.


    「Even I can’t control it! It will destroy everything until itpletely devours my soul!」- Valkyrie


    In her rage, Valkyrie’s face had now lost its previous beautiful fa?ade. Her expression had turned distorted, almost demonic.