Chapter 820: 820: Fighting Alongside Nadia

Fran and Nadia glanced at each other and grinned. Then, they simultaneously charged towards the antidemons.

「Taaah!」

「Doraaaaah!」

Just as the antidemons braced themselves for impact, Fran and Nadia crossed sides mid-dash to swap their targets.

I was stunned to see how well they could coordinate without any prior arrangements.

But these clawed knights were no small fry. They responded immediately and intercepted the surprise attack.

They probably intended to block them with the shield on their arms.

『Unfortunately for you, this was our goal!』

But I've already planned for that. They focused their attention on Fran and Nadia for a split second, and that's all I needed.

The metallic threads I released wrapped themselves around the legs of the clawed knights. But this was not a thick, strong rope made of multiple layers of thread.

Rather, they were thin.

I made them as thin as possible, so much that they were difficult to see. If someone did manage to see them, they would wonder how such a thin thread could even perform its job.

Anyone would expect them to snap, but they were firmly clamped on the antidemon's legs.

Since I poured a huge amount of mana into them, they won't break that easily.

And it wasn't just tough.

「Gyiii?」

「Gyagah!」

『Got 'em!』

The thin threads cut deeply into the legs of the antidemons. If they were human, it would have teared through the flesh all the way to the bone.

Well, not that antidemons actually had bones.

This unfortunately didn't manage to sever their legs, but I still succeeded in impeding their movements.

It took a lot more mana to make one of these ultra-thin threads capable of cutting through high-level antidemons, even more than if I made hundred ordinary threads, but they turned out to be worth the effort.

「Haah!」

「Take this!」

Fran and Nadia cut through the clawed knights after they lost their balance.

While watching them, I felt a strange sense of unity. Fran and Nadia looked like mirror images of each other.

For some reason, even their stances were very similar.

Was it because they were both black cats?

Yet the size of their weapons, their height, and their body types were all completely different. Why did they look so much alike?

They certainly weren't using the same style of swordsmanship. Fran didn't learn from any particular style, and neither did Nadia.

Either way, I should concentrate on the battle for now.

「Ruuuoooourgh!」

「Gugh!」

「Nadia!」

Immediately after Fran and Nadia defeated the two clawed knights, Nadia's body was slammed aside. The antidemon boss, Twisted Horn, had approached her before we knew it.

She had blocked with Overgrowth so there was no major damage, but she was being chased by other clawed knights too. She would be at a big disadvantage if we let that continue.

There was one clawed knight in front of us too.

But Fran did not rush to help Nadia.

「Master, please!」

『Yeah!』

This was our chance now that Nadia lured the others away. Even before we arrived, Nadia managed to survive on her own.

That means she won't be going down any time soon.

『We'll take this opportunity to kill the underlings!』

「Nn!」

When I saw Twisted Horn's movements, I understood what Nadia meant when she said it was combat-specialized. That commander was ridiculously strong.

His swordsmanship was on the level of Swordking Mastery, not to mention how he was just as fast as Fran and Nadia. Meanwhile, he also had an overwhelming advantage in strength and vitality.

To defeat such an opponent, our first step would to getting rid of the obstacles around it. That always ends up being the quickest path to victory.

『Crap, Nadia's face...... Has the antidemon part expanded a bit?』

We got here as fast as we could, but it still took several minutes. Nadia's remaining time was surely dwindling.

Maybe we should have taken some more risks so we could focus on speed and efficiency.

(Master, can you get bigger? I'll do it in one go.)

『Makes sense, let's do that. I'll start us off, and you handle him in the meanwhile.』

「Nn!」

I instantly understood what Fran wanted to do. Leaving Fran to deal with the antidemon in front of us, I poured mana into my decorative strings again.

The strings writhed like a snake and stretched toward the sky.

Then, they exploded several dozen meters above us, falling towards the ground all at once. Hundreds of strings suddenly rained down from the sunny sky.

I aimed them at all the antidemons aside from Twisted Horn. However, the antidemons used their claws and barriers to defend themselves with little effort.

Well, that couldn't be helped. Each of the strings was pretty weak individually, and it's not like I was controlling them manually or anything.

But this attack wasn't meant to kill the antidemons in the first place.

(Master, nice one.)

『I'm ready when you are, Fran!』

「Nn! Haaaah!」

Fran nodded as she held me at her side. After a slight pause, she swung me out with full force.

At that moment, my sword blade grew huge, about fifteen meters in size.

This was my anti-ship form that we used against pirates previously. Well, I guess it was longer now, since Fran and I had grown significantly since then. Both the speed and power were on a different level of magnitude.

Back then, Fran could only handle a blade of ten meters, but now she could perfectly wield me even if I was fifteen meters.

And to prove it, Fran swung the giant blade as if it was nothing, a slash with the same blinding speed as usual.

The antidemons were busy dealing with the strings raining down on them, so there was no room for escape. They could have ducked it if they crouched, but that would just make them easy targets for the strings.

Maybe they could have evaded by digging into the ground, but we certainly didn't give them enough time to do so.

「Gyieeeee!」

「Gyuoogh!」

With this slash, we slew the one in front and the one next to him. The last one managed to dodge me by forcing his way upwards through the falling strings, probably betting on the strings not being fatal.

But that was a poor bet! I immediately activated the spell I had been working on. A white lightning bolt poured down, engulfing the antidemon while after it got entangled in the threads.

My focused Kanna Kamui punched a deep crater into the earth, and the force of the impact caused the ground to tremble.

After the tremendous discharge subsided, there was not a trace of the antidemon left.

No matter how great their resistance to magic is, it couldn't block my full powered Kanna Kamui converged on a single point.

With this, all the antidemons within range of my anti-ship mode were dead, just as planned. I could have made it longer, but that would probably hit Nadia too.

「Only the boss remains.」

『Yeah! Let's work with Nadia and take him down!』