Aro-dono is recovering her mana by absorbing mine.

I glance behind. Aro-dono is flying as fast as she can, but the chimaeras are closing in.

If we don’t do something soon, they’ll catch up to us. My skills aren’t useful against multiple opponents, so we need Aro-dono to do something.

『Aro-dono… Let’s use [Darkness Kaleidoscope] again! We need your clones to buy time!』

I know that the mana cost of [Darkness Kaleidoscope] is intense. Our current pace of burning through our mana is far too fast. But without [Darkness Kaleidoscope] we have no way of keeping the chimaeras back.

『I know it’s hard on you when you’re so low. But we’ve no choice but to rely on [Darkness Kaleidoscope]! We lost your clones last time, but now we’ve seen what the Magic Beast King can do!』

Her [Darkness Kaleidoscope] was crushed twice in a row as a result of our movements being disrupted by the [Inhaala] and [Flare Ray]. Now that we’ve seen the Magic Beast King’s capabilities, we won’t fall for a surprise attack again. I’m sure it’ll still be hard to avoid even if we’re expecting it, but we’ll definitely fare better than last time.

『Let’s keep your clones alive this time and focus on efficiently creating distance! We lost a lot of mana, but I don’t think we made any mistakes. It was necessary to see what the Magic Beast King is capable of…』

“Hyuu… hyuu…”

I hear Aro-dono wheezing. Her face is pale.

I catch my breath.

Her mana shortage is worse than I expected. As a walpurgis, her mana is her life.

“Sorry, treant-san. Until I recover a little more, I don’t think I can make any clones…”

『S-sorry for rushing you.』

We’re in an even worse place than I had thought. I don’t have much mana remaining either. I can’t serve as her mana tank for long. In the first place, her mana capacity is over twice mine. Now that she’s scraping the bottom, we won’t last long.

I feel anxiety pressing in on me. Was using [Death God Seed] a mistake? Was there a better strategy we could have used? Is it too late to change now? Is there anything we can do other than running away?

While we wait for Aro-dono’s mana to recover, the chimaeras edge closer and closer.

Aro-dono still can’t use her skill. I need to do something to buy time.

But almost none of my skills are useful in this situation… The sphere-type skills have too narrow an area of effect, making them poor against multiple targets. Their range also isn’t very long, and I’m not accurate in my aiming enough to keep the chimaeras back. They’d just dodge and barely slow down.

Should I use [Decoy]…? If I go in the opposite direction from Aro-dono, I should be able to buy some time. Once they catch up, I could return to my full size and rampage with [Undying Regeneration] and my counter skills.

But if I do that, I’ll lose my life for sure. Aro-dono is too kind-hearted. She might refuse to leave me, making it pointless.

Besides, I believe we aren’t that cornered yet.

Our defeat is getting closer, but there’s only one thing to do here.

I turn to face the chimaeras and gather mana in front of my face.

It costs a lot and will only buy us a little time in return, but there’s nothing else I can do.

『Time for [Heat Ray]!』

From above my head, a thick beam of bright red light cuts across the sky. The chimaeras peel away to dodge. As I maintain the beam, I feel my mana being drained away.

But it has slowed the chimaeras down a great deal as they focus on evading my [Heat Ray]. I’m chose to rely on it in desperation, but it’s surprisingly effective.

『Hmph!』

I twist my head. One of the chimaeras fails to dodge and is struck.

“AAah!”

It screams as its body erupts in flames and it falls in altitude. It frantically tries to extinguish its burning feathers while midair.

『I-I hit it…』

There are many of them, so keeping the group in check is more important than taking out one of them, but I still feel a slight sense of satisfaction.

『Bring it on, four-eyes! The moment you let your guard down, I’ll hit you with another [Heat Ray]!』

I punch the air with my wings, threatening the chimaeras. They appear wary of the sudden long-range skill, their bodies stiffening at my threat.

『W-we can do this… We can still do this…!』

Our hope is certainly slim. The more time passes, the more it seems to be replaced by despair.

It’s hard to come up with a concrete plan because we can’t see how close the Magic Beast King is to its limits, and our state of unknowing is mentally taxing. But put the other way, we still have hope that it could suddenly burst into plants and die. It’s also possible that master-dono could change his plan and come here earlier than expected.

“Treant-san, thank you for buying time. I’m okay now.”

『Aro-dono…!』

“[Darkness Kaleidoscope]!”

Two copies of her appear on either side of us.

…This is probably the last time we can use [Darkness Kaleidoscope]. We need to keep the clones alive and be careful of how we spend our mana.