The two clones fly close behind us.

“I think we should nearby this time.”

Aro-dono says.

Previously, the clones hung further back to better obstruct the chimaeras.

『Why, Aro-dono? Surely if we stayed further in front, we’d have time to recover if they were broken through…』

Aro-dono shakes her head.

“The next time that happens will be the last.”

『…Right.』

That certainly makes sense. The next time the clones are killed, she won’t have enough mana to recreate them with [Darkness Kaleidoscope]. Rebuilding will be impossible.

“That’s why we should work together and slow the chimaeras down ourselves. We need to work together to get by with as little mana as possible.”

『I see…』

Her strategy sounds sensible to me.

『We’ve already seen a lot of what they can do. The Magic Beast King probably still has more tricks up its sleeve, but at this distance they might not be usable. It should be safe to assume we’ve seen everything it can do at this range. As long as we can predict it, we should be able to react in time…』

It’s an optimistic view of the situation. It’s easy to say, but actually pulling it off will be difficult. But without relying off such an optimistic strategy, we’d soon run out of mana and be torn apart by the chimaeras.

『Let’s go with that plan, Aro-dono.』

Carrying me, she flies about five metres in front of her clones.

More chimaeras are closing in on us.　

『Th-they’re almost here! What do we do, Aro-dono?』

“Letting them get close without doing anything could be an option too, but…”

She says ponderingly.

『Isn’t that too dangerous? Ten of them could attack at the same time.』

“…But all my skills for keeping them back at range cost too much mana.”

『I-it’s that bad?』

“It’s not that I absolutely can’t use them, but I’d quickly reach my limit. Even we get away from these ones, we won’t be able to escape after that.”

I understand her point, but I also don’t think we can survive being attacked by ten chimaeras at once. A single mistake in close combat would lead to them quickly overwhelming us.

『That’s it! Can you do a weak [Gale] over a wide area?』

“[Gale]…? It might slow them down a little, but that won’t matter much…”

She replies, touching a finger of her free hand to her mouth in confusion. Her eyes then open wide in realisation.

“I see…! Fighting them all at once is too hard, so I should shift the timing of their attacks!”

『Do you think it could work?』

She nods.

“It should work! They don’t seem very clever. I think they’ll just take the shortest route to us.”

The plan I thought of was to use a weakened [Gale] to disrupt their flying and stagger their attacks. Including the clones, we have four upper A ranks with us.

Aro-dono’s status is specialised for magic, but her attack power is also fairly high.

“Did you two get that? Keeping your mana costs low, slow some of them down with [Fog of the Dead] and [Gale]!”

The clones nod, then begin to produce a heavy fog around us.

“[Gale]!”

『I see, this should be more effective!』Blown by the wind, the fog spreads out.

It’s probably impossible for them to cooperate now.

The clones continue to use [Fog of the Dead] and [Gale]. The [Gale] is not being used as a means of attack, but merely to disrupt the their ability to fly. As it usually tears opponents apart with powerful winds, producing winds weak enough to just disrupt flights doesn’t cost much mana.

“AAAAah!”

Breaking through the fog, one of the chimaeras charges towards us. But a single chimaera will be easy to handle.

“[Mirage].”

One of the cloness emits a dazzling light. The chimaeras jaws snap shut to her left, biting through empty air.

“Illusions work well in this fog!”

She transforms her hand into sharp claws and tears through the chimaera’s belly.

“Aah!”

『[Clay Sphere]!』

My projectile slams into the chimaera’s head. It reels backwards. Above it, the second clone dives down.

“Thanks for the meal!”

The clone grows sharp fangs in her mouth and bites the chimaera’s wing. At the same time, she kicks its back. It soars away, scattering blood as it arc towards the ground.

“Ah, AAaAAh!”

I hear its pained scream as it disappears from view.

『I see, even if we don’t defeat them, it’s enough to make them unable to fight.』

This way should also be more mana efficient.

But, while we were fighting the one opponent, three more chimaeras have closed in.

“Three…! If they slow us down too much, we’ll soon be overwhelmed…”

『Aro-dono! Please use the fog and [Mirage]!』

“Eh? Ah, sure.”

She nods uneasily.

The three Aro-donos work together to scatter [Fog of the Dead] and to confuse the chimaeras’ visions with [Mirage].

“But the difference in stats isn’t very large, so even if this disrupts their attacks a little, I think they’ll soon realise…”

『Now for [Berserk]!』

I target the middle of the three chimaeras. It’s a skill that raises the target’s attack power dramatically, but also puts them into a state of rage.

“AAAAAAh!”

Afflicted by the [Berserk] and confused by the illusions, the central chimaera snaps wildly and bites the rear of its ally in front. The attacked chimaera counterattacks with a slap of its tail, then turns and strikes with its claws. A fight has broken out in the air.

The unaffected chimaera by the [Berserk] charges at one of the clones. But its vision is still confused by the [Mirage] and [Fog of the Dead]. The clone neatly dodges and returns with a claw attack of her own.

“Aguh…!”

Taking advantage of the chimaera’s loss of balance, the other clone bites into its wing.

“A, Aa…!”

For a moment, it appears about to recover, but then the two clones attack it together in a pincer attack using their claws. It falls down, spewing blood.

Leaving the two fighting chimaeras behind, we quickly change direction and continue flying.

『W-we did it…! At this rate we might be able to keep running until the [Death God Seeds] activate!』

Although we’re still using MP, our rate of consumption has fallen. We’ve also learnt how best to deal with multiple of them attacking us at once. We might be able to survive just through [Gale], [Fog of the Dead], and direct combat.

If we can completely deal with the chimaeras, the Magic Beast King will have nothing left to do. It’s still narrow… but we have a path to victory.