55 Chapter 55: Dance with Death (1/2)
In the background, I could see Cecilia lunging toward Hades, but she wouldn't make it in time. She was far too slow. Alicia was still firing her guns, but her low-caliber rounds seemed to be completely ineffective against the monster's ironbound hide.
Basically I was screwed if I decided to wait and rely on other people to save me.
”Orion!”
I hastily summoned a bow and let loose Orion's Belt. Despite me fumbling around as I struggled to my feet, Hades was too large a target for me to miss. However, even as the triple arrows slammed into Hades, they dissipated with little effect, leaving little more than smoke.
Just as ineffective as Alicia's guns, huh?
”No way…! They have no effect?!”
Alicia was exclaiming in shock when she saw that both my arrows and her magic bullets did absolutely nothing against the iron goliath. However, I continued to fire another volley of arrows, more out of sheer desperation than because I believed they would work.
The giant actually paused for a moment as he was riddled with arrows. By now I had infused more of my magical energy into my arrows and they were hitting with the force of a tank round. Projectiles that had the power to raze entire houses to debris struck Hades with greater effect, rocking him backward and causing him to stagger for a second.
Only a second.
With a bellow, Hades began to shrug my arrows off and advanced slowly but surely toward me, not even bothering to defend himself from them. It was as if he didn't consider them as anything more than minor annoyances.
Hades was more focused on finishing me off.
However, my ceaseless volley of Orion's Belt had bought me a precious few seconds to complete my summoning spells that I had begun ever since I had first seen Selina and her iron giant.
”Taurus! Aries! Capricorn!”
Three gigantic Constellation spirits materialized and descended from the heavens to slam into Hades just as he lunged at me, knocking him off his trajectory and throwing him into the dirt. Hades slammed into the ground and rolled about before leaping to his feet with an agility that belied his massive frame and leaving a massive crater. Growling fiercely, the berserk spirit straightened and faced the charging Constellation spirits, and swung his scythe, cleaving Taurus cleanly in half.
Aries and Capricorn had wisely attacked Hades from the flanks, but he merely endured the hits without taking any visible damage. Grabbing Aries by the horns with his left hand, he smashed the ram's head into the ground, burying the braying Constellation spirit underground. Kicking Capricorn aside, he sliced the goat's belly with his scythe, disposing of him in one attack. While Aries struggled to pull his head out of the ground, Hades viciously stomped on his neck, breaking it and causing the ram to disperse into magical energy.
”You've got to be kidding me.”
In less than thirty seconds, Hades had eliminated three of my more powerful Constellation spirits. Powerful summoned beasts that took me minutes to cast.
Growling triumphantly, Hades turned to me, ready to finish me off before I could summon anything else.
”Your opponent is me.”
The goliath was forced to turn around and deflect Cecilia's thrust. Cecilia whirled around gracefully before slashing at Hades with her sword, but the giant quickly dodged the glowing blade, and lashed out with a muscular forearm to force her back.
”Alicia! Richard! Support!”
”I understand!”
”Got it.”
Even though our shots were ineffective, they could at least faze Hades and force him to pause for a second or two. In a battle of life and death between two highly skilled combatants, even a single second could spell the difference between victory and defeat. Both Alicia and I knew that we didn't necessarily need to hurt Hades, but our shots could at least create an opening or two for Cecilia to exploit.
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Damn it!
Despite knowing my role, I still felt a wave of frustration sweep over me.
Alicia didn't seem affected, but I was reluctant to leave the physical close combat maneuvers to a girl. However, I was also highly aware that Cecilia's physical strength, speed and swordsmanship were light years ahead of mine, and from the earlier exchange I knew I was completely no match for Hades' brute strength. This was no time to be dwelling upon masculine pride and all that gender nonsense.
Opening up the distance between the two dueling combatants, I began gathering more magical energy into my hand.
”Orion!”
Channeling magical energy into the black and brown bow in my left hand, I took aim and readied my shots. Opposite me, Alicia did the same, increasing the power of her shots. We both pointed out weapons at Hades.
While Cecilia dueled with Hades, the two of them clashing under a shower of sparks that rained from their colliding weapons, I unleashed volleys of triple arrows.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
My glowing projectiles struck Hades' skin with little effect. Despite possessing enough firepower to blow up a house, they posed no threat to the iron goliath, achieving little more than angering him.
”Even this many Orion's Belts have no effect, huh?”
Alicia was having a similar problem. Despite her unceasing bombardment, her bullets clanged off Hades' iron-hard flesh harmlessly, dissipating into sparks that joined the pyrotechnic display produced by Cecilia and Hades' constantly clashing weapons.