Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu

Defense Specialization and the Tower’s 9th Floor 3

"I’ll stay above you again."

"Yeah, thanks."

Maple let Sally down onto a platform and then slowly floated upward.

The roaring had stopped now, and the boss’s claws reached out to slash at her. Sally easily dodged the attack and cut at its arm at the same time.

"The number of counters seems to have increased...!"

Sally sensed a presence coming from behind her, and so she immediately accelerated forward.

At the same instant, the space behind her tore open and black thorns reached out for her.

"I suppose I should be thankful they aren’t invisible... Well, I can still dodge these!"

Sally rushed up to the boss and started attacking it with her daggers.

In response, several large magic circles opened up around the boss. One of them was positioned right below Sally.

"Such a wide area...!"

"It’s fine! Keep attacking!"

Came Maple’s voice as Sally was about to run before it activated.

She prepared Pierce Guard so she could use it at any moment, while also moving so that Sally would be in the area of effect for Dedicated Affection again.

"Nice! Like this..."

Black currents shot out of the magic circles. While it was clear that these were powerful attacks, they were not attacks that could hurt Maple, since she had now used Pierce Guard to become immune to piercing attacks.

Sally left the defending to Maple as she jumped out of the black stream and pulled out her daggers.

"Good!"

She easily slid past the counterattack, strengthening the Sword Dance buff and accelerating the damage. By being aggressive with her attacks, she made it counter more often, which turned into her strength.

As they were able to survive it, the black streams that shot into the air was a good thing for them.

She attacked ferociously whenever there was a large opening, hitting it multiple times and then retreating before the Power of the Star ran out.

"I’ll start too... ’Commence Attack’! Syrup ’Spirit Canon’!"

Maple unleased the laser from up above and had Syrup inflict additional damage.

Of course, the enemy countered. But this time, she moved her great shields so that her weapons would not be destroyed.

It would be much better for the attacks to hit Maple directly.

"Good. Let’s keep going!"

Maple stood up from her throne, which deactivated the skill restriction that would be on her as long as she was sitting.

"’Oozing Chaos’! ’Hydra’!"

In exchange for the damage cut and the healing benefit, her lowered attack ability was returned to normal.

The poison and monster mouths attacked the boss, causing its HP gauge to dwindle.

"Yes, it’s working! Wait...ahhhhh?!"

If Maple was going to deal such strong attacks, then this would, of course, result in similar attacks coming her way.

As she was still not used to it, Maple wasn’t able to activate Heavy Body in time, and so the black blob smashed into her and launched her into the air.

And since she had been on Syrup all of this time, she did not have the Power of the Star buff on her.

"Uh...!"

"Hah! That was close."

"Sally!"

Sally had seen that Dedicated Affection was moving away, and so she used Super Acceleration to follow after Maple and catch her. Then she put her down on a nearby platform.

"Thank you. You saved me."

"You need to get back up onto Syrup. I’ll try and distract the boss. So go back without using any weapons."

"Okay!"

"Alright, Oboro ’Shadow Clone’!"

Just as she promised, and with the help of Oboro, Sally attacked even harder than before.

Sally had split into five clones and each was moving towards the boss.

The arms slashed and the black lasers flew. There were even sudden attacks from behind her, but she dodged all of them.

After Sally had delt more damage and the boss’s attention moved away from her, Maple was able to float up with the Power of the Star, and return to where Syrup was.

"’Heavy Body’ and ’Pierce Guard’ and ’Crystallize’...uh... I’ll have to ask Sally about how she’s able to use skills so smoothly... But for now, ’Deploy all Weapons,’ ’Commence Attack’!"

Maple still wasn’t used to some of her skills. But these were the ones she knew best, and so she unleashed the powerful attacks onto the boss.