Magic Equipment

The surface hall.

Fabian had just rushed forward and was now only three meters from the gray dwarf.

At Rain's call to focus their attacks, realization flashed across Fabian's face. He leaped up, kicked hard off the rock wall, and landed behind the gray dwarf.

At the same time, he raised his dagger high. It traced a bright arc before plunging down!

Not far away, Leia fixed her eyes on the gray dwarf and drew her bowstring taut. The next instant, a gray arrow streaked toward him like lightning.

Rain's pointed hammer was already a fraction ahead of them both, whistling down!

Clang!

The gigantic gray dwarf had just blocked Rain's Armor-Breaking Strike with his Warhammer when he let out a pained growl. An arrow had struck his right eye.

But it wasn't over yet!

Shhk!

A silver arc slashed into the artery on the left side of his neck. Blood spurted out!

Perhaps because of the deadly wound, Rain saw the gray dwarf shrink rapidly back to his original size.

He had come out of Gigantification!

Everyone realized at once that the state could be interrupted.

"Damn it, Bingus!" roared the gray dwarf in the center as he picked up his Warhammer.

Rain could not understand his words, but anyone could hear the fury in them.

To Sos, the gray dwarf, the human party had seemed moments away from collapsing completely.

Yet in the single second it took him to retrieve his Warhammer, they had coordinated a devastating attack.

They had turned the tide in an instant!

Compared with the human adventuring party they had crushed two days earlier, these people were in another league.

With his clansman's life at stake, Sos seized the necklace around his neck and thrust it toward Bingus, who was under attack!

In an instant!

Just as the others moved in to finish off the badly wounded gray dwarf, a faint red glow appeared around him, enveloping him completely.

Shhk!

Fabian's dagger, aimed once more at his throat, stopped against the barrier.

Rain's descending Warhammer met the same resistance and hung suspended in midair.

Thud!

A muffled groan came from nearby. Chris flew into the rock wall and tumbled heavily to the ground, his kite shield falling beside him.

His twisted left forearm and the blood he kept coughing up made it clear he was all but out of the fight.

While Rain and the other two had attacked Bingus, Chris had scrambled up and briefly held off the gray dwarf on the left, preventing him from helping his companion.

But the gigantic gray dwarf's strength was overwhelming, especially when he used Armor-Breaking Strike.

If Chris had been a full-fledged Professional warrior, perhaps he could have managed. But as a mere warrior apprentice, how long could he hold out even with everything he had?

Those few seconds had been the last of his strength!

"You... will all die here." Sos pointed his Warhammer at them, speaking in halting Common, his voice thick with anger.

Then he charged straight at Rain.

The gray dwarf on the left, who had been about to rush in and finish Chris off, seemed to receive an order. He turned and charged at Rain too.

"Rain, watch out!"

Rain felt the rush of air at his side even without Leia's warning.

He had expected this. Once he shifted his attack to the gray dwarf on the left, the one in the center was bound to come after him.

His original plan had been to cripple the gray dwarf attacking Grand before the one in the center could reach him.

Only then would the threat to his party drop sharply.

They might even turn the fight around.

But he had not expected the gray dwarf in the center to possess a magic item that could shield his badly wounded companion.

Rain knew that if two gigantic gray dwarves attacked him together, it would end badly.

"Switch targets!"

Whoosh!

Just as Sos was about to strike, Rain shot across the hall in an arc from right to left and slammed into the gray dwarf charging from that side.

Leia's earlier group training paid off.

So did Rain's second warning.

The others rallied and moved at once.

But Rain had already shown this high-speed maneuver, so like the combat technique Charge, once before. Veins bulged along the gigantic gray dwarf's neck as he let out a low growl like grinding gravel.

Boom!

Like two bulls locking horns, the gigantic gray dwarf dug his feet into the ground. He carved two furrows over a meter long before stopping Rain's Savage Charge outright!

"The same move..." The gray dwarf grinned fiercely at him, speaking in slurred Common.

But the next second...

Hiss!

A blue-white ray flashed through the dim underground hall!

His words cut off!

A pained grunt followed!

The gray dwarf clutched his left eye. Thick white ice rapidly formed across his head and the hand covering it.

Rain's sudden Freezing Ray had badly hurt him!

Shhk!

An arrow shot in and pierced the left side of his neck. The only one there who could keep pace with Rain's focused attacks was Leia.

Fabian, however, was only three meters from the gray dwarf.

Grand, who had abandoned his shield because of his injured left hand and charged in with his sword, was about the same distance away.

The Howling Hunt Party was about to focus its attacks a second time.

"Damn it! Omir, watch out!" Sos, who had turned to charge Rain again, had to stop. He grabbed the pendant at his neck once more and quickly chanted a two-syllable spell.

The next second!

As Fabian leaped high and his dagger traced a silver arc through the air, red light erupted around the gray dwarf whose left eye Rain's Freezing Ray had struck.

His dagger could go no farther!

The same pale red barrier that had protected the first gray dwarf now surrounded Omir.

"Damn it! He can use it twice in a row!"

Chris struggled to his feet against the rock wall. He had been sure his party was about to cripple another gray dwarf. Instead, the magic equipment around the central gray dwarf's neck had protected two of them in succession!

How were they supposed to fight that?