Chapter 11 - Weaker but better than Megumin?

"- Explosion!"

*Boom!"

Hey Guys, Markus Ortias here. And today I just saw the most feminine of the girls excitedly cast EXPLOSION in a pile of castle ruins.

The group was excitedly talking about finding treasure and here I was sitting by the bottom half of a stone pillar ruin. The group just waved at me and I waved at them back as they started walking down the stairs leading downwards.

"I wonder..."

I started circulating mana inside my body. I read the novel and the manga, following canon then they will find 'that' at the bottom. I needed to recover.

"Worst of all is that I only have this knife on me."

I looked around the place. Ruins, stones, and debris. The monsters we fought earlier had already been taken care of and dismantled by the party, I could have helped but they told me to just rest.

"There is that thing..."

Standing up and walking towards the piece of metal I was looking for.

It was the weapon that the Dullahan used. Even when the real owner of the weapon died a long time ago the blade part still looks as pristine as ever. It was a Greatsword. A large piece of metal too big for me to lift.

A weapon you would have seen the characters, Siegfried from Sou* Calib*r or Guts from Bers*rk would wield single-handedly. Looking at my janky arms...

"Yeah, right as if I can wield that thing this soon even with all my training."

Smiling at the joke. I slowly got serious. I, with great difficulty, placed the large piece of metal on two separate stones and readied my knife. I concentrated.

"Boost. Enchant: Fire. Enchant: Wind."

The knife did not like that, the combination of two enchants on a piece of equipment made from inferior materials was causing it to creak. I had only a few seconds to spare. That was enough.

"Hah!"

The greatsword was bisected in the middle. The knife blade melted. I no longer have any weapon on my person.

"I never thought I would feel this naked without any actual weapon on hand."

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts I looked at the now two separate pieces of metal. I started with the top part. Unlike normal swords, the top part of this Greatsword was not ending at a point, the top part was flat and sharp.

"Modelling."

What I need from the top part was something round. Something I can place on my left arm without needing to hold it. A buckler type shield.

Modeling is such a versatile spell, it can freely shape any object. It cannot, however, transform the material composition of the object, an example of which, turning a piece of wood into Charcoal.

Finishing the Buckler type shield. I had a thought.

"Ah, I could have just used Modelling to separate the two parts."

It was only thanks to my cheat that I can use this Non-Element spell this way, even Touya only uses this spell as a 3D printer of sorts, still needing a picture as a guide.

Next is the lower half.

"Once more. Modeling."

The handle of the Dullahan's greatsword was long, it slowly shrank until it was just enough for two of my hands to fit comfortably with some extra space. The blade itself grew longer and thinner reminiscent of a longsword. The blade guard disappeared, replaced by a teardrop-shaped hole directly in the center of the blade connected to the handle.

"I dub thee, Falchion. You are going to help me defeat an evil dragon in the future."

I etched the name Falchion on the center of the blade in Cursive. For the sheath, I just repurposed my previous sword's sheath and changed its form to fit the new sword.

"There is no Infinite Durability on this thing but it will do for now."

Performing sword slashes and finishing with a twirl of the sword before sheathing it on the floor.

"Let's just hope there is no future Daughter that will time travel to save the future."

*Boom!*

--

Looking to where the EXPLOSION came from I saw the party just exiting out of a gate spell and looking frantic. Great, they just woke the thing. Feeling half recovered I rushed to the group just as another EXPLOSION happened and a crystal giant insect monster jumped out.

It looked like a tick without a head and has six pairs of legs, it was slightly see-through and you can see a red orb inside of it.

"Soooo... Mind explaining what that thing is supposed to be."

reaching the group as the recovered from I asked them with a light joking tone.

"We don't know." -Elze

"I have never seen a beast like that before..." -Yae

*Screech!*

The monster somehow managed to screech without any mouth.

"This sound!" -Touya

The creature suddenly elongated its two front legs and jabbed at Touya and me.

"Woah!"

Touya managed to duck on time the crystal leg passing over his head. I bent my legs shifting my body a bit to better receive the blow and tilted my shield at just the right angle to deflect the crystal leg. I got pushed back but still had a stable footing, the crystal limb already retracting.

"Come Forth, O Fire; Red Quartet: Fire Arrow!"

Linze Chanted and directed four arrows made of fire to attack the crystal monster. The monster let the magic hit it and the magic attack got weaker. I saw the mana get sucked inside the Red Orb making the monster stronger.

"The Magic's being absorb!?" -Touya

"Ku... In that case!"

Yae suddenly sped forward and delivered a strong overhead strike, it left a shallow cut.

"It's so hard!"

The damage was then healed in front of us.

"It can also apparently heal itself. Guys regroup"

Everyone backed off and regrouped. I decided to draw its attention by attacking one of its legs to let the rest of the party make a plan. My target this time was one of the joints.

"Your end has come!" (AN: Critical Attack!)

Charging in I ducked low evading its attack, it missing a few inches above my head and I did an upward diagonal slash hitting the joint connecting the leg to its body.

*Shing!*

*Crack!*

The joint I attacked cracked and dislocated from its body. The creature stopped moving and raised the side of it with the crack and poured mana directly from its core. I used that chance to move away while looking for any changes. The damage was repaired but I saw the mana stored in the core drop a bit.

"Hey! Its weakness is its joints!"

I called out. The group saw what happened and started attacking again. Yae and Elze now started focusing on its joints making it need to stop and repair itself, using its mana faster.

"Let me try something."

Touya called and raised the hand not holding his weapon, a katana.

"Slip!"

The ground under the crystal monster shined for a split second and the monster suddenly loosed traction. It fell.

"Alright! Linze, Markus! Don't use direct Magic. It cannot absorb the mana from spells that cause indirect damage!"

"I see... I understand!"

Linze started chanting a different type of magic.

"Come Forth, O Ice; Giant Ice Floe: Ice Rock!"

A large piece of Ice Shard appeared atop the crystal monster. It fell crushing the monster causing a dust cloud hiding it from view.

"Chance! Boost! Full Power!"

Elze charged in and targeted a limb. The attack shattered the target but...

"Shi*! It regenerated quickly!"

The monster appears to have moved to its Second Phase and the orb inside of it glowed bright, the mana inside dropped rapidly and the damaged limb repaired much faster than the last few times. It also had enough time to raise the new repaired limb and attack with it. Seeing that I started running.

"Make it!"

I shouted having jumped right in time to shield Elze and block the attack with the shield, unfortunately, the attack has gotten stronger sending me flying dropping my sword and carrying Elze with me.

However, since I was in a higher position than hers, I flew past her after a few seconds of flight and hit the ruined wall with the back of my head.

"Markus!"

--

I heard a voice calling for my name. I felt something soothing on my head. My vision slowly got cleared and I saw the concerned faces of my friends.

"What happened?"

I asked Touya who was holding a red glass fragment.

"It is done. We defeated the monster."

Looking at the red glass.

"You used Aports to steal the Red Orb inside the creature and had Elze smash it with a full power Boost punch."

I summarized the events in one sentence. The group was stunned silent at my accurate summation of the events.

"How did you-"

"I read it in a novel. Besides the creature has a crystal body with only the red orb inside of it being different. Also, we saw the absorbed mana go directly to the red orb. I was planning on doing something after we got it immobile but then..."

I shrugged helplessly, I got unlucky and had hit my head. It was only thanks to Magic that I was conscious already with only a slight headache.

"Also yeah, did anyone see my sword?"

"Ah, that?"

Touya pointed at the sword, well bent-sword. Looking at him then the sword then back at him, he could only point at the whistling Elze. Seeing my look she blushed.

"I kind of had gotten angry at it and needed to throw something."

"Throw as in use the sword as a makeshift projectile and punch it with a full-power boost. You mean."

Yae ever the blunt type explained what happened. I looked back at Elze.

"Hehehe, Tehepero?"

'god dangit!'