Chapter 376: Allied Force vs. Oración Seis (Part 4)
"Meeennn... I didn't expect the opponents to be this formidable!"
Ichiya and the Blue Pegasus trio picked themselves up from the ground and regrouped with Ultear's side.
"That Racer's speed is too fast. Our eyes simply couldn't keep up with him at all," Hibiki informed the rest of the Allied Force.
"Racer's magic effect isn't increasing his own speed; it's lowering the perceived speed of living beings within a certain radius. In other words, he made us slower. His own speed didn't change at all, which is why it looked like he got faster," Gray shared their recent discovery.
"So that's how it is. In that case, attacking from outside his range or neutralizing his magic effect would be effective ways to deal with him." As the team's designated commander, Hibiki immediately thought of a solution. His mastery of Archive Magic was precisely to facilitate better battlefield command.
"We almost had him beat just now, but that Brain guy interfered and saved him!" Natsu complained angrily.
"Everyone, inhale my Pain-Relieving Parfum!" Seeing that many members of the Allied Force were injured, Ichiya pulled a perfume bottle from his coat and popped the cork. A soothing fragrance quickly drifted over the group.
"Smells nice."
"The pain... it's slowly fading..."
Everyone was amazed to discover that the throbbing pain from their recent injuries was gradually subsiding.
"As expected of our master!" the Blue Pegasus trio praised, as Ichiya struck another pose.
"I really wish we could figure out a way to stop him from posing... and their titles for him keep changing..." Lucy couldn't help but complain again.
"I don't even have the energy to complain anymore," Gray muttered beside her.
"I severely underestimated you all."
At that moment, Brain, the commander of the Oración Seis, spoke up.
Although the Allied Force members had been talking among themselves, their attention had never left the Oración Seis. Seeing Brain speak, everyone turned to glare at him, and the atmosphere instantly grew tense.
"Though you are merely a swarm of maggots, you are maggots with some measure of skill," Brain said, staring at the Allied Force with a frigid expression.
"I didn't really want to wake this guy up, but I suppose it can't be helped." Brain looked down at Midnight, who was still sound asleep on the floating carpet. "Wake up, Midnight. Annihilate them. Leave no one alive."
Upon hearing Brain's words, the man sitting on the carpet with his head bowed slowly lifted his face. He opened his eyes, revealing piercing red irises.
"Understood, Father."
He slowly stood up and stepped off the carpet. With black hair, purple lips, earrings fashioned from tiny skulls dangling from his lobes, and a leather choker around his neck, Midnight looked every bit the part of a dangerous delinquent.
"That guy stood up," Gray noted, his guard raised to the absolute maximum.
"He looks incredibly strong," Lucy couldn't help but say. Brain himself had stated he was forced to wake him up; if he wasn't insanely strong, what else could he be?
"Everyone, be careful," Erza warned, raising her twin swords and locking her gaze on the enemy.
"Damn it, you're finally awake?!" Natsu roared. Thrusting both hands forward, he immediately spewed a massive torrent of roaring flames at him.
Seeing this, the other members of the Oración Seis leaped to the side, leaving only Midnight standing in his original spot. He made absolutely no attempt to dodge. Natsu's flames simply curved around him, cleanly bypassing his body and continuing behind him.
BOOM!
Natsu's flames slammed into the ground behind Midnight, detonating in a massive explosion that sent fierce shockwaves blasting in all directions. Midnight's hair whipped wildly in the wind, but he remained completely unharmed.
"Ice-Make: Lances!" Seeing Natsu's attack fail, Gray immediately followed up.
He thrust both hands forward, launching countless ice lances directly at Midnight. But just like Natsu's flames, the moment the lances neared Midnight, they all swerved, curving sharply to bypass him before embedding themselves into the ground behind him.
"My magic curved too," Gray stated with a grave expression.
"Requip!"
Over a dozen longswords materialized behind Erza and shot directly toward Midnight.
Midnight stood perfectly still in his original spot. Without exception, every single one of Erza's swords curved mid-air, failing to land a single hit.
"Haa!" Seeing this, Erza gripped her twin swords, charged forward at high speed, and slashed directly at Midnight.
Midnight didn't flinch. The moment Erza's blades swung toward him, the metal directly bent and warped out of shape. The moment she retracted her strike, the swords returned to normal.
"The trajectory of the blades was bent?!" Erza hastily leaped backward, staring at him with a heavy gaze.
Simultaneously, she requipped her left hand with an even larger greatsword and slashed at Midnight once more. But the exact same thing happened; the greatsword bent completely out of shape the moment it neared him, only reverting to its original form once she pulled it away.
"Hmph!" Midnight scoffed coldly. He raised his right hand and swiped it toward Erza.
An invisible shockwave blasted toward her. Erza hastily raised her twin swords to block the unseen force, using the momentum to leap backward.
However, the moment she landed, she realized the metal armor she was wearing had begun to rapidly distort and warp, twisting tightly around her body to bind her. Erza instantly felt the breath being squeezed out of her lungs by the crushing pressure of her own armor.
"Ice-Make: Ice Falcons!"
Seeing this, Ultear thrust her hands forward, launching a flock of freezing ice falcons straight at Midnight.
Although Erza was leading the assault, there was no rule saying her allies couldn't intervene. It was the enemy's problem if they chose to fight alone; seeing her comrade in trouble, Ultear naturally stepped in to help.
Seeing the incoming ice falcons, Midnight's expression grew serious. He hastily leaped to the side, physically dodging the attack.
Witnessing this reaction, the eyes of Ultear, Sorano, and Erza instantly sharpened.
Simultaneously, Erza used her Requip magic to swap her crushed armor for a set of regular clothes, instantly nullifying the enemy's magic effect.
"Requip: Heaven's Wheel Armor!"
Erza then requipped into the Heaven's Wheel Armor. She spoke up, "I see. So that is the nature of your magic."
"Exactly. My Reflector can distort all things in existence. It can reflect magic, and even manipulate the refraction of light to create illusions," Midnight declared with immense pride.
"Dance, my blades!"
Dozens of swords materialized behind Erza and shot toward Midnight in a relentless swarm.
"Do you really think sheer numbers will be enough to hit me?" Midnight didn't even attempt to dodge, standing firmly in place.
Countless swords rained down upon him, but the moment they closed in, every single one of them bent sharply, reversing direction to shoot right back at Erza. Wielding her twin swords, Erza rapidly parried and struck down every single reflected blade.
Without giving Midnight a second to counterattack, Erza dashed forward at blinding speed, appearing right in front of him and slashing downward.
Midnight was startled by how quickly she closed the distance, but seeing her swing a sword at him again, he couldn't help but laugh. "No matter how fast you move, you cannot break through my Reflector."
Just as before, the sword in Erza's hand bent wildly out of shape the moment it neared him, reverting to normal only after she pulled back.
"See?!" Midnight smirked triumphantly.
Erza remained completely silent. Her left hand darted out from beneath her right arm, delivering a devastating, bare-handed palm strike directly into Midnight's stomach.
Taking the heavy blow to the gut, Midnight was launched backward, flying a great distance before finally crashing hard into the ground. Clutching his stomach, he trembled as he struggled to stand back up.
"What..." Midnight's face was twisted in utter confusion.
"Your magic has two weaknesses," Erza said, raising two fingers toward Midnight.
Her armor then vanished in a flash of light, replaced by a deep purple, highly elastic combat outfit.
Midnight was stunned by Erza's words. First came sheer disbelief, quickly followed by intense skepticism. He refused to believe she had deduced the weaknesses of his magic in such a short amount of time—and two of them, no less.
"First, even if you can bend magic or weapons, you have absolutely no way to bend the human body itself. If you could, directly attacking my body earlier would have been far more effective than attacking my armor. Am I right?" Erza stated bluntly.
"Hmph! So what if that's true?!" Midnight scoffed coldly. He waved a hand at Erza, and the clothes she was wearing began to warp and twist, attempting to bind her once more.
"Even so, if I get serious, I can simply crush you along with your clothes!" Midnight laughed, seeing Erza's clothes wrap tightly around her.
However, Erza didn't show a single trace of pain or discomfort. She simply continued, "The second weakness is this!"
She looked up at the space above Midnight. A magic circle expanded directly over his head, and a massive array of swords and blades materialized in mid-air, their tips pointing straight down at him.
Midnight stared up at the hovering blades in sheer panic. Before he could make a move, the weapons rained down.
"Waah!" Midnight scrambled desperately out of the way, dodging the barrage of swords in a highly undignified manner.
"While you were busy distorting my armor earlier, you physically dodged Ultear's attack. Why didn't you just bend Ultear's magic to evade it, like you did before? In other words, the space you can distort is limited to a single area. You must choose between distorting the space around yourself or the space around your enemy. While you are using your magic on me, you cannot use Reflector to protect yourself," Erza analyzed with absolute calm.
"..."
Having exhausted all his energy just to dodge Erza's falling swords, Midnight lay panting heavily on the ground. He glared at Erza in bitter frustration as she eloquently exposed his secrets, completely unable to utter a single word in rebuttal.
"By the way, this Robe of Yūen is a highly elastic 'armor' that can stretch freely. Your magic is completely ineffective against it. Oh? If we count this outfit, then you actually have three weaknesses!" Erza smiled, glancing down at her attire.
"You detestable wench! Making me look like a fool!" Midnight spat at Erza, his face twisted in fury.
"As expected of Erza!" Lucy cheered happily from the sidelines.
"Erza is truly incredible," Gray nodded, completely agreeing with Lucy's sentiment.
~~~
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