Blinded by rage and finally close enough to attack, Lily went right for the statue’s head, but somehow the marble humanoid managed to turn around in time and block her. “What the hell did you DOOO!?!” she shouted, striking with so much anger that she managed to crack the sturdy shield, then immediately readying herself for another go.

  As the statue braced for impact, blindingly glowing purple chains appeared out of thin air and trapped it from behind, forcing it to drop both its sword and its shield. The chains pulled so hard on all of its limbs that they basically left it defenseless, giving Lily the perfect opening.

  Just as she had done with the axe statue, the spider went right for the monster’s head, using her empowered limbs to smash its head in, then, before it could try to free itself from the restraints and repair the damage, she sliced right through its chest, causing its whole body to crumble and turn into dust.

  “W-what… how…” Lily muttered softly, a tear streaming down her cheek. She just couldn’t understand what had happened, and before she could say anything else, she heard a step right behind her, to which she promptly turned.

  “Nice!” It was Nari’s voice, or at least that’s what the spider thought she heard. “You got here just in time.” Yeah, it definitely was her friend’s voice.

  “But how…” The spider frantically looked around, searching for the source.

  “Hey, are you okay?” Nari slowly appeared right in front of the arachnid, almost like a mirage, with furrowed brows and slightly pursed lips. “Lily?”

  Lily sniffled loudly. “Y-you’re alive!!!” She jumped up and hugged her friend. “I could have sworn I saw the sword go right through you,” she mumbled under her breath, her voice almost cracking.

  “Oh, yeah, it did,” Nari replied, giggling as she spoke, causing even more confusion to the spider. “But it slashed my illusion,” she added, booping the spider on its head.

  “Your illusion?” Lily was flabbergasted to say the least.

  The golden-haired girl responded with a big nod. “Yeah! It’s a spell called Fata Morgana, quite handy to trick and trap enemies,” she explained. “Didn’t I tell you about—”

  “NOPE!!! I had no idea you knew a spell like that!!!” Lily shrieked, her scream accompanied by many little spidery hisses, cutting her friend off. “I thought you died…”

  Nari instantly gasped. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to—” Her voice was cut off once again, this time by the previously knocked out bow statue, which had regained consciousness after being knocked out by the girl’s explosives.

  “Hold on… is it me or did that thing just grow?” The spider wasn’t sure if she had just imagined it, only for it to grow bigger again, confirming her doubts.

  “About that…” Nari gulped. “Earlier, when you destroyed the axe statue, dust started collecting around the one that I was holding, and I think it enhanced it somehow… that’s when it overtook my spell,” she said, pointing at the little particles that swirled around the gargoyle’s growing body.

  “Whoa… it looks a lot stronger now.” Lily promptly glanced toward the statue with the tome she had trapped earlier. “While that one is still out cold,” she added.

  “Maybe they can only buff—or whatever—one at a time,” the girl suggested. “Lucky for us.”

  “Yeah, but that means that once we beat this one, they’re all gonna merge into the last one, making it even stronger…” While Lily spoke, and right after the dust finally settled, the statue grew one last time.

  “That means that we have to destroy both at the same moment.” Nari readied herself, summoning two more explosives from her inventory, but just as she did so, the spider pushed her out of the way.

  A massive arrow flew right by them, yet it was slightly off-center. While high enough to hit Nari, it was aimed way too high to hit Lily, who stood much shorter than the human girl.

  “What the—” The spider was surprised that such a powerful-looking monster could miss by that much, but then she turned her head and watched its trajectory, “it wasn’t trying to hit us…” Those words sent chills down the human’s spine.

  Nari watched the arrow smash into the knocked-out statue, causing its body—and the tome—to crumble into pieces and turn to dust. “D-did it just kill its a-ally…” When she turned around, more dust surrounded the statue.

  “There goes that plan,“ whispered Lily, laughing awkwardly.

  This time, instead of enlarging the gargoyle, the dust formed wings on its back and a levitating tome beside it, identical to the one the other statue possessed. “At least there’s only one enemy now,” Nari replied, taking a step back. “Do you also feel it?”

  Sometimes, when it moved, the monster—and its new marble tome—leaked so much mana that it felt almost tangible, but then at the same time, there were moments when it felt like it had none.

  Lily nodded, staring with laser eye focus on the enemy, ready to try and intercept an eventual attack. It has to be an elite rank, or maybe even stronger, she thought, recalling the ominous sensation she felt while fighting against the elite mosquito. “Stay back.”

  Nari instantly shook her head. “No!” she exclaimed. “I’ve got your back. We have to fight this thing together.” She tried to stand courageously, but her shaking knees gave her up.

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  The spider hid a tiny smile, then put her game face on, but before she could do anything, Nari threw her explosives toward the enemy, shouting insults at the same time.

  Lily took advantage of the distraction and jumped ahead, planning on hitting the monster from behind while it focused on the bombs, yet her attack—and Nari’s—were both interrupted before they could reach its body.

  “What the—” The spider was surprised by how easily the monster shielded itself from both angles, and even more so by how fast its focus shifted on her, because the moment they locked eyes, a fireball shot right out of its tome. “Water Bolt!” Lily exclaimed, barely in time to counterattack.

  The collision between their attacks formed an explosion, catching the spider by surprise and blasting her away. Ready for a follow-up attack, the statue readied its gigantic arrows and shot right at Lily with incredible speed, as if it didn’t even need to take time for aiming.

  The arrow travelled fast, much faster than the fireball, and with Lily still in mid-air, she didn’t have enough time to shoot a web and avoid it.

  But, thankfully, the spider wasn’t alone.

  “Hold!!!” Nari exclaimed loudly. For an outsider looking in, it was almost as if the arrow had just stopped in time, held back by the girl’s purple glowing chains. “S-shit! I can’t—” She gritted her teeth, trying her hardest to hold on, but her spell broke just a moment later.

  Those couple of seconds bought enough time for the spider to get out of the way and regroup.

  “I had no idea you could even stop attacks,” Lily cheered, thanking her for the support, but keeping her eyes fixed on the enemy.

  “Uhhh…” Nari giggled awkwardly. “Me neither, but I thought, why not try? At the end of the day, those arrows are still a physical object, even if that thing makes them out of mana,” she explained.

  “It has insane attack power,” the spider sighed, looking at the damage the arrow had made. Not only did it destroy any marble column it came into contact with, but it also caved a decent-sized crater on impact. “Water Bolt, Acid Blast,” Lily chanted, forming a big water sphere in front of herself, while imbuing it with acid at the same time.

  The spider threw that bolt with all of her strength, yet the moment it was about to reach the target, it burst mid-air, once again unable to damage the enemy.

  “I see now,” Nari gasped, piquing Lily’s interest. “It’s using shielding magic!”

  “What are you talking about?” Lily asked. Not that the words could have lots of different meanings, that wasn’t the source of her doubt; it was just that she didn’t see anything, and the monster kept leaking mana at weird intervals, confusing the spider even more.

  “It’s a defensive spell, but a rather rudimentary version of it,” Nari replied. “Claus mentioned that he tried to learn it but gave up because it uses a lot of mana and requires a lot of accuracy and control. The spell should appear as a solid light construct, but it seems the gargoyle can use it for only a split second,” she added. “Something’s wrong with it…”

  “You’re talking about the mana that keeps leaking out of its body, right?” Lily rebutted.

  Nari nodded and bit her lip. “I might be wrong, but it’s almost as if after having absorbed the last statue, it lost some control over itself,” she said, pointing at the inconsistencies in the monster's wings, which shifted between having a defined perimeter and spilling dust particles.

  “Now that you mention it…” the spider squinted, “even the tome looks in rough shape, maybe I could—” Suddenly flames burst out of that same book and slowly began to form into a massive screen of fire right in front of the statue’s body. “Water—”

  Lily wanted to counterattack and stop the spell before it grew too powerful. But the statue readied its bow and shot another arrow at them—more specifically, toward Nari—aiming for the ground right below her.

  Knowing Nari would have been too slow to evade such a fast attack, combined with the fact that she couldn’t stop it and run out of the way at the same time, Lily had no other choice but to grab her friend and jump away.

  “Kyaaa!!!” the girl shrieked as her golden hair danced through the wind, feeling slightly dizzy once they landed back on solid ground. “I’m never gonna get used to—” she paused, bringing her hands up to her mouth, but before she could resume talking, a loud explosion caught her by surprise.

  “We have a problem,” Lily mumbled under her breath.

  Not only was the monster’s arrow already powerful enough to destroy the terrain on its own, but when combined with fire magic, it became a powerful explosive; the crater it left doubled, if not tripled, in size.

  “Or maybe a solution…” the spider spoke again.

  “I’m almost scared to ask—” Nari gulped loudly, “what are you thinking about?”

  “How exactly does your other illusion work… ugh, how was it called…” Lily muttered, scratching her head as she spoke. “Fate… Fata…”

  The girl giggled. “Fata Morgana?”

  The spider instantly nodded back. “Yup, that one! How safe is it for you?”

  “Uhhh… unless the enemy can locate my actual position, I’d say it’s pretty safe, why?” Nari replied.

  “Well, it seemed to be a lot stronger than your Hold, so I was wondering if maybe it could stop one of those flaming arrows for just a bit longer.” Lily stepped closer in and gave her a rough explanation of her plan, knowing they didn’t have much time until the statue would attack again.

  The human girl kept on shifting between nodding and shaking her head after every couple of words, her mouth going from a slight frown to a smile, then turning into a frown again. “Are you sure it’s really targeting me because of that?” she asked, wondering if what the spider had just told her could turn out actually to be right.

  The spider gave her an awkward smile, prompting her friend to sigh. Since she knew they didn’t have many other options anyway, Nari ended up agreeing to the plan, right as the winged gargoyle readied another flaming arrow, pointing it right toward her.

  They both stood patiently, waiting for the monster’s next move.

  The exact second that the arrow left the bowstring, Lily rushed to close the distance between her and the statue, but instead of running head-on to intercept the flaming arrow, she swerved and went to its back. “Silk Web!” she exclaimed, sticking her webs to a couple of sturdy marble columns, then secured the other end around her arachnid body.

  Working in tandem, Nari cast Fata Morgana on herself again.