"Wooooo..."
Deep winter descended, and the whole world turned pure white in an instant.
Behind them, the rear-guard members had seen Leon unleash this kind of super wide-area annihilation magic before, during the [Blood-Red Christmas], but back then they'd been facing nothing more than rank-and-file grunts (humans) under two meters tall. The shock of standing here in this colossal sealed room, facing the ten-meter-tall Monster Rex Goliath head-on, was a world apart!
Just then...
Powerfully amplified by the "Secret Art: Transcendent Magic Circle," with the full boost of a complete chant on top of it, Goliath's charging frame abruptly seized up. A thick layer of solid ice spread fast across its body, and with dense, crisp crackles of freezing, in the blink of an eye the colossal beast was sealed completely inside a towering ice sculpture.
Aura, Iri, and Margaret stared at the battlefield that had suddenly become a "deep-winter ice plain," and at the Monster Rex frozen inside that massive block of ice. The double impact, visual and psychological, left their scalps prickling, mouths agape, almost forgetting to breathe.
Aura's small hand gripped her ten-million-Valis staff, her increasingly pretty and elegant little face drawn tight with seriousness, and she murmured in awe.
"That's Mr. Leon for you... he's gotten even stronger than he was at 'Blood-Red Christmas'!"
Beside her, Iri nodded hard, like a chick pecking at grain, her eyes full of shock.
Only Margaret's expression shifted a few times before she finally turned her face away, a little vexed and embarrassed.
"Damn it... you turn the whole battlefield into a frozen wasteland, how am I supposed to use my fire magic now..."
Right then, Jeanne's solemn voice rang out by their ears, her tone severe as she warned everyone.
"Everyone, stay sharp! This fight is far from over! A Monster Rex isn't the kind of thing you can take down this easily."
As if to bear out her words, before she'd even finished speaking...
"Roar!"
Through the mirror surface of the solid ice, everyone could clearly see light faintly gathering inside the savage maw of Goliath's huge mouth.
"...What's that?"
Leon frowned.
Steering the ice clones to pour more Magic into the nodes of the transcendent magic circle, reinforcing the "freeze" effect on Goliath, his main body wasn't idle either. He pinched his thumb, gave the staff a half-turn and swiftly leveled it forward, making the magic crystal at the staff's head flare bright, and as the Magic surged through him, twin rings of an ice-blue magic circle spun in opposite directions, a ball of frost brewing endlessly at the dead center.
"Be careful," he warned in a low voice. "I can feel it... there's a really terrifying energy building up inside the ice."
Jeanne's mind raced, and her thoughts went straight to the magic-like skill Goliath was known to possess. Her face changed slightly and she shouted.
"It's 'Roar'! Everyone scatter now and get ready to defend!"
Roar?
At her warning, Rose's face shifted slightly. She stamped down and shattered the ground beneath her, forcing her forward charge to a dead stop, then planted herself in place, raised her shield and leaned into it, murmuring.
"Pure White Kite Shield, Field Deployment!"
"Clang...!"
A mass of pure white light burst from the shield, and then, with her at the center, the wall of light formed by the shield spread rapidly to both wings, sheltering Laurier, Kureha, and the others behind it in the blink of an eye.
Inside the ice sculpture, the light brewing in Goliath's mouth had been compressed to its limit!
And cracks raced across the ice!
"Get down!!!"
"Roaaaaaaaaaaaaar...!"
White light flashed.
A deafening roar boomed and echoed through Floor 17!
Everyone saw only a near-transparent shockwave erupt from Goliath's mouth, slamming instantly into the wall of light Rose had raised.
"Rumble...!"
The violent impact set the entire chamber trembling. Rubble rained down from the vaulted ceiling, the ground split inch by inch, and the once pure-white hall was covered in cracks in an instant, reduced to a field of ruins.
"Hyaah!"
Rose clenched her teeth lightly, leaned her whole body forward, and held the shield braced motionless before her.
But the impact of the roar was simply too heavy, shoving her two feet into carving a pair of deep grooves across the ground as she was forced sliding backward.
"Hah, hah..."
Only when the pressure on the shield face suddenly eased did Rose catch her breath and lift her head to look out past the shield. By now the Monster Rex had broken free of the ice, its massive body rising again, a violent aura steaming off it.
Except, compared to the dashing entrance it had made, it was in a pretty sorry state now.
The Giant Goliath was covered head to toe, its face especially, in great patches of frostbite, along with all the various wounds the others had left, and the low-temperature debuff of the frost magic had clearly slowed its movements down a big step from before. At that kind of speed, never mind the Lv.4 fighters, even Lv.2 or Lv.1 adventurers could just barely handle it, so long as they didn't trade blows head-on.
"That shockwave... it really was heavy."
Jeanne first glanced back at the guard group, who were no worse for wear apart from looking a bit rough, then shot a look at Leon, who'd hit the deck nice and early, before stepping forward and pressing a hand to Rose's shoulder, asking with concern.
"Rose, are you okay?"
Rose shook her head, narrowed her eyes up at the Monster Rex as it stepped closer and crouched to gather power, and laughed softly.
"I'm fine. It's the first time I've taken Goliath's roar head-on, and I didn't expect it to be a bit heavier than its fists. Just caught me off guard, that's all."
In the time it took the two of them to talk, the color had already returned to Rose's face, her breathing as steady as ever, not a trace of panting left...
Clearly, the effect that hit had on Rose was about the same as an ordinary person jogging twenty meters.
"Now's the time!"
Jeanne & Rose: "?"
Leon, who'd scrambled up fast, jammed his staff into the ground, pressed his palms together imitating Pain, opened his mouth wide and let out a "Hah."
"Hah!"
Then a surging tide of Magic gushed out of him, and the magic circle, once only the size of a soccer ball, swelled abruptly to the size of a truck wheel, turning slowly before him!
"Whish...!"
A howl ripped through the air, becoming a streak of ice-blue light that detonated against Goliath's chest with a thunderous bang!
Ice crystals sprayed, mist burst outward.
The huge piercing force and its impact knocked the Monster Rex sideways, sending it staggering backward.
"Roar!"
Goliath threw back its head and bellowed in fury, but the answer it got...
Was another giant Ice Lance over half a meter across, tearing through the air!
"Whish...!"
"Bang...!"
The Ice Lance drove hard into its thick chest, bursting into a spray of ice crystals. As Leon grew more accustomed to the rhythm of high-speed casting, the Ice Lances formed and fired ever more smoothly and swiftly.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang...!"
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