I hate being in pain, so I think I'll make a full defense build

Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 350

Defense Specialization and the Trial 5

“Yay! We won!”

“Yeah, it went well.”

“It really is different when it’s the two of us! It was so much harder when I fought it on the 4th layer.”

Back then, she had only been able to defeat it after using up all of her skills and then self-destructing through ‘Break Core.’ But this time, not only did she have ‘Unbreakable Guardian’ left, but ‘Savagery’ and ‘Bizarre Eater’ remained as well. Obviously, this wasn’t the same place, and it wasn’t the exact same boss, but it was still clear that these were the results of the two working together.

“I’m glad to hear you say that. And as always, Maple, you really saved me with ‘Dedicated Affection.”

“Ehehe. You’re welcome.”

“I doubt there will be an enemy that is stronger than that…”

“Will something else come out?”

As they waited for their next opponent, a large angel with six wings came out of the passage in front of them. And then smaller angels with two wings and bows came out of the other passages.

“Do you know them, Maple?”

“They look similar to the enemies in the area where I got the throne…but I think they’re different.”

As they talked like this, the angels seemed like they intended on getting in the first attack. They nocked their arrows and the space around the boss began to glow up, and then countless light arrows came down like rain. Normally, this level of hostility in an opening attack would have been quite shocking, but Sally ignored the arrows that were hitting her and looked towards Maple.

“Uh…how are you, Maple?”

“No problem at all!”

“Good. Then I guess I’ll go and kill them one by one.”

“Yes! They might destroy my weapons, so it will really help!”

“Yes, yes. ‘Ice Pillar’!”

Sally created an ice pillar near one of the small angels, and then used her web to move towards it in a flash. Then she kicked off of the pillar and cut at the angel while in the air. Her body was spinning as the daggers slammed cleanly into the angel, dealing damage so great that it died in one hit.

“Oh, they’re weaker than I thought.”

Things were going well as she created another ‘Ice Pillar’ and then jumped on it. And from there, she used the same technique to deal great damage to another angel, killing it. As the fighting had been non-stop since they arrived here, ‘Sword Dance’s’ attack boost was continuing to rise.

Normally, it was quite difficult to raise it to its limit, but the damage was all the more high as long as it continued. These angels might have survived Sally’s attacks if this was the first wave.

Like that, Sally took them out one by one, but then after a moment, she realized that the first angel had come back to life. There was no point in killing them then, and so she gave up.

For now, they were just shooting reinforced arrows, and so she had wanted to kill them before their pattern changed into something worse. But it would just be a waste of time.

“Maple. Do the arrows from the small angels deal any damage?”

“No! And there are no strange debuffs either!”

In the first place, this rain of arrows would have made most normal players struggle to survive. It just looked like these angels were doing almost nothing, because of Maple’s ‘Dedicated Affection.’

“Then I guess we’ll leave them for now. It should be fine as long as we defeat the boss.”

Sally landed on the ground, and then she and Maple walked together towards the boss so that she would stay within range of ‘Dedicated Affection.’ As they got closer, pillars of light rained down as if they were the judgement of the angels. However, they didn’t really do anything notable

“Things are going really well this time.”

“Alright, let’s do it then!”

With Maple and Sally, there was always a huge difference depending on how good a match the enemy was for them. If an enemy wanted to fight on their level, they had to come equipped with piercing attacks. That was the basics.

“‘Quintuple Slash’!”

In that case, Sally felt that she could use the skill without holding back, and so she slammed it with a chain of attacks. As fire and water danced in the air over the storm of blades, the boss’s HP started to decrease. However, the calming sound of a harp suddenly echoed around them, and then its HP began to recover.

“What?!”

“Ah, Sally! The other angels are playing their instruments!”

“So it’s their fault. What should I do…”

It was probably possible to brute force it by doing damage that exceeded their ability to heal, but this was clearly not the orthodox method.

“You’d be able to shoot them down if the light arrows didn’t destroy your weapons…”

When she looked up, the great rain of arrows continued to fall, and it was clear that they would not be running out of ammunition.

“Hmm…”

“Ah! Sally, how about this then?”

“Tell me.”

Sally listened to her idea and nodded. That just might work. After receiving Sally’s seal of approval, Maple started preparing immediately.

“Syrup, ‘Awakening,’ ‘Enlarge’! ‘Psychokinesis’!”

Maple had the enlarged Syrup float up into the air right above her head. And like this, Syrup blocked all of the light arrows, which meant that Maple’s weapons were no longer destroyed. And while ‘Dedicated Affection’ took the hits for Syrup, as this only affected Maple’s body without breaking the weapons, they were able to protect each other like this.

“I’ll defeat the ones over here, so you do your best as well, Sally!”

“Got it. Leave it to me.”

“Alright, ‘Commence Attack’!”

“‘Sextuple Slash’!”

Just as Maple was weak to piercing attacks, enemies that relied on their healing ability would become very weak when that was taken away. Once this boss’s attacks were nullified and it lost its durability, it had no strengths at all.

Normally, it would be a dangerous boss that could have its HP healed while unleashing wide area attacks of arrows, hurting numerous opponents simultaneously. But it was a bad match for Maple.

“‘Quadruple Slash,’ ‘Triple Slash’!”

Sally too wanted to unleash as much firepower as possible, and so she used her attack skills one after another without hesitation. Even Maple might have struggled if she had to fight the healing angels while dealing great damage to the boss at the same time, but there was no problem when she had such a brilliant attacker with her.

She was a great shield wielder, and so it was best to rely on someone else for attacking. In the first place, it was already ridiculous that she was able to shoot down all of the angels with long-ranged weapons.

Now that all of the attack methods of the angels were ineffective, the only thing that could happen was a one-sided massacre.

They heard the chimes as the enemies turned into light and disappeared. Sally then muttered to herself.

“I guess you really do need piercing attacks in order to beat Maple.”

“Hehehe. We won without taking any damage this time!”

You had no business even challenging Maple if you didn’t have a strong piercing attack skill. So in a way, these angels really never had a chance.