* * *

Hatsuko's POV!

————————

Right now, Ichika and Hina had gotten the upper hand against the zombie spirit who couldn't seem to recover in time from the continuous attacks from them. Both of them were making sure that their fire arrows were blowing apart the spirit’s head so it wouldn't be able to move right away.

But if their plan fails before Ichika or Hina runs out of stamina, then that spirit is going to become a lot harder to kill.

“Hold on..” And to make matters worse, many different objects began floating above the floor.

“Telekinesis?” I said out loud as I immediately recognized what was happening right now.

Since the zombified spirit couldn't manage to recover quick enough from Ichika’s and Hina’s attacks, it was trying to get rid of them by using that kind of skill.

“She won’t make it in time!” Chloe expressed after seeing the amount of sharp objects being lifted in the air.

It was clear that the spirit was planning on tearing everyone apart using those things as flying projectiles.

Everyone was about to be shot from every direction, and at this rate Akemi won’t be able to figure out the main force of the spirit’s energy.

“I’m going!” Chloe told me as she immediately got up after getting healed by Angela.

“W-wait!” I tried stopping Chloe from going right back in the battlefield. But no matter what I was going to say…

“Don’t worry! Leave this to us!” She simply smiled back at me as she headed off together with Shiro to Ichika and Hina.

Even though she was completely healed by Angela, that didn’t mean that her body was going to be perfectly fine as it was.

That's what I was worried about since she might strain her muscles way too much, leaving her behind with permanent damages.

I could’ve provided everyone with my power, but here I am now… Unable to use any of my skills…

And this all happened without any warning! It almost feels like even the system in my status got weakened just like me. It's been quite some time since I got a notification from the status, and I found it weird that I wasn’t being informed about anything.

Was that time the moment I began losing life energy from my body?

While I was cursing my own body for making me unable to help everyone, Chloe and Shiro were fully in position and ready for any attacks.

“Shiro, are you ready?” Chloe grinned a little as she pulled out her daggers.

“Nya!” And Shiro, who was almost as confident as Chloe, showed her sharp looking nails which seemed a bit longer than usual.

Demonica also provided them with buffs so they would use their strengths to the fullest.

And as the hundreds of rocks, objects and many other stuff were gathered up in the air, they all flew towards the long ranged girls who were busy blowing up the spirit’s head every time it regenerated.

It almost created a tornado like form of projectile objects as it was trying to rip anyone apart.

"Not in my sight!" Chloe said as she sliced in half the first rock that flew towards Ichika.

But even after that, many more objects began shooting down insanely fast.

This could’ve killed both Ichika and Hina in one moment, but thanks to Chloe and Shiro destroying everything, they were mostly safe.

"Don't get distracted! Chloe and Shiro have our backs!" Hina assured Ichika after seeing slight hesitation and fear from the flying projectiles.

"Y-yes!" Ichika responded back, confident that she wasn't going to fail.

Now, everything else depends on Akemi.

I couldn't even figure out where her main core was. But since Akemi was much stronger than me, I was sure that she would be able to find it.

Or that's what I was hoping…

"This isn't good…" Chloe said in a bit of an alarming tone as the projectiles increased in numbers, making it much harder for them to protect everyone else.

Both Shiro and Chloe were being grazed by smaller projectiles which they couldn't react to.

"Gh!" And I could see that Chloe wasn't going to last hitting every single object that came towards them.

And seeing how the situation was becoming bad once again, Demonica approached the ground and created a big barrier that surrounded all of the girls.

But even after a few seconds, her barrier was crushed by hundreds of heavy objects raining down upon their heads.

"Shiro, can you last any longer?" Chloe asked after seeing how Shiro was becoming exhausted from moving her muscles at an incredible speed in order to match the projectile's speed.

"...Nya…"

"We might not be able to last…" Thought Chloe out loud once the barrier that Demonica had created was fully destroyed.

"T-this isn't good!" Even Ichika seemed to have run out of stamina as she couldn't shoot any more fire arrows.

"Ghh!!!" The same applied to Hina as well since she was struggling to force herself to use her own power. "Come on, just a bit longer!!" She told herself in anger before she fell on the floor, unable to move from straining her body way too much.

Shiro and Chloe are barely at their limit of their bodies, Ichika and Hina also used their skills to the last of their breath, and the twin sisters couldn't seem to know what to do next after having failed with their support.

The spirit was regenerating really fast once again, and soon enough it began to stand up in her feet once again. And to make matters worse, she won't be as she is right now.

After receiving that amount of damage, I'm not sure how strong that spirit is going to get.

But before the spirit could manage to fully recover, a smirk appeared on Akemi’s face.

"Found you!" Said Akemi as she thrusted her hand right into the spirit's abdomen.

All of the flying objects fell down normally from gravity, and the spirit didn't seem to be moving any longer.

"Is it over?" Chloe questioned as she glanced at Akemi who still had her hand inside the spirit’s abdomen.

But Akemi's smile after winning, quickly disappeared as she was trying to understand something. "What did this to you?" She asked.

"Seems like I'm finally free…" The spirit’s voice was barely heard for the first time as it saw itself unable to regenerate.

"It can talk?" Ichika questioned.

While some of the girls seemed confused about the zombie having intelligence, Akemi immediately understood what had happened to this spirit.

The one that had tried to destroy this place was likely caused by an angel or demon…

And as the last energy left the spirit’s body, a weak fragile voice echoed in everyone's ears. "Thank you."

Akemi gently closed her eyes in respect as she sent off another victim of those beings.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked as I got closer together with the twin sisters.

All of them were either too tired to talk, or actually angry about what had happened to this spirit.

"Yeah, a bit tired, but okay I guess." Chloe informed me.

“We… haa, defeated it!” Hina also proudly said as she was trying to catch her breath.

“We did it…” Ichika whispered to herself in a bit of disbelief of what they managed to do against a powerful enemy. “We won!”

While Angela was healing all of the girls one by one, the whole room began shaking, cracking and destroying everything around us.

“It seems like our time to celebrate has come to an end.” I told everyone as they immediately understood that this dungeon was about to collapse after having the main core destroyed.

“Seems like it…” Akemi also responded back to me after she understood how I planned on getting everyone out of here.

Since I didn't have any other choice, I used my power to fly everyone out to safety.

“Everyone, hold on tight.”

.

..

.

.

.