Gregory shadow-melded us and pulled us along through the hole we made and appeared in the miniboss room. I looked at the room where the miniboss was locked up. He was still restrained but he seemed to be sleeping. His wounds seemed to have healed. Anyways that is not important what is important is the final battle. There was a long narrow corridor going down from this room. It eventually leads to a big room that is connected to a bigger room in the back. That is where the root is. As usual, I can''t see exactly what is going on in that room unless we get there.


    How about we sneak in and destroy the root before the guardian notices? Do you think that after that obnoxious puzzle and miniboss, it is going to be easy to destroy the root?


    We could try. It probably has seals that need to be dispelled I don''t think we can sneak in and dispel the seals before the guardian notices. That is if it''s competent. Relying on an incompetent opponent is a fast way to die.


    Guess that won''t work, eh? Don''t worry I will use sneak attacks whenever the opportunity presents itself! We reached the end of the corridor and Ted opened the passage. There was a big rock serving as a door, which Ted pushed aside. This big circular room which connected to a bigger circular room in the back made a big 8 shape with one side being bigger of course. There seemed to be a corridor connecting a smaller room to the room we were currently at. It seemed to go to the living quarters of the guardian.


    Are all these guardians just chilling here underground? Don''t they get bored? We were hiding behind the rock Ted pushed aside in case something would shoot magic at us the moment we opened the door. Nothing happened but we were still hiding.


    I hear something coming! I looked around. There was enough space to test my new techniques out here. Heavy footsteps could be heard and a large hand grabbed the side of the wall. A big bulky guy almost twice the size of Boulder walked out of the corridor but he tripped over something and fell. But before he hit the ground his head fell off as if it got cut by something invisible and blood sputtered out of his neck that just got liberated from its head.


    What! Well, that was easy. Hey is it just me or does it look like there are a lot of wires in this room? They are a bit hard to see. Ted and Gregory looked at me and I held up a peace sign with a wide smile.


    So, who said that it wouldn''t be easy again? That was kind of a dirty move Agnis! It’s not over yet! Another one is coming!


    Remove the wires! I don''t want a boring boss fight! Hey, get off me! As I was struggling to get Raishin off me the ground started shaking.


    Hey, Raishin stop thrashing! You''re shaking the whole room!


    Hey, dude that''s not me! I''m not that heavy! Uhh, guys. A beefy bulky guy twice the size as the previous guy appears. Tension rises in the wires as this mountain of a man just walks his body through the wires as if they''re not even there.


    Ugh! I try to resist the force but the wires keep pulling at me. So uhh guys? I think this was a bad idea! Some wires that are supposed to prevent me from getting dragged in, snapped and I get catapulted towards Mountain.


    Guess I got to make the best of this! Mid-flight I start up [Tail dynamo] before using [Turning leaf] on the big rock Ted pushed aside and made it crash into Mountain at full speed. But as everyone knows, you can''t bring down a mountain by throwing rocks at it.


    “Who are you? Where is Darion?” Hmm, 0 damage, eh? So, are you going to tell Mountain that you just one-shot his brother?


    Hey Mountain! I just one-shot your brother! Did that work? Mountain looks around and sees a severed head on the ground.


    “Guuuoooh! Darion! What have they done to you!” Mountain kneels and looks at Darion’s head. “Why are you so weak? I told you so many times to go boulder lifting with me but you always slacked off and watched tv!” Wait he can get a signal down here? That is not the issue here? Mountain turned around.


    “You ants! You will pay for this!” Oh, what are you going to do? Erupt? Mountains don''t erupt only volcanoes do.


    But aren''t volcanoes just lava barfing mountains? He has a point. He has? The mountain made a squatting pose.


    Guys, let''s leave this for later! Greg, do we evade or block? Uhh, I don''t have much energy. I made a frost wall.


    Raishin anything over 43, please! How many seconds do I have? 1 Hoo boi. Mountain leaped and was about to crash on us.


    I''m going to gamble, Greg can you make half of a [Shadow dome] with the opening pointing toward us? I linked my vision with my buddies and pointed out the spot where I wanted the dome. 1 second should be enough for that.


    You have a bit longer. I threw a dagger upward and used [Turning leaf] to swap Mountain with the dagger sending Mountain upward again. Oof that ate some mana, which it normally doesn''t. I guess large things will require mana. I started to circulate nature energy and continued my plan. Raishin blasted my frost wall. The Mountain started to fall down and I used the frost wall to amplify and release the energy it got from Raishin’s blast and shot it at the falling mountain into Gregory’s shadow dome. The dome also caught parts of the blast so it would feed Gregory energy.


    Ted, he''s all yours! The Mountain didn''t seem to take much damage from that but he was still disoriented. Ted rushed at Mountain and started unleashing powerful punches at the disoriented Mountain.


    Oof that turning leaf ate a lot of mana, guess I''m not doing that anymore on mountain-class opponents. Mountain class opponents? What does that even mean?


    Opponents or objects that are as big as Mountain over there. Mountain was a big guy he was easily 20 meters tall and almost as wide as he was tall. Judging from how he leaped at us he packs some serious speed for his frame. I picked up a rock and dropped it. Mountain focused on Ted so I used [Turning leaf] to swap him with the rock I dropped, which was followed by the sound of a heavy slam.


    This is a problem, because of this size difference and his speed it will be hard for you guys to dodge out of his range. Mountain stood up and looked at us.


    “Your funny tricks won''t work on me!” But it kind of did, right?


    “Shut up!” Mountain roared and dashed at us. Hey, isn''t this bad? I jumped up and walked in the air. My buddies levitated off the ground and were hovering about the ground about 50 meters from the ground. Agnis! You can fly? No silly these are my wires!


    “Ha gotcha!” There is no way I can just randomly fly! I made a network of wires on top of the cave because on the floor they will just get wrecked by Mountain. I also used wires to pull them off the ground. Whoa whoa! How do you stand on these? I had to keep wires around Gregory and Raishin who seemed to be unable to walk and stand on these wires. Ted seemed fine. This is kind of cool.


    “Come down you flies!” Mountain shouted at us while looking up. Look guys we got upgraded from ant to fly! How! Whoa, how do you stand on these! whoa! and I don''t think from ant to fly is an upgrade, its sounds like a downgrade. Mountain dug his hands into the floor and lifted a piece out of it and threw it at us.


    Woops, time to move! I pulled my buddies with wires and ran over the wires I set up to dodge the incoming floor, piece of the floor? How do I describe this? He threw a piece of the floor at us and we dodged that! Of course, this snapped a lot of wires and destroyed some of the spots they were attached to daggers and lodged into the rock walls and ceiling. I had to shoot out wires to make sure we wouldn''t fall to the ground. He threw more pieces of the floor at us but I threw daggers at him and swapped them with the pieces of floor. It did end up with daggers flying at us but those were easier to deal with than pieces of floor.


    “Grooaaah! I''m going to kill you!” He jumped at the nearest walls, his fingers dug into the rock and he started climbing with incredible speed.


    So uhm guys although this was fun, I don''t see how we can beat him if we’re literally just hanging around. He is going to catch us at this rate. How can you guys be so calm? We’re going to end up as mountain pancakes! That is fine because there is a plan! Oh, do tell! Tell them, Ted!


    Wait what? I didn''t have a plan! Help us, big bro!


    Ugh, so now you play the big bro card! Fine! I will go big bear form but I will need your assistance Agnis. I don''t think I can take too many blows from that so I need you to either restrict it or move me away so that I don''t go splat. Raishin, you prepare a nuke big enough to vaporize the Mountain and the root. Greg… uhh, you can lift the seals and ehhh curse the Mountain? Not bad for an improvised plan!


    I''m going to kick your ass later. Is this plan any good? Sounds good! An attack to destroy both the mountain and the root at the same time?


    Yes! Alright! Let''s go! I flung Gregory towards the root and flung Raishin a bit further away but in the same part as where the root was. Ted and I dropped down on what couldn''t be called a floor anymore. At first, it was a relatively flat floor. Now it was a jungle of rocks, boulders, and dirt. For someone with a lot of agility, this is perfect for me but for Ted, this might suck. Ted went into big bear form and stomped on the ground. The ground around him got flattened, it seemed to have a radius of 10 meters. Never mind I guess Ted fixed his problem. The Mountain dashed at Ted and Ted augmented his body and tried a shoulder throw but the Mountain was too big and heavy. Ted was now stuck with the Mountain on his shoulder. I cut the base of a rock spike and used [Turning leaf] to make it swap places with Ted. The rock spike got crushed by the Mountain and he got up like it was nothing, what was I thinking trying to defeat a Mountain with a rock spike.


    Thanks, don''t think I can use this guy''s size or weight against him, he is way too big and heavy. Using [Turning leaf] on him will take too much out of me in continuous uses so I can only swap you.


    That is fine, I will be relying on your support. I could finally enjoy a backseat in fighting. Ted started abusing the fact that he still was faster than the Mountain. The Mountain was fast for its size but it was his range that was the most threatening. Ted sidestepped most of the attacks and delivered some punches to the Mountains side. It didn''t seem to do much but Ted was learning. He kept attacking the spots that is weak on every human body. Was the Mountain even a human? I inspected the Mountain but my eyes told me that he was a human. Huh? Do humans grow this massive? It also tells me that this human is really old. I rubbed my eyes. This can''t be right. I looked again and surely this is a human. I looked at my buddies but their races are correct.


    I have no clue what is going on but that guy is just a human! You’re kidding, right? Aren’t humans uhhm small and unimpressive?


    He is also way over the average human''s lifespan like over 5 times! I linked my eyes with Ted. Whoa, you weren''t kidding! “Hahaha! Wondering about these muscles?” The Mountain said while flexing his muscles.


    Not really. The Mountain stomped the ground and a fissure opened beneath me which I evaded.


    “These muscles are the result of dedicated training!” I don''t think any human can get this big and old by just training…


    “How about you say that again after eating this lustrous lariat!” I wrapped some wires on Ted and pulled him upwards to dodge this wide attack. I had daggers with rings lodged in the rock all over the place so I could use these as pulleys or attach wires. I dropped him afterward so he could unleash an attack from above. Let''s see if this works without support from the earth! [Mountain buster]! This seemed to do quite the damage to the Mountain and some blood trickled down his bald head. Did you just use a mountain buster on the Mountain? An interesting application of your pun but it didn''t work.


    “A formidable punch! Let me show you something cool too!” Yoo, Ted, he’s copying your move get out of there! I used [Turning leaf] and swapped him with myself. Why? When Ted is in his bear form there is a big height difference between him and myself. This punch would go over me but would put me close enough for some easy free damage. The problem was that I had bad matchups against these kinds of opponents so the question was how much damage I could do. I wrapped wires around the Mountains legs and tried to pull them up after the punch flew over my head. The wind pressure it created was quite strong but I anticipated that. The daggers got pulled out of the ceiling. Too heavy, eh? Ted started throwing earth magic at the Mountain from the spot where I stood before the swap. The Mountain probably didn''t notice that I was right under him, which was fine. I wrapped some more wire around the Mountain. I did them a bit loosely so that he wouldn''t notice them right away. Ok, preparations are complete now I just need enough force to send this guy''s legs up in the air. Because my eyes were still linked with Ted’s he could see what I was up to. I decided to attach the ends of the wires to a [Steam cannon v2.0] ball. I made a big steam cannon and used 12 fire-charged frost marbles to shoot it off. The wires strained and look there! The mountain''s feet got pulled from right under him! They did snap at the same time though.


    ” Uaagh! I don''t like flying!” The mountain shouted in surprise. I was contemplating calling this move [Flying Mountain]. Ted who knew this was coming was already dashing toward the mountain who was on his back like a turtle. He gathered quite the earth magical energy so this mountain buster would probably hurt.


    How about this! [Rolling Punch]! He sent a flurry of powerful punches at the Mountain and at every punch round stones formed on the ground and rolled at the Mountain at great speed. I have the feeling there is a pun in this somewhere. The Mountain tried to get up but I used [Frozen ground] So his arms kept slipping and he couldn''t get up after which I froze his pants to the floor.


    Nice one! Ted continued the onslaught of attacks. Slowly but surely the damage started rolling in and the mountain seemed like he was getting worn down slowly but surely. I tried my best to keep him on the ground but nothing ever really works out for us. The Mountain slammed his arms on the ground and launched himself into the air by having a huge earth pillar pushing him upward. This of course ripped his pants.


    Ugh, this isn''t a pleasant sight! Don''t just stand there! I pulled Ted away and the Mountain crash landed 2 seconds later. I realized that I should have pulled both of us up in the air because this crash landing sent out shockwaves and sent us flying upward. The Mountain sent the rocks that he launched flying at us as well as charged up a big punch. Ted punched and crushed all the rocks that were about to hit us. He did get hit by some and I did get grazed by some.


    That punch is a problem. Him being pants less is also a problem can’t you do something against that?


    What am I supposed to do about that? Not my problem! I''m going to deal with that charging punch you do something about that thing hanging over there!


    Maybe I should just cut it off… Ted stopped his dodge and looked at me as if I just committed murder. The Mountain stopped his punch to cover up his family jewels. There fixed both problems.


    “You monster! I think I should get rid of you first!” Hey! How about you cover yourself up first? We will wait here just go put on some pants!


    “You ripped my pants!” Nono, I just froze your pants! You ripped it! I lifted myself with wires to dodge an incoming Mountain. He had one hand on his groin so he was less of a threat but one nonetheless. The Mountain jumped up and now I had a problem, wherever I would move I would still be in his range.


    “Got you little fly!” And this is where Ted grabbed the Mountain’s legs and slammed him back to the ground. Do something about his pants! It''s not pleasant to do this move while his thing is dangling freely! What do you want me to do? I can''t make pants out of thin air! Ted blocked a punch and got sent flying into a wall.


    “Come down here! “The Mountain jumped again but this time Ted couldn''t save me. I took out some daggers. Guess I should cut it off after all... The Mountain covered himself with one hand and I moved to the side of his occupied arm. I threw a dagger at the ground and swapped Ted with it. I shot out as many wires as I could and made a shitty pants for the Mountain. I landed on the ground next to Ted and we pulled the Mountain down on the wires I was still holding. Aagh! These pants are too tight!” Shut up! I don''t know your pants size and I''m not interested in knowing!


    “It’s getting crushed!” Do you want me to make them tighter? You are a monster…


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    All is fair in war; I’d rather do this than go splat. I melted off the wires toward the Mountain’s pants. I didn''t have many wires left now that most got used up to make a shitty pants.


    “Can I get pockets in these pants?” I decreased the temperature on the Mountain’s wire pants.


    “Okok! I''m sorry!” Ted lifted a big boulder and threw it at the Mountain after which he rushed at him. The mountain shattered the boulder with a punch and threw another punch at Ted. Ted barely dodged it but the punch hit his arm, dismembering it. Ted kept going and his arm regenerated back. He hit the Mountain’s leg with a powerful kick which made the Mountain tumble.


    “Groaah! You guys like making me trip!” I wrapped wires around the mountain''s ankles, attached the other end of the wires to a [Steam cannon v2.0] ball, and shot it off, lifting the Mountain, briefly. Ted used a [Mountain buster] on the Mountains stomach. He dropped down on his head. Ted stomped the ground and buried the Mountain’s head deeper in the ground. Can''t you just keep burying him till he disappears underground? He is also an earth user so he could easily dig himself back out. I prepared an extra big [Steam cannon] for the Mountain when he would get out of the ground. He got out and I shot a big frost ball at him. He caught it and threw it back at me.


    Oh, you want to play it like this, eh? I made a bat out of frost and hit the ball back. The mountain barely dodged it but behind him was Ted who also made a bat out of rock. Have at ya! He hit a home run... I mean he hit the mountain in his back.


    “You!!!” He turned around at Ted and sent rock spikes at Ted. He crossed his arms but multiple still pierced his body. I''m all right! You better be! I ran toward the Mountain’s flank and flung rocks at him with my wires. He looked over at me. Ted used this moment to break free and charge a [Mountain Buster]. The mountain charged at Ted who was with his back to the wall while I dashed toward the Mountain. Moments before the Mountain would hit Ted I used [Turning leaf] and swapped myself with Ted. The height difference made none of the Mountain’s attack hit but put him in range of Ted’s attack.


    Move out of there Agnis! I moved out after wrapping some more wires around the Mountain when Ted’s attack hit. This is the kind of attack that hits harder the longer it gets charged up. Now nobody in their right mind would let their opponent charge up their attacks this long but we made it work. Ted used his full charge [Mountain buster] and he busted the Mountain. The mountain took an enormous amount of damage and it seemed like he was down for the count.


    “Ugh! You pests!” Or not, since he got back up. He was quite bloodied though. I pulled Ted back with my wires because he was a bit too close to the Mountain for my liking. The Mountain let out a battle cry and some clear crystals shot out of the ground all around him. It didn''t seem to be directed at anything but it would have hit Ted if I didn''t pull him away. “I''m going to turn you into pebbles!” Ha! You will be the one who will get turned into pebbles! I decided to try something new and bundle up my wires and run some lightning through it. The mountain tried to grab it but I managed to move the bundle aside. Hmm, I have some control over the wires after running some lightning through them. I got out my [Tail dynamo] and moved the wire bundle around like a tentacle. I didn''t have much wire left so all I could do was make one thin wire tentacle. Ted started to use his bear claws which seemed to cut through the Mountain’s thick skin.


    Hey, Agnis I''m sure you could cut through this guy easily. I guess, but I''m trying out some stuff and this guy is perfect for that! I grabbed the arm of the mountain with the wires and and tried to yank it away so that the Mountain couldn''t defend himself against Ted’s bear claw attacks.


    Does it have to do with that you haven''t used any attack skills yet? I tried pulling the mountain into Ted’s attack range but he was too heavy so I threw my end of the wires at Ted, who caught them and pulled the Mountain into his range. Kind of, I''m also planning to figure out what attacks I can use to defeat opponents in a nonlethal manner. Hmm. Ted dodged some of the mountains'' punches and earth attacks but still got hit by some but he regenerated the damage he got from those relatively quickly.


    I guess that makes sense, as far as I can tell you only have 3 modes while fighting: nuking the whole area, one shotting opponents, or doing your best to not one shot them and end up doing hardly any damage to them. Ted pulled on the wires he was still holding while the Mountain was pulling back, trying to not get dragged in.


    It is kind of ironic, you who are in charge of controlling opponents has difficulties controlling your own attacks. Well, at least I haven''t killed anyone that I don''t want dead, yet. So, a super beefy opponent that we need to defeat is a perfect target dummy but I’ve also been slacking on controlling the battlefield so that’s what I tried out first.


    Good so can you help me with attacking now? I am doing damage but at this rate, it''s going to take forever to defeat him. Ted said while he was slowly getting pulled in by the Mountain.


    I would prefer it if you would start attacking about now! Right! I swapped myself with Ted and instantly got pulled in by the Mountain. I ran lightning through the wires and detached them from the mountain which I then formed into a lance and aimed it at the Mountain’s shoulder which was where I got pulled into. The lance pierced his shoulder. The Mountain roared in pain and tried to smack me but I evaded. I pulled in the wires as I created some distance. This attack would have killed anything that wasn''t as tough as the Mountain so I need to find some non-lethal moves. Immobilization and strangulation until my target would pass out could work or just smacking them around but that''s not something I could practice on this opponent. The mountain charged at me and I formed the wires into a big spike with its base on the ground and its point aiming at him. If he would continue the charge he would run into the spike. He jumped up.


    Uh oh, not this again. Could you please avoid moves that force him to jump up? I attached some wires to the ceiling and pulled Ted and myself upwards to evade the earthquake that would be caused by the Mountain’s landing.


    That is some earth-shattering quake. I''m going to drop you. I dropped Ted, who stomped on the ground to make the ground beneath him level again. I made the wire tentacle and started grabbing rocks and throwing them at the Mountain while Ted was trying to land some [Bear claws] and punches. This reminded me of one of my mother’s battle styles. She had long ribbons of cloth that could multiply and stretch and with some technique, she could make it take many different forms. She would mainly use them as extensions of her limbs or as whips. She passed a set of those cloth ribbons on to me which I''ve never touched because I was young, thought it was for girls, and had no clue how to use them. I guess I should give it a try someday. I get hit with a wave of homesickness and think back to how things were before the invasion.


    Agnis wake up! I get pulled out of my daydream by Ted’s call and a mountain of a fist approaching me. I didn''t have much room to dodge at this point so all I could do was make a water and ice multilayered barrier and take the blow. I got launched into the ceiling by this punch. The punch didn''t do much damage because I properly defended against that, the problem was I didn''t put many layers on my back so getting launched into the ceiling did quite some damage.


    Are you still alive? Ugh, yeah, might have broken some ribs. I swapped places with a falling rock to dodge the Mountain’s follow-up punch. Ugh, I should''ve paid more attention. I think I''ve messed around long enough this guy is going down. I circulated nature energy to speed up my recovery and make sure my broken ribs wouldn''t become an issue. I''m still going to try some potential non-lethal moves though. I threw multiple daggers that had wires attached. Not all dug into the mountain’s flesh but most did. I ran lightning magic through the wires, delivering it past his tough skin and into his body.


    “Aaargh!”


    Hey, Agnis, that looks pretty lethal to me. Are you sure?


    Hmmm, pretty sure, I guess it depends on how much lightning you run through it but purple lightning would kill regular people especially if you poke holes in them with those daggers. Any suggestions?


    Ditch the daggers in non-lethal attacks just wrap them in wires and zap them, light blue or yellow lightning will do. But I can''t believe you managed to find another control skill that could just turn lethal, aren''t control skills supposed to do low or no damage? As far as I know, the area of crowd control is underdeveloped if all people can do is throw some 0 damage stuns, magic silences, and the occasional charm attacks or 0 damage lockdown combos then I don''t think it''s my fault that nobody manages to sneak in damage into them. I guess planning, patience, and precision are needed for crowd control, not something most people want to deal with. Also, not super relevant when you can just get a healer instead. I don''t even know if nine-tail foxes make for good healers.


    Isn''t Giana a nine-tail fox healer? Giana? Who’s that?


    Ugh never mind. So how long are you going to zap the Mountain for? It is doing damage and he can''t attack us because of those spasms but it doesn''t seem you can defeat him with this. Hmm, at least we could get a breather.


    Hey Greg! Raishin! How is stuff going over there? What!? My ears! Just use Teleroad! We all entered our Teleroad channel. I think I should clarify whether telepathy is used or not. Dialogues could get quite confusing if I don''t.


    -So, what I was asking, was, how things are going over there? - -The seals are almost lifted. - -My attack is also almost done! - -Is it just me or does it seem there is no indication of energy buildup for a big attack? - -I was thinking the same, you aren''t slacking off, are you? -


    -Oh no! I prepared for a big attack; Ted asked me to vaporize this mountain after all. - -This mountain? No, I meant the Mountain, that guy Agnis and I are fighting! Not this mountain we’re in!-


    -Well, that isn''t confusing at all…- -Raishin has a point, so what attack did you prepare then Raishin?-


    -[Solar stream]!- -Uhm, please correct me if I''m wrong, but isn''t that the attack that funnels flames and radiation directly from the sun toward your target location and vaporizes anything it blasts?-


    -Yup!- -Don''t you need complicated calculations or a nine-tail fox to help you lock on to a location with accuracy for that?-


    -Well, yes but since six-tailed Lightning tigers are immune to [Solar Stream] I can also make it lock on to myself so I don''t have to deal with all that nonsense!- -Uhm so what about non-six-tailed lightning tigers?-


    - Um… oops?- -Ugh, you could learn from Agnis, at least he is trying to not nuke us off the face of the planet.- -So how long until we get blasted?-


    -How long does it take for light to reach from the sun to here?- -So we have a bit over 8 minutes, great… Let''s just get out of here then. -- Didn''t he say that attack is locked onto himself? As long as we’re close to him we’ll get blasted. -- I don''t think leaving him here alone is a good idea either because the Mountain would only need to land 1 good hit on him to possibly kill him. -


    -Another impossible situation, how about we wrap this fight up and then just dig a deep hole and bunker with defensive skills? I assume Raishin made it strong enough to get this deep into the mountain and destroy the root so if we burrow for 100 or 200 more meters and turtle it out, we might survive. --Let’s go with that, and Greg, please give Raishin a slap. - We heard the faint sound of a slap in the distance and an “ouch” as we focused on our opponent in front of us. He slowly got used to the continuous zapping I subjected him to.


    Guess I should test non-lethal attacks another time. I pulled out the daggers and retracted the wires.


    “Grooaahhh I''ve had enough of you! It’s time to get serious!” I never understand why people always do that, they get owned but still don''t fight seriously. Ted looked at me.


    What? You know you sound like a hypocrite, right? I shrugged. The mountain’s muscles bulged and he started to bulk up. I guess this is phase 2. The mountain roared and the whole mountain, not our opponent but the actual mountain, shook.


    “Let''s see how you will be able to defeat me after this! [Diamond skin]!” Crystalline structures started to form on the Mountain’s skin. “Ha, let’s see how you are going to try and damage me through diamond!” Look, Ted! It''s a Diamond Mountain! Very funny, how are we going to defeat him now?


    Hmm, diamond isn''t as invincible as people think it is. After that dungeon full of rubies and sapphires I read some books about rocks and minerals. We dodge something that looks like a big diamond that got thrown at us.


    I have 2 methods of dealing with this, you probably won''t like the second one even though it would make short work of the Mountain. Let me hear them.


    First. I grabbed Ted with some wires and pulled both of us up to the ceiling and dropped down again to prevent the Diamond Mountain from jumping at us.


    I can use that thing I showed where I shattered a sapphire, I''m pretty sure I can do that with diamond too. Ted created a rock wall that blocked diamond spikes flying at us. Some made it through which we avoided.


    The second option is, I burn it. Burn it?


    Burn it! I heard you the first time, what do you mean by burning the diamond?


    Hehe, diamonds aren''t that heat resistant depending on the pressure you can turn them into carbon dioxide or graphite. So, you are going to turn us all into ash before Raishin’s nuke can do it?


    Nah only need a bit over 900 ℃ to destroy diamonds it takes way more heat to mess up sapphires. Hmm, interesting, let''s just go with your first option and if we run low on time I’ll just put up with your stupidly hot flames, can your flames even get as low as 900 degrees?


    I’ll try… I take out the three daggers that I can change the wavelength of and throw one at the Mountain’s back after circling around him. It got stuck in the diamond skin but barely, but that''s all I needed. The Mountain who didn''t feel this was still trying to smash Ted into pieces. He was partly successful but Ted was regenerating. He was making sure he didn''t get hit in any vital areas. For a brown war bear getting hit in vital areas doesn''t mean much unless their head and heart get crushed simultaneously but obviously, it hurts more and takes a bit longer to regenerate. Ted was tanking an attack where the mountain kept punching the air and sending sharp diamond crystals at high speed at Ted. Hahaha, what do you think of my [Diamond Rain]?!


    It’s so dazzling that it hurts… I jump on the Mountain’s back and grab the dagger. Ted prepares a [mountain buster]. I change the wavelength of the dagger and the diamond shatters creating an unprotected spot the size of a dinner plate. I jump off the Mountains back and throw my dagger at the unprotected spot and then swap Ted with my dagger.


    Eat this! A beautiful punch, the force pushes the Mountain back but only by a couple of meters. He also wasn''t defeated. I threw another dagger while I retrieved the one, I swapped Ted with.


    Hmm I see, this diamond skin has the weakness that the mountain can’t feel where Agnis landed his dagger. The mountain, which was well aware that I was somehow responsible for breaking his diamond skin was wary of me but didn''t seem to have noticed that I already had a dagger in his lower back. The Mountain was also huge so I''m not sure if he could even get it out if he knew where the dagger was. The Mountain now aimed his [Diamond rain] at me. Now I could try to dodge this but the diamonds were quite close to each other so it would make for a high-difficulty evade, I also couldn''t throw up some dirt and swap all the diamonds with dirt because I can only swap 1 thing at a time, I can swap in rapid succession but it''s not helpful if many things are approaching me simultaneously. I also need something to swap it with. Ted kicked the ice ball I made at the beginning of the fight at the Mountain’s back. I used [Turning leaf] and saw how the ice ball got pelted with diamonds. I grabbed the dagger and shattered another part of the Mountain’s diamond armor. The mountain who was ignoring Ted and lost sight of me didn''t know what just happened and Ted landed another [Mountain buster]. We repeated this trick several times.


    4 minutes left till the nuke. Right, I''m just going to find a corner and bunker up, go turn this guy into ash.


    I will try to control them but bunker up to be safe. I created a ring of fire around the Mountain.


    I''m sorry but contrary to what most people say, diamonds aren''t forever. I shot out wires and wrapped them around the Mountain. I didn''t know why I did this because these wires will melt. The Mountain thought I had another trick so prioritized getting the wires off over attacking me. Deception complete! Even if it was unintentional. I assessed Ted’s rock bunker and determined he would be fine as long as I kept the temperature below 2000 ℃. Right normally this would be easy but the coldest flames I''ve been able to make are just above that. As Ted mentioned before I’m not great at controlling my attack power, especially if it''s fire magic. But I got a loophole. I took liquid shadow vodka out of my pocket dimension, took a big gulp, and sprayed it out in a cloud of alcoholic mist before igniting it. Like this, I can control the temperature better on the lower end while hardly using any mana-guzzling fire magic.


    I then got a better idea. If I would make the liquid shadow vodka emerge from my pocket dimension in my mouth, I could keep spraying it out for a long time and it would look like I''m breathing fire. Alright, let''s do this! I applied my idea. I might have accidentally swallowed some. Well, maybe I wasn''t as good at executing this idea. I managed to swallow quite a lot during this test. The Mountain kept getting torched but I also started to feel a bit tipsy. Guess I have a low alcohol tolerance. I stopped and saw that the Mountain lost his diamond skin and looked quite charred or was that graphite? He is still not defeated. I made the ring of fire close in on the mountain. I had one wire left. I took it out and drenched it in liquid shadow vodka. I ran some lightning through it and ignited the wire. This next attack is either going to do nothing or be quite destructive. I used the wire as a whip and swung it at the Mountain’s neck which made it coil around his neck. Because fire and lightning magic was running through the wire it dug into his skin. I increased the temperature and lighting in the wire and pulled. The wire dug deeper into the Mountain’s skin and cut through his neck detaching his head.


    I''m sorry, but we are out of time. Given his persistence and toughness, there was no way we could disable him before time runs out. I don''t feel sorry for killing him but if there is no need, I would want to avoid this. I hope this naivety won''t come and bite me back later. It will, won''t it? Well, I guess this was to be expected, you didn''t turn everything into ash so I’m a bit surprised and impressed. Raishin and Gregory ran over. How long do we still have?


    If counting 8 minutes from when Raishin told us his attack was ready we have about 1 minute. So, I suggest you 2 start burrowing. Gregory and Ted started to burrow. Ted was in charge of digging and Gregory was in charge of closing the hole behind us to try and get as much rock and dirt between us and the room we just fought in. Raishin was acting as a light bulb and every couple of meters I would put a thin yet strong frost barrier down so that we don''t get screwed over by any energy or radiation that might make it through all of this dirt and rocks.


    Can we agree that Raishin should never use this attack again unless we all agree to it? Yeah, Sounds good to me. Meh, we will be fine, right?


    This is quite similar to the last time we destroyed a root so I guess? We will probably get sent back in time as soon as the root is destroyed, I just hope that is before that blast reaches us. Brace yourselves it’s time. We put up our usual defensive skills and waited.


    Hmm nothing, did you mess up Raishin? Nope, it should arrive any minute now. . The earth started to shake and some rumbling sound started to get louder until we started to hear a loud ringing in our ears.


    I guess we’re going back. My buddies seemed to all get the same ringing as we were clutching our heads from the headache and just like that it stopped and we were at Raishin’s hut. I looked at the number of this timeline and it increased by 1 again.


    2 down 5 to go. Ugh to think we have to do all this 5 more times. At least it seems we get put back into the state we originally were at this point in time. I feel way more tired now than after our battle, so we could exhaust ourselves but as long as the root gets destroyed that will get fixed next timeline. But at least my ribs aren''t broken Ah right in the original timeline, it''s not so long after you vaporized a mountain so it makes sense that you are more tired than in that battle.


    Well, guess we’ll have to make plans for this time loop then.