Chapter 79: Joint Battle

” *Cough cough!* ”

Feigning a serious expression—after all, the Priestess isn’t really some weird thinker, it’s more like Dolina overreacted, Vilyric cleared her throat a couple of times and pretended to be calm.

“You must be Dolina, right? No offense, but with those skills of yours, you could barely handle two or three Abyss Beasts. Now you’ve even tossed aside your staff, jumping down there won’t do you any good.”

” *Goo!*

With her face flushed, the Winged Woman froze for a moment, her expression inexplicably turning a bit melancholic—she probably hit some strange switch just now, and Dolina’s attitude towards the Priestess seems to have undergone some subtle change.

” *Wuu…* Miss Vilyric, how could you be so harsh? Though, I admit you’re speaking the truth; I’ve been dragging the Captain down… But as a member of the team, how can I just stand by while everyone is fighting their hardest?!”

“If Teacher Karma, who has already returned to the embrace of the God of Freedom, saw this, she would definitely come down and kick my butt!”

“…?”

It feels like… these few sentences have a lot of déjà vu and funny points.

Vilyric decided to ignore them.

“Alright, alright, don’t look so teary-eyed as if I’m bullying you… Dolina, let me ask you, is this your first time fighting an Abyss Worm?”

“Uh?”

The bookish white-feathered girl tilted her head, and then for some reason, her gaze gradually dimmed.

“To be honest, it’s actually my second time. Three years ago, there was a massive invasion of Abyss Beasts at the eastern island ruins, even worse than this time—a thousand Abyss Beasts appeared, and it was also where those legendary Abyss Worms first descended.”

“In that battle, His Majesty deployed over three hundred Whitefeathers, tens of thousands of elites, and an entire Silverfeather Mage group. It took a whole half month to eradicate all the enemies that broke out from the Abyss. Our team was involved back then too, but during the final encirclement of the Abyss Worm, Teacher Karma…”

At this point, Dolina suddenly shuddered, her expression a bit silly and cute as she quickly covered her mouth and stopped speaking.

“Really…”

It seems there’s some hidden meaning here, but it’s probably an internal problem of the Winged People, or Sigrid’s little team. Vilyric doesn’t plan to delve deeper.

She has more pressing concerns.

“So, how did you guys kill that Abyss Worm back then?”

It’s a simple principle.

If that Abyss Worm really reached a level beyond the norm, combined with the traits of Abyss beings, even if the laws of the world rejected it, unless a high-tier Wing Emperor intervened personally, there’s virtually no way a bunch of Winged People and a mere handful of legends could kill that kind of monster.

And Dolina mentioned a large-scale battle from three years ago, the Wing Emperor probably didn’t attend personally; otherwise, she would definitely have pointed that out.

Sure enough, the girl glanced anxiously at the battlefield below. Seeing no signs of collapse for the time being, she shook her head in denial.

“We didn’t kill that Worm, you know. Its recovery ability was just too strong, even trapped within a barrier, and after exhausting it for two days and two nights, it still showed no signs of fatigue, resulting in severe losses for us. In despair, Teacher Karma, who was in charge at the time, had no choice but to call upon the entire Mage group’s strength to activate a simulated forbidden spell to destroy it.”

“But just as we were wrapping up and the forbidden spell was about to complete, a terrifying crimson beam shot up from the Abyss below, obliterating the trapped Worm before we could react.”

“You mean… a crimson beam? Could it be…”

Dolina managed a reluctant nod; for some reason, she seemed less willing to recall the scene from back then.

“Yeah, they say it resembles the chain of disasters when the Abyss Beasts first appeared, but I didn’t witness the destruction of those islands, so I can’t judge the specifics.”

Sure enough… there’s something wrong here.

Why would the Abyss prefer to destroy its own combat power rather than allow that Worm to be killed by the Winged People?

Are they afraid of having its body dissected and finding some secrets? Or for some other reason?

Most importantly…

If that Worm was nearing death, would it also trigger the so-called “crimson beam” that has piqued the Priestess’s curiosity from the very beginning?

Heh, I suppose I must give it a try?

Suppressing the fleeting malicious smile at the corner of her mouth, the Black-haired Girl quietly whispered something to the Little Dragon Daughter beside her. Once the latter nodded, reluctantly departing, she shifted her gaze to the White-feathered Mage who looked anxious, staring at the battlefield below.

“Dolina, I know you want to help Sigrid and the others. Since I’m also not good at direct combat, how about this? I’ll assist as the Priestess, and together we can take down that big worm, alright?”

“Huh? Miss Vilyric, you’ll assist me…? If I can join the battle, that’s great, but right now, I don’t have a staff…”

Someone waved her little hand grandly!

“No worries! That thing isn’t important; you can cast it bare-handed, but just remember not to use overly powerful spells.”

If it dies too quickly, it would be a problem if the Abyss doesn’t have time to react.

“???”

The Winged Woman was utterly confused, but before she could continue speaking, Vilyric had already moved in and grasped her hand, pointing at the enormous worm figure below.

【Joint Battle Contract】, link!

” *Ugh!* ”

A skill she had used countless times, now effortlessly enacted on her temporary teammate. An endless sense of power instantly filled Dolina’s whole body, leading her to scale peaks after peaks, almost moaning in delight!

Sky, legend, transcendence!

“What are you waiting for, get to it!”

The once unimaginable realm of supreme strength was now easily trampled underfoot with that surge of power and fullness. The overwhelming magical energy nearly overflowing from her body, combined with the girl’s fragrance and whispers drifting by her ears, propelled the slightly flushed Dolina to instinctively unleash her most familiar spell.

” *Falling, Falling Stone!* ”

As the most common second-level basic skill of sky magic, this skill could only summon small stones with a diameter not exceeding 50 centimeters. In many cases, it was directly used as emergency building material.

Yet at this moment, it transformed failure into brilliance, exceeding Dolina’s imagination, calling forth massive boulders nearly ten times the size of its advanced skill, 【Meteor Strike】!

With a weighty authority and rumbling sound, propelled by gravity and the magical acceleration granted, it smashed straight towards the oversized head of the Abyss Worm!

” *Hiss hiss!!!* ”

Sensing the threat from above, the massive worm let out an indeterminate roar, swiftly side-stepping several meters with an inconceivable speed, bracing itself against the full-force spear thrown by Sigrid, shaking its sturdy pincers on its head, and directly smashing through the falling stones summoned by Dolina.

However, it evidently underestimated the rock’s density and hardness released by Dolina, who had already linked through the Joint Battle Contract, reaching a transcendent level, as it was momentarily stunned by the reaction force for a second!

” *Swish swish swish!* ”

Such a huge opening allowed three of Sigrid’s phantasm spears to thrust directly into the worm’s head, causing it to roll violently in pain!

   

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