"K-K-Kenji? What did you call me?" Rena stammered out. She's as red as a tomato at this point.
"I said that girlfriends help their boyfriends when they need it." I declared.
"H-Huh?" Tael let out. Erana quickly covered Tael's mouth in response. At least she's on the same page as me.
This is going to be difficult. I've never had a girlfriend before so I don't know what words to say. I hope she doesn't ask me to kiss her or anything…
"I need your help. Mully is trying to kill all of us." I told her.
"What? Mully? Why would Mully try to kill you? You're her boyfriend too!"
"You see…" I began. I never thought I'd be such a gambler, but I decided to go all in.
"I only love you!" I shouted out.
Everyone's eyes appeared as if they were about to bulge out of their sockets. Rena stared at me in shock. I think I could hear my words echoing in her head.
After a moment, it seemed like Rena recovered.
"W-Well, that can't be helped! I'm Mulbik's number 1 idol after all!" She stood up and haughtily declared. I hit the bullseye.
"Still, why is she trying to kill us? Mully and I are friends!"
"She's been manipulating you, lady!" Kany shouted out. Erana put her empty hand over her mouth.
"What? Manipulating me?" Rena turned to Kany and asked.
I placed my hand on Rena's shoulder and looked her in the eye. I'm trying to put on my charm level to max.
"She's the one that made your parents disappear. She used you to get to me. I'm sorry." I stated. I can't sugarcoat this. I have to be direct.
Rena backed away from me. She shook her head constantly. It looks like she's begun to cry.
"No… You're lying! You just… You just want to make me look dumb! You want to make me look like an idiot, just like the bar owner! I'll prove you wrong! I proved him wrong so I can do the same to you!" Rena shouted.
I ran forward and grabbed Rena's hand. I held it up to my face and stared directly into her eyes.
"Rena… Why would I lie to you?" I was never a fan of shoujo manga, but I must admit I was always a fan of scenes like this. I'm trying my hardest to emulate the male protagonists of these series when they confess to the girl. Come on, don't fail me now!
"But… But Mully is my friend…" Rena looked downwards towards the ground. I could tell she had a serious internal conflict within her that was raging on. I can't let this conflict resolve itself. I need to defeat it right now!
"Rena, I know it's hard to accept, but it's the truth." I urged her.
"Why should I trust you?" She looked directly into my eyes.
It's time for the finishing blow.
"BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!" I shouted out. Obviously I'm lying. This girl repulses me, but I will do whatever it takes to win. Pride has never been something I've worried about. Manipulating her to work with us by throwing my pride out the window? I'd do that in a heartbeat.
My words seemed to shock her to her very core. She broke free from my hand and did a dramatic spin backwards. Taking this as the cue, Erana took her hand off of Tael and Kany's mouths. I could hear Tael snickering behind me, but I ignored it. This moment is critical.
Rena stopped spinning and stood in place. She stared straight at me.
"Okay. I understand." She declared.
Jackpot.
"So wait, she's gonna help us?" Tael asked me.
"That seems to be the plan. Kenji-san is trying to use her in some form to get us through the sound barrier." Erana whispered to Tael. He nodded his head in understanding when he heard this.
"Before I ask you to attack your friend, we should see what we can do on our own." I said.
"Huh? Onii-san, why are you saying this?" Kany tilted her head in confusion.
"Simple. We can't risk Rena getting hurt. She's pivotal here." I declared. Rena swooned for a moment at my statement, but she caught herself quickly.
"Okay. What's our plan of attack?" Erana asked.
"Well… From what I can tell the outer pod is more like a shield than a part of her body, so we don't need to focus on that. What we need to worry about is what is probably her main body… The human-like thing that's connected to the tentacle."
"Okay, but how do we get close, Onii-san?"
"Ideally we won't need to." I said while turning to Tael.
"What's up?" He asked me.
"How far can you cast frost?" I asked.
"The normal range for it is only around 5 meters, but as an ice natured person, I can cast it up to 20 meters!" He proudly stated.
"Okay. Erana, what is your Entangle spells range?"
"I can use it about 30 meters away!" She quickly announced.
"Okay. Here's the plan…" I crouched down. I pulled out my dagger and drew out a small scale representation of the plant pod.
"Mully will be here in the center. We need to push about 10 meters into the pod. From there, Tael will cast frost. When Mully is slowed down Erana will cast Entangle and hold her in place. When this happens, I will shoot a firebolt at Mully. Kany will do the final blow if it's required since she has no ranged options."
Kany grumbled at this. It seems like she's a bit antsy to partic.i.p.ate.
"Alright. I understand what you're saying, Kenji-san, but what if this doesn't work?"
"Well then we back out and regroup. If she were capable of killing us easily then she would have already done so."
"Okay… Then what do we do if this plan fails? What's our second option?" Tael asked.
"Well, that's where Rena will come in. I'll explain it if I need to. Planning for failure only results in it." I brushed off the topic. Though the group seemed a bit uncomfortable, they still agreed to try it.
We stood up and went towards the open slit. Mully was watching us.
"Back for more? You never learn!" She shouted.
We didn't wait. We immediately began to sprint towards the center. Unfortunately, we weren't fast enough. The claps occurred once more. They stopped us from going farther than a few feet in. Any further and I'd be risking internal organ damage. I decided it was best for us to turn around.
"Any other bright ideas, Onii-san?" Kany leered at me as she asked this.
"Foo… Okay. Have any of you ever heard of noise dampening?"
"What's that?" Erana looked at me as if I was speaking gibberish.
I went over to Rena and pulled her over to the group. She was fl.u.s.tered as I was doing this, but quickly accepted it.
"Rena, you know how earlier you used that scream attack?" I asked her.
"Oh! That's called psychic scream! I picked it up earlier when I leveled up! It's cool, isn't it?" She smiled as she held my arm.
"Yeah. It's really cool. Anyway, when you used it it made Tael and Kany dizzy but it didn't do the same for me. Why was that?"
"I can designate who is targeted by the ability." She stated.
"Is there a limit to who you can exempt?" I asked.
"No. As long as I can see the target I can make them exempt." She stated.
"Perfect." I announced.
The party still seemed a bit confused, so I decided to explain what my plan was.
"Essentially, we'll use the fact that we're immune to Rena's ability to nullify the power of Mully's ability. It's not perfect, but it should be enough for us to get close." I stated.
"How does that work? Wouldn't the sound still hurt us?" Kany asked.
"Noise dampening. Basically, a louder sound can blot out another noise."
"So… I just need to scream like before?" Rena asked.
"Exactly. If you're okay with it then let's go." I began to walk towards The pod center once more. The rest of the party followed suit.
"Okay. Rena, are you ready? Your signal is when the people start to clap!" I shouted.
"Alright!" She responded.
"Back for more?" Mully shouted. She reached the limit of her patience. The claps began.
"WAAAAAAAAAA!" Rena shouted. Just as planned, the noises cancelled each other out and we were able to move. It wasn't silent, but we were able to push forward.
"Frost!" Tael shouted. Mully was encompa.s.sed by a blue wind.
"Entangle!" Erana shouted. Vines wrapped around Mully's body.
"Firebolt!" I shouted.
Nothing happened.
Uh-oh.
Did I use too much mana earlier?
That's not good.
Um… Plan change! I ran towards Mully and swung my sword at her.
"Strike!" I shouted. My sword slid straight into her torso, but was stopped.
Mully grabbed my sword and slowly pulled it out. She quickly regenerated from the damage.
What do we do?
"What do we do?" Tael panicked.
"I… I don't know!" I replied.
Kany rushed forward and stabbed into Mully's chest. She spun her dagger around as much as she could, but was slapped away after a moment.
In the hole that was left, I saw a round pulsing object. That must have been her heart.
That's it. That's the weak point. Just like the eye of the hobgoblin, the heart is where we strike.
"ERANA, KANY, TO ME!" I shouted.
They came up to me. I drew my dagger and in response they drew their own.
"TAEL, ON MY SIGNAL, SHOOT A FIREBOLT!" I shouted.
"ALRIGHT!" He replied.
We ran forward. We rushed to Mully and stabbed at her. I pulled back and created a hole with Kany and Erana a.s.sisting me. We created a clear spot for Tael to fire his attack at. Mully's exposed heart was beating rapidly.
"SHOOT IT NOW!" I shouted.
"Fufufu! The main character gets his moment! I'm Tael, the number 1 wizard from Ruks! Behold my-"
"JUST SHOOT THE d.a.m.n FIREBOLT ALREADY!" We all shouted in tandem.
"F-Fine! Firebolt!" Tael shouted. A streak of flame shot out of Tael's wand and hit Mully's heart dead on.
"Agh…" Mully sputtered out as she crumbled.
Mully had been defeated.
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