Five minutes passed...
Seeing Clementine and Lion King still locked in a motionless standoff at the front line, Draudillon looked at Clementine's back with great concern. The other Adventurers and soldiers silently cheered for this little girl in their hearts.
After all, if she lost, this city would be gone. Iri's gaze, however, was fixed on the butterflies flitting about nearby...
Ten minutes passed...
Draudillon and the other spectators were bewildered. These two had been locked in a motionless standoff for so long; was it ever going to end? Iri, meanwhile, was leaning against the wall, dozing off...
"I say... Big Cat, let's just call it quits. Everyone take a step back, and let's all retreat, okay?" Iri was also getting impatient. She hadn't expected this Big Cat to be so resilient.
"Ye... Yes, agreed... we'll all retreat together..." Lion King reluctantly agreed.
"Alright, I'll count to three... Everyone let go and retreat together. One, two, three." Iri released her grip after counting, and Lion King also retracted his axe. Looking at him retrieve the axe with one hand, his hand was trembling...
Of course, Iri wasn't in much better shape. After letting go, she quickly put her left hand behind her back, unequipped her Champion Armor, and continuously moved her palm. At this point, Iri's palm had long gone numb. This Big Cat's strength was truly immense.
"I think dragging this out isn't going to work, right, Big Cat...? Bring out all your trump cards." Iri said while moving her palm.
To deal with a brute like this, destroying his confidence directly from his most good at part is the most effective. However, when it comes to strength, they are evenly matched, so they can only start from somewhere else. Therefore, it's best to trick him into using his ultimate move now.
"I am a Lion! Not a cat!! Hmph! You're right! Simple moves won't work against a strong opponent like you! Then my next attack will take you down!" Big Cat extended his sharp claws and pointed at Iri.
Ha! Are Beastmen really that easy to trick? To put it nicely, they're straightforward; to put it bluntly, they're stupid. An ultimate move needs to be unexpected to maximize its effect, unless it's under an absolute advantage.
"Come on, come on!" Iri smiled, beckoning to Big Cat in a provocative manner.
Lion King clearly understood that this Xiao BuDian in front of him was no ordinary opponent. Such a frail body could actually contend with his strength head-on without falling behind. If he hadn't experienced it himself, he would never have believed it.
Facing an opponent with similar strength but superior speed and agility, a prolonged battle would be quite disadvantageous for him. Coupled with the significant physical exertion just now, even if that Xiao BuDian hadn't suggested it, he had already planned to finish the fight in one move.
But seeing this Xiao BuDian still looking so at ease, he feared that even his strongest killing move might not be effective against her...
Then, that Big Cat was seen, this time honestly gripping the battle-axe's handle with both hands, and pressing the axe blade directly onto the ground. As the axe blade touched the ground, the blade gradually turned red, as if metal had been thrown into a furnace and heated.
High heat, huh... Then that basically seals off the option of directly taking the hit with the Champion Armor as before.
Even if she could take the hit, the high heat would probably deplete the charges on her Guardian Ring, or directly cause her some damage. In a situation where information is unclear, it's best not to do such things. So, there's only one option left, Iri thought.
In fact, if Iri wasn't trying to show off in front of so many people, there were countless ways to incapacitate this Big Cat. However, directly killing this Big Cat would likely have a huge impact on the subsequent plans.
So! Let him live, and let him know who the real boss is. Looking at the current situation, Xiao Di is also planting seeds here, and acting against the Beast Kingdom is only a matter of time. It's just that I don't know Xiao Di's specific plan, so for now, I'll just follow my own steps. Xiao Di will come up with a feasible plan on his own later.
"I'm coming! Martial Skill! Lion King's Cleave!" Just as Iri was thinking about other things, this Big Cat roared loudly, a roar that also came with a fear effect.
Iri had already noticed that her Guardian Ring's charges had decreased by one again. Immediately after, she saw that Big Cat charge over, leaping up without any hesitation and raising the axe in his hand high above his head to smash down on Iri.
If she didn't have complete immunity to abnormal statuses, this Big Cat might have succeeded. First, he uses a roar with a fear effect to panic the enemy, then seizes the opportunity to attack and uses his own weight and strength advantage to decide the outcome in one blow.
As expected, it's a very brute-force, open-and-wide tactic typical of Beastmen. Unfortunately, Iri is completely immune to abnormal statuses, though only for three times. Once the Fear Roar has no effect, the remaining jumping slash is full of openings.
However, one unclear point right now is the axe in Big Cat's hand. The first time he used the Fear Roar, this Big Cat knew she wasn't afraid, yet he still did it, so he probably has some hidden move.
This hidden move is probably that axe, right? Earlier, the axe blade part had already looked as if it was enchanted, so that's the only thing to pay attention to.
Iri made a judgment in an instant. Seeing that Big Cat had already jumped above her head, Iri remained unmoved, merely raising her right hand elegantly and snapping her fingers, though no sound was made.
"Za... Warudo! (The World)"
In Iri's eyes, the world instantly lost its 'color', just like when a certain major villain and a certain protagonist in a certain manga activate their time-stopping abilities; everything stood still.
Of course, this wasn't true time stop. Although that magic exists, Iri herself couldn't use the Time Stop magic that Ainz used to instantly kill Gazef.
What she was using now was a degraded version of Time Stop, Shalltear's true inheritance of Self-Time Acceleration. After equipping the Magic Ring, she could cast this spell using MP.
The effect is to accelerate her own time flow to the extreme, thereby achieving time stop in another sense. The teleportation used earlier to dodge that Big Cat was this. That was Iri's first time using this move, and she also tested its practical performance.
After activating Self-Time Acceleration, although she was facing targets that wouldn't move, Iri also couldn't inflict damage on any target. This drawback is the same as Ainz's Time Stop. Of course, there's another rather large drawback: actions taken after Self-Acceleration place immense pressure on Iri herself.
After all, it's her own body accelerating. Fortunately, Iri's physique is quite special, allowing her to withstand the burden on her body caused by excessively fast acceleration, but it's not exactly comfortable.
Her body felt heavy indeed. She had used it once just now when dodging Big Cat's sudden attack. Continuously keeping it active would continuously consume MP. After paying the MP cost to activate Self-Acceleration, her remaining MP was almost at rock bottom.
Even with her incredibly fast MP recovery rate, it couldn't offset the consumption of Self-Acceleration. Therefore... after activating Self-Time Acceleration, Iri could only maintain this relative time-stop state for nine seconds. This point is similar to a certain major boss whose ultimate move is time stop.
So, these nine seconds were enough for Iri to hum a little tune and leisurely dodge Big Cat's jumping slash.
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