"This guy...!"
From the start of the battle until now, Daidara hadn't managed to hit the enemy even once with the axe Teigu in his hands.
No matter how high his damage output was, if he couldn't touch the enemy, it was useless.
As for Liver and Niou...
Liver's groundwater was already hard to draw, and now he'd used a lot of it to cover Niou.
And on Niou's side, every time he tried to use his secret technique [Ghoul's Summons] to strengthen himself, the masked, white-haired girl would interrupt him with pinpoint accuracy from her guns.
Rather, it seemed she had seen through his movements completely. Every time he was about to use [Ghoul's Summons], she would anticipate it and fire a bullet straight at his head.
And this was why Liver had ignored Daidara several times to go and help Niou.
Now, the weaknesses the Three Beasts didn't normally show were completely exposed.
Normally, in easy fights, the three of them could crush their opponents even while fighting separately.
And Liver usually operated with the army, and the army... would bring large water supplies for him to use his Teigu to annihilate enemies.
But now, because the three of them were so used to fighting on their own, their coordination against a strong enemy was poor.
Facing a pair like Aaron and Kiana, whose Perfect Attunement allowed them to sense each other's thoughts to some degree, their lack of teamwork naturally led to them being easily suppressed.
The only reason the Three Beasts hadn't lost yet was purely because the veteran Liver was simultaneously covering Daidara and looking out for Niou.
If even a small opening appeared in Liver's movements, then...
"You bastard! I'm not taking this anymore!"
Watching the enemy zipping through the forest, the string of rationality in Daidara's head, already stretched thin, finally snapped.
"Daidara! Stop!"
Seeing Daidara's action, how could Liver not know what his idiotic subordinate was thinking?
Daidara's idea was simple. The enemy was fast, and he couldn't hit him in close combat. So, he'd change his method.
[Double-Bladed Axe: Belvaac], aside from its combined great-axe mode, also had a thrown boomerang-axe mode.
By splitting the axe in two with enough force, the Teigu user could throw the separated halves, which would relentlessly pursue the enemy until the user's energy ran out.
Daidara, though frustrated, was still relatively unharmed. Pouring strength into his arms, he stared at the figure flitting through the trees and hurled the two boomerang axes.
"Heh. I was waiting for this exact moment."
Seeing Daidara hurl the two high-speed axes at him, Aaron, holding the Red-Backed Shrike, stomped hard on the ground and easily dodged the incoming weapons.
"Damn it!"
Liver, already knowing Aaron's intention, immediately directed all his water streams at Aaron's body, trying to forcibly intercept his attack.
But unfortunately, the water converging from all directions had already missed the optimal window.
Facing an Aaron who was even faster than before, Daidara could only hastily assume a defensive stance, and then...
"I've been waiting for this opening for a long time."
His arms, crossed to protect his chest, were sliced clean off by a single, full-power strike from Aaron in his base form.
From the very beginning, besides using these dummies to gain combat experience, Aaron had actually been waiting for an opportunity.
Daidara was the easiest of the Three Beasts to provoke. This simple-minded muscle-head, when unable to land a hit, would easily overload and resort to a moronic move.
And that move... was throwing his axes.
The twin axes were powerful and had a tracking ability, making them genuinely suitable for a surprise throwing attack against some opponents.
The problem was, Daidara didn't know that Aaron already knew his personality, his Teigu, his fighting style, and all his other intel.
Knowing this, Aaron was naturally prepared for Daidara's sudden ranged attack.
And being prepared, dodging it wasn't difficult.
For a melee Teigu user who relies on their weapon, that weapon is both a spear for offense and a shield for defense.
The twin axes, which a normal person couldn't even lift, were swung with ease by Daidara.
And every time Aaron tried to approach Daidara, he had to avoid the axes' attack range and strike from a blind spot.
After all, the damage output of those axes was no joke. Getting hit once would really hurt.
But the moment Daidara threw his axes, he entered his most vulnerable state.
Without his axes, he couldn't block.
Without his axes, Aaron no longer needed to fear Daidara's attacks.
Having lost this 'shield,' Daidara now had zero defensive ability in Aaron's eyes.
Relying on the physical specs from Perfect Attunement, combined with the sharp blade of the Red-Backed Shrike, Aaron's strike easily tore off Daidara's arms.
Not only that, but Daidara's chest and abdomen were also mangled by the blade.
If not for Liver's water-jet spear shooting out from an odd angle at the last second, forcing Aaron to dodge slightly, the attack wouldn't have been so shallow, and Daidara... might have been killed in one hit.
But even so, Daidara had lost most of his combat ability.
"What?!"
Niou, who had been dodging bullets, saw the two objects behind Aaron and screamed at Daidara:
"Daidara! Run!"
*BANG!*
Just for that momentary distraction, Niou felt a sharp pain flare in the palms of his hands.
"Getting distracted in front of me? Looks like you're really underestimating this lady."
......