514 Mary, Head Maid Of The Nilm Family

Truth be told, I have no idea how Mary would be fighting us.

I mean… I know she would probably be using her magic but I wasn't sure how, considering I've only seen her fight a couple of times.

Mary stood at where she was while our vanguard charged towards her.

Odeta did a running leap at her, her fist raised and buffed with her [Body Current] spell.

Mary raised her hand and her arm seemed to melt into a liquid state before reforming itself into a giant hand.

The Head Maid used the giant hand to snatch Odeta out of the air and threw her back towards us, the Amrap not even able to defend herself against the attack.

The others managed to leap out of the way before she crashed into them, allowing me to catch her out of the air.

Well… Calling it 'catch' was a stretch since I just jumped up and she crashed into me, which caused the both of us to fall towards the ground.

I braced myself in preparation to hit the ground but Odeta spun in the air and switched positions with me.

That was all I knew before we crashed into the ground, Odeta using her body to shield me from the impact.

I quickly leapt up from the ground, "Are you alright, Odeta?!"

"Ow, ow, ow… Ahaha, I'm ok! Are you unhurt, Sister Aster?"

"I'm ok," I assured her, already casting [Close Wounds] on her.

While the spell was working its effect on her, I heard a scream and I looked up to see Delmare being swatted away by Mary's giant arm.

The Siren managed to flip around in the air and aimed herself towards the water, releasing her spell on her feet to transform them back into her tail right before she hit the water.

Since she was a Siren, she should be fine.

Katsuki made a dash towards the Trasif, her two daggers held at her sides.

I thought Mary would use the giant hand to attack Katsuki as well but she shifted it to change both her arms into twin blades.

She parried away Katsuki's attacks before spinning around to deflect Tiara's overhead slash.

The princess then tried to swing her blade up in a slash aimed at Mary's side, but the Head Maid swung her blade arm at the princess's neck, forcing her to redirect her sword to protect herself.

Unfortunately for Tiara, the blow was stronger than she thought and it blew her back several feet.

Katsuki immediately covered for her by moving behind Mary to try and attack her from her blind spot.

Mary seemed to have either anticipated that move or saw my Inugami maid move behind her since she grew out another blade arm from her back at that moment.

The new limb swiped sideways and parried Katsuki's stab away before attempting a stab of its own at her.

Katsuki leapt back to avoid it, giving Lisa the opening she needed to shoot a [Laser] at Mary.

The Trasif dropped through a portal she had created below her, letting the ray of light pass through the space she had been occupying just a few moments ago harmlessly.

Another portal opened above Lisa, letting Mary drop down on the Infrid from above.

Her arm blades were raised in preparation to strike at her neck but quickly dodged out of the way when my own [Laser] was shot towards her.

I would have continued to press the attack on Mary but I decided to prioritise healing and buffing everyone instead.

Besides, Odeta had already recovered enough to chase after her in my stead.

I thought about diving into the water to check on Delmare as well but the Siren leapt out of the water at that moment, using her tail to propel herself out of the water and back onto land.

My Siren quickly shifted her tail back into legs and rejoined the fight, chasing after Mary behind Odeta.

Instead of trying to attack Mary directly this time, Odeta picked up one of the loose boulders scattered around the cave and tried to toss it at Mary.

The Trasif simply changed one of her arm blades into a hammer before batting it away to the side, as though the boulder weighed nothing.

Delmare and Katsuki had chosen to rush towards her from both sides while she was dealing with the boulder, both of them attempting to stab their weapons at her flanks.

Their blades did not even get close to the Head Maid before she moved her other two arms to swing at the two of them.

Delmare had her rapier smacked out of her hand before she got elbow smashed away, Katsuki had to cross her daggers in front of her to defend herself and was also blown away by the force of the inpact.

Lisa quickly shot another [Laser] at Mary, which in turn gave me the time I needed to cast [Heal] on the two girls.

Mary simply moved her head to the side, avoiding the deadly beam of light with a single movement as casually as one would crack a neck.

She then leapt up into the air to avoid a slash from Tiara, the Head Maid landing on the surface of the lake without sinking into it.

Looking closely at her feet, I could see she had transformed them into some kind of platform that floated just below the surface of the water which allowed her to stand on the liquid.

At this point, it was obvious that Mary was going easy on us and not fighting us with her full strength. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure all of us would be defeated within the first few seconds of this fight.

It's not that she was looking down on us, mind you. This was just another training session for us and Mary was making sure that she was giving us a challenge without being too impossible for us to beat.

Thus, we still continued our struggle against the Head Maid without giving up.

Mary stretched out her transformed arms to the sides while smiling at us, "Shall we continue? Or do you require some time to rest?"

My answer was to throw a [Spark Strike] at her, which she easily deflected away with one of her transformed hands.

I then tried to throw a few more at her but she sprouted wings on her back and took to the air, completely avoiding all of my attacks.

She changed her arms back into blades and dove towards us like a hawk.

All of us scattered from the impact zone right as Mary smashed herself into the ground, causing the cave to shake from the impact.

I realised a little belatedly that she had done this to separate us when more arm blades grew out from her body to attack each of us simultaneously.

I was forced to take out my Light Sword to defend myself and abandon my role as support for the party.

The arm blade I was defending myself against seemed to have a mind of its own as it swung around in the air, trying to get past my guard to stab at me while I parried and deflected it.

It suddenly pulled back before slashing at me from above like a snake lunging for its prey.

I brought up my sword and defended myself with the flat of the blade, the tip of Mary's blade arm striking against my sword with a resounding 'clang'.

It felt like a truck had just rammed into me as I got flung back several metres but I managed to stay on my feet.

The blade arm chased after me and tried to stab at me again.

This time I chose to sidestep it and slash at the extended arm.

Unfortunately, my strike missed it completely as it retracted faster than my blade could descend on it.

I was preparing myself for another attack from that arm blade when it retreated from me completely, returning back to Mary's side.

She had even transformed herself back into her original form and stood there facing me with a small smile on her face.

I was wondering what she was planning to do until I realised we were the only ones left in the cave right now, my companions were nowhere to be seen.

"Did you…" I asked.

She inclined her head, "Apologies Aster, but I have indeed wiped out the rest of your team. Would you like to continue on your own?"

I pursed my lips, "So we failed?"

"You are allowed to try again and again however many times you want. We had told all of you this would last until someone succeeds after all. If you want, you can also gather even more people to help you with this fight as well."

"So if I were to go outside right now and gather everyone…"

Mary nodded, "You can come back and try again immediately, yes. Alternatively, you can train for a few days with your companions before coming back as well."

I see… They did not set a time limit for this reason… So it might even take the entirety of the training camp for someone to succeed.

I sighed, "In that case, please send me back to camp, Mary."

"Of course, Aster."

She created a portal for me and I stepped through it, finding myself back at the camp where the rest of my companions were waiting there.

They all gave me a sour look and I knew without them saying anything that they were determined to beat this challenge no matter what it takes.

I guess… Cue the training montage?