520 Boss Mary, Sixth Attempt

"Odeta! Above you!!""

The Amrap rolled away immediately after hearing my warning, narrowly avoiding Mary's giant fist that smashed where she was a few moments ago.

I used another [Darkness Paranoia] on Mary, blinding the Trasif maid temporarily as the others moved to flank her.

It was our sixth time challenging her in two days and I have to say that we're improving at least.

Mary kept us on our toes by constantly making use of different transformations for each fight as well, so we had to constantly adapt our strategies to every fight we had with her.

For this particular fight, Mary had basically transformed herself into a giant version of herself.

It looked simple at first, until you realise that she could move just as fast as she was in her original size and she had enhanced endurance from hardening her skin too…

Gwen and Selene stabbed at Mary's feet but they didn't seem to be effective since the giant maid did not even react to it. Even Tiara who was swinging her longsword with all her might at her ankle did not faze Mary in the slightest.

Lisa had shot several lasers using the [Spotlight] I created for her and this one was much more effective.

The spell burned a few gashes along Mary's arm and her eyebrow twitched slightly from the impact.

She turned in the direction of Lisa but quickly lost sight of her when I hit her with another [Darkness Paranoia].

Lisa also quickly repositioned herself right before Mary punched the area where she had been moments before, all of us learning that Mary had a penchant for locating us even while she was blinded during several of the earlier encounters.

Delmare and Seraphine were also working on shooting at her from her blind spots, making sure to never stay at one spot for longer than a few seconds since Mary would also attack their location if she were to know they were staying still after a while.

Giant Mary tried to smash her foot down on top of Selene and Gwen but I bought them time to escape with another hit of my [Static Bolt].

The moment the spell lost its effect and Mary smashed her foot down, I quickly buffed Odeta's arm as she leapt up and punched the giant maid in the back of the knee.

Mary stumbled forward a small step, putting her in the perfect position for Katsuki to drop down from the ceiling and slash her daggers at the back of her neck.

Mary let out a soft hiss and slapped at her neck, but Katsuki had already kicked off from the giant maid to land back on the ceiling, using the darkness to blend herself in.

Odeta had taken advantage of her distraction by jumping up at Mary's knee again, punching it from behind once more.

The giant Trasif stumbled a little more this time, causing the ground to shake from the impact of her footfall.

Tiara, Selene and Gwen smacked her ankle with their weapons, forcing the Head Maid to take another step forward to steady herself, all of them working together to bring her down.

In the next moment, Delmare and Seraphine appeared behind Mary and shot at the back of her knees with absolute precision. Though arrows failed to penetrate Mary's skin, it still made her knees buckle slightly.

Odeta then ran towards Selene and Gwen who had locked their shields together to form an improvised platform, allowing the Amrap to jump onto them before they boosted her up into the air.

I buffed the airborne Odeta with the usual buffs, the Amrap's body cackling with lightning when my spell activated.

She let out a warcry right before she body slammed onto the back of Mary's head, forcing the Trasif to drop down onto a knee.

We expected her to stay down for at least a moment but she simply let the momentum of her fall carry her forward into a roll, her destination being the lake at the other side of the cave.

Crap, was she baiting us to do this the entire time?

She slipped into the water, disappearing under its surface with a large splash and forcing us back as a wave crashed onto the shore.

We formed up again quickly, our vanguards already used to such changes in situations and waiting for Mary to show up again.

She did not disappoint us as she emerged from the water in an explosion of spray, her fist raised up in preparation to smash it down on top of us.

Lisa immediately fired her charged [Laser] that she had been preparing but Mary moved her head out of the way before the beam of light could hit her. The light beam still singed a few strands of her hair at least and forced her to abandon that attack.

Naturally, we took advantage of her momentary lapse in concentration and started our own offence against her, our ranged members already shooting their arrows at the face of giant Mary aiming at her eyes in particular.

The giant maid had to move her arm to cover her eyes which gave our vanguard the chance they needed to get into melee range.

Selene started stabbing her spear at Mary's chest while Gwen smashed her hammer from the other side. Tiara also joined them by swinging her longsword down in an overhead slash to cut at the middle of her chest.

On the other hand, Odeta simply did a running leap and aimed a punch at Mary's chin.

Her punch connected and Mary stumbled back a step into the deeper part of the lake, sinking until her shoulders.

I was just beginning to think that we were actually doing pretty well in this fight when the Head Maid suddenly leapt out of the lake.

We barely had time to react before the giant Trasif landed right in the middle of us, the shockwave sending all of us falling to the ground.

When I managed to look up again, I found Mary swiping her arm across the floor, smashing half of our team flying into the watery depths of the lake.

She then turned around and did the same thing to the other half of our team, though this group was sent flying towards the cavern walls instead.

I immediately shot a [Static Bolt] to stun her before following it up with a [Spark Strike] that struck her in the chest.

While she was reeling from the impact, I got to work healing everyone while they picked themselves up from the blow they suffered.

I was so focused on healing them that I almost did not notice Mary hurling a boulder in my direction, forcing me to leap backwards in response.

I only realised that the boulder would not have fallen on me anyway as it fell just short of where I had stood, the Head Maid obviously either unwilling or under direct orders to not hurt me directly even now and I fell for it.

Unfortunately, that meant that I was distracted from supporting my team mates for those few seconds, enough time for Mary to smash her fists on top of several of my team members that had been trying to climb out of the water.

I watched helplessly as Selene, Gwen, Odeta and Tiara were reduced to particles of light and disappeared from the cave from that single blow.

Mary had intentionally singled out our vanguards to wipe them out all at one go it seems. She even made sure that Delmare was not one of the team mates who were flung into the water or she would have been able to save them from such a fate.

Another beam of light shot towards Mary, this one scoring a hit on her hand and leaving a noticeable burn mark on the surface of her skin.

The giant Trasif immediately picked up a few more boulders and flung towards where Lisa had fired the [Laser] from, my Infrid letting out a surprised shriek before one of the rocks crashed down on her.

I opened my wings, attempting to take to the skies to try and support the remainder of my team but Mary sunk her hands into the lake and swung upwards, creating a blast of water that disrupted my flight path.

The next thing I saw was Mary finishing off the rest of my team, once again leaving me as the last one standing.

Ngh… Another failure I see…

At least we actually forced her to fight a little seriously this time and I could tell that Mary was also feeling a little threatened at some parts.

What's more, I think our teamwork has also advanced far enough that verbal communication was no longer necessary for us to coordinate our fight against her.

I dusted myself and landed back on the ground just as Mary transformed herself back to her original form, completely devoid of any injuries that we had inflicted upon her moments ago.

"You are all getting better, Aster," Mary complimented with a slight bow.

I gave her a wry smile, "Really? I still feel like we're not even close to getting that bell from you like this though."

"Fufufu~ I do still have a reputation to maintain after all, Aster. But do let me know if you would like to have the bell. I would gladly give it to you once you request it."

"Unn… I doubt I would resort to that, but thank you for the reminder."

"Of course, Aster. Now, do you wish to have a strawberry cake or a mango pudding I have prepared for you?"

Mmhmm… For some reason, all of our fights always end with Mary offering me some kind of sweet before sending me out of the cave to reunite with my team. I wonder why?

Not that I'm complaining of course.

And obviously, I picked both of them!

Om nom nom nom~