--- Lily ---
After a few more shots from Hunter themia vanished. The drake, not liking that at all sent out another wide ranging attack to try and force her to return to the visible world… only to fail. Lily just had to hope Hunter knew what she was doing. And no, Lily did not leap into the air when a hand rested on her shoulder a few momentster.
"It seems we need to make use of the explosives," stated Hunter.
Lily, notably, did not shiver as she turned around to see Hunter standing behind her. "Um… sure how do they work?" asked Lily.
"I checked the few we were given ess to and only one is worth using in this situation. One is too strong, the yield likely enough to cover the entire bubble and take out everyone except Kat, while the rest are too weak," stated Hunter.
"Wait, why are they just handing this stuff out to you?" asked Bower.
"Insurance. If we believed there was no hope of defeating the drake without it, setting of the explosives would give us onest chance. The team would be pulled out moments before the explosion went off to keep us alive, and the drake either would, or would not survive the st depending on what is necessary to kill it," stated Hunter.
"Um… right…" said Lily slowly. "So what should we do?"
Hunter pulled out a surprisingly normal looking square package made up of four smaller packages strapped together. "This is the one you want. I believe each ring has three inside of them. Someone with demonic energy will need to reach inside to feel the button, then hold it for 10 seconds while applying a small amount of demonic energy and thinking about how long they want the timer to be,"
Kamiko nodded while asking, "Howrge will the st be?"
"Hmm… depends what gets in the way," mumbled Hunter. "Definitely lethal to everyone except Kat and myself, and my organs really wouldn''t be thanking me because of the shockwave. The nice thing about this one though? It has a range limit, cutting off even the shockwave once you get too far out. It''s about half again the size of the drake,"
"How are we supposed to deliver it then?" asked Lily. "I certainly don''t want to ask Kat to do it…"
"Can you not simply fly over another paper ne with the bomb pre-charged?" asked Hunter.
"Oh… um… not just yet? I might have just barely enough mana but better not to risk it. Once I do though? Yeah… that''s… actually quite a good idea. I''m not sure why I didn''t think about it," said Lily with a wince. Apparently Kat wasn''t the only one that was bad at thinking of ways to keep her safe.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
That particr realisation hit quite hard.
"Do you know how long the charge should be?" asked Kamiko.
Hunter shrugged, "I have no proper reference for how fast Lily''s paper nes travel while free of passengers and under her remote control. I would suggest giving yourself plenty of extra time. Oh, and please take these explosives of mine into your ring. I will continue distracting the drake now that the n is hashed out,"
Hunter summoned up another two copies of the bombs and then just let them drop onto the ground. Lily freaked the heck out at that. Kamiko and Bower both had to wince as well. *Ok, sure intellectually I know that the demonic energy is necessary for these things to go off but holy shit Hunter that still felt super dangerous. Do they not have proper safety courses for bombs in demonnd?
Then again we are about to make use of explosives we don''t fully understand to blow up the head of an enraged corrupted drake so maybe I''m overthinking it.*
Kamiko quickly swiped up the bombs while Lily was still panicking, no sense leaving them out as she shared simr concerns with Lily. "Shall I set one of these for say… three minutes? Will that be enough time to get everything in position?" asked Kamiko.
Lily looked at the drake in the distance and winced. "Maybe? The nes aren''t exactly the fastest thing and with me controlling it from afar I''m not sure on the timing… might be better if you threw it? Just to get it moving?" suggested Lily.
"I feel as though you are overestimating the distance between us and the drake," stated Kamiko.
"Well I''m sorry but this fight haspletely destroyed my sense of timing. Apparently I can do the slowdown thing like you guys but I don''t properly control it and really I have no idea how long anything is taking right now. Besides I can just let it circle for a bit," admitted Lily.
Kamiko tapped her foot a few times then said, "Ok, how about I set it for two minutes and throw it? I still think you''ll have to keep it floating around for a bunch of extra time if we do it that way, but you can be certain it''s there. Just don''t let the drake eat it. I''d guess it could explode inside the drake, but it''ll probably eat all the energy in the bomb. So… all good?"
"I… guess, just give me a bit to gather some more mana. I''ll mediate properly for a moment," said Lily. Kamiko nodded and picked Lily up when she transformed. Lily let herself sync into her meditation, trying to pull in as much energy as possible. It was hard topletely block the fight going on nearby. Even with her trust in Kamiko to keep her out of trouble it wasn''tpletely easy.
Bower had moved away from the two and began to start firing cheaper ammo at the drake on asion. It did some damage, but nothing fantastic. It was barely worth the investment but it''s not like Bower was poor. If it had even the tiniest chance of helping against the drake? He''d happily pay the cost. Getting back home might be a bit of a pain without any ammo, but he''d been through worse.
Eventually, Kamiko shook Lily out of her stupor. She didn''t get all that much mana… but hopefully it would be enough. Lily summoned up arge paper ne, though slightly smaller then normal and Kamiko pulled out the explosives. They shared a quick look before Kamiko said, "When I let go that means its set alright? Start counting before I throw the ne alright?"
Lily nodded and got ready as Kamiko let her down. A momentter Kamiko pressed down the button hidden inside the package and a clear beep went off. So Lily started counting. *Kat, explosive in 2 minutes, One Minute Fifty-Nine…* Kamiko picked up the paper ne, tested the weight a little and then pulled her arm back. Lily kept the countdown going even as Kamiko stilled.
Then Kamiko took a few steps forward and hurled the n up into the air as if it was a javelin. Lily had to push a bit of extra mana into the ne when she felt it was tearing apart but that was fine. She just had to keep watch as the ne soared over to its destination. Eventually the ne was over the drake, but there was still time on the counter.
*Forty seconds, thirty nine seconds, thirty eight…* Kat got ready, ncing over at Hunter in between blows and preparing herself to back off.
When the countdown hit ten seconds Kat turned around and sprinted and Hunter started to shoot off moderately powerful bullets in rapid session towards the drake''s eyes. The drake had learnt enough to raise up its wed forelimbs to keep its eyes safe, and that bought Kat enough time to get out of the way.
When the timer hit five seconds Lily dismissed the paper ne and let it fall. Four seconds, Three seconds. The bomb soared through the air, falling straight down. It wasn''t the most aero dynamic of things but a straight fall was easy enough. Two seconds and it was just metres above the crystals. One second, the bomb made contact and the drake seemed to flinch.
BOOOOOM!
Even with the st apparently being self contained Lily felt herself being pushed back. She dug her ws into the ground to keep herself in ce. Kamiko dug her staff into the ground, while Bower simply dropped to the deck. A wave of heat passed over not long after and Lily felt her heart beating in her ears as the smoke cleared to reveal…
A drake no missing its head. Everything above its forelimbs had beenpletely removed and they weren''t doing well either. Burn marks littered the length of the drake''s body most concentrated around the st zone. Lily felt herself calming down when a heartbeat rang out. One that wasn''t her own.
Thump.
The scattered crystals she hadn''t paid much attention to started to shake.
Thump.
Those fragments exploded one after another, giving off bright lights tainted with spots of ck that seemed to eat at her eyes.
Thump.
The drake''s body seemed to beat in time with the sound.
Thump.
It was standing.
Thump.
Between one beat and the next it was healed, everything except the head was fine.
Thump.
The drake let out arge roar. Back in one piece, but changed. It was marked by the explosion, but clearly not out of the fight like everyone had hoped.
Thump.