Enveloped by Makris' light blue bubble, Allen felt his stats rising.
[Sacred Fish Makris' Royal Guard's effects]:
-Strength and Endurance +3000
-Strength and Endurance +10%
-Mitigation of all damage +30%
-200 Strength Recovery per second
(Ohh, this is quite a lot so quickly. Maybe we can do this without Merle and Merus? Huh, woah?!)
Allen was using his Bird E summon to survey an area of 100 kilometers around him.
He wanted to know when the Demon King's Army got close.
He could see Prostia's army gathering from all regions of Prostia towards the north.
They all seemed to be quite riled up.
The people in the city itself were in quite an upheaval too.
Makris' [Royal Guard] had been applied to everyone in Patlanta.
There did not seem to be any limit to how many received, the two million of people there all being protected by it.
"Sophie, we're counting on you too."
"Understood. Spirits, please grant us your benevolence to fight these wicked foes."
[Sophie's spirits' effects]:
-Water Spirit Nymph: Mana +3000
-Wind Spirit Gale: Agility +3000
-Earth Spirit Pigmy: Endurance +3000
-Wood Spirit Druid: Strength +3000
They did not only boost the stats of allies, but they could do various other things.
[The spirits' effects besides stat buffs]:
-Water Spirit Nymph: Recovering the mana of allies according to the mana offered by Sophie, throwing a mass of water, creating a wall of water
-Wind Spirit Gale: Damaging the enemies according to the mana offered by Sophie, producing wind ropes to restrain the enemy
-Earth Spirit Pigmy: Building a large and resilient earth wall according to the mana offered by Sophie, throwing earth lumps
-Wood Spirit Druid: Healing allies according to the mana offered by Sophie, building a wooden wall, restraining the enemy with trees and bushes.
The new earrings were boosting their stats too, so Sophie's magic had more impact.
Sophie's Intelligence was proportional to her affinity with spirits, and her mana to their power.
The higher her Intelligence, the more likely they were to follow her orders, and the higher her Mana, the more powerful they became.
"Don't forget the Spirit King's Blessing."
Allen knew these opponents had to be fought with the help of the Spirit King's Blessing.
"Understood."
'Hahah, it looks like you have a rough fight ahead of you again.'
The Spirit God Rosen, transformed to a crab, swam up and began dancing while moving his claws right and left, casting the Spirit King's Blessing onto Allen's group, raising their stats by 30%.
"You don't seem too worried."
While everyone was powering up, Allen noticed that Kyubel's attitude had not changed.
'I'm just happy you're wasting time like that. You know, I'd actually love it if you kept using buffs forever.'
Kyubel was a distance away, but even Basque and Bildiga had not moved yet.
They were all placing the Evil God's resurrection as their main priority.
If they accomplished that, they would be essentially undefeatable.
(Or hmm, maybe this is all just a matter of time.)
Maybe the army of 100'000 on the north was just a distraction.
Maybe even the 3 Demon Great Generals were a distraction as well.
They had already sent an army of ten million as a smokescreen to steal a Divine Artifact.
Nothing else mattered to them as long as they managed to resurrect the Evil God.
Allen spoke to the Divine Artifact Kagutsuchi Dogora carried.
"Lady Freya, is everything alright, being underwater?"
'It is. Though I'm not as powerful as on the surface.'
They were underwater, and the Divine Artifact Kagutsuchi Dogora was wiedling kept producing bubbles.
Allen asked Freya is everything was alright, and while not ideal, the Divine Artifact would work.
Everyone was also under the effect of the Fish type summons' Special and Awakened Skills, so their morale was high.
"Let's start then. Bildiga is really strong, so try to not get hit by him."
"Okay, got it."
With those words, the fight started.
Kurena was the first one to jump out, heading for Bildiga and swinging her orichalcum sword down.
CLINK!
The sound of solid items colliding was heard in the water.
Bildiga had resisted the attack of Kurena, who had received various buffs, and even wore the expensive earring.
'Hmph!'
"Awa?!"
"I'll fight too then!!"
"Please do, Shea!"
Following up Kurena's attack, Shea charged at Bildiga.
She rushed at him, punching his stomach, which had already negated an attack powerful enough to crumble castle walls.
CLANK!
Shea's knuckle guards hit Bildiga's metallic body, but there was no effect.
Her body had lost all its momentum after the punch.
Just as Bildiga began raising his front legs, Shea jumped back.
(Shea has 4 Stars, and her weapons aren't made of orichalcum. If Kurena couldn't do anything, she can't either.)
Kurena was stronger than Shea, unless she used her Extra Skill.
"Kurena, use your Extra Skill [Supreme Sword]"
He gave Kurena a new directive.
"Got it. Yahhh!!"
'So you're going for Extra already. Hmph.'
Kurena stood facing Bildiga, her body becoming hazy as her stats became even higher.
She then activated her most powerful Attack Skill [Supreme Sword].
A powerful shockwave spread from her blade as she rushed in.
CLINK!
But the result was the same as the last two attacks.
Bildiga did not even attempt dodging.
They had aimed their attacks at supposedly unprotected areas of his body, but it was all the same.
The crystal flower's style began cracking under the pressure of Kurena's attack.
That was how powerful she was, but it was not enough to inflict any damage on Bildiga.
"Allen, do you think he…"
Cecile had arrived at one conclusion.
"Yeah, either he can nullify physical attacks, or his Endurance is just too high."
"We can't defeat him then!"
Allen had suspected that when watching him fight the Insect A summons.
Bildiga seemed to be even more dangerous than Ramonhamon or Basque.
Even an Insect A summon under Kingship, with stats that reached 30'000, had been unable to leave even a scratch on him.
If Kurena and Shea's attacks were useless too, then that meant Bildiga could likely negate any physical attacks.
It was not as simple as finding the correct element.
Bildiga's metallic shell could negate all physical attacks.
Basque had called him Bildiga when they were killing all the Insect A summons too.
He could simply ignore physical attacks and counterattack without issue. Allen had considered him the most dangerous one too.
'I guess I should kill you now. I'm tired of waiting.'
Bildiga rushed forward, brandishing his front legs, armed with scythes that looked like a praying mantis' claws.
Underwater, Allen's party had transformed into mermen.
That meant they could also swim like fishes.
But Bildiga seemed to move even more swiftly than them, his large scythes closing in on Kurena.
"That was so close, help a little!"
Kurena cried for some help.
"Right, don't forget about me!!"
Kurena moved out of the way at the last minute, but the enormous scythes still grazed her, fresh blood spreading to the water.
If Kurena had been underwater without transforming into a merman, she probably would have died there.
"Cecile, try to hit him with as much magic as you can. Kurena and Shea won't be able to do anything but dodge."
Allen decided they could not rely on physical attacks against him.
"I've been trying everything but it won't work!"
"Me too, Master Allen!!"
Cecile and Sophie tried spells of various elements, but nothing worked.
Shea kept waving in rhythmically with Kurena, while Cecile, Sophie, and Luck attacked from a distance, but there was next to no effect yet.
(At least it's something compared to the useless physical attacks, but it's still hard. The fight to the north is about to start too.)
The time given for the other army had been one hour, but that was the time when they would arrive at Patlanta.
Allen was aiming at intercepting them 80 kilometers away from from his current location.
Allen watched through Merus, the Spirit King's Blessing had reached Allen's Army all the way there, and the Hero's Army seemed quite confused by it.
He calmed them down, and made them retake formation as soon as possible.
The Sacred Fish Makris' [Royal Guard] had also reached there.
That also served to show how powerful Rosen and Makris were.
Allen continued giving orders to Allen's Army through Merus, while Kyubel leisurely hummed to himself while completing the altar to resurrect the Evil God.
Allen used Command on an Insect B summon, and made it use Formic Acid.
"Hm!"
(Oh! I think that worked a bit? Good thing I used [Growth] on them.)
Allen had always been wondering what the true use of [Growth] was.
As summons grew, two of their Blessings would reach their maximum, while the rest were more random.
An A Rank summon's stats would always be around 10'000.
He had continued Creating, Growing, and Deleting summons until their stats reached 10'000.
As a result [Growth]'s Skill Experience grew in the same amount as the mana he used, and all the summons in his Holder had 10'000 points of stats.
The Fish C summon heading to the north also had 10'000 Agility, so it was traveling quickly.
Under Command, all stats increased by 5000, and by 10'000 with Kingship.
With Strengthening, their Blessings' stats could grow by 5000.
The Sacred Fish Makris' [Royal Guard] and Rosen's [Spirit King's Blessing] had continuous effects, so they were still falling around them like snow.
On top of that, if Sophie and Rosalina used their buffs again, an Insect B summon with Rank A Growth, and under Command, would become like this:
[Species] Insect
[Grade] Commander
[Rank] B
[Growth] A
[Name] Alipon
[Strength] 37180
[Mana] 29900
[Attack] 29510
[Endurance] 54969
[Agility] 36400
[Intelligence] 29510
[Luck] 26000
[Blessings] Endurance 100+100, Agility 100+100
[Special Skills] Formic Acid, Militarization
[Awakened Skill] Spawn
-Under Rosalina's Skill and Extra Skill
-Under Sophie's spirits' Blessing
-Under Makris' Royal Guard
-Under Spirit King's Blessing
-Under Kiel's Skill (Endurance +24%)
The stats that started at 10'000 just kept going up and up.
Its Endurance even became 5.4x what it started with.
Those impressive stats were able to resist Bildiga's attacks.
'Hmph! So impertinent!!'
'Chitter Chatter?!'
Bildiga still seemed to have higher stats than the Grown Insect B.
But Formic Acid seemed to have an effect on his metallic shell, some spots starting to produce smoky bubbles.
That made him switch targets to the Insect B summon, attacking it with all he had.
(I experimented so much to produce that summon, you better don't kill it! I'll strip you of your metallic body.)
Allen had needed to go through many thousands of cycles of Creating, Growing, and Deleting, to create that summon.
The summon kept running away while constantly using [Formic Acid].
If the metallic shell was gone, the fight would become easier.
"Alipon, use Spawn and use them as a shield."
'Chitterchatter!'
'Like that will help you!'
100 little Alipons were born.
Then with [Militarization], their stats grew by 1.5x.
The Militarized little Alipons had roughly 75% of the Insect B's stats.
But Bildiga's damage was quicker than Kiel's healing magic.
Bildiga's relentless attacks tore through the little Alipons' numbers.
(I should call more summons then. Maybe I could put him to sleep. No, maybe it's best to lower his Attack. I'll watch his reaction to find his weak points.)
With [Growth], all the Insect type summons had obtained powerful Blessings.
Pretty much all the Insect type summons in Allen's Holder had around 10'000 stats.
Merus could also summon them in the north of Patlanta, so they were really useful.
The fight continued between Allen and the Demon King's Army, both atop the crystal flower and to the north of Patlanta.
