I Didn't Even Want To Live, But God Forced Me To Reincarnate! Chapter 178: Lyra Vs Altaire –And Co.

"Eh... That stance...," Nicole's voice made my heart skip a beat for a moment.

c.r.a.p, I forget that she's here! Wait, how is she familiar with the stance—oh, she's Clyde's wife, after all!

"...Well, it seems similar at a first glance, but it turns out to be different..."

I heaved a sigh of relief inwardly after hearing her say that—yup, it seemed that I had successfully modified my swordsmans.h.i.+p style. ...though there were still some resemblances to my old style—the Grabberton way.

"Don't let your mind wander off during a battle!"

With those words, Alt-nii suddenly caught me off guard as he flung my sword away.

"Ah!" I quickly rushed off to my sword which beautifully stabbed the ground... when Rurune suddenly appeared in my way!

"Ruru!" She cutely growled, but I didn't feel the urge to pet her, not at this moment!

"Move aside!" I said as I changed my direction, but Rurune followed me and she seemed to be laughing, "Ruru~"

"Lyra, don't forget what you said—that I shouldn't hold back!" Alt-nii said from my back.

I thought that retrieving my magic sword would take a bit of time, but that wasn't the case with Rurune's distraction.

The moment I turned around, I saw Alt-nii's three daggers already flying midair—stopping there. It was his habit to use either his [Void] or [Wind] magic to hold his daggers midair before flying them off to his target.

And his target this time—oh, don't get it wrong. I know his tactics. He was trying to use the daggers to bind me to the ground—hoping to lock my clothes with his daggers. And yup, he also applied some magic to his daggers to lock my movements once they successfully stroke my clothes.

Yup, this was one of his pranks. Therefore, I know.

"Eittt!"

As the daggers were flung towards me, I immediately cast my own magic to counter them all. Small ice s.h.i.+elds were raised to block the daggers and send them off to the grounds.

"What about this then?!" Alt-nii reacted right away as he sent b.a.l.l.s of [Void] magic flying at me.

"[Gicela snîðung]!" (Ice shards)

I quickly cast powerful ice shards in order to clash it against Alt-nii's [Void] b.a.l.l.s in hopes that the b.a.l.l.s would vanish after getting struck by my ice shards. If my ice shards weren't powerful enough, they might only get swallowed by Alt-nii's [Void] b.a.l.l.s.

I reinforced my ice shards continuously with my magic as they crashed into Alt-nii's [Void] b.a.l.l.s. After the impact of the two forces that caused dust to form, both my ice shards and Alt-nii's [Void] b.a.l.l.s vanished.

"Hey! Big Brothers, you are all forgetting what I told you to do!!"

Suddenly, Ein's voice resounded. He seemed quite irritated from the tone of his voice.

"...Right!"

As if Alt-nii, Harvey, and Clavis were reminded of something important, they quickly took several steps back before... going together against... Kiri!!

"Uwaa...!"

Kiri was surprised having the two other opponents targetting him as well. He reflexively raised his sword—but he was still focused on facing off against Harvey. So, his sword could only defend against Harvey's attack...

""Kiri!""

Luca and I reflexively tried to help Kiri when Rurune suddenly stretched her paws to my legs, causing me to trip and fall.

What the h.e.l.l!!

Luckily, Luca managed to help Kiri defending himself—his rapier blocking Clavis' knuckles as he held it with just his right hand—while his left hand was facing Alt-nii, summoning a strong s.h.i.+eld of flames that blocked Alt-nii's magical attack.

But there was no way Luca could endure that long—I had to help!

I stood up in an instant only to be blocked by Rurune.

"...Tch!"

"Take this!"

At that moment, Iris' voice unexpectedly resounded.

The next moment, I saw a small bottle of potion being thrown at Rurune... I had a hunch at that time, so I immediately distanced myself from Rurune.

The small bottle of potion's plug was off while it was flying midair—then, the liquid inside was raining down on Rurune.

"...Ru?!"

Rurune was definitely not expecting this coming from the usually timid Iris, as she was drenched with the potion's liquid.

"Ruru...!!"

As I was wondering what the potion might be doing to her, I noticed that Rurune was not moving at all!

That was when I knew—it was a paralyzing potion.

"Thanks, Iris!" I smiled as I quickly dashed to Alt-nii's side, ready to ward him off Luca so Luca could focus on Clavis alone.

"D-do your best!" Iris cheered.

Since my way to retrieve my discarded sword was still blocked... I didn't lose my way and created an ice sword instead!

As soon as the ice sword was completely formed, I stroke the sword to Alt-nii.

Obviously, Alt-nii noticed my incoming attack. He stopped attacking Luca's flame s.h.i.+eld and shoved his hands to my ice sword—casting his [Void] magic on his hands...

So, the moment my ice sword approached his hands, it was slowly disappearing.

I quickly jumped back after letting go of my ice sword.

[Gicela scytel]! (Ice Arrow)"

I wished to overwhelm Alt-nii by summoning numerous ice arrows, hoping for the arrows to rain down on him. He was caught off guard and cast several [Void] b.a.l.l.s to ward off my ice arrows while evading the attack.

No matter, I could always send another attack.

Just as I was about to cast another attack, I noticed Alt-nii was ready to defend himself against another rain of ice arrows, so in that moment, I instantly thought of another attack.

[Gicela snîð...]

"Big Bro Alt, she's using ice shards, go and use [Void] b.a.l.l.s to swallow them all!"

Ein's sudden yell surprised me, but my ice shards still formed and made their way to Alt-nii. Alt-nii, who was preparing for ice arrows, quickly cast his [Void] b.a.l.l.s instead after hearing Ein's command.

"How did you...?!" I was taken aback by Ein's deduction.

"Your initial stances are different! I could tell!" Ein answered proudly.

...Sure, because I intended to make the ice arrows raining down on Alt-nii, I would form the ice arrows from height, while I usually would fling the ice shards horizontally...

Therefore, my stance was a bit different... A bit different, but it was generally similar. And Ein could tell after seeing me demonstrate the two attacks.

Okay, that kid's good.

If I couldn't really surprise my enemy with that, then I just had to overwhelm them.

Therefore, I gathered my power to create even stronger ice arrows, an even stronger rain of arrows.

Alt-nii quickly reacted and formed a [Void] barrier above him, making all the ice arrows touching the barrier disappear in an instant.

Fatigue started to build up in my body after that, as I also took a step back and took a deep breath before continuing.

"Time for me to launch an attack back!" Alt-nii exclaimed.