I Was the Supporter of a Popular Dungeon Streamer, but the Power Harassment Was Too Much, so I Quit. I’m Useless Anyway, so It Shouldn’t Be a Problem, Right? Huh? The Views Are Dropping Like Crazy? - 18

Chapter 18: Phantom Formation Mastery

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Five-character magic, a classification ranked as the highest grade among all magic. It would not be an exaggeration to call it the ultimate magic technique. The difficulty to wield it far surpassed that of four-character magic, and there were only nine of them in existence. The number of people capable of using it was extremely limited. Currently, there were only four Seekers and one Supporter that could use it. True to its high difficulty, its performance was unparalleled too. If I could activate it, I could finish off the Minotaur.

But—

“Damn it…!”

The Minotaur swung the OOPArt sword wildly. It was faster and stronger than before. I was completely on the defensive, unable to counterattack.

“If I could just get three seconds… Just a single opening…!!”

Four-character magic could be activated in less than a second, but five-character magic required a certain amount of preparation. Against the current Minotaur, I had no time to prepare for the activation. 

On top of that, five-character magic consumed a massive amount of magic power and only had about a thirty percent success rate. Even if it failed, it would still burn through an enormous amount of magic power, making it a high-risk gamble. To increase the odds, I needed all the time I could get to prepare it.

What should I do? At this rate, the Minotaur is going to chip me slowly and kill me.

“-!?”

A small hand touched the Minotaur’s leg. It was Kisaragi’s hand. Despite being battered and barely able to stand, Kisaragi had gotten up, approached the Minotaur from behind and placed a hand on its leg.

“【Eightfold Bind】.”

As Kisaragi murmured the spell, eight black stakes of magical energy pierced into the Minotaur.

“An opening is all you need… Right?”

Kisaragi let out a weak “Ehehe…” and then collapsed, going unconscious right here and there.

“Kisaragi… You’re the best Supporter there is.”

One stake would be removed every 0.5 seconds. If they were disappearing at a rate of one every 0.5 seconds, then with seven left, that meant I had about 3.5 seconds. That was enough!

“Constructing magic formula, inputting environmental data, adjusting magic power output…”

I could do this. Maybe because of this prosthetic arm enhancing my abilities, my magic power precision was far more stable than before.

“Control code—【Phantom Formation Mastery】—Activate!”

Four duplicates of me materialized at my side.

【Phantom Formation Mastery】 was a magic spell that created four tangible clones, allowing me to control them freely. It was the superior version of 【Phantom Motion Mirage】. While 【Phantom Motion Mirage】 merely copied the external appearance and mass, these clones replicated my actual abilities and even the performance of my equipment.

In other words, the prosthetic arms of my clones also possessed the attribute to exterminate monsters…

“GAAAH!!”

The Minotaur’s restraints shattered. At the same time, one of my clones rescued Kisaragi. The remaining three, along with me, launched an all-out assault from all directions using our prosthetic arms.

“Gah!? Agh! Aaaagh!!?”

The clone that had rescued Kisaragi placed her in a safe location before rejoining the attack. This time, it was the Minotaur that was forced entirely onto the defensive side. But no matter how much it tried to guard itself, it had no way to deal with attacks from five of me. Together with my clones, I unleashed a relentless barrage of assaults.

“Let’s pick up the pace!!”

Knee joint—destroyed.

Abdomen—obliterated.

Arm joint—shattered.

Right eyeball—ruptured.

The Minotaur dropped to its knees, both arms hanging limply.

“With this…”

I snapped the Minotaur’s right arm, forcing it to drop the OOPArt and I could see the color drained from its entire body. 

“Here’s the last one!”

In the final strike, I lunged in from five directions at once, driving my prosthetic arm straight through the Minotaur’s body. My clones converged on me and disappeared.

“I’ve repaid my debt, Red-Eyed Minotaur…!”

With its dying scream, the Minotaur collapsed. Its life was finally extinguished. I slumped to the ground myself. 【Phantom Motion Mirage】 had a major drawback. It prevented the use of any other magic while active, but well, that was the only downside. In exchange, my number of attacks simply quintupled. That was the power of a five-character spell.

But damn, for all its strength, the stamina and magic consumption were brutal…!

“Damn it! Haa!! Haa… haa… haa…!!!!”

Just barely. I barely made it! Seriously… I’m going to die from exhaustion!!

I won… I actually won. I defeated that insanely strong monster. The same me who was always told I couldn’t do anything alone!! My lungs burned. My entire body ached. My clothes were drenched in sweat and blood. But what was this? This sensation surging through my whole body…!

“…Calm down. It’s not over yet.”

Celebrating could wait. I shifted my gaze to the Minotaur’s OOPArt. It had returned to its original form, now a size manageable for a human to wield. Its glow had faded. Then I looked at the Minotaur’s corpse. Monsters didn’t leave corpses. When they died, they only left behind dropped items and a magic stone before vanishing. But this Minotaur had left a body. Something was definitely off.

“Yohoo!”

And arriving far too late was Abisu. She waved her hand excitedly toward us as she came close to us.

“You’re so damn late!!”

“Sorry, sorry! I got completely lost. But hey, looks like you’re safe, so that’s good… Or maybe not exactly?”

Abisu glanced at the Minotaur’s corpse.

“A monster leaving a body behind? That’s weird. And what’s this OOPArt?”

“That Minotaur was using it.”

“………………What? A monster using an OOPArt?”

After I gave her a brief rundown of what had happened in battle, Abisu actually looked agitated. I had never seen her looking like this before.

“Oi, oi, oi, oi!! This is way too interesting! Forget submitting this to the association. We should take it back and study it ourselves!”

“Do whatever you want.”

I lifted Kisaragi into my arms.

“For now, I’m taking Kisaragi to the hospital.”

“…You don’t have anything you want to ask me?”

“That can wait. Right now, Kisaragi’s treatment comes first.”

I activated the transfer crystal. Her body was so small and… So light, likely from the blood loss and exhaustion. Her beautiful silver hair was caked in dirt, her lovely face smeared with blood and bruises.

“…You did amazing holding out on your own, Kisaragi.”

You’re the ideal Supporter, Kisaragi.

And with that, the missing persons case came to a close, but this incident would in turn be the spark that ignited a new conflict.

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