Roar!
At that moment, Lee Yoo-ri's taunt forced the two statues to focus on her.
Swoosh—
The remaining support statue was restrained by shadows that emerged from the ground, grabbing its ankles.
Although Lee Yoo-ri's taunt and Ichika's shadows only worked for a moment, there was no hesitation.
I smiled as I saw the white light path leading directly to the healer.
It was a great ability, as it allowed me to see the path to reach the healer in the shortest possible time.
Of course, I would have taken this route anyway, but it was nice to have a visual representation.
'Now!'
And at the end of the light path, I came to a sudden stop.
Crunch!
I extended my hand towards Kang Do-hee, who grabbed it tightly.
Gritting my teeth, I converted the kinetic energy and twisted my body, throwing Kang Do-hee towards the healer.
Whoosh!
Kang Do-hee flew like a bullet, landing on the praying statue's shoulder and gracefully spinning to snap its head.
Crunch!
"Nice, Kang Do-hee!"
With the healer gone, only the remaining minions were left, and it was time to beat them down.
.
.
.
"Healing Rain!"
Golden rain fell from the sky, healing our wounds.
The remaining statues tried to fight back, but without their tank and healer, they were no match.
"It's not that easy."
"They were stronger than expected... The timing for evasion was tricky."
However, the party members, who were not used to this kind of fight, seemed a little tired.
"Take some potions and regroup."
Although drinking potions during combat usually left one vulnerable, the party members obediently opened their pocket dimensions and took out potions without hesitation.
'If we drink the potions right after defeating the minions, we can just barely recover before the demon wakes up.'
I also opened my pocket dimension and took out a red potion, pouring it into my mouth.
Although I couldn't feel any sensation due to the lack of pain, I assumed that the potion had restored my health, along with Sophia's healing.
"From now on, skills are sealed. We'll have to rely solely on our physical abilities."
The party members nodded in agreement.
Crunch!
The demon of sloth, the sub-boss, rose from the altar with a bored expression, as if he was fed up with the minions.
Roar!
Malevolent demonic energy filled the air.
"You've finally forced me to take action... You'll regret this..."
Black dust began to fall from the sky.
Sloth stood up from his seat with a bored expression, his red eyes gleaming, and spoke in a deep, resonating voice.
"[Hmmm, there was a child using a strange trick a moment ago... For now, I will prohibit those bothersome techniques in my presence.]"
An opening line distinctly different from what I had heard back in Velvets.
'Pffft! Did the "Avatar of Fire" of Kang Do-hee feels that threatening to him?'
But it didn't matter. Kang Do-hee's "Avatar of Fire" has a limitation: "once per day."
And anyway, I hadn't planned to use it, whether it was threatening or not.
Sssssss—
A sticky, unsettling aura emanated from Sloth's body, enveloping everything. It felt like thousands of chains were binding me tightly.
'So, my skills are sealed.'
Sloth's authority.
[Nullification] had activated.
'Hmm, this really makes my skills unusable.'
I tried to use a skill just in case, but it felt like the activation was completely blocked.
The only relief was that my mana hadn't been sealed. Despite knowing it from the game, experiencing it firsthand brought a sense of reassurance.
Then, I calmed my gaze.
'Facing Sloth's demon kin with physical strength alone is no simple task.'
The demon could use skills as freely as he wanted, while I, though not entirely restrained, had my hands metaphorically tied.
'But it's fine because we have Sophia.'
Unlike other healers, Sophia's basic healing abilities aren't treated as skills. This means she could continuously heal even under the effects of Sloth's [Nullification].
'And the more Sophia practices rapid healing, the higher her healing output becomes.'
This is precisely why Sophia is rated highly among the top three healers.
Still, I was worried that seniors like Ga-eul and Ichika, who rely heavily on skills, would become dead weight. But there was no helping it.
Leaving them behind wasn't an option, because without them, dealing with the minions would have been a huge hassle.
'Or... maybe not? Since Kang Do-hee's "Avatar of Fire" was available... Maybe leaving them behind would've been fine...?'
At that moment.
Sloth raised one hand into the air.
"[Your deaths will occur without you even realizing it...]"
The black dust scattered across the ground began to rise into the air, as if gravity had flipped. The particles gathered above Sloth's head, forming a pitch-black sphere.
"[Now, die without pain.]"
As he uttered those words and swung his raised hand toward us, the condensed black particles rained down in a barrage.
Boom—! Boom—! Boom—!
It was like witnessing a storm of black meteors.
Thump—
We instinctively leaped aside to avoid the attack.
Every spot the dust touched left deep craters and holes, quickly spreading and staining the surroundings pitch-black.
'Starting with an area-wide attack from the get-go... How unpleasant. It's like "if you don't know how to deal with it, too bad, you die."'
The particles, being clumped-up dust, covered a far larger area than they appeared to, and the absence of pain was unnerving. My senses rejected it, even though I knew in my mind how dangerous those clumps were.
'Still, this will be a short battle.'
Although Sloth's attack power ranked among the upper tiers of the demon kin, his defense wasn't particularly formidable.
Roughly eight times the durability of the minion tank Kang Do-hee had shattered just moments ago? In other words, if we all focused our attacks and dealt enough damage quickly, we could definitely take him down within a short span.
Ssssssh—!
Sloth then swung his staff, as if the dust alone wasn't his only method of attack. The staff extended, sweeping toward all of us.
Kaaaang!
It was Yoo-ri who blocked it. She had moved to the right to intercept the staff, keeping us from getting swept away.
Bang—!
But the tip of the staff erupted with black dust. Seeing this, I shouted.
"Sophia, focus your heals on Yoo-ri!"
"Yes!"
Five golden arrows shot out from the rear, piercing Yoo-ri and restoring her strength.
Now was our moment to counterattack.
"Now!"
Paang!
Kang Do-hee launched himself, kicking Sloth to push him in my direction. Sloth's body was hurled towards me.
Slash—!
I seized the moment, swinging my sword.
Then—
Rip—!
'Huh? Senior Ga-eul...?'
Somehow, she had secured a mana thread to the shattered minion statue, launching herself into the air like she was using a 3D maneuvering device. And she cracked her whip, which I didn't even know she'd practiced.
Maybe it was similar to the mana threads she used, but since when did everyone start bringing out secret weapons without telling me?
Scrape—
The sound of stone being scratched echoed once again.
'How...?'
This time, it was Ichika.