At first, Kotori was aware the [Overlord] Skill was active based on the fact that she felt her mana buff slowly decreasing. It wasn't particularly annoying and she would occasionally take the time to eat parts of the floor in Nero's room to regain the mana and keep herself topped off.
Now though?
It was overwhelming she felt like her mana was being sucked out of her at a rate she couldn't understand or comprehend.
She almost gasped as she suddenly felt all her strength leaving her limbs.
She backed off and staggered slightly. It seems Amelie and Umi both felt it too. She saw Umi's figure begging to shrink and Amelie held a similarly weakened expression.
Kotori leaned against one of the golden pillars in the room and activate [Hunter]
[What!]
She felt a small energizing jolt pass through her.
It was almost as if the pillar was made out of extremely dense mana.
Nero, noticing Kotori going near the pillar, instantly turned his full attention to her and ferociously attacked her.
The onslaught was surprising and almost unwarranted.
She instantly retreated almost getting slashed in the process.
Once again she felt the power of [Overlord] sucking her mana this time even more aggressively
Kotori looked towards the pillars in the room. If they were anything like the other pillars then Nero must be using them as batteries. It seemed he had squirreled away all the mana he had leached from other adventurers inside the pillar. It must be why his dungeon was so easy. Nero was never meant to be defeated.
This was a trap dungeon.
"Cover me!" Kotori said as she ran to another pillar
If she could just use them to recharge more she could keep layering her mana buff. Nero of course, was not about to let this happen and jumped.
While in the air he crashed down with a thud cracking the floor and slashing towards Kotori. The now rebuffed Kotori nimble slid out of the way and put her hand on the pillar.
She greedily lapped mana contained within with [Hunter] Kotori pulled out her Lizard horn and blasted a note rebuffing herself and her allies in the process. This came at a cost though as Kotori's Magical Musician Skill would buff anything in the surrounding and Nero was buffed as well.
Kotori had a plan now though.
It had to do with how her Mana buff worked.
Despite giving Nero an equal amount of stats to the Mana she gained she was essentially gaining 4x the normal stats because the buff would be distributed across all her allies.
This meant that their stats would not grow equally and soon she and her Allies would be even with Nero.
Still, that required her to be able to outlast the Mana buffed Nero in the first place.
She conveyed the concept to Shu and Umi who were able to instantly grasp her intent based on her [Spirit Seer] Skill.
All she told Amelie was "Cover me!" once again and thus began her mad dash towards other pillars while also dodging and running from a Nero that was not only stealing her Stats but also trying to hamper her every move.
She cut across the room using her small body to slide in between Nero's legs to her allies who were behind him.
This was a calculated move. Nero who had an extremely long reach with his greatsword would have a hard time swinging it in close quarters.
She reached another pillar and began to suck it while constantly tooting her horn
The sound of her horn reverberated across the room and gave her allies renewed energy.
Shu's body was repaired and he seemed to be in good shape now.
Overlord was cast once again and she felt her mana being drained by Nero who used it to buff himself.
It became a battle of her ability to drain with [Hunter] and Nero's ability to drain with [Overlord]. Whoever was faster would win this battle.
Unfortunately, Nero could only drain Kotori and her allies. She could drain from the highly condensed mana within the pillars.
A game of cat and mouse began.
19 pillars left.
Kotori would run and Nero would bear down on her while being attacked by allies.
Still...
The fight grew easier.
15 pillars left
Nero's onslaught grew even fiercer and faster, but soon Shu was not only able to block for her but also able to act as a shield. Tanking entire hits.
10 pillars lefts
Shu and Umi who were now overcharged on mana began to change forms once again.
Steadily they grew in size. Shu, who was approaching the size of a small truck, looked like a lizard with a rocky carapace. The carapace itself was much stronger than his tortoise form and could take a full hit now from Nero's sword with only a few scratches on his shell.
7 pillars left
Umi's form now approached new levels of elegance he lithe snakelike form grew even larger and she was beginning to look like an eastern dragon simplified pure white eastern dragon
The fight continued
2 pillars left
Nero who saw another one of his pillars disappear began to move his skull into what appeared to be a silent scream of agony.
This greatly confused Kotori, who had no reason to believe why Nero would be in such pain.
He had taken some damage, yes, but overall was still pretty hale and healthy
Kotori assumed it must be related to the pillars.
She once again made a mad dash for another pillar and greedily lapped it up.
She cast one more mana buff.
Shu and Umi once again changed form.
Except for this time, they shrunk.
Shu who was in his large lizard form shrunk down into the size of a tanned skin faintly exotic-looking young man. His shell turned into a suit of rocky plate armor that covered his body..
Umi's scales partially dissolved and turned into soft creamy skin. She became a young woman with soft delicate features and ebony hair.*
*Lookup "Yamato Nadeshiko"
The moment they both transformed they yelled
"Ojou-sama!"*
*it means "Young lady" in Japanese. It's a polite way to refer to a woman in higher social standing than you
In surprise.
Umi's soft voice overlapped with Shu's rough tone.
In response to this Nero switch tactics almost out of desperation. He went to destroy his own pillar in the room hacking at it with her greatsword
His swings were desperate and sloppy lacking the sort of trained fervor he once had.
The pillar broke and dissipated into light.
Then Nero kneeled
Not towards Kotori, but the pillar that he destroyed
Any hostile intent vanished.
In fact, a cold sadness permeated the room.
Nero's skull once again made another silent wail.
He stood and simply charged Kotori and her party,
It was a simple charge with no strategy behind it.
In fact, it felt like he was trying to die with such a charge.
And like a soldier at senjougahara*
*famous Japanese battle where samurai suicidally charged into guns
Nero attacked with no purpose in mind. No longer with the moves of the trained soldier
And thus Nero was quickly defeated and fell to the floor.
"Hunter" Kotori silently said
Looking at the crumpled form of the skeleton in the room. She saw the pitch black coloring in the bones fade into a plaster the skeleton shrunk and turned into a normal sized skeleton-like in the dungeon.
The greatsword Nero once held dissipated into light which turned into a basketball-sized MonMochi that gently drifted into her hand.
She took a bite
Unlike other MonMochi Kotori could only taste a deep sadness and anger within it.
And she then heard a voice, an old rumbling voice that sounded like a tired old man.
"You...have been... Tricked"
There was a brief silence and then she heard the same voice again
"Ah, Isla I've come home"