Fairy Tail: I Don't Want to Be the Guild Master-Chapter 390: Trinity Raven, All destroyed

Ikaruga struck again, swiftly eliminating both the Gromp and the Murk Wolf that were closing in.

Though the Gromp vanished in a puff of dispersed magic, Vidaldus's condition had visibly worsened, his face was turning a sickly shade of purple. He collapsed to the sand, coughing violently as he desperately tried to use his animated hair to absorb the venom coiled around his throat.

He looked like a wreck. His beloved guitar was nearly bitten in half, and four deep punctures on his shoulders oozed fresh blood.

A dull ache throbbed in his gut from where the Brambleback had slammed him earlier, likely bruised organs, if not worse.

Meanwhile, a cluster of mini Krugs had latched onto the joints of his legs, relentlessly gnawing through tendons like they were chewing through bark.

This so-called death metal singer now looked like he really was about to die.

Rhodes, seeing that his summoned golem had lost a hand in the melee, dismissed it and replaced it with a fresh one. It was fine if a summoned creature got injured, but if one was destroyed outright, it might weaken the spell's duration or trigger a penalty. Better safe than sorry.

The Brambleback, still full of energy after its earlier strike, sprouted fresh vines that whipped across the sand, trying to tangle up both Ikaruga and Vidaldus. Its main body lunged toward Vidaldus with raised claws, preparing for a follow-up blow.

Ikaruga's blade flashed like lightning, and with a single swift motion, she lopped off the Brambleback's left claw. Its bark-like arm tumbled away, cleanly severed. Unlike the rocky golem, its defense was weaker, easier to split.

Based on her experience fighting wild summons, Ikaruga assumed this one would vanish shortly after losing a limb.

But to her surprise, new vines immediately sprouted from the wound, twitching, growing rapidly as if regenerating the lost limb.

Even before it finished regrowing, the Brambleback stumbled forward again, raising its remaining claw to attack.

"A regenerative type?" Ikaruga murmured.

With no time to waste, she rushed in again, this time slashing upward toward the large glowing red orb on the Brambleback's back. It was oversized, conspicuous, clearly the core.

Her katana swept upward, fast and deadly, but it met only air.

The Brambleback had vanished.

Rhodes appeared from behind where it stood, his fist already hurtling toward her face.

It wasn't just a normal punch. His dragon-enhanced arm, already reinforced by Mountain Dragon Soul, was now encased in heavy stone, turning it into something like a massive rock gauntlet.

It came crashing down like a falling boulder.

But Ikaruga wasn't easy prey. Even though his strike was crude and telegraphed, she responded instantly, rotating her wrist and slicing directly at Rhodes's fist mid-swing. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

CLANG!

The air rang with the sound of steel colliding with stone. The two combatants passed each other in a blur.

Chunks of rock from Rhodes's gauntlet shattered and flew across the beach. Even the protective dragon scales beneath had been split open, a thin line of blood blooming across the back of his hand.

"The Fairy strategist is even stronger than the rumors say," Ikaruga acknowledged, landing gracefully. "But my partner—"

She was cut off by a scream.

Vidaldus's cry pierced the battle.

Ikaruga's eyes snapped toward him, stunned.

Mira's fist, wreathed in red, demonic fire, had landed clean across his face. The impact distorted his expression beyond recognition. Several teeth flew from his mouth, glittering with blood as they arced through the air.

Vidaldus himself flew even farther than his teeth, his body launched like a ragdoll, flung across the beach.

Trailing behind him, two mini Krugs remained stubbornly latched onto his legs, one on each knee joint, still gnawing furiously. The sight was so ridiculous it almost looked like a joke.

Concentrate your forces, target the weak point, break through one enemy at a time, and eliminate them quickly and decisively before moving on to the next.

That's the key to victory when you're outnumbered.

Well... even though in this case, Rhodes clearly had the numerical advantage.

"There's only one crow left out of the three~" Mira stood beside Rhodes with a cheerful tone, casually waving her hand to signal the golem to go handle the Eagle she'd just punched into next week.

The golem scratched its head and looked at Rhodes with glowing blue eyes.

Rhodes gave it a firm nod.

This guy had potential. When on duty, he only took orders from the boss, not the boss's wife.

The golem stomped off toward the collapsed Eagle, leaving deep pits in the sand with each heavy step.

The pink-haired swordswoman, who had remained calm and elegant at the start of the battle, finally showed a serious expression. "Since I joined the guild, I've never lost a fight. Today's been... enlightening."

"Tell us who hired you," Rhodes said evenly. "Do that, and we'll consider ending this here."

Of course, they were still enemies. Rhodes had no intention of honoring that offer.

"No comment." Ikaruga didn't believe him anyway. She turned sideways, gripping the hilt of her blade in a poised Iai stance.

Rhodes felt a dull ache in the back of his hand and wings from their earlier clash. He wasn't eager to take that sword head-on again.

"Mountain Dragon's Iron Wall!"

Rhodes slammed both palms onto the sandy beach, and the ground rumbled loudly. A towering circular wall of rock erupted around Ikaruga, boxing her into a chamber no wider than twenty meters.

The wall lifted Rhodes and Mira to a vantage point above, safely out of range.

"Earth magic? That's cute," Ikaruga said with confidence as she unsheathed her blade.

A flash of white light burst forth, and chunks of the rock wall exploded outward. A long, horizontal slash had carved deep into the stone—over ten meters in length.

And yet... nothing else happened.

Rhodes stood atop the mountain wall in his normal form again, arms crossed. "Sorry, but this version was specially reinforced for you. Super-thick, super-dense. With that last slash, you might make it through in... ten more swings. Maybe."

"Take over: Lullaby!" Mira's body gleamed with magic as she activated her transformation.

In a flash, her appearance changed. She now stood in the form of the eerie, three-eyed demon spirit, complete with her unsettling ghost mask.

They'd already tested this spell on Ikaruga earlier, and it had worked well. Now, with Rhodes' newly built Mountain Wall amplifying the effects... it would be a shame not to use it.

"I'll ask you one last time," Rhodes said firmly. "Who hired you, and why are you here to kill us?"

Ikaruga didn't answer with words. Instead, she dashed forward, leapt at the curved rock wall, and began climbing in a determined scramble.

But her climbing pace couldn't outmatch the speed of sound.

Mira's lips moved softly, and a serene melody echoed throughout the mountain basin:

"Sweet flowers bloom with gentle light, Soothing shadows deep inside. Even in thorns where the barren lies, a single rose dares to rise."

What might have sounded like a lullaby to most was, to Ikaruga, a creeping curse. The melody seeped into her ears like a phantom's whisper, tugging at the edge of her mind with drowsy fingers.

No matter how sharp her instincts, the sleepiness rolled in like a tide she couldn't resist.

She stumbled mid-climb, an easy feat for a wizard in normal conditions, and slipped.

Just in time, she jammed her katana into the stone wall, halting her fall and clinging tightly to the blade.

"Damn it..." she muttered through clenched teeth.

In battles against hypnotic or mental magic, Ikaruga's answer was always the same—inflict pain. A shallow stab to a non-critical spot, just enough to snap her focus back. Once grounded, she could overpower the caster and break the spell.

But that tactic only worked when the battlefield was even.

Here, everything was stacked against her. The elevated terrain, the curved mountain wall acting like a natural echo chamber, amplifying Mira's magic-infused singing—everything tilted in Rhodes and Mira's favor.

To make things worse, the one singing the lullaby wasn't alone.

Ikaruga's sharp eyes narrowed as she watched Rhodes, who had now taken on his monster-summoner form. His once-handsome features twisted into something bizarre and beastlike—like a smug toad-man preparing mischief.

His cheeks puffed, and he spat a round of purple venom shots from his mouth like living cannonballs, each one flying straight at her.

Ikaruga had no choice but to grit her teeth, shake off the sleepiness, and dodge or slash at the poison orbs with precise swings of her blade.

But she was being pushed back.

Little by little, her footing slipped. She was driven down the slope until she was back on the ground again.

Still, Mira's lullaby didn't stop, echoing around her in a slow, drowsy trance. And Rhodes' toxic barrage kept coming, unrelenting.

Finally, the exhaustion broke her defenses. Her eyes drooped for just a second—just enough.

Two mini stone beetles burrowed up beneath her and latched onto her wrist, their tiny jaws clamping down.

She immediately sliced them apart—but her distraction came too late.

One venom cannonball slammed into her side.

"Aaaaah!!!"

Her scream rang out across the battleground, but Rhodes didn't hesitate. If anything, he doubled his firepower.

Ikaruga, a swordswoman of elegant precision and unshakable poise, now had no room to display her skills. The field had crushed her advantage, turned her into a target rather than a duelist.

And just like that, the third and final of the infamous "Trinity Raven" was defeated.