The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Episode 19: Beast Transformation

Ever since defeating the Ice Golem, I’ve joined the fray, taking down enemies alongside Fiera.

Since Fiera is a frontline type, I let her fight freely while I support her with magic and my sword as an all-rounder.

“Fiera, charge in and take down the leader. I’ll hold off the surrounding monsters with magic.”

“Mm.”

Right now, we’re up against five Ice Ogres, one of which is the leader.

These ice-made ogres swing down their swords and clubs, trying to kill Fiera as she approaches, but I block their attacks with magic.

“Fire Wall!”

The Ice Ogres trying to surround Fiera are stopped as I create two walls of flame between her and them, opening up a path to the leader.

“Shh!”

Fiera exhales sharply, concentrating her bodily enhancement in her fists and delivers a powerful punch.

The leader can’t withstand the impact and is blasted away, crashing into a wall and turning into a magic stone.

“Alright, shall we take care of the rest?”

Using my magic to manipulate the two flames still blazing, I swallow the remaining Ice Ogres two by two, melting them into nothing but magic stones.

“It’s so much easier doing this together!”

“Mm. But if I rely too much on El, I might become vulnerable to surprise attacks.”

“Haha, as long as you realize that, you’re good. Just stay cautious from now on.”

“Understood.”

We continue to progress smoothly, reaching the 20th floor of the dungeon after about three hours.

“This is…?”

“The Frost Serpent. It emits frost from its body, freezing the air, and breathes a freeze breath to immobilize its opponents. It’s also incredibly agile with the serpentine flexibility and has excellent sensing abilities.”

“Plus, its hard scales give it top-notch defense. Definitely not a fake made of ice, but a genuine A-rank monster.”

“Let’s just observe for now.”

“Okay, I’ll provide backup.”

We roughly sorted our roles, and like before, Fiera rushed in using her speed.

“Shhaaa!!”

The Frost Serpent eyes Fiera intensely as she approaches, maintaining its gaze on her without being fooled by her speed.

“Fireball!”

I launch a fireball aimed right at the Frost Serpent’s face, but as expected, it effortlessly dodges to the side.

“Ha!”

However, with her attention momentarily diverted, Fiera accelerates further, closing the distance and strikes its side.

“Ugh!”

But it seems the Frost Serpent’s scales are harder than I thought; her fist takes damage instead.

Realizing it’s been hit, the Frost Serpent moves its long body to try and constrict Fiera, but she jumps out of the way.

Creating a platform of wind magic in the air to match her movement, Fiera lands before returning to my side.

“How was it?”

“Too hard. I can’t leave a scratch with regular body enhancement.”

“Then how about you transform?”

“No, I’ll beastify.”

“Got it. Then let me buy you some time.”

“Please, just a minute.”

“Alright.”

Fiera’s still getting used to her beast transformation, so she can’t transform in an instant. Hearing my response, she retreats to concentrate on her transformation.

“Now then, it’s my turn to have some fun.”

My role this time is to buy time for Fiera to beastify.

If I were to face the Frost Serpent alone, I wouldn’t lose but would struggle to win. I managed to defeat the Snow Wyvern before, but that one was on the weaker side of A-rank.

However, the Frost Serpent is among the top-tier of A-ranks. Ideally, we’d cooperate to take it down, but I want Fiera to gain various experiences for the future, so this time, she’s the main focus of the battle.

“Well then, to start… ‘Fire Spear!'”

I conjure up fifty fiery spears in the air, arranging them around the Frost Serpent and sending them raining down all at once.

“Kyshaa!!”

However, with a roar, the Frost Serpent emits frost from its body, extinguishing the fire spears.

“Seriously? So that frost has that kind of function, huh? Then next—’Ice Spike!'”

As I lightly kick the ground with my toes while murmuring the spell name, thousands of spikes extend towards the Frost Serpent.

“Shhaaa!!”

Yet, the Frost Serpent swipes its long tail sideways, shattering the ice spikes into pieces.

“Ugh, that didn’t even buy time. Next up—’Thunder Strike!'”

This time, I stretch out my hand and chant the lightning spell, sending a bolt of yellow lightning racing toward the Frost Serpent.

“Gyaaa!!”

It seems the lightning spell dealt some damage, as the previously calm monster now shows a hint of pain.

“All done.”

While I’m thinking about what to do next, I hear a voice from behind; Fiera, now beastified, calls out to me.

Looking sideways at Fiera, I see sharp claws growing from her hands and feet, and her arms and legs are covered in beautiful silver fur.

Additionally, she has two blue lines on each cheek, and her pupils are narrow and fierce like a beast.

“Oh wow, you look pretty cool.”

“Thanks. Now I’m off.”

With that, Fiera moves at a speed unimaginable compared to before.

Even for me, catching her movements without doing anything was impossible, so I gathered magic in my eyes to enhance my dynamic vision.

“Oh wow, she’s super fast! The Frost Serpent can’t even keep up with her movements… Woah, she landed a hit!”

As Fiera lands a powerful punch on the Frost Serpent’s body, cracks appear on its previously unscathed scales, and its body bends significantly.

With that one hit, the Frost Serpent recognizes her as an enemy, glaring at her while emitting frost.

“Well, well. I wonder who’ll win.”

For the next few minutes, Fiera uses her enhanced abilities from her beast transformation, landing blow after blow on the heavily injured Frost Serpent.

However, the Frost Serpent shows no signs of giving up; it seems to be receiving attacks on scales wherever it can to reduce damage, patiently waiting for a chance to counterattack.

Then, as the Frost Serpent’s scales are nearly all shed, an unusual change occurs in Fiera’s movements.

“She’s slowing down.”

Compared to at the start, Fiera’s movements have noticeably slowed. That’s probably due to the frost the Frost Serpent has been producing from the start.

“I see. By continuously emitting frost, it gradually drained Fiera’s body heat.”

Since Fiera is a close-combat type, she inhaled that frost with every breath. This caused her body temperature to drop from both outside and within, gradually slowing her movements.

“This is the critical moment.”

As I watch her, Fiera takes a large leap backward to gain some distance.

This is outside the range of its frost, making it relatively safe.

Then, after taking a deep breath, Fiera holds it, stops, and kicks the ground with all her might.

“I see. Holding her breath to avoid inhaling the frost. Now it’s a race against time.”

The conclusion to this battle was decided in an instant. Alongside her beast transformation, Fiera uses body enhancement and speeds up back to her original pace.

Understanding this match would be the final bout, the Frost Serpent emits all its frost in an attempt to halt her movements.

Just as Fiera loosens her movements for a moment, the Frost Serpent aims to take advantage of that moment, exhaling forcefully to freeze her.

However, that was a feint from Fiera, who was already gone from where she had been, now under the Frost Serpent’s belly.

“Die!”

With her sharpened claws from the beast transformation, she swings down like a blade, slicing through the air and deeply cutting into the Frost Serpent’s belly.

“Shhaaa…”

Mortally wounded, the Frost Serpent sprawls its massive body onto the ground, before vanishing and dropping magic stones and items.

After staring at the place where the Frost Serpent used to be for a while, Fiera returns to her human form and slumps down, exhausted.

“Good job. You did great.”

“Mm. Thanks.”

I approach her, patting her head while casting a recovery spell.

Then, I collect the magic stones and items in her stead and hand them to her.

“Here you go. Your spoils of war. This weapon suits you perfectly.”

“A gauntlet…”

It was a beautifully designed white gauntlet with snake scales on the surface, shaped to allow her fingertips to show. It seemed she’d be able to use it even in her beast form, making it an ideal weapon for her.

“This is the ‘Ice Serpent Gauntlet.’ Apparently, it has the effect of draining the target’s body temperature with every punch.

Also, if you can shoot air bullets, you can add an ice effect to those as well. Well, while it may not freeze a whole body like the Frost Serpent, you can freeze parts of your opponent.”

“Got it.”

“Alright, for now, let’s head back. You must be tired.”

“Mm. I’m exhausted. When we get back, I request a grooming session.”

“Understood. I’ll give you as much as you want.”

Helping Fiera to her feet, we descend to the lower floors. Once we reached a nearby magical tool, I registered the location with our guild cards before stepping onto the magic circle to finish today’s dungeon run.