"Abby...! I don't think I could hold them off that long!" Saki yells as she glances over her shoulder. More bugs are coming from the direction of the houses and threatening to overwhelm the men defending the entrance of the village by the forest. Abigail turns to see the situation of the men. They were still busy fending off the bugs by the entrance, and if Saki failed to hold them off, they would be surrounded and overwhelmed. With that thought, Abigail snaps back to Saki and yells.
"Keep fighting! We can't lose this side now! We need to buy more time for the men!". Saki glanced over her shoulder with a visible hesitation in her eyes. "Alright, I got this...!" She shook her head to set herself straight and took a breather. "Strike true against the bodies of gel!" Saki performs her combo against Bug B, dealing 27 damage. She gasped as she saw the bug remained standing, unlike the previous bugs.
"Saki... Not every enemy gets shocked by heavy damage" Abigail spoke as if she already read her mind. Saki nods as a response and readies herself. Bug B lunges and bites into Saki's arm. 'Saki takes 17 damage!' Bug C lunges and bites into her arm. 'Saki takes 17 damage!' Bug D lunges and bites into her arm. 'Saki takes 16 damage' Saki stumbles back and struggles to catch her breath. Her body slumps lower as her strength weakens from the damage.
Abigail saw her chance to heal her again. She ran up and swung her arm to slap some herbs even faster. But Saki was quick to catch her arm again. She snatched the herbs from Abigail's palm and ate them. 'Saki recovers 50 hp!' Abigail frowns silently behind as she steps back to watch the battle again.
"Die!" Saki yells as she raises her sword above to finish off Bug B. 'Bug B has been defeated!' The bug let out a dying cry before it lay motionless on the ground. "One at a time..." She mutters to herself as she watches the remaining bugs. Bug C lunges and bites into Saki's arm. 'Saki takes 17 damage!' Bug D lunges and bites into Saki's arm. 'Saki takes 16 damage!'
"Strike true against the bodies of gel!" Saki performs 'Slime-splitting Slashes' on Bug C, dealing 29 damage. She clicks her tongue in irritation as she stands back. "Only one health remaining... Are you serious?" She mutters. Bug C lunges and attempts to bite into Saki's arm, but Saki swings her sword pre-emptively. 'Bug C has been defeated!' The bug went flying to the side instead.
"One more!" Saki yells as she readies herself. Bug D lunges and bites into Saki's arm. 'Saki takes 16 damage!' "Now you're done! Strike true against the bodies of gel!" Saki performs her combo against Bug D. 'Bug D has been defeated!' 'Saki defeated the bugs!' As soon as the last bug dies, the interface displays the end of the battle.
"Not yet!" Abigail reminded her as more bugs swarmed in. Without time to recover, Saki enters into a battle once again against four bugs. "Damn it!" Saki readies her sword once again. When watching Saki face the four bugs, Abigail thinks of an idea and yells.
"Saki! There are many of them! You can't keep attacking every single one of them! Strike wide and defeat multiple enemies in one swing!" She encouraged her. Saki's brows furrowed as she thought of her words. "Strike wide...?" She ponders her words as she stands firm against the four bugs. She was uncertain how she would pull it off but decided to try anyway.
She positioned her sword behind her to the right and gathered her strength in her arms. "Haah...!" She lets out a strained yell as she swings her sword wide, almost getting dragged by the force. As her sword swings in the air, She hits two of the bugs, Bug C and Bug D, dealing 9 and 8 damage. "Hah! I did it!" She cheers, a wide triumphant grin forming on her face. Although small damage, she felt good being able to pull it off.
Abigail however wasn't satisfied. She yells at her. "That's not enough damage! You're better off using your slime skill than doing that! Apply more strength! Exert all your strength in your arms, and swing wide along with your body! Aim true, never swing blindly! Slice through the flesh of your enemies in one swing!" Saki listens carefully to her words and applies them to her abilities.
"All of my strength in my arms... Swing with the support of my body... Aim true... Swing my sword wide as if slicing a single target..." She recreates a scenario in her mind of swinging her sword wide and hitting all bugs at once while maintaining her strength to deal damage within the range of the base damage of her sword. As the bugs wait for her action, she calmly places her sword to her right and takes a deep breath.
As if a switch had been flipped, Saki felt a surge of strength within her body, her eyes shot open as if a jolt hit her body. Her arms begin to gather strength as she prepares for her skill. The intensity of her spirit calms down as she carefully determines her strike. Her body naturally moves and her gaze and aim match steadily.
Abigail hums as she feels the sudden strength from Saki, watching her with amusement and admiration. Finally, Saki yells her battle cry. "Cleave the enemies apart!" Her words naturally came out as she executed her new skill. Aimed to hit all the bugs at once, Saki swings with all her strength while maintaining the proper aim and angle of her swing. Her blade hits all the bugs at once. 'Saki swings her sword wide to strike all enemies at once!' 'Bug D takes 15 damage!' 'Bug C takes 14 damage!' 'Bug B takes 15 damage!' 'Bug A takes 16 damage!'
Once she dealt her damage, her expression turned to excitement as she was able to damage all of her enemies at once. Her mouth opens wide in a smile as she speaks. "Yeah! Take that!" She almost giggled in a high pitch with her excitement. Abigail watches her with pride and the warmth she feels in her chest. With a soft voice, she speaks to her. "Great job! I'm starting to think you're quite the fast learner"
Saki felt the rush of heat coming to her face, Abigail's compliment got her all flustered within a second. Abigail giggles. "There's no time for blushing! Finish them off!" She saw Saki's figure shrink under her compliments and encouraged her to finish the battle. "Y-yeah! Got it!" Saki quickly collected herself and readied for the bugs to attack.
Bug A lunges and bites into Saki's arm. 'Saki takes 16 damage!' Bug B lunges and bites into Saki's arm. 'Saki takes 15 damage!' Bug C lunges and attempts to bite into Saki's legs, but Saki steps away. "Whoa! Not my legs!" Before Bug C could return to its spot, Saki swung her sword against it. 'Bug C takes 15 damage!' Bug D lunges and bites into Saki's arm. 'Saki takes 16 damage!'
Seeing Saki in a pinch, Abigail silently casts a summoning spell, and a powerful wind engulfs their surroundings, gathering and throwing dust around. Saki and the bugs looked around curiously then suddenly, a handful of herbs was slapped to her mouth with an almost unseen speed. "Mmphmph...?!" She whines with her mouth full of herbs as she almost loses balance against the quick force. She gulps down the herbs. 'Saki recovers 50 hp!' When she recovers her health, the powerful wind dies and she realizes it was Abigail's hands.
She darts to glare at Abigail. "You're using skills to shove the herbs in my mouth now?! Do you have any idea how much your hand hurts on my face?!" She almost stomped in annoyance. Abigail averts her eyes, feigning ignorance. "I didn't use any skill... You were just distracted-" "-Distracted?!" Saki yells over her voice. "Distracted by the skill you just used, the wind that just happened!" She continued. Abigail shrugs. "Could be the one of the bugs" She said, still averting her gaze.
"Are you seriously getting hurt that I could catch your hand before you could force some herbs on my face?! You're such a child!" With a grunt, Saki focused back at the bugs. "Cleave the enemies apart!" Saki swings her sword wide in a calculated direction, hitting all the bugs at once. 'Bug A takes 15 damage!' 'Bug A has been defeated!' 'Bug B takes 17 damage!' 'Bug B has been defeated!' 'Bug C takes 16 damage!' 'Bug C has been defeated!' 'Bug D takes 15 damage!' 'Bug D has been defeated!'
"Yeah!" She cheers as all the bugs have been defeated consecutively. 'Saki defeated the bugs!' However, more are coming from their direction. Abigail looks over the entrance and sees the men almost winning against the number of bugs on their side then quickly tells Saki. "Almost there, Saki! Keep holding them off!" Saki nods and replies. "Yeah, Got it! Here we go again!" She engages in battle with another group of four bugs.