This made no sense! This Murder Pierrot freak was blocking my skills! Not even magic could explain that! The fact that she was using status effects on me, despite my resistance to them, must have meant . . . there was a good possibility that they were trap-type attacks. It depended on the game, but sometimes traps could apply status effects regardless of resistances. I couldn’t deny that such a thing might exist, and in all actuality, I must have been experiencing it right now.

“Take thiiiis!”

Filo ducked under the thread and rushed at Murder Pierrot to attack barehanded. I don’t know if it was underestimating Filo because she was barehanded, or just being focused on me and Raphtalia, but Murder Pierrot threw up a web of thread, in what appeared to be a really half-assed attempt to guard against Filo’s attack.

“How about thiiis!!”

Filo transformed into her filolial form with a loud boom and leapt high up and over the thread, kicking it as hard as she could. Murder Pierrot seemed surprised, turning to Filo and scattering several threads in her direction instantly.

“I’m not done!”

Murder Pierrot must have gotten careless after seeing how bulky Filo was in her filolial form, because the thread she’d scattered wasn’t dense at all. Regardless of the magic interference, Filo changed to her human form, went into the accelerated state that she had learned from Fitoria, and squeezed between the threads. The instant of the attack, she switched back to her filolial form and delivered a swift kick.

“Ugh!”

Murder Pierrot took the full brunt of Filo’s attack and was sent flying. But as if to dampen the force of the impact, the thread spread out and wrapped around Murder Pierrot. It formed a cocoon for an instant and then unraveled before Murder Pierrot landed on the ground, unscathed. The unraveled thread wrapped up into something like a cocoon and rolled off to the side of the arena.

“We’re not finished!”

Raphtalia brandished her katana and prepared to deliver a follow-up attack.

“Spirit Blade! Soul Slice!”

“Useless . . .”

“Oh really?”

Raphtalia’s katana passed right through the thread and cut into Murder Pierrot.

“—!?”

Murder Pierrot seemed to be saying something, but all I could hear was static. Why? What was that noise? Regardless, we had to keep going. Raphtalia had a katana that could be used to attack nonphysical entities, immaterial opponents like ghosts.

“Okay then . . . Next is . . .” continued Raphtalia.

“Mind Line”

Thread shot out rapidly, as if to protect against Raphtalia’s next attack. The new thread wrapped around the katana that had passed through the previous thread.

“I’m still here, toooo!”

Filo followed up and tried to deliver another kick, but thread shot out across the whole area . . . Wait! Those puppets that I thought were near me had now suddenly appeared in front of Filo. Damn! I could barely even move!

“Next——y turn. Needle Shot!”