I had to wonder why these kinds of opponents always seemed so ill-prepared. That said, immediately after being summoned, heroes were generally pretty ill-prepared—me included. Mistakenly thinking that everything would go their way was how situations like this one came about.

“Dammit!” Miyaji wasn’t giving up yet. He fired off another skill. “Demon’s Melody!” Countless notes were ripped forth and came flying toward us.

“Futile!” Raphtalia really needed to work on her putdowns. “Stardust Blade!” She unleashed the skill Stardust Blade, which launched a scattering of stars, repelling the incoming horde of notes. It was starting to look like the musical instrument vassal weapon was mainly based in performance magic, and vassal weapons like the katana had the edge when it came to skill attacks.

Any notes that Raphtalia missed just hit the Stardust Mirror and vanished. I would have still liked to enhance it a little more, but with some added life force, I was achieving sufficient output to get by.

“Everyone! Stand fast! Listen to my performance!” Now he was riffing on the lines of a pilot who saved the world through song! Miyaji summoned giant speakers and started to perform even harder.

Meanwhile, Raphtalia and Armor were clashing, weapons locked. His attacks had been powerful enough even to damage Glass—and in that moment, Armor gave an unsettling grin. He was about to launch the exact same attack.

“Formation One: Glass Shield!” I had been waiting for that very moment and made a mirror appear to protect Raphtalia. With a shattering sound, the mirror broke and its pieces embedded themselves into Armor.

“Gah!” Armor grunted. “All you can do is fall back on petty tricks!”

“I’ve got tricks even pettier than this. Formation Two! Formation Three: Glass Shield!” I put out additional mirrors in front of and behind him. If he tried anything, they would shatter and stick him—in fact, he could barely move at all. The shards weren’t all that powerful, but it would help keep him in place.

“As the source of your power, the next queen commands you! Let the way of all things be revealed once more! Blazing flames of hell! Drifa Hellfire!” Witch incanted, trying her magic again.

“Get off my back, Witch! If you think piling on will let your magic work, you are mistaken! Anti Drifa Hellfire!” I shouted. I had a reading now on all of Witch’s quirks when she unleashed magic. Stopping her would be easy under all but the most stressful circumstances. Even if it hit us, I knew it wasn’t going to hurt. That was how low Witch’s and Armor’s levels were. I didn’t know how long they had been here and what their levels were, but they should have been able to overwhelm us under these conditions. It was the vassal weapon holder Miyaji who had the most powerful attacks in this group.

“Gah! Stop making those cowardly shields!” Armor raged.