[7/3 (Wednesday) - Midnight]
[Zone 8 (Commercial) — Docks]
The Shadow was far larger than he had initially expected.
Pulling a police officer out of harm's way, Clerval shoved him toward the others.
"Get back with the rest of them. Fall back and stay out of its range."
The officer hesitated, but Clerval had already stepped forward, facing the gigantic Asinious of Zero, as Mary had designated it.
As if sensing his presence, the Shadow immediately locked its gaze onto him before unleashing a deafening bray that reverberated throughout the docks.
A translucent spherical barrier suddenly materialized around the area, enclosing the entire dock—and everyone still trapped within it.
The temperature suddenly plummeted.
Clerval felt the cold seep through his clothes as dark clouds rapidly gathered overhead, blanketing the night sky.
Sensing the danger, Clerval immediately dismissed Fortuna from his mind and called forth the Persona best suited to withstand the sudden cold.
"Jack Frost!"
Just in time.
Hail began to rain from the sky.
Heavy chunks of ice battered his body with relentless force. But thanks to Jack Frost's innate nature as an ice spirit, the Hail of the Hearth did little more than tickle him. As long as it remained his active Persona, Clerval was completely immune to Ice Attacks.
"Fire, then ice Skills..." Mary muttered through their connection.
"Neither should be its Weakness, but the Asinious might be an outlier."
Clerval nodded to show he understood—she was always watching, he noted silently.
He raised his Evoker while the Shadow continued unleashing its massive area-of-effect Ice Skill.
He pulled the trigger.
The Persona within his mind surfaced into the physical world.
"Bufu."
Ice fragments far thicker and larger than the falling hail suddenly materialized around the Asinious. They hovered for a brief moment before converging on the Shadow from every direction.
Then, in the blink of an eye—
CRASH!
The ice slammed into the Asinious, engulfing its massive form in a burst of frozen debris.
The Shadow let out an irritated screech.
Clerval narrowed his eyes.
There were signs of damage. Minimal, but noticeable. So Ice works, but it has a Resistance to the element.
Growling, the Asinious suddenly changed its course of attack.
Its bulging eyes flickered with an eerie light as it took another step forward, drawing closer to the docks.
Then a metallic smell filled the air.
Clerval knew what was coming.
After all, one of his teammates had a particular fondness for the element.
"Persona Change—Oberon!"
The faerie king was brought forth as his primary Persona.
The sky above the docks immediately darkened.
A flash of lightning illuminated the clouds before thunderous bolts began raining down at irregular intervals, striking all around the docks.
[Lightning too? How intriguing.]
Oberon hummed at the jolts of electricity that raced through his veins.
Fortunately, his innate Nullification to Lightning Attacks made dealing with the barrage fairly easy. The bolts coursed through his body, their energy being absorbed as he endured the absurd amount of lightning raining down from above.
The problem was that Clerval had no chance to find an opening.
The lightning stopped.
Immediately, rays of fire shot from the Asinious's bulging eyes.
When the heat finally dissipated, the hail returned, hammering down hard enough to pierce even steel.
And once the hail ceased, lightning surged across the docks once more.
Over and over.
Crushing a Life Stone in his hand to recover some Health, he quickly rolled to the side as a burst of fire erupted where he had been standing moments earlier.
He needed to find a way to break this stalemate. At this rate, his Persona changes were slower than the cycling of elemental Skills, causing him to take damage in the middle of a Persona Change.
His consumables weren't limitless...!
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[Zone 8 (Commercial) — Outside the Barrier]
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Meanwhile, outside the barrier, a large commotion was unfolding.
Dozens of Hunters—Huntsmen and Huntresses alike—had gathered around the opaque sphere, hacking, slashing, and firing their weapons at its surface.
Yet nothing worked.
They couldn't break through it, let alone leave a mark.
"Not even refined military-grade Dust can leave a scratch on the barrier," Glynda Goodwitch commented as she panted, wiping the sweat from her brow after pushing her Semblance to its limit moments earlier.
"And whenever we make any progress by concentrating our efforts on a single point, the 'wound' we create simply heals."
Ozpin watched the Hunters' desperate attempts with a grim face.
Strangely, his usual mug was nowhere to be seen.
The sight was so unusual that the chief officer of the VSPD—the Vale Special Police Department—could hardly believe his eyes.
"... To think that a barrier this powerful could be formed by such a disgusting sight."
Glynda turned her head toward Ozpin.
His teeth were clenched, the faint sound of grinding audible even amid the surrounding commotion.
"Sir?"
"Do you feel it?" Ozpin abruptly asked.
Glynda blinked.
"This..." His voice lowered. "This disgusting stench of darkness."
"You might not notice it at first glance, but the longer you expose yourself to the barrier, the more you can perceive it."
"That dark, clinging sensation that refuses to let go."
His expression twisted with disgust.
"Yet somehow, it makes you feel so alive, like a drug."
His grip on Long Memory tightened, blood beginning to seep between his fingers from how tightly he clenched the weapon.
"I have not felt this in a very, very long time."
His gaze hardened.
"Is this your declaration of destruction... Salem?"
============================================
[Zone 8 (Commercial) — Inside the Docks]
============================================
It has not used Wind Attacks for the sixth time.
Throughout the six rotations of elemental attacks, interspersed with Physical Attacks from both the Shadow's limbs and the Satrieks, not once had the Asinious used a Wind Attack. It had instead stuck to a strict rotation of Fire, Ice, and Lightning.
So the only conclusion was...
It was Weak to Wind!
Granted, it was a flimsy hypothesis, but he had to try something.
Switching back to Oberon as soon as the hail slowed slightly, he took a deep breath and fished a Garula Gem from his pocket.
Here goes!
Getting into a baseball throwing stance, he gripped the gem tightly before planting his foot forward with a stomp and hurling it toward the Shadow as hard as he could.
Midway through its flight, the Garula Gem shattered right in front of the Asinious's face.
A violent burst of wind erupted from the shattered gem, aggressive gusts and razor-sharp blades of air tearing into the Shadow's flesh.
Its screams of agony and pain cemented his hypothesis.
It had a Weakness to Wind Attacks—at least while it was using its Thunder of Hearth attack.
The discovery was both relieving and troublesome.
While it was nice to finally find a way to damage the Asinious, the problem was that almost all of his Personas capable of using Wind Attacks also had an innate Weakness to Lightning. Switching to one of them while the Asinious was in the middle of its Thunder of Hearth attack would be practically begging to get fried.
On top of that, he didn't have many Garu or Garula Gems in his inventory compared to his stockpile of Bufu and Agi-type gems.
He would most definitely run out before he could defeat this Shadow.
[It's a good thing we have a lot of patience, huh?]
Pixie joked through their mental bond.
Clerval mentally heaved a sigh.
This was going to be a bit of a problem.
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