The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"Are you crazy? I get what you're trying to do, but it's just outright impossible. There's no way my mana will suffice. Restricting those at the first stage.. It's nowhere near the scale of this cluster," Reina calmed down and tried to reason with Aria logically.

No matter what, her proposal was just too out of the world.

"No.. there's a loophole that we can manipulate since the physique is slime like. However, we have to coordinate our movements to no end, which is why.. Everyone's cooperation is needed," Aria said in support of her ideas, trying to convince the woman.

"...Why don't you tell me what you want to do first. Then I'll decide," Reina sighed.

Aria flashed a sinister smile as she whispered the plan to Reina. Some details, particularly what had to be done near the ending were omitted and not disclosed further.

Only her and the spirits needed to know the final blow that would seal the deal. The rest of the team just needed to watch as they did the feat.

The (disgusting) strategy.

Upon having heard Aria's explanation, Reina's brows creased as her frustration rose up.

"Now I know how crazy you are. I swear, if this fails, we're all dead!" Reina bit her lips.

"Can you think of any other solution, though?" Aria snickered.

Reina fell silent since she indeed did not possess a credible plan. If anything, Aria's plan slightly made sense, but the cost it had to take was astronomical and had a high risk of failure.

All or nothing. That was what they were trying to do.

"Fine, fine. I got it. I just have to do what I'm good at, just.. maximized," Reina pursed her lips, shuddering at how painful it would be if she failed.

To properly cast her magic according to Aria's plan, she needed to have a high amount of concentration and absolutely no failures at all, or it would fall apart.

"Then.. hurry to your position. I will tell the others as well. See you!" Aria continued dashing through the map, this time aiming her location at where Elgin and Yan stood at respectively.

The monster quickly followed Aria since she was still considered the most 'vulnerable' target.

When Aria reached the two men's location, she imparted them with her plan. Unlike Reina, those two did not voice out any doubts, but they made strange faces as they received the information.

"..That's how it is," Aria concluded her speech.

She did not leave them with any room to offer up a rebuttal before Aria continued her journey.

Since she was internally connected with her two spirits, she talked with them through her mind and relayed her plans too.

Everything was set up.

Everything that's left to do was to start the sequence and follow through the damned plan.

Aria scanned the area, making sure that all members were in their designated place and ready to go. She, too, began some light stretches as she prepared for the incoming endless chase until the plan was all done.

"Commence the plan!" Aria announced, alerting the other members and making them start their moves.

Then, Aria immediately sliced her arm, drawing more blood and inducing pain.

However, since she had a great pain tolerance, she was able to continue forth without having too much repercussions.

The monster's <Flesh Hound> attribute immediately activated upon noticing Aria's wound. It grew more stimulated and ravenous.

Aria began her flight as the monster started to attack her. Originally, it was more laidback and utilized only one or two tentacles when starting out the chase, but this time it used all three at the same time.

Clearly, the difference was present.

"The big baby is excited~" Aria commented, trailing over the map with great speed.

The cluster followed suit. Everywhere Aria went to, it followed.

However, unlike the previous times, where Aria was just actively dodging the cluster with no purpose, Aria had specific points she had to go over.

That was, the corners.

She marked the map with laps in order for the team members to fully comprehend the plan.

She was now on the first lap, stopping at a corner and standing still, waiting for the monster to do its thing.

The cluster caught up and gloomed over Aria with its huge body.

"Dianthe, barrier!" Aria called out.

The Water Spirit did what she was told to and created a high pressure water barrier that encapsulated Aria inside.

The creature lashed out on Aria, but the barrier successfully blocked the attack even though it broke right after.

Aria quickly dodged and ran up in a swirling motion to confuse the cluster. This was to make an opportunity for the second step.

"To apply chains whenever the creature is led to a corner, and to bind it towards the walls... Hah, how stupid," In a farther corner, Reina complained, but she still did her thing.

From a high ground, she watched as Aria succeeded in escaping the grasps of the creature, eluding its tentacles agilely.

Then, now that Aria went to the first checkpoint she had instructed Reina to note down, it was Reina's turn to shine.

She cast her binding magic over a certain part that Aria calculated.

That was it.

The creature was slightly slowed down, but it did not make a massive change as it could still move about.

The reason for this was because the process was due to be repeated more than once. A lot, even.

The shadows that bound the cluster had to accumulate over that corner.

"Continue binding the creature to said corner, but do only the shadows.. don't bind it fully yet," Reina whispered, seeing Aria do a spin and start the second lap.

Aria ran not far from the corner, only enough for her to come back to said corner and still elude the tentacles even in the short distance.

It was a three man play for this segment. Aria, Dianthe, and Reina switched around to successfully start to form a looming shadow below the monster and the corner's area.

Once all the parts were covered, Aria gave a signal for Reina to begin the next step.

"Activate.. the chains," Reina recounted Aria's final order. This would mark the end of her duties, and the start of the others.

To bind the cluster using her chains. Or more like- try to bind it.

"There is literally no way this would work. On what basis did she think that this was possible?" Reina cast her magic, which should start to envelop the creature with shadow chains.

This magic could only be activated when there was two specific points that was elapsed by a dark shadow.

In this case, the two connecting points would be the creature to the corners.

Her original binding magic worked with a similar style. Only, the scale this time was much larger and overwhelmed her.

"..Would this even puncture?!" Reina raised her hand into the air, preparing to use a lot of mana in order to connect the several dots that she had materialized inside her mind.

Theoretically, the monster should be bound by several shadow based chains, but the gigantic size made it hard to execute in reality.

Reina was now just following Aria's orders mindlessly. But she knew deep in her heart that if this failed, then she would be rendered unable to fight for quite some time because it took her a massive amount of mana.

However, in face of such a confident outlook from the talented woman, how could she not be enticed?

"GO!" Reina shouted, bringing down all her spells at once.

The ominous purplish magic circles appeared in the air behind Reina, and even more circles floated around the corner where the creature was currently at.

The chains began to rise. From the connectors, sizeable heavy chains that snuck out of the magic circles began to make clinking sounds as they started rising at their aimed positions.

However, the chains couldn't fully connect to the assigned dots due to the monster's attributes.

"As I expected..." Reina, who finished bringing up her magic was now free to observe. She bit her thumb nail, seeing the monster struggle and the chain unable to penetrate through the supposed places.

"Is it my time?" Elgin spoke with a hint of mockery. "Leave it to me,"

To him, the plan sounded like pieces of crap being piled up together to create the biggest mountain of bullshit.

However, he still did his part, didn't he?

He had been standing in this very position since the plan started. He did not have any other role other than this move he was about to execute.

He leapt in the air, trailing on the walls as he began throwing his sharp daggers at the points he marked down on the cluster.

The time and sequence had to be carefully calculated, or everything would fall apart in an instant.

This was their only chance. Their resources did not allow this process to be repeated a second time.