The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Luke, can't you heal her? You've seen that firepower, she could destroy that thing with one more shot."

The dark-skinned Mia asked the young healer while they were putting the unconscious Cranberry down safely.

"It's not that simple, she didn't just exhaust her mana, she actually went way over her limit and it's her mind that suffered a serious trauma."

Luke shook his head, making a complicated expression.

"The spells she used, the thunderstorm, eruption, heavenly smite, and void's descent - as far as I know, they were all tier 3 skills, and each one requires a proper wind-up and preparation but she just pulled them off instantly, one after the other."

The healer looked back at the pale face of the red-haired girl with concern.

"Not to mention I never even heard about primal spells - but after that demonstration, we can safely assume that it was something above tier 3..."

He added with a soft sigh as if he himself didn't quite believe what he had said.

"B-but she will be fine, right? Right?!"

The brown-haired heroine, Mary, gasped clenching her hands on Cranberry's arm.

"...probably. I already used every skill that had a chance of helping her, but until she will wake up we can't be sure."

Luke shrugged his shoulders and stood up.

"I see. Thank you."

The silver-haired gentleman approached them and nodded his head.

"Miss Hope, stay here with my master, as for the rest of you, come with us."

He glanced at the unconscious red-haired girl and instructed, waving at the group.

"We need to defeat that thing before it will regenerate fully. Come. As the sigil monster is now, we have the greatest chance of getting lord Zombie out."

Carambola declared.

"Wh-wha...?! But that thing is huge! What do you want to do against it, mister Carambola, wrestle its big toe?"

The blond first prince gasped, taking a step back.

"...your highness, if you wish to, you can stay behind and try to protect miss Mary and my master."

Carambola hesitated for just a second before declaring in a calm tone so it was hard to realize what his real feelings were.

"Try is the keyword."

But while Roan might have not realized the silver-haired butler's sarcasm, it certainly wasn't lost on either Mia, Luke, or Persimmon - as all three of them shook their head and the dark-skinned woman straight up breathed out in a mocking tone.

After wasting enough time already on the hesitant prince, the four people ran straight at the kneeling sigil monster.

"The mark on its head is the origin of its power! Aim there!"

Carambola commanded as his body began shining with white light.

"Sure thing. Young Mia! Are you ready to be buffed?"

Persimmon nodded and called to the dark-skinned woman.

"Of course!"

Mia responded with a nod and used the blink skill to get herself high in the air above the sigil Gorut's head.

"GRHAA...!"

Whether the beast wanted to say something or was going to roar threateningly as soon as it laid its unfocused eyes on the dark-skinned woman, what came out of its mouth was only some bloody foam and a pained groan as the creature in its current form was missing most of its lungs so making any sounds at all was quite hard.

Funnily enough, what Carambola did, was jump onto the monster's leg - but not to do something so ridiculous as using his close combat skill on the creature's toes, but instead unleashing the mana drain skill at full throttle, making sure that the best has no means of countering or blocking the attack that was going to come.

"Good! Young Luke!"

Persimmon nodded with satisfaction and reached out his hands - his left one towards the wounded monster and his right one towards Mia.

The next moment the armored man became surrounded by purple flames, his right-hand become engulfed by the crackling fire while a dozen of purple fireballs appeared around his left palm and began circling around it.

Then, the purple fire from Persimmon's right hand flashed and disappeared, transferring itself straight onto Mia's mace which she raised above her head already prepared and waiting for the right opportunity to strike - while a dozen fireballs floated towards the sigil monster and began circling around its head as a threatening halo.

A few feet away from the armored man, Luke was also putting his skills to work - although his best ones were definitely the healing ones, the healing itself was a branch of the light magic - which had an array of physical and magical buffs.

The young healer's body was glowing with intense white light that illuminated the area around him and Mia's body high above started glowing as if she somewhat became another sun, turning the night into day.

The sigil monster's shadow grew long as the woman was falling down on it.

Without missing the right moment, Mia twisted her body, giving her attack even more destructive power and...!

*BOOOOOOM*

*CRACK*

Her mace lodged itself in the very middle of the monster's forehead, right on the burning sigil, and the creature's skull has given in, shattering with a loud sound and caving in as it released a staggering amount of red and black smoke, sending the beast falling back.

*BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM*

Half of the purple fireballs sent in by Persimmon erupted into a powerful explosion further adding to the damage suffered by the beast - and yet the system message about the monster's defeat did not pop up.

With basically no mana, the stubborn sigil monster managed to stay alive!

"MIA! DON'T STOP! HIT IT AGAIN!"

Luke shouted at the falling woman, using all available buffing skills he had - which was necessary since the attack empowered by two high-level player characters was a bit too strong for her and broke her arms like twigs.

"I KNOW!"

The dark-skinned woman gritted her teeth as the healing skill was rebuilding the bones in her hands.

The next thing she did as she was almost by the ground was to use the blink three more times to align herself perfectly, this time not far but just above the monster whose head was completely broken so bad, it was impossible to make out how it looked originally and unleashed a barrage of attacks.

*BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM*

Despite the heavy flurry of blows only five of the purple fireballs activated and added to the damage, leaving one more circling around the monster's head like a satellite.

"That damn thing is still ali-URGH...!"

Persimmon shouted furiously, raising his hand to renew the curse but suddenly he bent down and began coughing up blood.

"Sir Kabuto...?! What's wro- UGH! UGHUE...!"

Luke called out to the armored man who crumbled to his knees with blood pouring down out of his mask - but before the healer could take even a single step towards the warrior, his body trembled and he straight up started vomiting blood.

"Wh-what...? I was poisoned...? I was...?!"

Luke gasped in disbelief in between surges of blood escaping his mouth.

"Luke?! LUKE?!"

Mia used her last blink charge to get safely to the ground and instantly rushed towards the young healer.

"MIA! DON'T!"

Luke reached out his hand and shouted in urgency, but he ended up being too late.

"HURGH...!"

While in the middle of a run, the blood began pouring out of Mia's nose, ears, and eyes, and she collapsed to the ground, tumbling the rest of the way to the young healer while even more blood was getting spewed from her mouth.