“Um, Saito-san.”
“I’m writing, so please wait a moment.”
Saito was so focused on writing the formula on the wall that he didn’t seem to notice the Nue approaching. I began to brace myself against the wall.
“Uh, it’s not about the formula you’re writing…”
The Nue swung its claws at Saito’s back.
“Watch out-”
“Alright, I’m done.”
Saito turned around and revealed his formula with satisfaction.
The Nue’s claws tore through the air.
The mathematical formulas on the whiteboard were ripped and smudged by the claws, making it unreadable.
Me, Saito, and the Nue, all of use were silent. The Nue even looked uncomfortable for a moment.
“…Takahashi, let’s do it.”
“Yes.”
For some reason, the Nue also gave a small nod. An agreement was formed and the Nue jumped back a bit to make some distance.
“It’s a bit troublesome to process that. The functions you need handle are all over its body and each one can’t be done in one go.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Takahashi, you go to the back. The snake on the tail is INDIRECT, you won’t be in any danger unless it bites you. I’ll deal with the others from the front.”
Looking at it, relatively speaking, it was a pretty easy taks. No matter how I looked at it, the most dangerous things were COUNTA’s claws and LEFT’s fangs. At the very least, there was no danger from ROW’s body. However, it wasn’t good to be too relaxed. A snake was still a snake, even if it was simple to deal with. It was also quite thick and I didn’t know if it was poisonous or not. If it bit me though, it would definitely be more than just a simple bite.
Slowly walking around the Nue, it seemed the other party was aware of our strength. Only the tail, the INDIRECT, was paying attention to me while the rest threatened Saito.
As Saito and I positioned ourselves with the Nue between us, the battle started.
“UOOOOOOOH!!”
“GRRRRR!!”
“Eh-? Huh-?”
The Nue pounced on Saito as Saito dodged the attack and held it in check. The INDIRECT I had been facing lost its independance and was pulled away from me. The INDIRECT also seemed to have a ‘huh?’ expression on its face.
###############
“Grrrr! Grrrrr! GAOH!!! Kuuuh-!!”
Saito effortlessly dodged the Nue that pounced on him, trying to bite him, and held it by the neck as he straddled it and processed it.
“LEFT, LEFT, LEFT!”
“Kuuuh! Gaoh!”
The head of the Nue, the LEFT, resisted and threw Saito off. Saito’s physical ability was extraordinary, but batons were originally tools meant for holding back multiple people while alone. It wasn’t an offensive tool. I had a baton as well, but it wasn’t of much use to me here. The INDIRECT confronting me was a force to be reckoned with as well, as it swayed and swung around. It seemed that dealing with a composite function monster wasn’t easy.
“Don’t zone out, I’ll finish this quickly. Hold it back so I don’t get attacked from behind!!”
“Y-Yes, I’ll do my best!”
Saito shouted out as he put his foot against the Nue’s neck. The Neu turned around and tried to resist by waing its arms and legs. I couldn’t keep it down forever, but I also did my best to keep the snake down with my baton.
“LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, LEFT!!!”
Saito shouted the name of the function whose movements had been locked down. With its tongue sticking out, LEFT went limp and the ARRAYFORMULA fireball came out quietly.
“ARRAYFORMULA.”
Saito quickly took care of it.
At the same time as the ARRAYFORMULA sank into the cell, the dog head part of the Nue also disappeared. I thought it would make things easier, but unfortunately, the new head turned into the tiger from the remaining COUNTA.