Industry Legend vs Industry Pro
In the deepest outskirts of the Delusion Forest, Asili watched Elia’s battle from atop a tree and let out a soft, involuntary chuckle.
When she first realized Elia was targeting the Area Boss, Asili had seriously considered stepping in to stop her. After all, the Area Bosses that ruled the Delusion Forest were monsters so powerful that even five average knights from a regular order would need to work in perfect coordination to take one down. No matter how skilled Elia was for having defeated a knight from the Shardena Order, she stood there without armor, armed with nothing but a single sword. It was obviously dangerous, so Asili had debated whether she should reveal herself and intervene.
But after observing the girl’s level of training, Asili decided to hold back for now and simply stay ready to jump in. A genius who, at just fourteen years old, could defeat a knight from the Shardena Order might actually stand a chance against an Area Boss. If she truly was that talented, she would seize the opportunity to win. And even if she wasn’t quite at that level, she should at least be able to hold out for several exchanges.
That was the mindset with which Asili had watched the fight unfold. Yet—
Clang. Clang-clang-clang—!!
Right now, Elia was completely dominating the battle against Pigra, the monster that ruled this territory, without so much as being grazed.
‘Her basic stance, basic sword forms, modified forms—everything is flawless.’
It was far beyond what one would expect from a young girl who was still young and lacked much real combat experience. Every sword form she used in actual battle displayed a level of perfection that was almost unreal. There was only one thing that puzzled Asili.
‘Why isn’t she using the practical sword forms?’
As far as Asili knew, Kael had taught her all of them. So why was she not using the practical sword forms—the very essence of Kael’s style that he had created himself?
But it didn’t take long for Asili to roughly guess the reason.
‘…Don’t tell me she ran away from home because of that?’
There was no particular reason for her to avoid using only the practical forms, and Elia was a girl in the midst of puberty who had run away from home on a whim. If children around that age left home and started acting strangely, it was almost always because of puberty.
‘Aha. So she ran away to create her own practical sword forms?’
She had probably left home because she wanted to make her own version of the practical sword forms. Though it was only a guess, Asili let out a small laugh, convinced she was probably right. That was likely why she had come straight to the Delusion Forest right after running away. She must have heard somewhere that real combat was the best way to develop practical sword forms and had come here to gain that experience.
‘Good grief… She’s as stubborn as any kid her age.’
Watching her fight without using the practical forms was honestly worrying, but since she was already handling herself perfectly well with just the basic and modified forms, there was no need for Asili to intervene. And so Asili continued to watch as the battle between the two finally reached its conclusion.
The fight where a young prodigy girl brought down an Area Boss.
Rustle—
If not for the extremely faint sound of movement she heard, she would have kept watching.
‘…Who is that?’
It was the sound of footsteps crushing grass—something Elia, who was in the middle of fighting, probably hadn’t noticed. But Asili, who had been observing the battle from outside, caught it clearly. When she turned her gaze toward the source, she saw eleven people dressed in somewhat uniform attire, watching the fight between Elia and the Area Boss.
They were all wearing black leather armor and had fast, compact weapons like one-handed swords or daggers hanging at their waists. Asili didn’t know about the others, but she was very familiar with that outfit and those weapons.
‘…Underground types?’
If her instincts were correct, those eleven people were definitely criminals from the underworld. However, Asili couldn’t understand why they had come here. The Delusion Forest had a high volume of traffic, so it wasn’t the kind of place underworld criminals would normally set foot in. There were plenty of far more suitable locations for committing crimes.
Then why had they come all the way to this deep part of the forest, fully armed like this?
‘Did they come to hunt Pigra?’
They must have seen the signs that this was Pigra’s territory. The fact that they had still come this far could only mean they were here to take down Pigra.
‘This could get a little dangerous.’
Elia was currently hunting Pigra, and now a group of underworld thugs had shown up to kill that same Pigra. At a glance, the situation looked extremely hazardous. Asili gripped her twin daggers more firmly and observed the scene closely, ready to rush out the moment Elia fell into danger.
* * *
She could see it—the monster’s attack paths.
The movement of its muscles, the crude yet distinct flow of mana typical of an Area Boss. All of it entered her eyes and revealed Pigra’s attack trajectories. And Elia had the body and swordsmanship she had trained for the past seven years.
Her body, which she had begun tempering at the age of eight, now possessed strength that could rival an adult knight. The swordsmanship she had not simply learned but hammered into her very bones could be drawn out and swung naturally at any moment.
That left only one thing to do.
Whoosh—!
She dodged Pigra’s foreleg swinging down from above by the width of a single sheet of paper, then thrust her sword into the much wider opening created by the minimal evasion.
Kael-style modified sword form. Number 5, 21, and 17.
“Hup!”
“Kyaaaaah!!!”
In the brief instant Pigra’s foreleg missed, Elia’s sword shredded its torso before returning to position. She then calmly stepped backward to avoid the other foreleg that came crashing down from above a moment later.
As expected, Pigra’s foreleg slammed uselessly into the ground. By now, the gap between Elia and Pigra was so obvious that anyone could see it.
“Grrrr… Grrrrrr…”
Pigra let out a labored growl, its entire body drenched in scarlet blood that stained its reddish-brown fur.
“At this level… it still feels a bit lacking for real combat.”
Elia calmly brushed her bangs aside, looking almost unchanged from when the fight began. There was no need to look closely to tell who held the advantage and who was the victor. It was so obvious that even a passing beast would have known. And since the clever Pigra surely understood that as well, its choice was simple.
“Krrraaah!!”
“Huh? Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”
Squeezing out the last of its strength to roar and flee from the predator before its eyes. That was the only choice left to Pigra. It began scrambling up a tree with its sharp-clawed hands, trying to escape. Elia shouted and chased after it, but having never trained in tree climbing, the smooth bark of the Delusion Forest might as well have been an icy slope.
Slip—
“Damn it…!”
Elia’s body slid down the moment she leaped and grabbed onto the tree. As she chewed on a rare curse and glared at the fleeing Pigra—
Bang—!!
Suddenly, someone tore through the air and appeared.
“What the—?!”
Startled by the abrupt entrance, Elia cried out. At the same time, she saw it.
A woman with dark red hair fluttering behind her had appeared and, with the twin daggers in her hands, sliced clean through the neck of the Pigra that had been climbing the tree.
Crunch. The woman’s dagger, undoubtedly infused with an Aura Blade, cut through Pigra’s neck to a depth that Elia’s sword had never been able to reach.
“……!”
Pigra died instantly from the fatal blow without even letting out a final cry. Its corpse began to fall from the tree, and the woman landed gracefully in front of Elia.
Thud—!!!
Pigra’s heavy body crashed to the ground with a massive sound, and the dark red-haired woman landed lightly on top of it. Before Elia could even ask who she was, the woman spoke first.
“First, allow me to express my gratitude. You’re quite skilled for such a young little girl. Thanks to you, I was spared the trouble of running all over the place trying to catch this Pigra.”
“Uh… yes, well. But who are you…”
Even though she was offering thanks, there wasn’t the slightest hint of a smile on her face. Instead, what Elia felt was a dark emotion hidden behind that expressionless mask. Sensing something distinctly unpleasant, Elia gave a vague reply and slowly began to put distance between them.
Rustle— Crunch— Crunch—
But before Elia could create any real distance, ten more people burst out from the surrounding bushes. Unlike the woman in front of her, they didn’t even bother hiding their killing intent. Elia narrowed her eyes.
‘…This just got a lot more complicated.’
Elia herself had relatively little real combat experience. The most she had ever faced at once was two or three opponents. Could she really escape safely from eleven people like this?
“……”
The fear of death slowly tightened around her. Before Elia could even begin forming a plan, the woman—who had shaken the blood off her twin daggers—began walking slowly toward her.
“Still, gratitude is gratitude. I still have work to do.”
“……”
“You’ve done more than enough by draining this Pigra’s strength for us. So now, it’s time for you to die.”
“Eek?!”
With no time to stop her, the woman leaped straight at Elia. The overwhelming speed—at least equal to what Elia had seen from Zenle when she went all out—made Elia’s eyes widen.
‘My body…!’
She could perceive the woman’s movements, but her own body refused to move, as if it had been soaked in water like a heavy cotton doll. If she had to guess why, it was because the woman’s speed far surpassed her own. Even if she tried to react, her body simply couldn’t keep up.
The moment she realized that, fear of death surged from her ankles up her spine and flooded her mind.
‘I don’t want to die here…!’
And just as the woman’s dagger was about to pierce Elia’s body—
Within Elia’s slowed vision, another figure appeared between her and the woman.
Kaaaaang─────!!!
Along with her appearance, the world began to accelerate again, and a clear ring of steel echoed through the air. The woman who had blocked the twin daggers aimed at Elia with her own pair of twin daggers.
“Wow, twin daggers? That’s a pretty rare weapon. Did you get inspired by this lady Asili?”
“Who the hell are you?! Where did you suddenly come from…!”
The woman who had introduced herself as Asili smiled leisurely as she blocked the opponent’s twin daggers and let out a light laugh. The other woman narrowed her eyes and shouted at Asili’s sudden appearance.
“Uh… um…?”
And so the situation began to move rapidly, with Elia—who still hadn’t fully grasped what was happening—caught in the middle.
“By the way, are you all sure about this? It might be better for you to just get caught by me here. Two very scary people are rushing this way right now, you know.”
Whether they got caught by Asili herself or by the inevitable death that would arrive soon after. Asili recited the beginning of a time attack that offered only those two choices and adjusted her stance once more.
Flash—
The communication device at her waist, which had yet to turn off, was still glowing.