Results (2)
Thick clots of blood that had burst into the sky fell back down like rain.
Scattered through the damp, soaked mud lay the corpses of Erden’s pride—holy knights and priests. Some had their limbs torn clean off. Others were reduced to bare skeletons. Still others left nothing but pools of blood where they had tumbled.
And across from that carnage, the demon who had created it all was casually fixing her hair and muttering to herself.
They did not know her exact level of power. Judging only by the rumors of her deeds, she was at least upper-Master class—a height no ordinary human who had yet to awaken a Unique Ability could ever reach.
But her weakness was just as clear.
She was blind.
Of course she could perceive her surroundings through Qi Sensing, yet reports claimed she could not deploy it without her greatsword. They had already confirmed that report was true. Which meant that without the greatsword, they could roast her or boil her however they pleased.
And yet.
That bitch had just thrown it.
She had thrown the greatsword, severed Mern’s penance, and blown him apart.
Even if it had not been her weakness, no swordsman in their right mind would ever commit the insane act of hurling their blade away.
“She threw her sword…? No. What the hell is she?”
Thanks to that mad stunt, the bowstring Barret had been drawing went slack.
“I can’t understand it either…”
Galrua, who had driven his own greatsword into the ground, answered in a dazed voice.
“What… some new suicide method? Or maybe she figured she was already fucked and decided to take at least one of us with her?”
Barret sneered and glanced at what had, until moments ago, been Mern.
A few strips of slack skin. Finely shattered bone fragments. A pair of eyeballs still trailing their optic nerves, and a heart that continued to throb stubbornly.
“Galrua-hyung, could you blow a Master apart like that just by throwing a greatsword?”
“…I wouldn’t bet on it.”
“I sure as hell couldn’t.”
Mern might have been a “manufactured Master,” but a Master was still a Master. On top of that, they had forcibly injected him with Divine Power extracted from the shrine maiden, boosting his durability and regeneration. Even now his body had been completely obliterated, yet the heart kept pumping blood as if it had no idea what had happened.
And she had just… thrown a greatsword and made that thing explode?
“There’s definitely something about that bitch.”
“Obviously.”
Galrua pulled his greatsword free again. Barret opened the distance and nocked a fresh arrow.
“We go for capture if we can. Even if we take her limbs, she won’t die.”
Thwang—!
Instead of answering, Barret released the string. A pure-white arrow tore through the air. At the same instant Galrua exploded forward in pursuit.
In the midst of that desperate rush, Noah calmly stretched out her hand.
And in that same breath, a sword so black it seemed painted with pure darkness appeared in her grip—a blade so dark that even the light of the sun could not reveal its form.
The moment Galrua saw it, he felt as though insects were crawling through his veins. The flow of air stopped. The flow of mana twisted. He was looking at it, yet he could not see it. He had Qi Sensing fully deployed, yet he felt nothing. The “blessing” inside his body curled up in terror.
Dangerous.
She had to die.
This existence had to be erased from the world this very second.
Killing intent flooded the sword he had meant only to subdue her with. Galrua’s crimson mana, the mental image of “slaughter,” poured into the blade. He activated his Unique Ability and stretched time itself. The drifting leaves slowed. Mern’s still-beating heart and the falling red raindrops slowed with them.
Within that elongated time, Galrua’s greatsword ripped through space as it swung.
Barret, sensing the wrongness as well, forged a platinum arrow imbued with the mental image of “certain hit.” He activated his Unique Ability, linked space to space, and loosed. A distance that must have exceeded three hundred meters collapsed in an instant; the arrow of certain hit appeared right before Noah’s brow.
Just as he nocked the next arrow—
the world turned black.
Crack—
A fracture spidered across the Bracelet of Verdure on her arm.
“Ugh… bleh… pweh… uuugh, aaaaagh!”
She spat out the blood surging up from inside her and yanked the arrow from her side.
“Hey, you crazy bitch! Who the fuck pulls an arrow out like that?!”
Listening to Cartia’s scolding, she clenched the torn flesh shut and finished the crude hemostasis.
“Jesus Christ… what kind of fucked-up first-aid is that?”
“Ugh… I… tried it once before… and it worked pretty well…”
She thumped her head a few times to chase away the dizziness.
Anyway.
Just now the man with the greatsword had suddenly moved insanely fast. And the arrow… had appeared right in front of her out of nowhere.
“That’ll be their Unique Abilities. The one with the greatsword seems time-related, and the arrows are space-related, yeah?”
Time and space…?
Straight-up Di*ru and Per*a…
“What?”
“Ah, nothing.”
She steadied her staggering body and spread her Qi Sensing.
At that exact moment—
Whoosh—!
“Hup—!”
Clang—!
She knocked aside another arrow that had suddenly materialized in front of her face. She threw herself sideways to dodge the next one. A greatsword came screaming for her neck.
She snapped her waist, rose, and clenched her teeth as she swung Frey.
KRAAANG—!
The ground beneath her feet cratered outward.
Heavy. She could not ease up on her strength.
Arrows were coming. She could not dodge them all.
If she eased up, her neck would be severed. If she failed to block the arrows, her body would burst.
Formless energy rose from her body and poured into the greatsword. Then she relaxed her legs and drove Frey straight into the earth.
CRACK-KRAAANG—!
A massive shockwave raced through the ground and the earth collapsed. The greatsword that had been swinging for her neck merely skimmed her hair. The arrow that had been flying for her heart brushed past her ear.
She spread her Qi Sensing to the absolute limit.
Found the archer’s position.
She swung Frey toward his right arm. The unstable sword path sent a shockwave that tore through the dust and severed not the man’s arm but his leg. The recoil slammed her own body into the ground. The wound in her side that she had barely sealed tore open again. What little air remained in her lungs fled all at once.
Forcing her screaming body upright, she twisted Frey upward.
Clang—!
Flowing water.
The man with the greatsword flinched and retreated. Ignoring him, she charged the archer.
“Fuck!”
The man sitting on the ground shot his arm upward. A rope fired from his wrist snagged a tree and yanked his body into the air.
Just as she was about to follow—
“Behind!”
Her nape prickled and a savage wind pressure hit her. She twisted her waist on pure instinct and parried the oncoming greatsword.
CLAAAANG—!
The shockwave of clashing blades ruptured her eardrums. Ignoring the pain, she snatched the arrow flying at her head with her left hand and jammed it into the greatsword-wielder’s thigh. She immediately stomped on that same thigh, launched herself upward, and charged the archer once more.
“You crazy fucking bitch!”
Dozens of arrows flew.
Take them and cut his throat? No—her speed had dropped; impossible. She had to dodge or deflect. She focused every scrap of Qi Sensing on reading the arrows’ trajectories.
Couldn’t dodge. Had to deflect. She drew the optimal sword path that could clear them all at once, laid the blade flat, and swept it wide.
KAGAGAGAGAK—!
Each impact was heavy, but not beyond her. Her speed had dipped a little. Didn’t matter—she was already inside range.
She twisted her waist and swung Frey. The shockwave racing along the blade path burst the man’s side open and scattered. Forcing down the blood surging up her throat, she spun with the greatsword’s recoil.
She was falling. At the landing point the man’s greatsword was already swinging against the flow of time. More arrows were racing in from behind. An arrow that had pierced space itself buried itself in her thigh.
She bit down on her tongue and gathered every last scrap of power.
Crack—! Fractures raced across the Bracelet of Verdure. Her organs twisted. Needles stabbed into her brain. Pain climbing her spine paralyzed her body.
An aura that seemed to crush space itself gathered in the greatsword. Screaming, she flung the insanely heavy Frey in a wild arc.
Formless energy that no longer distinguished friend from foe detonated.
Incoming arrows evaporated. The swinging greatsword snapped. Her own body slammed into the ground even harder.
Enduring the agony of her guts trying to force their way up her throat, she rose. Whether the arrow had been poisoned or not, sensation in her right leg was fading.
She pulled the shaft free and caught her breath.
Only now did the two men’s detailed forms take shape in her mind.
The greatsword-wielder’s entire upper body was flayed of skin. The archer had a hole blown through his gut and his right leg severed.
Her own condition was no better.
A fist-sized hole gaped in her side. Sensation was vanishing from her right leg. Blood kept surging endlessly inside her, and her skull felt as though thousands of daggers had been driven into it. The Bracelet of Verdure, pushed to its limit, was webbed with dozens of cracks.
She could flee toward her companions. She could stall for time and hold out as long as possible.
But.
She wanted to fight.
She wanted to win.
She did not want to lean on anyone else’s strength.
Alone.
She wanted to win.
She gripped Frey and reset her stance. She goaded her heart into pumping blood faster. She pulled her slack muscles taut and forcibly realigned her creaking joints. She picked up a fallen branch and drove it into her own thigh. The horrific pain dragged sensation back.
“Haa…”
She drew up the energy inside her body.
She raised her own rank.
Crack— the Bracelet of Verdure screamed.
She ignored it and kept climbing.
And just before the bracelet shattered completely—
Fragments that had been lying far away sank into her body. Blood aura carrying Carpeng’s will wrapped around her, shielding her.