Capítulo 42: Chapter 42: Sword of Promised Victory
"And how am I supposed to purify her?!" I demanded as I raced out from behind my shield to strike. The lady countered with a sweeping blow that knocked me back, but Shang Xiao attacked her from behind, forcing her to defend. While she blocked his punch, I slashed at her rear, only for her to spin around to parry my blow. At the same time, she kicked up and stopped Shang Xiao's fist with her high heels boot.
How the fuck had the high heels not broken?! This made no bloody sense. It appeared that the manhua artist was focusing on aesthetics and fashion over practicality and realism.
Whirling around, the lady unleashed a stroke that blew the both of us back, but Shang Xiao recovered more swiftly. He flipped himself up and over before crashing into the forest on his two feet. But instead of charging at the lady again, he stopped and spun around to kick a tree. Breaking the trunk into two, he then whirled around and kicked it at the lady.
The lady calmly cut the speeding trunk into splinters, only for the colonel to toss another two trees at her. She met each one with her blade, chopping them into pieces. However, amidst the splinters, Shang Xiao charged in right after she cleaved the third tree into pieces, and slammed a fist into her chest while her sword was still up.
She grunted as she was flung back, but managed to dig her heels in and skid to a stop. There was a crack on her breastplate, and I noticed similar damage from Shang Xiao's earlier blow. Not only that, there were scorches and other molten scars on the joints where the laser beams and plasma barrages from Aegis had hit home.
So she wasn't invincible. Good to know.
The lady was still a formidable foe, though. She stood her ground against Shang Xiao's next charge, swinging her sword to meet his fist. Another blast erupted, this time in smaller scale because she didn't have as much time to charge her weapon like before, but the Sprue colonel was able to weather the storm. Even so, his smoldering body dropped out of the explosion, his crimson Strength markings glowing brighter than before.
I realized that he was overheating, the psychic energy that wreathed his body beginning to burn him out from the inside.
Despite being hurt, Shang Xiao didn't complain. And I didn't waste the opportunity he bought for me. While the lady was still distracted by his frontal assault, I struck from behind once more. I didn't care if people considered me a coward. My only objective was victory, and I was determined to achieve it through whatever means necessary.
After all, I could only survive this by winning.
While I fought, Aegis answered my question.
"You will have to subdue her in battle. Defeat her in combat, and you'll naturally find a way to purify her."
"You don't mind if I accidentally kill her in self-defense?" I asked internally as I ducked under her retaliating sweep and parried her follow-up strike. "I'm not sure I have the luxury to spare her life. I'm not that skilled."
"You can try, but I doubt you'll be able to kill her."
"Then how can I defeat her?!"
"Through force," Arondight replied. "You can overpower her in combat, especially when you're being assisted by your allies from Sprue."
I tried not to curse from frustration. Easier said than done. I was being swatted away by the lady, but before she could pursue me with her sword, Shang Xiao landed on her from above, slamming both feet against her blade, which she had redirected to parry his kick. She grunted again, her knees buckling from Shang Xiao's not insignificant weight, and stumbled away because she was no longer able to maintain her footing.
While she was off balance, I struck, but she spun around and slapped Arondight away with her sword. Fortunately, she didn't have the space to counterattack, or I would have died right there and then. Twirling my sword, I desperately lashed out in an attempt to at least get a hit in, but all I did was leave a scratch on her armor. She punched with her gauntlet, forcing me to dodge, but before she could finish me off with a kick, she had to dive to the side to prevent herself from getting crushed by Shang Xiao.
The both of us pursued her, but when the telltale sign of her sword getting ready to fire another of that super blast flared up, I had Shang Xiao retreat once more.
"We can't keep fighting like this," I grumbled as Aegis blocked another super blast from the lady. The ground around us softened and liquefied from the sheer violence and heat, but we were still ensconced within a protective barrier. Even so, we were hardly gaining a upper hand in a fight where we outnumbered the opponent.
"Death by a thousand cuts," Shang Xiao said. I glanced at him.
"What?"
"We're hurting her. Bit by bit, blow by blow…it's weakening her. Look at how much damage her armor has taken. We'll beat her eventually. Just keep doing whatever you are…keep it up."
"I'll try…but how are you faring?" I couldn't suppress my concern. Shang Xiao was heaving raggedly, and his body was steaming. I could feel the intense heat emanating from his overburdened body. "You don't look too good."
"I'll survive. Let's go!"
He slapped me in the back, almost too hard because I stumbled and had to stop myself from falling flat on my face. By the time I righted myself, Shang Xiao was gone, having bounded forward to crash upon the lady. They collided weightily, sword against fists, and the earth shook from the elemental violence.
It was almost like watching two monsters fight against each other.
"Aegis, support!"
Even without me verbally commanding her, I was mentally directing Aegis's fire. When Shang Xiao and the lady split apart, I immediately targeted her with pinpoint accuracy, laser beams striking her armor and glancing off the gleaming surface. She swatted away a plasma blast from the railgun because it was the more threatening of the two types of weapons, but the lasers left glowing lines across her armor.
Even so, her expression remained implacable. If anything, her brow furrowed and she readied another powerful blast. Lightning struck her from the side, Lin Xue emerging from the ruins of the devastated forest, deviating her aim slightly and sending the super blast toward the lake. Water boiled and a fog of steam flooded the shore, almost scalding us.
The lady ignored it all, dispersing the steam with a single stroke of her sword and sending another violent blast in our direction. Shang Xiao and I scattered, this time evading instead of relying on Aegis to block it for us.
Twisting around, I then altered my trajectory and made use of my momentum to slingshot myself forward, slashing with Arondight. The lady turned around to parry my blow and kicked me away before she spun to face a charging Shang Xiao. I could feel tremors reverberating from their exchange, and I forced myself back to my feet and for another attack, but she deftly ducked my decapitating strike before parrying the colonel's next barrage.
Like the patient swordswoman that she was, she weathered every blow before striking at the most opportune moment. Shang Xiao caught her sword, but she delivered a low kick to his gut that sent him doubling back. Before she could finish him off, I struck with Arondight. She whirled around to deflect my blade aside, and we traded a few more blows, circling each other as we eyed each other warily.
The lady was still the better sword user and she was forcing me back with every exchange. I could feel my arms burning from exhaustion, but her strokes were sharp and powerful, undull and no weaker than before. I bit back a moan as she hacked away, each maneuver dazzling and overwhelming. It was only the reflexes that Aegis's spartan training program had hammered into me that saved my life, allowing me to block or dodge each of her attacks by a hair's breadth.
Even so, I could feel a cut on my shoulder, or a scrape on my side. Never mind the lady, I would die from a hundred cuts before I could deal that much damage from her.
Fortunately, I wasn't the only one fighting. I pulled away to catch my breath, leaping as far backward as I could. The lady made to pursue, only to be caught in a crisscrossing volley of laser beams and plasma. She gracefully dodged all of them, spinning her body around, flipping herself upward and cartwheeling through the air.
That was all the time I needed to catch my breath and come up with my next plan. If a duel of attrition wasn't feasible, then I had to resort to more extreme measures…
Before I could launch them, though, the lady launched herself at me. Before she could, though, Shang Xiao barreled into her from the side. His fist smashed into her side. The lady managed to minimize the damage by twisting her body and taking the blow on her armor, but the metal plating cracked just slightly and she was hurled several meters away.
"She really is tough," Shang Xiao remarked, and made to pursue her when he caught sight of the familiar glow on her sword. He groaned. "Not again…she really can spam that stupid super blast an infinite number of times?!"
"Yes," Aegis said.
"That was a rhetorical question, Ms. AI." The colonel rolled his eyes, but he obediently retreated behind my shield. Then he noticed that I hadn't moved. "Hey, kid! What are you doing?!"
Even as he and Aegis moved toward my position, I focused on my next plan with my eyes closed. Sending the coordinates toward the heavens, I ordered an orbital strike.
A searing lance descended from the heavens, a pillar of light the size of a mountain. The lady looked up, realizing that she had no place to evade. Not that she planned to. As usual, she stood her ground and instead swung her sword upward, unleashing her super blast at the orbital lance strike fired from the Crusader.
The titanic explosion sent shockwaves rippling across the lake, throwing up tides of water and scorching the grass black. Much of the lake evaporated, leaving what appeared to be a crater. As boiling steam rose, I could see the beleaguered figure of the lady kneeling, her hands still tightly gripping her sword.
Her guard was down. Now was the time.
I struck with Arondight, ignoring the scalding steam and pain as I dashed through the immense heat left behind by the orbital strike. The lady turned to face me, slowly swinging her sword about to meet Arondight. Her movements had clearly slowed, her once resplendent armor was now in pieces, and she was visibly injured.
Even so, she was not going down easily. I could see her sword glowing slightly.
However, lightning struck her. Lin Xue, having kept a safe distance, was able to make best use of the lady's vulnerability and launched her ranged electric attack. The lady convulsed, and for a few seconds, she was paralyzed.
Those few seconds were all I needed.
Ramming Arondight through her chest, I obliterated her heart and slew her in that final stroke. Her head was thrown back, and her long golden hair tumbled down her back like a waterfall, freed from the bun that she had tied it into earlier.
Or so I thought, but at the moment of contact, my consciousness was almost pulled from my mind. The world around me vanished, and I found myself sinking into darkness, with a single point of brightness below me. I blinked and squinted, barely making out the golden figure of the lady curled up in that glowing light.
Then I understood what I had to do.
Gripping Arondight with both hands, I swung him as hard as I could and vanquished the darkness around us in a single stroke. There was a welcoming warmth that suffused me before the golden light from the lady below expanded rapidly and engulfed everything.
And then I fell endlessly into the growing light.
Estado de energía semanal
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