章 32: #30 Trouble
Meanwhile, Ren and others were getting ready to leave. The considerably big aerial beast was flying towards Ren's location. It didn't even take 1 minute before Ren was aware of it, he was a bit surprised when he saw 1 woman with short silver hair and 1 cloaked figure sitting on that beast.
'If that cloaked figure is who I think it is then we have a small problem' Ren thought while gazing at the beast with his cold eyes.
"Esdeath." Ren called out.
"I know" Esdeath was also aware of the beast and nodded towards Ren.
"Hey isn't this pretty bad situation? Ren is still exhausted and he needs to recover to his peak condition before he starts another fight or his body won't be able to bear consequences." Hawke was panicking a bit.
"Why?" Esdeath saw that Ren didn't have any injuries so she was little confused by Hawke's words
"It's the same with injuries. If you heal just recently you won't go fight immediately, you will wait until you are in peak condition unless you want your wounds to open or get worse." Ren quickly explained.
------On the beast------
The silver-haired woman was currently absorbed in her own thoughts so she didn't notice humans near them but she was woken up by strong voice: "2 humans, 4 hundred meters away from us on the ground, what should we do?"
The woman immediately regained her sense and looked into Ren's direction, when she saw Esdeath her eyes narrowed and she said with a cold voice: "They are enemies."
'Is that Ren I kept hearing about in our base? He indeed seems to have an unusual relationship with that ice woman' The silver-haired woman thought while directing the beast to fly above Ren's head.
When the beast was close enough cloaked figure jumped down from more than 1 hundred meters height.
'Tch, it's him' Ren thought while planning how to get out of this mess, if it wasn't for Shell's teasing and her need to fight Esdeath then perhaps Esdeath could fight against that cloaked figure alone but she herself was pretty exhausted.
"Susanoo, your main target is that woman!" Voice came from above.
'Is that Najenda?!' Esdeath could already see that woman's appearance.
"Understood." Susanoo replied with a strong yet emotionless voice.
He removed his cloak and his appearance was fully visible. Everyone would think that he is human until they would see his bull-like horns coming out of the sides of his head. In his hand could be seen a stave-like weapon with rotating blades coming out of it.
Due to the command from Najenda, Susanoo totally ignored Ren and started a series of attacks at Esdeath. Ren wasn't overly worried because he knew that even though Esdeath was exhausted, Susanoo wasn't her match at his current form. But he was a bit worried if Najenda will go so far to use Susanoo's trump card to get rid of Esdeath, after all, he knew that he won't recover anytime soon and Esdeath already used her trump card today.
Esdeath was able to dodge every attack from Susanoo with ease due to her superior speed.
"You are not half bad but you aren't my match." Esdeath said while cutting Susanoo's hand with her rapier
However, within a few seconds, his missing limb regrew and he could move with it without any problem.
"Humanoid imperial arm." Esdeath said aloud
Esdeath knew that she must destroy his core to kill him but finding it wasn't an easy matter, not while fighting.
While Esdeath still thought of the place where his core could be, Susanoo appeared in front of Esdeath and slammed his weapon towards Esdeath's head.
She just coldly snorted and evaded attack by performing a few steps to the side. Before Susanoo's weapon even hit the ground Esdeath already appeared before him and touched his forehead and released a lot of ice energy which turned Susanoo into an ice sculpture.
"Even if I don't know where is your core I can still kill you" Esdeath said and kicked an ice sculpture and it crumbled under Esdeath's powerful kick. The only thing that got out unscathed was a small red disk that was previously on Susanoo's chest.
'Is that a core?' Esdeath thought
'Tch, even if the core isn't destroyed it will take some time before Susanoo can recover his entire body without external help' Najenda had to act quickly before Esdeath destroy the disk so she used her trump card without any hesitation.
"Magatama Manifestation! Susanoo go all out!" Najenda shout out
Upon shouting, green energy appeared around Najenda and 1/3 of it rushed towards Susanoo's core.
"What are you doing?" Esdeath asked suspiciously.
'Is that life energy coming out of Najenda?' Ren was a bit surprised by the pitiful amount of life energy she has. She could use this move probably around 3-4 times before dying but Ren who didn't even reach a novice level in life energy but he would be able to use it more than 7 times.
When disk absorbed around 1/3 of Najenda's life energy, Susanoo appeared out of nowhere with changed appearance. Even Ren was surprised by how quickly he regenerated his entire body but when he recalled how he absorbed 1/3 life energy of human then he thought of it as normal.
Susanoo's hair color changed into a white and his bull-like horns changed their color into black. And most importantly there was a big disk floating behind his back. Susanoo opened his eyes when his recovery was complete and immediately started to attack Esdeath once again. This time he was faster and stronger than in his previous form but he still wasn't able to hit Esdeath due to her strange footwork.
"Even after he became stronger he has no chance." Even though Esdeath said this, she knew that she was getting more and more exhausted but she didn't let it be seen on her face.
She had to change her target because this fight will take too much of the time, she didn't have. She decided to summon a few ice spears and sent them towards Najenda position.
'If I can at least kill that beast, Najenda won't be able to escape my attacks' Esdeath thought that this strategy was probably best in her current position but she didn't know that Susanoo already predicted her attacking Najenda. He was guarding Najenda more than he protects himself, after all, he is the imperial arm.
Susanoo arrived before ice spears and made the disk on his back come in front of him and poured some life energy into it. When ice spears met disk they got absorbed and the disk almost instantly released them back which made them fly even faster than before.
'Tch, how troublesome' Esdeath jumped away from spears direction. If she wasn't exhausted she would just create an ice wall to block them but she had to preserve as much energy as she could.
But before she could even fall on the ground, Susanoo poured a big amount of energy into his hands and created an extremely long sword and performed slash in a horizontal line at the place he predicted where Esdeath would fall.
When Ren saw this he narrowed his eyes and already got ready to make a move if Esdeath was in danger. He wasn't an ungrateful bastard, he knew that Esdeath came here because of him and she was also exhausted because of him since he could stop the fight between Shell and her much earlier.
Esdeath who finally fell on the ground saw a long sword nearing her in a fast manner. This greatly alarmed her since she didn't have much time to react so she quickly used her remaining energy to create a thick wall of ice. But not up to her expectations, not only her wall didn't stop the sword, it didn't even slow its speed to get her some time to dodge.
She was fully exhausted of her energy and could not use ice anymore but even before this near-death situation, there was no visible fear in her eyes only disappointment. She quickly took the last glance at Ren with a gentle look in her eyes and forced smile that seemed to say "sorry".
'It is said that humans will show most of their emotions right before their death... Sorry, I was too weak father' Esdeath thought while she closed her eyes.
When Ren saw how Esdeath looked at him with a lot of emotions visible in her eyes he was shocked. Even if he was a bit dense and had no knowledge of most of the emotions he still recognized most of them in Esdeath's eyes. He was already ready to move in and save Esdeath but he had to do something about enemies since even if he would save her they had no chance of defeating the enemy. He decided to play with psychology. Humans would never do anything they weren't sure of. He had to play his cards right but now the most important thing was to save Esdeath and with that thought in mind he bit the tip of his tongue immediately disappeared from his previous place.
When Esdeath still had closed eyes she heard Susanoo's shout: "WHAT?!"
When she opened her eyes, she saw Ren standing next to her while blocking the sword with his bare hand. The most absurd thing was that the sword wasn't able to cut off his hand. It was due to his energies. Although not even one of them were focusing on enhancing his body's defense, he still was master of 2 energies which wasn't an easy feat if it was someone else they might not be able to master 1 energy in their entire lifetime.
"Ren-" Esdeath had moist eyes when she saw Ren saving her but she shut her mouth when she saw Ren's horrifying appearance.
Ren's face wasn't visible for Susanoo and Najenda because his head was down but when he looked up and glared at them they both felt fear. Even Susanoo who was imperial arm felt fear!
Ren's right eye's color changed into black while his left eye retained icy blue color. His right eye was also bleeding due to overusing death energy to slow time but he wanted to achieve this since it caused him to look even more savage. He was also releasing enormous killing intent which scared every beast in the proximity of 2 kilometers. This enormous amount of killing intent was uncontrollable even for Ren therefore even Esdeath felt a bit of fear but it quickly changed into awe and admiration.
When Najenda saw Ren's appearance and felt his killing intent for a few seconds she felt like it was more than a few hours. She was already sweating a lot and thanks to her sending her life energy to Susanoo she could feel that he felt a bit of fear too.
'He can't be a normal human... He is nuts, it's better to retreat. I will be able to use Susanoo's trump card a few times more but if we will die here it will be all for naught.' Najenda thought.
"Susanoo, retreat for now!" Najenda shout out while gritting her teeth.
"Understood!" Susanoo followed her command and retreated into the woods.
Ren didn't give a chase since his goal was achieved and his body's situation wasn't brightest. All of his bones were cracking under pressure from Flash step he used. His vision was a bit blurred.
After they were sure that the enemy went away, both of them sighed and wanted to find place to rest. Esdeath herself wasn't in the best condition so they had to support each other just to walk. After they walked to a relatively big tree they sat down and leaned against it.
"Thank you." Esdeath said and rested her head on Ren's shoulder and instantly fell asleep in such a safe and comfortable place.
'Hmph, that's my place but I guess I will let her rest there after everything that happened...' Shell snorted but then she felt guilty for this situation.
Ren just looked at Esdeath who already fall asleep with complex expression but in the end, he just shook his head and smiled. He didn't mind Esdeath being so intimate with him and he even felt a bit warm near her so he just leaned his head onto hers and fell asleep. Ren perhaps didn't even notice that both of them were holding hands together.
Hawke and Shadow just looked at this peaceful scene with wide open beaks while Shell looked at Esdeath with a bit of envy even though most of the time she was just teasing Ren without any special feelings but this peaceful scene really made her feel envious.
クリエイターの想い 
aadw
aadw Tbh I am a bit bored with the same characters from AGK so I want to try a new ARC where Ren will travel around the world. This ARC doesn't have to be long. Tell me your thoughts on this idea.
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