บท 53: Sequels
Slash-!
A building was cut in half. At one end stood a black-haired boy with purple eyes, holding a huge steel sword as big as him. And at the other end stood a white-haired woman holding a black cane as tall as she was.
"We're lucky to be in a commercial area."
Most of the buildings around them were stores, mostly tailor shops that were empty. If they had gotten into a fight in a populated area, things could have gotten very messy.
"But seriously, is this kid getting stronger and stronger?"
In one hit, he had been able to cut a two-story tent in half. While Raven was already extremely strong thanks to his blessing, she didn't think he was capable of doing that before.
They had been fighting for a while now, about 20 minutes to be exact, and in that short time, Raven's strength seemed to have taken a huge leap.
Woosh-!
"His speed also increased by a lot."
Shiiing-!
Crack-!
With precise movements, Livia deflected Raven's sword aside, embedding it in the ground.
She had experienced Raven's strength firsthand and knew that blocking his attacks was not a good idea at all, so she decided to deflect them instead.
Once she had Raven in front of her unprotected, she swung her staff to hit him.
Woosh-
Yet, using the sword stuck in the ground, Raven propelled himself upwards, dodging her attack.
Then, still in mid-air, he grabbed the handle of his sword with one hand and, with a twist, pulled it out of the ground and attacked.
Woosh-!
Livia managed to duck quickly, dodging the attack, and from that position, she launched a kick at Raven's stomach.
Boom-!
The kick seemed to have connected, but Raven managed to place his hand at the last second to block it and catch her foot.
Shifting his grip on his sword, he swung it to the flat side and swung it.
Livia, with her foot trapped by Raven's strong grip, knew she couldn't dodge or deflect it from her position, so she quickly shaped her staff and transformed it into a shield that surrounded her.
Boom-!
The sword and shield collided, causing a large crater, but thanks to the shield surrounding her, she was not seriously injured.
But Raven didn't stop there; taking advantage of the fact that Livia was immobilized, he quickly performed a series of attacks.
Boom-! Boom-! Boom-! Boom-!
With each hit, the crater got deeper, until it finally ended up being several meters deep.
Raven stopped when he felt Livia's leg losing strength, even though he couldn't see it because of the shield around it, which was now full of dents.
Focusing his senses to the max, he listened closely to Livia's breathing, which had become noticeably weaker.
Believing he had knocked her unconscious, Raven loosened his grip on her leg.
But that was his mistake.
Woosh-!
Suddenly the shield began to move like liquid from Livia's leg to his hand to finally solidify and grip him tightly.
"You may be very strong."
Livia, despite her injuries, was perfectly calm.
Although her leg was being held by Raven, she still managed to pull herself up, using him for support. Her other free leg was coated by Orichalcum.
"But you still lack experience.
Boom-!
Using her orichalcum-coated leg, Livia kicked Raven strongly in the head.
The orichalcum holding his hand turned liquid again, and Raven's hand let go of her leg, knocking him unconscious on the ground.
Livia saw him lying on the ground and couldn't help but think how strong this boy was despite his young age. And the desire to bring him to her side grew stronger. She was sure that his strength could help Arthur.
Although she wasn't sure how to convince him, he had shown a firm refusal to join them. From what Livia understood, the boy must have his own circumstances.
"Let's take him away for the moment."
She grabbed Raven's unconscious body and carried him against her shoulder, then looked at the huge sword lying next to him.
But after thinking about it for a few seconds, she decided to leave it there.
It wasn't because it seemed too heavy; she was a warrior, and if she enhanced her body with mana, that huge sword wouldn't weigh more than a stick.
But the huge iron sword was crudely cast and looked like it was about to break.
"I thought maybe it would be important for this boy, but seeing how he carelessly used it during our combat, it seems that's not the case."
Putting the sword aside, Livia, with Raven on her shoulder, ran over to where Arthur was fighting Kein and his group.
***
After a few minutes, Livia finally arrived at the scene, which could only be described as a mess.
The whole area was frozen; there were golemas and huge columns of ice scattered all over the place, and destroyed buildings could be seen everywhere.
Plus the unconscious bodies of four people, of which the black-haired boy seemed to be in the worst condition, with his body full of cuts and visibly bruised.
"Oh, Livia, you finally made it."
But Livia ignored all that and instead focused on the man in front of her.
"Young master."
"Hey, did we say stop calling me that?".
"Sorry, I'm still not used to it."
"Well, everything has its time; leaving that aside, how about introducing me to your friend?"
He said as he looked at Raven, unconscious and hanging from her shoulder.
"Ah, yes, I believe he's a mercenary who was trying to claim the bounty and attacked me trying to find out where you were."
"He looks pretty young, but it looks like he still gave you trouble, huh?"
"Yeah, I'm not entirely sure, but I think this kid has a blessing."
"A blessing?"
Arthur looked remarkably surprised to hear her words, which was understandable: people with blessings were extremely rare.
Arthur then moved closer to the child to get a better look at his face.
"This is..."
"Caw!"
Woosh-!
Suddenly there was a cawing sound, and Arthur, with his incredible reflexes, reached out his hand and caught a crow that went flying straight towards him.
"Caw! Caw!"
Despite being trapped, the crow still cawed furiously as it pecked at Arthur's hand, but Arthur clearly felt nothing.
"A crow"
This confirmed it.
"I think we should take them with us for the moment."
"What about the crow?"
"Him too."
Once decided, they left the shattered place without even looking at the passed-out people on the ground.
***
Darkness.
That was all Leticia could see.
Her body felt heavy, as if invisible hands were holding her tightly.
The only thing she could feel was a deep anxiety, a suffocating presentiment that something was going to happen, but without knowing what or when.
Then in front of her appeared.
A huge beast stared at her from above with its piercing golden eyes, which stood out enormously in that dark environment.
Leticia froze, and her body began to shake; just seeing herself reflected in those beastly golden eyes filled her with terror.
Drip- Drip-
Suddenly a steady dripping sound began to be heard, and one more color tinged that dark place.
Red.
The red of her own blood.
Leticia desperately clutched her neck, trying to stop the blood, but it kept flowing.
She could feel the blood filling her throat, preventing her from breathing.
Thud-
She finally fell to her knees, either from the loss of blood or her strong shaking.
Only one thought was constantly running through his head.
"Am I going to die?"
Weakly raising her head, she could watch the golden-eyed beast slowly open its maw; its teeth were similar to a set of blades ready to stab into her flesh.
Finally, the beast pounced on her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
But before it could engulf her, Leticia awoke.
Cold sweat drenched her body, and her heart was beating extremely fast. She was having difficulty breathing, and her whole body was shaking; she felt like she was going to collapse at any second.
"Leticia!"
But a voice alerted her, and seconds later she was enveloped in a soft hug.
"It's okay...."
Beatrice hugged Leticia, trying to calm her down; after a while, she finally stopped shaking.
"Are you all right now?"
She asked with a concerned tone.
Leticia, while still pale, forced a smile and replied.
"Yeah, thank you, Beatrice."
She said in a shaky voice, but her mind finally began to clear.
Looking around, she could see several beds lined up near hers where several soldiers were being tended to.
"This is..."
"We're at the mansion; we were swallowed here after we were found in the Polish and treated for our wounds."
Beatrice said in a sad tone as she lowered her head.
"Shit...!"
Leticia also felt very frustrated. Perhaps she was the most frustrated one in the group. She felt very ashamed of herself.
Not only did she throw away everything she had been taught in a fit of anger, but she had also frozen in fear and was unable to do anything.
She was only a burden to her companions, and she hated herself deeply for it.
"You really are pathetic."
Arthur's words echoed in her mind.
Pressing her lips together until they almost made them bleed, Leticia all she could do was acknowledge those words.
Woosh-!
It was when she was sinking into a pit of self-loathing that she heard it.
Woosh-! Woosh-!
She could recognize that sound anywhere: the sound of a sword being swung.
Leticia then pulled back the white sheets that covered her and got up from her bed.
Beatrice told her worriedly that she should lie down to rest, but she ignored her words and continued walking in the direction of the sound.
Woosh-! Woosh-! Woosh-!
"Huff...huff...huff...huff."
The closer she got, the sound of ragged breathing also filled her ears.
Finally, as she reached toward the window, she saw him.
Woosh-! Woosh-! Woosh-!
Kein was swinging his sword again and again without stopping.
His body was covered with bandages, but he ignored them and continued training; his eyes shone with a determination that indicated he would not stop until he collapsed from exhaustion.
"This is Pendragon family swordsmanship? It's more pathetic than I thought."
"You really are pathetic."
Her fists clenched tightly until the blood began to flow.
"I'll prove it to you..."
She was going to prove that neither her family's fencing nor she was pathetic.
And she was going to prove it by kicking that bastard's ass!
"Kein, prepare me a sword!"
"Yes!"
This one replied without even turning to look at her, as if he were already aware of her thoughts.
Leticia quickly turned and ran up to her room to change.
Beatrice looked at her with concern but with a soft smile on her lips.
"Me too."
Her eyes also took on a gleam of determination as she looked out into a forest near the mansion.
Boom-!
In a secluded area of the forest, the ground was completely shattered, with several columns of ice coming out of the ground along with several charred trees.
"That's all you got?"
Freydis asked as she wiped the sweat dripping from her chin.
"You'll wish that's all I had."
Alexander, equally sweaty, said as lightning began to crackle around his body
Woosh-!
Clank-! Clank-! Clank-!
In another area of the forest, Akiyama was dodging and blocking multiple daggers coming at him from all directions as he repeatedly stepped in and out of the shadows.
In the distance, a pink-haired girl was watching him with some concern as she held a towel and a bottle of water.
After suffering such a crushing defeat by Arthur, they felt again how weak they are.
In the academy, they might be considered the best of the best, but outside, they were nothing more than insignificant little insects in a jungle full of predators.
A normal person would be discouraged to realize this, but not them.
If they were just little insects, then they would be sure to grow big enough to devour their predators.
Starting with the golden-eyed beast.
***
A/N: This will probably be the last chapter I will upload this month, as I have to study for my final exams.
Thank you very much for your support so far. See you next month.
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