Valletta, standing at the rear, felt her expression harden. A flush of humiliation spread across her face, quickly fanned into a raging fire. Her once-beautiful features twisted into something almost demonic, her eyes wide with a mix of fury and madness.
"Come on, you worthless trash! Do you even know what you're doing?!" She roared.
Something in her tone cut through the fear gripping her troops. Their trembling ceased, replaced by a chilling emptiness. Their eyes dulled, lifeless, as if all human warmth had been scraped away, leaving only madness behind.
With inhuman roars, they charged once more, heedless of wounds or death.
"Haaah!"
The battlefield erupted into chaos. Weapons clashed, shouts of rage mingled with screams of pain, and the air itself felt alive with the cruel melody of war.
"Hahaha! Yes… yes! This is it! This is the sight I wanted to see!"
Valletta's laughter sounded, shrill and piercing, her nails raking across her own cheek as though to savor the madness.
The adventurers' expressions tightened with disgust, but she paid them no mind, lost in her own deranged ecstasy, until her instincts screamed. Her laughter stopped instantly. A wave of killing intent crashed over her like a flood. Her heart seized, every muscle tensing.
She spun sharply, body twisting with the speed of a top. In the same motion, she drew the crimson blade at her waist in a flash of red light, swinging it backward to intercept the threat.
Akira appeared behind her like a phantom, his sword's icy edge descending toward her neck like the scythe of the reaper.
Valletta's experience saved her. Years of fighting on blood-soaked battlefields had honed her reflexes to a razor's edge. She dodged, the red blade in her hand clashing against his with an ear-splitting clang.
Sparks showered into the air.
Valletta was no stranger to such deadly encounters. As a Level 5, her combat instincts had saved her countless times.
But…
Since when did a Level 3 possess this kind of overwhelming strength?!
Their locked blades tilted, the pressure one-sided. Her arms strained, bones creaking under the force of his strike. The balance was slipping entirely in his favor.
Her gut screamed, if she yielded for even an instant, his blade would cleave her in two.
In a desperate gamble, she tore her left hand from her sword's grip, whipping a dagger from her waist in a fluid motion. Madness burned in her eyes as she thrust it toward Akira's chest.
Akira's gaze narrowed. In that instant, the world slowed. The dagger's arc was sharp, but in his vision it might as well have been crawling through molasses.
Fwoosh—
"Heh."
The sound of the blade cutting air and his low sneer came almost at the same time.
Releasing his right hand from his sword's hilt, his arm shot forward, precise and sudden as a viper's strike. His fingers clamped around Valletta's wrist with crushing force, halting the dagger mid-thrust.
Then Akira stepped forward, his heel pivoting slightly before he lashed out. The kick drove straight into Valletta's stomach.
The impact was like a hammer blow, Valletta's body folded and shot backward through the air.
Bang!
The cargo box beneath them splintered from the force of Akira's step, wood shards flying in every direction.
Valletta's muffled groan echoed across the battlefield as she crashed heavily to the ground, sending up a cloud of dust.
Akira caught his one-handed sword mid-fall, landing lightly on the shattered remains of the box before stepping onto solid ground.
But even as she spat blood, Valletta snarled through clenched teeth, "Use it!"
Across the melee, Lyra, half-turned, fending off a strike, froze. Something about Valletta's tone made her stomach knot. Then, in the corner of her vision, she caught it: two animal ears poking from beneath a hood. The werewolf's hand slid under his robe.
"It's coming! Back off!" She shouted.
The warning needed no explanation. In unison, the adventurers stamped hard on the ground, breaking away from the fallen enemy and retreating toward the path they had come from.
At the same time, the evilus troops at the rear halted their chanting, but their hands were already moving. One by one, they drew blazing red magic swords, their eyes alight with fanatic fire. Without a word, they swung. Flames erupted from the blades, howling forward with the speed and hunger of a predator.
Akira didn't have time to intercept. He simply raised one hand, palm outward. With a sharp crack, an ice wall surged upward in front of the adventurers, its surface glittering like frozen steel.
The first fire strike slammed into it—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions tore through the air, flashes of white flame blinding in the dimness. Smoke billowed, filling lungs with acrid heat.
When the haze cleared, nothing remained of the attackers, no bodies, only a thin spray of blood on the ground.
Even prepared as they were, the adventurers stood silent, shocked.
Adi shut her eyes for a moment.
Ryuu's fists trembled.
Lyra let out a bitter laugh. "Figures. Finn would guess even self-destruction."
The method was vicious: strike from range, immobilize with arrows and blades, then detonate a storm of kaensekis with dagger-type magic swords.
From the shadowed rear, Valletta emerged again, flanked by soldiers. Her mouth was bloodied, but her grin was feral. She yanked a small, dirt-streaked girl forward by the collar.
"Hey! Stop right there, unless you want them to die!"
Akira realized this was what he'd sensed earlier with detection magic. He'd assumed it was another ambush. He hadn't expected hostages.
The adventurers froze mid-strike.
The girl flinched in Valletta's grip. Rope burns marked her wrists and neck. Her tear-filled eyes stayed wide, too afraid to let the tears fall.
"You beasts!" Adi stepped forward, rage in her voice, only to be stopped by her sister's grip.
"Fight us if you dare! Let them go!"
Valletta's laugh was sharp and grating. She pressed the red sword's tip against the girl's chin.
"Beg for mercy, loudly! Maybe if I'm in a good mood, I'll leave their bodies intact!"
Akira sighed, sliding his sword back into its scabbard. He crossed his arms, tapping one finger against his forearm.
"Hey, woman. I'll give you one chance. Surrender now, and I'll let you live."
He knew his team, too many of them were kind, unwilling to kill even when faced with the worst of the worst. Most would rather disable than end a life outright. That mercy often meant criminals were simply dragged to Bergen, the City of Sinners, a place where torture was mild punishment and dismemberment was a trade.
But Bergen still left a sliver of hope for survival. That was the closest thing to mercy Orario offered.
The battlefield went quiet, every breath heavy with tension.
Adi was just about to step forward to warn him, afraid his taunt would push the already-mad evilus over the edge when Valletta threw her head back and laughed.
"Hahaha! You little brat, are you serious?"
She jerked the girl closer, pressing the swordpoint harder until it dimpled the trembling skin beneath her chin.
"It seems that in front of you hypocrites, the lives of these people are worthless?!"
Her voice was sharp, like a venomous blade cutting through the tense air. Yet even as she spat out those words, Valletta couldn't help but feel a trace of unease in her chest.
The boy standing before her, his relaxed expression, the calmness in his eyes, was unnerving. Either he possessed some hidden trump card or he simply didn't care about the hostages in her hands.
Having witnessed Akira slaughter Evilus members without the slightest hesitation in the past, Valletta found it hard to believe this man was capable of kindness.
Her instincts screamed at her. She took an unconscious step back with her right foot, every muscle in her body tightening. Her gaze locked on Akira, unblinking. If he so much as twitched, she would hurl the hostage bomb without a second thought.