Kaecilius's face twisted as the incoming shell screamed toward him.
With a sharp motion, one hand forward, one hand back a glowing golden portal flared into existence.
The artillery shell vanished into the circle, only to reappear high above the open ocean.
BOOOOOOM!!
A thunderous explosion split the sea, throwing up a towering column of water.
Kaecilius exhaled shakily, a cold sweat dripping down his back. If he'd taken that hit head-on… he wasn't sure he'd still be standing.
"Huh? You can open a circle that leads straight to the ocean? What a weird round thing!"
Laffey tilted her head, wide-eyed in innocent wonder. The expression on her face was so cute, so clueless, it clashed violently with the sheer brutality she had just unleashed.
Anyone who didn't know better might think she was just a harmless little girl.
Kaecilius had thought the same until he'd tasted one of her punches.
Now he knew better. The white-stockinged loli standing before him was a monster in human form. A terrifying existence whose casual blows carried enough force to make even him cautious.
"Oh well… if my twin-linked cannons can't hit you," she murmured, tipping back her bottle and draining the last of her Lafite wine, "then I'll just fight up close."
Even in the middle of a deadly battle, she still remembered to drink. Truly, the little drunkard.
"Ah… all out of wine. Once I finish with this guy, I'll have to ask Commander for a few more crates."
The words had barely left her lips before she moved.
One small push with her legs and she vanished.
"So fast!!" Kaecilius's eyes went wide.
In the next heartbeat, a flash of white hair appeared before him. A dainty foot in white stockings came crashing down toward his skull with lethal weight.
Startled, Kaecilius rolled desperately aside.
BOOOOOOM!!!
Her heel struck the ground like a falling meteor. The earth shook violently, stone splintering as a massive crater opened where he'd been standing.
"Bloody hell!" Kaecilius spat, his face twisting.
That light step… carried the destructive force of an airstrike.
He had no way of knowing that Laffey's true form was a destroyer warship weighing thousands of tons. She could freely alter her body weight from feather-light, to the crushing mass of her full ship displacement. At maximum weight, every punch or kick she threw was catastrophic.
"Huh? You dodged again? You're just like a rabbit!" Laffey puffed her cheeks in irritation. Her sing-song voice was sweet and childish, yet the words chilled to the bone. "Running away won't help you beat me. So just be a good boy… and die."
Kaecilius's expression hardened. "Form up Illusions!"
His hands blurred through seals. Dozens of copies of himself appeared, encircling Laffey. Each raised a golden whip, lashing out in unison.
In seconds, she was bound tight.
The real Kaecilius sneered, a golden spear forming in his hands. "Let's see you act arrogant now. Die!"
With a savage shout, he hurled the weapon.
But Laffey's expression didn't even flicker. The whips had her body pinned, yes but her rigging floated freely at her sides.
The coilgun mounted on her right shoulder sparked to life.
ZRRRRRMM!
A crackling electromagnetic shell burst forth, colliding with the golden spear mid-flight.
The weapon shattered instantly, scattering fragments of light.
The round didn't stop.
It screamed forward, a streak of death aimed straight at Kaecilius's true body.
Electromagnetic shells lacked explosive warheads, but their velocity and penetration dwarfed ordinary munitions.
Kaecilius barely had time to gasp before it struck.
The round punched clean through his abdomen, leaving a gaping wound.
He stared down at it in disbelief, blood bubbling from his lips. Since becoming a sorcerer, he had never suffered such a grievous injury.
Even with the resilience granted by the Dark Dimension, he knel, he could no longer fight.
His hands shook as he carved a desperate circle into the air.
A portal bloomed before him.
"Damn brat… I'll be back for you! Just you wait!"
He dove through without hesitation, vanishing into the shimmering light.
The moment his true body disappeared, all his illusions collapsed like smoke.
"Aww, he got away. What a shame…" Laffey stomped her foot, cheeks puffed in regret. "I hope Commander doesn't punish me."