Chapter 115: The Tales of Cinder [9]
Mitsuki appeared amidst the ash beside Monar. Both stood facing the Lady of Cinder.
She looked down at them in silence, as if waiting for them to continue the fight.
’We hurt her, but she regenerated instantly...’
Mitsuki swallowed hard. Nervous, he tightened his grip on the shotgun and sharpened his gaze.
The ash at the princess’s feet had moved to heal her body in the blink of an eye. Worse still, the entire place was filled with large mounds of ash that could easily be used to prolong the battle far longer than they could handle.
Azel, Marco, and Monar realized that at the exact same moment.
"We have to be fast... very fast," Marco said without taking his eyes off the enemy.
Mitsuki didn’t answer—there was no need. He took a deep breath, calming the pain caused by the demonic magic.
In a blink, another arrow tore through the air with a supersonic sound. Flying straight toward the princess’s head, it embedded itself into her right eye.
The force behind it was so great that part of her head vanished instantly.
That was the signal to continue.
Mitsuki shouted; fear, anxiety, anger, and sadness mixed together, forcing him forward. His body dissolved into ash particles, and the ground beneath his feet shattered into a small crater.
Marco followed, creating the same impact, and together they charged at the princess.
As if they had teleported, Mitsuki positioned himself in front of her face. He aimed the shotgun and pulled the trigger.
At the same time, Marco spun like a tornado on his axis and delivered a clean horizontal slash with his sword.
The Lady of Cinder reacted. One sword clashed with Marco’s blade in an instant, while the second sword absorbed the full impact of the fire shot.
It seemed like the attack would fail right then and there, but two more blood arrows pierced through the princess’s chest, leaving large holes that were immediately healed by the surrounding ash. Still, it forced her to take a step back.
There, coordinating for survival, Mitsuki dashed in zigzags across the ground while Marco moved alongside him.
They were starting to understand each other.
From Monar’s nonexistent eyes there was only darkness, but through his other senses he perceived the clash of swords, the whistle of arrows flying, the characteristic "puff" Mitsuki made whenever he turned into ash, and the detonations of the shotgun after the brief "click" of the trigger.
The subtle vibrations spoke through the ground, and magical presences resonated through the roots spread across the battlefield.
Monar showed a faint expression of fatigue.
The hands covering his eyes dug their small black claws into his skin, making him bleed even more. Then, the guttural voice of the demon spoke to him.
"There are interesting things inside here. You are certainly a special elf..."
Monar ignored it. He clenched his fist, and blood emerged from it. That blood crawled across the ground toward Azel, who stood behind him.
Curiously, Azel couldn’t see the demon covering Monar’s eyes, and unaware of it, he continued firing arrows using the blood flowing from his wrist.
Clang! Marco’s sword bounced off the crystal. The recoil sent him flying toward the pillars, but Mitsuki appeared within the ash, grabbed him by the wrist, and, like tossing a rag doll, hurled him back toward the princess.
After that, he followed the same path, propelling himself with ash.
They both arrived like meteors, but the Lady of Cinder swung her swords in an immediate double cross slash.
Still midair, Mitsuki propelled himself toward Marco, pushing him toward one of the pillars to avoid being cut by the blade, saving himself from the same fate.
Marco used that momentum to leap onto the pillar, and Mitsuki did something similar by propelling himself back.
Together, they aimed at different points of the princess’s head from separate angles. She sighed, tired, as if this bored her.
A blood arrow suddenly pierced through her chest, reminding her that these weren’t the same kids from the beginning of the fight—and that this was far from boring.
Mitsuki fired, and Marco cut.
The severed head of the Lady of Cinder fell and, at the same time, was disintegrated by the fire blast.
Four more arrows shot forward in the next second and, like the others, left massive holes in the enemy’s torso.
Marco and Mitsuki didn’t waste the opportunity.
Running along the ground around the princess, Marco maneuvered his sword with aggressive, desperate cuts, while above him, propelling himself through the air as if flying, Mitsuki fired at every possible point.
"Still not enough!" Marco shouted.
’You think I don’t know that?!’ Mitsuki snapped internally.
Their efforts were paying off, but the speed wasn’t enough. The ash beneath the Lady’s feet crawled back to her, regenerating every wound once again.
Before she could defend herself, Azel fired seven more arrows. But after losing so much blood, he dropped to his knees. Cold sweat ran down his pale face.
At that moment, the blood Monar had sent reached him and climbed up his arm.
He saw the effort of that old elf and thought about the guilt eating away at him. Then he stood up, loaded another blood arrow, and prepared to fire.
The Lady of Cinder’s body regenerated once more. At that moment, she whispered and raised her arms high.
Mitsuki, who was about to fire, felt danger.
[ The skill "Premonition" has been activated. ]
In that fraction of a second, the princess slammed her swords into the ground. The stone cracked, and scorching flames burst from within, chasing after Marco. The red-haired warrior had to run toward the broken pillars to shield himself and regroup, while Mitsuki managed to dodge the blade by propelling himself backward.
But that wasn’t all.
The Lady of Cinder had not moved from her spot at any point during the fight; she remained in the same position while attacking and defending. That was something Mitsuki had only just realized.
She—a warrior of ancient times, with a story that dragged her into becoming a specter—stepped forward. A single step... just one, and she was already in front of the group of adventurers who had challenged her.
With that same terrifying speed, the devastating edge of her swords threatened to kill them all in a single strike.