Chapter B4C52 - Welcome Strangers
Rurin felt the clash of her blade against another person’s for the first time in her life and found she didn’t like it.
The Soldier was good, well trained and equipped, with a shining steel breastplate and helmet that radiated with enchantments. They blocked her slash and immediately moved to riposte, blade flickering through the air, almost seeming to ignore the intervening space.
However, they were not gold.
With one gauntleted fist, Rurin bashed the strike to the side, crouched low and leapt forward. Even her enhanced vision wasn’t enough to prevent her sight from blurring as she blasted forward at ridiculous speeds. Her blade, perfectly weighted and aimed with inhuman precision, punched through that shining breastplate with ease, her monstrous, Unseen-enhanced strength, and her Skills, designed to pierce even the toughest of kin, were simply too much.
Her brand flared into life, burning and searing at her nerves, forcing Rurin to clench her teeth and shut her eyes against the unbelievable pain. If she hadn’t advanced beyond the strength of her curse, she would have been brought to her knees, unable to move.
Rurin watched the light fade from the eyes of her opponent, then lifted her sword with one hand, the body rising along with it. With a flick of her wrist, she sent it tumbling away.
“I hate this,” she groaned.
Just because she hated it didn’t mean she had any option but to keep going. The fighting continued all around her, and her people were outmatched. She could see it in the way they coordinated, the way they tried to fight, instinctively, as if they were facing kin.
Slayers didn’t bunch up, that just made them easy targets. They spread out, trying to balance aggression with caution, always alert to the dangers confronting their teammates and ready to intervene. The Soldiers didn’t behave that way. They fought in tight formations and moved as a single unit. If an individual Slayer approached, they would turn as one, confronting the opponent with a wall of shields and a flurry of blades.