Chapter 378: Adaptation

"..." I stop flying, landing softly on the ground and grabbing daggers to be faster. Fortunately, this vault was full of weapons; even if I can't use the weapons' powers, they're still very useful.

"Are you really going to keep running away like a coward? Where's your honor as a queen!" she yells as I hurl daggers at her, which she defends with the club in her hands.

"You tricked me by bringing me here to force me into something. You have no honor at all, so why should I have any?" I throw three daggers at her, forcing her to duck and dodge. She charges at me and tries to strike with the club.

I duck, trying to make a cut on her leg, but she jumps, dodging and flapping her wings to stay in the air and put some distance between us. She throws the club at me, but I use a tablet with inscriptions to protect myself.

"!!!!" She looks alarmed as I realize something very useful.

"Oh!! You don't want this damaged, do you?!" I look around, searching for the thing that seems most fragile, something that might disable the defense magic if it takes too many hits.

I quickly run to a shelf, grabbing a scroll — light and with protection magic, a good shield.

"You coward." She picks up daggers from the floor and runs toward me. When she makes a slash, I open the scroll in front of the strike. She spins her sword downward, but I just lower the paper.

"Urgh!!" She spins her body and kicks the paper, which pushes it back, the blow hitting my stomach and throwing me to the ground. I roll to the side, dodging a strike and slipping under the shelf.

"..." We both end up on either side, separated by the shelf. I quickly slam into it with all my strength to push it over onto her. Qyraen rolls under it while I throw myself to the floor, rolling past another and knocking it down too. She flies up, but I keep repeating this, knocking down the shelves.

"You damn..." She can't catch me because she can't just go through the shelves, not until I've knocked several down. I find a shield and a sword that are quite light, as well as two bracers that I put on my arms.

I throw the shield at Qyraen, hitting her wing and making her fall. I throw a dagger, but she defends by throwing her weapon against mine. She quickly spins on the ground to recover and grabs a sword from the floor, running toward me.

She strikes me directly, but I cross both hands in an X, blocking the cut with my bare hands even as I'm pressed back. She tries to kick me, but my tail grabs her leg and pulls, trying to trip her.

"Why are you so restrained, Qyraen? Shouldn't you have beaten me by now?" I provoke her as she tries to force the sword down, but the bracers do an excellent job of defending.

"You run away too much, that's why it's taking so long." I remove my right arm and use my left to let the sword slide down, slipping out of her reach, and then I punch Qyraen in the face with all my strength. Thanks to my ring, the punch makes Qyraen's nose bleed and sends her staggering back.

"..." She takes a few faltering steps, touching her face and seeing the blood starting to run and drip onto the floor. I wipe my arm across my face, cleaning the blood that ran from my own nose after the blow she landed earlier; fortunately, the bleeding has already stopped.

"...You really are a wretched creature." She throws the sword at me and looks around, picking up two light gauntlets from the floor — they're like metallic gloves with gold details.

I grab a long staff from the floor, realizing it's a spear. It's good for keeping distance, but instead of keeping distance, I strike the shelf's support and use the spear as a wedge to topple the shelf while throwing the spear at Qyraen.

Since I'm near the end of the shelf, I just jump backward as Qyraen is forced to defend against the spear and ends up being hit by the shelf falling on top of her. I hear a pained groan, but to seize the moment, I fly onto the shelf and start jumping on it to hurt Qyraen as much as possible.

"I-I hope you die, you lunatic!" I shout, not knowing if I'm hurting her. But after a while, Qyraen manages to crawl out from under the shelf as it finishes crashing to the floor. Qyraen holds onto the shelf's support beam to pull herself up, and I see blood running from her head.

"Haa..." She pants in pain. I hope she's broken every rib in her body!!

"..." Qyraen tears a piece of her clothes, wiping the blood from her face so it won't get in the way, while her hate-filled glare at me is intense.

"You'll pay dearly for this..." she says, picking up a tablet that ended up cracked, probably from all the impact. Even though they have defense magic, the vault itself is very old.

"I'd like to see you make me pay for it, white-feathered rat." She grabs a large sword from the floor and scoops up a lot of coins, throwing them all into the air and striking them, which sends many flying very fast toward me. I duck, using the fallen shelf as a shield, and crawl along the floor looking for a weapon.

"You think you can destroy the history of my kingdom and get away with it!" I hear her hate-filled voice approaching. I quickly stand up, finding a quiver of arrows and a bow. I try to use it, but I've never had to use a bow before, so it takes me a long time just to nock a single arrow, and when I shoot, I still miss, which gives her time to get close. I throw the bow at her and start throwing the arrows with my hand.

I know my fighting style is totally pathetic, but I've never had to fight without magic before. If I could use magic, I would have used my threads to fight, immobilize, and attack with [Infinito +1] to end this fight.

But you can see that Qyraen won't be able to keep up the pace if she keeps getting crushed by shelves. They've proven to be my greatest weapons, and since the vault is huge, there's still plenty to be knocked down.

Clash

Qyraen slams her sword against my bracers, but the weight of the blade forces me to my knees. I try to use my tail, but she grabs it with one hand.

"Enough of using that. Do you think I'll fall for repeated tricks?"

"W-Waaaa!!" She drops the sword and pulls my tail, starting to yank me while spinning her whole body around several times. This disorients me, and I can't move right to free my tail.

"Gaaahh!!" She slams me against a marble pillar full of beautiful carvings, probably a work of art, and then she lets me go as I fall to the floor.

"Hyaaaa!!" I scream when I feel my body being crushed by the pillar Qyraen knocks down on top of me. I gasp in pain, feeling my lungs being compressed by the weight.

"It's fun knocking things down on top of others, isn't it?" She stomps on my face hard, humiliating me and taking out her hatred.

'I-I'm in so much pain...' I think some bones have broken or cracked from the weight. Qyraen walks away, looking for a weapon, and I take the chance to drag myself with great difficulty from under the pillar.

My desperate crawling hurts my fingernails, breaking them against the floor and smearing everything with blood, but with a lot of effort, I manage to get out from under the pillar, which makes a loud noise, drawing Qyraen's attention.

"...For someone so pathetic and cowardly, I didn't think you'd have enough will to get out of there," she says, picking up the same bow and arrows I threw earlier, though she can only grab the scattered arrows since the quiver is far away and empty.

"Let me show you how to use a bow and arrow." When she says that, I quickly try to drag myself with difficulty to a tablet, grabbing it. It's not very big, so when Qyraen shoots the arrow, I'm forced to perfectly match the spot where the arrow will hit, and I barely defend.

Qyraen nocks the next arrow, pulling the bowstring back further and shooting even faster than before, but this time she already has the second one ready, nocking it very quickly. I defend one, and the other grazes past, cutting the side of my ribs.

This makes me gasp in pain, but fortunately, the cut is very shallow because Qyraen also isn't in the best condition to aim a weapon.

"Haa..." I stand up, debilitated, but as Qyraen takes a step forward, she ends up stopping, and I see blood running from the corner of her mouth.

"I-It seems you're not as well as you make it look," I say arrogantly. Unlike her, I have the advantage because even injured and with broken or cracked bones, my marionette body doesn't lose that much mobility.

"..." She says nothing, just walks slowly, backing away a little and looking for a weapon. I take the chance to breathe deeply and rest, even if just for 5 seconds.

"Haaa... Haaa..." Even if I want to go after a weapon, if I don't take the chance to rest, I'll end up feeling sick and unable to fight. So I sit down, watching Qyraen far from me. It seems hard to find weapons because of all the shelves I knocked down; she'll have to go further if she wants to find something good.

'I-I need to win this...' Are we even? I don't know. I'm very hurt, and so is she. I can't tell how much of an advantage I have or if she's the one with the advantage, but I hope I'm winning this.