I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 238: The Woodland Threat [part 2]

It was a vow I made right then and there. Mind hex was a creepy thing, and I had almost forgotten just how creepy it could be.

I was sure I wasn’t under one because of [Conqueror’s Will] and because I was aware. Even though the monster seemed strong enough to bypass the attribute, it was like the attribute itself was warning me.

And now that I was more conscious, I felt more in charge of my thoughts, unlike a few minutes ago, where I couldn’t even tell exactly what I was doing.

Looking at Nisha, it was almost, if not the exact same thing with her. She was certainly not in control of her own mind anymore.

She held her Cleavers up to her face now, her gaze sharpened.

’I have to fight her? She’s going to beat the shit out of me.’

The alternative would be to call Maggie and let the overzealous Saint deal with her. But in that regard, I was very worried for Nisha.

“Listen, it’s not like I can’t knock you to your senses, so don’t go thinking you beat me. I just don’t intend to take things seriously, okay?”

I twirled my sword and extended it to my side on one hand, while she was stationary, her gaze drilling into my body to reach whatever was beyond it.

Then she exploded forward. She literally vanished in an instant and the next second she was upon me.

But I knew she was going to do that, of course. Try to close the distance. If there was one thing I learnt from Kassie, it was the use of distance.

I put up a wall of fire around us, immediately shrinking the space into a much smaller circle. White flames extended like a wall and joined together above, locking us both in a box of fire.

She slashed downward from behind, but I got a tingling in my neck and staggered away from the strike. I turned sharply and sent a kick flying at her. She blocked with her hand and raised a leg to guard her flank. As she caught it, wind exploded from the impact.

She didn’t even wait to put her leg down. Her balance was flawless nonetheless. She ate the distance between us and brought both Cleavers down like a hurricane, one coming from over her right shoulder, the other hurled from behind at her midsection. One would have slashed over my shoulder while the other carved into my ribs.

Thank goodness I decided to cease being pitiful, because in the past few seconds I couldn’t fully unleash my flames. I was being hesitant, didn’t want to hurt her. If Nisha managed to come back to her senses, she would definitely dislike me for that one too.

But I also could not let her hurt me devastatingly. As her blades closed in from both angles, a tornado of fire immediately erupted around me. I let the flame’s force spin me away, and even as I moved I couldn’t hide my shock at the fact that Nisha did not let the flames stop her and instead charged in nonetheless.

I had made sure the flames didn’t reach her, but I also wasn’t expecting her to ride into it like it was just another storm.

This one was a raging storm of white flames. The moment I turned away, she gave chase immediately, turning and swinging her Cleavers down one after the other with devastating force, as if she was truly determined to crush me.

I continued to dodge and dodge while pulling back, but before I could create any distance, she had already covered the gap at terrifying speed and was breaking her Cleavers down on me in relentless succession. Each of them moved like they were two parts of a whole. Where one flew forward over the head, the other followed sharply from the side, covering the first blade’s weakness and openings. Counterattacking was far more difficult than it looked.

Her style was rugged and brutal, as if she was a stubborn bull that had might and speed, determined to crush down the wall in front of her. Actually, make that two… two bulls.

I dodged sideways again and dashed into her space. My sword flew after in a trail of cold speckles as it swung towards her side to eat into her. But instead of slashing her with the opening I forced open, I turned my blade and struck the pommel against her temple.

It was my mistake…

It was my mistake to underestimate her and think that such an attack was going to slow her down.

As the strike hit, she seemed like she ought to stagger back because it had to have been painful, but she halted herself from even moving a single step. Before I could recover, she hurled her head towards me like a projectile and bulldozed it right into my face, squeezing my features in.

At the same time, having seen the headbutt coming and knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it, I laced my attack for after it hit.

So chains flew out and lashed onto her. From all directions. Her hands were snapped back, her legs were instantly bound together, and she crumbled to her knees as the chains drew taut.

Then I glared at her, holding my broken nose.

“I might not want to burn your beautiful skin… but I’m sure as hell ready to burn your very soul.”

It was better one lived with a charred soul than a charred body, wasn’t it.

I raised my chin towards her and said:

“Tell me… the weight of your sin.”

As I activated the enchantment of the chains, Nisha let out a loud cry. Her fists clenched, muscles and veins popping as she pulled on the chains wanting to break free. The shadow of herself beneath the ground turned to a circle and deepened unnaturally, as if the surface was becoming liquid. But the chains were not letting her go… and she was about to do something very crazy. After all, she had been fighting me without her summon.

But at the same time, the air became heavy, and the floor trembled, breath after breath, as if something was taking its time to come closer to us.

Finally, a large metallic clang slammed onto the ground, ringing in my ear from behind. Nisha’s eyes widened in terror. The fear she had momentarily forgotten about during our skirmish had returned, a hundredfold.

When my legs moved and I slowly turned back to where the creature stood, my heart skipped a beat.

Oh, and it certainly wasn’t for good reasons.