375 A Fearsome Fight (A)
Teleportation was her trump card, and it heavily depended on her aura reserve. When she was at the first level, she could use it a total of seven times before running dry of her aura. After advancing to the second level of the weapon master stage, that number had increased to 15 times. She had already activated it twice since the beginning of the battle and could only cast it 13 more times. But if she used aura techniques, that number would decrease.
…
On the side of the battlefield, a bunch of weaklings pounced on Roy. He didn’t retaliate, simply choosing to jump high into the air. The hyenas thought that he would come down. After all, he was a level 10 trainee in their eyes. A trainee couldn’t fly. A weapon master couldn’t fly either. But their expectations were bound to be betrayed today. He firmly remained flying in the sky as if there were a platform beneath his form.
The hyenas had to question what the fuck was going on? Were they under an illusion, or was a trainee really flying?!
A mournful roar came from behind.
The leader of the pack commanded them to deal with him quickly. They couldn’t get him with normal attacks, so they launched fire blades toward him. Hundreds of fire blades lit up the night sky as they went toward Roy. Beasts below level 10 manifested these blades. They weren’t as strong or vibrant as the leader, and their range was quite limited. He simply flew high enough to go out of their range. The fire blades disappeared in the wind before they could touch the hem of his cloak.
The jaws of the hyenas slacked as they looked at him speechlessly for a moment before they started barking at him like chihuahuas. Their voice was like a banshee’s wail, ear piercing. Worst of all, it was so dense with disdain and contempt that it could be made out. It was clear that they were looking down on him for being too cowardly.
So what if you can fly? You still don’t dare to confront us! What a big pussy you are!!
Roy clenched his hands as he felt an intense urge to smack them to death right there and then, but he didn’t go on with it. The difference was quite clear. It would take no more than a second for him to eradicate this pack. But then, the main purpose would be void.
He disdainfully looked down at them and snorted. “They are to be used as a stone to sharpen my hidden blade. I can’t strike them dead just because I am annoyed.”
“Anyway, their false bravado isn’t getting them anywhere.”
The existence of the hyenas was as lowly as stepping stones in Roy’s eyes. They couldn’t understand his words. Otherwise, they would have felt dejected and deeply aggravated. He was feeling that kind of aggravation. After only, he couldn’t even release an ounce of his true powers to shut their mouths, or they will be intimidated into running away, and Delilah would miss the best chance to train.
‘Where will their wailing stop?’ he wondered while overlooking the battlefield.
The thing that immediately caught his eye was that even while working together, the pack leader and his trusted subordinate were unable to leave a scratch on Delilah.
The pack leader was a level 15 boss monster, and the other was a level 14 monster.
An average intermediate-level weapon master wouldn’t dare to confront both of them at the same time, and an advanced-level weapon master would be hard-pressed if they fought them.
But here, something entirely opposite to the norm was going on.
The ones facing difficulties were the beasts, and the one suppressing the beasts above her level was the gorgeous woman. Her stats were below theirs, but her mental fortitude, attention to detail, natural reflexes, and techniques were better.
When she hurt them once, they started fidgeting, no longer engaging her in close combat. It showed that their mental fortitude was that of a coward. They were the strongest of their pack, but it was hard to change their nature.
Her attention to detail was almost cheat-like. After a few exchanges, she realized that when the hyenas were about to conjure a fire blade, their breathing pattern would change, becoming slow but firm like the calm before the storm, and there would be a minute change in their expression. This discovery allowed her to move and make plans before they could attack her. As a result, she dodged each of their fire blades while launching a counterattack in return.
Their reflexes weren’t as good as hers, although they were faster. They succeeded in dodging most of her flying daggers, but several brushed past them, grazing their skin, and a few gouged into their flesh.
The skin wounds weren’t life-threatening, but the grievous wounds created by daggers that clinked against their bones each time they moved made them literally cry tears of blood.
Just like Roy, they weren’t able to understand how someone weaker than them in terms of physical strength and energy reverse was winning this fight.
‘I underestimated her.’
Roy said that he could subdue her easily, but there was no denying she was a better fighter than him.
She grew up in a dreadful environment. The people who taught her killing techniques had lost their humanity. Any sane person, as long as he could remorse and had a bit of humanity left in him, wouldn’t pit children against each other and force them to commit murder, but they did. She was unlucky as she ended up in their hands when she could be enjoying her childhood as children should. The killing techniques that were taught to her didn’t contain hesitation. It was meant to kill, and it fully embodied that purpose. But even those assassins could not have taught that she would have perfected them while in the weapon master stage!
“It’s because of the unbridgeable difference in their skill that she is stepping all over them,” Roy said.