Chapter 609 Challenges Daimon & Nethereal sisters, Sarah's version (part 16)
The chill inspiring pretty smile on Sarah’s face, returned the now four enemies, Sheilla included, to the real world.
“Retreat and regroup!”, with a couple of words, the enemy queen gave her next order, then she, her weakest pawn which was a Sargeant and the bulky short Captain, flashed in group and appeared near the remaining chain spheres.
The tall Captain on the other hand and against his wishes, was forced to stop a few hundreds of meters away from the rest, by Sheilla’s orders, the reason was that he touched the Lieutenant that melted away, meaning that there was a chance he was poisoned by the crazy girl as well.
What horrified the enemy queen as well as her pawns the most, is that they were sure that the Lieutenant guy wasn’t attacked by Sarah and yet he was turned into a puddle of black pus out of nowhere, as always, the unknown was the most frightening as there was no way to make preparations to prevent something of which you know nothing about.
“Hey, don’t forget that if we die, you’ll be going down as well!”, shouted the tall Captain, soldier or nor, he naturally didn’t want to die, especially because it would be humiliating to be killed by lowly mortal while he was in a weakened state, after having survived a real war where enemies on par with the Lord he followed participated.
“If you want to regroup, cleanse yourself with your nether, then discard that hand with which you touched that guy, otherwise…”, said the enemy queen with a dangerous voice, making the tall Captain grit his teeth.
‘This bitch, she is already thinking on using me as a sacrifice!’, he inwardly swore to then steel his heart, his right arm was then coated in red colored nether before he slashed towards his left arm, cutting everything a few centimeters after his shoulder.
“Kgh”, naturally the tall Captain growled a bit as he cut off his own arm due to pain, he sealed the wound with his battle aura; to stop the blood loss, his severed arm fell from the sky where the battlefield for queens was, and turned into meat paste after clashing against the solid ground below.
Only then, Sheilla nodded allowing the now one-armed Captain to regroup with the others.
“Why didn’t she attack us, did poisoning Kant made her use too much battle aura?”, asked the bulky Captain to which the enemy queen snorted.
“No, she even if she appears to be stupidly carefree, she is annoyingly cunning, so she wouldn’t have resorted to something that put her at disadvantage just to mess around, she is either trying to play with out minds or needs some time to prepare her next move”, she said.
“Forget about that, how the hell did she kill Kant!”, exclaimed the Sargeant, he was the weakest one here so chances are, that he was next, the one-armed Captain frowned as he was reminded of the info that Sheilla told them beforehand.
Explore hidden tales at My Virtual Library Empire
“You told us that unlike the enemy queen from the previous round who awakened nether in the middle of her fight, that purple haired girl had probably obtained nether before all this… perhaps her nether is stealth oriented like the one of those creeps from the Valphore family?”, he said to which Sheilla answered.
“Whatever the case might be, there are only two options, either you all join hands to gain me a considerable amount of time to unseal the others, or one of you two distracts her while the others help me accelerate the unsealing process”, she said as she pointed at the two Captains.
The now one-armed tall Captain was about to object to the enemy queen’s given options, when the Sargeant immediately said.
“I suggest Captain Fenn to take the chance to avenge his previous loss which was a result of a traitorous attack from the shadows”.
The one-armed Captain glared at the obviously coward Sargeant, who wanted him to be the one to fight the crazy girl, so that he could remain at the back in a relatively safer position, unfortunately for him the bulky Captain also added.
“The idea has some merit Fenn, in a short battle an attack type knight like you will have it easier to survive against a poison user than a defense type one than me, in any case if you fail it will be my turn next so there is no use in complaining”.
While the Sargeant was just trying to save his ass, what the bulky Captain said made sense, against an opponent who used hidden offensive methods like poison, for a short exchange it was better to take the lead by overwhelming them, instead of defending and the one-armed Captain was the stronger attacker out of the three, so he was the best option.
“We’ll go with that”, casually said Sheilla, what a joke, she sacrificed the eight members of her race who actually thought she wanted to save them, without any remorse, so she didn’t care whether the one-armed Captain survived or not, he just needed to gain her a couple of minutes to unseal the other pawns and that was it.
“Two minutes, after that whether you had finished by then or not, I’ll retreat”, he said.
Angry but without any other choice, the one-armed Captain spat to the side before turning around and exploding in red nether to then flash towards Sarah who was casually floating on the same spot where she was engulfed by the explosion of dark pink flames earlier.
At the same time, Sheilla and the other two pawns flew towards the remaining four chain spheres to then use their nether and punches to break the seals, respectively.
…
Back at the side of the crazy girl, the one-armed Captain who had turned into a red violent flash, reached her vicinity in a matter of seconds to then stop a few dozens of meters in front of her.
“First she sent a group of brainwashed whores and now a guy who cut off his own arm out of fear at the demand of someone else, maybe I should have gone first or last”, mumbled Sarah with a clearly disdainful expression on her pretty face.
Naturally such an insult coming from the one that caused him to cut his own arm, made the tall Captain feel his blood pressure going through the roof, a few veins on his remaining arm and neck bulged a bit as his body started slowly but surely radiating that red nether.
“Booom!” with a loud explosion, his whole body was cladded in a fierce looking red battle aura armor and a blade formed where his missing arm used to be, the ones who were sealed had nothing on themselves besides their clothes and some light armor, meaning that they had no magic weapons nor storage rings.
Though after seeing what happened to the Lieutenant guy earlier, he wouldn’t want to enter in close combat with the crazy girl, he had no other choice, so he decided to take advantage of his now missing arm and focus his offensive on his left, since he had nothing to lose in that side anymore, that being said he reinforced his battle aura armor as much as he could in a short period of time.
“Red Blade!”, with a loud shout, the aura blade on his left arm sharpened as he flashed towards the crazy girl, who smirked in response.
“Booom!”, a red flash clashed against a purple one, causing an explosion that reverberated through the sky, the one-armed Captain saw in disbelief how the enemy met his martial art which was powered with nether, with only her fist cladded in her poison battle aura, it’s worth mentioning that the crazy girl did have her single edged long sword as well as her needles but decided to not use them, since she said she will win without any external help.
‘Impossible!’, he screamed to his insides, not only the crazy girl used normal battle aura, which should be a lower ranked energy when compared with his nether battle aura, but she didn’t even use a martial art to clash against his and to top it off she didn’t lose any terrain due to the clash.
It was a strange scene to see Sarah who though tall for a girl, is still quite young looking and has no noticeable musculature, tie in a strength contest against a buff guy in his late twenties whose height surpassed the two-meter mark.
“Damn it, I don’t care anymore!”, with a loud battle cry the red armor which had a simple design, became more detailed, spikes surged all over it, the previously two-meter-long blade doubled its size and gained a much more intimidating shape, then a helmet which covered everything but the eyes, manifested as well.
“Mm?”, the crazy girl frowned as she was forced a few centimeters backwards due to the sudden large increase of strength coming from the enemy, to which she answered in kind by releasing more of her battle aura as well.
“Berserker Blade!”, with red glowing eyes, the one-armed Captain slashed at Sarah who snorted in response, all the battle aura she had released was absorbed back into her body, which caused the nearby area to produce sizzling sounds due to the poison radiated by her.
“Purple Death~”, with a happy voice that didn’t go along with the murderous intent that was released by her, as a manifestation of a four-meter purple skull that opened its spike toothed mouth to roar at the enemy, appeared behind of her as she punched frontwards.
“Boooom!”, their physical attacks as well as their battle auras clashed the next second, producing a thunder-like shockwave followed by a clash of red and purple colors that engulfed the vicinity.
The explosion was so loud that those observing the fight had to slightly protect their ears with mana or battle aura to avoid discomfort, it was understandable just that exchange alone caused a few cracks to appear on the barrier and the place where they clashed was rather far from the borders of the battlefield.
The one-armed Captain did use one of the strongest martial arts he had in his repertory that didn’t have a long preparation time, which apparently had some downside as he didn’t seem exactly happy to have to rely on it.
Then all of a sudden, the clash of energies was dispersed and silence returned to reveal the result of the previous exchange.
“H-How… blegh!”, the one-armed Captain whose figure was miserable as of current, managed to ask before blood was forced out of his mouth, the four meter blade alongside most of his battle aura armor where practically gone and the pieces that remained where broken and produced steam as they were being corroded by Sarah’s poison.
What’s worse is that though he managed to not have his body being directly hit by the enemy’s poisonous battle aura, the physical impact was so strong that it travelled through the armor, his flesh and muscles and damaged his innards.
“Mmm and here I thought you guys who had surpassed the Stellar rank, would have reinforced your insides or would have some really strong techniques to show but it seems like that isn’t the case, what a letdown, if you can’t even be decent example for little Jas to learn about her enemy then… disappear”, the carefree attitude of the crazy girl took a 180° turn out of nowhere, her purple eyes shone in a frightening light.
A chill run down the back of the one-armed Captain and all the hairs on his body stood on their ends as he realized that him being forced to fight against the purple haired girl by himself was not something that let alone him, nor his comrades or even his queen piece decided, it was all orchestrated by the crazy girl.
From afar, Daimon couldn’t help but bitterly smile, as he expected Sarah’s actions might always look random and chaotic, but she most of the times has a proper reason for them, it’s the perfect cover since no one can tell whether she has a hidden intention or not, since she is unpredictable.
‘If she took things seriously, she would be a perfect student for Erin, on the other hand that would be like giving wings to a tiger, a poisonous one on top of it, at the very least her motivation was decent… more or less’, he amusingly thought.
The crazy girl apparently targeted the Lieutenant because he showed to have some history with the tall Captain, so when he suddenly started choking out of nowhere, the tall Captain would look out for him, which caused him to lose his arm and become the most obvious choice to be used to gain time.
And all of this was planned on the spur of the moment after the crazy girl listened to them mentioning that those guys served the remaining Nethereal Lord, who should be Jazmine’s father, for the sole purpose of giving Jazmine a demonstration of what they could do.
In other words, Sarah predicted this outcome and played Sheilla and her pawns into doing all the previous solely for the sake of Jazmine, that being said she seemed disappointed in what the one-armed captain could do, meaning that such strength and the techniques he used would not be a threat for her precious little sister.
And so, since he had no use for Jazmine, then it was time to get rid of him and return to her main missive, which is impressing Daimon and earning her reward.
The previous took long to explain but happened in the fraction of a second, which is what it took the survival instincts of the tattered one-armed captain to kick in as he felt the scythe of the grim reaper approaching his neck, forcing him to return to the real world to then scream from the top of his lungs.
“What the hell are you waiting for!”, just as an imminent sensation of dread was about to engulf him, a huge pressure rained from above, putting a stop to the poison battle aura that was being radiated by the crazy girl.
“Good job Fenn, I will recommend you for a Lieutenant Colonel position to Lord Balax later”, an authoritative unfamiliar voice reached the one-armed Captain’s ears a second later.
Sheilla who was now accompanied by six pawns, as she had finished unsealing the remaining four in the time that Fenn gained for her, descended from the sky to face the crazy girl.
The one who spoke earlier was a middle-aged man who was at the front of the group, the emblem on his shoulder was different than even the one from the veteran looking bulky Captain, for a good reason he was a Colonel, which is two ranks above a captain, meaning he had authority equal to that of a high ranked Viscount, just a bit below an Count which is the lowest nobility rank that can be inherited for more than one generation without any requiring any achievements.
Also, despite having come out of a middle-sized chain sphere, which meant his strength was reduced to the middle stage of the Lord realm, the pressure he exuded was indeed different than the other pawns, in other words his battle prowess was rather high compared to his current realm.
“Thanks Colonel…” said the one-armed Captain as he retreated to recover, just for Sheilla to add form the side.
“You can chat later, go and kill her already!”, she demanded, very much to the displease of the middle-aged Colonel, he a veteran who had a backing into the army was being ordered around by a random plaything from the Asmadian family, of course he felt humiliated, however right now he was more interested in the enemy they were facing.
‘Though Fenn could barely use one of the Berserker martial arts as of current, to overpower him head on like that with regular battle aura… she is an innately talented fighter, what a shame’, he thought as he gave the order.
“Spread”, with a single world, the other pawns surrounded Sarah in every direction while the middle-aged man took the vanguard, all this while the one-armed Captain as well as Sheilla, looked from the back, for different reasons though.
“It’s a shame to kill a talented fighter but unfortunately for you our Lord is not the one in charge of this battlefield”, said the middle-aged man as he exploded in a dark red nether, followed by all the other pawns to which the crazy girl sighed.
“Heh, you all really suck at paying attention, I think I said that you “guys” are disappointing, she casually said as she smirked at the ones who were surrounding her so she couldn’t “escape”.
The middle-aged man’s pupils contracted at the dreading sensation that flooded his heart, unfortunately for him before he could give the order, a snap interrupted his train of thought.
“…”
“Aghhh!”, after a fraction of a second, all the pawns except the middle-aged man started screaming in horror, the strongest among them which was the bulky Captain turned around and tried to reach the Colonel to ask for help, but blood seeped out of his mouth, nose, eyes and ears before his body decayed and melted into a puddle of a dirty red liquid that then fell from the sky, the other pawns suffered the same fate leaving only the middle aged Colonel as well as the one armed Captain who was trembling on his place next to Sheilla.
“What the hell are you…cough!”, the middle-aged Colonel managed to spit a few words before his face turned white as a sheet, blood dripped out of the corner of his mouth and then he placed his hand on his chest from which sizzling sounds could be heard.
A palm sized hole was burned through the clothes of the Colonel to reveal a hole into his chest of the same side, the horrible part is that the corrosion seemed to come from the inside!
Despite having resisted for a couple of seconds and not turning into a bloody liquid, the light disappeared from the eyes of the Colonel and his whole chest then hollowed out, bones included before he also fell from the sky… dead.
“Ahhhh!”, the one-armed Captain who saw even the Colonel being killed in an unexplained mysterious way, immediately turned around and fled for dear life, ignoring the thorned vines that tied him to Sheilla who was also at a loss for words as of current.
Only for the crazy girl to playfully point her index finger at the fleeing Captain, who melted away the next second dying without the chance to even scream.
“You still have what that bastard gave you for situations like these, right, come on use it so that I can crush it right under his watch for the entertainment of my beloved king~”, said Sarah while she happily hummed as if she hadn’t turned seven Lord realm nethereals into puddles of blood just a minute ago.