Chapter 296: Chloe vs Gareth

Half an hour earlier, somewhere in the higher part of the forest mountain...

"Tch, it's just a girl," Gareth muttered from behind his neutral-expression face mask. His voice carried a note of disappointment at seeing this petite girl when he had expected Noah or Vlad to be at the location.

He glanced at the corpse of the Orc in front of the girl. It had been cleanly sliced in half at the belly. There was no other visible injury on the monster's body, as if it had been cut down in a single move without even getting a chance to put up any resistance.

His gaze shifted back to the lavender-haired girl, who had now turned around, her face completely unreadable.

'Is there still someone with such skills in the first year whom I haven't heard of?' Gareth murmured inwardly in confusion. He was aware of the Repeater, Noah Silva. The Crownbearer, Vlad. The Genius of House Starveil, Aria Starveil.

There was also the Two-Ring Dendro Mage, Lorenzo, but his skills were somewhat subpar compared to the other three. Now that Gareth gave it some thought, he remembered reading another name on the list of Rising Stars of the current year.

"Are you Chloe?" Gareth asked.

Chloe dragged the blade of her katana along her sleeve, wiping off the green fluid. "Yes," she answered, her tone flat.

'So she is one of the Rising Stars,' Gareth murmured inwardly. 'An S+ Rank Anemo user from the Order of Rings. Her talent is as high as Lady Seraphina's. But she hasn't even had her Knighting Ritual yet. She is too weak as of now.'

He sighed, shaking his head. While he was having all these thoughts, Chloe's eyes were fixed on the hand-sized, glowing crimson badge hanging from Gareth's neck.

'Hunter badge = 1000 credits,' Chloe's calculation began inside her mind.

'1000 credits = less debt to the Academy.

Less debt = Vlad happy.

Result: Vlad's praise.'

Gareth was about to turn around when Chloe declared, "Leave the token. Then I will not harm you."

Gareth blinked, stopping mid-motion. "What did you just say?" he asked, making sure he wasn't hearing things.

"Leave the token," Chloe repeated, pointing her blade at Gareth.

"Listen, little girl," Gareth said, his tone dropping in warning. "You have no idea whom you are messing—"

His words broke off mid-sentence as he saw Chloe vanish from her place, her body turning into a blur.

The next moment, he saw the sharp point of a katana coming for his face.

He immediately drew his spear from his storage ring, its head crashing against the blade. Sparks erupted from the collision of the two weapons, the vibration traveling through the shaft and reaching his hands.

'S-so fast...' he gasped, his eyes widening in shock behind the mask as his feet skidded half a metre back from the aftershock.

He hadn't even pulled himself together before Chloe's next attack came for him.

Tang!

Tang!

Tang!

Each collision pushed him back, his eyes barely tracking the trajectory of Chloe's blade, which was creating afterimages from how fast she was swinging.

"Aaa!!" he screamed, channeling green mana into his spear. Its coating nearly doubled the size of the spear.

The barrage of attacks stopped, Chloe moving back to create a distance of around ten metres between them.

"Hahaha! You are a worthy opponent," Gareth laughed, excitement clear in his voice. "I don't need to hold back against you."

He pointed the spear towards Chloe and continued, "We both have an affinity for the Anemo element. Let me show you what a Two Star Knight is capable of."

He raised his spear with both hands, the green aura covering it turning wild. "This is my second named technique, something I developed to defeat Vlad. Feel honoured to be the first to witness it."

He swung the spear in a wide vertical arc and shouted,

"Tiger Spear Art! Claws of Baiju!"

From the swing of his blade, a massive tiger claw formed entirely of aura erupted, hurling up the dust and the leaves of the nearby trees.

Strangely, Chloe remained completely still in her position. For a moment, Gareth wondered whether she was too scared to even move.

What she did next confused Gareth even further. She returned the katana to its scabbard at her waist. Her stance lowered, one leg moving back while the other bent at the knee.

She grabbed the scabbard with one hand and the hilt of the katana with the other.

"Hey, look out!" Gareth shouted, afraid she would be seriously injured by his attack, which had already reached her.

Just as the claws were about to cut her...

Click!

She pushed the blade out of its scabbard by a fraction.

"Blade of the Sky: Chapter two:

Instant Death!"

A stormy gust struck Gareth, whipping his auburn hair backward. He couldn't see what had just happened. All that remained was the aftermath. Chloe was gone.

Click!

The sound of a katana sliding back into its scabbard came from behind Gareth. At the same moment, the claw of aura in front of him, which had been about to strike Chloe, split vertically into two halves.

So did the mask on his face. The halves fell to either side of him on the ground, revealing a very shallow vertical line on his face from his chin to his forehead. Gareth's trembling hand slowly moved to his face, his fingers brushing the stinging skin.

He saw a faint smear of blood on his finger. The injury was very shallow, a scratch that would heal in just a couple of days. However, the injury his mind had suffered and the terror that had seeped deep into his heart that day would take a very long time to heal. His legs buckled, losing their strength. He fell forward onto the ground, having seen his life flash before his eyes just now.

Chloe turned around, still calm, still carrying that same indifferent expression on her face.

"I shall take this," she said, pulling the token from around Gareth's neck. She was about to move out but stopped after taking a couple of steps.

She lightly tapped her forehead. "The forest token."

She turned around and walked over to the corpse of the Orc. Tied to its neck was a green-coloured token that she had almost forgotten to claim. She pulled it off, channeled her mana into it, turning it a glowing emerald, before heading to the higher part of the mountain, never once looking back at the unconscious boy.