Chapter 287: An Injured Fighter
Chapter 285
Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!
Trisha’s hands were moving almost like a blur as she deflected each of the scythes shooting her way like a highly trained swordsman.
She didn’t care and didn’t even look back, as the cover arrows from Chloe never missed their target.
She was literally trusting the other female Aspirant blindly; even when an arrow whistled terribly close to her, she didn’t panic at all and calmly continued fighting.
Looking closer from his vantage point, Ray noticed a few distinct details.
The girls’ uniforms looked torn in different places, but they were still holding up nicely under the pressure of combat.
They had suffered a few visible injuries here and there, most especially Trisha.
Her shoulder looked punctured and was still bleeding freshly.
Same with her torso.
To stop the bleeding there, she had tied her jacket tightly around herself as a makeshift bandage to halt or at least reduce the flow.
Even with all these severe setbacks and more, she still fought like she was never injured, completely determined to not let even a single beast get past her defensive line.
’Those wounds don’t look like they came from these specific beasts right here. Was she attacked the moment she came out of the portal the same way I was? Or did something else go wrong?’
Angling her neck swiftly to the side, a scythe whistled past, and she immediately responded by swinging her sword from down below upward in a powerful slash that ripped the appendage completely from the beast’s limbs.
Twisting around roughly, she avoided a sudden thrust directed toward her torso.
Her face twitched in visible agony from the sudden twist, as fresh crimson could be seen seeping out from her injured midsection.
Staggering for a split second, she lodged her sword into the ground and quickly regained her footing while panting softly.
’Huh? Why isn’t she using her elemental ability? Has she completely run out of MF?’
Pulling her sword free immediately, it seemed like Trisha suddenly flew into the air for a second.
Looking back, Ray could see Chloe outstretching her bare hand.
With a telekinetic push, she sent Trisha hurtling toward one of the beasts, and at the last second, Trisha’s boots weakly activated with a burst of gas, adding to her speed exponentially.
With a final, powerful slash, she broke through the heavy armor surrounding its head, then slashed sideways, ripping the entire head off and sending the beast tumbling to the ground.
Before she could hit the ground alongside the fallen creature, Chloe’s telekinetic ability activated once more, helping Trisha steady her landing.
And it was just in the nick of time, as a scythe was already flashing toward her, ready to cleave her in two.
Taking a swift step backward, Trisha swung her sword around in a rapid circle, and with the momentum, lifted the oncoming scythe upward.
She swung it forcefully to the side before smashing her leg forward with her entire force, sending the creature skidding away across the dirt.
Whoosh—! Whoosh—! Whoosh—!
Three arrows flew past her face and smashed directly into the shaker’s eyes, digging incredibly deep and sending the beast flailing around in absolute pain and panic.
Unfortunately, Trisha was unable to capitalize on this opening in time, as the other shaker she had sent skidding had already regained its composure and pounced toward her with immense speed.
Shifting into a firm battle stance, the girl huffed softly.
Her eyes remained focused and determined, as a cold glint flashed across their blue, icy depths.
A forward thrust was made toward her abdomen, with a follow-up slash coming from the side with terrifying speed.
Now she was trapped on two fronts.
Unfortunately for the beast, it was dealing with Trisha... The Ice Queen.
Ray had been completely right in his deduction; she was incredibly low on MF.
But in that brief second, frost crept rapidly across her sword and solidified harder than before, due to a pale blue ice stretching across its entire length.
With blazing speed, she slammed the thrust from one of the beast’s scythes down to the ground, sending it kicking up a small cloud of dust into the air.
Then she sprang high into the air to avoid the secondary slash coming from the side.
Kicking the air with all her might, she rocketed toward the beast almost like a stray arrow.
Stretching out her hand from the ridge, Chloe’s telekinetic ability kicked in one last time just as she completely ran out of meta-force.
It boosted Trisha once more, sending her cutting through the air with her sword raised high as she descended in absolute fury.
Within a split second, she crashed into the beast and tore through its head with immense force, sending shards of its hard armor flying through the air.
The beast swayed violently and tumbled into the earth with a small bang.
The moment Trisha’s feet touched the ground, she wasn’t given a single moment of rest.
Chloe’s eyes widened in sheer panic.
"TRISH! BEHIND YOU!"
The girl spun around... too slow... too late.
The horn of the last remaining shaker was speeding toward her exposed back with deadly velocity.
She was utterly exhausted, barely able to bring her hand forward as she could only helplessly watch as her death approached.
BANG!
A silver blur intervened.
Then, the deadly horn froze a few inches away from her face, as if frozen in time itself.
"Hm... you need to always be careful."
’Huh?’ The girl blinked as her eyes naturally drifted downward in sheer confusion.
But before she could fully register or figure out what or who had saved her, the massive earth shaker was suddenly lifted completely above the ground like it weighed absolutely nothing at all.
BAM! BOOOM!
The patches of grass and shattered earth shot high into the air as a huge cloud of dust rose up the moment the beast’s body crashed into the dirt after being slammed like a mere toy.
A loud screech echoed from the beast as it cried out in pure pain.
Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
Consecutive, brutal punches landed on the beast.
Each heavy punch sent a sharp blast of wind that settled the thick dust one layer at a time.
Until the dust finally settled to reveal a silver-haired figure crouching directly in front of the beast.
Its scythes were pinned firmly under the figure’s knees as he rained punch after punch on its head, which was cracking massively with each strike.
Within a few seconds, the cracks widened exponentially as the figure’s hand dove straight into the beast’s head and hammered into its brain, turning it to nothing as he smoothly pulled a gleaming core from inside its body.
Slowly rising to his feet, the figure wiped his face with the back of his hand before turning around, holding the core tightly in his grasp.
Chloe blinked a few times in complete disbelief as she stared at the person’s face.
Trisha was equally stumped in her own way, though it didn’t easily show on her cold, stoic face.
But in the very next second, her vision suddenly turned pitch dark as she swayed left and right, her sword slipping uselessly from her grasp.
Before she could hit the hard ground, the silver-haired boy rushed forward and caught her by the waist, preventing her from hitting the earth.
Chloe dashed forward frantically from where she stood.
"Ray!"
