Chapter 464: Chapter 464 - S-Ranks(Part 2)
As Celestia stepped forward and unleashed a barrage of powerful lightning bolts, I spread out my wings and shot forward at full speed, zipping straight towards the Physical Magic user.
He swiftly crossed his blades in front of himself as I closed in and slashed at his chest with the blade on my left arm, a sharp clang ringing out upon impact, his feet skidding back a couple of meters along the ground before I zipped up into the air as a slashing wave of wind came shooting towards me, narrowly evading it before unleashing a blast of flames at the Wind Magic user.
She leapt away to avoid it, just barely dodging the blast as I swooped down towards the Physical Magic user, driving my right arm forward.
As he began to raise his blades up defensively, I whipped my tail across at his legs, his eyes widening in alarm before he quickly sprang back, grimacing in pain as the tip of my tail sliced across the front of his calves, inflicting a couple of shallow cuts across his legs.
Suddenly, he leapt straight towards me, driving one of his blades towards my head, before I swiftly reverted my right hand back to normal and reached out, grabbing his wrist before his blade could reach me, before I tensed as a smirk spread out across his lips.
My gaze quickly darted across to my right, to see the Wind Magic user with her hands raised towards me, an immense, swirling mass of wind charged up.
I let go of the dual blader’s arm before quickly crossing my arms in front of myself defensively as the Wind Magic user unleashed her charged up Spell, which slammed onto my arms with immense force and sent me hurtling back through the air at a breakneck speed, shooting into the forest.
I then came to an abrupt halt as my back slammed onto the side of a large tree, deep cracks spreading out across the trunk upon impact, my entire body jarred from the force of the wind blast, before I quickly and shakily scrambled away as the Physical Magic user rushed in and swung one of his blades across at me, inflicting a shallow cut across the side of my left bicep as I narrowly avoided a direct hit.
I backed away and got some distance as the cut healed up, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly to compose myself, shifting my gaze across as the Wind Magic user walked over.
They’re pretty strong and skilled, a lot more so than I’d anticipated. They’re on a whole other level compared to the S-Ranks I fought in the Dungeon.
"As expected of a Unique Monster, you’re pretty tough. I’d hate to fight you by myself," Remarked the Physical Magic user.
"I am curious though, why’s a Monster helping a human?" Inquired the Wind Magic user.
"What does it matter? You’ll all be dead before long, anyway," I shrugged in response.
"The bigger question is where did you come from? I’ve come across a Unique Monster before, and that was in a Dungeon. I’ve never heard of any Monster appearing outside of a Dungeon. There haven’t been any high level Dungeons that we’ve failed to conquer lately, so how-...? Ohh, that’s right, the incident where four rookie S-Ranks were killed, so that’s where you came from," Realized the Physical Magic user.
He’s pretty sharp, that’s not a good sign for me. I shouldn’t let this fight drag on for too long.
"Huh? Didn’t they report that they came across a Dragon?"
"Use your head, this Monster must have threatened them. Heh, it must have seriously terrified them if its threats worked that well," Chuckled the Physical Magic user, a gleam in his eyes as he added, "So, Unique Monster, got a name?"
"Larrk."
"Alright, then, Larrk...your kind may be powerful, but in my experience, and based on everything I’ve heard, Unique Monsters tend to be quite inexperienced in battle, they just make up for it with brute force. But that won’t be enough to kill me. I am the most powerful person in the entire nation of Hyuma, Jerik Swaed," He introduced himself with a smirk.
He appeared to be in his early thirties, he had wild, slightly spiky white hair that was pushed back, bright silver eyes, a light brown complexion, and he was pretty tall, with a strong, agile build.
"There you go with that again, come on, man...you know you’re only third strongest at best, maybe fourth or even fifth. Also, why are we doing introductions now? Whatever, guess I’ll play along...I’m Reo Nolde," Sighed the Wind Magic user.
She looked to be in his mid to late twenties, with medium-length, curly black hair combed off to the left, dark blue eyes, a fair complexion, and she was around average height, a bit on the skinny side.
Now, then, it’s time I turn things up a notch. I then turned my gaze towards Jerik, who assumed a defensive stance as he waited for me to strike...hm, he’s keeping a close eye on my tail too, it won’t be easy to catch him off-guard. In which case...
I then burst out pressurized blasts of flames from the left sides of my feet, launching my body to the right with immense speed, straight towards Reo.
Her eyes widened slightly, before she swiftly raised his hands as I began to close in, an intense, swirling wall of slicing wind streaks appearing in front of her.
"Don’t think it’ll be that easy!" She exclaimed smugly.
I didn’t...I already anticipated that.
I then swiftly extended out Magic Eater, expanding the jaws and consuming her wind, before a choked gasp rang out as I extended and plunged my tail through the back of her neck, before slicing her throat to pieces from the inside.
She collapsed onto her knees with an agonized wheeze as I pulled my tail back out, gasping desperately for air as blood poured out of her mouth, splattering across the ground as she clawed at her neck in agony, falling over with a thud and writhing on the ground.
"That’s one down," I remarked, before adding as I turned my gaze to Jerik, "What was it you said before? That you’d hate to fight me by yourself, was it? Too bad for you, that’s exactly what’s about to happen."
"Damn it...you were hiding one more trick up your sleeve, huh? Based on what I saw, those jaws of dark energy you produced consume Magic, am I right? Even so, that idiot let her guard down," He muttered with a grimace.
"Oh, don’t think you’re blameless in that, you should’ve been in front of her...isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? She backs you up while you protect him? Then again, as S-Ranks, I guess there aren’t many Monsters against which you’d need to think too hard about formations and stuff. Even with those differing specialities, you S-Ranks are probably all strong enough to solo most Monsters, besides Support Magic users, of course."
"Well, aren’t you a clever Monster? You aren’t wrong, that would’ve been the standard tactic. But in practice, only lower ranks tend to use such tactics, I suppose most of us S-Ranks have grown complacent in our power. I’ll have to keep that in mind," He replied, as we slowly circled each other, a rising sense of tension as a stiff breeze blew across, the leaves in the surrounding trees rustling loudly.
"Why? I mean, considering that you’re about to die, I don’t think that’s necessary," I smirked tauntingly.
"Please, don’t insult me, I won’t fall for such obvious provocations. And I’m well-aware that the odds are against me now...but no point in complaining about it. I’ll just have to figure out a way to survive this, one way or another!" He declared, as he suddenly shot forward.
He kicked at the ground as he closed in on me, sending a spray of dirt shooting up towards me eyes.
I quickly spread out my wings and flew up as I closed my eyes, grimacing as he sliced off my left leg, around the middle of my calf.
I then opened my mouth and unleashed a roaring blast of flames down towards him, but he was quick to race away, narrowly avoiding it as the flames collided against the ground and erupted fiercely, charring the dirt and grass black, before he swiftly got down on all fours as I extended and whipped my tail across towards him.
He then quickly sprang back onto his feet as I split my tail in two and sent them zipping in towards him, the two halves of my tail plunging into the ground as he narrowly evaded them and backed away.
"Well, now, you’ve sure got a ton of tricks there, don’t you? And I can’t rule out the possibility you’ve got more abilities up your sleeve. But I won’t go down so easily, you’re going to have to try a hell of a lot harder than that," He declared with a grimacing smile, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face...
