The Sword Saint's Second Life As a Fox Girl

“K-Katya….” Ivan croaked as he emerged from the trees in his grotesque form. Unlike before, only parts of him were engulfed in darkness, but the darkness was no longer simply latching onto him like before. The darkness had seeped into his flesh and soul, assimilating with him.

“Oh, shit,” Aedan muttered. “He’s in worse shape than I expected. I don’t think making a stand here is doable.”

“Hush,” Erin spat. “Just stay there and let me handle this fool.” She reined in her aura, converging it all in her body. Her blade had taken the form of a greatsword with a curved and single-edged blade. In her exhausted state, it would be foolish to wield a heavy blade, but all arms of Bespoke were weightless. Weight was never an issue, but her strength was. She had fought and moved continuously without rest, taking only a short breather at best. She was reaching her limit.

“You can’t handle this fool, Erin, not with Katya and me behind you. We will be a burden to you.”

“Then, what do you suggest?”

“Leave me.”

“No,” Erin answered immediately.

“There’s no other way.”

“Bollocks. There’s always another way. Just shut up and keep Katya safe.”

“A-Argon…” Katya called out meekly. “You should take your friend here and run.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Erin groaned. “Stop it, alright? I am not leaving anyone behind.”

“You have to make a choice, Argon. There’s no saving everyone here… A pragmatic person like you should know that the best.”

“You must have realised it by now, but I’m no longer the same person I used to be, in more ways than one. I will not abandon any of you.”

“Don’t be stupid, Erin!” Aedan shouted. “You are in no state to even protect yourself, let alone all three of us. You will only get two of us killed! And you will live the rest of your life regretting the very retarded choice that you have adamantly made.”

“I will live the rest of my life in regret if I let even one of you die…”

“I’m already dead, Argon…” said Katya. “Even if I made it out of this… ordeal, I won’t live for long. You know that.”

“I don’t care. Either we are all getting out of here alive, or none of us is.”

Aedan rolled his eyes. “Stubborn bitch,” he muttered under his breath. He gave up. There was no persuading her. He knew that from the start, but he had to try at the very least.

“Ka…tya…” Ivan called out with a grating voice.

Erin sighed and approached Marsh— no, Ivan— she approached Ivan. “Look at yourself, old friend. Do you think you still have a future with Katya given all of your circumstances?”

“....”

“No response?”

“Ar…gon…”

“Yes, my name is Argon— well, was Argon. What about you? Do you remember your name?”

“...Soze. I am… Ivan… So…ze.”

“Huh. You’re still capable of speech.”

“Do not… lump me in… with the rest… of those… pitiful… weak… cretins.”

“I won’t lump you in with them. They never sank to your level of depravity.”

Something cracked, Erin heard. It came from Ivan. It was either his teeth or knuckles. It didn’t matter which. That sound indicated the end of his patience. “ARGON!!” Ivan roared and sent out dark tendrils from his fingers.

Erin swung her large sword and let the momentum do the rest. There was no weight to her sword, but there was still mass. The mass carried her blade around, slicing through the dark tendrils coming for her. She brought her blade to a halt and thrust forward.

Ivan reeled in the tendrils and charged forward.

Erin set her blade on fire with Essence Flare.

Fear peeled his eyes and his shoulders shivered. He was afraid of the flames on an instinctual level. But the fear was useless. His mark was not Erin's; it was the girl at the far back. He dodged the flaming blade and darted straight towards Katya.

“Son of a—” Erin pressed her foot hard into the ground, stopping her forward momentum. She planted her heel firmly and spun with her sword’s mass, bringing her blade in a wide arc.

Without even glancing back, Ivan flipped into the air, avoiding the blade that would have severed him horizontally in half. He spun in the air, and threw his elongated arm at Erin.

It was slow. Erin had more than enough time to block the massive claw of an arm. However, she lacked the strength to stand her ground as the dark serrated mass rammed into her. She was saved from numerous puncture wounds with her large blade between her and the arm, though she was still thrown to the ground. She didn’t hit the ground as hard as any other time, but due to her accumulating fatigue, recovering her bearings was an endeavour. She forcefully gathered all the strength that she could and charged at Ivan once more.

Ivan responded with a sweep of his arm that covered a length of a few yards.

Erin hopped over the arm. Once her feet found land, she hopped again.

Using his other arm, Ivan thrust a blade, one that was formed from his own bare hand.

Erin parried the blade and used it as a trail to guide her own blade to the head of the owner.

“NO!!” Ivan bellowed and flung Erin away before her blade could reach his head.

Erin cushioned her fall and drop with her tails, not that it helped much since her tails were part of her. She screamed as her tails absorbed the impact.

Ivan glared furiously at Erin, but his fury faded in the next second. His gaze softened as he turned to Katya. “Ka…tya…”

Despite of his injuries, Aedan moved himself, with great difficulty, in between Katya and Ivan. “Not another step, asshole,” he warned with his gun raised and trained on Ivan.

“Moved!” Ivan snarled and swatted Aedan away with ease.

“Aedan!!” Erin cried. She heard cracks. No doubt bones were broken, and ribs were shattered. She doubted that would kill him, but she still couldn’t help but worry for him. Anger flared in her chest. She wanted to rush at Ivan right now and lop his head. However, the moment she got to her feet and took a single step, she lost all strength in her body and she began collapsing. “Fuck… Is this my limit?” She was falling forward. Hitting the ground in such a manner would hurt a lot. Worse yet, her entire struggle until now would all be for nought. But she didn’t hit the ground. Something had stopped her; someone had prevented her from falling.

“You just don’t listen, do you?” came a gentle yet sharp and rigid voice.

Erin barely recognised the voice, but she did recognise the scent. It was a scent that she had taken great care to remember, as the owner of the scent was someone she wouldn’t want to offend if she could. “Azaela…? How are you—”

“Shh…” Azaela hushed the Fox-kin. “I will have you explain everything later. But for now, just take a rest. I will handle the rest.”

“N-no…”

Azaela sighed with a wry smile. “You don’t have any capacity to refute my offer,” she said and laid Erin gently down on the ground before moving to confront the ever-deforming, disgraced High Lord.

Perhaps sensing the imminent threat approaching from behind, Ivan turned his obsessive gaze away from Katya and came face-to-face with Azaela. “You… I… know… you.”

“Impressive. Most people would have lost all of sense of self by now.”

“I am… not… most… people…”

“Whatever you are, now or before, it doesn’t matter. William Marsh, with the bestowal to me by Her Great Reverence, Ruva, I hereby sentence you to die for the multitude of crimes you had committed against the natural order and the divines.”

“You… will… die first!” Ivan lashed out with his arms.

Azaela calmly drew her sword and cut down Ivan’s grotesque, gigantic arms as they came for her. The severed arms regenerated in an instant, but they took on a form far more gruesome than they already were. Azaela cut them down, too and rushed towards Ivan.

“Die! Die! Die! No one will stop me!”

Azaela dodged all of the attacks thrown by Ivan with swift precision. She moved as if she were teleporting. In fact, she was warping from one place to another, albeit only for a short distance of a few yards. It was the ability of the Light Magic, Blink. With Blink, she reached Ivan’s main body without too much trouble, though the true hurdle came next.

Before Ivan could prepare his next attack, Azaela had already cut off both of his arms from his shoulders. He quickly leapt away to recover, but Azaela stuck to him as if invisible chains had bound them together. Left with no other choice, Ivan grew an appendage from his chest and it streaked towards Azaela.

She caught the sneak attack with her blade and cut down the appendage.

Those few seconds of time wasted were enough for Ivan to regenerate his arms. He brought his massive arms together, intending to squash Azaela in between.

The paladin kicked off the ground and leapt to safety. It was a simple escape, but if she hadn’t, she would have been gravely wounded and most possibly killed.

“I have… no quarrel… with you… Scarlet Blade. Leave… now.”

Azaela did not respond, at least not verbally. She didn’t see any reason to. She sheathed her sword.

“Are you… actually… listening?”

From out of thin air, she produced a halbert and a battle axe, both of which were a size bigger than her person.

“...Disappointing. You… seek… death.”

“Yes,” Azaela answered. “Yours.” And she shot towards Ivan like a bolt launched from a crossbow.

“BITCH!” Ivan exploded with rage. Multiple tendrils grew from his chest, and all of them charged at her like a tide.

Azaela held her breath. A golden glow emanated from her body. The glow flowed into her weapons, and she tossed her axe at the tendrils coming towards her, shredding through them all like soft meat through a metal grinder. The axe flew back into her hand with a slight gesture. Then, she cut down those that attempted to constrict her with her halbert. A wave of energy was unleashed towards Azaela with that cut.

Ivan grunted and moved out of the way of the energy wave. He wouldn’t die from that, but it would put him even more at a disadvantage. He thought he could get some distance from the Scarlet Blade, but she stayed close to him, even as he produced more tendrils to attack her. All of his attacks fell before her like a bunch of flies. “Damn you!” he shouted and sent even more tendrils her way.

Azaela stowed away her halbert and axe and drew her sword back out. She sliced and diced her way through the onslaught of tendrils. When she reached Ivan, she held her sword low as the golden glow converged on her blade.

“You will not have her,” Ivan declared.

Azaela raised an eyebrow. She was surprised by the clarity in his speech. Something had changed and it worried her. Then, in the blink of an eye, Ivan’s body underwent a complete transformation. Darkness completely took over him. He grew horns and wings, along with a tail. His head turned bestial and two pairs of tusks protruded from his lower and upper jaws.

“No one will stop me!”

“Do you ever stay silent?” Azaela muttered, releasing the breath she had been holding, and swung her sword that had been accumulating energy. A surge of golden energy burst forth and stormed Ivan.

The former High Lord, in its demonic form, caught the golden energy with its bare claws. And he crushed it like with great ease like it was only a brittle rock.

“None of you are leaving here alive,” Ivan growled. “You have all spat on my mercy, squandered your opportunity. You chose this. And now, you die.”

There was not a hint of panic on Azaela’s face. “You really do talk too much,” she said and unclasped her cloak, letting the breeze carry it away, revealing the simple, body-tight suit underneath. “I’m just getting started.”