“You were waiting for me?”
Surrounded by Rank 4 warriors, Carla spoke with a beaming smile. Ergrim responded with a genial smile of his own.
“That’s an honor… little lady.”
Baff! As if several flowers bloomed around Carla, steel nets were thrown at her. Naturally, Carla’s [Dragon Breath], activated without incantation, incinerated the steel nets in mid-air, turning them to vapor.
“Tch!”
“—Tch!”
The moment Carla sensed something and leaped away, a man let out a silent roar from above, grappling her while half his body was burned by Carla’s flames.
An Evil Race man of middle age. Likely a warrior, with a Combat Strength exceeding 1400.
No matter how strong he was, he wouldn’t be able to fight with those injuries. Such a warrior was used as a pawn, and he himself wished for it, a satisfied smile on his face even as half his body burned.
More nets were thrown at Carla, who was grappled by the Evil Race man. But unlike the previous nets, these were made of Demon Iron.
“I don’t underestimate you. Just like that Pink Hair girl, there was a terrifying child.”
Ergrim’s voice echoed, and [Flare Brid] and [Air Curtain] magic were unleashed from around Carla, who was caught in the Demon Iron nets.
[Flare Brid] was a Rank 4 fire magic that focused a high-temperature flame on a single point, and the [Air Curtain]’s wind doubled the flame’s effect.
Ergrim, the leader and Assassin, revealed himself to lure Carla to this place for sure.
They couldn’t leave or let escape the ‘Monster who kills people’ that appeared in the Dungeon. The Magic Clan, which had sent in many personnel, suffered the most damage, and they used their underlings as pawns to ensure the death of Carla, the monster.
But even so, she didn’t stop—
“—[Soulthorn]–“
‘!?”
Suddenly, the swirling flames burst from the inside, blowing away the warriors in black.
“Ahahahahahahahaha!”
The sure-kill trap that even a Rank 5 couldn’t evade was broken with an extraordinary power.
Tearing apart the half-melted net with her bare hands, Carla laughed loudly while hugging the charred warrior she used as a shield like a stuffed animal, despite being burned by the flames and suffering burns all over her body.
“Oh my.”
The warriors, unable to even launch a follow-up attack, held their breath at the abnormality of the girl who carelessly brushed off the corpse soot on her burned dress as the overexerted charred corpse crumbled.
“Black Thorns” writhed on the pale skin peeking out from the tattered dress, and Carla nonchalantly shook off and extinguished the thorns that were trying to heal her wounds by consuming her life force. She then picked up the hem of her burned dress and performed an elegant curtsy for the surviving audience, looking battered and bruised.
[Carla Leicester (Countess’s Daughter)] [Race: Human Female] [Rank 4]
[Mana Capacity: 382/550] [HP: 4/53]
[Overall Combat Strength: 1069 (Magic Attack Power: 1648)]
“…What do you intend?”
In the bizarre atmosphere filled with abnormality, Ergrim asked Carla about extinguishing the “Black Thorns” power that broke the trap, rather than the power itself.
She looked “half-dead” no matter how you looked at it. It was a miracle that she was even moving, let alone standing on her own two feet, given her severe injuries.
She probably not only used the warrior as a shield but also used water magic like [Veil of Water] and [Water Ball], and blew away the flames with the Level 5 wind magic [Typhoon].
But if the power of those black thorns enhanced the level of magic, she should have left it as it was to heal her wounded body. Understanding the meaning of Ergrim’s words asking why she extinguished it, Carla looked into the distance as if thinking of “her,” and mocked the foolish sage who seemed to have lived nearly a hundred times longer than herself.
“–That child had to fight seriously to conserve her strength. But I’m different… spare strength is only necessary for those with a future, isn’t it?”
She could die at any time. She would just live the life she had now to the fullest.
But she didn’t intend to die there. She didn’t intend to be killed by anyone other than Aria. That’s why she had to throw herself into a battle greater than Aria’s to be qualified to stand before her.
“Besides… doesn’t pain (being hurt) make you feel alive?”
Everyone in the area felt disgusted by Carla’s words that she could only feel “alive” through the pain of being near death, and Ergrim narrowed his eyes, erasing his genial smile.
“Don’t underestimate me, little girl.”
[Ergrim] [Race: Dark Elf Male] [Rank 5]
[Mana Capacity: 476/570] [HP: 143/154]
[Overall Combat Strength: 2616 (Body Enhancement in progress: 3539)]
An eerie Killing Intent and Intimidation were released from the withered Ergrim. Even his subordinate warriors couldn’t help but hold their breath at the pressure, and the Dungeon’s Monsters that had been observing the situation scattered as if fleeing.
“Aha❤”
Carla, who was the only one who laughed cheerfully, danced into the sky as if spewing Mana from her entire body.
“–[Digvolt]–”
A wide-range Lightning Strike assaulted the area. But the warriors of the Magic Clan, who used magic for assassination, used talismans as disposable substitutes and attacked Carla.
“Got her!!”
Carla’s HP was almost gone. HP and vitality weren’t synonymous, but considering that even a scratch would be fatal, the warriors threw Hidden Weapons as if scattering them.
But Carla swung around the torn net she had hidden as if wearing it on her burned dress, entangling the Hidden Weapons.
She dodged the Hidden Weapons she couldn’t knock down with her eyes. If she was afraid, her heart would cloud over. Even with the Martial Arts Skill she had acquired at only Level 2 to gain Thought Acceleration, she could dodge if she could see it.
She learned that from Aria.
Even without the basics of close combat, she dodged the attacks as if tracing the movements of the girl she had been watching most in her life, entangled two warriors with the net wrapped in Lightning Strike, and grabbed the Hidden Weapon that spilled from their hands, piercing from the owner’s eyes to their brain.
“That child had the same thing. Where did you buy it?”
“Tch!!”
At that moment, Ergrim, who had jumped out like a crow dancing in the dark night, shot out a needle about thirty centimeters long.
Carla instinctively used her arm to take the needle, protecting her vitals. The warriors, who had instinctively felt intimidated by the girl showing abnormality, finally thought it was over.
But—
“–[Ice Whip]–”
Even so, Carla didn’t stop and released an Ice Whip into the darkness behind her as if turning around, and the attack struck Ergrim, who had somehow moved behind her.
But his figure disappeared as if melting into the darkness, and the moment Carla tried to release a range magic at Ergrim, who had shown several illusions with [Illusion]–
“It’s over.”
Carla’s heart was pierced from behind by a thin needle.
“–[Digvolt]–!”
And Ergrim’s Lightning Strike, released as if stealing Carla’s thunder, burned Carla through the needle.
“Lord Ergrim!”
Was she really dead now? If she was alive after this, she wouldn’t be human.
That’s what they thought because they were Assassins, and Ergrim, who had been killing people for hundreds of years, was convinced that he had killed her for sure.
“–[Acid Cloud]–“
As if aiming for that moment of relief, the Level 4 water magic [Acid Cloud] raged.
[Acid Cloud] was a range attack, and evasion in a narrow passage was nearly impossible, but if the opponent was a Magician, they could deal with it using water magic or wind magic. That’s why she had been waiting for that moment.
“Thank you. For getting closer.”
[Carla Leicester (Countess’s Daughter)] [Race: Human Female] [Rank 4]
[Mana Capacity: 259/550] [HP: 1/53]
[Overall Combat Strength: 1069 (Magic Attack Power: 1648)]
“Tch!”
Ergrim, who had been looking for a chance to counterattack while being burned by the acid, stopped moving for a moment at Carla’s intense smile.
Carla was thought of as a genius by those around her, but she wasn’t a genius but a high achiever, and all her power was the result of training since she was a child. She continued to dive into Dungeons alone to kill everything, sought knowledge while sacrificing sleep, and gradually increased her power.
Poisons can be neutralized with 【Treat】 before you die.
Needles won’t cause damage if they avoid muscles and organs.
I used an ice whip to ground the Digvolt.
These are the things I learned from her. Carla had been watching Aria’s battles, burning into her mind the fighting styles of the formidable foes Aria faced.
All so she could kill (dance with) her in a sea of blood where everything was dead…
That’s why Carla remembered everything about her.
“——【Phantom Pain】——”
“Gugah!?”
A pain unlike anything Ergrim had ever experienced in his nearly thousand years of life assaulted him. It was the agony of “death,” a pain one should never feel while still alive.
And it wasn’t just Ergrim alone; nearly half the warriors present succumbed to the simultaneous onslaught of excruciating pain, and blades of ice pierced the heads of the unconscious.
Even so——
“I told you not to underestimate me!!”
The old warrior, ranked close to 6 among the Evil Race, endured the acid damage and the deathly pain, activating the level 5 fire magic 【Fireball】.
“You will die here!!”
Ergrim was convinced that Carla would surely become a calamity for the Evil Race. Using magic here would likely kill half the warriors of the magic clan. Even so, compared to the danger of letting this wicked magician live, everything else was trivial.
The blazing Fireball was unleashed, engulfing all the warriors present, and flames raged through the dungeon passage.
And finally, the flames swallowed Carla’s body, which still wore a faint smile.
※It is normal to not understand Carla’s feelings.
Next time, the second half. Finally, taking the first step on the path to becoming the strongest.