Karla vs. Elgrim – Part 2
The all-out [Fireball] unleashed by Elgrim enveloped the figure of Karla, who was laughing on the verge of death, and its raging flames also swept up and engulfed the fallen warriors of the Sorcerer Clan.
“Those still alive, fall back!!”
As Elgrim shouted this in the current situation, the half of the warriors who had narrowly avoided the flames despite receiving Karla’s [Pain] were bewildered.
“But, Elder! For her to be alive in this situation…”
“There might still be warriors alive in the flames! Elgrim-sama, please grant us permission to rescue them!”
The four surviving subordinates looked at Elgrim with pleading eyes.
Elgrim could also understand their feelings. They were his senior disciples who had served under him for over a hundred years. They, too, had risked their lives as assassins of the Sorcerer Clan to participate in this Ceremony of Selection, and were prepared to lay down their lives for their clan, as well as to abandon their comrades.
However, the warriors who had disappeared into the flames were young men, not yet even fifty years old. They were the junior disciples of the surviving warriors, like much younger brothers or sons to them.
Even without that, they shared a strong bond as members of the same clan. Moreover, for those who had known them since they were mere children, it was a natural emotion to want to save them if possible.
“…Fall back!!”
But Elgrim roared to make his subordinates retreat.
As his warriors said, there was no way she could be alive in this situation. But still, that deathly pale girl had survived even in desperate situations and killed their comrades, and that fact sounded an alarm in Elgrim’s sense of crisis.
“But—”
Just as another subordinate was about to voice his objection, another warrior grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.
“Understood, Elder.”
When the most senior man under Elgrim’s command backed down, the others could say no more and had no choice but to retreat.
“—Gah!”
Suddenly, the man coughed up blood. From behind him, a blazing “something” had pierced his heart.
『!?』
The warriors, including Elgrim, bewildered, immediately leaped away from the side of the blazing flames.
There had been no presence. Due to the flames, appraisal and the like couldn’t be used, but even so, they shouldn’t have felt any life force.
“…Nnguoooooooh!!”
The most senior man, despite having his heart pierced and vomiting blood, launched an attack behind him.
His skill was second only to Elgrim within the Sorcerer Clan, a Rank 5. His combat power was 1700. The final, life-risking attack of the man who was once feared on the battlefield, fighting alongside the ‘War Oni’, was to stab his own stomach with his sword, intending to pierce the enemy along with himself.
But, at that moment, as a “black arm” was pulled out from his chest, his head, grabbed by the opposite hand, was pulled back, and a black Shadow enveloped in flames shattered the back of his head with a knee strike.
【――――】
【Mana Value: Unknown】【Vitality: 00/00】
【Total Combat Power: 1711 (Special Combat Power: 4906)】
Wrapped in black rags from head to toe, emitting an ominous and immense magical power, it resembled not what people distinguish as a monster, but a “Monster” in the truest sense of the word.
The mouth of that “Monster” twisted into a crescent-moon-like, distorted smile.
“Attack!!”
Simultaneously with Elgrim’s voice, three warriors drew their weapons and attacked the black Shadow. Seeing this, the black Shadow leaped up with inhuman leg strength, kicked off the ceiling to accelerate, and shattered the jaw of an approaching warrior, slamming him to the ground while blowing away the lingering embers of the fire, crushing his skull.
“You… Who (what) are you?”
“――Have you forgotten already?”
A slightly muffled, familiar young girl’s voice echoed, and the countless thorns wrapped around her head unraveled, revealing a deathly pale face.
It was clearly abnormal. Her appearance, her bizarre combat power… How did she obtain it? Why could she do something like this?
“Thank you, old man. That’s enough now.”
“…Kyaaaaaaaah!!”
Before his mind could comprehend the meaning of her words, Elgrim let out a shriek like a monstrous bird and unleashed countless [Ice Lances].
Instantly, the remaining two warriors also launched an attack, firing multiple hidden weapons.
“Aha~♪”
Karla, with a broad smile that would make anyone uneasy, stepped forward while tearing off her still-remaining charred dress.
Until now, even when Karla was on the front lines, she hadn’t tried to face melee-focused enemies directly. But now, she advanced on her own, grabbed an approaching ice spear with her bare hand, and slammed it down, blowing away the other ice spears and hidden weapons.
【Mana Value: Unknown】【Vitality: 1/52】
【Total Combat Power: 1711 (Special Combat Power: 4906)】
“Damn you, monster! [Flame Javelin]—!”
“—[Dragon Breath]—”
Karla retaliated with [Dragon Breath] against the [Flame Javelin] unleashed by one of the warriors.
However, just as Elgrim had previously canceled out [Digvolt] with [Ice Lance], fire magic cannot be defended against with fire magic.
The two fire spells clashed, and while slightly losing momentum, they assaulted their respective targets. It carbonized half the body of the warrior, whose face twitched.
“Ahahahahahaha!”
But Karla, even while being burned by the flames of the [Flame Javelin], laughed boisterously.
【Mana Value: Unknown】【Vitality: 2/52】
【Total Combat Power: 1711 (Special Combat Power: 4906)】
“You… Why can you do so much…”
“Which part are you referring to?”
Elgrim asked with a pained expression, and Karla tilted her head mockingly.
If he meant her life force, there was no particular trick like magic. Karla, whose body had been side-by-side with death since she was young, would have died if she hadn’t constantly recovered her vitality with her own magic.
In that process, her vitality had sometimes dropped to 0, but as long as she was prepared for the agony of death, she wouldn’t lose consciousness and die from just that.
And, if he meant why she could become so “strong”—
“Is it wrong for me to seek to be the ‘strongest’ so I can fight her to the death on the grandest stage?”
And so she became strong. Abnormally so. Her heightened power had even made the essence of [Soul Thorn] her own, drawing out its true strength.
“…”
Elgrim felt, without any particular reason, that the “person” Karla spoke of was that Pink-Haired Girl.
The Pink-Haired Girl who was once his disciple and had inherited the techniques of the one feared as the ‘War Oni’ after stripping away everything extraneous. Why could a human girl use those techniques? Was that person, who should have died on the battlefield, still alive?
If that girl was related to the ‘War Oni’ to whom Elgrim had passed on everything, and if that girl were to become an enemy of the Evil Race—
“Then I suppose I’ll have to kill that girl with my own hands…”
“Fufufu…”
Karla didn’t understand Elgrim’s true intentions. But towards Elgrim, who spoke of killing the person Karla longed to fight, an ominous Killing Intent was released from Karla along with a broad smile.
“”Die.””
As if squeezing life from his withered body, Elgrim created [Fireballs] in both hands.
Karla, as if responding to him, raised both hands and kneaded a vast amount of fire-attribute Magical Element.
Creating two Level 5 fire spells, when normally even one is difficult, Elgrim aimed the fireballs at Karla, even as he himself was burned by the uncontrollable magical power.
If they traded blows like this, even Karla, who had endured a Level 3 fire spell, would not escape unscathed. However, no matter how advanced a spell Karla was weaving, her magic had not yet taken form. Seeing this, Elgrim, who had split his magic into two spells to increase their speed and even their power, could truly be called the chief of the Sorcerer Clan who had honed his skills for several hundred years.
“Just burn to ashes like this!!”
Just as Elgrim was about to unleash his magic first—
“—Hk!”
Suddenly, Elgrim’s body swayed. Perhaps as a side effect of creating two spells, the flames of the [Fireballs] born in his hands flickered greatly. At that moment, the quality of Karla’s magical power changed, as if her very aura had transformed.
“—[Firestorm]—”
An inferno raged wildly, centered on Karla.
A Level 7 fire spell, unused by humanity for over a thousand years, raged furiously. Within it, Elgrim, who couldn’t release his [Fireballs], was burned to ashes along with the Dungeon passage, endlessly.
Karla, walking alone leisurely amidst the area entirely engulfed in flames, suddenly tilted her head and gently placed a hand on her cheek.
“Did I let him get away…? Oh well, it’s fine.”
Where Karla’s gaze fell, only a single, charred arm lay. However, there was something more concerning than the enemy’s escape.
Karla, dispelling the black thorns of Soul Thorn that had been wrapped around her entire body, crushed the charred arm under her bare foot and found a single steel arrow lying nearby.
It was a short arrow, the kind used in a small crossbow, but those who used arrows made entirely of steel were few.
This arrow… Could it be that, just as Karla had interfered in her battle, she had done the same…?
“Fufu… Gofu.”
Blood suddenly spilled from Karla’s mouth as she coughed.
“Geho, goho goho, gofu.”
She coughed violently, and the overflowing, dark blood stained the pale skin of her chest.
“…Aah… And I was feeling so good, too.”
Karla donned a cloak she retrieved from her Shadow Storage—another skill she had analyzed and acquired—over her bare skin, and began to walk deeper into the dungeon, still barefoot.
“Hey, can you hear me? Get stronger quickly… and kill me… Aria.”
【Karla Lester (Count’s Daughter)】【Race: Human ♀】【Rank 5】
【MP: 218/590】40 Up【HP: 27/52】1 Down
【Strength: 7 (9)】【Endurance: 3 (4)】【Agility: 14 (18)】2 Up【Dexterity: 10】1 Up
【Martial Arts Lv.3】1 Up
【Light Magic Lv.4】1 Up【Dark Magic Lv.4】【Water Magic Lv.4】【Fire Magic Lv.5】1 Up
【Wind Magic Lv.4】【Earth Magic Lv.4】【Non-Attribute Magic Lv.5】3 Up
【Utility Magic x6】【Mana Control Lv.5】1 Up【Intimidation Lv.5】1 Up【Detection Lv.2】
【Abnormal Status Resistance Lv.2】【Poison Resistance Lv.3】2 Up
【Simple Appraisal】
【Total Combat Power: 1711 (Magic Attack Power: 2566)】642 Up
【Soul Thorn】
【Total Combat Power: 1711 (Special Combat Power: 4906)】
【Divine Protection (Gift): Soul Thorn Exchange/Life Time】
＊＊＊
Click…
With a small sound, I loaded a spare arrow and stored it directly into my Shadow Storage.
It’s not like I did anything special. I just returned a favor.
Rest assured…
Because I’m the only one who will kill you.
Karla has finally taken a step towards the pinnacle of strength.
She’s not quite there yet, but she will surely be ready by the time of the “grandest stage.”
And Aria, too, will grip her blade to answer that call.
Next time, an enemy attacks Camille and the others. The one who rushes to their aid is…