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“Farewell, you stubborn fool,” Erin bade as she rested her blade.

The slit around Irmin’s neck turned red as blood trickled down his shoulders and chest in streams.

Just as Erin was about to dispel her sword, she stopped.

Irmin dropped to his knees, clutching his neck with both of his hands. His trident fell by his side.

Erin frowned, struck with perplexity. She didn’t just slit Irmin’s throat. She had swung her blade right through his neck and yet, this was the result. His head remained intact on his neck while his bluish blood streamed down from the slit wound.

“You underestimated me, Fox-kin,” Irmin growled as he grabbed his trident and wiped away the blood that spilt all over his chest. The slit on his neck was no more.

Erin snorted in disbelief. “Am I being cursed?” she wondered. With every opponent she faced, the weirder and stranger their abilities got.

Irmin raised his trident. The moisture on the floor rose with it. He then slammed the hilt of the trident on the floor.

Erin widened her eyes when she saw Irmin’s Mana being drained exponentially. She shot towards him before he could finish conjuring whatever spell or trick he was preparing. She brought her sword through his arm. She felt her blade slicing through his flesh, tendons, and bones. However, blood was spilt but his arm stayed intact.

Erin saw Irmin’s health reducing when she cut his arm but it recovered just a second or two afterwards.

“High-speed regeneration!”

Nevertheless, it was still a painful suffering. Irmin howled in pain and the moisture he commanded dropped back onto the floor. He glared hatefully at Erin and thrust his trident at her.

Lacing her blade with a violet glow, she met the thrust with her own and to her shock, their blows bounced off of one another. “What the— I couldn’t cut it?” It was simply unprecedented. The trident resisted her Mystic Blade that had been able to cut through anything, or she had thought until now.

Erin appraised the trident one more time but the result held no indication that the weapon could resist Mystic Blade.

“I know that look,” Irmin said and thrust his trident at Erin in a flurry.

Erin twirled her sword around, deflecting all of his blows, but her blade was eventually trapped in the gap between the prongs.

Irmin conjured a wrist blade on his left hand using Water Magic and plunged towards Erin’s head. To his incredulity, his water blade failed to penetrate the thin layer of ethereal armour covering her.

Erin ceased this moment and grabbed Irmin’s outstretched arm. She pulled him in and twirled on her heel, bringing her Arcane Armour-clad tails around, and drove them through his shoulder.

Irmin shrieked in agony. His blood gushed forth, splattering all over Erin.

With her grip still in her hand, she tossed the torn limb away. She saw how the water moisture on Irmin tried to mend his wounds but since the whole limb was gone, his spell only stopped the bleeding.

Irmin’s eyes flared with rage and desperation. His right arm turned red and the crimson hue flowed into the trident.

Erin’s keen sense of smell told her the red was actually Irmin’s own blood. Her sword disappeared and reappeared into her grasp, freeing it from the gap between the prongs.

Irmin swung his red-dyed trident. He was not faster than her and thus, allowing Erin to dodge his attack but she couldn’t breathe easy yet. His attack left a trail of red mist in its wake.

Erin would have simply treated the red mist as some ornamental effect of Irmin’s enhanced weapon but her instincts told her otherwise.

The red mist turned into crystals with deadly sharp protrusions.

“Uh… oh.” The crimson crystals looked beautiful and she would have taken her time to appreciate them if they didn’t suddenly hurtle towards her. She easily cut down the crystals but Irmin was upon her again.

She dodged an attack from him but the misty trail it left behind turned into those deadly crystal projectiles once again and flew towards her. The same pattern continued for a while and it wasn’t a short while.

Eventually, Irmin stopped his attacks. His trident lost the faint reddish glow.

Erin raised an eyebrow. His health had been plummeting but when the trident lost the crimson hue, his health shot back up. “Well… this is going to be annoying.”

“The rumours were not exaggerating. You are better than all of your predecessors.”

Erin sighed. “For the fucking last time, I’m not honoured by this sort of praise, if it can even be considered as a praise at all.”

“I can see why the Ancient Guardians are so wary of you. And I can see the absence of any hesitation when you swing your blade.”

“Because fucks like you are dime a dozen. Even the most horrifying and ghastly appearance will be nothing more than a dull turd if one looks at it for every second of their life. In shorter words, I have run out of fucks to give. I have even given each of you a chance but none of you took it.”

“Because we can’t. Sparing you brings us now benefit.”

“Only if you don’t consider your own life as a benefit.”

“Enough talk, Fox-kin. Come at me.”

Erin cocked her neck, the sound of her bones popping reverberated clearly in this small room. Lightning erupted from behind her, enveloping all seven of her tails.

“You’re in my domain. Your defeat has long been decided.”

“I’m not the one running dry of tricks and ideas.”

Irmin snorted. His gaze wandered to his severed arm that was lying in the corner of the room.

Erin matched his gaze. She tutted. “Don’t think about it,” she said.

Irmin snarled at Erin and tossed his trident.

She slanted her head to the side and the trident shot past her harmlessly. She heard a splash behind her, presumably the trident hitting the deep body of water outside the room. “The throw was no blunder. It was fully intentional. What is this fishman planning now?”

While Erin pondered about Irmin’s intention in throwing into the water, the person himself was darting towards his severed arm. But before he could get anywhere close, he was shocked by lightning. Still, the shock did not incapacitate him nor did it slow him down.

Erin tutted and rushed up to Irmin with her sword swinging. She tore open his back but the heavy wound was not enough to fell him. She reigned in her momentum and prepared for another strike. However—

The blood that poured out of the wound turned into deadly stars that shot towards her. She cut down all but one of the stars. The one she missed grazed her shoulder, tearing through her Arcane Armour.

“Arcane Armour is no match for the spells that are fueled by his own blood,” Erin made a mental note. “There are too many tricks to his Unique Talent.”

Irmin managed to recover his severed hand and reattached it to his shoulder. Having both of his arms, Irmin shot Erin a triumphant grin. “As I said, your defeat has long been determined.”

Before Erin could come up with a snarky remark in response, there was activity in the water. The surface began to ripple and bubble. Gradually, the water rose, a figure bursting through. The figure reached a height of more than three metres, bearing a nigh-humanoid appearance, moulded of solid water. Its arms were longer than its legs. Its nails were akin to brittle claws.

The strange being tottered out of the water and once it came onto land, it billowed towards Erin at a speed that defied one’s expectations given its mass and size.

While the strange being was certainly fast, it was not faster than Erin. She spared the undulating beast only a glance before dashing towards Irmin.

“You damn—” Irmin didn’t finish his words and started running towards the Familiar he summoned.

“Coward.”

“I will be whatever I need to be to bring you down!” he shouted without turning around.

Erin reached Irmin first before he could even get anywhere close to the strange being. She brought her sword down on him with lightning coiling around the blade. As her attack struck Irmin, the undulating beast came to his aid, ramming her away with its massive weight. It then threw its fist that was thrice the size of Erin’s head but its arm came undone, destroyed by Erin’s lightning-clad tails.

The undulating beast showed no concern for its arm and swung its other arm. Erin destroyed that arm too using Storm Glaive, a double-bladed polearm that was created from pure lightning. The colossal watery creature staggered backwards from having both of its arms destroyed. Erin didn’t relent. She tossed the glaive into the being’s torso. The glaive melted into the being and the lightning spread all over its body.

Contrary to Erin’s expectation, the being did not come undone despite the lightning that was eating through it. Steam and vapour could even be seen emanating from the being’s body.

“In the end… only this skill allows an ultimatum,” Erin grunted and swung her sword, the blade clad in a mystical vivid violet light.

The being was cut horizontally into half.

Erin half-expected the strange creature to mend itself back into one piece but it didn’t. It broke down and melted into a puddle of water as if it had lost the very thing that held up its shape and reason to be.

“This is too easy,” Erin muttered dubiously. But when she looked up from the opponent that had just cut down, she understood why it was easy.

Irmin was nowhere to be found. The hulking elemental had been nothing more than a distraction. Erin quickly cast her senses onto her surroundings but then she recalled the Arcane Arts Irmin possessed. With the kind of Innate Abilities he had, Erin couldn’t have known or noticed him slipping away in the midst of the battle and she certainly wouldn’t be able to find his trail.

As piqued as she was, Erin had to admit it was a smart move. The scales were tipping against Irmin’s favour despite the opposite he had repeatedly claimed. Retreat was the best move he could make if he had nothing else under his sleeves.

“An obstinate coward…” Erin huffed, stowing away her sword. “But no fool.”

Sighing, Erin dropped to the floor on her rear and leaned her back against one of the six pillars in the room.

The future would be wrought with troubles, especially when there was an enemy that had run away in a fight. The enemy would surely come back for her, more prepared than ever before, that was the danger of letting an opponent escape.

“Revenant remains my best weapon and also my most dreaded curse.”

Out of everything in her repertoire of skills and tools, Revenant was the one ability that not even the gods or Marduk knew about.

“I best get going. They will be worrying their skins off about me by now.”

Erin chuckled at the more-than-possible thought and rose to her feet. As she was about to leave the room, the faint sound of something light and solid hitting a solid surface stopped her feet. She frowned and turned around.

Everything was the same as before, save for the scratches and damages that were the remnants of her battle with Irmin. She scoured the room with her focused gaze.

The peculiar sound came again and Erin decided to follow it. It led her to the throne. The ring resounded once more. It came from behind the empty grandeur chair.

Although Erin didn’t sense any threat, she decided to be on the safe side. She brandished her sword and slowly peered behind the throne. As she did so, something flew past her before she could get a good glance at it.

Whatever it was, it was something alive.

Erin followed the small being with her gaze. It was fast. No faster than her but its miniature size made it difficult for Erin to perceive it properly.

The small being bounced around the room like an overly springy ball being thrown into a small enclosure.

Suddenly, the small being shot towards Erin. She raised her hand to her face and the tiny being crashed into her palm.

“S-soft…”

Not only was it soft, but it was also small, incredibly so. It was barely larger than Erin’s palm. The being tried to escape from Erin’s palm but it was too slow in comparison to Erin’s grip. But of course, she didn’t use much strength in her gasp.

Erin gasped and widened her eyes when she saw the small creature in her hand.

“What is this adorable little creature?!” she screamed in her heart.