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“Damn this bitch!” shouted the Aerysian standing the closest to Erin. He wielded a sword with a thin single-edged blade. He dressed lighter than his peers. His face was not obscured by his helmet, revealing his youthful appearance, but anger had distorted all the zest a youth should have. “A mere believer of a false god had the galls to trample the true children of the Dragon God!!”

Erin shook her light and let out a sigh. “So many words, so little done. Fine, if you won't be taking the initiative, then allow me.”

“Silence, you—” the young man baulked but his sentence was left unfinished as Erin appeared right in front of him in a flash. Before anyone could react, the young man’s head had left his neck.

“I planned to be merciful. I planned to let those who surrender live,” Erin growled. Her voice was low but her words reached her ambushers clear and clean. “No more. No longer. You will all die here.”

“She’s just one girl in her sixties! We should not be losing!” one of the Aerysians cried but no one moved. Fear had gripped their hearts and numbed their bodies. They were no match for the Fox-kin in front of them. They knew full well about that but if they chose to run, they would be labelled as deserters. Regardless of what they chose, they were doomed.

Erin grinned and lunged at the nearest Aerysian. “Just die.”

The Aerysian snapped out of his daze and fear. He yelled and swung his greatsword down at Erin in an act of desperation and retaliation.

Erin bent her thrust and grazed the edge of her opponent’s sword instead of clashing directly with it. Caught off guard, the Aerysian tried to press on the offensive but Erin was a step ahead. She twirled around him and flourished her sword around her. Three Aerysians instantly fell dead on the ground.

“This is impossible… This is impossible… How are we supposed to fight her when we can’t even—”

“You people talk too much.” Erin appeared before her next victim. Her sword disappeared from the Aerysian’s view and in the next moment, his head had left his body.

“Die!!” A few Aerysians shouted and charged at Erin, breaking out of the cage of fear. Two of them began to cast spells, spheres of flames manifesting in their hands while the rest had ethereal armour covering their bodies.

Erin aimed for her next victim but her blow was blocked by a polearm.

“Don’t overestimate yourself, vixen!” snarled the Aerysian who caught Erin’s blow.

The Aerysian had strength, Erin had to admit, but there was a complete absence of technique. It would have been easy to parry his strike and take his head if there was no one creeping up on her from behind. She guided the polearm away and turned around to parry the thrust aiming for her neck. She twirled to her side and avoided an axe that split the air and ground where she had stood.

Erin spun around and parried a sword that came at her in a wide cut. She threw herself away as a fireball hit the empty ground. Another fireball came at her but she cut that projectile down. A polearm and axe swung at her from front and back while her sword was lowered after cutting down the fireball.

“Got you!!” An Aerysian shouted gleefully, envisioning Erin’s head splitting from her body. However, that anticipation did not come to pass.

Erin blocked the polearm with her sword and blocked the axe with another. Though she was no match for the two’s raw strength, she slowed them long enough for her to lead the two’s weapons clashing with one another. She dispelled her swords and manifested a long axe.

The Aerysians froze for a moment when they saw how an axe appeared out of nowhere. It was one thing to see someone taking an item out from a pocket dimension. It was a whole other story to see an item appearing out of thin air. It was simply unlike anything they had ever seen. This brief moment of surprise and shock was enough to cost them their lives.

With a single large and wide swing of the long axe, Erin lopped the heads of all the Aerysians within her reach. She was not good at handling an axe but swinging an axe didn’t require much technique or strength. She simply let the weight and momentum do their job.

There were cries and wails from the remaining Aerysians, grieving over their fallen companions. Erin scoffed silently at them. They were nothing more than bullies, or so it would seem to Erin. They froze in the face of a strong opponent who they couldn’t comprehend. Evidently, they weren’t used to odds that weren’t in their favour. Erin had no doubt they had an impressive set of Arcane Arts but like most inhabitants of this world, they were overly reliant on them.

“Useless fools!”

A voice boomed.

Erin spun around immediately. She exchanged the long axe for a greatsword. She dodged a slash and parried another.

“To think the lot of you can’t even handle a single fox! You’re all a bunch of disgrace to Aerys!”

The one admonishing the Aerysians while simultaneously attacking Erin was a burly man with markings painted all over his bare body. He wore no armour. Only pants. He wielded a pair of oversized cleavers that looked unconventional as proper war weapons.

Erin eventually managed to deflect the burly man’s assault and create a gap between them. She tried to appraise the man but she immediately felt dumb for doing so. She no longer had the system. She had also somehow become reliant, which she felt annoyed to admit to herself.

“Since you’re here… I can only assume Uriver has fallen in battle,” the burly man mused. “Tell me, fox. Are you the one who defeated him?”

“I don’t even know this Uriver person,” Erin retorted.

“Huh, so it’s not you.” The man sighed, seemingly relieved. “Then, I do not need to be so guarded against you. After all, you’re only… huh? W-what?”

Erin frowned, finding the man’s reaction strange.

“H-how..? There’s nothing? How can this be?”

Hearing his stammer, Erin could roughly guess the reason for the man’s confusion. He had the Appraisal skill and he tried to appraise her, but nothing came out of it.

“Just… what are you?” As even inanimate objects could be appraised, the man’s befuddlement was understandable.

“Does it matter?”

Erin’s response was not quite the answer he wanted, making his face crumpled with vexation. “I suppose not. You’ll be dead before long.” A veil of golden light enveloped the man. “The name’s Agnar. The one who will be the Grand Apostle of Aerys.”

“Don’t care,” Erin replied curtly.

“Insolent!” Agnar spat and charged at Erin. As he lifted one of his cleavers, a golden serpent of light manifested above him. “All the blood my brothers and sisters that you spilt, I’ll repay you a thousandfold.”

Erin’s eyes widened as Agnar swung down his cleaver. The golden serpent charged at her along with the cleaver. Without Appraisal, Erin couldn’t easily discern whether the golden serpent was a spell or just a physical manifestation of a combat art. Regardless, the golden serpent was real and it looked incredibly dangerous. Erin tried to deflect the cleaver but the golden serpent charged on.

“Fool!” Agnar scoffed excitedly.

Erin leapt away and the golden serpent crashed into the ground before exploding.

Before the dust and smoke could settle, Agnar rushed through the hindrance, intending to catch Erin off-guard. However, what awaited him was a blade coming for his neck. He swung his cleaver wildly, deflecting the blade, but another one came at him from seemingly nowhere. He lashed out and battered the blade away. With a battle cry, he rammed into the direction where Erin presumably was but he found no one. Then, he felt the winds shift behind him. He turned around and blocked a thrust aiming for his heart that came from a spear.

“What the fuck is this?” Agnar yelled. He raised his cleaver and a golden serpent was summoned alongside it. “Where the fuck did this spear come from?”

The dust settled and the smoke dispersed.

Agnar swung and the golden serpent followed.

At the other end of the spear was Erin. When she loosened her grip, the spear disappeared. She flipped to the side and let the golden serpent crash into the empty ground. A long sword reappeared in her hand.

“What manner of Arcane Art is that? You’re not taking things out from subspace storage. You’re… making things appear from… nothing? Tell me.”

“Why should I?” Erin gave a nonchalant answer and unleashed a flurry of attacks upon Agnar.

The burly man met Erin’s blows with his cleavers and golden serpents. He grinned as he thought this clash would be short and be in his favour. He fully expected his golden serpents would demolish Erin but contrary to his expectations, the golden serpents were cut down by her and they didn’t even explode when they were cut down. “This cannot be!”

Erin could only endure in silence. Her opponents were far too narrow-minded. Or rather, she was just that much of an anomaly. Agnar was undoubtedly better than the other Aerysians she fought in terms of skill and strength but that didn’t make him any less reliant on the system. Erin began to wonder just how much the damage would be if the System was to somehow cease functioning tomorrow. The world would plunge into chaos, she wagered.

“I am the true blood of the Dragon God! Her soul and will run in my veins. I have known no defeat ever since I accepted Her Grace in my heart. I will not lose here.”

Erin didn’t listen to whatever the man was spouting and simply pressed on with her assault. If she still had her spells, this fight would have been over long ago. It was frustrating but there was no point in dwelling on what had come and gone. The opponent in front of her was faster than his size would suggest. She tried all sorts of feints and ruses but even if he fell for it, he was quick enough to compensate for his mistakes with his raw speed.

“Don’t get carried away!” Agnar roared. He swung his cleaver and this time, four golden serpents followed suit.

“Oh, fuck,” Erin muttered. There was no way she could deal with four of them. Two was her limit if all the four serpents were as fast as one another. Instead of foolishly clashing head-on, she ran to the audience which were the remaining Aerysians.

“Trying to run now, you coward!?”

Erin had to agree, it was quite the cowardly move. If it was her a few months ago, she would have scorned such a move but much had changed. She was no longer alone. She had people she wanted to protect. There was no time to be worrying about honour and such.

The Aerysians were dumbfounded by her actions. They knew better than to interfere whenever an Apostle was fighting. They would be of no use. They would just be a hindrance or collateral. Which was why they stayed out of the fight, never expecting the fight to come to them.

Erin wasn’t trying to kill them, however, at least not directly. She went behind an Aerysian as the golden serpents chased after her.

The Aerysian was barely able to understand what was going on before the golden serpent crashed into him, exploding him into a splatter of blood and bits.

“Face me like a true warrior, you cowardly Fae!!” Agnar shouted as Erin continued to distance herself from him.

Though she was lingering around the Aerysians, none dared to attack her. They might be narrow-minded but even they could understand the disparity between their skills and strength.

“Now what to do?” Erin mused. “I wasted enough time here. Any longer, I will lose track of Aedan.”