Urgh…. Where did she get those… Was it from those boxes those men were delivering on that shore?
As soon as she tore through my throat with her knives, she kicked me in the chest, sending me flying off the boat!
She ranted as I moved through the air.
“Because of you… all this happened. I was supposed to marry Yanson next month!”
She stomped on the ground.
“I finally made his mother and father approve of me! And you killed him! Ben was supposed to attend his mother’s funeral tomorrow, but now that can’t happen!”
But Biryan moved fast, catching me with its legs and flying me up high. There were also the damn knives! I grabbed them both and contorted from the pain. Then I ripped them out from my throat and quickly healed the wounds.
I looked at her sharply. “Then you should not have come after me. How can you be angry that I killed people who tried to kill me?”
With the crystal dust in my inventory… I think I could afford to not be too conservative with my healing. Also, it was my dumb mistake removing my helmet to untie my hair, and not putting it back on. I corrected that mistake instantly, fitting the helmet on my head.
She looked at me with a weird look. She was clearly trying to suppress the frenzy the drug dumped into her mind.
“You think we did it for fun?!” She screamed. “Do you know what the hell the white royal ring means…? We are given the privilege to serve the king. To protect the nation from the shadows from lesser threats. Threats that the powerful Vanquishers shouldn’t waste their resources on…”
“I wasn’t a threat to anyone,” I said. “Maybe you should have left the job to the professionals. If you did, then your future husband would not be dead.”
She glared at me. “When I kill you… I think I will bring the rest of your body parts to his family to tell them who’s his murderer.”
I ignored her statement and thought about the drug running through her veins. As far as I am concerned, she only had 12-14 minutes max with how long she can stand up before her body gets messed over by that drug. Biryan, who was level 24, had about… maybe 4 more minutes remaining, if I minus 5 minutes ago when I gave him the drug.
She smiled and then tilted her chin towards me. Immediately, the fox humanoid monster swung its ghastly arm of brown and red, similar to flumes of flame, towards me.
She yelled, “Die you insignificant bug!”
As it approached, it enlarged to insane lengths. Biryan flew high with me, barely evading it.
She continued, “I wonder how much Goldbon secretly hated you! For what you did!”
Don’t focus on her words Vernisha… stay focused on the battle…
Because of its ghastly form, I wondered if it had a racial passive skill that would render it immune to physical attacks. Well there was only one way to find out.
Biryan’s tail got touched by its giant claws and immediately, dark flames combusted.
I grit my teeth, feeling the insanely hot flames on my tailbone.
A fire and darkness type!
If I only had some time to use the monster encyclopedia to look at all its skills!
I had to be smart here. Wait… the flames, it spread quickly, like it had a mind of its own.
Not bad honestly.
I ran healing all over my body.
She cackled, “Don’t try to hide the pain! Cause… when I torture yo—”
“Oh shut the hell up, you bitch!” I shouted. “If your Yanson boyfriend thought risking his life to kill me was worth it, then that just means he thought your value in life was lesser than mine!”
Her eyes shot wide and she was even angrier.
Now that monster of hers… One thing was clear, it was still in its first evolution. It didn’t appear that heinous or monstrous. And most importantly, it was less than 1.4 meters tall. However, it was hard to tell what level it was— No it wasn’t exactly.
My monster and her monster had their stats multiplied by two.
So all I have to do is… No.
Her monster didn’t appear like a common one either. Then again, it could simply be from another country.
The flames weren’t going out. It was why poison was one of my major weaknesses; it was doing damage over time.
Who could last longer… my pain tolerance, my Qi, or the flames that were constantly consuming my monster’s body? Like hell I wanted to find out.
“Ah… that’s fair,” she muttered. “Yeah… My father said the same thing to my mom when I was a kid when he went to fight in the war against Holvious Queendom.”
What the hell was she talking about?
She kept running her mouth. “If he truly loved us… he would have survived somehow and returned to us… If Yanson… wanted to…”
Perhaps I would stay away from the berserk drug.
She then asked, “Do you want to apologize…? If you do… then maybe I find it in myself to not hurt you too much. I— I wanted to be a monk too. Forgiveness is a big thing… So, will you apologize for taking those precious lives?”
While she asked that, her monster kept swiping its giant arms at us.
I shouted, “I am going to gut you open, you fucking psycho cunt!”
With a blank expression, she replied, “Oh.”
Then the fox monster withdrew both its arms and launched after us with its jaw wide open, along with its eyes which glinted purple!
My body went stiff, falling for an intimidation skill…
It closed in on me, but out of nowhere, without my involvement, Biryan launched its beak at it!
Of course, that didn’t play out the best since the beak simply went through it like it was mist.
Ah… shit.
Down.
Biryan pulled back, now unable to fly properly because of its feathers being mostly burned.
As soon as it pulled back, it shot towards the waters, using [dive shot], a skill that’s used to snipe prey.
In a matter of seconds, we broke the rough water surface. However, the flames weren’t extinguished by it.
What the actual hell?!
Tch.
I tapped its head, [returning] it back to my seal. In there, it wouldn’t be affected by the flames.
As soon as I did that, I faced the strong water currents alone and got slammed into the ship.
Hey… at least it was sinking really slow.
Shit…
The water currents raised me and sent me deep underwater. I immediately sent out Limdark.
[Dark Tendrils], boat, fast.
It did as I requested, sending its tendrils to the ship hull and using it to pull us to it.
I coughed up water as it climbed up with the waters casually hitting us, roughly.
If she wasn’t on the ship, I would use another sealed token, but she was too close.
On the railing of the ship, she stood looking down. She took a bow and arrow from her inventory.
A red one made out of metal, huh…
She pulled the string.
Well, you aren’t the only damn one with a range weapon on them!
From my inventory, I quickly pulled out the Qi rifle and with poor aim, I shot at her. A white and blue beam pierced through the air, right where she was before she ducked.
With that, Limdark made a massive leap onto the deck of the boat, landing both of us on it.
She got up, threw the bow and arrow in her inventory, and pulled out another knife.
I asked, “You mentioned my older sister, was that bullshit?”
“What do you think?”
“Bullshit?”
She smiled. “The monster resea—“
“I see. It’s probably the dark-haired one, Tarniesha. She isn’t older, you fool.”
Even I was older than her. When I saw her for the first time, I thought Katie was younger than her.
It’s a bit hard to believe Tarniesha would go to such lengths, but she did hate me a lot.
I couldn’t really blame her, but…
“Now I think about it a little. I find it hard to believe she would do something that would endanger Goldbon of all people.”
The woman shrugged. “I don’t care…”
“Yeah, I would have to find her or the king and make him talk,” I said, throwing the gun back in the inventory and taking a stance with my hands out, glowing red energy.
Rifles with such long barrels weren’t good for facing against a close combatant with a speed advantage.
She smirked. “Fine… then—“
She looked to the side and raised her arms up to deflect a beak bullet… from Brenda’s small bird monster.
“If you can’t use the gun, give it to me!” she shouted.
The woman eyed us both and dashed at me, while her monster became completely invisible.
Four skills: Invisibility, ghost body, arm enlargement (probably body or limb), and living black flames. Based on its strength, it’s not higher than a rare monster, meaning, if it was past level 25, she would have evolved it. It has… at max 4 more skills!
I dashed forth, covering my entire body with a healing aura as a counter-attack and precaution. Her blade reached my visors, but Limdark acted fast, using the new skill it gained, the darkness around shot up spikes of darkness at her.
She eyed them and acted accordingly, moving around them with ridiculous precision. Then she threw the knife, which Limdark caught. Immediately, she dashed to my side, laying low, but with her bow and arrow out.
“I will kill you!” she shouted.
The arrow struck me in the chest and sent me up but I hit the ground quickly. She came in again but got blocked by Limdark, who solidified his body using [endure], a skill that keeps him rigid and raises defense by 10%.
I had to keep the skills used to a minimum so she would be less knowledgeable about my options unless she knew about this monster of course.
Then I noticed a white and blue beam ruptured the air and struck her shoulder, boring a hole in it.
She screamed and rolled on the ground. Brenda was coughing blood on the floor, with the gun in her hand. It seemed she shot the fox monster and her in the same line of fire.
I guess it would be weird if your father was the best pirate and did not have a Qi rifle.
Either way, I took full advantage of the situation and with a snap of my finger, the Fox monster who came running to her aid paid the price for her.
Well, it was a lure. From the darkness, a meter ahead of it, the darkness manipulated into stakes and ran up its chest. Physical attacks are a no-go, but special attacks are an all-go, huh, figured as much.
Despite that, it wasn’t enough to put it down.
It howled. I knew that skill! I moved to clasp my ears, but I wasn’t fast enough.
My entire body froze. Limdark was affected too. It grabbed the bleeding woman and dashed to the roof of the deck. Brenda fired at it, but missed.
3…2…1…
Finally, the effect wore off me.
Despite all that had happened in this fight… I thought it was anti-climactic.
It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t too hard. I wasn’t even pushed to use two monsters. Yet, I had no intention of giving her rest time.
I used the system line to contact Brenda to talk via thoughts.
“Close your eyes,” I said.
She did so, and immediately, I gave Limdark instructions. It generated its dark tendrils to explosively push itself into the air.
Once it was high in the sky, I said, “Blind them.”
Aka, [Black flash].
With a flash of black— Via Limdark’s vision, I saw a steel ball moving towards my head. A damn Qi bomb— Boom!
The force sent me to the south edge of the boat, hitting the railing head-first with a huge thud.
It was a damn trick…
Limdark also fell to the ground, far away from me.
The woman jumped on the railing, her shoulder now repaired. Did she not care about getting shot from the back again? I got up and sent out IceKang. Upon seeing it, she gritted her teeth and rushed towards me.
Let’s… see. [Sonic clap.]
It brought its hands together, sending a thunderous sound to those hearing it.
Oh shit!
I fell to my knees, feeling like my eardrums were bursting.
Damn it!
I clasped my ears, but she knew about the skill and had clapped her ears before me.
Then from the other side of the boat came running… 4 legged foxes of the same ghastly/ghostly nature. A weird pack skill? That’s the fifth one.
I made IceKang stop.
I healed damage, and immediately made Limdark use the same distance skill. But, nothing from the shadows spiked up… could it be because the structure here was blocking its sight?
IceKang moved, fending off the foxes as I made my way to aid.
I threw a knife at her, but instead of dodging it, she straight-up tanked it. Then she pulled another berserk stat enhancer and stabbed herself with it!
Her eyes turned red as her speed doubled. Before Limdark could reach me, her hands wrapped themselves around my throat.
In that same motion, explosions rang out by IceKang, the foxes were exploding.
I felt nothing but air on my back as we both fell into the waters.
We hit the surface and a wave quickly buried us deep in it. Without hesitating, she stabbed me in the water, feeling no resistance from it.
But the armor protected me, barely!
Each stab that moved like blurs was puncturing it.
I tried to call over one of the two monsters, but it appeared that the fox monster was keeping them busy. Then she removed my helmet and tried to stab me in the head.
I caught her hand, but as soon as I did, I noticed something glowing at my side.
Another Qi bomb.
Oh, fuck my life!
With an expansion of Qi and heat, I got hit so badly that it felt like I was losing consciousness.
I used my healing quickly.
She tried to attack again, but the water suddenly moved up to form a wave.
But before the wave could hit, she pulled out her bow and arrow, while bleeding from her nose and eyes.
Her speed was so ridiculous… as soon as I blinked— nothing pierced my head. The string tore open because she was now too strong for it.
The wave hit us and we went underwater, hitting under the ship. I pulled out the second Qi gun and aimed at her with a single hand.
As I clicked to shoot, she opposed the force of the water and kicked the gun up, not to the ship… but with so much force that it tilted right towards my chin.
I saw white for a single second before everything became black.
POV: Janet.
My bones creaked in pain and the blood in my veins felt like they were lava, despite that I kept moving… or allowed the waters to move me.
The direction of the powerful waves, which I assumed was caused by her monster and that weird insanely powerful lighting skill, had returned to normal, moving towards Holvious instead of the opposite of it.
And I found myself on a small island… along with her. Although, she had a hole in her head, for the last half an hour.
Wet and cold and lying down, struggling to breathe, I knew I died avenging Yanson and Ben, and carrying out my job.
Yet… I felt nothing. No, I felt regret.
I wish I had just a normal life… I and the three of us would be alive. But, when the king himself asked us if we wanted to be something greater than Vanquishers, each of us couldn’t refuse it.
It was supposed to be an honor… It wasn’t supposed to be like this…
Then, I heard sounds of movement and finally a voice, “Yeah… Berserk enhancers really sound like they suck.”
The girl who had a hole in her head stood up, zombie-ish.
“I didn’t pull off any cool trick. I just activated healing in my head before I got hit.”
She then looked around and spotted something.
“Ah, the gun.”
She moved over, sluggish, and picked it up. It looked heavy in her hand, but she soon pointed it at me.
“I can’t really threaten you with death, now can I?” She asked, noticing I was already dying.
“You really are a monster…”
She sighed and pressed the trigger, but nothing happened. Perhaps it stayed in the water for too long.
The girl slumped to her knees exhausted.
“So… I suppose you wouldn’t giv—“
“I am sorry,” I said.
“What?”
“I just thought I should say that. I have no real idea why I am saying it… No, maybe I have a reason. You want to know if there are more of us, don’t you?”
She stared.
I continued, as I watched the star-filled dark sky.
“I think there are… There probably others on different missions, risking their lives for that king. But… what’s the point in this honor… I don’t care if you are a monster, I want you to kill the king. The king’s assistant dislikes him, so does his wife, his younger brother, and so does the queen of Holvious. Maybe that information can help you.”
Then, all the strength in my body was finally leaving.
“I want him to die… Because he is happy right now. Having a normal life… But Yanson is dead, So is Ben and Dethen. I don’t think it’s fair for him to live… It’s not fair. It’s not fair…” I said.
She looked at me then turned to the sea, towards the sinking boat which suffered damage from the Qi beam. Then everything turned dark, but before it did, I heard her ask,
“What you said about Tarneisha, is it true?”
“Yes…” I managed to say.
As she walked into the waters, she said, “I see. Honestly, I should feel nothing for you, but… Rest assured, the king will pay. You can rest in peace now.”
