A sword sliced the air, advancing towards Eres's abdomen at great speed.
But Eres reacted calmly. Before the sword could touch her, she took a step aside and avoided it. She then kicked the air and charged towards the woman in front of her with her sword clad in transparent flames.
However, the woman just smiled. She held an enormous shield in front of her, using it to receive Eres's sword, before counterattacking with a sword swing.
Eres wanted to continue with another sword attack, but her instincts warned her that the woman's attack was very dangerous. She got the feeling that she would be unable to stop it.
Thus, she hurriedly jumped back, widening the distance between her and the demigod woman she was fighting.
Just an instant later, the place where she had been standing just now was cut by the sword.
"You have good battle instincts." The demigod woman smiled. "If you would have tried to stop that attack, you would have died."
Eres frowned.
"Who are you?" She asked. "Why are you protecting the node? Do you know how many people are dying due to it?"
"About that…" The woman smiled and showed Eres her shoulder, where the number 21 was tattooed. "You see, I'm just helping one of my friends."
Eres's expression turned solemn.
As soon as she saw that tattoo, she realized the identity of the woman.
A member of Returning Dusk!
Returning Dusk was a famous and very dangerous terrorist organization, and nobody knew how many people belonged to it.
However, it was a well-known fact that the most important members of Returning Dusk could be identified by the numbers tattooed on their bodies.
"… Returning Dusk, huh. I should have known that you are one of these bastards." Eres's face turned cold.
The woman raised an eyebrow.
"It looks like you don't have a good impression of us. Well, I can understand. After all, we are not the most likable group." She then chuckled and looked at Eres curiously. "By the way, are you sure that you are an A-Rank practitioner? Are you not a bit too strong for someone at the A-Rank?"
Eres did not reply. Instead, she clad her sword in transparent flames again.
"That won't work." The woman shook her head leisurely. "These flames of yours are very strong, Princess. However, they are easy to counter if your enemy is much stronger than you. I just need to put a good amount of mana in my shield and it won't be damaged by your flames."
"I'm not so sure of it." Eres narrowed her eyes and suddenly kicked the air.
In the next second, she appeared at the right of the woman!
A sword clad in transparent flames cut towards the woman. It was so fast that any normal person would have been unable to react to it.
But the woman was not normal. She was a powerful demigod belonging to one of the most infamous organizations in the world!
Before the sword could reach her, she moved her shield calmly, stopping it!
*Clang!*
The sound of the sword hitting the shield resounded on the battlefield. Then, the woman smiled and brandished her sword towards Eres.
But Eres had already disappeared. She then reappeared behind the woman with her sword poised to strike!
"Good!" The woman laughed. To Eres's surprise, she let go of her sword before using her hand to stop Eres's sword and extinguish the transparent flames on it!
"!!!" Eres was astonished. It was the first time she saw someone stopping her flames like that!
"I told you! Your flames are easy to counter!" The demigod woman smirked and unleashed a kick towards Eres!
And this time, Eres was unable to evade it.
"Ugh!"
Grunting in pain, Eres was flung away, crashing against a nearby wall.
"Ouch. That seemed painful." The woman chuckled. "You are interesting, Princess. It's my first time seeing an A-Rank fighting a demigod in the air. What method are you using to remain in the air as an A-Rank practitioner? Also, what is your movement technique? Even I find it hard to follow it."
Eres coughed a mouthful of blood and wiped off the blood on her lips. She then stood up staggering and glared at the woman angrily.
Tanking a deep breath, she extended her sword forward and wrapped it in transparent flames again.
"It looks like you don't know how to give up." The woman shook her head with a sigh. "You can't defeat me, Princess. Even though you are very strong for an A-Rank, you are weaker than me."
"Shut up!" Eres growled and charged towards her again.
But the woman evaded her attack easily before counterattacking with a sword attack of her own.
"Could it be that you are trying to earn time so your friends on the ground can destroy the barrier? You overestimate them. Only Isabella Castor has the ability to destroy that barrier, but she doesn't have enough mana for it now."
"… No." Eres suddenly spoke. "You are mistaken."
"Huh?"
"You underestimate them."
The woman was startled, but all of sudden, her expression changed.
Because at that moment, a powerful aura appeared on that ground!
"That is…!?" The woman was surprised, she hurriedly looked towards the ground, only to see a black-haired demon girl standing in front of the barrier with her fist clenched.
Behind her, a giant black knight clenched its fist too as an overwhelming amount of mana gathered on it.
"Impossible!" The woman paled and tried to rush towards the barrier, but to her surprise, several magic circles suddenly appeared around her.
Then, the magic circles turned into dozens of beasts made of transparent flames.
"Where do you think you are going?" Eres's voice sounded at that moment. "It looks like you forgot that your opponent is me."
"Brat!" The woman snarled angrily, but Eres ignored her.
Instead, she raised her sword. This time, though, she did not clad it in transparent flames.
Instead, her sword was surrounded by a transparent film of energy.
It was a sign of the greatest technique of the royal family of the Kingdom of Alterna.
[Skysword]!
"You said that stopping my flames was easy, right?" Eres's ice-cold voice reached the woman's ears. "Then, why don't you try to stop them now? I want to see if my flames are extinguished first or if your mana is depleted first."
In the next instant, Eres swung her sword down as her flame beasts charged towards the woman.
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels